Nails salons open

Just want to document this experience down and also share it here to anyone who’s interested. I was there on Day 3 and I had a blast. (It is going to be long.)
First off, setlist. Most of the songs were kept the same from TDS2 (except a few removals like Boom, Diggity, My Youth, Walk With You, Beatbox, We Go Up was played during pre-encore), but we got Drippin’, Rewind and Graduation. Haechan did mention that they didn’t have much time to prepare for this, yet the boys did great.
Some songs had new arrangements and I personally enjoyed them - they did the Glitch Mode domino choreo version with lots of dancers (so dope), Hot Sauce with Jaem taking the center and leading the intro beats with taps and claps, TTF was a band version with Chenle’s incredible extended adlibs at the end of the song (he said he did it jokingly during rehearsal and everyone ended up liking it so he did it during the concert).
Ending it with the sequence Rewind, Dear DREAM, Graduation was genius, esp for older fans like me who has gone through the part where members had to face the uncertainty of not being a fixed unit, to seeing the achievements these boys have reached today - it was an emotional ride.
Secondly, the members. Mark keeps getting better looking by the day! Even though his condition wasn’t great that night (the members mentioned it during instalive after), you can’t tell at all, he gives his 802% throughout. And you can clearly tell Mark loves and dotes on his dongsaeng members A LOT, just so much love in his ments and just the way he looks and interacts with them. Soo endearing to see.
Renjun remains everyone’s Heather, the chemistry between him and the members during stage interaction were so good I always look forward to them. When he had that solo spotlight during ANL bridge, he sounded sooo heavenly. He was in high-spirits that day, literally rolling on the stage and all that. But I thought it was really nice of him to mention the story about a fan who listened to Hello Future and gained strength for her operation during his ending ment. He got emotional and almost cried aww
Jeno is just electrifying on stage whenever he does the cooler tracks like Stronger, Countdown - his energy is unmatched. Yet on the other spectrum he’s such a softie (and cutie of course) when performing the ballads and more light-hearted tracks. Like TDS2, he said “I love you” to the members again that night during his ending ment that caught everyone’s surprised - such an endearing moment!
Haechan is my bias and he keeps proving why he is. His dance is so captivating everytime, his honey-like voice melts in my ears whenever he sings. He absolutely killed that opening of MFAL acapella version when there was no bgm or back vocals but his voice. He’s also such the moodmaker (which indirectly created the chaos where fans ask the members to reveal their abs), showing the 7Dream friendship rings to fans (he also revealed they did discuss to have a design for fans, hopefully this happens!)
Jaemin is another level - I love his stage quirkiness, I love how he calls us “princesses and princes”, I love how real is he when he mentioned our ‘hardships’ at coming to the concert, I love how he isn’t shy to create these cute lovable interactive moments with the fans. Aside from the abs reveal and how his chest was distracting me the whole time, I love seeing how he’s enjoying himself on stage. He’s such a fun one to watch.
Chenle is the member I was looking forward to the most because he couldn’t make it to my country’s stop during TDS2. He did NOT fall under any expectations at all - his passion was radiating, his adlibs, his vocals, his stage presence, how he also knows how to have fun on stage, these just confirm how essential of a member he is to the team and how his energy just makes the concert experience heaps better. I’m so glad I got to finally see him!
Jisung my baby, the only one who teared up during Graduation. His ments were so sincere my heart went soft, esp when he mentioned that this is not forever and wishes to create happy memories with fans as much as he can + he worked hard hoping to not feel our time is wasted. I just wish I could tell him that he is already doing very well! And hearing him sing live this minute and then rap the other, plus how well he nailed every dance solo during BTG, Glitch Mode, Hot Sauce just shows what a versatile and all-rounded idol he is. SM GIVE HIM A SOLO PRODUCTION ALR.
Lastly, some special mentions. I do think some friendships are worth mentioning here based on the concert. Haechan was looking at Mark during Graduation and this sent feels. We all know the emotional rollercoaster ride with the graduation system back then. Jaem and Jeno are practically the inseparable pair at this point - personally I enjoyed all their interactions on stage and those by them are the best for me. Major ‘best friends I wish I had what they have’ energy and vibes (that day was also their decade anniversary of first meeting each other in SM!) Jisung’s unexpected backhug to Chenle during Candy was also a pleasant surprise. And Ten, Kun, Yangyang, Minho came to the concert!
7Dream, though young, you can tell they are a bunch with experience and it shows. I can see their sincerity in every stage, also love how they are able to add their ideas to the stages making everything better. I can’t wait for their comeback this month already. IT’S GONNA BE GREAT KNOW IT.
That’s all!

Currently into an album called Enemy of man by a Polish black metal band called Kriegsmaschine.
Poland, notoriously known for being crucifyingly Christian (and from personal experience of a Polish friend), the nihilistic themes expressed feel like a shadow manifest beyond the usual corpse-painted black metal posture and preen.
Submitting the track/lyrics :
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tmajcUvtlcM&pp=ygUla3JpZWdzbWFzY2hpbmUgYXNjZXRpY2lzbSBhbmQgcGFzc2lvbg%3D%3D
Asceticism And Passion
Thus far inwards come few in this naught and this nowhere.
He who seeks the cross of Christ and falls alone, remains alone in his fall.
Thus far inwards come few in oblivion and all have failed.
He who seeks the cross of Christ shall fall and remain alone in his fall.
I am weary. I am drained. My prayer is adrift, my zeal bygone.
I am forsaken. I am lost. I am open for it to dwell.
An epiphany in starving darkness.
The hunger and the absence.
A new sun, whose rays are frozen and barbed. Oceans of stasis. Beyond Gehinnom. Void comes, void claims. No more I live. See it come in blood and horror as it tears through shrouds of will, as it rips through veils of psyche to conquer and to devour. See it come in death and doom to feed upon the seeds of doubt. Erect its throne upon dry remnants of shattered soul. Scio cui credidi. My heart and life have become a grotesque sanctuary wherein it manifests with glimpse of its void. Through every fiber of these putrid lungs each word resounds with bleak confidence andominous faith. Scio cui credidi. An epiphany in starving darkness. The hunger and the absence. Beyond Gehinnom. Void comes, void claims, I shall rise high this new heart of stone, forever closed to his love. A burden, yes, and a bitter reward for adoration of the three nails and true communion with God! I am transformed. I am given purpose. Scio cui credidi.
Bad English aside, to me, the track feels like a night-sea journey all alchemical albedo, nigredo, rubedo. Wondering if metal played a part in your journeys.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I come to you today with a heavy heart and a message that must be shared. The end of days is coming.
We have all heard the prophecies of the book of Revelation and the signs of the times that Jesus spoke of. Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famine, and disease are on the rise. The world seems to be spiraling out of control, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless.
But as Christians, we must remember that our hope is not in this world. Our hope is in Christ, who conquered death and promised to return one day to make all things new.
We must also remember that the end of days does not mean the end of the world. It means the end of the current age and the beginning of a new one. A time when Christ will reign supreme, and all things will be made right.
But until that day comes, we must be vigilant. We must stay true to our faith, even when it's difficult. We must love our neighbors, even when they don't love us back. We must pray for our leaders, even when we disagree with them.
And we must share the good news of Christ with those who have yet to hear it. For when the end of days comes, it will be too late for those who have not accepted Christ as their Savior.
So let us not be afraid of the end of days. Instead, let us embrace it as a time of hope and anticipation. A time when we will finally see our Lord face to face and be with him forever.
May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen.
As I sit here listening to the preacher's words, I can't help but feel completely detached from everything he's saying. It's like I'm watching a movie, but I'm not really there.
I used to be a devout Christian, but lately, something in me has changed. I feel like I'm going through the motions, but my heart isn't really in it.
The thought of the end of days doesn't really faze me anymore. In fact, sometimes I wonder if it would just be easier if it all ended. The world is so messed up, and I don't see how a loving God could let all this suffering happen.
I used to pray every night, but now I don't even know what to say. It feels like my faith has been drained out of me, and I'm left feeling empty and alone.
I know I should be seeking help or talking to someone about this, but I feel like no one would understand. My friends and family are all strong believers, and I don't want to disappoint them or be seen as a failure.
So, I continue to go through the motions, hoping that one day my faith will return. But as time goes on, I become more and more convinced that it's gone for good.
The end of days no longer holds any significance to me. It's just another event in a world that's already lost its meaning. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to find my way back to the faith that once gave me hope and purpose.
As I watch the news of the plague spreading across the world, I feel a sense of sadness and despair wash over me. The world is already so broken, and now this?
I used to believe that God had a plan, that everything happened for a reason. But now, I can't help but feel like we're all just pawns in some cruel game. How could a loving God let something like this happen?
Despite my doubts and questions, I still find myself praying. But it's more out of habit than anything else. I don't even know who or what I'm praying to anymore.
As the days go on, the situation worsens. People are dying left and right, and the world as we know it is falling apart. And yet, I still don't feel the sense of urgency or fear that I know I should.
Maybe it's because I've already lost my faith, or maybe it's just a defense mechanism. But I can't help but feel like this is all just a part of the cycle of life and death. We're born, we live, we die. It's all inevitable.
As I watch the world around me crumble, I can't help but wonder what the point of it all is. If there is a God, why would he let his creation suffer like this? And if there isn't, then what's the point of anything?
