Viv’s hope that the campaign would start right away got dashed immediately. It turned out that although everyone important was present, they were missing a plethora of stuff ranging from actual camping supplies to their favorite concubines. Portals didn’t solve every logistical problem. It was just super fast transportati...
2024-01-12 16:52:05 +0000 UTC View PostNestra was now facing an unexpected issue. In the past weeks, she’d been living her best life as her demon self, with human Nestra taking a backseat, only leaving the house for the occasional social outing. And pastries. She’d driven her pink roadster around but that was just to meet friends and family. Human Nestra was p...
2024-01-09 16:58:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe frontline near Glastia looked like some divinity had split the world in twain, showing two versions of a world that could be. Seen from the east, the left part of the landscape was one of mankind flourishing. Well-fertilized fields extended to the horizon, rich with thick ripening wheat, orchards, fat lines of fruit-beari...
2024-01-05 15:30:42 +0000 UTC View PostMana termites were really ugly from up close.
Valerian slammed his sword against a mandible, chipping the skull as well. The creature backed up.
An opening.
He gathered mana in his left hand, weaving the spell with careful attention. This ought to work. He pushed the mana forward. The spell connected with th...
2024-01-03 15:33:21 +0000 UTC View PostGeneral Kobanis led his men north, back to the ancestral land of their clan. Or what was left of it.
He could see the writing on the walls. Arana clung to it because it was her nature to never let go of anything, but the Empire was done for. It was designed to function in isolation… and it was no longer in isolation. ...
2023-12-15 15:39:08 +0000 UTC View PostNestra felt very good with herself for all of five seconds, basking in the vindictive light of her pride. Hah! She sure showed them, etc etc. Then reality returned in the form of a light hunger, and it was time to get stock.
She was hunted in a C-class world filled with ambush monsters and a termite army made of acid-sp...
2023-12-13 01:24:26 +0000 UTC View PostWater was everywhere. In the darkness of the night, the sky merged with the sea in a dark, blurry mess that gave Rakan vertigo. The ground moved under his feet. Well, the ship’s deck. All that separated him from a yawning abyss of murky waters were two layers of thin planks and the loyalty of a man he’d threatened to tort...
2023-12-09 14:48:06 +0000 UTC View PostOk so you might have noticed that I've been sluggish with answering comments and correcting typos. That's because your artist is tired, milords and miladies patrons of the fine arts, and he needs to withdraw to the cheese den for a little while.
My family's coming to visit on the 21st and I'll stop around that time an...
The first thing a longer expedition would do was establish a base camp, so the raiders descended at the edge of the chasm to find a suitable spot. There was a relatively flat space on the right side, by a cliff, with a good view of the valley so that was the place they chose.
Led by the three TKers, the rest put down th...
2023-12-05 14:06:04 +0000 UTC View PostRagnarok clearly expected Nestra to act with a brain, so instead of showing up fresh-faced, Nestra called Valerian with her shiny new masked gleam phone. He actually ignored her three times before finally picking up.
“Finally. This is Cresscent.”
“Am I supposed to know you?”
Was he stupid?
“Y...
2023-11-28 16:06:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe village had stood for centuries, mostly unchanged but for the ebb and flow of the sea, the people, and as always, the monsters. It was a peaceful place far from the reach of Frostway, and so long as the tithe kept coming, they were mostly left alone. It suited them fine.
Then the dragon came.
He took the fatte...
2023-11-25 08:50:33 +0000 UTC View PostNestra made it exactly three steps before the pain caught up to her, and she sat back down on the gray moss.
“Ow. Ow ow ow.”
Now that the fight was over, exhaustion caught up and her mouth, which she had sprayed with a basic healing gel, was now smarting something fierce. It made even witty quips too much to u...
2023-11-21 16:45:54 +0000 UTC View PostViv was summoned — sorry, ‘invited’ — to visit the palace the very next morning. Guess it had taken them that long to clean the carpets. She picked Marruk and the One Hundred as official guards, then went in without anyone giving her much shit. Walking by the statue, she reflected that it might look good to people who...
2023-11-17 16:00:55 +0000 UTC View PostNestra stood in an empty apartment overlooking the headquarter of the Varang guild, a squat tower built on the edge of the Museum of Art’s garden. Prime location for a prime guild. The structure was entirely opaque to Nestra’s budding mana senses though, and that blindness left her feeling exposed. She wouldn’t even be ...
