UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune

Chapter 173: Busy Days Ahead

I wish I could say that I had some time to catch up with my friends, but the days leading up to the Clan War was anything but relaxing. The state of Pandora was in such disrepair since, well, most of the population was kind of dead, that the core members of the Abyss guild were all busy trying to ensure that panic and pandemonium didn’t overtake the survivors. For what it was worth, the Regressor was quite skilled at that department, so all we had to do was follow easy to understand orders....

Chapter 172: Trial Blues

I tried to steer things away from the doom and gloom, maybe there was something we were missing. Surely if the Regressor of all people brought this up in a meeting, he’d have some kind of trick or quark that could be exploited, although given his less than sure posture, even I began to have my doubts. 

“Let’s stick with the facts first before we panic,” I said, “So we got like, 1800 combatants, but some people stayed behind as well, what’s the numbers like for Pandora a...

Chapter 171 (Start of Volume 4): Confessions and Concerns

TISMON NOTES: Hello again! So last chapter should end the 3rd volume before it becomes too bloated (it's gotta be book-sized to publish!), which means that we're on to Volume 4! I'll need to edit the last few chapters a bit first, add a proper epilogue as well, but I thought I'd write down the start of the next Volume first. This time we're back in Pandora and we're back with the Abyss gang! The fourth Trial's going to be a doozy! Cheers, and thanks for reading!

“There...

Chapter 170: Back in Pandora

The rest of the journey back to Bob’s headquarters and the subsequent train ride back to Site 1102 went in a blur. Q and Stanton left almost immediately after arrival, while Xalla and I stayed with Bob and Molly for a short while longer, but eventually, all of us realized that we’d neglected our duties for too long, and we all went our separate ways. Molly had split herself into a doll form and her main body remained behind with Bob for the time being, so at the very least that meant that...

Chapter 169: Home at Last

Xalla decided to also go with the others since she was the one most knowledgeable about the state of affairs in Site 1102 ever since Q’s departure, which just left me with Molly.

Molly chuckled to herself once she was sure that Bob was completely out of earshot before turning her attention back to me. “That man’s endearing, brilliant as well, but endearing. You have a good friend, Walter.”

I smirked, “That’s one way of putting it. But you and Bob…”

She smiled...

Chapter 168: Shaking the World Part 5

Who sent me? Well, since my memories with Stanton were infuriating him to no end and little else, I think it would be best to keep my identity a secret for now. Let’s make Q seem like a great guy while I was at it. I was about to answer when I noticed Stanton gesturing for me to stop for a moment. He sat down on the floor and concentrated, and I saw that the body he was trapped in started to dissipate. He had the appearance of a young child, the same species as the natives of the world we a...

Chapter 167: Shaking the World Part 4

“Acknowledged, my Host.”

That’s when I felt the change, and there was no other way to describe it than a fundamental change in… everything. My body expanded, slowly at first, but it increased in speed exponentially as if a chain reaction was taking place within myself. Yet that increase in mass had to come from somewhere. Every pore of my body seemed to suck in the air and molecules in my surrounds, and soon, a tempest of swirling air started to form around me. People scrambled ...

Chapter 166: Shaking the World Part 3

The next few days went by in a flash of activity… well, for the various media networks at least. I had to pretend to be wounded and on the verge of death while the various surgeons and doctors worked on the bullet wound. Noe kept the perception of my biology as mostly human so that no one would literally lose their minds from seeing Xollon bits, and I probably would have lost my mind in boredom if I hadn’t sleep through most of it. All in all, I was very grateful to finally get out of the...

Chapter 165: Shaking the World Part 2

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed and ready to go. Setting up such a huge media gathering was all handled by my various aids and managers, and they were burdened with the task of making sure everything was good to go by 4 pm sharp. I arrived an hour prior and a huge crowd was already gathered, most were there to see me, but not an insignificant amount of bystanders were just curious about what all the commotion was about.

I took advantage of that time to check up on the location,...

Chapter 164: Shaking the World Part 1

I spent the next month doing nothing of note; I went to practice, ate out with buddies, and had a few interviews with the local newspapers and journalists. All in all, I lived my life in the same fashion that Ashwin would have. The people closest to him were worried about the small nuances of his personality that I got wrong in the beginning, but as I continued to study his mannerisms on the internet and fix any flaws that I could find, my ability to impersonate the man grew. By the end of th...

