Rindiri followed Polern, still barely believing what he'd told her. Captain Irwin was here? If that was true, they could finally leave! No more waiting to get her ship back.
Her own thought annoyed her, as she'd left The Sonata behind to focus on the still-nameless ship. That said, she'd rapidly grown fond of the fast, unfamiliar ship over the weeks and months of traveling on it.
Guildmaster Mei Joulihn stared quietly at the towering smith beside her. She had expected many things, but a story about some demonic species called Guidar, who were the ones responsible for everything that was happening, from the storm, the atrocities that had been done to the smiths under her care, and the garbled, unclear message she'd gotten from an old friend on Dimarintisa…
It was...
2025-01-25 20:44:48 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin watched the smaller woman as she walked forward. By now, the Viridians had gone back atleast a dozen feet, and he glanced to the side to find Greldo looking around. His lips were curled up in a grin, and he seemed to be glancing around the shadows, sometimes raising an eyebrow.
Probably keeping an eye on the other shadewalkers, Irwin thought as he focused on the Carsmith's ...
2025-01-24 19:40:07 +0000 UTC View PostGarrick was pulling himself through the ship, heading toward the medbay, when the warning he'd been worrying about came. Just not out about who he'd worried about.
"Captain, shuttle three has been removed from my systems and is currently flying away," Sibilis said, projecting slight worry.
Garrick's hand clasped around the handhold in shock, causing his entire body to float sideways...
2025-01-21 20:18:43 +0000 UTC View PostRindiri took a sip from her drink, glaring at Polern Siemer, the nervous man before her.
He was one of the many humans that worked for the Smiths Guild, making him a somewhat rare sight on Suiderfuix, where nine out of every ten people were Viridian. Why it was him again and never someone else, Rindiri didn't know, and the man had dodged any questions about it.
As it ...
2025-01-19 20:56:17 +0000 UTC View Post"The first new sub-species soulforce resonance skill," Irwin muttered, lying in his cabin, staring at the dark wooden ceiling.
With barely any movement and no roaring storm to deafen him, he finally had time to inspect his new card some more. Immediately after his reforging, they had left, as Ambraz was worried that the amount of soulforce he'd projected out might draw in a problem. The w...
2025-01-18 20:46:50 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin quietly stared out through the barrier of the small section of the portal gallery. The storm was still raging beyond, and if he hadn't been told it was going to slow down, he'd never have guessed it from the dark clouds and masses of swirling, chaotic soulforce.
The Nocturna hovered behind him, a foot above the ground. Only Gloom and Coal were on board. The girls were in his soulsca...
2025-01-17 17:49:57 +0000 UTC View PostDaubutim remained calm as he listened to Jort describe their battle and how the three ships had rapidly started to overpower them. When Jort vividly described how their enemies had used a song to mess with Scariander, who had been starting to become lethargic, he saw Basil clench his fists, a vein popping up on his jawline. Anger flashed in his almost glowing silver eyes.
Ever since their...
2025-01-12 20:17:17 +0000 UTC View Post"This is the best I could find," Lord Harborth said.
Irwin glanced at Lord Harborth, then looked back to admire the small ship that hung a few feet in the air above the field. Sleek and dark, the ship was probably under fifty feet long and had a single sail position in a way Irwin had only seen on a few ships he had encountered: attached to a mast that started at the tip of the ship and c...
2025-01-11 20:50:32 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin licked his lips as he gazed at the card hovering above Ambraz's surface. The shadows directly below it were darker, while every other shadow in the room seemed to be flowing. A dull, muted resonance echoed from it as if a beautiful song was being played in another room.
"I…" Irwin muttered before turning to Greldo. "Are you playing with the shadows?"
His friend didn't answer...
2025-01-10 19:27:56 +0000 UTC View PostGarrick floated out of the small room back into the medbay and froze.
Macdewil was staring at him, one of the guns Garrick had brought from The Tealclaw strapped to his leg. The door behind him was closed, and there was no sign of nurses Yuri or Marryland. His friend was intently staring at him.
"Jack?" Garrick asked as he grabbed the nearest handhold, a sudden worry growing.
...
2025-01-08 20:53:21 +0000 UTC View Post"Thank you," Lord Harborth said, bowing as deeply as others did to him. His hands were shaking softly, and he kept glancing at the Slaztragh, who stood beside him.
"It is fine," Irwin said, looking at the young boy tenderly held by Slaztragh.
The reforging had been almost anticlimactic after all the pressure and worrying over the last month. It had also been less difficult tha...
2025-01-05 20:46:59 +0000 UTC View PostFuchsia ran through the clean, well-maintained street, juggling the bag in her arms. The spicy scent that drifted up from it made her eyes tear, but she wouldn't drop the back for anything.
Ahead of her, Lord Harborth's estate appeared, the walls separated from the rest of the district by a few dozen feet of empty stone. As she reached the gate, one of the guards stepped aside, a grin app...
2025-01-04 19:33:59 +0000 UTC View Post"Sorry to make you wait," Lord Harborth said.
Irwin just nodded, listening to Terlo play a sad song about some boy who had been lost in time by slotting a card that kept having him experiencing the same three-month loop.
"Cards like that don't exist," he muttered as he walked beside Lord Harborth.
"I would advise against taking anything you don't pay him for seriously...
"Sibilis, start when you are ready," Garrick said.
He could almost feel the tension in the three people hovering beside him, and he tried to stay relaxed.
The screens before them showed Hilbert's body, if one could even still call it such, lying in a modified cryopod. Only his head resembled that of a living human, while his body was a mummified, crumpled mess. Tiny lights whi...
