Keron

Chapter 128 - They Know

Ash stares at Emily in stunned silence. Emily tilts her head in confusion as her expression slowly returns to normal.

“What?” she asks.

“Nothing,” Ash says, quickly shaking their head to clear their shock. “I was just surprised you smiled like that. You looked like you’d cut off anyone’s head if they tried to talk to you this morning.”

“Ha,” Emily scoffs. “I probably would have. My head was killing me. Oh, speaking of, I asked you to put aside time for ...

Chapter 130 - Dead or Alive

Leaving Podrick to his own devices, Emily deftly weaves away through the crowd, borrowing from her observations of The Crystal Skull’s members to slip unnoticed between the densely packed people. She heads deeper into the bustling market before moving towards the edge and following a shady-looking, cloaked figure, slipping into a side alley close behind them.

She walks silently through the alley as it curves away from the market street, pressing herself flush against the wall and hidi...

Chapter 129 - City Infiltration

“Glad you enjoyed it,” Emily says, pulling a plain black cloak from her belt and throwing it over herself before flashing Podrick a small, mischievous grin, only visible by her eyes in the gap of her scarf. “Now, are you ready to sneak into a possibly hostile city?”

“Yes!” he practically shouts in response, eagerly nodding his head.

Emily turns away from him, her face falling back into neutral as she suppresses her mana circulation and wraps her heart with a concealing...

Notice

My editor is busy with work this week, so I don't have tonight's chapter ready yet...

I asked on discord if I should post unedited or delay, and the latter was chosen, so there won't be a chapter out tonight. Sorry!

Instead, we'll probably try to edit three chapters over the weekend and give you an extra release on Monday. Hope you can hold off till then!

Chapter 127 - Severance

Emily wakes up several hours later. A quick glance through the bird scout still latched to the balloon above tells her that they’re approaching another desert city, Ashdon, and almost at its walls already.

The walled city is about half the size of Eimdon: the sandy buildings follow a similar design style and layout, with the noble and trading districts being noticeable at a glance from above. However, outside the city walls is a sprawling cluster of tents and ramshackle houses spannin...

Chapter 126 - True Elementalist

Podrick flashes Emily a weak, giddy grin.

“Thanks,” he rasps, his throat hoarse from screaming. “I feel like I’ve been hit by an airship.”

“Ha,” Emily scoffs, pulling out a healing potion and sitting down beside him. “This potion will help with that. But first, I want to do a quick scan to check what’s damaged.”

Podrick tries to nod, wincing as he moves his neck.

“Just stay still and don’t resist,” Emily says, pushing his head back down before...

Chapter 125 - Part of the Crew

“Really? Even commoners know about it?” Anton questions.

“Yep,” Emily says with a nod. “Do you want the long explanation, or the short?”

Anton looks around, getting nods from all members of the crew who are listening to Emily quietly.

“We’d like to know about where we’re heading. The long.”

“Okay. So, Old Denntimo followed a similar system to the one Modo does currently, hiding magic from commoners and taking any they find with talent as vassals. ...

Chapter 124 - Part of the Ship

“Did you just blow up a noble family?” Angela asks in disbelief, turning to Emily with a blend of fear and respect, her previous hostility forgotten.

“I blew up their estate to be exact,” Emily says calmly, the glowing of her eyes gone and replaced by a cold glint. “I’d already killed all of them.”

She turns the ship northbound as everyone stares at her with horrified expressions.

“Why?” Podrick asks nervously.

“They killed my family.”

Every...

Chapter 123 - Explosive Departure

Emily stands up from the unrecognisable bloodied remains of Diego’s corpse, wiping her Claws off on her tattered cloak as her mind falls quiet, the irritating buzzing fading to a dull background noise.

“Fucking scum. He didn’t even have the balls to try detonating his circles,” Emily mutters disdainfully, reaching down to take a spatial storage bracelet from his wrist.

She recognises the runic structure from some of the storage items she bought in The Dome and quickly loca...

