Shirtaloon
patreon
Chapter 916: Pretext
🕑 Added 2024-07-03 23:00:04 +0000 UTCThe messenger host of more than ten thousand had been cut down to stragglers. A swarm of shadowy figures dashed through the air through the air, collecting the rotted husks of the dead as they fell. The bodies were all dropped into the hole where the city of Boko had once been. The great portals in the air were gone, having trembled and ultimately collapsed.
The last messengers to emerge had been dragged out by the dark bird wreathed in silver flame. Tendrils of darkness had extended from its body, reached into the portals and dragged out four Voices of the Will. Even bound up, they had started to domineeringly demand their freedom. Their arguments lasted only a few words before the tendrils cut them into slices like vegetables. The shadowy figures moved to collect the pieces and deposit them with the rest.
When the last of the messengers were dead, the ghost fire phoenix descended into the hole, now host to a small mountain of corpses. The bird shrank as it neared the bottom of the hole, transforming into a naked man as it reached the ground. Blood seeped from the man’s pores to cover his body, then coagulated and dried into a set of dark red robes.
“Thank you, Colin,” Jason said quietly.
-------
System Alert: System Administrator
The Hegemon has reconstituted his mortal form. External magic will no longer be introduced to the region. Magic density and magical saturation will return to normal levels over time.
The Hegemon no longer claims dominion over the region and the gods may once again influence the area, outside of their claimed holy grounds.
-------
Jason grimaced as he stared at the pile of dead. He no longer had trouble maintaining his identity while in a transcendent state, but it was still a deeply altered state of mind. In that condition, his emotions were pushed aside. It was useful for acting with a clear head, but the emotions had returned now he once more occupied a mortal avatar.
His true self was a living universe from which he projected his consciousness, but that was something he was still getting used to. He remained mortal in many ways, especially in mindset. It was not something he regretted, even as it subjected him to negative emotions. He’d felt people die under the influence of his aura, helpless to stop it. Anger and regret roiled inside him, and that was something he did not want to lose.
He looked up at the temples floating in the air. They still had chunks of ground underneath them, torn from the city during its destruction and shielded by the power of the various gods. Now that Jason had withdrawn his influence over the area, the temples were on the move, drifting up and out of the massive hole. Moving in as they departed was a flying tortoise shell full of adventurers. Jason’s team gathered around him, looking him over with concern.
“I’m fine,” he said to the unasked question, but the grim quiet in his voice was unconvincing. “Do we know how many people died yet?”
“It’s still a mess out there,” Farrah said. “We won’t have a solid number for a while. Hundreds, certainly. Probably over a thousand. Hopefully not over two.”
“This isn’t your fault, Jason,” Humphrey said. “It may have been your aura, but—”
“I know where the blame lies,” Jason said. “For the most part, anyway. The messengers are dead, although they had someone far more powerful with them. Him, I couldn’t touch.”
“Not a messenger?”
“An astral king. In a prime avatar, like me, but without the power reduction. His strength was somewhere around Dawn’s level.”
“That’s a bad enemy to have,” Neil said.
“I’m not sure he was an enemy. Something in his aura. The only other astral king I’ve dealt with is Vesta Carmis Zell, and her hostility burned like a fire. This man was calm. Detached. At least towards me. The only anger I felt was directed at the Voices of the Will.”
“The ones you dragged out of the portals and chopped up?” Belinda asked.
“Yes.”
“What are you doing with all these bodies, anyway?” Sophie asked.
“You might want to stand back for this,” Jason warned them, then quietly incanted a spell.
“As your lives were mine to reap, so your deaths are mine to harvest.”
A red glow rose from the mountain of corpses as Jason’s spell drew out the remnant life force. The air was flooded with the coppery taste of blood, the life force tingling at the senses of Jason’s friends as they backed off. The red light gushed out like a wave to crash over Jason, obscuring him from sight until the torrent of life force diminished and finally depleted.
Shade had touched all the bodies while collecting them, so Jason was able to loot them all at once. The mountain broke down as the bodies dissolved into rainbow smoke. A vast plume rose from the hole in the ground, rising into the sky as if from an active volcano. Jason’s friends backed off even further from the stench. Jason didn’t move, standing and watching until it was done. Jason’s friends approached again, once it was safe for their noses.
“Is that enough to restore your avatar with the bird thing again if your avatar is killed a second time?” Neil asked.
“No,” Jason said. “It was a lot, but not enough. Too many silver rankers and not enough golds.”
“We need to hunt some gold-rank messengers, then,” Sophie said.
Jason pulled a sword from his inventory that was more like a metal gangplank than a sword, despite the lengthy handle. The metal was dark, with red streaks. He held it out for Clive.
