A Novel Approach chapter 87
Seeing my great grandparents together among those black volcanic mountains was…odd. The two of them were so innocuous. Young and relaxed and elegant, standing beside each other like a couple from some royal portrait. “They remind me of Shane and Callie,” my sister said quietly. “I’ve ne...
2025-04-21 23:02:17 +0000 UTC View PostBlack Sorrow didn’t look even slightly uncomfortable with her position between us and enemy god who had been expecting her. Raxus, to his credit, didn’t look any more intimidated. He looked young, actually. Eighteen or nineteen, pale with sunken dark eyes and floppy hair. Very delicate. He lo...
2025-04-18 20:10:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe cleanup took less time than expected. Of course, that might have been partially because my head was swimming the whole time it was going on. I might have blacked out a few times. My first discovery after the end of my little rampage was that I had DRAMATICALLY underestimated the toll it would...
2025-04-18 00:35:11 +0000 UTC View PostIt felt like it went on for eternity. The moments dragged, somehow spawning from between each other, stretching seconds into minutes. The staff was starting to flag, I’d asked too much of it too quickly. But I had to keep going, had to hold it just a bit longer.
This was the plan. It was ...
2025-04-17 00:28:49 +0000 UTC View PostWe arrived at the doors to the exit chamber about forty minutes later. We kept having to move along the hallway to do our calculations because the energy flows were pushing us, but apparently Skartaris had decided to be sneaky and ended up shooting himself in the foot, because the progress was ve...
2025-04-15 23:54:01 +0000 UTC View PostWe headed for the exit straight away after combining the groups. Once we were all together, I could see a change in Crell. His previous easygoing snark melted away, and his eyes started to shine with a feverish intensity. Anyone who could hide as deeply and work as hard for a cause as he had must...
2025-04-14 23:29:07 +0000 UTC View PostThere were a lot of people surrounding us. Our group was a hundred and fifty people, and they had us outnumbered two or three to one, at least. I grimaced. Someone had sold us out. But the weird thing was, I didn’t FEEL any danger. Even now, my Danger Sense wasn’t going off. I could see the t...
2025-04-11 22:42:31 +0000 UTC View PostThe first thing I did the next morning was create and distribute my scrolls. I ended up asking all fifty of the C-rankers to try to offer Creation stats. It wasn’t a commonly used stat for most Ascendants, and mine was laughably far behind the rest of my stats at this point. Once that was done ...
2025-04-11 00:19:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe next stage of the conclave was much less mysterious. We’d left behind the basement full of stone pillars and had retired to a large golden ballroom. The walls were white paneled with gold trim, and the floors were white marble inlaid with gold. Weirdly, despite being similar material to the...
2025-04-09 23:30:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe conclave took place in the bones of the tower. It was different than the other towers we’d been to. This was missing Veldran’s cute little complex, underneath this tower was something different. Emptiness. Miles and miles of it.
We came down a small staircase into a colossal c...
2025-04-09 00:08:47 +0000 UTC View PostFive days went by in a blur. Forty more scrolls put me at ninety two, just one day short of a hundred (not counting the three emergency scrolls my friends kept on hand), and I wasn’t any less nervous because of the excess. Bethy had been working with Callie and I the whole time, and we’d most...
2025-04-08 00:36:29 +0000 UTC View PostMeeting up with the others the next day was pretty amusing. I woke up, stockpiled my scrolls, and then headed down to see the reactions to my wife’s new trait. Most of them were pretty blown away by Callie’s changes. Her gorgeous blue black wings and new eyes highlighted her costume pretty we...
2025-04-05 00:26:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe changes of the fruit started to appear before Callie woke up. Specifically, my Master Paired Duelling skill changed to become a completely new skill. Master Angelic Bond. It was a Skill I’d never heard of before, nor had anyone else with us. This was especially notable because Serah and Hol...
2025-04-04 00:00:58 +0000 UTC View PostWhen we got back to the room, Callie and I called everyone, letting them know not to disturb us, and then settled in to begin the real work. Deciding the best place to do said work was the library, we sat in the living room together, linked hands, closed our eyes, and then I pulled her through th...
2025-04-03 00:18:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day, after making my scrolls, I met with Dirk, the humanized Bull. I had to admit, I was pretty excited. I’d met plenty of beasts, but none of them had taken human form. I’d been told that most animals had no interest in assuming a human shape on rank up, and it could only happen aft...
2025-04-02 00:24:05 +0000 UTC View Post