2025-01-01 20:04:21 +0000 UTC View PostLord Haborth Serin Ungaryt paced through the small room, his long silver hair flicking sideways on every turn. Each time he turned, his bloodred pupils took in the shimmering crystalline shape. As tall as he was and twice as wide, it was hard to say what it truly was.
Not that he cared. To him, all that mattered was the person in the crystalline form.
A young boy, barely eight, stoo...
2024-12-29 20:26:56 +0000 UTC View PostGloom kept his presence as minute as he could, stressing his ability to the absolute max. He'd had to hide for years, but it had never been like this. No, the last few weeks had been far more difficult as the young shadewalker explored the city, his passing like an enormous sea monster that caused the entire shadowrealm around him to swell and flow.
How did he get this much stronger? ...
2024-12-28 20:23:48 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin grinned as he looked at the card, which was silvery-bordered and had a crisp image that seemed to depict a large, empty area within a mass of swirling shadows. The area didn't seem to have any predefined shape, and Irwin felt like the area kept changing, even though he knew that was just an illusion.
"A ninety-five percent diamond card," Ambraz muttered. "Ten years… you mana...
2024-12-27 20:25:12 +0000 UTC View PostAdmiral Norrington watched quietly as his two contemporaries bickered.
Why are they not taking this seriously…?
After a few minutes, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“We have eleven years…” he snapped. “We’d need triple that to get any sensible defense to Gliese 667C. That means we need to evacuate that system, and-”
“Admiral Norrington, need...
2024-12-26 13:11:58 +0000 UTC View PostGarrick woke, and for a moment, he felt massive pain flit through every part of him. His back and stomach muscles especially seemed to be cramping up. Then there was a beep from his H.U.D. and the pain faded, his muscles relaxing.
"Welcome to the land of the waking, Captain," Crux said." We have docked with The Sibilis, and Engineer Macdewil is trying to enter the shuttle. The Tealclaw ha...
2024-12-23 21:45:33 +0000 UTC View Post"Yes," the young woman whispered, her eyes wide. She seemed ready to bolt.
Irwin's eyebrows rose as he recognized the type. He'd learned about it when he'd tried to get more information about his own first card's Impersonate type. Absolute Veil was an exceptional card type that allowed someone to completely hide their presence or mimic that of a simple creature. It lets someone enter thro...
2024-12-22 19:37:31 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 361
"You need pants."
Irwin felt his face color, but there was little he could do. With his size, he was pretty sure he'd need a ship sail. He wanted to swat at Greldo for his stupid joke but was afraid of what might happen if he actually hit his friend.
Wait, steam!
He focused on his sweltering skill, feeling his first soulcard shiver painfully. Still, ...
2024-12-21 20:14:38 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin felt his mind flicker… it was an odd sensation, not unlike when he'd first gained his soul clone or when it had evolved after turning the card and its adjacent siblings into a soulcard.
Images played through his mind constantly, scenes from the battle he'd just fought. They were faint and fuzzy, and each time they blinked, his mind seemed to do the same. His memories were just as ...
2024-12-20 20:56:50 +0000 UTC View PostDefinitely has its perks, Garrick thought as he grabbed a handhold, trying to ignore the constant muscle ache from his back.
He scanned the hallway for the next, which made a lot easier now that his H.U.D. had added lines that overlaid his view. They highlighted objects and debris barely visible to him, a trick of Y implants he'd heard about but never experienced before. It wasn'...
2024-12-17 17:51:58 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin glared at the two tiny forms as he tumbled to the ground, his thoughts spinning even faster. He could sense the power from the two figures, especially the Niox, who must have atleast four soulcards. It took him a fraction of a second to come to a conclusion.
I can't fight them here without destroying everything around us!
He clicked his tongue and shot across the soun...
2024-12-15 19:33:09 +0000 UTC View Post"You want to fight? Fine… let's fight," Irwin said as he stopped resisting.
The titan card let out a howl of joy as that which was holding it back was released, and Irwin felt his body start to heat up as it began growing. Stepping away from the table, he felt his clothing rip and tear. As he turned his full attention to the Guidar he faintly sensed titanic changes occurring in his soul...
2024-12-14 20:42:39 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin stared at the three cards on the table, humming thoughtfully. If all went well, he was going to slot all three of them, starting with the left one, Volcanic Tendons.
Glancing at the diamond card, he held back a grimace. It would be the simplest, most basic card he'd ever slotted, a simple body improvement card to increase his strength and ability to use it explosively. It wouldn't g...
2024-12-13 18:03:39 +0000 UTC View PostGarrick watched the countdown whittle away, already down to twenty-five minutes.
He had been gazing at the numbers, the image of his brain lighting up like a Christmas tree, or the war for hours now while trying to stay awake. So far, it worked, but as the countdown closed in, he felt something odd. A sensation he'd not felt in a long time.
The desire to live.
It wasn't that h...
2024-12-09 20:16:21 +0000 UTC View PostIrwin watched as Elder Sigora drank from her large, heavy wooden cup.
"There, now you can drink without worrying I'm trying to poison you," she said, raising a leafy eyebrow.
I'd like to see you try, Irwin thought, thinking about his immunities to nearly everything poisonous, curtesey of his first soulcard.
Instead, he shrugged and looked at the thick, syrupy li...
2024-12-08 20:14:02 +0000 UTC View PostLasther stalked through the underground passage below the Holy Shadow In. Far behind him, the remnants of the ancient building that he'd inherited from his predecessor had turned into a smoldering, ruined pit.
A thin purple haze hung around him, and he stopped every few moments to look around as if searching for something.
"Master…?"
Lasther spun around and glared at t...
2024-12-07 20:57:41 +0000 UTC View Post