Ad Astra

199. Fruits & Labors (XI)

“Of course! I wouldn’t dare,” said Dorian, picking his words like a man changing handholds as he hung on the edge of a cliff. “I know how much your Fruits mean to you. All I ask is that you hear me out. Maybe there’s a path forward that’ll make us both happy.”

“A path that ends with your leaving here with a Fruit, I imagine.”

“Well—“

“Always the Fruits! Always the damned Fruits.” Suddenly Granny Meng seemed to sag into her skin; she looked every y...

198. Fruits & Labors (IX)

The humble hut before them was made of straw and logs bound tight with thick twine. Its round windows glowed warm orange. A homely smell leaked out the edges of the wood door—a heady mix of cookies and bread, like cheese in a mousetrap. A little garden ringed the hut bursting with flowers too bright for nature. You only found reds that bloody and blues that watery in the works of dewey-eyed painters. Or the perfectly manicured garden of a most heinous witch. They came to a halt at the path ...

197. Fruits & Labors (VIII)

“Senna!” said Vinicius. “You’re late, I’m afraid. As per usual.”

“Shut the fuck up,” said the pretty girl with her pretty parasol on her pretty tiger. She pointed it at the Prince like a loaded gun. “Yield.”

“So blunt! So forthright. So predictable.” Vinicius cocked his head. “You never learn, do you, sister? Some contests can’t be won by force alone.”

“It’s just us out here.” Senna flicked a switch on the handle. The parasol began to glow...

196. Fruits & Labors (VII)

He poked Sun awake. She rubbed her eyes, nearly whacked him with the Jingu Bang, remembered where she was, packed up her condiments and ladles and knives.

“I’m hungry,” she yawned, groggy-grumpy.

“Oh, hush. You’ll have your fill before the day’s out.”

They set out as soon as the buzzing was back to a background hum.

With Sun’s cloaking, they faced little trouble as they waded through the marsh. No locusts swarmed them. Schools of blind gunkfish...

195. Fruits & Labors (VI)

The witching hours wore on. Outside a muted buzz grew into a throbbing howling grating roar as tens of thousands of Locusts took flight at once. Any creature that had any sense took shelter. The cries of the rest were drowned out by the swarm.

[Level-up!]

[Dragonoid: Base Form]

[Bloodline Quantity] 2.06 -> 2.09

[Level-up!]

[Star Realm: Sun]

[9% -> 11%]

[Level-up!]

[Fire Planet: Moon]

[7% -> 9%]

Dorian sat there in stark conc...

194. Fruits & Labors (V)

So there it was: Dorian, a vampire, a giant rat, and a furious coiling dragon whose powers vastly outstripped them all.

Frankly if this was a normal run Dorian would’ve thrown up his hands. Here all he thought about was how best to escape. As the dragon roared, the vampire shrieked, the rat squealed, he turned to Sun. She’d need to cloak. They had to shadow-walk. It would probably spell doom at the hands of the wraiths but there was no other choice—

He looked left. He looked...

193. Fruits & Labors (IV)

Meanwhile, on the other side of Hell…

“How are you?”

Houyi knew who it was by the words alone, never mind that warm tone, nearly wispy, like a candle in a breeze.

“I am confined in a prison of Void Iron. In solitary confinement. Reduced to a ghost of myself, stripped of my weapon, bound in a Space of No Law,” he sighed.

“Ah...” Houyi could hear the wince. “What a silly thing to ask. I’m sorry,” said the voice.

“That’s quit...

192. Fruits & Labors (V)

In mortals there is a blissful moment between perception and sensation. Stub the toe and the pain will come—but in the meantime you’re suspended in the in-between. You feel no pain—yet—and so the brain helpfully supplies substitutes. Dawning horror. Fear. And sometimes, as the moment draws to a close, resignation.

Gods had no such sensory gap. But Dorian saw these emotions on their faces anyways. Minotaurs eyes popping, red blood vessels stark against white film. Demons...

191. Fruits & Labors (IV)

Entering the Swamp felt like wading into the stomach of some giant serpent. Thick murky juices sloshed at your ankles. Thick boughs blocked out the sun high above. There were paths here—paths that often ended abruptly—some much more well-trodden than others. Glowing mushrooms with leapord-like spots drifted like reeds, moved by some invisible wind.

“Follow my footsteps,” said Dorian. “Cloak, keep alert, and do as I say. Got it?”

The first thing he had them do was to si...

190. Fruits & Labors (III)

There were no stars in Hell. There were no celestial bodies. The sky was always the same twilight shade, colored only by gray ghost-streams winding between sagging coal clouds. At a distance it recalled rivers winding through mountain valleys, only flipped upside-down and drained of color.

