Chapter 5
The first of the rings was plain in design, though the material it was made of was different to the others he’d examined so far.
He pushed Qi into it and immediately confirmed that it was a storage ring. It resisted his attempt to access the contents. He pushed more Qi into it. Still nothing. A barrier block...
2025-10-14 02:28:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 4
Azratheon woke to distant birdsong.
The thought came slowly, sluggish. Birds meant daylight. Daylight meant he’d slept longer than intended.
He opened his eyes. The forest canopy filtered pale sunlight through leaves. The fire had burned out completely, leaving only cold ash and blackened wood. The air ...
2025-10-14 02:28:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 3
The wolf’s muscles tensed. Its haunches lowered. Its eyes shifted between them, intelligent. Assessing.
Azratheon moved without thinking. He stepped closer to the beast, placing the small cub behind him. He wanted the movement to be confident. Smooth. The way a dragon should move.
He stumbled slightly...
2025-10-14 02:27:53 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 2
Consciousness returned like surfacing from deep water.
Azratheon became aware of his body first. Pain, dull and distant. Exhaustion weighing down his limbs. Warm earth beneath him. His eyes were closed.
But light filled his vision anyway.
It wasn’t real light. It was words and symbol...
2025-10-14 02:27:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1
“Find it, mongrel.”
A boot caught her between the shoulders, and she stumbled from the tunnel into the chamber.
The heat from the heart of the volcano struck like a fist. The air shimmered, thick enough to choke on. She caught herself on scorched stone, burned paws screaming.
She crawled for...
2025-10-14 02:26:38 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone!
First, I wanted to take a moment and say thank you for all of the support. I deeply appreciate it. It makes me very happy to know that so many people are enjoying The Machine God.
There is a TL;DR at the bottom :) Bit of author rambling and context before I get to it.
I started writing TMG at the beginning of Ju...
2025-10-13 11:31:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 100
The announcement chimed softly through the first-class pod, pulling Alexander from sleep.
“Arrival at Primary Orbital Station in five minutes. Please gather your belongings and prepare for disembarkation.”
He blinked awake, taking in the small but well-appointed room. The pod’s bed had been su...
2025-10-13 10:45:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 99
“We need a captain for a ship,” Alexander said. “And crew to run it.”
“Short term or ongoing?”
“Permanent position.”
“You ship?” she asked.
“We’re borrowing one.”
Carmen studied him for a moment. The professional mask was firmly in place, but...
2025-10-10 10:43:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 98
The concierge stepped back as they emerged into the familiar private landing room.
“Will there be anything else, Mr. Rooke?”
“No, thank you.”
The concierge bowed and departed, leaving them alone in the private room.
The team waited thirty seconds before following; a techniqu...
2025-10-09 11:31:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 97
Talia pulled up her tablet. “Alexander asked me to look into this a few weeks back, so I’ve had time to work through the options.”
She slid the tablet closer to Alexander, angling it so he could see it better. Augustus leaned forward from across the table, reading upside down. “Got the intel fro...
2025-10-08 09:02:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 96
The dining area had transformed over the past months. Augustus had acquired a long table, solid wood built to last, that could comfortably seat twelve. Tonight it was ladened with dishes both familiar and alien, steam rising from platters of grilled fish, roasted vegetables, and things Alexander had lea...
2025-10-08 08:58:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 95
Four months after the Multiversal Solo Combat Challenge, Alexander floated above the clouds.
He lay back in the air, arms behind his head, watching the sun dip toward the horizon. The Mediterranean stretched endlessly below, hidden beneath a blanket of white and gold. Up here, the world felt distant. Qu...
2025-10-07 12:15:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 94
Two months later.
The Queen of Hearts arrived precisely on time.
Augustus opened the terrace doors as the Doorman’s door slid into existence, reality folding to reveal the woman who’d become their unlikely ally. She stepped through with her usual grace, wine-colored dress cat...
2025-10-06 11:06:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 93
Annie charged at him. She was at least as big as a draft horse, maybe larger. Metal scales glinted across patches of her hide, stitched into leathery flesh like armor plates. Metal claws tipped her elongated fingers. Metal teeth flashed in her open jaw. Too many of them.
A mutated Spinosaurus. Much smaller ...
2025-10-05 10:49:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 92
Alexander paused on the terrace, breathing it all in. Salt air carried the warmth of sun-baked stone, mixing with the faint scent of olive trees from the gardens. The evening held onto the day’s heat, gentle against his skin.
One of the aliens sat on the low wall bordering the terrace, appendages moving in ...