Chapter 163: Days Prior

“Hey Coach,” I said, “What’s up?”

A gruff voice answered back, “You okay, Ash? You were due for practice half an hour ago, I thought you were stuck in traffic or something, but it sounds like you’ve forgotten. Hey man, if you’re feeling off just let us know, you’ve been working your ass off lately, you can afford to take a day or two off.”

“Sorry,” I answered quickly, “I was washing up and fell asleep in the bathtub. I didn’t sleep well last night.” 2024-07-26 09:18:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 162: Twisted Timelines

TISMON NOTE: Had to make some major adjustments to the last chapter, so this is not quite a reupload! Thanks!

“You have been sent to an alternate dimension, my Host.”

I blinked a few times, making sure that I heard her right. “That’s it? I mean, I thought it would be a lot worse. Let’s just get out of here quickly before something goes wrong.”

I could almost hear Noe sigh when she responded. “I wish it was that easy, dear Walter. The Trash Matr...

Chapter 161: The Distortion

My plan was simple enough, there were clearly dissenters or enemy spies all over this city, what with that last assassination attempt, so all I had to do was find another terrorist and have them “kidnap” me in a moment of weakness. It wasn’t like I was afraid that they’d be able to actually harm me given my half-Xollon body, and with some slight Noe mind control, I could safely operate for a few days without worry. Once I was free from oversight, I could just change back into my Secon...

Chapter 160: Understanding the Situation

I don’t know what I expected when I entered the audience chamber, but it certainly wasn’t the sight of three tired and haggard-looking old people slumped down on a couch, seemingly in a daze. They barely noticed me when I got in, and one of the various aids lining the large room had to nudge them into action. It was only then did one of them moved, the woman in the middle, and her attention returned back to the present. She seemed so tired that even moving upright was a struggle, and the ...

Chapter 159: Cracks in the Image

Noe made a mental map of the palace and the surrounding area as I followed Mark to the Council. Thankfully, that meant that I didn’t have to worry about getting lost and looking like an idiot trying to navigate this new environment going forward. It was a good thing that Noe was doing all of the heavy lifting because the area that I was taken to was somewhere deep indoors. 

The walls were windowless and seemed to be made with security and sturdiness in mind rather than aesthetics...

Chapter 158: Start of the Infiltration

I was getting sick and tired of waking up not knowing what was going on. I know that my whole identity, my human one at least, is surrounded around sleeping, but I’m pretty sure that passing out and waking up in unknown situations wasn’t what I had in mind when I started this human project. Or maybe it was; it wasn’t like I knew what this whole grand plan of mine was now that I’m half asleep again. Either way, I stifled a sigh and checked to see how many Luck Charges I had left, that ...

Chapter 157: The Holy City

The journey to whatever Capital city the Order gods stationed their base at was uneventful; the only thing that I had to keep track of was the fact that I was healing a little too fast thanks to my Xollon Physiology. I had to have Noe suppress as much of that as she could, which kind of sucked because I would have been up and about already had it not been for the need to keep up appearances. Still, since I had some time to finally rest without worry for once, so I guess I can’t complain.&nb...

Chapter 156: The Hero's Entrance

It took me a few minutes to dig our way out of the tunnel, being careful with the Absolute Luck Skill to ensure that my escape didn’t cause the entire tunnel system to cave in. I had worried that the rather loud exit we made would alert someone, but I needn’t have. No one could hear anything over the screams and cacophony of the ongoing war. 

Q might have used the wrong word when he described the conflict raging on in the city. Skirmishes generally didn’t involve thousands of...

Chapter 155: Beginnings of a new Scheme

Update: Exams finish after next week! I'll be free to write full time again then, so thank you for sticking with me during this drought of content!

I shouldn’t have expected otherwise, but since I was tasked to play the role of a disposable, albeit valuable pawn, I wasn’t privy to the next part of Q’s discussions. Once the gods saw that I wasn’t some horrible eldritch nightmare creature, I was escorted away from the gathering and placed in a secure holding cell ...

Chapter 154: Infiltrations and Deception

Update: Hello everyone, I'm sure that you've all noticed the slowdown in uploads lately. My day job (I'm a teacher) has been keeping me busy since the end of the school year is around the corner, so I've been way too overloaded with work so far. Regular releases will continue once the summer starts! Thanks!

Being teleported so often, I had thought that it had me inured to the worst of the disorientation, but whatever means that the cultists had used to transport us was ...

