Ad Astra

Savage Awakening 294. The Ten-Man Challenge (II)

“This is history in the making! For merely the seventh time in Azure Flame Faction history, we’re about to witness the legendary Ten-Man Challenge. One Outer Faction disciple versus ten—all as merely an Ascendant! To even attempt this you must be a monster among men. What kind of man does it take to conquer it?”

The announcer paused for the cheers and grinned shiny white teeth.

“But this edition is special even for Ten-Man Challenges because of the combatants in question...

Savage Awakening 293. The Ten-Man Challenge (I)

A/N: Bonus chapter since I missed one during Dragoncon! Also, I changed the capacity to be millions rather than hundreds of thousands.

//

Two hours before the duel, and the betting was reaching a fever pitch. Thousands of bets were being placed by the minute—whether shouted out to busy bookies at the stalls, or beamed in by scrying glass from across the universe.

… So far, it was not looking good for Zane.

“Clear the way!” shouted a bookie, sho...

Savage Awakening 292. Clearing the List (II)

Zane chomped down another chunk of yak leg and thought about it. He looked down at the lots of wide eyes staring up at him—they had all come to make something of a huddle around him, running around their Uncle Jawl's attempts to grab them like little fish through a net. Jawl gave up. 

"Hmm," said Zane.

He looked over at the Stormfire lake just a few dozen strides away. The Stormfires there were the most fierce on all of planet Stormhaven—the peak of Tier 4. In theory, tha...

Savage Awakening 291. Clearing the List (I)

Because Zane broke through in such a secret place, few were there to witness it.  One of them happened to be a servant called Wang Lin. 

Wang was a Chosen of an Azure Flame sub-Faction called the Verdant Flame, which ruled of a tribute planet near the Azure Flame frontier. He’d been sent up to the main Faction to experience the standard of the true elites of the Dragonspire Galaxy.  

So far he was halfway through a century-long stint as a delivery boy, ferrying le...

Savage Awakening 290. Heavenly (II)

There was a CRACK!—a sensation that shook Zane's soul. And it felt like his head was splitting, and his body was splitting, down the seams of his very being—his ears screamed with white noise. He reeled, groaning… 

He tasted iron and salt in his mouth. 

Something had hit him just then—something he saw head-on, and his whole soul was seared with its afterimage. He wouldn't have known it was there if he hadn't been looking for it. Not because it was hidden—but be...

Savage Awakening 289. Heavenly (I)

No one in recorded history had glimpsed a divine Concept so early. Noughtfire would never have even considered suggesting it before…. 

Then there was his new disciple. 

The earth-man called Zane, scratching his head across the little tea table. 

Noughtfire had never known anyone with that kind of intuition. It was stunning at times. 

Zane could become a monster like the Dragonspire galaxy had never seen if he walked that path—Noughtfire was sure...

Savage Awakening 288. The Higher Path

None of the elves bothered Reina after that. The rest of the council went quite smoothly. When it was all done and she dismissed them, they bowed quite a bit deeper than they had at the beginning. A bunch even shuffled up to give her their congratulations, which she graciously accepted, greeting everyone by name. A few were surprised; they hadn't even introduced themselves. 

She came back to Zane, who had just been sitting there the whole time, blinking. 

"That's that," ...

Savage Awakening 287. High Priestess

A/N:

“Are you ready to behave,” Zane asked him. He gave Val a moment to collect himself—gasp in a few lungfuls of air, blink most of the tears out of his eyes, and so on.

“I’ll kill you!” wailed Val. “I’ll carve out your entrails—she’s mine, you b-brute, mine—” 

Zane frowned, and gave him a few more good smacks for good measure. 

By the end of it Val’s face had been reduced to a bloody pulp, and mos...

Savage Awakening 286. The Great Duel

It might have been the longest teleport Zane had been on yet. Reina sent him some coordinates with her letter, which the portal easily ate up. Then the array-circles started streaming a pale light, shifting like cogs in some vast unseen machine, and Zane felt a pool of essence gathering under his feet—quickly broadening, swelling to a lake of it—

Then it let loose and shot him straight into deep space.

Out of the Lightning Constellation in the blink. Then whiplashing sideways,...

Savage Awakening 285. Second Try (III)

Even the chains had gone totally still. 

Then the rumbling began. A shattered continent made enough rockfall to fill up canyons. It looked like a fuzzy mountain range from a distance, but it all started to tremble then, shivered by some force deep within…

Then it burst with the fury of an erupting volcano. 

A thousand thousand chunks of mountain-sized stone shot out like massive cannonballs. There was a lumpy shape beneath, bleeding head-to-toe—but it was easy ...