I know that these are dark thoughts, but I can't help but feel like I'm just being honest with myself. The end of days no longer holds any significance to me, because it feels like we've been living in the end of days for a long time now. what is faith but a mask we all wear. I think this as the mobs of people pull me from my home and hoist me onto a crudely built cross As I hang there, my arms stretched out and pain coursing through my body, I wonder if this is what it means to be faithful. To suffer and die for a belief that may or may not be true.as I hang here from this cross I can only describe it as an excruciating pain. My body feels heavy and every breath I take is a struggle. My hands and feet are nailed to the cross, and the blood is slowly trickling down my limbs. The heat of the sun beats down on me, and the sweat drips into my eyes, blurring my vision.
As the hours pass, my strength begins to fade, and I feel my life slipping away. I know that my death will be in vain. I offer nothing but hate and pain to those who have condemned me, and I ask my so called Father in heaven why he would allow this.
But as the mob below me cheers and jeers, I can't help but feel like this is all pointless. What does it matter if I believe in God or not? Does it really make a difference in the grand scheme of things?
I used to think that faith was a beautiful thing. That it gave people hope and purpose. But now, all I see is the violence and hatred that it can inspire.
As my vision starts to fade and my breathing becomes shallow, I wonder if I made the right choice. Was it worth it to hold onto my disbelief, even if it meant dying for it?
But in the end, it doesn't matter. Whether I lived or died, the world would keep turning. People would continue to believe what they wanted, and others would suffer for it.
As the light fades from my eyes, I take comfort in the fact that I stayed true to myself. That even in the face of death, I refused to wear the mask of faith.In my final moments, I feel a sense of release. The pain fades away, and I am enveloped in hatred and darkness. coughing blood spews from my mouth, as it falls to the ground to causes a hellish earthquake felt across the planet As the blood spills from my lips and hits the ground, I feel a surge of power coursing through me. It's as if all my pain and suffering has been transformed into something greater.
The earth shakes beneath me, the ground cracking and splitting open as the energy radiates outwards. People scream and run in terror as buildings topple and the very fabric of reality seems to fray.
But even in the midst of this chaos, I can't help but feel a sense of peace. I know that this is the end of my journey, that I have finally found my purpose.
As the last of my strength leaves me, I close my eyes and surrender to the darkness. And in that moment, I know that my legacy will live on. That the world will never forget the sacrifice I made, and the power that I unleashed.
For better or for worse, I have changed everything. And even in death, I will continue to shape the world around me.
Dark tendrils erupt from the ground and wrap around my body, I feel a sudden jolt of pain, followed by an overwhelming sensation of heat. The ground opens up beneath me, and I'm pulled downward into a swirling vortex of smoke and fire.
As I descend deeper into the underworld, I feel my body transforming. My flesh falls away, replaced by something darker and more powerful. I am reborn as a ruler of the damned, my eyes glowing with an unholy light.
The denizens of the underworld bow before me, recognizing my power and my authority. I am a master of the shadows, a lord of the abyss. And as I survey the landscape before me, I know that I have finally found my true calling.
No longer bound by the limitations of mortal flesh, I am free to explore the darkest corners of the universe. I am free to unleash my power and my wrath upon those who would dare to challenge me.
And as I bask in the glory of my new existence, I know that I will never again be bound by the petty concerns of the living. For I am now a creature of the night, a harbinger of doom, and a ruler of the damned. With my newfound power, I rise up from the depths of the underworld and make my way back to the world of the living. My mission is clear - to seek out those who had wronged me and make them pay for their sins.
As I walk among the living, I am a shadowy figure, barely visible to mortal eyes. But those who have wronged me can feel my presence, and they tremble in fear.
One by one, I seek out my enemies, and I strike them down with the force of my wrath. They scream and beg for mercy, but I am beyond mercy now. I am a creature of vengeance, and I will not rest until they have all been punished.
As I continue on my quest for revenge, I realize that my power has no limits. I am stronger than any mortal, and I am immune to their feeble attempts to stop me.
And so I continue to wreak havoc on those who have wronged me, until finally, I am satisfied. My revenge is complete, and I can finally rest.
But even in death, I am still a ruler of the damned. And should anyone ever cross me again, they will know the full extent of my wrath.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I come to you today with a heavy heart and a message that must be shared. The end of days is coming.
We have all heard the prophecies of the book of Revelation and the signs of the times that Jesus spoke of. Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famine, and disease are on the rise. The world seems to be spiraling out of control, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless.
But as Christians, we must remember that our hope is not in this world. Our hope is in Christ, who conquered death and promised to return one day to make all things new.
We must also remember that the end of days does not mean the end of the world. It means the end of the current age and the beginning of a new one. A time when Christ will reign supreme, and all things will be made right.
But until that day comes, we must be vigilant. We must stay true to our faith, even when it's difficult. We must love our neighbors, even when they don't love us back. We must pray for our leaders, even when we disagree with them.
And we must share the good news of Christ with those who have yet to hear it. For when the end of days comes, it will be too late for those who have not accepted Christ as their Savior.
So let us not be afraid of the end of days. Instead, let us embrace it as a time of hope and anticipation. A time when we will finally see our Lord face to face and be with him forever.
May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen.
As I sit here listening to the preacher's words, I can't help but feel completely detached from everything he's saying. It's like I'm watching a movie, but I'm not really there.
I used to be a devout Christian, but lately, something in me has changed. I feel like I'm going through the motions, but my heart isn't really in it.
The thought of the end of days doesn't really faze me anymore. In fact, sometimes I wonder if it would just be easier if it all ended. The world is so messed up, and I don't see how a loving God could let all this suffering happen.
I used to pray every night, but now I don't even know what to say. It feels like my faith has been drained out of me, and I'm left feeling empty and alone.
I know I should be seeking help or talking to someone about this, but I feel like no one would understand. My friends and family are all strong believers, and I don't want to disappoint them or be seen as a failure.
So, I continue to go through the motions, hoping that one day my faith will return. But as time goes on, I become more and more convinced that it's gone for good.
The end of days no longer holds any significance to me. It's just another event in a world that's already lost its meaning. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to find my way back to the faith that once gave me hope and purpose.
As I watch the news of the plague spreading across the world, I feel a sense of sadness and despair wash over me. The world is already so broken, and now this?
I used to believe that God had a plan, that everything happened for a reason. But now, I can't help but feel like we're all just pawns in some cruel game. How could a loving God let something like this happen?
Despite my doubts and questions, I still find myself praying. But it's more out of habit than anything else. I don't even know who or what I'm praying to anymore.
As the days go on, the situation worsens. People are dying left and right, and the world as we know it is falling apart. And yet, I still don't feel the sense of urgency or fear that I know I should.
Maybe it's because I've already lost my faith, or maybe it's just a defense mechanism. But I can't help but feel like this is all just a part of the cycle of life and death. We're born, we live, we die. It's all inevitable.
As I watch the world around me crumble, I can't help but wonder what the point of it all is. If there is a God, why would he let his creation suffer like this? And if there isn't, then what's the point of anything?
I know that these are dark thoughts, but I can't help but feel like I'm just being honest with myself. The end of days no longer holds any significance to me, because it feels like we've been living in the end of days for a long time now. what is faith but a mask we all wear. I think this as the mobs of people pull me from my home and hoist me onto a crudely built cross As I hang there, my arms stretched out and pain coursing through my body, I wonder if this is what it means to be faithful. To suffer and die for a belief that may or may not be true.as I hang here from this cross I can only describe it as an excruciating pain. My body feels heavy and every breath I take is a struggle. My hands and feet are nailed to the cross, and the blood is slowly trickling down my limbs. The heat of the sun beats down on me, and the sweat drips into my eyes, blurring my vision.
As the hours pass, my strength begins to fade, and I feel my life slipping away. I know that my death will be in vain. I offer nothing but hate and pain to those who have condemned me, and I ask my so called Father in heaven why he would allow this.
But as the mob below me cheers and jeers, I can't help but feel like this is all pointless. What does it matter if I believe in God or not? Does it really make a difference in the grand scheme of things?
I used to think that faith was a beautiful thing. That it gave people hope and purpose. But now, all I see is the violence and hatred that it can inspire.
As my vision starts to fade and my breathing becomes shallow, I wonder if I made the right choice. Was it worth it to hold onto my disbelief, even if it meant dying for it?
But in the end, it doesn't matter. Whether I lived or died, the world would keep turning. People would continue to believe what they wanted, and others would suffer for it.
As the light fades from my eyes, I take comfort in the fact that I stayed true to myself. That even in the face of death, I refused to wear the mask of faith.In my final moments, I feel a sense of release. The pain fades away, and I am enveloped in hatred and darkness. coughing blood spews from my mouth, as it falls to the ground to causes a hellish earthquake felt across the planet As the blood spills from my lips and hits the ground, I feel a surge of power coursing through me. It's as if all my pain and suffering has been transformed into something greater.
The earth shakes beneath me, the ground cracking and splitting open as the energy radiates outwards. People scream and run in terror as buildings topple and the very fabric of reality seems to fray.
But even in the midst of this chaos, I can't help but feel a sense of peace. I know that this is the end of my journey, that I have finally found my purpose.
As the last of my strength leaves me, I close my eyes and surrender to the darkness. And in that moment, I know that my legacy will live on. That the world will never forget the sacrifice I made, and the power that I unleashed.
For better or for worse, I have changed everything. And even in death, I will continue to shape the world around me.
Dark tendrils erupt from the ground and wrap around my body, I feel a sudden jolt of pain, followed by an overwhelming sensation of heat. The ground opens up beneath me, and I'm pulled downward into a swirling vortex of smoke and fire.
