Hi everyone,
Forgot to mention it with the last chapter, but there will not be a chapter on Monday in observance of Labor Day. If you celebrate this holiday, please have a safe and relaxing long weekend! I'll see everyone on Tuesday.
2023-09-02 14:01:27 +0000 UTC View Post“Well, lad” Cirayus said wistfully, gazing off into the distance to times long past. “I’m sure you can already guess a few things about your father.”
“That he was a combat junkie crazy enough to fight Ash Beasts to train?” Vir asked innocently.
Cirayus chuckled. “Aye, he certainly was....
2023-08-31 15:42:29 +0000 UTC View PostNOTE: Shoutout for my dear friend J.M. Clarke (author of Mark of the Fool), who recently released an amazing new prog fantasy litrpg on RR. It's top tier quality, so definitely check it out!
2023-08-30 15:43:55 +0000 UTC View PostCirayus was beginning to think he’d made a huge mistake by restraining the boy.
“The City of the Gods,” he said.
“Yes,” Vir replied, frowning at the ground.
“An Imperium Goddess. The Goddess Ashani,” Cirayus said. “Who can create Ash Gates.”
“Yes,” V...
2023-08-29 16:04:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Forgot to upload art of Ashani before. Here you go!
2023-08-28 17:46:43 +0000 UTC View PostVir spent the next days charging Ashani’s other core and meditating. While he wanted to spend every free moment he had in her simulated world, the action drained her energy at an alarming rate.
So instead, Vir contented himself with conversing with the goddess and improving his blood’s prana capacity. 2023-08-28 15:59:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Vir had dreaded returning to the scene of his battle with the Phantomblade. This time, however, he had some serious support. He had all the remaining ten wolves. And he had Ashani.
He’d underestimated the goddess. Now that she no longer worried about her energy consumption, she unleashed her true power up...
2023-08-24 15:44:09 +0000 UTC View PostVir took his time, spending the next days alternating between charging the orb and taking breaks to cycle prana, sleep, and eat.
Though charging Ashani’s core took a toll on his mind, it was the prana cycling that left him exhausted. He’d wanted nothing more than to spend every waking hour he had workin...
2023-08-23 13:53:55 +0000 UTC View PostVir started slowly, taking great pains to monitor the orb as he worked. There was so much going on, the task was easier said than done. Even finding the crisscrossing inscription ribbons was a chore, though after a full half day of simply staring at it, he’d learned to discern them—at the risk of going cross-...
2023-08-22 14:18:50 +0000 UTC View PostThere's been a rampant spree of stories being stolen off RoyalRoad, processed by AI, and then uploaded to amazon under a different name. This is EXTREMELY concerning for writers. It's unethical and honestly downright F'd up.
For those of you who read on...
2023-08-21 14:47:38 +0000 UTC View PostVir learned that a battle between god-entities was neither short nor simple. It was an epic, drawn-out affair.
The battle in the sky had raged for the better part of a day. If there were days in the Mahādi Realm. Which, of course, there weren’t, which only made the time feel longer to Vir.
The time had allowed ...
2023-08-18 16:14:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe guardian screeched out a sound halfway between maniacal laughter and a wail.
Vir fell and continued falling, right into his own shadow.
In the Shadow Realm, a dozen questions ran rampant in his mind, augmenting his fear. Why had the Yaksha waited outside? Why hadn’t it ended him the moment it found him? Was ...
2023-08-17 17:27:58 +0000 UTC View PostThe pained mewling of an injured wolf drifted through the silent, pitch-dark halls.
Vir Blinked directly at it to find a pile of rubble.
Did the wolf get caught in a collapse? Vir dug through the rubble, unsure of how the wolf could have gotten into this predicament. Had a portion of the room cav...
2023-08-16 17:18:37 +0000 UTC View PostUseless. It’s all useless.
Vir rummaged through the rubble of the recently collapsed building, hurling aside rusted pieces of metal one after another. It had barely been a week since they collapsed, and yet, they hardly any better than the other rubble Vir had come across.
Had he been wrong...
2023-08-15 17:07:42 +0000 UTC View PostWatching from the Shadow Realm, Vir let the wolves make the first move. There were several good reasons for doing so. For one, the wolves had far more experience fighting monsters in this realm. They’d know the Phantomblade’s strengths and weaknesses, and would use optimal strategies to defeat it.
At le...
2023-08-14 16:32:17 +0000 UTC View PostVir and his wolf guides Leaped along Mahādi’s empty streets in silence. The oppressive weight of death always hung over the dead city, but now, without Ashani to accompany him, Vir felt it more acutely than ever.
