Bah, Noe! God that felt horrible!
“This is why I told you that you shouldn’t try to transfer information between your proxy bodies. You have just experienced all of the sensations and experiences that your avatar has in the fraction of a second. It would take some getting used to.”
I shuddered again. Horribly unpleasant. How do the other gods do this so easily? 2025-05-26 19:15:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Yeah, anyone with eyes could tell that Ashwin wasn’t buying my words. “Aisha, tell me what happened, in detail, it’s safe here.”
“I-”
But before I could answer further, two other men - some people pretty high up on the food chain if their demeanour was any indication - forced their way into the room and separated Ashwin from me. Playing the role of the pitiful, distraugh...
2025-05-23 16:07:20 +0000 UTC View PostYeah, there was a reason why I found this body familiar. I had seen pictures of her in the condo I lived at when I was possessing Ashwin’s body in that bizzaro Earth, although the reason it took me so long to recognize her was because the girl in the image was about 10 years younger and didn’t dress like she belonged in some underground metalcore after party. If the family photo was any ind...
2025-05-20 19:27:44 +0000 UTC View PostUsing a divine avatar was, well, it was strange, no matter how you looked at it. It was like a tiny portion of my mind was separated from my main body, fully aware of itself and kind of separated from the rest of me… while still being a part of me. Kind of hard to explain, but I was two separate beings all at once. Heck, I couldn’t even communicate with myself if I didn’t concentrate hard...
2025-05-18 21:51:43 +0000 UTC View PostRyan went into overdrive from that moment onward. I was scrutinizing his every move, trying to figure out, at least in part, what his abilities were. I knew that he could somehow anticipate what was ahead, thus seeing into the future in one capacity or another, but how he was doing that was still a mystery.
To test this further, I would, through Xaz and her dreamscape, throw in rand...
2025-05-12 14:58:59 +0000 UTC View PostAmanda opened her eyes, confused. What had happened?
She looked around the strange new environment and saw that she and about half of the cult were in a strange place that she had never seen before. Billowing fog surrounded her, thicker than anything she had seen before. She couldn’t make out the sky or the surrounding horizon, as it was cutting off her vision to only a few meters...
2025-04-28 17:09:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Fuck!” Xaz swore as she scraped the imploded human off her body, “Oh gosh, I think I got some in my mouth! Oh my god it tastes so fucking bad! I forgot we were dealing with humans!”
I shook my head as I saw Xaz produce a whole pitcher of some kind of liquid before she downed the whole thing. She quickly dissolved the exploded bits of human from the dream and frowned to hers...
2025-04-20 19:36:58 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m sorry,” Xaz said in exasperation, her mental avatar frowning as she tried to picture what they both had to do. “But Walter’s plan is what?”
Xalla sighed and went over the key points one more time with her sister, although she knew that it was just for show. There was no way that Xaz misheard her the first time, especially since they were meeting in the family Collective C...
2025-04-14 16:26:33 +0000 UTC View PostAnd just like that, without further pomp and circumstance, the Fifth Trial had begun in earnest. From my vantage point, I saw portals and space-time fissures open up across the globe, signaling the invasion of those black humanoid aliens that Malazel had shown us all earlier. The first wave of invaders didn’t pose much of a threat to the well-fortified positions of even the weak...
2025-04-11 15:25:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe week - give or take a few hours - of observation passed by much too quickly for my liking. Given my status as a literal Central Legend, coupled with the fact that one of the rights of a Sponsor was to interact and question the staff responsible for overseeing their investments, Xalla and Xaz could only do so much to keep the various Sponsors in check before even their formidable defenses we...
2025-04-02 18:36:34 +0000 UTC View Post“So let me get this straight,” I muttered, “But all three Anomalies will be present in the same city?”
Q looked nervous when he answered. “Unfortunately, that is the way of things, Lord Arbiter.”
I sighed. “And were there any, let’s say, unforeseen interferences when the Aspirants were choosing their cities to protect?”
I was talking about the Trash Mat...
2025-03-27 16:19:30 +0000 UTC View PostI thought that sitting on that stone throne thing would be kind of like how I entered the mock trial that Jordan had created, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. The second my butt landed on that hard surface, my consciousness, or at least a large chunk of it, seemed to escape my corporeal body and meld with the Earth itself. Without my prior experience working with Sarah and looking thr...
2025-03-24 15:05:36 +0000 UTC View PostMy talk with Xalla wrapped up quickly after that. With the Trials only a few hours away, I had precious little time to get things prepared, but I did the most with it before getting Q’s doppelganger to replace me once again. If Xalla’s words are to be believed, then doing well fighting off the invading aliens would be the least of my worries during this fifth Trial. No, what I had t...
2025-03-19 20:36:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe announcement signaling the imminent start of the fifth Trial - one of the most important ones as well, according to the Regressor - started about two months after my little stunt. We were fairly certain that nothing would go wrong (well, I was in any case, since I spoke to Q and Xalla prior to this meeting) Not much had changed since that time; Jae-Hyun and been consolidating power and gett...
2025-03-10 00:51:18 +0000 UTC View PostHoly fucking shit, why did I agree to have the goddamn creepy ass bug priest help me? What in the name of everything unholy made me think that was a good idea? My eight buddies agreed wholeheartedly with that assessment as they were screaming at the top of their lungs.
I didn’t blame them. If I didn’t have a role to play here and an image to maintain, I’d be screaming right along wi...