As I descend deeper into the underworld, I feel my body transforming. My flesh falls away, replaced by something darker and more powerful. I am reborn as a ruler of the damned, my eyes glowing with an unholy light.
The denizens of the underworld bow before me, recognizing my power and my authority. I am a master of the shadows, a lord of the abyss. And as I survey the landscape before me, I know that I have finally found my true calling.
No longer bound by the limitations of mortal flesh, I am free to explore the darkest corners of the universe. I am free to unleash my power and my wrath upon those who would dare to challenge me.
And as I bask in the glory of my new existence, I know that I will never again be bound by the petty concerns of the living. For I am now a creature of the night, a harbinger of doom, and a ruler of the damned. With my newfound power, I rise up from the depths of the underworld and make my way back to the world of the living. My mission is clear - to seek out those who had wronged me and make them pay for their sins.
As I walk among the living, I am a shadowy figure, barely visible to mortal eyes. But those who have wronged me can feel my presence, and they tremble in fear.
One by one, I seek out my enemies, and I strike them down with the force of my wrath. They scream and beg for mercy, but I am beyond mercy now. I am a creature of vengeance, and I will not rest until they have all been punished.
As I continue on my quest for revenge, I realize that my power has no limits. I am stronger than any mortal, and I am immune to their feeble attempts to stop me.
And so I continue to wreak havoc on those who have wronged me, until finally, I am satisfied. My revenge is complete, and I can finally rest.
But even in death, I am still a ruler of the damned. And should anyone ever cross me again, they will know the full extent of my wrath.

[←Chapter 63] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 65→]
In a rare moment, Sorore was actually having a nice dream, a normal one, one could even say. She was back home, in that moderately seized house in Erratz, laying on her mother’s lap. She could even hear the gentle sound that the needle made as it went in and out of the cloth. It was peaceful, pleasant, surrounded by familiar sound and smells, though her sight was blurry and confused.
It was not to last, as the sound of rushing water overtook all else, until she was forced awake by its unrelenting pace. When she sat up, rubbing her eyes in the broad bed, she released that it wasn’t the sound of water, nor was it relegated to her dreams. There was a commotion outside people talking in hushed but harsh tones.
Neither Lillian, nor Aya were within the room, and she wondered if they were having an argument. That wouldn’t be good - she’d watched them have the spat earlier, and that dispute didn’t need much worsening. Sorore crept to the door to the outer hallway - she loved how they slid to create whole new rooms. It was something she’d have to think about more she decided as she pulled it open and realised several things at once.
One, there were a whole lot of armoured figures in the hallway, at least four, maybe half a dozen. Two, the balcony door was open, and Lillian was currently arguing with one of them, Aya standing by looking like a mining explosive had gone off right next to her. Three, her brother and Niche had just emerged out of the room beside, and Niche was about to draw his sword at the sudden intrusion.
For a moment, she panicked, her mind going completely blank. Her mind raced with visions of bloody aftermath, and a chase through the city, back to the dinner she’d had with all those nice people.
“Oh, hello!” she blurted, drawing the surprised stares of several of the men, “who might you be?”
There was an instant of shocked silence between all parties.
“Nobody do anything!” called the man who was out on the porch, “We are representatives of the sand-shell legion, on behalf of the matriarch of the Eisen. We have come to retrieve her granddaughter.”
Niche lowered his hand from his sword belt, but Sorore could tell that he was ready to fight on a moment’s provocation. She also noticed that Kieren, in the same gown she’d worn to the square was standing in the stairwell. The woman looked so nervous Sorore thought she might fall over and down the stairs.
“Let’s move to a less cramped area,” said the captain, in a tone that brook no argument.
Eventually, it was sussed out, though not without considerable resistance on part of the paladins, that they were to meet in the great hall. As they sat, they were brought simple drinks of milk and honey, flavoured with something else that Sorore could not quite place. The two paladins looked like pacing cats, constrained on their chairs, arms crossed and eyes hard.
“Under no circumstances can we give one of ours into you custody,” said Lillian, locked in a match with the captain.
“Within the city, you are under the authority of the guard, no matter who you are. If the matriach has sent for this girl, then we have our orders.”
“As do we, captain,” said Niche, “to protect and guide each of these young women and… man, unto the holy lands of Angorrah.”
One of the guards flanking the captain whispered something in his ear.
“She’s not going to like it,” the captain said, then heard something else.
“Very well. Bloodshed before the Festival would be unwise. We have enough of that already. Right then, one of you paladins, assuming you are who you say you are, shall come with us and the lady to be received by the Eisen. I cannot say it’s likely you will have a happy reception. They will expect you to come unarmed.”
The paladins were bristling at the implied threat, and several hands were already dangerously close to their sword belts. Sorore gripped the mug that she was being offered, before Aya sat up and proclaimed to the group.
“Leave two of your men with us, then,” she said.
The captain’s eyes furrowed.
“I don’t wish to second guess you, my lady,” he said, “but why would I do that?”
“Trust,” Aya said, with a side long look at Lillian, “simple. If you leave your men with us, you can’t simply waltz off with me and my friend. Plus, it gives us men who know, and can quickly get around the city, so they can find you whenever they need to.”
The captain considered, and nodded.
“Very well my lady. Two men will be left for the disposal of your party members. But you shall have to come with us, immediately.”
“Me as well,” said Lillian.
“As you wish,” he said, “but you must disarm yourself. That is non-negotiable.”
Lillian was fuming, but unbuckled her belt and handed her armaments to Niche. The legionaries surrounded them, and departed with them out the front of the pyramid. They were left in front of the roaring fire, Kieren sitting beside them holding a considerably more full glass of the amber coloured alcohol.
“You said that this-” Niche began, his face reddened, “you sold us out!”
“Sold you out?” said Kieren incuriously as she swirled the glass around, “sold you out?”
The woman slammed down the glass on one of the nearby table, somehow not breaking it in the process.
“Maybe, you should of told us that you had the granddaughter of Aystara godsdamned Eisen in your retinue? No, forgot that little detail?”
“Okay, can we get this over with?” said Frare, picking at his nails.
“What?” said both the paladin and the trader, staring at the temerity of the youth.
“Blah, blah, we’ve all kept things from eachother,” he said, “so let’s all move on. Who is this ‘Aystara’? Why is she important?”
While Niche gaped at the casual ease from which Frare dismissed the turbulence, the trader seemed to settle.
“Only one of the two most powerful people in the city, young man,” she said, downing a shot from the glass, “between her and Edmund Poutash, it’d be easier to list what they don’t own. The docks, the schools, the farms… if you want an import or export licence? You go through her. You want to own a ship bigger than a rinky-dink fishing boat? You go through her or Potash.”
She finished the glass, and reached for the decanter, and stopped herself.
“And you waltz into the city, and conveniently forget to mention that you have her granddaughter, who hasn’t been in the city ever, if I remember correctly. To say she’d be furious that you didn’t bring the young lady before her immediately would be an understatement. And worse, you dragged us into it.”
“She must be awfully mean - you had nothing to do with us. You just hosted it.”
The woman blinked at the boldfaced remark, and Sorore delivered a good kick to his shins to drive the point home.
“No, no,” she ultimately said, “no I don’t think she’ll do anything to our family, if she believes us. She’s not unreasonable. At least, so I’ve heard. I’ve only met her once, and that was for a brief time. As for what she’ll do to you...”
She gave a pointed look at Niche.
“You tried to hid her granddaughter from her, maybe unintentionally, maybe not. If I were a betting woman, which I’m not, I would say that means trouble. If you want my advice-”
“I don’t,” said Niche, crinkling his noise.
“Don’t be stupid,” said Frare, before he howled at another kick.
Sorore’s face was burning with indignation and embarrassment. This was all too much.
“If you want my advice,” Kieren pressed on, “you’d go find and talk to your commander immediately. I could fetch for him if you wish - I know where Amicio’s home is.”
Niche, through narrowed eyes and clenched teeth, acquiesced.
“Good, now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some letters to send,” she said, “of course, though this has earned you no small amount of displeasure from certain peoples, we’ve been instructed to provide you with house and board for as long as it takes to sort this out. You are still welcome guests and you will be treated as such.”
The tepid truce struck, the children were sent back up to their rooms. Sorore tried to sleep, and managed no more than half an hour before she was woken by her brother.
“The commander’s here,” he said, “he wants to talk to us.”
The commander, looking very tired, but light of step than Sorore had ever seen him, waited by the fire. He was talking with Kieren and the two remaining legionarries in the fast-paced trading tongue of the city, but stopped when he saw the girl come downstairs.
“My lady,” he said, “it seems there’s been a huge misunderstanding.”
She realized that it was his manner of dress which was throwing her off. Instead of his usual worn and thoroughly practical travelling clothes, he wore the long flowing silks of orange and cream. It suited him, matching his calm personality.
“What misunderstanding?” she said.
“Well, we had no idea that our own Aya was the granddaughter of Aystara Eisen herself. I was surprised as anyone. Of course, I knew she was an Eisen, from her mother.”
He looked at Kieren, who looked like she was about to fall asleep.
“But I never imagined that she was a direct descendent of the main house. I thought she was part of the branch, not necessary to cause any fuss, especially during the preparation of the festival. Ah!”
He slapped his head to indicate his shock at the realisation.
