[Oliver PoV]
“Which one else?” Midas-1 replied, gesturing toward a flash drive resting in the center of the table like a relic in a shrine.
Oliver’s gaze settled on the sliver of metal and polymer, its tiny status light ticking in a steady pulse. He remembered the day he got it, back when it was all much sim...
2025-08-11 23:20:01 +0000 UTC
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[Oliver PoV]
Oliver felt the energy coil around him the moment the teleportation began and found himself holding his breath. Relief washed over him when his surroundings shifted, and he stood once again on solid ground.
'That last strike, that was scary. I think I could've taken it, but you never know.' Oliver bre...
2025-08-11 23:15:01 +0000 UTC
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- Oliver -
Oliver stood on the shattered pier. Smoke rose from fires nearby. His transmitter crackled to life.
"I'm picking up a signature," Hermes-1 said. "It's General York. She's converging on your position."
"Great," Oliver muttered. "Just what I needed."
"Couldn't you talk to her?...
2025-08-11 23:10:01 +0000 UTC
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- Oliver -
"Green, do you read?" The familiar crackle of the communicator stirred Oliver from his sleep. He blinked awake, trying to see the navigation panel in the cramped cockpit.
"Loud and clear, Hermes-1," he responded.
"Your presence has been detected," Hermes-1 informed him. "Multiple ...
2025-08-11 23:05:01 +0000 UTC
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- Athena -
Five Years Later
It had been millennia since Athena had last been summoned to this chamber.
The vast hall seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions. Towering pillars of obsidian rose from the floor, disappearing into the ceiling above. For many, it was t...
2025-08-11 23:00:10 +0000 UTC
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[Thomas’s POV]
Thomas stood at the window overlooking the street in front of the Golden Fiddle. For once, it was a calm morning. No urgent knocks on the back door, no frantic shouts from the alleyway, and no battles to be fought. It allowed him a moment to catch his breath, though he suspected this moment would be sho...
2025-08-08 00:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Jamie let out a long, tired sigh as he tightened the buckle on the gauntlet hugging his forearm. Both pieces of leatherwork clung to his arms, keeping the fabric of his attire from shifting. Despite the ceremony he was dressing for, his expression showed only impatience and reluctance. He'd been fasting for over twenty hours,...
2025-08-07 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Maximus’s gaze fell upon her like a physical blow. “Explain,” he said. “Why did your father stink of dark magic?”
Standing two steps behind her, Jamie felt a faint, crushing force pressing down on his shoulders. It reminded him a lot of the power they’d faced at the Gate in that cursed dungeon. Yet, it wasn...
2025-08-06 00:00:21 +0000 UTC
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“Daughter,” he said with unmistakable warmth as he caught sight of her. Then he turned to Jamie with the same grave composure. “And you. James.”
Jessica responded with a brief nod, lowering her head in acknowledgement. Jamie, for his part, said nothing. However, the tightening of his hands betrayed a surge of mi...
2025-08-05 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Jamie tightened his grip on his daggers before warning. “He’s coming."
At that moment, a figure leapt down from the battlements. He landed among the teeming orcs with such force that the ground shuddered, sending a shockwave out in all directions. Screeching monsters tumbled head over heels as if struck by a giant...
2025-08-02 00:00:07 +0000 UTC
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“I can help with that!” Jessica announced with a confident smile on her face.
“How?” Jamie asked, the note of doubt in his tone unmissable.
“Have you forgotten?” she replied, pointing a slim finger to her chest. “I’m a Paladin of Elihanna. By the way, did anyone see my weapon? Or at least have a wa...
2025-08-01 00:00:08 +0000 UTC
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[2052]
By the second year of the war, the large-scale conflict that would come to be known as the First Wave had finally reached an equilibrium. Entire regions lay decimated, but the deployment of the initial Ranger units offered a glimmer of hope for humanity. Despite the Orks’ relentless attacks, these newly trained...
2025-07-31 21:00:08 +0000 UTC
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A deep, resonant voice whispered, reverberating within his mind rather than his ears. "Until next time"
For a moment, he could do nothing but stare at the space where the gate had stood. His heart thundered in his chest, and he realized with startling clarity that, for the span of a few breaths, he had been certai...
2025-07-31 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Jamie let the remaining dagger slip from his fingertips. "Let's dance."
As the dagger descended from Jamie's hand, it vanished into thin air before it could ever touch the ground. They heard no clatter of metal, no steel hitting against stone. The cavern seemed to hold its breath.
Jamie strode toward Theren, his s...
2025-07-30 00:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Jamie turned, his grin stretching wider with an almost delirious glee. The aura from the gate tried to force its will on him. Emanating an oppressive mana wave. Yet he stood as if its crushing force were nothing more than a soft breeze. Jamie flicked one of his daggers and caught it by the tip, feeling the balance of the blad...