Chapter 122 - The Fall of a Family

Emily finishes casting sky step and springs forwards, closing the gap with the third circle woman in front of her, the strongest of the three other mages in the room, before she can finish her own casting. Emily’s mind registers the golden crest pinned to the woman’s chest as she thrusts a Claw through her throat, but she barely spares it a second glance before ripping the blade out again and letting the woman drop to the floor clutching at her neck.

A blade of fire and a rippling o...

Chapter 121 - The Storm

Emily explodes into motion as her eyes fall on the last, tear-soaked diary entry, the reason for her sense of dread suddenly painfully obvious.

They caught her. That’s why they called me.

She bursts out of the room, rushing through the building and onto the street before making a break for the Mandrago estate. She races through the city at inhuman speed. Discarding The Covenant’s rule that dictates she shouldn’t reveal magic publicly, she casts lightning step as she...

Chapter 120 - The Calm

Throwing a little reminder in here because it comes up a LOT in this chapter and its a lot less clear than the formatting I do on SH and RR. But anything between:

\\

//

Is meant to be centred, and is written text.

Also, new convention because I don't think I've done it before, and if I have I forgot, but anything between: ~~ ~~ is strikethrough.

Anyway, good luck with this one, I hope you don't hate me too much by the end!

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After lunc...

Chapter 119 - The Call

Emily decides not to return to her room immediately, instead taking a stroll around the ship to calm down. She wanders around, lost in thought and listening to the light hum of the engine, ever-present while the ship is in motion.

She isn’t surprised when she looks up after a while and realises she has made her way to the engine room unconsciously. Feeling that no one is close, Emily approaches the door and opens it before stepping into the warmth and noise of the ship’s beating hea...

Chapter 118 - Goodbye

The next morning, Emily wakes up an hour before her departure. She slides out from under Juliana, leaving the peacefully sleeping girl alone before climbing into the shower. She stands under the warm stream of water, letting the calming flow wash away her doubts about the coming goodbyes.

After a few minutes, she leaves the shower, drying herself off before equipping herself with armour and weapons, this time without her robes, with her new scarf wrapped tightly around her neck instead....

Chapter 117 - Last Date

The next day, Emily spends her morning working on a new spatial storage. She crafts a small bag holding several spaces within, linked together like her belt, which she sorts through, moving the excessive magical materials within to the bag. Afterwards, she begins the slow process of taking apart the pipe system in her room, disconnecting every machine and stowing them in her new long-term storage. Her friends join her after lunch to help. Before evening comes, the room is back as it was when ...

Chapter 116 - Final Spar

Agnes follows her confident words by starting a repetitive chant and weaving her hands together in an abstract set of hand gestures that Emily struggles to find sense in.

“I will not bend, my will won’t shake. My body is steel, I will not break.”

Emily watches in silence as a dense mist of silver and brown leaves Agnes’ body. Some silver clings to her skin, forming into glistening runes that fade away to leave a metallic sheen, and the rest joins the brown in inscribing a ...

Chapter 115 - Settling Affairs

“Did you guys sleep well?” Emily asks as she and Juliana join their friends at a table in the cafeteria.

“Like a pop frog in the talons of a sominal bomber,” Tom replies with a satisfied smile. “I woke up about ten minutes ago!”

“He wouldn’t have woken up at all if I hadn’t slammed on his door,” Hester grumbles.

“Ha,” Dante laughs, throwing his arm around Enzo. “We’ve been up for hours training already!”

Everyone looks at them with curiosi...

Chapter 114 - Quiet Return

They arrive at the city’s entrance in the early evening as the sun dips below the horizon. Emily gently shakes Juliana, waking her up as the car’s engine turns off and they come to a halt before the towering city wall.

“We’re here,” she says gently as Juliana lifts her head and wipes the crust from her eyes.

“Okay,” Juliana responds with a yawn. “I’ll go talk to the guards.”

“Do you need company?”

Juliana lightly shakes her head as she stands up...

Chapter 113 - Journey's End

“If we all have some affinity for water,” Hester asks, drawing Emily’s attention. “Why couldn’t Juliana link with the elemental?”

“I’m guessing that’s because she can’t attribute her mana with water yet,” Emily says, considering her current connection with the creature in question. “The link we’ve created is a two-way exchange. Even if Juliana can process the water mana it sends her, it can’t process her wind-attributed mana: elementals are purely made from t...

