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Chapter 210

In many ways, it would have been kinder to let Analia proceed with her suicidal combat plan. The amount of pain breaking the multiple geases her father had laid on her was going to inflict was indescribable, and as much as he wanted to shield her from it, not even Nym had that kind of power. It w...

Chapter 209

The spell wasn’t quite as good as the one he’d been under after he’d touched Niramyn’s memory cube, but it did have the advantage of being usable by Nym. An ascendant might notice a presence in the mortal timeline if they knew where to look, but they wouldn’t be able to tell who was the...

Chapter 208

“This place looks familiar,” Nym said.

They stood in front of a large four-story manor house. It was impressive, he supposed, but he’d seen far more spectacular-- not to mention physics-defying-- abodes in his short time as an immortal. But there was something about this particular bu...

Chapter 78

The bandit snarled and tried to punch the side of Luke’s knee, but he was too injured and at too awkward of an angle to take a serious swing. Luke smacked the fist away with his mace anyway, shattering the bones in the bandit’s hand in the process.

“Like I was saying, this camp seems ...

Chapter 207

As his control over Transcendent arcana grew, Nym became more comfortable with using it to do actual magic. In many ways, it reminded him of the early days when he was still exploring first and second circle mortal magic. It wasn’t the spells themselves, of course. Those were hideously complex ...

Chapter 206

The Abilanth of a hundred years ago looked a lot like the version Nym was familiar with. There were some superficial changes, sure, but the street layout was the same, and the walls limited the sprawling growth a city like Thrakus would undergo. The Academy still sat right where it always did, th...

Chapter 77

The bandits weren’t prepared for Luke in any way, shape, or form. They probably should have been, considering he’d already killed a few of them, but he caught them by surprise. Two of them died in the first second of combat, one of them without ever even so much as turning around and seeing L...

Chapter 205

The ascendant Nym was meeting was named Hozim. Baracia had arranged the meeting, and Nym waited with her for the new ascendant to show up. “Anything I should know about him?” Nym asked.

“He is easy-going, and loves to teach. Truthfully, there probably isn’t anyone better to show you...

Chapter 204

“No, it’s impossible,” Nym said. “There’s no way.”

He could buy that he’d lost track of time, that maybe he’d been there for a day instead of twelve hours, but almost two months was stretching it past breaking. Even just a week was stretching it. If Baracia wasn’t lying to...

Chapter 76

It only took a few hours of traveling before they left the grasslands behind and found themselves once again heading into the forests. Luke considered that to be good news, since they hadn’t found anything worth any real XP around the town, and they needed a lot of XP if they were going to exec...

Chapter 203

Once the pleasantries were done, Nym and Baracia dove right into the meat of the conversation. “How much do you know about what’s happening in our society, about the fight between two of our Exarchs?” the councilwoman asked.

“More than I want to, less than I should,” Nym said dryl...

Chapter 75

“What’s this place called?” Luke asked. They stood on a hill east of the town, big enough that he couldn’t easily count all the houses, never mind the dozens of farms dotting the landscape. The forest had thinned out considerably after a day of travel and had practically disappeared by th...

Chapter 202

Since he’d had the time anyway while he waited for his copy to absorb the information Baracia had sent him and confirm it wasn’t trapped in some way, Nym went ahead and set up four more sanctuaries in random locations. He also delivered a pouch of money to Ciana, mostly shields with a few cre...

Chapter 201

That was the problem with peepholes. It was impossible to look out without making himself vulnerable to others looking in. Whoever had sent him the letter was likely an ascendant, which meant it was probably set to appear at the first opportunity. If he’d waited a week to scry, it would have ap...

Chapter 74

“[XP Mask] is a unique bloodline skill,” System said.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me that?”

“You never asked.”

“Aldrick,” Zea cut in. “You’ve got a vein in your forehead that’s looking like it’s about ready to burst.”

“I… ...