“What a terrible mistake I’ve made,” he said, patting the woman’s arm, “this is all on my horrendous lack of judgement. Here’s what’s going to happen, one of these gentlemen and trader Amicio will be vouching for me at the gate. I’m going to the Eisen estate and having a friendly chat with the matriarch, to clear up this misunderstanding.”
Sorore felt at last some suggestion that someone around the city knew what was happening and what they were going to do.
“Here’s what I need you and your brother to do,” Naia said, “I want you to wait and enjoy the hospitality of the madame of the house.”
The term seemed to flatter Kieren, who flushed at the complement. Or that might’ve been the drink, Sorore wasn’t entirely sure.
“Niche, you take care of them. I expect that I might be at the estate for the rest of the night, and possibly onto next afternoon. Things are always so chaotic around the Festival. There’s no reason for you not to attend the festival opening tomorrow, if you can.”
“You want us to attend a festival?” said Niche in disbelief, “right now?”
“Well, not right now, it hasn’t started yet,” said the commander, “but, if Kieren would graciouslly agree to take you as guest of honour, you’d have excellent seats. If that’s not too much to ask, especially after our little debacle.”
Kieren nodded, and affirmed that she wouldn’t mind at all, if the matter was going to be soon cleared up. Sorore was now certain that it wasn’t just alcohol.
“Great. You’re all taken care of, now I’d better explain myself. If you wouldn’t mind,” he said, pointing to the quarter full glass, which Kieren handed to him. The commander downed it all in one, rolled his shoulders, and smiled.
“Don’t worry. It’ll all work out in the end,” he said, “in fact, I would say to enjoy yourselves, as much as you can. And best go back to bed, unless you want to be sleeping during the festival, which, I assure you from experience, you do not.”
Before they could say anything, the commander had swept by them, vanishing out of the front of the pyramid.
“You should heed him,” said Kieren, picking up the decanter and the glass and moving towards the kitchens, “if you’re stuck here for the time being, you might as well enjoy it And that starts with getting good sleep.”
“Last time you said that, we woke up to armed guards,” Niche said flatly.
“Well, I assure you, I’m not boring enough to do that a second time. It would be assassin’s from across the streets, who approach over the rooftops.”
“Do they actually exist?” asked Frare, suddenly excited.
“Oh, I’m sure,” said Kieren as she stowed away her drinking equipment, “but not tonight. Go get some sleep sir paladin, and you two young ones as well. You’ll need it.”
Sorore was cajoled up the steps, Frare coming up after her. Niche seemed placated enough for the time being, though he was clearly unhappy with the outcome. The pleasant dreams neglected to revisit for a second time, but at least the sleep was uninterrupted. When Soroe next awoke, it was a young handmadein, pulling open the screen doors.
“Good morning, my lady,” she said, “how did you sleep?”
“I- well enough, I suppose,” she said, stretching and yawning, before quickly covering her mouth.
The maid had the presence of mind not to notice as she revealed the bright sunlight streaming through the open balcony.
“It must almost be midday!” Sorore exclaimed, leaping out of the bed as she tried to straighten herself.
The maid chuckled as she finished opening up the room.
“Not to fear, my lady,” she said, “it’s customary to sleep into the early afternoon. The Festival does not start until just before sunset, afterall. In fact, you might be earlier than many of the household.”
“Oh,” Soroe said, feeling rather foolish, “Um. Well, I guess I’ll get dressed.”
“Of course. I’ve left out some clothes for you. Madame Kieren suggested that you try clothes from our city. I hope you’ll love them. Do you bathe?”
Sorore wrinkled her nose at the prospect. What kind of question was that?
“Of course I do,” she said.
“Well, there’s a place to bath at the bottom of the pyramid. If you wish to bath alone, you should go now - I’ll bring you clothes for you to change at the waterfront.”
“You bathe together here?” Sorore said
“In the mornings and evenings,” she said, “we do not bring water up into the house if we cannot avoid it. To the stone goes the sea, and to the home goes the sky.”
She looked around, then leaned in with a smile.
“Also, water is very troublesome to carry up all those flights.”
“So just come down to the waterfront?” she said, gathering up what spare things she needed.
“Just follow me, my lady,” said the handmaiden, picking up a pile of clothes and leading her down the stairs.
They emerged onto an inset pool carved into the pyramid interior. A smooth stone deck, with benches and chairs and stacks of towels, as well as several large paper screens, presumably for changing. Sorore was glad to see they were alone, at least for the time being.
At the handmaid, Kiroe’s, direction, she stripped down naked and plunged into the pool. The water was a perfect temperature - cold enough to dispel the last of the grogginess, warm enough to be pleasant to float in. She swam around for a bit, constrained by the relatively small volume, while Kiroe prepared her outfit on the deck.
“Do you mind if I join you?” came a voice from the other end.
Kieren slipped out of a thin morning dress and stepped into the water. Sorore swam over and came to stand beside her.
“Is there any news? About Aya and the commander?” she said, a little too quickly.
Kieren, who’d been sinking into the water with a sigh of contentment, opened one eye.
“Straight to business? Perhaps you are better suited to the city than I thought.”
Sorore tried to smile, but her concern was betrayed, judging by the woman’s softening of expression.
“My knowledge is limited. My uncle is serving as our representative for now. Sounds like your commander was at least allowed to make his case to the Eisen. He made note of one other companion of yours.”
“Oh? Who?” she said, pushing out into the pool, feeling the water surge over her shoulders.
“A man in black clothes,” she said, “who hides his face behind a mask. He was there for the meeting.”
“The mage?” said Sorore, before considering that she maybe shouldn’t have mentioned it.
“A mage?” said Kieren, before submerging herself in the water.
She tossed her hair back as she came back up, spraying water in a neat arc.
“Well, that explains his odd demeanour,” she said, “now, regrettably, that’s all the time I have today for bathing. I will see you at the festival.”
“Hello cousin! May I join- oh,” came a voice from the steps leading out.
It was Ivers, dressed in nothing but a loose robe, which was already half-way off his body, sculpted with muscle from hauling rope and tackle. Sorore stifled a gasp and turned away, trying not to redden.
“I can come back later,” he offered.
“Do you mind?” Kieren said to Sorore, “if you do, it’d be best to finish soon and let others bathe.”
“No, no,” she said, waving her host away.
Kiero had warned her, after all. It would be best to become accustomed to the strange ways of this beautiful city. Besides, it’s not like she hadn’t bathed before in the company of men her age back home. She cursed herself for being so self-conscious, and forced herself to turn around.
“Are you sure? I can leave if you want, it’s not-” Ivers began.
“No, it’s fine. It’s fine,” Sorore said, smiling at him, “it’d be good to have companionship.”
“Well, then, Ivers, I trust you’ll behave yourself,” said Kieren rising from the water.
“Of course, cousin,” Ivers said, casting his eyes to the floor.
Sorore tried not to take a wicked pleasure at the blush that crept across his dark complexion.
“Oh, one more thing,” whispered her host, bending over to the girl, “it’s considered polite to not look when they’re outside the water.”
Kieren laughed at Sorore’s own furious blush as she made for one of the poolside changing screens.
[←Chapter 63] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 65→]

My boyfriend and I have been dating for four years. We both love each other very much, and have never fought during our years together, and usually just talk things out. We are currently doing long distance due to going to separate colleges, but we only live 1.5 hours away from each other so we see each other once or twice a month. Despite all of this, we have really good communication, and long distance is ok for the both of us. My boyfriend has more female friends than guy friends, and that is something I am completely fine with. We trust each other and I am known for being a very lenient girlfriend. I trust that he won't cheat on me, and all of his friends tell me that he is super loyal to me and I know that if he did something they would tell me. Something to note though is that I have strict parents, so a lot of the things I want to do with him are not possible because of my parents.
On his campus he met a girl who's one year below him and they clicked really well. She's nice and I can tell that their relationship is the sibling type, but for some reason I find the things that they do a little weird. They are gym partners and they study together (with the girl's boyfriend sometimes) at night at the library. They also send each other good morning and good night messages. She wanted to paint his nails and he was opened to it but I felt uncomfortable because I feel like that's a girlfriend boyfriend thing.
It is currently the summer now and he is back home, but she lives 5 minutes away from him, while I live 20 minutes away. They now go to the gym almost every single day, and after some days he would run errands with her, like going with her to Sephora, taking her to get her haircut, grocery shopping, and clothes shopping. He hangs out with her more than he hangs out with me due to the proximity of their houses. They went on a roadtrip together because the girl's boyfriend lives there and my boyfriend's brother lives there, and the girl is staying at my boyfriend's brothers place and the 3 of them are going to be drinking together. He is going out to eat with the girl and her mom. I can't hang out with him as much this summer because I am also studying for an admissions test that takes months to study for, but I always make sure to hang out with him at least once a week.
I've talked about how their friendship felt weird to me and how it feels like I am equal to her, but he says to think of her like a childhood best friend (despite them knowing each other for less than a year). He also expressed reassurance, and I can tell that he loves me very much. He acknowledges that he hangs with her more than me, but he said that he doesn't want to be stuck at home and bored so thats why he hangs out with her so much. He said he wants me to try to not stress as much when he hangs out with her or else it will make him worry and will end up not having a good time because of me. He even brought up that he is worried that me stressing over this is affecting my studies, and that if I continue to not feel good about it, he indirectly said we can break up. This makes me feel like he chose this friendship with her over our 4 year relationship. I feel like he doesn't understand how I feel because I don't really have guy friends because I am introverted, so there is nothing for him to really be jealous about. I am happy that he has found this girl who he clicks really well with and I would never ask them to break off their friendship, but I was hoping that she would just stay as a friend and not be extremely close because some of these things that they are doing feel like a boyfriend girlfriend exclusive thing.