Chapter 112 - Elemental Understanding

Emily rejoins her friends, and they set off into the tunnel, following the river upstream.

“How are we going to find our way out from here?” Tom asks as they leave the underwater passage behind.

“Easy,” Emily responds, reaching into her belt and pulling out the first log pose they used to find The Waters. “With this. We just do the same thing we did when following the Diver and try to go in as straight a line as possible in the direction this points. It may take a little...

Chapter 111 - Escaping the Darkness

Emily gives her friends a brief overview of her situation, from her awakening to her attempted brainwashing. She manages to hold in her anger with the help of a comforting squeeze from Juliana as she speaks about Herber’s death once more, but the pitying expressions on her friends’ faces don’t help. Her friends hang on her every word till the end, listening to her in silence until she finishes.

“That’s disgusting!” Dante growls, righteous indignation burning in his gaze.

Chapter 110 - Suspicions Confirmed

They sit together in silence as Emily creates an orb of metal, covered in runes. She hands it to Juliana after applying the final touches and adjusting the runes on the Diver’s receiver to link with the new transmitter.

“This thing’s very simple,” she says, pointing to a dense cluster of runes on the top of the orb. “Just inject a burst of mana here, and I’ll get feedback on the receiver.”

Juliana does as instructed, pouring a small burst of mana into the tool and wa...

Emily In The Glade!

Full res new artwork I got done.

Chapter 109 - A Way Out

This is gonna be the first time I just post a chapter on time instead of scheduling it... Yeah, editing this one kinda caught up on me and I'm only just getting it out on time, whoops!

In fun news though, part of that was because I was dealing with my new art! I'll put it up in a separate post after this if you want to check it out.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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Emily flies into the centre of the cavern, surrounded on all sides by a formation of flesh an...

New Discord!

I made it... You guys get roles!

Yeah, feel free to ignore this one, pretty sure most of you got auto-added by Patreon anyway.

Chapter 108 - Endless Search

While Emily tests out her new skill, her birds assess the nearby streams of water pouring from the walls. Most of the falling torrents stem from small holes that they completely fill, but a few are similar tunnels to the one they arrived through, with a river running through the centre and banks on either side.

Emily’s focus narrows on one such tunnel as she steps up to the edge of The Abyss. She pulls out The Clock, checking the exact time, before she steps out into thin air. An invi...

Chapter 107 - The Abyss

The next few days pass in a blur for Emily, an odd sense of disconnect following her every move as Juliana’s words echo in her mind. Early the next day, the Diver vanishes from the tablet’s display, leaving a single dot floating alone in the darkness. Emily reassures her friends that it’s a good sign and that she can remember the location it vanished in, keeping them calm as they continue descending into the darkness.

They run into several groups of beasts, including a few more ma...

Chapter 106 - Realisations in the Dark

“Speaking of unsettling pitch black,” Hester says, glancing uncomfortably out of their small haven of light. “Does anyone else get a bad feeling from the darkness here? It’s completely blocking light from spreading. I couldn’t even see Emily approaching.”

“It’s even worse than it was above at night,” Tom adds. “And the numbness was horrible.”

“Wait, numbness?” Emily questions, everyone turning to him with questioning gazes.

“Yeah.” Tom nods. “...

Chapter 105 - Descent

Emily’s friends seem to calm down at Tom’s words, an air of resolve settling over them as Emily continues to reassure them.

“It’s not like I’m planning on being stuck down there forever,” she says, steadying Juliana’s still-shaking hand with a light squeeze. “Worst case scenario, I can lead us back to this tunnel, and I think I may have a solution with spatial magic. It will just take a while.”

Inventing new teleportation arrays isn’t exactly easy.

Chapter 104 - The Deep Dark

Emily sinks below the surface quickly, the current gripping her and forcing her down the moment she relaxes. She channels light through her hands, illuminating the water below as she approaches the riverbed at speed. The bottom is revealed, showing a gaping hole just wide enough to fit Emily, dragging in the surrounding water with immense force. The closer she gets to the hole, the stronger the current grows, to the point where Emily isn’t sure she’d be able to resist it in such a limited...