Tiny black wings beat in the air, working with a vigor of something possessed - which, in a way, they were.
Tiamat’s brood had never stopped searching.
I could see them on the opposite shoreline, their forms wreathed in shadows, a twisting mass of darkness and equally-twisted flesh. Another host-hive ...
2021-10-06 03:43:32 +0000 UTC View PostVeins of gold and blue spread across the floor of the tower-nest, reflecting the light of glow-caps and ore-flesh alike. Tiny thought-hisses pressed against my mind-nest, searching for instruction and meaning. I hissed back.
The multicolored veins relaxed, sinking further into the soil below them.
“Wo...
2021-10-05 06:09:30 +0000 UTC View PostMy stomach tried to grumble, which was weird because I didn’t actually need to eat in order to survive. Mana alone was enough. Still, I found myself stretching forward to peer into past the open moving-wall, looking for the source of my stomach’s rumbles.
I didn’t find it; it was too dark in th...
2021-10-03 04:28:15 +0000 UTC View PostI huddled within my wall-crack. Nearby, the mists roiled and twisted, seeming almost agitated. Alive.
They parted, spitting something out.
I slithered out of my wall-crack, moving to meet it - her - eagerly.
The Grateful One dropped another defeated Little Puppeteer before me as I neared, presenti...
2021-10-01 06:11:31 +0000 UTC View PostThe Little Guardian shifted in place, readjusting his coiled grasp. It was strange how little awareness she had of that compared to everything else. Even after a few days to get used to the change, Elara still found herself astounded by the sheer breadth of what she could sense - except that it was almost all...
2021-09-30 06:10:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe Grateful One’s spine cracked as she bent backwards and turned, ducking under a furious slash from not-Needle before twisting back around again with an impossible, sinuous grace. Impossible for a Coreless, at least. The sharp crack caused the more experienced disciple to stagger in surprise, her emotions shift...
2021-09-29 06:36:19 +0000 UTC View PostMan, this took me a while. Dialogue is hard sometimes...
The Grateful One rose, pulling herself to her feet - but something about that thought seemed wrong. It didn’t fit. What should it be called when a body moves so naturally, so perfectly, that it becomes unnatural again?
I wasn’t ...
2021-09-28 06:32:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe Grateful One melted and boiled, enveloping my tongue with the heavy scent-taste of seared flesh. Her skin almost seemed to ripple before my eyes, undulating like a great snake, twisting and writhing. Every so often, it would start to reform, rejuvenated by the healing that the [Little Guardian...
2021-09-27 06:31:39 +0000 UTC View PostI followed the once-corrupted back to the nest that contained the [Little Guardian’s Focus] - or, rather, I allowed the once-corrupted to carry me there.
There was a sense of movement, a mental tugging similar to what I felt from each [Little Guardian’s Totem] 2021-09-26 05:36:51 +0000 UTC View Post
I watched as the Tangleroot twitched and writhed, reaching out in an attempt to grab me again. Sticky sap spilled from the gash in its plant-flesh, dripping down at an agonizingly slow pace.
It was a small one; I had found it while slithering about the area that my Coreless had claimed. A section of the many...
2021-09-25 06:02:43 +0000 UTC View Post“Fire, please,” the-female-who-was-not-Needle hissed quietly, resonating a resigned [sadness]. I understood. I answered.
A column of blue fire spewed out from between my open jaws, wiping away a section of my mana core’s reserves.
She asked again, and I answered again. 2021-09-24 05:51:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Her head twitched. Bones popped. She groaned. It was raspy. Painful.
None of that really mattered. She wasn’t in control. Not anymore. Probably not ever again. She tried not to think about that.
It didn’t work. She thought about it. Again.
Muscles twitched and Elara walked, feet dragging again...
2021-09-23 05:21:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe once-corrupted Coreless wouldn’t stop staring at me. It must have been unimaginable to him, being rescued from a Lesser Core’s enslavement and placed into the service of the Great Core. I stared back, giving him a little hiss of acknowledgement. As the Great Core’s Champion, it was important to make a goo...
2021-09-22 02:02:36 +0000 UTC View Post2nd chapter today, don't skip previous one
Erik stepped past the threshold, walking into the mist. It twisted and curled around him with every new movement, brushed to and fro by the slight wind of his passage.
It was cold. Wet, even.
The dead spores that coated the floor muffled Erik’s fo...
2021-09-21 04:34:54 +0000 UTC View PostI'm not very happy with this chapter, but it's been far too long so we're just gonna go with it. Better to put it out then to keep staring at it forever. Working on a second chapter to upload later tonight.
Splintered darkwood clattered against the ground, the sound muffled by the heavy coating of dead ...