2023-11-14 23:02:29 +0000 UTC View PostFrostway was built along a bay, and Viv had to admit that the Old Harrakans knew how to pick their spots. Far to the right, piers stood protected by encroaching cliff walls that formed a natural harbor, where fat ships with folded white sails bobbed placidly in the calm waters. Closer, the land sloped up towards her while a s...
2023-11-10 23:18:17 +0000 UTC View PostTo call the testing facility ‘state-of-the-art’ would be an understatement. Everything was chrome, high-tech, and shiny. Nestra looked around with bemusement before returning her attention to Ragnarok.
So that’s where MaxSec’s funding had gone? Okay…
The stern gleam guided her to a secured exam computer ...
2023-11-08 14:21:42 +0000 UTC View PostNestra rang the bell for the th
2023-11-04 04:50:27 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Cleaned a little and gathered for y
2023-11-04 02:48:38 +0000 UTC View PostViv stood her ground while the rest of the fighters scattered, and the camp attendants scrambled back to the cover of the forest. Her defiance triggered something in the diving dragon. His attention zeroed on her.
It was so… feral.
She felt it like a physical weight pushing her down, attempting to crush her befo...
2023-11-03 17:06:10 +0000 UTC View PostIn order to become a masked gleam safely, Nestra deployed every last bit of paranoia she was capable of. Even searching the process was done via an antique burner phone. She did her application remotely using the maximum possible amount of loopholes, and the highest secrecy offered. Gleams could accelerate the process by link...
2023-10-31 14:57:43 +0000 UTC View PostOk so I got a LOT of feedback for the name poll, most of it negative, so we will do a run off with the most popular poll vs comment names. then use the most voted suggestions. This will run until Tuesday when I finish the chapter. Multiple choices are permitted. Here they are in alphabetical order. It's the last one, I promis...
2023-10-28 01:57:32 +0000 UTC View PostIt was year five after Viv had been unleashed upon Nyil, the spring after the golem recovery, and New Harrak remained blessedly unfucked with. This was extremely suspicious and made Viv nervous as hell. Rather than waiting for trouble to come to her, as it inevitably would, she decided to to go look for it instead, and her ne...
2023-10-27 20:29:20 +0000 UTC View PostIt is time for the People to help Nestra pick her masked gleam name. You have until Mondayish when I write this part of the chapter. The People can offer suggestions in the comments which will count as poll options with the numbers of likes being the number of votes. Demon McDemonface will not be accepted.
I promise to com...
The time has come for the People to decide on Sashimi's gender. Most popular answer before next chapter will become canon.
2023-10-25 04:59:31 +0000 UTC View PostNestra slipped into the world with great difficulty. The membrane resisted her efforts, pushing her away like a deep current. It felt like opening a door into a flooded room.
Once in, she sprawled over bare stone. Immediately, stark heat assaulted her senses. The ground was harsh and unyielding under her fingers, black ...
2023-10-24 13:55:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe office of the Home Guard’s third division was a place of darkness. Once, it had housed over sixty rotating personnel working day and night to make sure Harrak was always ready to defend itself. Barracks would hold golem engineers and trainers dedicated to keeping veterans in shape, while administrators spent hours keepi...
2023-10-20 15:59:49 +0000 UTC View PostNestra watched while Helena engaged in the time-honored tradition of divesting the dead of their belongings. Sadly, this was a relatively benign D-class world and the pickings seemed slim indeed.
That was a first world problem, to be fair. Primitive societies would love to recover the high purity metal contained in the ...
2023-10-17 15:32:31 +0000 UTC View PostAN: I forgot to write that first. It happens chronologically the morning after Mazingwe and Sereth's confrontation.
“I told you, electronic equipment won’t work. Can I go now?”
Nestra glared at Doctor Mazingwe. Down, for once, since she was using her true form. The doctor tilted his head in ...
2023-10-17 15:25:37 +0000 UTC View PostAN: As someone mentioned, Nestra doesn't check her new body after awakening for the first time, which is weird and a little illogical. As such, I have added the following fragment to the RR version of the story:
Nestra woke up after sleeping fitfully. The light of dawn filtered through her wi...
2023-10-17 15:22:12 +0000 UTC View Post