Savage Awakening 284. Second Try (II)

A/N: 

Minor retcon--the Chaos Fruit is the reward rather than the Plasma Phoenix Core (swapped), and it grants him 30 extra Nascent Levels, not 40!

Also: It’s looking like I may miss Sunday or Monday release due to Dragoncon, whose impact on me I severely underestimated—I will do an extra chapter the week back to make up for it!  

//

The half-Ascendants fell just as swiftly as the Nascents. They’d hardly risen before Zane�...

Savage Awakening 283. Second Try

A/N:

Minor retcon--the Chaos Fruit is the reward rather than the Plasma Phoenix Core (swapped), and it grants him 30 extra Nascent Levels, not 40, which is a bit much!

//

“Come in,” said Noughtfire.  

Zane did, ducking to fit through the doorway.  

“Hey there,” said Zane, waving. He looked around the spare room, wondering at a place to sit. He ended up just standing. 

Noughtfire inspected his new disciple. 

Savage Awakening 282. Test Run (V)

Planet Gurkon

Galaxy of the Path of Core Magma

Gurkon was the meanest of the home planets for disciples on the Path of Core Magma. Three runty sputtering volcanoes on a hunk of molten rock hardly bigger than a moon. Only a handful made their homes here.

One of them was Prince Yarrow of Elistria, Ranked #473 on the Phoenix Scroll. He looked every bit the hero—handsome, with porcelain-smooth skin and brows like sword slashes. In these wastes...

Savage Awakening 281. Test Run (IV)

Zane heard his own roar, proud and unrelenting, rolling into the far distance. There was triumph in it. And a challenge, too. The same one he'd posed to this world since he’d come. 

It had not been able to answer him.

He stood there, feeling pleased. But also feeling the heat start to fade out of him, his breaths start to wind down. His head growing heavy, his thoughts feeling thick inside his head… he wondered if he would get a reprieve before the next planet. 

Savage Awakening 280. Test Run (III)

The Hypergolems poured over the cracks, a tsunami of livid steel, clambering over one another, squashing their brethren down in their eagerness to get at him.

Some of them were different, though you couldn’t see it on the surface. Zane could feel it.

They had pseudo-domains.

Blowing out from them in great invisible spheres, heavy magnetic fields, fields that seemed to weigh on his every fiber…

Half-step Ascendants.

They charged him in a wild rush. Wrecking-ba...

Savage Awakening 279. Test Run (II)

Zane made his way to the teleporter. A beam later he was off to Ragnos.

Ragnos was an angry star. Its solar flares looked like flesh wounds still bleeding over its surface, falling back into a mass the color of dried blood. It looked a little like Mars, back when that still existed—just shining.

Zane ended up standing on an outpost asteroid on the system’s far edge. It looked to be a hub of teleporters—his portal circle sat at the center. Seven others lined the asteroid’s ...

Savage Awakening 278. Test Run (I)

“That power ranking is called the Phoenix Scroll,” said Jawl. “It’s got five hundred-odd ranks in total—though it depends on the death counts during dungeon season, and if it's an Integration Year… the usual ups and downs.”

He produced a scroll out of thin air and started to unravel it. It went on and on—the more he unrolled it, the more parchment there seemed to be, faded yellow with golden names scribed on top. A great many of them.

“There you are!” said Jawl...

Savage Awakening 277. Full Fusion (II)

So Zane was off to get Full Fusion.

It turned out you could teleport to Astra right from where he’d come up from—the little stone platform at the bottom of the steps. He went up to the middle of a circle of runes. And slowly they began to fire, dull purples brightening, charging up—he felt like he was standing in the middle of some occult demon-summoning circle.

His mini-map shone brighter in his mind. All he had to do was will himself toward the pin the Sage had dropped for...

Savage Awakening 276. Full Fusion

Someone was coming closer. A grizzled middle-aged man with a big fuzzy hat. He was built stocky, laden with muscle and a healthy layer of fat which he wore well. He took off his hat as he got close and kneaded it between his fingers. 

Zane blinked at him for a bit. There was a pause, like the man was trying to figure out what to say.

“Good day,” said the man at last. “My name is Jawl.”

“Hello,” said Zane. “I’m Zane.”

“Err,” said the man. “I...

Savage Awakening 275. New World (III)

She gestured to the last two stars in the cluster. “There’s the Tempering Star Volcanis, where you can train your physique—” 

—A star that spat angry licks of red-white—

“And the Cultivation Star Pyronis, where you can submerge yourself in Stormfire essence to cultivate—” 

—An immensity of deep-blue flecked white, churning slowly—

“—But those two are only open to Minor Gods and above. Then there’s Astra.”

She pointed to the...