2021-09-20 23:45:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe thought-light flickered as we left the second [Little Guardian’s Focus] behind, pushing past the moving-wall and into the many-nest outside.
Lesser Core Skill: [Little Guardian’s Focus VII] Increased.
[Little Guardian’s Focus VIII...
2021-09-04 06:43:33 +0000 UTC View PostI hissed, baring my fangs at the abominable thing before me. I had seen many disgusting sights in my travels through the World Dungeon’s tunnels; few of them could compare to...this.
“Oh, I think he likes this one!” Needle cried out.
“I really don’t think that he does, Kala. It’s an...
2021-09-03 02:22:44 +0000 UTC View PostI hissed in satisfaction as the remainder of the plant-flesh bad-thing’s corpse withered away into ash, mixing into the soil that had once allowed it to grow. Tendrils of [Mana Fire] continued to warm my scales, licking at the air around me; I pushed through the wall of blue, enjoying th...
2021-08-26 05:51:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe light of [Mana Fire] twisted and contorted, casting shadows across the dimly lit area that I could only see in the few brief moments that Will’s wall of ore-flesh shifted to the side. Acidic spittle sizzled against the stone floor below, each pop and sputter of the dangerous liquid forcing the ...
2021-08-25 05:22:50 +0000 UTC View PostI could feel the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s [excitement] grow as we came ever closer to the large nest my Coreless had pointed out earlier. The others were more subdued, tinges of [worry] pinning down any [excitement] that they may hav...
2021-08-24 03:48:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe green mist swirled in my vision. From this close, I could make out the tiny spores that formed its mass, floating idly in the air for a short while before they died out and fell to the ground. Even as they fell, the green spores began to shift into a slight greenish-gray, crumbling away into tiny flakes. There,...
2021-08-23 02:18:12 +0000 UTC View PostHer throat burned, ripping and shredding with each additional retch and spew. There was nothing left, but Valera’s body seemed to have forgotten that - or maybe it just didn’t care.
Her blood pounded, beating against her ears like a drum, drowning out the world.
Her cheeks tickled, the tears that slipped betwe...
2021-08-21 04:25:31 +0000 UTC View Post3rd chapter today, make sure you didn't skip the other ones.
I recoiled at the sight, horrified. The green-black veins, small though they were, formed a tangled mass at the nape of my Coreless’ neck, centered around a light scratch on the surface of her skin-flesh. A deep crimson held fast to the edge...
2021-08-19 05:11:02 +0000 UTC View Post2nd chapter today, don't skip previous chapter.
...we weren’t getting any closer to the Core. It wasn’t hard to notice, even without the scent-taste of the Lesser Core on my tongue; after all, we had found ourselves at the edge of the black-water again. Not the same edge that we had started...
2021-08-18 22:11:06 +0000 UTC View PostI'm back, and we'll likely be going for a breakneck upload pace for the remainder of the month. First chapter today, going for at least three (already have two done).
The female-who-was-not-Needle listlessly cut the-root-that-attacks-from-below into pieces with distracted, stuttered motions, gently feed...
2021-08-18 22:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostValera’s breath caught within her throat. It lodged itself there, holding fast, while her eyes roved over Verdant Grove.
More accurately, while they roved over what it had become.
Though she had never visited it herself, the refugees that had arrived at Orken had painted a vivid picture within her min...
2021-08-10 03:49:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe scent-taste of darkwood and glow-caps, intermingling with a variety of other scent-tastes that I had never encountered, only grew stronger as we grew closer to the Lesser Core. Yet, unlike the tantalizing scent-taste of the Core itself, which was more the flavor of its mana than anything actually physical, worm...
2021-08-06 04:15:51 +0000 UTC View Post` My Coreless did not sleep comfortably that night; they shifted around in fits and spurts, a certain degree of [restlessness] in each nearby [Little Guardian’s Totem]. In a way, that was good. It meant that they understood the threat that Tiamat presented - or ...
2021-07-31 05:17:25 +0000 UTC View PostRecreating Tiamat was just as difficult as I had expected, which was part of the reason that I hadn’t tried to do so in the past. I hadn’t wanted to risk the Coreless dismissing the threat that she posed, especially when there was so much that I couldn’t explain through [Illusion Spark] 2021-07-30 02:25:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Valera felt her brow furrow as she watched Orken’s Little Guardian. The tiny snake was acting strange; normally, he seemed extremely eager to devour anything and everything that he could fit down his tiny throat. But right now, instead of consuming the massive pile of insectoid monsters, it simply set them aflame...
2021-07-29 00:58:56 +0000 UTC View Post
