Having parted ways with Terra, I return to the cave as darkness descends upon the ever waking city. I somewhat expected to return to a cave full of monsters that snuck in from Tenebrous but thank the lord, nothing slipped through. Glancing toward a pile of rubbish, I see Gen’s arm sticking out limply, still clutching the now empty pudding cup I gave him earlier. It seems he fell back to sleep after eating his pudding cup.
If I had to guess, he likely did not even realize I left. ...
2021-02-12 12:11:39 +0000 UTC
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Terra sits noiselessly, looking rather downcast. However, as I explain everything I know about Kiln and the Tower, she gradually recovers from her downhearted stupor. I do not reveal everything, though, things like Earl, the gate, souls, spirits, Tenebrous, and Gen I omit. Those shall remain secret for now because it would all take too long to explain and with what little I comprehend, it would just lead to confusion. I shall wait until I know more before discussing those subjects.
Afte...
2021-02-09 11:39:37 +0000 UTC
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Terra stares at me. Only seconds earlier, she unveiled her face, revealing that it has been partially sewn with gray or perhaps a more argent colored fabric.
Unable to confront my gaze, she turns away and asks, “What do you think? Pretty scary, isn’t it? This was stitched to me on my tenth birthday. The ‘optimal age’ to have forty percent of my face replaced with silken runes, as that man put it. To add insult to injury, this face, stitched with runes, is the face that everyone ...
2021-02-07 12:31:46 +0000 UTC
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I find myself taking a step away from the gate before me. The spectacle on the other side of the door is far too familiar, far too nightmarish. My eyes dart around, I have not smelt anything in a long time, but I swear that place carries the smell and even the taste of rot.
In the dark, a single area is illuminated, a verdant hilltop. Sitting at the apex is a willow tree unmoving, unconcerned with being observed. The willow tree’s branches are barren, except from cords hang dozens upo...
2021-02-04 07:36:18 +0000 UTC
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Over an hour has crawled by since I abandoned the coffin. In that time, I have managed to drop off my plunder at the cave, retrieve Gentleman Ape, and even return to the cave. I was forced to hurry due to the elixir’s ramifications, which has been gradually worsening. There was never a moment's opportunity to loiter and I even had to leave the arc suit at the cave when I went to retrieve Gentleman Ape.
Fortunately, since I was mostly vermillion haze, it was faster than when my body wa...
2021-02-02 14:03:20 +0000 UTC
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Hey, everyone! I wanted to give you all an update on how things are going with the novel.
With the help of your patronage, I have been able to get an editor who will go through the entirety of Book 1 and its side chapters looking for errors, inconsistencies, and other such things. That will be March 15th. This also means Book 1 - “The Stained Tower: The Tower’s Prelude” will be concluded before or around that time.
As both thanks and to help even out the tier increases, I ha...
2021-01-31 10:06:07 +0000 UTC
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I've been making this myself. Please, enjoy the progress I've made so far. I'll either post another progress picture later or wait until the full thing is ready. This map will be changed, updated, and posted again throughout the series.
Thanks.
2021-01-31 10:05:38 +0000 UTC
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Together my sumpter copepods pass underneath the arched exit of the Arcade. If time was a concern before, it is even more so now. Meanwhile, I lie inside the opened arc suit atop the coffin carrying, or more simply the coffin copepod. Gliding forward, I poke my head out from beneath the plastic blanket draped over its back. This way, I may pretend that my lower body is not beneath a blanket abundant with a multitude of vermillion copepods.
We step further unto the Terrace, the plastic b...
2021-01-31 06:37:42 +0000 UTC
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When the wall appears, my eyes explore Earl’s wall, searching for the adaptation that might include the island louse. At the same time, I commence creating more copepods to supplement the many I have lost after using them to drag Consortium people from the Arcade. Once outside, I imagine they do not last long wit...
2021-01-29 05:45:35 +0000 UTC
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Shaking my head, my flame-like hair sways as I knock the blue wall away. I was just bounced across the room, my face has been scraped off, and I require a moment to orientate myself. The haze lurches toward me, mending my cheeks, jaw, and eye. With my eye repaired, my vision is restored.
Something warm sits against my shell. I glance beside me to see Jessica’s face is a mere two feet from min...
