Ignyres's hand, which had long fingers and flames crackling along its shape, stayed still between Oscar and the Ancient of Fire, the open palm beckoning Oscar to grasp it in a formal welcome. Magma seeped from the volcanoes on Igynres's shoulders. His flames swelled as his strange orbs, the Ancient's eyes, shone brighter like...
2023-11-25 04:20:35 +0000 UTC View PostOscar assaulted the barrier, all manners of his techniques and spells barraging the dense film of transparent Ein. Erden and Demon joined their attacks, surrounding the font of flowing Ein. Nothing worked. The barrier seemed impervious, nigh impregnable. Desperate, he clung to it, digging his fingers until the nails cracked a...
2023-11-24 05:04:27 +0000 UTC View PostA few minutes prior.
Oscar's shield blocked most of Aiden's deadly strikes, leaving a few clean, burned cuts on the outlines of his body. For the briefest of moments, he swerved his body, adjusted the position of his limbs, and minimized his exposed areas to dodge the excess of the slashes. But Aiden's swords were unrel...
2023-11-23 01:41:45 +0000 UTC View PostBright wisps of dense fire flared on the many ends of Erden's branched antlers. Like the ripe fruits of a tree, they fell and gathered in the center between the antlers and surged out in radiant solar flames. His opponent, who introduced himself as Borinn, neighed loudly, puffing up his broad chest and kicking his front legs ...
2023-11-22 05:53:22 +0000 UTC View PostRosett gripped her hammer and crushed the head of a flame elemental, resisting the searing flames that threatened to burn the skin off her flesh. The living flame staggered for a moment before the flames from its neck burned upward, shaping back into a head. Its regeneration was incredible. Never before had she faced an unrel...
2023-11-20 23:10:55 +0000 UTC View Post'How far does this tunnel go?' Oscar blinked under the cover of his Ein Shroud. A simple layer of Ein protected him from nature's consuming fire. Warily, he looked around, finding no signs of the intruders, the cavern's walls smooth as if something had dug cleanly through. There was no spot or area for an enemy to hi...
2023-11-18 16:41:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe ground turned black, charred by the scalding smoke pluming from the cracks that spread along the bulging hills that stood where there were none before. Magma erupted, imploding the hills into calderas of deep red lakes, and rained down hellfire onto the land. Next to Oscar, Susan acted fast and sent forth a tide of water,...
2023-11-17 05:15:29 +0000 UTC View PostOn the balcony, Oscar decided to remain and gazed out from the edge, gripping the stone ledge. When the two suns poked their smooth, radiant heads over where the lands met the sky, surrounded by streams of clouds, the ground trembled, the rivers shook, and an immense amount of Ein burst out into great auroras. A great shadow ...
2023-11-16 01:49:18 +0000 UTC View PostDecades ago, before the opening of Ashen Grove and the war, when the four empires still had some relations with each other, the Pavilion welcomed its new students, the generation that eventually grew up to become the pillars of the Blue Ocean Pavilion. Rosett Evergold, the proud daughter of the Evergold Family, entered the Pa...
2023-11-15 03:44:19 +0000 UTC View PostPassing through the soot-ridden halls of the foundry, Oscar marveled at how everything could fit inside the Excrusier, though it shouldn't be much of a surprise. The Excruiser was a small floating city capable of housing hundreds of thousands of troops, far surpassing the likes of the highest fortress-class airships. This fou...
2023-11-12 22:14:22 +0000 UTC View PostSecond by second, minute by minute, the time ticked down. The armies came in droves, surpassing his paltry numbers like a tide crashing onto the sandy shore. Fatigue wracked his weary body as his muscles groaned in exhaustion. Oscar focused entirely on the enemy before him, casting aside the ever-increasing numbness of his fa...
2023-11-12 01:03:17 +0000 UTC View PostOscar returned to the survivors in silence, some slowly backing away from the terrifying presence that contained all of his anger, sorrow, and hatred. Behind the helmet, tears still flowed without pause, dripping from the edges of the dark metal onto his shirt. No one, not even Fred and Emily, his two closest friends, approac...
2023-11-11 02:50:42 +0000 UTC View PostWhen was the last time he had a moment of peace? The past few days in the wastelands of Orbis felt like several years had gone by. The embers from the firepit rose and mingled with the stars above, flickering until vanishing into the night. A clear starry sky welcomed his gaze, but he turned away, twisting a branch into half ...
2023-11-10 05:26:22 +0000 UTC View PostPutting on his helmet, Oscar watched the flames burning behind him, slowly but surely reducing any traces of the foul beings that lurked within into nothing more, forever to stay as a memory. Seeing his work done, he flew up the shaft and destroyed the cellar door, returning to the basement. For good measure, his Shattering W...
2023-11-09 00:11:53 +0000 UTC View PostSirsi tapped certain spots on the door, Ein glowing on her fingers, and a loud click of a latch loosening sounded out once she removed her hand. A series of other clicks and metal-grinding noises reverberated from the door, and it smoothly opened, retreating into the walls to create an open passage inside. A sudden bright lig...
