Misbegotten Memories

Chapter 117

Not long into the first day, Hector began to worry that the Jinn might abandon him on this primitive world. The ‘city’ he’d been led to was a sprawling mess of adobe buildings topped with wooden shingles. The dirt streets were littered with ...

Chapter 116

The grand culmination of the ritual lasted for less than a minute. Its steady drain on Hector’s cosmic energy reserves ended before he was fully emptied. The Arahant around him ran dry first. Theirs had been the greater contribution by far. Illu...

Chapter 115

They lingered for two days by the rift on Earth to make sure the danger had passed. It made no appreciable difference to Hector. Once he’d entered War Barge Kevin, he’d effectively left the planet. There was no communication off the barge exce...

Interlude: Matthias

A/N:

Many (most?) of you will have already seen this interlude on RoyalRoad. It is supposed to come between volume 1 & 2, but a lot of readers complained that they were tired of reading about an untalented nobody. So I brought forwar...

Chapter 114

The television continued to stream clips of the miraculous events that unfolded over the Atlantic Ocean and Evelyn continued to watch. This fell in line with the very best glimpses she had seen. The death toll of the monster attack in this timelin...

Chapter 113

In spite of their alliance, Kevin refused to relax his guard within the transit sphere of the Lord General. He’d fought the man for too long for even thirty years of cooperation to ease his paranoia. Perhaps he would be more at ease if it was ju...

Chapter 112

Thomas Killian stared into the cameras, dripping from his armpits as the hosts and other guest experts talked through the situation. On the monitors, he could see the images that would be displayed to the audience alongside the talking heads. Ther...

Chapter 111

Hector stared at the vial as if it held all the secrets to the universe.

“Drink it already,” Caroline sighed.

He ignored the sage. Why not? He’d just argued with a lord and been rewarded for it. In a single day, he’d interacted...

Chapter 110

“You can release my companion, Master Gavin.”

Hector thudded back down onto his seat, which collapsed sideways under the sudden load, sending him onto the canvas flooring. He looked at the feet of the Xian who had accosted him and swallo...

Chapter 109

What he’d thought to be just a random field proved to be a staging ground. A large ship of gray metal hovered overhead, defying gravity. “Is that a war barge?”

Conflagration snorted. “That’s Gunboat Kelly. She doesn’t even rate a...

Chapter 108

Because most of their adoring public were reading questions they’d written down, the seat switch performed by Vivian wasn’t addressed right away. There were questions addressed to Malachi from females of all ages about what he looked for when ...

Chapter 107

Hector flared his aura to block a tentacle trying to wrap around his head. Much like he’d done with the dirty cops, the squid monster wanted to smash his skull in. Failing that, it wanted to twist his head off or suffocate him.

A sword of ...

Chapter 106

Hector sat upright in his chair, subtly flexing biceps that were shown to good effect by the form-fitting t-shirt he’d been given. With the fresh cut and hair dyed to no longer be gray, he looked remarkably better than two days prior. He’s sur...

Chapter 105

Everyone startled back from the young woman who appeared in their midst. She had auburn hair with a purple highlight streaking down from above her left brow. The delicate dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks and her startlingly blue eyes...

Chapter 104

“Your powers don’t seem very impressive is all I’m saying,” Greg continued.

“Again, I agree wholeheartedly that I personally am not very powerful. That does not generalize to the Xian as a species. My people are the most powerful w...

Chapter 103

The dreams were done. That hit hard. Almost as hard as the way they ended. He remembered being enclosed in the metal capsule, emptying his soul reserves into the engine. The way he had cultivated chaos at unprecedented rates, spurred onward by the...

Exclusive #5: Zara's Tribulation

When her steely resolve began to fade, Zara Shaocheth went to visit the memorial of her youngest son. Corey’s remains stayed on the world now known as Union Central after the failed attack. She knew burying body and core ultimately did nothing t...

Chapter 102

The Lord Platinum dragged him out of the temporary holding cell of the strange Jinn facility. Volithur did nothing to protect himself and collapsed face first into the metal grating that served as the floor. “Do you want to be tortured for real?...

Chapter 101

He healed.

It happened in spite of his own desires. Charred skin renewed. Boiled eyes reformed. Eardrums regrew. It took time. Weeks, maybe months. The only thing that didn’t restore were his amputated limbs. Both hands and both feet had b...

Chapter 100

Rosa snapped a photo of the cops beating the dockworker’s union representative. Titles for her article spun through her head. ‘Corporate Friendly Police Negotiate with Heavy Hand’, ‘Thugs in Uniform Go Too Far’, ‘Long Arm of the Law St...

Chapter 99

Two weeks of hell.

Constantly drinking. Constantly paranoid. Constantly second-guessing himself.

If things went poorly, he would not only die, he would witness the execution of Khana and Darius before receiving his own death. Xian did ...

Chapter 98

He got no farther than his skull. Even that was only around ninety percent infused to the peak of the eighth level. For some reason, Volithur expected his progress to be similar to when he’d first used the cold forged method. That obviously coul...

Chapter 97

Volithur collected the items on the packing list from the warehouse, rushing because he’d slept in after hosting Darius’s second birthday party the day before. Corey and Rolanda had joined them with their daughter Erin. The adults imbibed much...

Chapter 96

Hector watched as the assessor studied the case of silverware. His mother had loved the stuff. He never used it himself. Who wanted cutlery you had to periodically polish? Apparently, the answer to that was antique collectors on other worlds.

Chapter 95

It took months for Volithur to hear about the outcome of his chat with the Jinn. During that time, he became a father to baby Darius. The addition to their little family changed everything. Constantly exhausted, tragically short on funds, and woef...

Chapter 94

Hector’s soul sat at full capacity. A sliver more energy and he’d advance to level five. Unless he decided to delay his trip by a month, he should not do that. Though maybe he should. Volithur’s first journeys, some of which were exciting in...

Chapter 93

After rounds of congratulations, Rolanda and Corey explained that they had only known for a few weeks. It was still too early for them to make official announcements, but they’d told people close to them. Corey, ever the generous soul, wanted Ro...

Chapter 92

Volithur stared up at the monument through watery eyes. The figures depicted were no one he knew. Possibly the statues weren’t based on any particular people. But the upright men and women and children stood defiantly among a desolate landscape....

Chapter 91

Hector checked the balance of the joint account and clapped his hands in celebration. The funds from his retirement account were deposited. He would owe a ten percent tax penalty for performing an early withdrawal, but that wasn’t his problem. T...

Chapter 90

“The first rule of travel is caution. Do not use a transit sphere if you don’t have abundant free energy in your soul. Forming one is the least expensive part of travel. It is the transition between normal space and chaos that drains you. If y...