I just wanted people's thoughts about this. I can trust that they won't do anything, but the closeness of their friendship in such a short timeframe feels unsettling to me. I know it is my fault that I can't hang with him as much, but sitting on the sidelines watching them together makes me feel worse. Am I overreacting, is this type of friendship normal? Please let me know your thoughts on the situation, thank you so much for reading.

~Escape The Night~ PvE w/PvP ZonesWIPED3PPHelisAI-BossesRaidingBBP100kNoobsKeycardsAirdropBunkersParty-SystemTraderBlackmarketBankingDrugsBedRespawnSpawnSelectVehicles+Guns+Loot+
IP: 51.81.221.168:7915
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Server Restart Intervals Are At 5:40AM PST - 11:40AM PST - 5:40PM PST 11:40PM PST
BASE BUILDING: AT THE MOMENT TRADERS DO NOT SELL NAILS/FOOD/ARMOR, for a more survival feel we made base building a little more grindy than other servers for a better experience (MOD: BASE BUILDING PLUS), THERE IS NO BUIDLING NEAR PVP ZONES, HIDEOUTS, OR TRADERS (500m from Hideouts/Traders, 300m from PVP zones). Get your grind on and have fun with more of an immersive pvp building system. We have BasicTerritories/PVEZE Flag Zones. You need a flagpole to make a base & you need a flag fully raised on your pole to enable PvP. Since we use PVEZ the flags help in case you need to defend against a raid. The flag also helps keep all your items secure from poofing away. Sadly bases can be raided even with your flag pole lowered. So it’s recommended that you keep your flag pole raised.
ALL BASES HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF VEHICLES THEY CAN POSSESS! Each base can have a max of 3 Land Vehicles & 2 Helicopters (This Is To Help Prevent Lag)
PVP ZONES/PVE: All PVP Zones contain either a military spot on the map, or Custom Keycard areas, Custom Key Cards spawn randomly around the map or in airdrops/military bases/bunkers.THERE IS ABSOULETLY NO KILLING OUTSIDE PVP ZONES, what ever damage you afflict on another Survior, that damage will come back to you, this a noob/pve setting of a server so show some respect.
KEYCARDS: There many different keycards you can get but they all are different. Some have different loot, some have mixed loot. Rare keycard rooms give 10x better loot than normal military/bm loot. There Is 2 Red/Black/Violet/Green Rooms. 1 Yellow/Blue/Med Lab/White Rooms.
Right Now The Keycards Ranging From Best To Worst Are Red, Black, Yellow, White, Violet, Green, Blue, Med Laboratory. There will probably be more in the future. Red Keycard Loaded but is suuuper rare.
(NOTE: Right now please don't fly into keycard areas. We recently added helis again and some areas are possible to fly into (AI will probably shoot them down but still we want keycards to be used to access keycard areas. ALSO When you open a keycard room it will stay open until server restart because the loot crates wont reset until after restart)
THE BUNKER: Right now there is currently 1 bunker on the server. You need a White Keycard to enter it & when you enter it turns to total darkness. You'll need a light or nvgs too see anything after entering. This place is worth checking out but be careful of possible chances of Zombies/AI. The bunker is really nice for finding blackmarket items and chances decent/guns/armoammo.
TRAVEL TRADER: We recently added a trader that can change locations and also change what they Buy/Sell! The Travel Trader Can Spawn At Any Keycard Locations (Based On When I Move Them) & Trades Rare Items Other Traders Might Not Sell Or Might Buy/Sell At A Discount!
TRADERS: Traders are all around the map and they only sell certain items there. Very high powered weapons cannot be bought a civ traders, they will most likely be purchasable at Blackmarket or not purchasable at all, you will need to scavenge your way around the map if you want to be the best, there are no handouts. Normal Civ Traders will have the essentials there to survive.
AI/BOSSES: AI spawn at all keycards/hideouts except Blue/Green Keycards. They have a chance to spawn anywhere else. There are 3 Bosses on the server. Killa, Zryachiy, the Goons. Killa spawns at Red/Black/Yellow Keycards. Zryachiy spawns at Prison Island. The Goons can spawn at Red/Black/White/Med Lab. The Goons are the rarest Bosses to run into right now while Killa and Zryachiy are about the same. Killa and Zryachiy can have guards.

Hi! My name is David, and I'm a 27yo nerd in search of a woman who shares and understands my interests, needs, desires, etc. Someone who enjoys PC gaming, metal, reading, and other hobbies/interests I have, while also being a decent, patient, understanding, open-minded, affectionate, and funny person. Physical attraction has always been important to me, and I'd like my partner to be somewhere between average and chubby sized, regardless of height. Big chests are always a plus too! ;^)
I guess I should describe myself first by what my personality's like, which is mostly introverted and quiet unless given an opportunity to talk about my interests or important things. Even moreso in person, which is why I prefer a good while to talk online before meeting up. I'm very open to LDR because of this, too. I'm good at making puns but bad at telling jokes. I like to be verbally and physically affectionate, even though physical touch is sometimes uncomfortable for me. I'm not sure what else at the moment, though, it's always been hard to describe myself this way.
Instead of describing my interests in the order that I enjoy them, I'm going to do it in reverse this time. So, the first is reading, and it's something I do when I feel like I can put the mental energy towards doing it. Not that I don't like it, but not every author writes books the same way, and it can be taxing to read through a chapter that feels too long. But, my favorite book series is Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect novels, and I've always enjoyed reading them. All three feature a lot of the same characters, but have different overall plots that connect together. I love the games and I love the books just as much, and they're decent modern sci-fi novels. 2001: A Space Odyssey is also a favorite, I like the mystery and hard sci-fi of that novel, plus it's an easy book to read. I'm not all that into fantasy books, but I like the story of The Hobbit to enjoy reading it, despite the long chapters and the winding way that Tolkien writes things. And I'm currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, which is mysterious and interesting so far. Aside from your regular novels, I enjoy graphic novels as well, mostly The Crow, Hard Boiled, Mass Effect Complete Comics, and Watchmen.
Musically, I'm very much a fan of classic rock, grunge, industrial, nu metal, power metal, and a few other genres that I can't really define. I really enjoy Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Disturbed, Audioslave, Unleash The Archers, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden more than anything, and I have entire physical discographies of some of them. I like a little bit of Arch Enemy, Pale Waves, Hot Milk, The Offspring, Victorius, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and quite a few video game soundtracks. I don't have a lot of band merch besides some patches and Iron Maiden figurines (they came with deluxe edition box sets), but I want to eventually.
The game genres that I mostly like to play are retro PC first-person shooters, RPGs, and open-world games, with a few indie-type games (like Terraria and Stardew). Mostly singleplayer. Doom, Quake, DUSK, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Mass Effect, Fallout New Vegas, Disco Elysium, System Shock (currently playing through the original 1st time), stuff like that. I like FPS games that are mostly fair with combat and RPGs with good roleplay mechanics, and I lean towards sci-fi and post apocalyptic. I don't have a strong laptop to play games with, so I've learned to appreciate games with older graphics and gameplay, plus some have nostalgia for me (I still have the old Steam copies of GTA III to San Andreas that were delisted in 2021). Being a PC gamer, I also have a huge backlog.
That's pretty much everything I wanted to say, so let me know if you want to talk! Brownie points for selfies and questions will be rewarded!

I’ve been working at a nail salon for a month and during my time there, the boss’s husband pointed out my little mistakes like forgetting to put my nail polish back on the wall (which only happened ONCE). I also used his desk to paint this little girl’s nails and forgot to put his water container to the right side after because I got called for another customer. When I sat back down he said you forgot something and I asked what and he picked up the container and aggressively placed it on the “wrong” side which was where I had put it and he said if you’re not gonna put my stuff back to where they were then don’t touch them. I was in the wrong here, but I’ve NEVER used his stuff at all and he was having an attitude with me like I make mistakes all the time. But get this, 1) he forgot to turn off the water for the pedicure bowl which almost overflowed if I hadn’t turned it off for him and I never thought it up bc I’m a decent human; 2) he forgot to put his nail polishes back at least 3 times and I was the one who cleaned it up for him; 3) he doesn’t even wash his tools with soap; 4) he doesn’t sanitize his station sometimes so I do it for him without ever talking about it bc I’m nice. Anyways, 2 weeks ago, he didn’t put the plastic cover on the pedi bowl so I told him he had to but he just shrugged and walked off and his wife giggled and said “hehe I guess he forgot.” Okay, I’ll just do it one last time. So then he CHOSE not to clean his bowl a second time so I got angry bc why does he think he can bitch about me not putting nail polish away but he’s not cleaning a whole fcking bowl where 8 people a day use that very same bowl???? Of course I brought it up to him and he aggressively responded “DONT WORRY ABOUT IT” and he walked towards it so I thought oh he’s gonna clean it but noooo he went straight into the break room and started watching YouTube. He also didn’t put the dirty towels in the laundry room (which was in the break room) so I picked it up and told him “you didn’t put this away either” and he full on yelled “I TOLD YOU DONT WORRY ITS MY JOB ITS MY BUSINESS” so I said “you’re always telling me what I do wrong but I can’t? Go do your job 😐” and walked off. His wife and sister are the ones who own the store so I told the sister what happened and she said “he just talks rough he wasn’t mad so try to be understanding of him”… he never cleaned it up. He went straight home. Now everyone at work is calling me a disrespectful brat for giving an entitled old man a taste of his own medicine. AITA?