“Something from the loot?” Clive asked.
“No. When I was on the verge of erupting, the power around me became volatile and killed the man who stabbed me with this. Once it was no longer in someone else’s possession, I could pull it into my inventory. I was able to discharge it safely in my soul realm, but the power inside my body was too far gone. I couldn’t stop it from detonating, even though the thing causing the problem was removed.”
Clive took the hefty weapon in both hands and examined it.
-------
Item: [Lesser Celestial Gorger (broken)] (gold rank, uncommon)
A specialised weapon designed to absorb magic from matter that combines physical and spiritual energy. It is a crude attempt to replicate a more sophisticated weapon. The large size is to accommodate crude adaptations when the original design could not be functionally duplicated. This weapon has been damaged by excess magic absorption. (weapon, replica, broken).
Effect: Specialised magic absorption (non-functional).
-------
“This is designed to kill gestalt entities like you,” Clive said.
“Someone designed a weapon just to kill Jason?” Humphrey asked.
“I doubt it,” Clive said. “It was probably designed to kill messengers.”
“Do you think you can figure out where it came from?” Jason asked. “Someone other than the messengers was involved with this.”
“Why would someone with a messenger-killing sword be working with the messengers?” Humphrey asked. “More than that, why would the messengers work with them? They like obedience, not bargains, but I don’t see anyone with a messenger-slaying sword being one of their cowed slaves. And sneaking up on Jason is no small feat, given the power of his senses.”
“I think his armour might have been designed to hide from messengers,” Jason said. “I couldn’t grab it to check, but even when he was right behind me, he was hard to examine. It was like my perception just slid off him.”
“It might be possible,” Clive said. “Our supernatural senses use our auras as a base, and gestalt entities have fundamentally different auras. You could target those aura aspects with specialised stealth equipment. It wouldn’t work against regular essence users, but it would have superior effects against Jason or messengers.”
“Anything we can use to track my attacker down?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know. I have some knowledge of magic devices, but we need a specialist for something like this. There used to be someone in Greenstone, Russel Clouns. He helped us figure out what the Builder cult devices did, when the cultists were trying to steal astral spaces. I can check if he’s still around.”
“You might want to show Carlos Quilido, as well,” Neil said.
“Why Carlos?” Clive asked. “He’s a soul healing specialist.”
“Early in the war,” Neil explained, “he was involved in research on anti-messenger weapons. They thought his speciality might help. Inflicting spiritual damage rather than healing it. Remember when he wanted to experiment on Jason’s gestalt body?”
“I do,” Jason said. “You think he’ll know something?”
“He might not,” Neil said. “Carlos is a priest of the Healer, like me. Using our knowledge of healing techniques to design weapons is the opposite of what we do. Carlos realised he’d lost his way after what happened with Jason and left the project early. Refocused on his vampirism cure project.”
“We can ask and see where it goes,” Humphrey said. “We’ll need to put off our current agenda to hunt down—”
“No,” Jason said. “If we were the right team to follow this thread, that would be one thing. But I think this will be a long, slow investigation. This weapon was some kind of replica. I think whoever is using it might be a group, not just one person who decided to work for the messengers on this. The only thing we have to go on is this sword, and if Clive says we should hand it over to a specialist, we should. Let the Adventure Society deal with it.”
“They came after you!” Sophie said.
“It’s not about me. I’m alive, but there are plenty of people who aren’t. I’m not going after some group with weapons specialised not just to hurt me, but turn me into a walking disaster zone for any innocent people around me. We can probably manage the risk, now that we know about it, but I’d rather not have to.”
“I don’t like the idea of letting some mysterious group just float around out there,” Belinda said. “We don’t know what they want, or when they’re going to strike next. Stella and I could—”
“No,” Jason said again. “I lost fifteen years letting other people turn me away from my own intentions. I’m not going to let the messengers or whoever is behind this sword dictate my actions.”
“We can’t just let this stand,” Sophie said.
“We won’t,” Jason said. “I killed all the messengers here. I even dragged out their Voices of the Will and killed them, too, but that doesn’t matter. The astral kings don’t care about their slaves. They’ll live forever and just churn out more as they keep going. This planet, the next one, going on forever.”
“That’s disheartening,” Neil said. “You’re saying there’s nothing we can do?”
