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105 - Deal With The Merchant Matriarch

The others followed after her, each of them reacting in an obvious manner at the shock from breaching the barrier. Zef just twitched a little, Makhus audibly gritted his teeth, the woman in red and Sigmund both shuddered. The woman walked a little...

104 - The Sect Compound

Through the city they made their way, finding that yet more Kargarian merchants were openly setting up their cart stalls on the major streets. Besides Zelsys being recognized and called out for her involvement in the preceding day’s unrest a few...

103 - To Plan For The Future

Tanks, both full-scale and ultracompact.

Guns, from sparklock handguns to artillery pieces.

Ammunition, enough enriched gunpowder to blow up a small mountain.

The machines to equip an army and maintain it, an army whose technolog...

102 - Pieces Falling Into Place

Pieces fell into place in her head. So that’s why the governor had gone out of his way to ask her not to reject people without good reason. “That bastard… Don’t expect preferential treatment. If anything, I’ll use you for demonstrations,...

101 - Morning News

When Zef gingerly pulled it out of the box, they saw that beneath the so-called fotoapparat sat a thick tome and some other things, like a deck of square cards much similar to those on the table in shape. She pulled one out of the box and slid it ...

100 - Foster the Flame

“Aye. Had this weird feeling one night, then heard someone screaming. Slicked my hair back, put on a gas mask, and ran out with a war-knife following the noise. Thought I’d end up cutting down some locust, not a Black Horse disciple. I’ll ne...

99 - New Ammunition, Blue Meat, and a Swordsman's Struggle

“What if they’re not caught? Do you truly think a crowd of civilians won’t fall for a well-done distraction?” Zef pushed again. It sounded like she well and truly wanted to ensure the deaths of those two with every fibre of her being.

98 - Sheng and Zhuo

It was overtly worded in a way that shifted the agency onto the crowd, no doubt to position Estoras as a servant to the people’s will even as he served up the location of those who would see him dead and Willowdale destroyed on a silver platter....

97 - The Wannabe Sleazebag's Gambit

She had fully expected to need to encourage him at least a little bit, but much to her self-satisfaction and amusement, it was like he just snapped under the pressure of her presence.

“So be it, I... I will be better off a- a prisoner of S...

96 - Hunted

From a brisk walk she broke into a sprint that rendered her a blur for all but Shang and a few of his more perceptive lieutenants, lightning arcing over her legs, its tendrils writhing around them and the muscles writhing under her skin in concert...

95 - Paint it Red

They had been told that it was tall, but-

“It’s her! She stinks of alchemy and my dead brethren!” chittered the Transformed, breaking Shang’s train of thought. He recklessly charged ahead, fury flashing in his eyes and his mandibles ...

94 - Slayer's Mercy

Wild-eyed he stared at her, looking side to side as if trying to convey a shake of the head with his eyes.

Part confused, part terrified, the boy once more spoke to her, “I-I’ve seen that before, it’s a-a ge… Ge… Geeaz?

“A ...

93 - Innocence and Wretchedness

There was a geyser of steam and blood, a brief gurgle, and the man was dead, his spine, esophagus, and carotid arteries all cleanly severed. Just to make sure he wasn’t awake in his own dying head, she brought his club down on it and crumpled it...

92 - A Hallway of Dead Men

Zelsys chopped, cut, and kicked her way into the first floor’s main hallway, willfully burning a tenth of her lung capacity on every breath for Fulgur to be expelled. Not as an attack, but as a lightshow. A display of snapping, flashing lightnin...

91 - Stars of Calamity

A sword swung at her chest by a man from the left, no feint, completely telegraphed, but the attacker had the fortune that the Butcher was currently busy being used reverse-grip to cut a swathe of burned meat through the lineup of four soldiers to...

90 - Mangy Dogs and Stone Soldiers

Turning the sound ward generator off he proceeded to stride over to one of his shelves, grabbing an ornamental saber off its stand, proclaiming, “I might be out of practice, but I’m an out of practice Gold-rank Hunter. Don’t worry about me, ...

89 - The Pot Boiling Over

He looked at her with a flash of blue fire in his eyes, this time continuing to spin the dial back and forth with pure muscle memory. Click. Click. Click. Click.

“Executing them for treason would be both political and actual suicide, I’d...

88 - Oblique Maneuvering

Looking into the binder revealed a single, thick sheet of parchment - no, that wasn’t right. This was all too thick to be called parchment, this was more like preserved skin, tattooed with meticulous writing and glyphwork. The writing was ancien...

87 - The Payment for a City Saved

Just one guard.

And it was him. That mercenary.

“Is this where sailing once more has led you?” she prodded as she approached. He gave her a steely-eyed look and the subtlest of smiles, the slightest of nods. Crossed arms, outwardly...

86 - Impending Unknown

“Did you just replicate what I did back in the E.Z. using the citronade?” she questioned.

Zel just nodded, answering that, “Using the second gut feels less like exhaling and more like burping it out, just strange. I’ll get used to it...

85 - Lighting the Inner Crucible

“One last thing, before you leave. What do you intend to call yourself? Renegade, or something else?” she questioned, not entirely sure of the reason herself. Somehow she just felt that there was a different name. The response which Alcerys ga...

84 - Speak of the Blue Moon

“I’ve not mentioned it before, but the fact that your Tablet uses the four-attribute format was more telling of its make than the fact it’s a stone slab. I’m nearly certain that my Force is simply too specialized towards swordsmanship and ...

83 - To Set Loose the Violent Will

Makhus looked at the stick in his hand, spun it around in his grasp a few times to get a feel for its center of mass, and let out a resigned sigh. He looked at Zel again, and though his words spoke reluctance, his eyes couldn’t have conceivably ...

82 - A Promise Upheld

A/N: There might not be a chapter tomorrow. Can't really say for certain as of the posting of this chapter.

For a few seconds it hung limp connected by a near-black layer of blood-stuff, but soon enough Zelsys was able to move the fingers an...

81 - Left Arm of the Engine Beast

It was even visible, a hair-thin silver conduit on her arm taking on a barely-visible glow. Being so shallow, the cut resealed almost seamlessly when she let go, leaving behind just a lingering pain and a black seam.

“The trait listing say...

80 - A Casual Breakfast Before Limb Reattachment

“Yeah, we ran out of eggs so I made lokshe instead,” he confirmed, returning to the stove to continue. “The filling’s apples, cinnamon, and ground poppyseed.”

She had a mind to ask him what Vitae was, but before she could, a bleary...

79 - Eternal Beast

Her tongue sat in her mouth like a curled-up dead snake, dry and slimy from dehydration, numb and aching like an overexerted muscle, so fresh the turgid sensation it brought to mind a just-ended colossal cramp. A familiar taste still lingered in h...

78 - The Charred Judge

Most averted their eyes.

A few stared her down with a grim coldness behind their glares, a wordless agreement tainted by defeatism.

Three men emerged from the crowd, each burly, each wielding a blade - a large dagger, a war-knife, a bu...

77 - Judgment Justice

“You had other names in ages past.”

“Yes, yes I did... And I regret each of them, most of all the one immediately preceding Omniudex. The Cruel Miracle, the people of that kalpa called me. I have yet to atone for t...