Savage Awakening 274. New Worlds (II)

It wasn't long before Zane's escort arrived. A crystal beam flared down the Beacon, a dazzling pillar racing from the sky, touching the earth gently, soundlessly. Then it was gone, and it left a girl in its place.

She was tall, leanly muscled, dressed in dragonscale leathers. She had long, wild hair in a ponytail and sharp, pretty features. She didn’t look much older than Zane—though sometimes age was deceiving with these cultivators.

He felt the aura of some Godbeast Bloodlin...

Savage Awakening 273. New World (I)

“Noughtfire’s first,” said Reina, unfurling the red scroll. “His offer’s mostly the same. He'll take you as a Direct Disciple. You’ll keep your list of special incentives. You'll also have access to all seven of his Lightning Constellation stars and the training they give—but you won't be a Core Chosen anymore, since you're not exclusive to the Azure Flame Faction. You won't have a Chosen’s stipend either. The Faction would never agree to that, he said. That means you’ll nee...

Savage Awakening 272. The Offers (III)

The scroll unfurled. A list was carved out on the foil in bright blocky letters.

“First,” said the Sage. "Achieve Perfect Fusion of Stormfire—and your reward will be a Plasma Phoenix Core! A drop with a one-in-thousands chance which only comes from the corpse of the Godbeast Plasma Phoenix. It would grant your channels a supreme affinity to Stormfire. Permanently boosting you to a level equivalent to the Plasma Phoenix itself!"

A pitch-black bead rotated beneath the letters,...

Savage Awakening 271. The Offers (II)

The letter shone brighter, streaming silver like moonlight. There was a drawing carved on the surface. A collection of clean lines that shifted the more Zane looked, gaining dimensions… He let his eyes unfocus. He quickly sank into the vision.

An old man solidified before him. A man with a big frame full of wiry muscle. Zane got the impression that an immense amount of strength was packed into those dense limbs—he had frizzy white hair and a frizzy white beard, and he was clad in bl...

Savage Awakening 270. The Offers (I)

A/N: No chapter on 8/11, sorry about that!

Despite my best efforts last week's injury has spiraled into this week a bit... It’s frustrating for me too >.>

Will be back tomorrow! 

//

The Dragonspire Galaxy was called that because it was a cluster of star systems that swirled like a dragon's tail, Reina said. Earth was in its outer reaches—the frontier.

The civilized parts of the Galaxy lay at its heart. The ‘Corrup...

Savage Awakening 269. The Offers (I)

That was the bulk of his training done, Zane supposed. It was time to head home. He was looking forward to it. 

When he left the dojo, he saw a spray of stars twinkling high above. It was nice and quiet this time of night. 

He wondered just how long he’d been in there. 

He strode across the little grassy courtyard just outside, fenced off with a low wall of warded Spirit Steel. There were guards at the gate. Both Warriors, one wielding a scimitar, the other ...

Savage Awakening 268. Emperor's Might (II)

Zane blinked at the Spirit.

“…How do I do that?”

Trial by fire, said the Spirit. Its face was as stern as always, but Zane got the sense it was enjoying seeing him a little stumped. 

You must project your soul! But there's no guide to it. The only way to know is to find it yourself. It’s a matter of feeling.

With that rather unhelpful tip in hand, Zane turned back to the drake. It started opening its mouth. And a smolderin...

Savage Awakening 267. Emperor's Might (I)

Zane hadn’t thought much about the Red Moon Pagoda. It was always in the background propping him up. But his soul held up just fine most of the time. It wasn’t much of a concern, he felt. 

Only lately had it been tested. Only lately had it shown signs of cracking at all—when that False Ascendant had gotten its teeth deep into him, sank Corruption deep into his flesh and soul—it had cracked at the edges. Just a little.

It still wasn't like he felt a serious threat ther...

Savage Awakening 266. Grace Period (IV)

The image of a solar flare cut out bright against the void was seared in Zane's mind. A world-shaking power. 

That kind of power lay ahead for him. Tier 6. 

He’d thought about it a lot since he first saw it. It happened in idle moments. When he dazed off he would see those immense columns of flame floating by. Sometimes he saw them in dreams. He would wake up breathing heavy, sweating, blood pumping hot… Reina, waking blearily next to him, found it endlessly amusing ...

Savage Awakening 265. Grace Period (III)

A/N: 

Slightly edited System announcement—factions can’t claim Earth as a Safe Zone directly; Earth is in a fringe galactic sector, outside of their jurisdiction. However— 

“Joining a Faction means that Faction offer resources to help fend off external threats.”

//

Reina got the new Beacon up and running a day later. A giant crystal floating over a steel plinth, beaming a line of prism...