“There’s something I can do,” Jason told him. “They have forever, but so do I. So do you, if you reach diamond rank and stop getting older. We can’t kill immortals, but we can destroy everything they’ve built up. Right now, I’m vulnerable. There are too many people I care about that they can hurt. A thousand years from now, those people will be strong enough to protect themselves, or long dead. I can spend an eternity unmaking messenger society. Burning every birthing tree. Razing every indoctrination centre. Freeing every slave and turning them against their masters, until the only messengers left don’t serve the astral kings, but fight them. It might take a million years. A billion, but I have a billion. What I need is a purpose to fill all that time.”
Jason looked around at his friends. They watched him with worried eyes as, with calm determination, he announced a billion-year jihad.
“Perhaps we should focus on a more immediate timeframe,” Humphrey suggested. “Let’s get back to helping the displaced population. You might want to donate all the loot from those messengers to the reconstruction… Jason?”
Jason had turned his head as Humphrey was talking, staring at an empty space nearby. Moments later, a portal appeared and a man stepped out. He was extremely tall, with copper hair and dark eyes. His clothes were red and brown, cut in the fitted Estercost style. Jason saw what he was immediately, while his friends were wary but uncertain. Humphrey conjured his armour and sword as he stepped to the fore.
“It’s alright, Humphrey,” Jason said. “He’s here to talk.”
“Who is he?” Humphrey asked not taking his eyes from the man. “And how can you be sure?”
“I don’t know who he is, just what he is. And I’m not sure, but if he wants to kill us, there’s nothing we can do to stop him. But I don’t think he’s willing to pay the price.”
“The price?” Sophie asked, moving next to Humphrey.
“Authority is a complicated thing, and there are rules to invading a world. You think the messengers needed locals to summon them to start their invasion? With the dimensional magic they have? Those summonings were an invitation. A pretext for the messengers to intrude on our world.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Neil asked.
“This man is an astral king,” Jason said. “That’s a prime avatar, like mine, but he has fully developed his mortal power.”
“This is the one you mentioned earlier,” Humphrey realised.
“Yes. But there are rules, and if an astral king acts directly, the gods get a pretext of their own. They’ll start scouring messengers from the face of the planet like sweeping up crumbs.”
He brushed past Humphrey and Sophie.
“Isn’t that right, Mr Astral King?”
“The name is Jamis Fran Muskar,” the man said, after patiently waiting for Jason and his team’s discussion. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Jason Asano.”
Comments
Hankabeth They/Them
Vampire-Thadwick has a sword like this… i haven’t finished the chapter, but there’s a thought…
Tavon LaChapelle
Why are the system messages not showing up for me in the past couple chapters
Jordan Brennan
Danielle is the best, such a grounding influence, just what Jason needs.
StarkRG
"Dude got stabbed and accidentally turned into a nuclear bomb and exploded, then purposefully turned into a flaming ghost bird and wiped out three or four armies of Messengers in the matter of a couple minutes, then he kind of just absorbed the whole lot." "Bullshit, I say we kill him." "No wonder he turned into a murderbot the last time he was here."
Razeel Nightfall
Does anyone else think that when Jason returns in 5-10 years, that there will be a statue depicting the rise of the Hegemon?
Alicia Bolick
After seeing all of this, if Li Li Mei joins his group, she is going to do everything in her power to convince China and the Earth that attacking Jason would be a VERY bad idea. And no way would she side with anyone else against him.
Landsraad
Remember when we thought he was going to Earth 10 chapters ago? Lol, i like the arc but sheeesh
Landsraad
Its funny you mentioned this! I had something tingling my mind. Jamis and the desert area. Just couldnt nail it down!
ItWasIDIO!!
Very sad this wasn't Thadwick
Twilight Knights Cosplay
I believe they mean the organization behind the attacker, rather than the individual seeing as they are dead. But gold rankers can come back from the dead as well, just with not as much freedom and regularity as diamond rankers or Jason.
ABTelford
I noticed a flaw: Jason says his attacker died but then later asks if they could track down his attacker…so that’s either a good up or something in need of rephrasing - like saying he wants to track down the organization behind his attacker. Because the guy himself died.
Chris Furry
LISAN AL-GAIB!
BloodStorm
Also a good anime with proper studio making it
Hunter
Does anyone else feel like this web novel would make a great Manwha? They turn Korean web novels into them all the time.
AbyssalIceLord
Im very certain an astral gate allows you to tamper with portal abilities. Hence, how it allowed him to turn it from 1 way to 2 way and in previous books, he used it to make his portals last longer and even used the gate to make it where he couldnt be tracked by portal tracking magic.
Razeel Nightfall
Can astral kings force messengers through astral gate portals? I am just trying to figure out how he forced 4 VoW through his portal because I don't think they would give consent.
AbyssalIceLord
I had this thought as well...we shall find out in the next chapter...i have the feeling a few interesting tid-bits of info is gonna be given to us.