2025-03-05 17:32:48 +0000 UTC View PostVadeem, thankfully, did not disappoint for the second time. Well, technically it wasn’t my friend’s fault that the people we had defend this place were all incompetent to the extreme, but someone had to take the blame! The remaining individuals I had stationed elsewhere were now all conveniently placed in the west wing, spread out just enough so that we could pick off one group of Aspirants...
2025-02-27 16:37:07 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, everyone,” I said, addressing the gathered resistance fighters, “I know you’re curious about the changes, and what I’ve been up to.”
With a little help from Noe’s emotional tuning, I was able to get the assortment of men and women completely under my thrall. Hell, they looked so willing to listen that I might not even need Claire’s help, but it was always better ...
2025-02-24 17:02:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe situation within Pandora was even worse than I had initially thought. I only used my Xollon senses to get a cursory look at the town when I came back, but now that I was on the streets again, the whole vibe of the place was a disaster. But what could I have expected given the monstrous evil castle floating above everyone’s heads? The damn thing was so large that it blotted out the sun for...
2025-02-17 21:09:29 +0000 UTC View Post“Sorry for the wait,” Abigail said as she stepped back into the office. “It took a while to get a hold of Molly and Babylon, but the Master Alchemist insisted that he double checks the feasibility of transporting Hope’s Memorial.”
“And what did he say?” I asked.
The Director gave me a smile. “That you’re a genius, Will. It’ll work!” She went over and enve...
2025-02-12 18:08:56 +0000 UTC View Post“What do you mean Hope’s Memorial’s shutting down?” I asked, still not believing the news.
We had relocated back to the Director’s office after sending Noel and Vadeem back under the pretense that I had to meet with the Administrator one last time to inform him of the good news. Molly had gone somewhere else, probably surveying the damages and speaking with staff, which ju...
2025-02-07 18:38:28 +0000 UTC View Post“Dear Walter, you only have yourself to blame,” Noe said matter-of-factly as a huge Aspirant introduced my face to the floor.
Now is not the time to rub it in, oh system of mine! I rebounded off the floor and barely dodged another wave of fireballs, only to careen into the business end of a club. That would have taken my head off if I weren’t so durable as Dr. Walter....
2025-02-06 16:45:04 +0000 UTC View PostLady Awesome: Little bro, you know that I love you and all, but how long do we gotta keep this up?
Vadeem the Dream: This is ridiculous, Walter! I feel like a clown!
Lady Awesome: I’m a literal clown here, Vadeem! But seriously, do we have to act so stupid, and what is up with your wheel? I’m getting a headache trying to follow ...
2025-02-03 05:17:36 +0000 UTC View PostAJ opened the door and was greeted with…
He blinked.
Was he under a mental attack? An illusion of sorts? What was going on? But as a veteran Aspirant, he was able to compose himself within seconds.
“Mages,” AJ commanded, “Dispel magic, now! Support, scan for abnormalities!”
“W-we did, AJ,” one of his subordinates muttered, “It’s not magic.”
<... 2025-01-31 15:53:46 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay, Walter,” Vadeem grumbled, “I know that you have a tendency to go a little overboard with your schemes, but this…” the big man stopped, stumbling to find the right words. “This is just ridiculous!”
“Uh… I know I’m the fun one, little bro,” Noel added, pointing at the props I had managed to scrounge up - you’d be surprised by how many things the Director...
2025-01-29 07:21:47 +0000 UTC View PostAJ cursed. How dare these fucking abominations do this to the people of Atlus? Worse, AJ could tell that underneath all of that suffering, all of that pain, these people - and he was using that term loosely now - still understood and recognized their former allies. But whatever sentience and humanity that remained didn’t do anything to cover the reality of the situation now. The...
2025-01-27 04:18:27 +0000 UTC View PostHoly fucking shit, no wonder everyone was afraid of those sausage dogs. The tiny things were going absolutely ham on the invading Aspirants, the pair of them moving so fast that they were little more than brown blurs. The invaders were all but powerless to fight back, unable to even locate the dogs given their speed, and they could only helplessly try to avoid taking major damage. It didn’t w...
2025-01-21 14:12:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe atmosphere at Hope’s Memorial had improved dramatically after the last of the invaders had been captured or otherwise indisposed. Unfortunately, a large portion of the staff working near the back and the courtyards hadn’t had a chance to relieve some of their stress, but everyone took it in good strides either way; just knowing that some of their friends and colleagues were able to exac...
2025-01-17 14:31:24 +0000 UTC View PostAJ chugged the last of his elixirs and dragged the semi-conscious body of April out of the mud and dirt. He looked back one last time and cursed under his breath. He would avenge Jose’s sacrifice; he would kill those twin demon hounds and their mutant rat army if it was the last fucking thing he did. But he would have to make it back to base camp and recover before he could think of that. Eve...
2025-01-13 15:17:35 +0000 UTC View PostNoel sighed.
The redhead hovered above the enemy encampment and surveyed the scene before her, shaking her head at the crude inhabitants below. The enemy numbered a little over 2000, a number that she might have hesitated to face prior to this whole Ascension mess, but seemed so absolutely inadequate now. These little Aspirants were happily chatting away, eating, and laughing despite the ...
2025-01-07 14:29:32 +0000 UTC View PostHuh, things were going a little too well on my part. I had thought that the invaders would put up a bit more of a fight since they’d undergone significantly more Trials than my own batch of humans, but… they just keeled over and died en masse. Where were the epic battles between staff and Aspirant? I mean, I was glad that the staff were more or less unharmed, but I was half expecting a cool...
2025-01-06 15:59:15 +0000 UTC View Post