The metal devil lurched forward, dripping slag from its mouth as it came at me.
With no weapon at my disposal, I figured trying to fight the thing was a fool’s errand. So I didn’t bother, simply dropping to the ground and kicking its legs out from under it.
Despite its weight, the action was enough to unbalance it. Another kick and it was tumbling over the side of the mountain. ...
2025-06-15 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostOnce more, the infrastructure around Conflict had expanded since we last visited.
Sticking to the terms of my request, not a single thing had been taken from the surface. However, there was a new entrance on the western edge of the wyvern peaks with a stone road leading down to connect to our old path. At first, I thought the road was a result of magic, it was so finely crafted.
But...
2025-06-14 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post“You want to talk about Earth?” I asked Esbee, putting the plans for the tavern’s renovations to the side for the moment while staring at her across the tavern’s table. Despite the fact it was getting on in the day, I was sure I had time. “I thought you didn’t want to talk about that stuff?”
“I mean… I’m not gonna give you my life story or anything,” Esbee said, lean...
2025-06-13 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post"Make me into an ensouled," Tamrie repeated, though it was as much a question as anything. Her brow was furrowed and I was grateful that we didn’t have anything urgent to attend to that morning. I figured she was going to need time to process the idea.
"Yes! If you're an ensouled too, then there wouldn't be this massive power difference between us. And I just…" I trailed off, unsure o...
2025-06-12 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostI came out of Memory Palace with a gasp.
After opening the bathroom door, I'd been sucked straight into the whole sequence of events, not a second to process during.
It felt… Well, now that I was out…
Strangely, I felt a lot better about my own actions, now that I was reflecting on them. Sure, I'd been a stupid kid and shoved Lindsey in a bathroom instead of driving away w...
2025-06-11 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Nexxa had made it sound like she was going to leave immediately, she was planning to wait a few more days. If the horde continued coming at the rate it was, that would be enough to push her over the edge into Hydra souled. Once she took her next step on the path of Ascendancy, she planned to clear all the way to the front as her people started along the highroad. A trip that would actuall...
2025-06-10 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostNexxa and I flew to the narrow point for building the dam. The rocky canyon was roaring, loud enough we couldn’t hear each other, the water was rushing through so fast.
And I needed to be kinda close to Sculpt Stone properly.
Which made raising the dam tricky. If the stone was too thin, it would just get torn away. I ended having to lean over the edge, held up with one hand while ...
2025-06-09 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostNexxa was understandably doubtful of my claim at first. "How the heck are you going to drop a mountain? I can't even do that, and trust me, I've tried."
"Take another look in the book," I said, gesturing at the grimoire she was still holding in her hand even as I started working on the cliff I'd chosen as my first target. It was right at the edge of hers and Books' territory, one of the s...
2025-06-08 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post"Perry?"
I'd come looking for her, yet hearing Nexxa's voice still caused me to freeze up in surprise. Might've gotten a bit carried away with the greenhouses. After all the work we'd put in back in Cape Aeternia, setting up a couple simple greenhouses had been easy. Thankfully, I'd still had a bunch of seeds stored away, harvested from our early crops, as backups, just in case. Wasn't a ...
2025-06-07 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLightning split the sky as far as Nexxa could see, every moment filled with yet another damned monster.
The dragon was finally dead, and oh how that would’ve sounded so glorious to her a month ago.
She knew better now.
Spinning to the side, she avoided one of the shrieking bug-things that’d been pestering her all throughout the fight. With the storm dragon dead, it was the...
2025-06-06 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostMy mistake was apparent less than an hour into my flight. It was hard to do anything but think when you were the only one piloting your glider and all you could see were stormclouds and the occasional mountain peak.
Neta proved unwilling to take over the duty, though she had been intrigued by the challenge for a solid half hour before she coiled herself up and went back into hibernation. ...
2025-06-05 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning was a flurry of activity as I transferred designs from Memory Palace to books, finished up the last of the corridors behind Tetherfall, and made arrangements for Bevel's next couple weeks of lessons.
While I wasn't ready to open the door to the bathroom, my decision to set out to check on Nexxa did require some preparation.
That said, it was mostly for travel.
Author's Note: Chapter 2/2 for today.
I soon found the answer to my questions in Balthum's journals. Arthe was apparently his first name. He only used it in his earliest journals, when he'd first become the Magus Dominus of the Mount Aeternia region.
These are the memoirs of Arthe Balthum. I suppose I am a Magus Dominus now. A better fate than death, to be certain, yet not one I...
2025-06-03 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's note: Shorter chapter, which makes it the perfect time to start catching up. Chapter 1/2 for today.
...Mage Lord Isekai...
Several months earlier, shortly after Perth swore his oath.
…MLI…
Stepping into Evarl Aranor’s office had always been one of the truest tests of Calbern’s character. To retain his dignity in the face of such a monster t...
2025-06-03 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostWe had a bit of a crowd the next morning, for the opening of the safe. Banya and Bevel were there, of course. After all the work we'd put in the day before, combined with the lack of deadly traps, I had no reason to turn them away.
Calbern, Tamrie and Tresla were there as well, all standing back. Tamrie and Tresla were taking turns making more and more ludicrous guesses about what we’d ...
2025-06-02 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostI wasn't able to simply drain the traps on the safe. Somehow, Balthum had managed to tie them into Mount Aeternia's enchantment grid.
