Leon felt incredible. Magic power filled his body, and his body feasted upon it, using the ocean of power flowing into him from the Iron Needle to heal his wounds and obliterate the shards of black ice crawling toward his heart. With such power within him, he’d never felt so alive, so powerful.
He cast his gaze about the room, noting that Clear Day had stopped projecting a shield of light at some point while he admired the power of the Iron Needle. The other...
2024-09-02 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Hundreds of Lances fired their deadly payloads into the Stormwall, bombarding the mountains and the valley beyond. The defense Lances within fired back and several small Diluvian arks were shot down. The bridge officers in Terris’ palace-ark scrambled about, doing their best to keep everyone coordinated, but the casualties they were taking panicked more than a few.
“Coral Ash has fallen, my Lord!” someone shouted.
’A heavy price,’ ...
2024-08-30 15:00:05 +0000 UTC
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There was a certain terror that caused Elise’s heart to always beat a little bit faster whenever Leon was gone from her side. She knew his predilection for getting into trouble, and while she loved him for it, it was also incredibly stressful, especially since she and her sisters-in-law hadn’t yet been able to give him an heir. That stress she felt was magnified whenever she knew he was doing something dangerous. She dreaded the day when she saw him brought back in piece...
2024-08-28 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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In a moment, Leon and Terris exchanged dozens of blows. Each time their weapons met each other’s, the clash created a deafening shockwave that caused even the misty veil and the clouds above to ripple.
Leon’s surprise in Terris’ weapon dulled as his mind focused on the task at hand: simply staying alive. Terris was a skilled fighter with a nearly impenetrable defense. Leon slashed and Terris blocked; Leon stabbed and Terris deflected; Leon conjured lightning and ...
2024-08-26 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
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From above the clouds of his storm, Leon watched the groups of arks patrol around his valley. The great war machines plowed through sheets of rain as easily as they plied the waves and depths of the ocean. Pulses of magic frequently emanated from the arks that were powerful enough to visibly shake the torrential downpour around them as they maintained a vigilant watch for any more potential ambushes.
A certain amount of pride was fostered in Leon’s heart at seeing his enem...
2024-08-23 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Amidst the rain-drenched mountains, shaded by the thick storm clouds above and illuminated by frequent bolts of lightning, Leon watched his prey draw closer.
He felt alive in a way that he hadn’t in a long time. This was hardly hunting of the sort he was fond of, but there was something about stalking a strong target through thick forests and around steep cliffs that set his blood aflame with delight.
‘I’m going to need to take some time off after all this is over,...
2024-08-21 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The anger among Leon’s commanders when he returned from his brief talk with Terris was great. There hadn’t been any real considerations of surrendering or acquiescing to the demand to leave, but that defiant sentiment was truly and irrevocably cemented by the arrogance Terris displayed. Though they were undoubtedly the weaker side, a position that Leon’s Tribal vassals weren’t used to being in, the determination to stay and fight for their claimed land was strong enough to...
2024-08-19 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Fires burned in the mountains from a dozen wrecked Ocean arks. Rain battered the slopes, the wind howled through the peaks, and survivors from the downed arks moaned and cried out in pain from where they fell. Elements of Leon’s central army were already deployed to take these survivors prisoner, though they had to move under their own power since so many of his arks had been shot down or heavily damaged.
Still, as the sky above his summoned storm darkened, the mountains a...
2024-08-16 15:00:14 +0000 UTC
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To Leon’s group, the misty veil was hardly an obstacle; they plunged in, Leon’s heart heavy with regret as he felt the intense waves of magic as the carrier and heavy cruiser that covered his retreat exploded.
He shifted back into his human form and donned his armor, letting the tau pearl work to mend his wounds. With a single glance backward, he ordered his stalled group, “Keep moving, get past the mountains!”
The mist enshrouded the mountains, even as far as the Ta...
2024-08-14 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Leon plummeted through the sky, his body wracked with the pain of broken bones, and the red giant’s hand pursuing him. His wrath for Maia’s pain was unabated, but his pain tempered him; he finally activated the invisibility ring around his ankle and in a moment vanished.
With all the raging magical energies of the battlefield, Leon’s invisibility didn’t last a single second before it began to unravel, but with his power flowing through him, he made good use of that time, s...