Chapter 153: Walter's New Scam

Once the dust was finally settled, I could fully appreciate the look of this wicked Avatar thing. It kind of looked like a weird, slightly deformed demon. It had six pairs of wings made of fire with two arms that extended to below its feet, although it had three joints so its arms looked like weird noodles. Compared to its arms, the demon thing’s legs were almost comically small. They looked like the little stub legs from a munchkin cat as they were attached to a torso that was the size of ...

Chapter 152: The Ritual

“Shit,” Q muttered in a rare display of frustration, “If Origin’s directly involved after everything you told us, then we might be in for more trouble than we thought. We’re not sure how long we have until the Overseer and his people know of our absence, and even with the time dilation in this dimension, I’d say that we have a tight deadline to keep.”

“But we still don’t know what’s going on!” Xalla added, “It’s just… never mind. Sorry, I’m not used to feel...

Chapter 151: Inconsistencies

We peered down from our vantage point on the easternmost tower and saw an entire army clad in gold approach from the horizon. They were marching fast toward our position and deeper into the epicenter of the catastrophe. At this point, the city we were in was completely engulfed in supernatural darkness, although the unrelenting gale-force winds had died down. The rain, however, had been drizzling nonstop and a lot of the lower elevation had been completely flooded. 

The army’s po...

Chapter 150: Trouble on the Horizon

“Good morning, my Host,” Noe greeted, “I hope that you had a good rest.”

And I woke up again… or maybe it’s more correct to say that I fell asleep again? 

“Do not worry about the nature of your existence; even with your full abilities at your disposal, you were unable to completely grasp the difference between your two states. Just know that you are not two separate entities, it is just that your ability to perceive your full existence is limited at the current ...

Chapter 149: Rest Once More

“Please take a seat,” Q said to the envoy, “We’ve prepared some snacks and drinks as well. As a gesture of our goodwill, I would like to officially thank you for coming on such short notice. I am sure that your gods have a lot of questions for us, and we would like to take that opportunity to answer them.”

The envoy politely accepted his offered seat and even took a sip of the drink. I was certain that he thought he’d die just then, but he didn’t allow his nerves to show o...

Chapter 148: Envoys and Negotiations

The four of us left the conference room with our individual tasks, although all I had to do was supervise the lunatics. We had decided to use this town hall as our base of operations for the time being, and I had the chance to walk around the place trying to find where those three cult leaders had gone. I found them in the basement after the second pass through the building, but what was notable was how efficient my friends were with their tasks. 

I saw Q and Xalla scurry around th...

Chapter 147: Meeting the Evil Gods

The four of us walked up to the cultist leaders. Our presence was so insignificant before due to my continual adjustments to the perceptions of the gathered forces that everyone was on immediate alert the second we moved. We tried to approach in as much of a nonthreatening manner as possible, with our hands up and waving slowly.

“Good morn-”

I didn’t get to finish my greeting before a battleaxe flew right toward my face. A ‘roided up red individual from way out back hurled...

Chapter 146: Avoiding Calamity

We stepped out of the portal, a familiar feeling now that we’d done it a few times in short order, and saw that Q had dropped us on the outskirts of another city, albeit a smaller one this time. The surrounding landscape wasn’t too different from the place we started our misguided journey at, and I could infer that our new location wasn’t too far away from there. Well, the clouds of black smoke from the still-burning city and the supernaturally encroaching darkness just off the distance...

Chapter 145: Unavoidable Calamity (Various POVs)

The beast of Calamity flew into the expanding void of space with a new mission in mind, no, a new purpose in life. It had been created as a mere tool by the gods, nothing but a convenient slave that was bound to the whims of the fools that made it. Those creators didn’t care about how the Calamity felt, only that it could destroy the mortals every millennium or so due to some idiotic perceived slight or transgression. 

They didn’t care how the beast would be painfully imprisone...

Chapter 144: End Bringers

Q dumped us into a remote island surrounded by nothing but a beautiful ocean. The tropical breeze and calming waves were a nice distraction from the utter chaos that we had just escaped from, and the lazy afternoon sun would have made the scene perfect if not for the giant squirming mass of hair. Attached to it was a Molly who didn’t look all too pleased.

She unraveled the bundle and a huge monstrosity… drooped out? It plopped lifelessly onto the sandy beach and it was also a famili...