PreCursive

Chapter 260 - What Matters

“Thank ya kindly for retrievin’ the blade, descendent,” Shacklock said fondly, patting the shoulder of the frozen stiff Kazuma. “I woulda done it meself, but I might have ended up killin’ all those cats if I’d tried. This way, I haven’t pissed off the damned sun by killin’ his get.”

At that, Kazuma turned around ...

Chapter 259 - Brothers

I gaped at Shacklock, and I noticed I wasn’t the only one. Similar expressions were on everyone else’s faces as well, from Azarus to Liora, to hell. Even Venix looked surprised at those words.

Shacklock was Grey’s brother?

The madman snorted at our perplexed expressions. “Oh not literally ye gr...

Chapter 258 - What Was

Before we left to follow in the wake of the madman who was essentially kidnapping us, we took the time to gather up the Monster Cores littering the now quieted battlefield. The amount of wealth that was being revealed by the dissipating Miasma was just too much to let go to waste. Even beyond the crafting benefits of the Cores themselve...

Chapter 257 - Bladeborne Insistence

The sight was so startling that all I could do was stare out at the person.

Well, I assumed it was a person. It was hard to see the figure through the fading light and the dark of the storm. But whoever they were, it didn’t look like they were flying with wings as I was.

Instead, I thought it was…

Well, I think the...

Chapter 256 - Sudden Drop

This wasn’t as stupid as it might immediately appear.

During one of our breaks on the climb, we discussed just this possibility as a group. We had always known it was a possibility that we could run face-first into a battle such as this. The possibility of immediately turning back and fleeing from it had been raised, but not seriously en...

Chapter 255 - Treacherous Trek

I wanted to grit my teeth in frustration at Kazuma’s ultimatum. Thankfully, I had better control over myself to let a tell like that through, if only thanks to Acting. Honestly though…

I’d been expecting something like this from the man for a while. I think we had all been expecting it. He had never hidden h...

Chapter 254 - Rain-Slick Range

My… episode marred our departure from Mt. Umetsuji, and it was far more abrupt than I think any of us had been planning. Shurenga, Sena, and Gin came to see us off, as well as the horde of cubs that had been dogging (catting?) our heels. I was incredibly thankful that my actions hadn’t frightened them off permanently, and I at least managed ...

Chapter 253 - Dreams of Madness

Sleep came hard that night, wrapped in my sleeping bag in the guest rooms of Mt. Umetsuji. All of us had agreed to spend the night here in the volcano, secure in the hospitality of Shurenga and her Children. After a surprisingly normal dinner hosted by the queenly daughter of Tarus herself, we’d all bedded down, ringed around the lava pit in t...

Chapter 252 - Envoy

Ah.

That was both…expected and unexpected, honestly. Just before he had left the scene of my duel with Rhazal in the Concord, Tarus had made a cryptic remark about ‘seeing if we can work something out’. I’d wondered what he meant about that, over the last few months. I suppose I was about to find out.

I fixed a polite smile o...

Chapter 251 - Offering the Heart

The ‘guest rooms’ turned out to be a small side cave inside of the volcano, with a small, placid pool of lava in the center. The walls were smooth, glassy obsidian, much like the rest of the main cave had been, and honestly?

The air wasn’t even that hot in here. Strange, really. The temperature on the approach to Mt. Umetsuji had bee...

Chapter 250 - Sun-Bound

The feline that had exited the cave to gaze down at us in patient amusement was…gigantic. Next to Rhazal, they had to be the single largest creature I’d ever seen on Vereden, including Taran. The elderly Spirit Wolf had to be at least a single, massive head’s worth shorter than them.

Well.

Maybe not with the horns. Tha...

Chapter 249 - Crimson Caldera

I was no longer enjoying the heat. As we got closer and closer to the looming form of Mt. Umetsuji, I discovered a flaw in the enchantment I’d weaved onto my cloak. During the Meld, I’d misjudged one of the patterns to the extent that the temperature control was no longer working. The result was that it died completely, and I had to remove t...

Chapter 248 - War-Rager

Well, everyone charged but Renauld, Kazuma, and Bella that is. As the Healer, Renauld stayed behind to watch our backs. Bella, too, because she was part of the team meant to watch him. I knew she would be cranky from missing out on the fight, but she was surprisingly good at squad-based teamwork. Probably came from being a ship's Captain. Out of...

Chapter 247 - Stumbling Forward

I exchanged a quick glance with Venix, and that was all I needed to know.

He was determined to retrieve this sword. Even though the only reason to do that would be so Kazuma could essentially kill himself with it.

I suppressed a sigh. I’d suspected this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time before this guy was ...

Interlude 13 - Inscrutable

Kazuma of Clan Higanashi, de facto Lord of his clan….

Found himself feeling terribly conflicted.

So much was happening all at once that he was having trouble settling on a single emotion.

There was the betrayal, of course. The campaign that the foreign exiled Sect had scouted him for had been months in the planning, with him ...

Chapter 246 - Opposing Directions

The difference between them was too great for Kazuma’s blow to move Venix even a single inch, of course. The Antium took the punch without blinking straight on the chin, still staring down at the heavily breathing Kawamaran man who had assaulted him.

The rest of us weren’t so taciturn about it.

Bella, Azarus, and I stepped forwar...

Chapter 245 - Startlement

AN:

Alright, the Discord is now dead, and there are now a few chat channels in the new Community tab that Patreon launch. Free Chat for everyone, and Questions and Corrections for paid members. Much simpler than the overly complicated Discord I had set up.

You can try that out if you'd like, and I'm far more likely to check that then...

Chapter 244 - Battleground

We’d been traveling through this jungle for three days now. Honestly, it seemed almost neverending. At first, I’d found the idea of a trek through a jungle to be novel and exciting. The idea was something that I had only seen in media from back on Earth.

I didn’t think it was exciting anymore. Now I was just annoyed by the heat and t...

Chapter 243 - Scaled Devotion

We were perhaps three hours into our journey when Liora brought us to a halt. The Gnoll woman dropped out of the treetops in front of Venix, landing in a crouch and locking eyes with the point man. “Stop,” She said suddenly, sounding out of breath.

He did, and the rest our procession followed. “What is it?” Venix asked her seriousl...

Chapter 242 - Attention of the Unseen

AN:

I'm going to be honest. I hate Discord. I hate using it, I hate even having an account. I'm pretty sure I'm going to delete the discord I have, since I don't think I've checked it in months. I only ever made it due to advice from other authors.

But I don't need it, and so it's probably going to disappear soon. I might make a few ...

Chapter 241 - Time Limit

The air on the beach grew quiet and still in the wake of Shacklock’s threat. A feeling began to sweep through the gathered classers and officers of the Order of Solstice’s Flame. Where before they were mistrustful of our group, now there was a sense of active hostility. The strange Kawamaran samurai even seemed to have been caught up in the ...