2024-08-12 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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The day was clear and warm, with a pleasant breeze spreading the scent of mountain flowers throughout the Artor Valley. Birds sang in the trees and men and animals went about their business, even in the newly-shrouded mountains surrounding the valley.
The day was peaceful and relaxed… until it wasn’t.
The eddies and currents of magic shifted from one moment to the next, and the water at the beach miles to the south receded. The watching river nymphs reported what t...
2024-08-09 15:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The mountains around the Artor Valley were gorgeous in Leon’s estimation. Tall and imposing, with cliffs and steep slopes covered in green shrubs and enormous red-barked and blue-leafed trees, they formed a formidable barrier for anyone attempting to access the valley. Some of the taller mountains scraped the clouds, though they were relatively few and far between.
With towers and the long wall connecting them, the mountains looked relatively different than before, cutting...
2024-08-07 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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“If they set even a single toe upon the beach, we will turn them back to the sea!” Split-Knuckle furiously boomed, his voice echoing so many times off the walls that Leon wouldn’t have been surprised if it overpowered his privacy wards and let all in Artorion below know his thoughts.
“We must make ready to fight!” Tachys agreed.
“Ha! For a Lion and an Eagle to agree on war is a rare occurrence!”
“It is no matter of agreement, Split-Knuckle, for war has ...
2024-08-05 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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If you haven't yet, please be sure to visit Royal Road and leave a rating and review!
Thanks everyone for reading and supporting this story! =)
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After completing an inspection of the walls surrounding the Artor Valley, Leon returned to his villa to relax and spend some time with his family. He was accompanied only by Anzu and a handful of Tempest Knights, an...
2024-08-02 15:00:15 +0000 UTC
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A large part of Leon felt like preening as his eyes fell upon the large ingots of orange-gold Aurichalcum before him. Each ingot glittered in the light of his villa’s main hall, while to his magic senses, the metal sang with power.
Aurichalcum was the finest enchanting material in the universe, perfectly compatible with any kind of magic inscribed upon it, and easily able to handle the magical load from combining elements in complex enchantments. Some specific materials we...
2024-07-31 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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It was a terrible thing to be alone as a monarch. Anastasios knew this well, and after spending a fairly considerable amount of time within Leon’s Kingdom, he wondered if Leon knew it, himself. The boy had his wives, of course, and a small core friend group, but he was hardly ever seen socializing with other members of his court. Anastasios had never even seen him exchange more than pleasantries with many of his high officials.
‘This shouldn’t be allowed to c...
2024-07-29 15:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Fiddling with the buttons on his coat, Leon growled, “I hate it.”
“You don’t,” Elise replied, her voice lilting in a sing-song manner.
“I do,” Leon shot back as he glared at his reflection. “It’s too much.”
“It’s not enough,” Elise countered. “You should be wearing more.”
After a quiet sigh, Leon murmured, “They should be grateful if I showed up at all. What I’m wearing has no bearing on anything at all....
2024-07-26 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Leon’s return to Artorion couldn’t have come quickly enough. Leaving Alhamachim to its own devices seemed the best way to maintain good relations with his new vassal. Allowing them their autonomy was a good trade to gain the tribute they had to offer, as far as Leon was concerned.
Work on the city continued at a rapid pace. Since most of the most needed infrastructure had been completed, most construction efforts thus went into their defenses, focusing almost entir...
2024-07-24 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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It took a long time for Leon to fully process his impression of the rather vagrant-looking Archelaus. When he and his people were returned to Alhamachim via river of Lumenite, he hardly spoke a word until returning to his consulate building, and when he did, he sat quite heavily in his chair at the head of the meeting room he’d commandeered. The rest of the party he’d taken with him assembled around him, with the mood largely upbeat and celebratory, Leon having told them of th...
2024-07-22 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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In case you missed it, I posted a Work-in-Progress map of this region of the Storm Lands yesterday. It's not done yet, I'm going to continue working on it, but for the sake of giving context to all the moving around Leon's doing right now, I figured I'd share what I'd already done. Check out the post here!
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Into the great palace the envoy led Leon’s group, though Le...