Edit: I was wondering how they all caught wind of this but apparently the girl who was in the room with us at the time started gossiping and turned it into a “the new hire yelled at the husband and demanded him to clean” despite not knowing the full context and he most likely victimized himself because my friend told me she heard him saying my name. Also to the people telling me to quit, my coworkers and bosses are kind people, but my issue with this whole situation is how they’re all siding with him because of the fact that he’s older than me. If it gets worse, I’m definitely quitting LOL

So, Im 20 y.o. whasian trans woman. I have been growing my hair for a year now from a undercut and next week im going to my first (non transphobic and open minded) hair salon and I would like some ideas for hair cut. Im still not confortable having an all out feminine haircut and would prefer more androgynous look. Straight dark thick hair (mostly asian like). Any ideas would be great and thanks for reading this far.

Hello Folks,
Looking for some input on my setup starting to fail me. I have been using a freezepipe rig and e-nail, which was very nice for a while. I think I have officially killed it, with the bottom plastic cracked and the controls gooped up with wax. That rig/enail was my treat to myself a while back, but with the enail busted, I have since resorted back to the bucket/spinner cap. I use a 25mm with spinner cap on 2 different rigs that I rotate on a weekly clean schedule. I bought a turp-slurper to try that out, new buckets & pearls, etc...
I can't help but feel like my dabs are not ripping the same as they used to. It's been a few weeks with newer buckets. I may have torched them a little heavy getting used to the open flame again, but is there any way they can just die out? They don't retain heat by any means and the dabs just don't seem as enjoyable. It could very well be a product issue as well, but I've noticed this over a variety of product/buckets. It could partially be due to tolerance as well.
What the hell am I doing wrong? And any suggestions for a new enail setup? (I'm sort of into the idea of a desktop style)
Thank you friends!!!

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Without that horrendous bat flapping around and causing a mess for me, I'm now able to focus all of my efforts on bringing down the blinded bear colossus. It is unfortunate that I lost too many owls in the aerial battle, and that Alexa is too exhausted to help out herself, as that means I won't have any reinforcements available from them coming to Jackie’s aid any time soon. That being said, I know just the fish who might be able to make an early return in their stead.
Since they’ve been resting since the start of the battle, Selene and Hecate have been able to recuperate a bit of their mana pools already. Considering that I’m near 100% confident that it doesn’t matter how much the big bear regenerates if it can’t breathe, plus the fact that it doesn’t take too much mana just to hold some water in place, there’s not much reason to keep them benched much longer. Somehow though, I doubt it’s going to be quite that easy to take the bear colossus down. So why don’t we improve the chances of success a bit with all of this free manna I find myself currently swimming in?
Thanks to the sheer quantity of invaders Deepholm is swarming me in, I’ve got more mana to make use of than ever before, and I’d be a fool not to put it to good use. The steep requirement of having to pay 4 times the mana as any of my other scions to upgrade them is hardly an issue at this moment, so I begin the process of pouring my power into my fish. All the while, I keep an eye trained on the battle at hand, waiting for whatever it is the bear will try next. Deepholm scions don’t just meekly turn over and accept their defeat after all.
While I’m only halfway through providing upgrades to my fish scions, my caution is proven entirely warranted as the bear scion bellows its frustration and rage at the top of its lungs. Unable to proceed along a straight path due to Jackie’s constant interference, the colossus hunkers down for a moment in my lake and covers its head with its paws. Then, as soon as its eyes have had a chance to regenerate once more, it peeks out and gets a lock on my location before Jackie inevitably puts more arrows through the freshly grown eyes. This time it hardly pays the attack any mind, reaching down to its flank with those huge claws and ripping free a sizable chunk of its own flesh. With a great heave, the bear scion sent the chunk sailing through the air where it crashed with a meaty splat against the trunk of my tree.
First of all, …gross. Secondly, that bear has surprisingly good aim to be able to nail the part of my tree trunk that is perfectly in line with where my core is. Lastly, heh-heh, I’m in danger. Unable to use its sight, and no longer able to rely on the bat scion for its sonic guidance, the bear has resorted to using smell to guide its way. And what better trail to follow with one’s strong sense of smell than the stench of one’s own blood and viscera? Without a moment of hesitation, the bear scion is back on its feet, and charging forward once more.
This time, there’s truly nothing we can do to stop its advance, the bear’s nose is too big to fully destroy the bear’s sense of smell, even with Jackie’s arrows desperately blasting pieces off of it. With a tremor that I can feel throughout the entire island, the bear scion slams headfirst into the high cliffs, which only serves to daze the beast for but a moment before it starts awkwardly clambering upwards. I curse vehemently, at this rate the colossus will reach my tree before I’m done with upgrading the twins. I can cut it short and make the current upgrade the last one, but it will still take a minute or so for the twins to become accustomed to their strengthened bodies.
It doesn’t take long for the bear’s claws to scramble against the top of the cliffs, digging in for extra purchase, shortly followed thereafter by the beast’s snarling and arrow-riddled cranium. The twins have only just finished absorbing the mana from the latest upgrade, they’re not going to make it in time. It is at that moment that my saviors made their gallant entry into the fray. Cutting a swathe through the remaining army of normal invaders charged not any of my scions, but the brave surviving members of my defensive forces. Having abandoned their defensive chokepoint in the entrance cave, a combined throng of brawler bunnies and leopards led the way as my froglings and flechette-pines provided cover fire. Beside me, I can feel the consternation roll off of Giorno as he tries to keep some semblance of organization in place amidst an attack that he had most certainly not ordered.
Though our tactics have done a great deal in leveling the playing field in the battle between denizens, there are still a lot of enemies left to deal with, and this attack will only open us up to many more unnecessary casualties. Underneath his annoyed countenance however, I do detect a hint of pride in their reckless attempts to buy me more time. An attempt that certainly pays its dividends.
With a series of tremendous leaps, the brawler bunnies and leopard forces bound up to the limbs of the bear scion and begin hacking away at it with sharp claws and stone swords. They scale up the beast, slashing at every joint and every digit along the way. The colossus roars in pain and slips from the cliffside as the tendons in each limb are systematically severed time and time again. But this moment of victory comes at far too steep a cost.
When the bear scion crashes back into the lake, its sheer mass flattens dozens of my brave denizens at a time. From there it thrashes about, crushing some more of my stalwart defenders and sending others flying through the air. Not wasting the opportunity, my denizens lead the enemy scion over to the remnants of the invader army, where both sides become equally devastated by the beast’s angry flailing. I try to call my denizens back, telling them to retreat, that they’d done enough already. When that failed, I resorted to using some of my mana to make it a direct order. Retreat already! The twins are on the way, swimming around the south side of the island as we speak. There’s no need for any more of you to die!
I can feel the mana drain away as the orders take hold, but then I got a unanimous response back through Alexa’s network. Every single one of them started the retreat and then volunteered themselves to be a rearguard to help cover the escape. Even though technically they were following through with my order, not a single denizen so much as turned around or took a single step backward. They were loopholing me! Those damnable, brave, fools were refusing to leave until my scions could arrive. Who the heck taught you bastards to test the limits of the rules and look for ways to bend them in your favor anyhow!?
It took less than a minute for my twins to arrive. But it took even less time for the bear colossus to finish with its rampage. Now the only living combatants faced each other over a lake stained to the same red as the bear scion’s eyes. As a healer, Selene has seen more than her fair share of nasty injuries, as well as plenty of corpses from my previous encounters with Deepholm’s invaders. But even still, all that experience could not have prepared her for the sight of the slaughter before her. All the violent thrashing had thoroughly frothed the water of the lake, but rather than help hide the bodies below with the white foam it only served to accentuate them by clinging to whatever pieces remained above water.
It left my poor fish heartbroken. Disgust and despair raged inside her alongside a powerful wave of guilt at not recovering fast enough to be able to come to their aid in time. I know, sweetie, I know. But those denizens out there? They bought us enough time to stop any more atrocities from happening. They bet everything on you two and Jackie, and now it’s time to make sure we don’t waste a single death. All that anguish and sorrow you’re feeling? I need you to use it. Use it to hone a blade in your heart to turn against those who spread such senseless violence. It’s time to take up the second half of the saint’s job and smite down that walking calamity of a bear. And you’re not alone, Hecate is right beside you along with Jackie, and together, I know you all can do this.
Pep talk done, Hecate gives her sister a loving nuzzle under her chin before turning her hate-filled eyes to the bear scion as well. She isn’t taking kindly to all the desolation wrought by the colossus either, and is especially pissed by how upset it is making her kind-hearted twin. The white crescent moon mark on her forehead glows faintly in response to her roiling emotions, while after a few deep breaths, Selene’s black crescent moon mark does the same, her eyes now steeled in vindictive determination.
As one, they lifted a massive ball of water into the air and slammed it into the bear scion’s face, completely covering it in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, I begin the process of funneling mana into Jackie for her own upgrades. The beast hasn’t shown any magical capacity besides its regeneration, but who knows? Maybe it has something up its sleeve that would save it from the same fate as its companion. Better safe than sorry in this case, no?