Which meant that they wouldn't run out of power without draining most of the protections on the mountain. Considering I wasn't sure how intact the mountain would stay without those enchantments, it wasn't something I wanted to risk.
Nor was I even sur...
2025-06-01 14:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a lot to process in the books Keeper had given me. Even with the help of Memory Palace and suffering through headaches, it took me a week to process it all.
Part of that was because Tamrie refused to allow me to spend my days in intense pain simply to speed up the process a little. Well, more accurately, after the first time I'd blinded myself by pushing the limits of Memory Pal...
2025-05-31 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's note: Minor edit to the contents of Nexxa's note in chapter 66.
...
"That… is a generous interpretation," Tresla said, passing me the page. "It was in with your clothes. Missed it at first."
It… wasn't Nexxa's normal handwriting. The words were jerky and barely legible.
"Sorry. Soul. Go. Front. Hunter. Mess. Sorry. Can't. Fight. Sorry."
...Mage ...
2025-05-30 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostWhile she’d remained quiet, I noticed after Keria left, that Tamrie had been standing nearby, waiting. She hadn’t said anything, leaving shortly after Keria. Deciding not to fret about it, I returned to my work. It took three days to carve the basic form of our home out of the mountain. It was near the end of the third that the Howling Season came upon us in force.
It was even more in...
2025-05-29 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAs we retreated to the back of the stage, “I asked… so, I didn’t just propose to you, did I?”
“Not so much,” Tamrie admitted, reaching up to stroke the hairpin and badge, a smile tugging at her lips. Then Tamrie kindly explained the significance of what I'd done. Basically, I'd indicated that Tamrie and I were, at the very least, dating. But dating, at least as I was familiar ...
2025-05-28 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe festival had only been a vague thought in the back of my mind for most of the week, a niggling reminder that I'd have to wade through the worst part of my position as Magus Dominus.
Acting like the high and mighty lord they expected me to be.
Wading around in the mud while shaping a greenhouse out of stone and sand had been more satisfying. Taking the trial and having my mind re...
2025-05-27 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe door shimmered in greeting. Calbern and I stepped through it together.
We arrived alone.
Wasn't a surprise. The books had indicated we'd be separated. Stepping through the door had been similar to the painting Nexxa and I had passed into back when we'd visited the real Althon, though there was a bit of a difference.
For one, most of the details in the door didn't transfer ...
2025-05-26 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostWith Calbern at the helm we roared over the ridgetops, the morning sun not yet poking its head over the horizon as I took the opportunity to gaze out over the eastern stretch of Cape Aeternia. Inertia had finally figured out how to add enough suspension and padding that it wasn't uncomfortable. Even then, Neta could've probably made it better, but I'd convinced her, barely, to stay behind in th...
2025-05-25 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post"Really? You missed me?" Bevel asked before Keria or I could say anything, she was still hanging from a rope that was tied to a frame on the ceiling I hadn't noticed when I first came in.
"Of course," I said, ruffling her unruly hair, sending her into a gentle spin. "You're my apprentice, aren't you?"
"Told you," Bevel said, giving her sister a raspberry as she spun past.
"And...
2025-05-24 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostWith Inertia helping to fit Fang's Forgeheart back in place, I made my way to Keeper with Tamrie in tow, as she caught me up on what I'd missed.
Not much, thankfully. We'd been gone for most of the daylight hours, but nothing had gone wrong while we'd dealt with Conflict and its minions.
When we reached the room where Keeper was kept, Tamrie hesitated.
"What is it?"
"The...
2025-05-23 14:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostDown the steps, surrounding the Waygate, were several doors.
“Trials by Fire,” Conflict declared as we looked down. “Through each lies a challenge that will take you and reforge you anew. You will not die, though you may wish otherwise.”
That was… partially reassuring.
In the background, the assembly line roared back to life, though the sound was muted, as though we ...
2025-05-22 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIt probably wasn't a good sign that I didn't have a response to the overly aggressive question from the being that looked like it'd literally been born with the singular purpose of ripping out people’s soul to eat them. A trait I was certain it possessed, thanks to my interactions with Keeper.
That said, I wasn't sure there was an appropriate response to being asked why someone shouldn'...
2025-05-21 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostWith the wheel separated from the rest of the rollerbug, it was light enough for Selvi and the other Tethered to take back on their own. They might have to stop to recharge, but I figured it was worth getting our prize back to Inertia while Calbern and I investigated the source of the mushroom cloud. The others weren’t as durable as we were, and other than Selvi, would be more of hazard than ...
2025-05-20 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostAfter our quick survey, we reconvened at the bluff. The others were all waiting for us, which told me we'd been watching the whale pod even longer than I'd realized.
Selvi wasn't even out of her harness when she started talking, though it was closer to babbling, with how quickly she was speaking. "Can you believe it? We actually saw leviathans. Sure, they were just babies, but still. And ...
2025-05-19 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostAs we flew towards the western peaks, the wyverns drew closer. While I prepped for an attack, after a cursory glance they left us alone. Well, mostly. One wyvern continued to follow us, but it didn’t attack.
It seemed that with the awakened wyvern gone, they were far less aggressive. Sure, they were out in force but they let us be. In fact, even the one who was following us pulled away...
2025-05-18 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post