2021-01-26 15:18:52 +0000 UTC
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The face of a young man is displayed upon the front of the scouting orb. Judging by appearance, I presume the young man is somewhere in their twenties. He glances from left to right with a pale complexion, messy black hair, sunken eyes, and a pair of spectacles with square lenses. Scratching a scraggly stubble that has sprouted around his mouth, he lifts a white sheet of paper, stares at it, and then looks back up. His tired eyes gaze at something that reflects in his spectacles, casting a bl...
2021-01-24 05:31:58 +0000 UTC
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Having bestowed my orders upon the platoons, I separate ten copepods and then use my finger to trace a path for the bulk of the copepods to follow. All but the ten copepods I separated rush toward the wall and then cling to the ceiling. Meanwhile, I command the last ten to take a lengthier route. This group’s goal is simple; they merely need to skitter past Jessica while I flee from them, causing it to appear as if the copepods and I are not related while also distracting her from the bulk....
2021-01-22 03:06:12 +0000 UTC
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With a hungry gaze, I step closer to the iron coffin and run the arc suit’s sticky gauntlets across its solid exterior. As the gauntlets brush upon the iron surface, it produces a rather squeaky sound. My eyes squint as I tap the coffin in frustration, wishing I could get closer to whatever it is inside this coffin, assuming it is not a genuine corpse that is.
‘Nay certainly I would not feel this way about a corpse?’ My thoughts drift back to the epistle that mentioned br...
2021-01-19 02:04:00 +0000 UTC
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With the last of the haze passing into the kiln, the customary purple wall arises. I withdraw my attention from the yellow epistle, focusing on the wall instead. ‘I suppose it is rather obvious now, but the name of the mystery element was Acerb… I am more interested in the final words of that epistle. They brought something here to be near the roots and “another of its kind,” except the o...
2021-01-15 12:10:37 +0000 UTC
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Presently, Gentleman Ape and I are west of the Terrace and have just concluded attempting to execute a bit of trickery unto those that might be pursuing us. Yet, just as we were about to follow The Lake’s edge to our little hermitage, a message from Earl appeared.
When the message surfaces from the white frost, I halt; the rubbish sled comes to a sluggish stop as I read. I stare at the wall f...
2021-01-13 00:53:44 +0000 UTC
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Snow glides tenderly to the earth and caresses it in a blanket of fresh white. The sled crafted from rubbish bags slides gently across the virgin snowfall, composing a subtle and lonely tune that echoes in the hushed darkness. Melancholy pervades the very foundations of the park.
While Gentleman Ape and I migrate toward the Terrace at a casual pace, my mind wanders, and I reflect on the Mana Contraction skill I acquired. ‘Cosmic System, prithee, my chronicles.’
The fa...
2021-01-09 21:25:27 +0000 UTC
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I sit in a dim cave, atop a pile of rubbish. My negating membranes are closed, yet I can still detect the faintly glowing glass orb in my hands as well as the light that leaks into the cave from the outside.
As I have several times before, I read through the orb’s instructions. Reading it at this point is more habit than anything since I have nearly memorized it. Once finished, I move to the first step, focusing on either my belly, heart, or head. But seeing that the single solid piec...
2021-01-06 07:39:21 +0000 UTC
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Several hours have passed since I dug the pellet from the shoulder of Gentleman Ape. The winds have lost much of their intensity, and the sun has risen.
At this moment, I am dragging a sled constructed of rubbish bags toward one of my old dwellings. The reason I am dragging the rubbish sled is that the still constrained Gentleman Ape is napping upon it. Moreover, I have been harvesting foodstuff from the rubbish bins while I maneuvered toward my destination, and it makes for an easy way...
2021-01-03 04:00:40 +0000 UTC
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Thanks for your support everyone, I hope you enjoy the chapter! :-)
_______________________________________________________
Having escaped the Hex Churches and Consortiums combined clutches, I race onwards. Behind me, I can hear the sounds of different voices yelling, screaming, arguing with one another, but as for me.
‘Huzzah!’ My arms raise high as my body and kiln successfully slip through a black fence. I can feel some hunger pains, yet it i...
2020-12-31 01:36:35 +0000 UTC
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Gentleman Ape soars toward Emily, his arms flailing wildly in the air, a shrill shriek escapes his mouth. Emily’s head springs up just in time to see the ape’s hairy gut as it collides with her face filled with fast dawning horror and dismay. The moment the ape’s belly makes contact, a dull clap of flesh sounds, followed by Gentleman Ape latching unto her noggin. The glowing crimson threads that had been burrowing into the back of her hand snap. The split threads slice the back of Emily...