Evidently, I was correct to prepare for the backup plan, because rather than struggle against the water bubble encasing its face, the bear colossus calmly slurped the water down. The vast amounts of suction overwhelmed the amount of mana the twins could use to keep the water in place, and so it simply disappeared down the beast’s gullet with a taunting smile that seemed to say, “Thanks for the refreshing drink, I was feeling rather parched”. Not a smidge of magic was used, or needed, to easily trounce my hopes of drowning our problems away. What stood before us surely could not be described as anything but the epitome of relentless brute force, a fact which has now been hammered home rather insultingly by the defeat of my plans through lung power of all things.
With a challenging roar, the bear plowed forward while ignoring the twin’s follow up attacks. Right, plan B it is then. If we can’t suffocate him, then we’ll just have to overwhelm his regeneration with more damage than it can keep up with! In but a moment the bear scion has slammed into my cliffside and begins scaling it once more. This time, Selene and Hecate are there to stop it from making any meaningful progress, their watery slashes biting deep into flesh and disabling limbs long enough for the next attack to land. Where Hecate’s attacks strike necrosis quickly follows, seeping into the flesh until the entire mass falls off to be replaced by newly regenerated meat. Meanwhile, Selen’s strikes shine with the radiant power of her light mana, her slices digging deep through muscles, tendons, and all the way to the bones beneath.
Together they manage to keep the colossus pinned in place to the craggy wall of my island, allowing Jackie all the time she needs to hop around and unleash a torrent of her aether arrows. Rather than strike into the beast herself however, I have her shoot the cliffs themselves where she then sprouts much more massive vines than usual to grasp at the enemy scion and bind it in place. I know that the twins will run out of mana long before I can bleed this invader dry in a battle of attrition, so instead my goal here is to line Jackie up for one big shot to put an end to this colossus once and for all.
Bounding up to the top of the cliff, right over the massive head of the bear, Jackie grows the limbs of her bow out further than even its longbow form, one side planting itself firmly into the stone. With a mighty heave, she stands upon the bow’s limbs and pushes down with all the strength in her legs while hoisting up on the drawstring with her arms. A ballista-sized arrow grows into place, aimed straight down to the skull of the beast below. Through this, Jackie channels the full force of her wind aether. With my hand on her back, I speak softly to into her mind through the bond we share.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let’s do this Jackie, together!”
Through my hand I channel even more mana into Jackie than before, really packing it into her as fast as the upgrades can handle. 2 more, then 5, then 10. The power swirls around her like a maelstrom that would have left anybody else gritting their teeth to ride out the storm. But not my Jackie. As much as I pushed the mana into her, she matched me by pulling it into her control right away, weaving it into her aether flawlessly. Around the arrow tip the air began to swirl, faster and faster, like a drill turned up to turbo speeds.
This obviously did not go unnoticed by the bear scion, but it was too late for the behemoth to avoid its fate. Bound up tightly in Jackie’s vines while Selen and Hecate kept its prodigious strength locked away through their continuous onslaught. Their mana has already depleted dangerously low once again, but their combined efforts have bought us all the opportunity we need. All the enemy can do is flounder uselessly in its restraints, glaring balefully at Jackie and its impending doom.
With a boom the arrow disappears from Jackie’s bow, boring a path straight through the entire length of the bear scion and continuing deep into the ground beneath it. Jackei’s wind arrow had accelerated freely without any resistance, twisting the air in front of it out of the way and turning the space in front into a devastating drill. Meanwhile, just behind the shaft, the collapse of the resulting vacuum pushed the arrow along even faster than any projectile has ever flown before in this world.
The twisting motion of the air and the shockwaves from the collapsing vacuum bubble didn’t just serve to speed up the arrow however. Like a delayed reaction after the arrow had already sped through, I watched as a spray of blood exploded from the bear’s body, accompanied by the splash of water beneath its feet. I watched as the beast’s jaw was ripped away to hang loosely by a strip of flesh on the right side of its head. From there the arrow had traveled down into the beast’s shoulder and blazed a path all the way through its chest cavity, the aftershocks ripping the bear’s body apart and leaving its left side barely attached anymore. It looked as if some giant had cleaved its axe down the bear’s side, all the way from the shoulders to the hips.
The scion had managed to avoid an instantly fatal blow by twisting its head as far to the side as possible, but that proved to only postpone the inevitable at this point. With that much damage to the internal organs, it couldn’t hope to recover in time. We’d done it, we’d won!
Joyfully, I turned to Giorno, ready to send some mana down to Kelvin next, but what I saw froze me in my tracks. This whole battle, Giorno had been his usual calm and composed self, issuing orders and cooly commanding our forces. But now, he was trembling with a visual amount of fear, his skin blanched of all color. Thoroughly spooked, I racked my brain for anything I might have missed, but I got my answer sooner than expected.
“Kill it, kill it now! We don’t have any time, finish it before it's too late! It’s going to do something to the bear!”
Dutifully, Jackie and the twins ready their next attacks to hasten the bear scion’s demise, but something Giorno said stuck out to me. Wait, the bear is the subject of his sentence, not the object for some reason. But…, that would have to mean…
With wide eyes, I come to a dreadful realization, I never got a mana notification for the bat scion. No, no! No WAY that bastard survived, right? Feeling the sneaking march of dread closing in on my throat, I check the spot where the bat scion had crashed into my island. There it lay, wings in tatters and its chest caved in from impacting the ground, lying in a pool of its own blood. By all accounts, it appears to be dead. But that’s when I notice something off. The pool of blood is moving.
Right before my eyes, I watch as little bubbles capture air inside, and then get mixed in the blood as it slowly circulates out of the lethal wounds and then back into the bat’s body. It must have kept conscious through the crash and is now using its blood magic to just barely keep itself alive. Would that be all the bat was up to, I would have breathed a sigh of relief. But no, all around the crash were scattered splotches of fresh blood, drawn out into a foreboding set of interlocking symbols when viewed from above. The bat was casting something, using its own life as fuel. With a weak wheeze in place of a laugh, the bat scion spoke for one final time.
“Glory be to the Mountainlord. Blood Arts: Sacrifice.”
Accompanied by the ding of a new notification, I watched in horror as all the blood was forcibly wrested from the bat scion’s fresh corpse, instantly mummifying it into a dried-out husk. Then that mass of brackish liquid moved faster than it had any right to, thin tendrils shooting out from the main body quickly dragging the blob to the edge of the island. Before any of my scions could react, it had already latched onto the dying bear’s head and begun pouring itself forcibly through every orifice it could reach.
Writhing in agony at the black-red liquid shoving itself down its throat, nostrils, and eye sockets, my scions lashed into the bear’s body with as much strength as they could, but to no avail. The wounds would begin closing before their attacks could even finish, and from the bear’s torso sprouted several bloody tentacles which wrapped themselves around the dangling left side, pulling it back into place with a wet squelch. The newfound regeneration didn’t, perhaps couldn’t, stop there however. All over the colossus’s body something churned beneath its hide.
Every single muscle in the behemoth’s body squirmed as it doubled, then tripled in size, in some places rupturing the skin as it struggles to contain the roiling mass of flesh. Muscle fibers sprung from the fur like weeds sprouting out of fertile ground, twitching and flailing about looking for something to connect to, until the beast’s entire form was nothing but a bulging mass of undulating flesh vaguely shaped like a bear. From the monstrosities head, the repaired jaw split open far wider than anything still attached to the skull to allow, revealing row after row of sharp fangs growing into place all the way down its throat.
With an unearthly screech, the monstrosity easily tore itself free of the vines and took a swipe at Jackie with its misshapen foreleg. Nobody must have told Deepholm that inflating your musculature so much is a direct reduction in flexibility however, because the blow was slow and cumbersome, allowing Jackie to easily vault backwards out of reach. But Deepholm didn’t need to care about such silly things like flexibility, or the limits of a physical body, as halfway through the swing a series of cracks could be heard as the bear monstrosity’s muscles broke every single bone in its arm, causing it to suddenly stretch out on just the muscles and ligaments, increasing in speed as the limb turned into an impromptu flesh whip tipped with giant claws.
Caught completely by surprise, Jackie could only try to form a hasty shield of roots with her life aether, but the abomination’s claws sundered it with ease, cleaving through her bow, then her arm, and finally raking across her torso. My girl hit the ground, hard, and didn’t get back up. Meanwhile, the twins were still desperately flinging any kind of attack they could think at the bear horror, all to no avail. This affront to nature had such strong regeneration now that nothing in their repertoire could hope to leave any lasting damage.
With thundering steps, the abomination practically oozed up onto my island, all four legs standing firmly upon my territory for the first time. A few steps brought it close enough to brush up against my trunk, and then it sunk its claws deep into the bark and tore a ginormous chunk of wood free. As easily as tearing apart cardboard, Deepholm’s monstrosity began to dig its way deeper and deeper towards my sanctum, and inevitable destruction. From beside my core, a loud snap rang out as the inspector’s white-knuckle grip finally crushed the handle of her kanabo.
“Damn it all, I can’t just sit here at let this happen! I have to–”
Whatever she was about to say was cut off as she took her first step forward, weapon raised with the intent to join the fray. Instantly she was beset by floating swords made of light on all sides, not even given enough time to swear before they all plunged into her body. With a gasp Lydia fell to the floor, covered in wounds. She’d managed to use her ki to shift the trajectory of enough blades away from her vital organs, but she was still grievously wounded and wouldn’t be doing any fighting any time soon.