2024-07-19 15:00:10 +0000 UTC
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I've been working on a map over the past few hours to help me keep everything straight in my head. Still requires a lot of work, so expect at least some of this (possibly including some of the names already on the map) to change before it's finalized, but at least most of the geography is where I want it. This map largely only shows off Archelaus' Despotate, so it's only a small portion of the Storm Lands as a whole. There are between 150-200 more Despotates within the Storm Lan...
2024-07-18 02:11:55 +0000 UTC
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“So,” Leon said as he sat down in a comfortable armchair, “tell us everything you know about Despot Archelaus.”
Around him were the rest of his team, sans the Tempest Knights. Clear Day, Cassandra, Valeria, Gaius, Marcus, Alix, and Red had joined him. This wasn’t the most powerful team he could’ve assembled, but he didn’t want to leave Artorion completely defenseless.
Tauri met him several hundred miles away from the city, along with a welcoming party of ...
2024-07-17 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Blue.
The sky was blue.
The sky was always blue.
The Origin Spark far above burned a brilliant gold-white.
The clouds danced across the sky, light and fluffy.
The grass around him glowed a vibrant red.
Ferns and bushes and flowers of all sorts painted a panoply of colors all throughout the garden.
But Archelaus processed none of it. It was all the same. Everything was always the same. Every day came and went, offering no new experien...
2024-07-15 15:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The pirates’ arks had largely been left where they’d been parked during the sack, leaving the arks of Strategos Djoser little option other than to land in the forum in front of the Temple of Leth—there was simply no other place large enough for all of the vehicles to land alongside one another.
By the time the arks were touching down, Leon, Clear Day, and the city’s Assembly had already gathered in the chamber within. Leon’s Tempest Knights were left outside, flanking th...
2024-07-12 15:00:14 +0000 UTC
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“So, what do you all think?”
The answers to Leon’s question came quickly, with few apparently needing time to deliberate. Cassandra was the first to speak.
“You should accept their request, Leon,” the purple-haired Imperial Princess stated with an imperious grin. “A Kingdom’s authority should never stop at their borders.”
“If they are this desperate to ask you for aid,” Eva added, “then they will give greater concessions than what they’ve ...
2024-07-10 14:00:12 +0000 UTC
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I have a scheduling conflict on Wednesday, so that chapter is going to be released an hour earlier than usual.
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Leon’s return to Artorion was marked by solemnity; the remains of those fallen in the first battle with the pirates had largely been collected, save for those too far buried beneath ark wrecks or whose bodies were too torn apart and scattered in other ways. The final count had come to five hundred and thirty-four dead, one thousand and twelve wounded...
2024-07-08 15:00:10 +0000 UTC
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There was a certain degree of catharsis in violence. The movement, the expression of power, the harm done to those who’d provoked such anger… Leon didn’t revel in the death, but he relished bringing ruin to the pirates who’d attacked Artorion unprovoked.
The pirates had been so busy sacking Alhamachim that he’d been able to approach completely undetected. Granted, his stealth enchantments did a lot of heavy lifting, but when he and his small band of followers...
2024-07-05 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Thanks for everyone's patience with this delayed chapter! We should be back to normal chapter scheduling now!
If you haven't yet, please visit Royal Road and leave a rating or review! Every one helps!
Thanks for reading and supporting this story! =)
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“There are many lessons we’ll have to learn from this battle,” the Jaguar seriously intoned to the asse...
2024-07-03 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Soooo, I went to a Brewer's game yesterday with some friends and there was an accident with an escalator. No one died, thankfully, but I was left pretty battered - fractured ankle and a ton of scratches, rashes, and bruises all over my arms and back from the escalator that's making it difficult to get good rest. Mercifully nothing life-threatening, so I'll be fine in a matter of weeks.
Thanks everyone for your patience, I'll do my best to get back to normal scheduling by Wednesday, I ...
2024-06-30 17:33:31 +0000 UTC
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The medical bays in the arks filled quickly in the wake of the battle, and didn’t make nearly enough of a dent in the number of wounded that needed care. Taking charge of the situation, Leon ordered sections of the mountains and valleys below leveled and new first-aid centers erected. Given the number of arks lost, his people were looking at more than a thousand injured, and who knew how many dead.
As this was happening, the heavily damaged carrier was forced to make an em...
2024-06-28 15:00:14 +0000 UTC
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