2023-11-07 03:08:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment their smiles stretched from end to end, they opened their mouths, gaping wide to an unsettling oval shape. The frog's head puckered its lips, and Oscar dodged the incoming attack, a long green tongue, about as thick as his arm, stuck into the ground. The tongue wriggled and rolled back into the frog's mouth, which ...
2023-11-05 22:37:30 +0000 UTC View PostWhat were they? Oscar's eyes slowly widened, and he sent out a flare, engulfing them in bright flames that drove away the darkness and lit up the corridor. Part of him wished he had never come here. The foul creatures seemed undisturbed by the fires, steam hissing from the drool leaking out of their mouths. The heads looked l...
2023-11-05 19:58:33 +0000 UTC View Post"Not me, and not the Voltens. This horde has nothing to do with Reis. My hands are clean of it." Sirsi shrugged. "The New Dawn has other areas of interest besides Reis for the sake of creating stronger and better humans."
"Fusing elements into people?" Oscar recalled the young Quinn from the Burning Valley, an elemental...
2023-11-04 18:38:30 +0000 UTC View PostAmid the crackles of lightning and the sea of beasts above, Oscar floated silently, ever careful of his surroundings, relying on Erden's extra vision and senses to make out the way. The fresh scent of blood came from the carcasses of beasts strung along the path west, painting a red carpet on the rubble for him to follow. Des...
2023-11-03 04:26:02 +0000 UTC View Post"What happened?" Oscar blinked. The hectic storms, the bloody massacre of beasts and humans, and the fleets were gone, replaced by darkness. Everything was deathly still as the air choked him, a stifling mess of dust and dirt exiting his pained lungs in dry coughs. Soon, the pain spread over his body, or rather, he had begun ...
2023-11-02 03:53:16 +0000 UTC View PostWhat was it? Oscar stayed put in the mess of the battle, peering beyond the scope of his tiny section of the battlefield to the others. Behind him, his soldiers acted fast and shouted to protect him, rushing past him and throwing their bodies and spells against the enemy. It was the same as usual, the same skirmishes that cam...
2023-10-31 21:42:09 +0000 UTC View PostAfter a few hours, he finally put Celestina's worry to rest and showed that his artificial arm was functioning well enough not to be a bother. If she reacted in this big of a reaction, then he surely had to keep this a secret from Avril, knowing how his wife would react more severely to his lost arm. Luckily, Elder Saul was w...
2023-10-30 04:10:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe sand landed on his face, pinching wherever it met his exposed skin, the scent of old blood and salt contained within each grain. Oscar shook his artificial arm, beating it against the air, satisfied at the sight of zero sand dropping from within, meaning nothing, not even the tiniest grains of sand, entered his artificial...
2023-10-28 05:29:16 +0000 UTC View PostOscar, with his access to the Abyss Prison granted by his master, fanned the flames of the furnace until they blazed out in roaring streams. Inside the forge room of the depths, the heat emanating from the furnace rippled across the layers of ash and soot, breaking their fragile gatherings apart into their baser specks. Oscar...
2023-10-26 23:07:14 +0000 UTC View PostLeaving behind Fred, Emily, and the others, Oscar and Erden floated upward to the shocked gasps of the crowds, their cheers rising higher as they waved their hands at his retreating figure. The temporary command center was put up in the ruined castle. Half of it was toppled over in a mess of rubble, the tip of a spire stickin...
2023-10-25 17:59:06 +0000 UTC View PostFacing the daunting hand of the powerful Greater Marshal Exalt, Oscar could see no way out, the pressure from the encroaching fingers constricting him like a rat caught by a snake. Cuts scraped across his clothes and bare skin. The hand was far away, yet the horrifying Ein around it reached farther out, and he would be consum...
2023-10-24 23:32:36 +0000 UTC View PostAlphos, the First Wind and foremost swordsman of his generation, swung his sword, countless winds slicing across the pouring rain, leaving great gaps where the air fell silent, nothing being able to pass inside. As the empowered wind slashes came within a foot, Gavir defended swiftly, using the long shaft of his spear as a sh...
2023-10-23 20:27:20 +0000 UTC View PostRight when Oscar rallied his army, the sky quaked with a thunderous roar, arcs of lightning illuminating the dark clouds that formed overhead, deafened only by the shouting behind him. From his friends directly behind him to the crew inside the airships, everyone let loose their Ein and joined their voices together in a power...
2023-10-21 20:08:15 +0000 UTC View PostSeveral hours later, even the illusory world of clouds dimmed to the passing of time. As they fought on and on, Oscar understood more of their strength and abilities. Krowe, the shielder, focused on great defense, was able to endure Oscar's heavy blows for a good duration. The Meld power laid in the beast anima inside the shi...
2023-10-21 15:18:57 +0000 UTC View PostAs the arrows from several Knight Exalts arced downward, Oscar raised his shield, a powerful Ripple Shroud altering the course of the hostile spells. A dangerous Ein of a fearsome individual piqued his interest, coming from the other side of the battle, where he noticed Gavir leading his men onward. With the timely aid,...
2023-10-19 23:14:21 +0000 UTC View Post