Trying to keep his mind off such dark thoughts, he focused on his power gains inste...
2023-08-11 17:22:39 +0000 UTC View PostDays bled together as Vir meditated, working tirelessly to expand his prana capacity. Through careful study and experimentation, he’d learned that by injecting blood into Parai’s Barrier pattern and by forcing it to deviate slightly, the barrier effect weakened enough to allow prana to enter his body.
<...
2023-08-10 17:15:23 +0000 UTC View Post“Incredible!” Ashani said, her eyes twinkling. “To think they thought it auspicious to build their cities under our Vimana! Fate can truly plot a strange course at times.”
“Why? What are the Vimana?” Vir asked.
He sat on a comfortable chair across from Ashani, high on the rooftop of a...
2023-08-09 17:15:07 +0000 UTC View PostTwo years?
Vir despaired. Even with the time effects of the Mahādi Realm, it was too long to linger; Cirayus would be worried sick. Worse, he might wander away looking for Vir if he took too much time. If that happened, Vir would have no chance of finding the giant. As he'd learned, Ashani's gates could only r...
2023-08-08 17:09:44 +0000 UTC View Post“You’re normally in hibernation,” Vir said, recalling memories he should never have ever had. “Being active… consumes your prana core. You survived this long only by rationing your power. You spend entire decades asleep. Waking only long enough to check on the city before shutting down again.”
<...
2023-08-07 17:23:51 +0000 UTC View PostA young Ashani threw off a boulder-sized piece of road that had crushed her, emerging from beneath the rubble to a destroyed, blackened world. The Mahādi of the present day, with its lightning storms and ashen rain.
The sight came with a profound revelation. One that threatened to overload Vir’s mind. 2023-08-04 16:37:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Ashani approached the door to a house—the one Vir had woken up in. Janak's home. Instead of the black, cold home from before, the abode was a brilliant white, decorated in gold.
The door dematerialized for her, and inside, Vir found a beautifully decorated home. Where Sawai aristocrats adorned their walls with paintin...
2023-08-03 17:50:38 +0000 UTC View PostVir thought he’d prepared himself for what was to come, but he hadn’t. How could he?
Ashani pressed her fingers against the sides of Vir’s head, and like a drop falling on a still mirror pond, the world rippled outward. Where the ripple touched, Ash ceased to exist, restored to its former glory...
2023-08-02 17:49:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Images of the Ashen Realm, Mahadi, and the Mahakurma. The Mahakurma is bigger than pictured, but I had a hard time getting MJ to give me anything better!
2023-08-01 18:02:33 +0000 UTC View PostSilence pressed on the room with the weight of ages past.
Ashani’s brilliant smile shone like the sun, clearing it.
She’s so… perfect, Vir thought, unable to wrest his gaze from Ashani’s azure eyes. They shone with a depth so deep, he could’ve believed they contained an ent...
2023-08-01 17:55:30 +0000 UTC View PostVir did not slip into the blissful land of the unconscious, where the peace of dreams awaited. Blaring pain from his broken leg barred those gates.
Pain made worse by an Ash Wolf—the one who’d handed him the black orb earlier. Now it stood with a paw on his leg, howling in desperation.
It’s scared, ...
2023-07-31 18:47:24 +0000 UTC View PostThe $3 Tier is now 10 chapters ahead of RR, and the $5 tier is 20 chapters ahead. As such, these tiers will be shifting to 4x a week as of today(technically yesterday).
The $10 tier is currently 36 chapters, and will stay at 5x a week until it hits 40 chapters ahead of RR.
2023-07-28 18:58:20 +0000 UTC View PostVir had shuddered in fear against a single Ash Wolf. The beast he confronted had killed a half dozen. To fight it was to ask for an early death. And yet…
His eyes flickered to the mortally wounded woman who lay on the ground, bleeding. She still hadn’t noticed him—her eyes were locked on the enemy. 2023-07-28 18:52:53 +0000 UTC View Post
She regarded the abomination knowing her end neared. Were it only a few centuries ago, such an Ash Beast would have posed her little threat. But now? When the energy it would cost her burned away the little time she had left? Months, not years.
Where was the fabled encounter it had promise...
2023-07-27 18:57:30 +0000 UTC View PostMaiya stole through Sonam’s cool stone alleys alone. The nighttime breeze might’ve felt refreshing if she wasn’t so crippled with anxiety.
Months of preparation had culminated in this very moment. Maiya’s heart pounded and a thin sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead. She’d read through every t...
2023-07-26 18:12:27 +0000 UTC View Post