Chapter 200

Nym stood there, awkwardly waiting for Rizin to say something. The fox didn’t oblige him, having chosen instead to lay on his oversized cushion and pretend to be napping. “I guess… we’re done then?” Nym asked. “Go our separate ways?”

“Indeed,” Rizin said, his eyes still cl...

Chapter 199

There were no less than a dozen assistant golems waiting for Nym when he finally opened the door. “Exarch! You’re alright,” Naera said, stepping forward from the crowd.

“Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be? Didn’t I ask you to go finish preparing the fox experiment?” 2023-03-21 14:48:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 73

Luke woke up a little bit stiff, sort of cold, and ravenously hungry. Zea was practically lying on top of him with both her own cloak and his pulled over top of her. Their legs were tangled up and she had one of his arms firmly anchored around her, his hand grasped with hers. Her hair tickled his...

Chapter 198

The assistant golem regarded Nym steadily. It wasn’t one he’d ever spoken with before, but Naera was busy setting everything up to his specifications from the other day. At first, he thought that would be a good thing, since this golem wouldn’t know he’d asked all those questions about ho...

Risen Sample Chapters

Hello, here is a sample of my dark fantasy novel about necromancers fighting other necromancers and undead in a world where everyone who dies rises back up as an undead all on their own.

Please be aware that the full novel is available on library tiers only. Libr...

Chapter 72

It might have been more merciful if the pain knocked Luke out, but he wasn’t that lucky. He got to see all four inquisitors approach him, or at least hear them and sense the XP that was infused into their bodies. He couldn’t sense Myla at all, but she obviously had some sort of skill that let...

Chapter 197

There were actual spells that used sixth layer arcana, but Nym only knew one, the hidden presence spell Rizin had taught him. Anything else was just using the arcana to fiddle with reality. Technically, that was what all arcana did, but there was a big difference between mortal magic and ascendan...

Chapter 196

Everything felt weird now, but Nym couldn’t quite figure out exactly how. It obviously had something to do with ascending., but it was indescribable, and he found it annoyingly distracting. “It’s like I’m breathing air that’s not quite right,” he told Rizin, “or, I don’t know, lik...

Chapter 71

Author's Note: I have been saying this on Royal Road for about two weeks now, but forgot to ever mention it here. Now that the initial chapter push is done, and since I am still writing two projects at once, I am only committing to M-W-F updates for the God Machine. I may still do Tues/Thur updat...

Chapter 195

The conduit lanced out past the edge of reality, where it was bolstered by Nym inside the first layer. It leapt ahead, through each consecutive layer, guided by the parts of himself that existed there, all the way through the fifth layer until it plunged into that mirrored surface far past the ho...

Chapter 194

The secret den of a magical fox that transcended the powers of a mere mortal did not, surprisingly, have a lot to eat. Nym had used magic to stave off the needs of his body, but for the time being, he was still a human. Eventually, he would need food, and that time was drawing close.

“I d...

Future Plans

Hello Everyone!

Without committing to any hard numbers or dates, I am expecting to be finished writing Ascendant within the next three months. The God Machine is going to keep running for at least another eight months, but I am always thinking up ideas for the next story. When Ascendant doe...

Chapter 70

A break to catch his breath would have been fantastic right about then, but that third inquisitor, the woman who’s been practically invisible, had disentangled herself from Luke’s trap and was coming straight at him. He imagined there was probably a note of desperation there since both her co...

Chapter 193

It was a clever spell, one designed to take advantage of the unique terrain of the fifth layer of reality. The light was blinding, and it seared Nym’s body, but the true twist was the mirrored surface below them. The light flashed downward, there and gone in an instant, only to reflect back up ...

Chapter 69

“Nice,” Luke said as he looked at his handiwork.

[Survivalist] hadn’t seen much use lately, but it was a general-purpose skill that was extremely flexible. It gave him the knowledge he needed to make basic traps, and using some of the ones the goblins had tried agains...