The four of them were stopped at the entrance to the ball and announced as one: Miss Scarlet’s party. No one looked up as they descended the stairs, no more than yet another noble contingent obligated to attend the king’s balls. Ike scanned from above, but didn’t see Brightbriar anywhere—...
2025-05-06 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post“What’s going on over there? Jones? Come out here,” a guard demanded.
Rhys clicked his tongue, tossing the latest body away. The rats swarmed without him prompting, growing used to the flow of these battles, if Rhys’s one-sided assaults could be called battles. He’d managed to lur...
2025-05-06 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“So, is everyone ready?”
“As we’ll ever be.”
“Listen. Brightbriar knows you’re coming. He’s prepared. On the other hand, he rarely shows his face. If we don’t strike today, we’re back to searching for him until his next social event.”
“Really? He used to ...
2025-05-05 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostRhys pressed a hand on each body, filling them with mana or whatever filthy energy his trash generated, then sat back to wait. There would be rats for the bodies, he knew it. He’d seen it happen often enough, the rats swarming the bodies of deceased prisoners. They ate no better than the prison...
2025-05-05 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThey left the rubble behind before anyone could seriously start looking for who to blame over the recent destruction of the homes all around them, and followed Scar back to the merchants’ district. Ike headed for the high-end shops, but Scar caught him by the back of the collar and whirled him ...
2025-05-04 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe battle was as swift as it was decisive. In a mere night, the Empress overwhelmed the Academy and flattened everything within. Although it sounded as if she bowled over the Academy and showed off her military might, it wasn’t much of a fight, truth be told. The Sword Saint had been summoned ...
2025-05-04 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s not that easy,” Scar said at last, exasperated.
“No? Come on. How hard can it be to find the guy? He’s just a normal guy, who can create a near infinite supply of fake puppet bodies that are all indistinguishable from his actual body,” Ike said, shaking his head.
“...
2025-05-03 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostIke closed in. Accais widened his eyes and jumped back, clearly meaning to flee, but Ike refused to let him. He rushed even faster, charging at the archer. Accais’ ponytail swung past his body as he leaped back, and Ike snatched the ends of his hair out of the air. He yanked hard, tugging Accai...
2025-05-02 14:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostWind gusted all around Ike. It tore at him with sharp lances, bit past Storm Clad, and sought out every inch of him to cut into him and tear him apart. The wind lifted him off his feet and threw him back. He couldn’t see anything through the raging tornado, but he felt it as he slammed through ...
2025-05-01 14:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“Go fold yourself, motherfucker,” Ike snarled.
The archer gave him an unimpressed look. He stood with a perfectly straight back, his shoulders squared. Silver hair was tied back into a high ponytail with nary a hair loose, and it fell straight down his back, while his V-cut bangs likewi...
2025-04-30 14:00:36 +0000 UTC View PostIke dashed from rooftop to rooftop, closing in on the white house at speed. He sent his aether ahead of him, already scanning it before he grew close. Instantly, he locked on to the signature and stored it away in his mind. The signature retreated when he drew close, but it had underestimated the...
2025-04-29 14:00:53 +0000 UTC View PostBack to the place Scar had led him first. As expected, when Ike twisted the knob (casually breaking the low-Rank lock in the progress), the only thing on the other side was a dusty storeroom. He turned, then leaped up, running across the rooftops toward the center of town.
“Ike, wait—...
2025-04-28 14:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostIke latched onto the door handle and yanked the door wide. The light still poured out. For a split second, hesitation came over him, but he quickly forced it down. Risk-taking was how he got here. They weren’t going to defeat Lord Brightbriar without taking a few risks. He steeled himself, and ...
2025-04-28 01:40:24 +0000 UTC View PostRhys plunged into the curse power. The curse power was dense enough to become a liquid, but it didn’t support him at all. He sunk straight down into the depths of the well. Curse power poured directly into his body, soaking into every pore and sliding through every vein, coiling into his core. ...
2025-04-27 14:00:41 +0000 UTC View PostEnergy signatures rushed at them from all directions. Ike turned to the windows, preparing to shatter through them, then paused. He looked at Wisp and Mag.
“What?” Wisp asked.
“Wherever we are, it’s somewhere Brightbriar led us,” Ike said.
“Right, which is where we d...