2025-10-04 08:41:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 91
Despite exhaustion, pain, and injuries, the team stayed up late. Blood was washed away first. Armor removed. Wounds tended. Comfortable clothes worn. Then they gathered in the living room with their alien henchmen, as Annie insisted on calling them.
Talia went first. Her retelling was as it usually was; s...
2025-10-03 11:52:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 90
Light erupted in the center of the living room.
Talia materialized in a flash, katana sheathed at her hip, drone hovering at her shoulder. The disorientation lasted only a moment before her senses adjusted to the familiar surroundings.
Movement on the couch caught her attention.
The tentacled alie...
2025-10-03 11:51:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 89
The Inner Council’s emergency chamber sat at the heart of the Nexus, buried beneath kilometers of armor and shielding. The massive metroplex served as neutral ground for all species, positioned where the galaxy’s primary jump gate network converged in a web of a thousand trade routes. Billion...
2025-10-02 12:26:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 88
The Queen of Hearts stood over Vel’thanis. Blood ran down the left side of her face from temple to jaw. The alien’s psychic hammer had cracked something in her skull. Each heartbeat sent fresh pain through her head.
Vel’thanis lay broken on the crystalline platform. Four arms bent at wron...
2025-10-02 12:25:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 87
The Qi cannons swiveled toward him and opened fire. The nearest level fired first, then a heartbeat later the next joined in, then the next. The wave rolled upward just as it had against Chen Wei below.
Alexander threw himself sideways as obsidian projectiles filled the air where he’d been. Unlike the...
2025-10-01 12:40:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 86
The countdown ticked its final seconds. Alexander kept his breathing steady, forcing himself not to glance upward at the gap in the ceiling directly above him. Fifty floors to climb. Against someone whose energy signatures felt like barely contained lightning.
His gauntlets hummed to his senses with stored...
2025-10-01 12:40:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 85
Augustus fell.
The force wall had caught him square in the chest, sending him tumbling backward through empty space. He reconjured his wand to his hand while tumbling through the air. Gravity shifted halfway through his fall, turning his downward plunge into a sideways slide. He crashed onto a cube moving...
2025-09-30 10:19:29 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 84
“Third Dynasty,” Augustus said, breaking the silence. “I don’t believe that’s from my world.”
Erasmus glanced up from examining a floating cube. “No, it wouldn’t be. The Third Dynasty was the dominant magical empire of my world, two millennia past. They perfected arcane notation b...
2025-09-29 12:21:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 83
Annie scrambled to the platform’s edge and jumped.
Density Flux Control kicked in instinctively, lightening her body to carry her farther from those jaws. She cleared the gap to the next platform, but the landing jarred her legs as weight returned abruptly. Her left arm sprouted from her sho...
2025-09-29 12:17:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 82
The countdown had been ticking for over four minutes now. Neither had spoken. The knight stood in perfect stillness, longsword planted tip-down before him, helmeted head bowed over the crossguard as if in prayer. Talia had used the time to study the cathedral’s layout, memorizing every obstacle and piece of...
2025-09-28 11:44:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 81
The Queen of Hearts stood within her cylindrical barrier, examining the creature across from her with undisguised fascination. The arena stretched out between them: platforms of crystallized starlight floating in an endless void, each one refracting light into impossible patterns.
Her opp...
2025-09-28 11:44:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 80
[SYSTEM STATUS UPDATE]
Phase One Launch: Active. Multiversal Solo Combat Challenge initializing.
[DREAMER MATCHING PROTOCOLS]
Analyzing 9,846 voluntary participants across 9 reality indices...
Matching by compatible Dream evolution potential... Comp...
2025-09-27 13:46:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 79
Alexander’s stomach led him downstairs, gnawing hunger overriding everything else after nearly a full day of sleep. He followed the sounds of voices and laughter through the house, expecting to find the team in the kitchen.
Instead, he stepped onto the ground floor and saw them out on the expans...
2025-09-27 13:45:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 78
Talia woke with the first rays of sunlight peeking through her window.
Glancing down at the injection site, she frowned. She’d expected more from the serum. Some dramatic transformation, vivid sensations, or her mind exploding with new understanding. Instead, the injection had felt like n...
2025-09-27 13:44:33 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 77
After catching up and handing over their gear with instructions and advice, Alexander found a stretch of beach far enough from the house that he wouldn’t disturb anyone.
Rocky outcroppings jutted from the sand here, worn smooth by centuries of waves but still solid enough for what he needed. ...
2025-09-27 13:43:29 +0000 UTC View Post