"So you're leaving?" Mayor Lucia asked.
Simon nodded. "It's a bit of a hike to the nearest Waystation, but we'll manage. Our portable Warding Orbs will keep any roaming Fell Beasts at bay."
Traveling would've been much faster with a ...
'Nobody ever quite looks at me', was not a rare thought for Ciro to have.
Tenver's father Gomez saw many different things in him as a child. He saw potential, he saw fear, he saw power...he even saw Ciro's little brother, and the l...
Four Days Later
"I can't tell if this is flattering or insulting."
Sitting at a desk within his temporary headquarters, Simon squinted at the wanted poster that had been delivered to Springwater Village – and every...
'Valente! Valente, hold on! Don't let Aspreay poison your thoughts with doubt!'
Ciro grit his teeth as he sent the message. He couldn't move to help his Hangman. While he was immune to Nayt and the wench's attacks, nothing good wou...
As he was now, Simon felt so powerful that he was struggling to comprehend it. Subjugate Territory doubled his stats as long as he resided within Caelryn City – or Springwater Village. He was essentially Level 80, and that wasn't counting the bo...
2025-05-15 01:54:46 +0000 UTC View PostValente possessed several titles. Some had been bestowed by Ciro – and some by the death he wrought. The Emperor of the World may have named him Lord of the Hangmen, but few called him that after his annihilation of the Puppet Mountain and its L...
2025-05-13 22:32:36 +0000 UTC View PostSilence reigned. Several seconds went by, the pause feeling both long and short.
"...Pleasantries?" Piers repeated. He sounded utterly baffled, like he'd never heard the word before.
"It's only natural to test someone's mettle before...
Ciro failed to stifle a yawn as he watched the sun slowly rise, his back turned to the unpleasant sight of his men slaughtering a legion of elven guards.
Honestly, their display of resistance was quite pathetic. Why would the elves bother t...
Claws gleamed with wicked intent as the Demon reached out for a noble neck.
Piers Helmund's eyes widened with fear. He leapt sideways, expelling mana from the soles of his feet to propel himself faster. A burst of light shot forth from his ...
It didn't take them long to reach Piers' hidey-hole.
The Helmund scion had sequestered himself in one of his personal villas. It was by far the most gaudy, ostentatious building that Simon had seen since transmigrating to Valtia – like th...
Beneath the flickering moonlight that filtered into his study through a single open window, Elder Lorival pressed his fingertips against his temples.
Adam of Penumbria...is trouble, he thought. And not for the first time.
He...
Simon found himself decently impressed by the Hurricane's main headquarters. Whereas Bastian's safehouse had been disguised as an abandoned building in the slums, this was hidden in plain sight, masquerading as a legitimate business in the upper c...
2025-04-17 04:06:25 +0000 UTC View PostFollowing the elven woman was accidental – though Nayt struggled to convince himself of that later. The word 'follow' implied both intent and cunning, and he considered himself capable of neither. His careful strategy consisting of "wait until h...
2025-04-09 06:23:06 +0000 UTC View PostNo one liked being blamed for something that wasn't their fault. When a person refused to take responsibility for their own actions, then tried passing the back to you? Infuriating, to put it mildly.
So when Simon snapped out ...
For the past week, I've been dealing with an ongoing family medical emergency (not mine, I'm healthy), traversing back and forth from the hospital. Hasn't been the greatest for my writing schedule.
Demonic Conqueror / Heroic Valor: This week...
2025-04-02 04:36:25 +0000 UTC View PostSix days had gone by inside the Hurricane safehouse. The commotion outside had mostly died down, lessening from an uproar to a low-grade simmer. It should be safe for Simon to leave soon.
And thank Christ for that, because he ...
"King Adam knows how to be relied on," Vasco said, "but not how to rely."
It was the lecture Aspreay had expected. Once this infernal man considers something to be righteous, he never shuts up. That didn't make de...
The rest of the day was spent pleasantly enough. Cyna kept trying to slyly coax information out of Simon. In return, he would give cryptic hints that didn't amount to anything.
Eventually it became a sort of game, with her cheerfully over-a...
Pressure mounted in the dimly-lit chamber like a city under siege. Everyone's breath had been stolen, their voices caged, bodies locked into place. A second stretched into eternity. The moment did not pass; it sharpened.
And then â...
The Hurricane safehouse was an unassuming building located in the lower city residential district. Though it looked decrepit and abandoned on the outside, its interior was surprisingly spacious and well-furnished. The walls and front entrance were...
2025-03-13 02:50:49 +0000 UTC View Post"She would have been much happier if I'd only killed her," Solara snarled at him. "And I am more than that – I am the one who beat you within an inch of your life."
Nayt barely reacted to her outburst, stretching and shiftin...
Bastian blinked, nearly doing a double-take. He seemed dazed, as if he hadn't intended to answer. Buyer's remorse was already blooming on his features.
Didn't matter. A willing agreement had been given. In that pure, singular moment, his he...
The royal procession had been frozen by a tense silence.
King Adam banished it. "Do it," he ordered.
"As you wish, Your Majesty," answered the Detective.
Valeria smirked, tilting her head just enough to let the shadow of her h...
"You're..." Bastian inched backwards, sidestepping to put himself in-between Simon and the unconscious Cyna. "Ancient One take me, you're a Demon."
Technically a Fell-Shrouded Human, but not even Katarina took me seriously when...
Elder Lorival was known to the elves as a folk hero – and as nothing to the world at large.
His living legend was as simple as it was captivating. A survivor of Greenisle and untrusting of humans, he had refused Vasco's offer of life in G...
The sun crawled over the horizon like a wounded god, too slow and too red. It hadn't witnessed death last night, but it had come just in time to watch a soul be forever trapped within a painting. Fractured echoes of distress, death, and d...
2025-02-23 09:29:13 +0000 UTC View PostFrom what Simon had seen during his time in Valtia, Duke Helmund's reign of the Severed Isles was indisputable.
Opposition against him didn't truly exist. The commonfolk may despise him, and some nobles might utter hushed complaints behind ...
"Our carriage was stolen," Katarina announced.
Simon looked up at her. He paused mid-chew, about to force down a piece of stale cardboard masquerading as vendor stall meat. Starting to think supporting small businesses isn't worth an un...
Lord Edmundo, Ruler of Coimbargo, wore red on the day he meant to kill the King of the Frontier.
It was tradition in the House of Crepusculo to do so when taking a man's life. Cloaking yourself in crimson would cloak the victim's blood as w...
The first step of Simon's plan was enacted by making a purchase.
He'd hoped to procure materials that would create toxic gas when mixed. While he wasn't so lucky as that, he did find a substitute that should prove almost as ef...