2025-04-26 23:32:11 +0000 UTC View PostRhys was full, but only of food. He still had plenty of room for mana. That, and in the afterglow from that fantastic, cultivation-boosting meal, he wanted to try another round with the curse power-mana transition. His everything had been smoothed, detoxified, strengthened, reinforced, and empowe...
2025-04-26 14:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostIke charged at Scar. She stared at him, wide-eyed in shock. At the last second, she drew her sword, and their blades clashed. Caught off-guard, Scar staggered backward. “Ike! What are you doing?”
“You know what I’m doing, puppet,” Ike replied. Scar and Vi weren’t friends, and th...
2025-04-25 14:00:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe speeches were just as boring as Rhys dreaded they would be. He didn’t even need to sleep any more as a mage, and he still fell asleep a half-dozen times during the ceremonies. Eventually, Bast nudged him awake, and he followed Bast up to the stage to receive second place, which was a silver...
2025-04-25 14:00:48 +0000 UTC View PostPurple Dawn Academy was as much a maze on the inside as Rhys remembered, if not more so. He ran over the cobbles as fast as he could, but it felt like slow going anyways. The Academy’s ancient roads twisted and turned, doubling back on themselves and winding around to come out at a strange new ...
2025-04-24 14:00:38 +0000 UTC View PostScar led them down the hallway. Ike followed, with Wisp close at heel and Mag trailing behind, taking all the shiny things in with big eyes. Both Ike and Wisp had tattered clothes, a stark contrast to Scar’s complete and neat outfit. But then, we’ve been wandering around outside. All we n...
2025-04-24 14:00:37 +0000 UTC View PostScar let out a breath. “Phew. So that’s why you’re here.”
“Yeah.”
“We were worried about Rosamund and the prince, too—and yes, you’re right, he is seeking a political marriage, half through charming the king, half through pressuring him with the threat of a puppet ar...
2025-04-23 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostRhys passed out the second he returned to his room. This wasn’t a sleep like the sleep he’d had the past few days, a sleep for pleasure or for ordinary exhaustion, but a deep, all-consuming sleep. He surrendered to it and didn’t wake up until late into the next day, and still felt groggy an...
2025-04-23 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAcross the city to a nondescript door in a back alley. Scar opened it, revealing a dusty backroom. Ike went to step inside, but before he could, Scar closed it again, whispered something he couldn’t make out, and opened it again. This time, it opened to a sumptuous lounge, full of overstuffed f...
2025-04-22 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostRhys was a pebble, and the mana he’d unleashed was a tsunami, looming over him. He could sense the wave of power rushing toward him, see it closing in with every passing second. It hadn’t hit yet, but it would, and he knew it would absolutely sweep him away.
He’d known this would unlo...
2025-04-22 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“I still think I should’ve eaten him.”
“I still think you’re a glutton.”
“That’s got nothing to do with the tactical decision to eat him or not.”
“Look, if he actually has backers with political power in this city, we just kicked a hornet’s nest. We’re wa...
2025-04-21 14:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe banquet wasn’t the next day, but the day after. Rhys checked, but the market was mostly quiet, with only a few stalls bothering to open at all. With no reason to bother making his chips and plenty of gold in his pocket, he was free to focus on absorbing trash.
Trash star after trash s...
2025-04-21 14:00:31 +0000 UTC View PostThey clashed. In the blink of an eye, Ike and Arkoz exchanged a dozen blows. Arkoz was fast, but Ike was faster, and Ike was armed to boot. The black energy on Arkoz’s hands emitted a cold, dangerous aura, something that Ike instinctively feared, but it didn’t matter how scary it was when it ...
2025-04-20 14:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe tournament was over, but not the festivities. There was a festival in the afternoon and a banquet in the near future. As one of the finalists, Rhys received an invitation to the banquet, but he was more interested in the festival. While the Tier 3 battles went on, Rhys ran down to the trash h...
2025-04-20 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostIke walked into the alley alone, no one anywhere near him. He wandered along, looking around like he was some kind of tourist who’d just happened to wander into a random dark alley. A singular figure lurked at the other end of the alley, leaning against the wall.
Som looked up as Ike ente...
2025-04-19 17:32:55 +0000 UTC View PostRhys wracked his brain, but came up with nothing. Beating Bast wasn’t even on the menu; avoiding getting the shit beaten out of him was the best he could dream of. Even then, there was little he could do to prevent or put off that beating. It was the finals of the tournament. He couldn’t just...
2025-04-19 14:00:24 +0000 UTC View Post