2025-07-29 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
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[Jessica PoV]
Jessica couldn’t pinpoint when it all began, but she did remember the day she first met it. She was around four years old at the time. They hadn’t yet moved to the United States. Her family still lived in some suburb on the outskirts of London, though precisely where escaped her. Those early m...
2025-07-26 00:00:05 +0000 UTC
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[2051]
The first educational materials created by the Academy began to be aired around the world. Their purpose was to raise the organization's popularity and to let the world know that it was no longer the same.
The Z-Crystal had changed the course of the war, but also the course of humanity.
2025-07-25 23:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“Tòisichidh sinn!”
As soon as the words left Theren’s lips, the world lurched as if the flow of time had been ripped apart. Everything slowed to a crawl. Andrik’s wounded body hung in mid-air, blood drops catching torchlight as they expelled from the exit wound. Each soldier, each flicker of flame, seemed trapp...
2025-07-25 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Jamie heard the call from the girl with short, green hair, chained at the center of the hall. Her voice was frail and hoarse. Yet, it didn't matter how different she appeared. She was taller, more defined, every muscle tensed beneath her grimy skin, and still, those eyes were unmistakable. They were her eyes, even if the body...
2025-07-24 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
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'Wonderful,' Jamie thought bitterly. 'I avoided entering the last one, and now I'm forced into this.'
He passed a hand through his hair, bracing himself for whatever might lie ahead.
Beside him, Maria appeared just as unsettled.
"You received it too?" Jamie asked.
"A mausoleum?" she murmured, her voice...
2025-07-23 00:00:05 +0000 UTC
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[2051]
Up to that point, no one knew where the first Ranger had come from. Yet her astonishing success in battle, securing humanity’s first true victory, had altered the course of the war.
Behind this pivotal breakthrough emerged an organization and corporate entity unaffiliated with any government. Simply calle...
2025-07-22 00:03:47 +0000 UTC
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Andrik announced, his tone leaving no room for question. "We are going in."
The company of thirty, once scattered among the trees, drew together. They formed a narrow column of three soldiers side by side. Andrik and his sister Serana took the lead. Just behind them marched Maria, Jamie, and a Hafenstadt soldier.
...
2025-07-22 00:00:05 +0000 UTC
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[The God of War sends a message: 'Impressive.']
[You have slain 7 Orcs.]
[You spilled 60 liters of blood.]
[Some gods have chosen to bless you with 1,600 Experience Points.]
"Only seven?" Jamie murmured. He could have sworn he'd taken down more. The adrenaline of battle often blurred the line between m...
2025-07-19 00:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Andrik turned as he whispered. "Orcs."
The word hung in the air, sending a ripple of tension through the company. Though the soldiers halted in an instant, achieving absolute silence was impossible. The clinks of armor, the crunch of boots into the snow, all these sounds seemed amplified in the forest. Yet, masked by th...
2025-07-18 00:00:10 +0000 UTC
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"Wait," Maria called out, a bit breathless. "You didn't think I'd let you go alone, did you?"
Jamie halted mid-stride. Snowflakes clung to his coppery hair, and his breath formed misty puffs in the frigid air. He turned to face her, frustration etched into his features. "You don't need to follow me. You know that?" he r...
2025-07-17 10:51:08 +0000 UTC
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"Your sister, Yessika. She was stationed among our defenses, assigned to a crucial post. Following the last attack that occurred two days ago..." He paused. "She has gone missing."
The announcement struck Jamie like a physical blow. The change in his demeanor was immediate and unmistakable.
Anyone observing might ...
2025-07-16 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
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[2051]
The corridor was a long, dark tunnel, and every flicker of crimson light only deepened the sense of doom that clung to the air. Between bursts of alarm sirens, an eerie hush took hold, broken only by the echo of footsteps pounding against concrete.
Yet the only record of it came from an old security c...
2025-07-15 23:00:05 +0000 UTC
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"They are both great options," Maria continued, her eyes meeting those of Andrik and Serana. "However," she paused, allowing the word to linger in the air, "I prefer the third option."
A subtle tension gripped the room. The soldiers and nobles exchanged curious glances. Lord Varric Frosthell, seated at the throne-like c...
2025-07-15 00:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The silhouette stood stark against the infernal flames. It was a charred figure bound to the towering pyre at the center of the festivities. Yet, the townspeople revolved around it, their faces aglow with firelight as laughter and music filled the air. The macabre celebration churned Jamie's stomach.
'At the end of the ...
2025-07-12 01:53:55 +0000 UTC
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The clash with the Remorhaz had left the soldiers bruised and battered, but victory was theirs. Maria and Jamie, although not hurt, were tired from the fight.
"We're down to one carriage," Maria announced, her voice firm yet with signs of exhaustion. She stood amidst the soldiers, her breath forming pale clouds in the a...
2025-07-11 00:00:07 +0000 UTC
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