In Hell the sky was the same everywhere. It said nothing as to where you were. For that you needed to know the land, and Dorian knew it well.

Sun darted alongside him, keeping close enough to cl...

189. Fruits & Labors (II)

Kill a creature and most of its worth is lost. Its soul vanishes. Its powers wink out. Its body is often broken, or—in the Taotie’s case—poisoned beyond salvage. But still the most potent remnants of a legendary God were not to be underestimated. As Dorian ate, Sun began to ramble.

“Hey! If we’re to be a team, we should get to know each other, shouldn’t we?” she said affably, slurping down some blood.

He stifled a groan. Do we?

“So here’s a little ...

188. Fruits and Labors (I)

Labyrinth. 9th Circle of Hell.

“But since you insist, for you—just you—I’ve made an exception. Congratulations.”

The last thing Jez saw was the tip of the Javelin. Then the scrying glass, hung like a mirror on the wall of the study, went blank. Its bronze surface now threw back a room crafted of obsidian, lined with shelves humming with a confusion of magical baubles. Some were but harmless playthings—a tiny little gold telescope that let you see acros...

187. A Way Out (VI)

Ba Serpents, and there were dozens of them. The bulk were demigods. A few huge ones, charging at the front, exuded the auras of Gods.

It was said that there was no creature a full-grown Ba Serpent could not swallow. Glancing left, seeing three giant heads burst into the clearing, Dorian could believe it. Two crescent fangs dangled from an otherwise toothless mouth—all the better for swallowing things whole. A bright pink tongue speared out like a trident.

He watched as the first...

186. A Way Out (IV)

They tore away so fast they sent gusts of air spiraling through the Forest, whistling a haunting dirge through the bone trees. Dorian bounded by on his sleek new hindlegs. He wound easily between bones, wrapping his tail about them as he slingshotted ahead. He took care not to let his tail’s wicked tip bore into them. This was still the sacred land of the Ba Serpent; their auras still tinged these bones. He hardly needed more monsters after his head.

Ahead it was like Sun had...

185. A Way Out (IV)

It was no coincidence. A Jiangshi in the Bone Forest was unheard of. Jez must’ve tracked him here. But how?

Scrying glass? Or could he read the threads of Fate, tracking Dorian across realms?

Or—a last, most unpleasant thought—was it through blood? Had he somehow gotten his hands on Kaya?

None of this was as immediate as the Jiangshi quickly closing in on their position. Through the glass in Sun’s arms he saw it blurring like a winter’s breeze bet...

184. A Way Out (III)

“Hmm….” Sun licked her lips. “Intriguing!”

“Ever had fried Greatslug cocoons?”said Dorian. “Dip them in heartfire sauce and it’s like a symphony in your mouth.”

Sun’s stomach growled, and she grinned. “Well, my belly certainly likes the idea. Buut—“

She crossed her arms. “If you were me, would you agree?”

“…” Dorian sighed. “…No, probably not.” He’d thought about lying, but with how many bonks he�...

183. A Way Out (II)

A/N: Another chapter ** UPDATE: Monday! I'll make an effort to get back to the usual Monday/Friday schedule. Sorry for the disruptions!

//

Fate nodded.

Then one last thought struck Dorian. He frowned. “Say,” he said. “How did you find me here? How do you keep finding me?”

Fate chewed at his lip. “Ah…yes! That.”

“You haven’t been meddling in my run, have you?” Dorian narrowed his eyes. “Too ...

182. A Way Out (I)

Dorian floated in a blank void. It was a purgatory of the mind he knew all too well. He sighed. Any moment now all would go dark, and that’d be that! The end, for the last time.

He wasn’t mad about wasn’t how dumb it all was. He’d died in utterly humiliating fashion a hundred times! What was one more? He was a good deal more annoyed that he’d never get to pay that ass Jez back before he went. It wouldn’t be him driving the knife through his chest, savoring the look ...

181. Demon Food (VII)

A/N: Another chapter coming tomorrow probably!

//

“Follow me!” Sun set off at a brisk pace. Dorian tried to follow and ate a face full of soot for his trouble. He groaned, trying to flop his way to a halfway upright stance, but basic motor skills still eluded him. His limbs felt like wet noodles. Sun skidded to a halt, frowning.

Below, magma gurgled ominously…

Her eyes widened. She ran to him and got one hand on his wrist before the ground fractu...

180. Demon Food (VII)

A/N: Sorry for the late upload! I owe y'all another chapter. I'm on it. Will get two more uploaded before the end of this week!

//

As Demigods, demons were still infants. Primal, more feeling than sense. But a rush of pure aggression animating a body dripping with tar qi, brimming with teeth, still made for a hell of a fight—like being set upon by a pack of rabid hounds. There must’ve been a few dozen of them up on the ridge of the crater, stark black cutouts ...