2020-12-28 02:10:05 +0000 UTC
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Happy Holiday to you all! Enjoy the long chapter and thanks for supporting me!
________________________
In the middle of an enclosure of apes, I lie on my belly atop a brush-covered boulder, spying on the four people that seem to be seeking me.
From the Hex Church, we have Emily and Colin, who stand in the red-brick square beneath an unlit lantern that sits atop a black pole. They lean against a railing between the sea lion enclosure and some shrubbery with ...
2020-12-24 23:41:28 +0000 UTC
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Listening attentively, I can hear the crinkle of footsteps in the snow.
Terra gazes at me. “Get at least three-hundred feet from here. It’ll be challenging for him to detect you if I allow my own Mana to leak and saturate the area even more than you already do naturally,” She states. “Conceivably, that’ll mask your presence to an extent.”
‘Him? She knows who it is?’ I nod and scan from left to right. ‘...I suppose I should focus on finding somewhere ...
2020-12-21 14:08:05 +0000 UTC
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I peer out the clear, icy window, taking in the nighttime ambiance while watching the shiny yellow rectangles that dot the center of the black road lazily pass by. The little road rectangles are mesmerizing in an odd way, and I practically forget that I am inside a strange mechanical carriage beast. Finding myself, spellbound I enjoy the motions of the ride as it turns to and fro, here and there, this way and that and…
The ride strikes a bump in the dark road, causing my senses to ret...
2020-12-18 13:27:30 +0000 UTC
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…
…
…
There was a problem when I shut the negating membrane and tried to practice Terra’s technique. I discovered something I had partially overlooked—my rather deep-rooted fear of near-total darkness I acquired during my time in the Tenebrous Place. Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant of experiences. In the end, I did not even have the mind to make a second attempt.
2020-12-14 23:41:50 +0000 UTC
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As always thank you guys for the support! Every supporter is one step closer to my dream of building the world of this novel into something truly special. I hope you enjoy this chapter and everything else that has been released thus far. More exciting things to come in the future! Thanks again.
--Pov 13-year-old Constance--
I dash through the halls of an orphanage that, in truth, is a convent at which I am kept captive. Holding the hem of my ...
2020-12-13 03:56:44 +0000 UTC
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Staring at the blue wall, I shake my head. ‘I did not realize it would be something like this… Though, truly, I did not have any notion of what it would be like.’
I poke my finger through the wall, testing it. ‘It is similar to the Cosmic System. Does this confirm Terra is in the Beta? Or is this kind of thing common nowadays...? It does resemble that lap-top...
2020-12-12 00:55:22 +0000 UTC
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“Hmm. What do we have over here?” Lincoln says, approaching node 1.
The ringing is louder than it has ever been when he comes up to the tree. My hands press against the ground as he looks up from the device and knocks on the tree. Waiting a moment, he takes out a knife and cuts a piece of bark, breaking it apart in his fingers. He tosses the bark onto the ground and scrapes his knife against the inner timber.
When nothing happens, he puts his knife away and shrugs. “I think ...
2020-12-08 08:56:32 +0000 UTC
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It has been a couple of hours since Terra left, and I have retrieved the Ecology book from where I hid it. Terra showed me the tower defense thing for around an hour before she left, stating she would return the day after tomorrow with the signs.
Arriving at the Terrace, I take a seat upon the fountain’s edge and kick my hazy legs, gazing out over the lake, attempting to ease my exhausted mind.
I shake my head. ‘That tower defense picture game-thing was… disappointing. I...
2020-12-06 02:39:01 +0000 UTC
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“...Terra, I would like to know more about myself. So what is a spirit? Is it the same as a soul?” I ask her, praying she does not find it suspicious that I do not know.
“Hmmm.” Her lips purse. “An unexpected question, but... I guess it makes sense that you’d like to know, being ‘spirit-like’ and all.” Terra ponders for a moment, setting her lap-top to the side. She looks at me with a smirk and exhales a puff of hot air into the cold night air. “This is going to seem...
2020-12-03 09:36:19 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! This is a simple poll. I just want to hear which sentences sound better to everyone. One of them is technically the correct way, while the other is the way I've been doing things for the sake of modern readers.
Please choose between the two and decide which one sounds better to thy ears. Thanks!
[#1] I am not what thee believe me to be…!
[#2] I am not what thee believes me to be…!
[#1] If thee leave, I shall do the same!
[#2] If thee le...
2020-11-30 21:26:17 +0000 UTC
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