In what felt like no time at all, the fleshy abomination had reached the final bit of wood separating me from the outside world. With a psychic scream of determination, Leonardo charged forth, combining his life and kinetic affinities to try and brace that final barrier, but his efforts were carelessly brushed aside as the bear’s claws crashed through anyways, collapsing a pile of splinted timber down upon my peaceful crafter. From above and behind, Alexa had joined the twins in trying to drag the enemy scion back, but with barely a sliver of mana left between the three of them, they were little more than flies buzzing uselessly through the air to it.
Fully exposed to the outside world for the first time since my birth into this world, I was now face to face with the monstrosity as it raised its claws for one final strike. But oddly, all the fear and terror that had frozen me still before was utterly absent. I couldn’t even focus on the looming mountain of death in front of me, nor on the panicked shrieks of my scions as they struggled to the last. Rather, my gaze fell upon the prone form of the very first scion I had designated. My strongest defender, and the most earnest girl you would ever meet. With my focus beside her, I could tell that my brave girl was just barely hanging onto life, but she wouldn’t last long at this rate. Every shaky breath was accompanied by a wave of anguish washing over the bond.
Even without a proper physical form, I knelt beside her and gathered her up into one final embrace. I’m so sorry Jackie. The UI might call you guys scions, but truthfully you have all been a family to me, right from the start. I never had one, back in my previous life, so I know I must have messed up so many times, in so many ways. But even still, I had a blast getting to know each and every one of you, wishing for each day to stretch into infinity so I could enjoy our time together forevermore. But I’ve failed you, I’ve failed you all. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a life full of happier days, and I hope whatever comes in the next life, you can forgive me.
“You’ve been the best daughter I could have ever asked for. I love you.”
Jackie PoV
Everything hurts. My ears won’t stop ringing, and everything around me is moving in super slow motion. Through blurry eyes, I can see my arm lying just out of reach, still clutching my bow tightly, well, half of it anyways. Further away, I can see the blurry shape of the gross thing from Deepholm tearing its way through Mama’s tree. The twins and Alexa were swooping around behind it, but there was no stopping the beast anymore. Pain throbbed through my chest, my heart heavy as it slowly pumped my blood out onto the ground.
I’d failed, again. Right when it mattered most. Some huntress I’d turned out to be. Sure I was able to handle the regular invaders, but against every enemy that ever posed a serious threat, I’d been beaten every time. When I first lost to Miss Lydia, it hadn’t been so bad. Mama told me to learn from it and grow stronger for next time. I’d been useless too against those water birds on the first day. So I trained, and then I trained and I trained and I trained some more. Till the calluses on my paws were bleeding, I practiced every day.
For some reason Mama didn’t like that though, so she forced me to take breaks pretty regularly after that. At first, it felt like she didn’t have faith that my efforts would help with anything, but that feeling faded pretty quickly. She’d always have a bowl of those red fruits she calls strawberries ready for me by her core. Then when I would get settled in beside her and begin munching on the sweet fruit, she would tell me unbelievable stories about the world she remembers from her past life.
Apparently, her old world had jackalopes too, or at least stories of them. Mama says they supposedly had lightning in their veins they could move so fast. Lightning! The big flashes in the sky that make the air go boom. That stuff! The jackalopes from Mama’s world must be really amazing if they could do that. Nervously, I asked her a bit more about it, feeling rather inadequate by comparison, but she ended up talking too much about how technically lightning is in every living creature, but just really really small amounts of it? And something even more confusing about something called eel-ektons that makes it charge based on if they’re in a good mood or not?
Mama does that a lot, going off on tangents about difficult subjects for a long period of time, but even though I couldn’t understand most of it, it is nice just to sit back and listen to her speak. Eventually, she would always notice her rambling, and swap to asking me questions instead. I felt really proud when she asked me so much about my experience training with ki, and later on aether as well. She’d always thank me for my hard work, and for helping her figure out how things work in this world. It made me happy to think that Mama needed me, and that all my efforts were slowly paying off.
And it really felt like I had been improving too! I’d wrangled all the rowdy brawlers into line, and chased off that group of novices. But then that big flying scion came and knocked me out of the fight before I could even tell it was coming. Kelvin was barely a few days old and he had to handle that nasty bat all on his own! And despite all the work I put into developing my aether, I then lost to Miss Lydia again right after that. It felt like I was stuck in place, running as hard as I could but never getting anywhere with it. I did my best to hide it from Mama since she’s so perceptive, but it really hurt.
And now, even after all the faith and strength Mama poured into me, I’d still managed to let her and everybody else down. They’re all going to die, because of me. I’m not sure which is worse at this point, the pain from my injuries or the pain from my failures washing over me. I watched through bleary eyes as the gross bear tore open the deepest part of the tree, and revealed Mama’s core for all the world to see. It’d been a few weeks since our last break together, so when I saw the soft green glow of Mama’s core, it stirred up a weird mix of relief and regret in my heart. I’d missed that comforting glow, but also the only reason I could see it now is because I’d doomed it to oblivion.
Grief filled me up to the brim, and all I could do is wordlessly apologize over and over again.
To my surprise, however, I could feel her presence nearby, and that comforting warmth brushed aside my apologies to fill our bond with light instead. I don’t get it, why is she here? Why is she focusing on me, when the enemy is literally right in front of her core, staring her down? Why is she wasting her time on me when I can barely even move anymore?! And even if I could, we both know I would just let her down some more. So why, why does it feel like I’m back by her side, listening to her tell stories at length, feeling so comfy and secure?
“I……ry….J..ki”
Go on, go! Leave already and focus on someone else, maybe they have a chance to save you, to fix things. Haven’t I failed you enough? I, I can’t do anything but disappoint you. I…I can’t be like the jackalopes from your stories Mama. I’m not good enough for that. I’m sorry.
“..b..en….f…….to me……..t…….ro……sta…”
Despite shoving my weakness, my numerous defeats and doubts to the front and finally showing Mama everything I’d tried to keep hidden from her through the bond, absolutely nothing changed. If anything, the feeling of closeness only increased and that warm feeling wrapped me up even tighter, never wavering for a moment. For a moment, the ringing in my head subsided, but my eyes must still be playing tricks because I thought I could see a bunch of golden sparkles floating in the air around me, forming the vague outline of a person with her arms wrapped around me. The next words came through confidently and clearly, and finally put a name to the feeling I always felt when Mama’s attention was on me.
“I love you.”
…Why? When I’ve already let you down so many times, when you’re about to die because of me…why spend your last moments on this worthless rabbit who couldn’t save anything? The bond held no answers for me, only that same persistent warmth, refusing to relent for so much as a moment. Over in the tree, the bear monster had raised its claw into the air, readying the final strike that would take Mama away for good. A few tears slipped free from my eyes and dropped down to join the blood at my feet. Belatedly, I realized that at some point I must have stood up, but that doesn’t really matter right now.
In fact, standing there, basking in the feeling of being wrapped up in Mama’s love, it felt like a lot of things didn’t matter. My doubts, my fear of not being good enough, and the pain of being proven right. It all felt like wisps of smoke being carried away on the wind. They scattered against the constant reinforcement pouring out from the bond, powerless before it. She’d seen all of my shortcomings, witnessed every downfall, and yet this was always her response. Yellow sparks crackled through my fur, and larger arcs of energy began to flicker back and forth between the branches of the antlers on my head.
Slowly, all the world began to fall away. The ground beneath my feet, the stench of death hanging upon the wind, even the tree itself, along with the slow-motion bear scion bringing its claws down for the kill. There was just me, and there in the distance, the light of Mama’s core, calling me home like a beacon. Under her light, I remembered the simple truth that Mama has always seen and understood so much more than me, guiding me as best she could and celebrating both my success and failures alongside me. For this moment in time, all those complicated and difficult subjects stopped being important. All those times spent hoping I could measure up to the lofty heights she spoke about seemed a silly waste of time. All I had to do was stop trying to become something else. Maybe, just maybe, I was already everything that Mama could see in me, and I just hadn’t realized it yet.
I crouch down low to the ground, those strange sparks increasing in intensity, coiling inside of me like a power I never knew I had. My ears and paws were starting to char black from all the energy flowing through me, but I didn’t feel a thing. After all, none of that mattered. With a mighty leap, I left the feeling of solid earth behind. Wait for me just a little longer, ok Mama? I’m coming to your side.
Blood flash-boiled.
Flesh charred into shattered lumps of charcoal.
Bones fragmented and caved under the tremendous forces at play.
Jackie never got to experience the joy where in this, her latest challenge to a race between herself and the sound carried along through the air, the wind finally lost.
Neither did she get to see how, for the first time in its life, the bear scion’s body was lifted fully up off of the ground and flung to the side like gravity had suddenly reversed its direction.
But perhaps..., someday, there would come a time when she’s relaxing with a bowl of those delectable strawberries once more, and she’ll get to listen to Mama’s voice as she regales her with another one of her wild stories. A story where one little rabbit made all the difference in the world, and through her actions did save the day. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
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Author Notes://
Here it is, the big one! I've had this chapter in mind since before I even started writing this story. In fact, it's what made me say fuck it, I'm gonna try writing it out and see what happens. Sorry again for the long delay on this chapter, I didn't want to split it into anything smaller, so it ended up pretty long. Also, yay! First scion PoV, just like you guys wanted right? xD
I hope you enjoyed reading this part, and I'll see you all again next time for the final conclusion to the Deepholm Arc.