179. Demon Food (VI)

“If we are to survive, no more lies.” Dorian stared deep in her eyes. Her pupils seemed no color and every color at once; greenish, blueish, purplish, shifting like an optical illusion in the dim light. “Lie to me all you like once we’re outside. But if I’m to get us out of here alive I need clear information now. Got it?”

She nodded quickly, swallowing.

“How many of the Earthly Transformations can you manage? Can you soul-shift?”

She gasped. “How�...

178. Demon Food (V)

Patreon-only bonus chapter!

The obvious answer was to kill her.

He found himself settling on it as she neared. He wasn’t sure what she was, but she wanted the eggs. So did he. What else was there to know? When it came to treasures as valuable as these, conflicts of interest only ended one way.

He crept around the side of the nest, eyes tracking her through the gloom. He watched her yank out a handful of coals, then set them ablaze with a fingersnap. He wat...

177. Demon Food (IV)

Hours passed. Steadily his Embryonic Essence ticked upward—past the 70% marker, then the 80%, then the 90%… his Bloodline Essence, too, crept closer and closer to 1.0. The Base Form.

He burned with the egg’s vital qi. And his new body emerged.

A scaly tail emerged, thick and powerful, with a wicked spike at the end. It was a muscular thing, dextrous as a serpent. The sort of tail that might wield its own staff if he so chose—the sort he could use to dangle or swing about.<...

176. Demon Food (III)

The egg was big as a man, splotches of onyx staining its rust-red shell, glowing like a dark moon. Thick tufts of qi steamed off it, wreathing it in a soft halo. In that moment it was the most gorgeous thing Dorian had ever seen.

He felt a tug of Bloodline so strong he lost it. He was so far gone he let himself be rushed away.

What happened next was unconscious. He flopped at it, clambered over its top, bashed at the shell with his head once, twice, all desperate animal instinct, ...

175. Demon Food (II)

Dorian knew he was going mad. He laughed, he whooped, he howled. It seemed only fitting, since the world had gone mad too. In one fell swoop his a speedrun went upside down. One moment he was in a desert, the next in Hell. One moment he was a peak Godking, the next—whatever the hells this was!

As he veered left and right, dodging boulders and diving baby Rocs and leaping hordes of Hellspawn, and all the while his head felt like it was about to burst open. Every nerve ending on his bod...

174. Demon Food (I)

A/N: Book 3, Chapter 1! 

//

Molten Plains, 9th Circle of Hell

Dorian flopped about, gasping, feeling like a slab of meat left too long on the grill. Beneath him lay a vast stretch of molten coal veined with fissures, shifting uneasily atop a sea of churning magma. Hunks of the stuff jutted up everywhere, clumping into hills, gently rising and falling with the currents. A floating wasteland spurting with lava, stretching far as the eye c...

173. Book 2 Epilogue

One plain arrow flew through the void, slow and heavy, like a battleship cruising inky seas. Its aim was true as it traced an arc through the Multiverse…

***

“Again.”

Dorian rushed at his brother, teeth bared, smiling wide as a jackal. The storm began. Feint jab. Feint jab. Cross to the body, pivot, jab-cross-headkick and a dip out, smooth as you like.

Houyi looked positively bored.

Block. Block. Dodge, dodge-dodge-block. Then, timed in perfect uni...

172. The End (VII)

His smile slipped off his face.

Tied up in the middle of some shit Lower Realm? Put down like some common hound? This was how he’d go out?!

And Houyi, too—how in the Nine Hells had he let this happen?! The evidence was plainly laid out. Yet Dorian could still not get a firm grasp of it. It simply made no sense. His brother was like the rising sun! It did not simply stop.

The thought sank like a stone down his throat, stuck there. He swallowed. He felt i...

171. The End (VI)

There was a slash like no other, a slash to end the world.

The world was reduced to two dimensions. Sound lost meaning. Dorian’s vision turned black-and-white. All else was static: static on his tongue, his skin, crackling across his skull.

Before his eyes, one piercing white line met the surging black-and-red of the Inferno.

The line drew up in one smooth stroke. Laws broke. Thick cords of qi were torn apart. The line reached the top, and was done.

For an i...

170. The End (V)

How annoying.

If he threw out another Technique he risked getting it ripped from him, turned on him.

If he tried close combat—frankly he didn’t fancy his chances against that sword in close quarters.

So what’ll it be? [Galactic Inferno]? He scratched his chin.

Now didn’t seem like the right time to unleash his trump card. Not when his enemy was stood there, a safe distance away, and inviting him to strike.

No. He ought ...