Aaron
Not sure if this was mentioned. Jamis is the name of a fremen in dune that dueled Paul
Justin Smith
It's usually not his fault
Kazuto Bakura
It is possible the gods can fight the influence since it would be will vs will. I doubt the gods would try to stop Jason in this case though. Better to let Jason deal with the incoming messengers than act themself. Even Destruction might be happy with how things turned with the complete destruction of Boko.
Will Mill
Someday in the far future, there will be ONLY ONEEEE person who knows what a vegemite sandwich is. so sad.
Anthony Sebastian
Imagine just how much more outdated Jason's references will be a billion years from now.
Jonathan Crandall
I love this arc of the novel
Ligeia
Jason asked Russell Clouns that exact question back in I think book 2. Except he said "tiny carriage," I believe. He asked poor Russell several stupid clown questions. He could be so obnoxious in those early days on Pallimustus!
Will Mill
1. He is likely going to tell Jason who the Messengers made a deal with. 2. He will likely cause a “pretext” to occur so the gods can clean the planet freeing Jason to leave for Earth guilt free. 3. He is willing to spend the authority because they all have forever and getting on Jason’s good side is worth it. 4. He will float the idea of getting Jason to join the club.
Preston Stokes
Great chapter! Can't wait for the next one
Douglas Davis
I can't believe no one commented on the most amazing part of this chapter. Jason literally subjugated the Authority of the gods within the area of the Messenger invasion while he was acting. His authority during that time was greater than theirs and suppressed theirs. That's a BIG DEAL.
Ender419
I have a feeling this is Boris’s astral king.
Douglas Davis
The gods are a manifestation of magic and faith/spirituality combined into a sentient entity. But they are bound to the planet and people who provide the faith half of the equation. It's why they can't leave their planets and die when then people or planet do. So if the Messengers managed to wipe out every sentient being from a planet or completely destroyed a specific faith, the god would likely cease to exist as well.
Rhysal
This is brings up a question, if the gods could eliminate the messengers on their planet like that given a pretext. What happens to the planets the messengers normally take over? Do the gods stay there even though the messengers won’t be worshiping them? I’d imagine they still live bc if not they wouldn’t have any reason not to fight pretext or no.
Critical Meyhem
Amazing story. I love your writing so very much. Thank you
AbyssalIceLord
Well these are two different hypothesis from me...did a miserable seperating them...one from the swords possible origin from a messenger hating group and another one it being the artifact and thadwicks group actually being involved.
AbyssalIceLord
...the original sword that thadwick has was in a former-messengers great astral beings astral space....we dont know the origin of the weapon..just that the builder put a diamond rank soul on it to guard it. So im assuming that this "assassin" could have been from the group or clan that made the original sword that thadwick is using but maybe they lost the knowledge of how to make the OG cuz of when whatever happened for the builder to get possession of it. And i know its odd, but wouldn't it be interesting if that sword, the one that thadwick has, IS the purity artifact...cuz we know for a fact deception and the builder communicated and interacted so maybe the deal was for deception to hand it over to the builder for safe keeping or just to keep it away from people cuz of what it does. We know the "purity artifact" can "cleanse people of their monster core use"....what better way to cleanse monster core energy than by using reality core energy absorbed from a messenger or GAB or AK....we already have presidence for swords doing multiple cleansing/harming affects in the same weapon...best example is Jason's sword, Hegemon's Will. I know someone will say "well, the replica didnt have that ability" well yes...when has replicas ever been nearly as good as the original...never to my knowledge....just food for thought :)
Hornbach
Paul Atreides would be proud
Robert Landers
Whoever the mayor of this town is is going to be pissed they weren’t alerted to Jason being in his town. Afterall, Jason tends to destroy cities he is in.
Hons
So there is a whole family of Clouns? Do they arrive in a small car together?
Justin Fralin
Gotta say... Jason staying focused on the near future and casually taking about freeing or killing all messengers is wild... my boy is locked in and it's scary
Philipp Battenberg
Not endless. Just very, very long. Until Jason wins.
ouroboros
Billion year jihad was not a sentence I ever expected to read.
Yaldabaoth
Huh, that would be genius 🤔 (at least I think so) Can't wait to see what plays out
Liesmith
I previously didn't think the assassin/sword had anything to do with Thadwick, since he didn't really seem to have any animosity to Jason after his "resurrection". But now I think that his group might've actually been involved--not to *harm* Jason, but to give a gormless quartet of Astral Kings enough confidence to attack him, which would earn his undivided attention. If Thadwick and his group are anti-messenger, then something like this would be an extremely effective way to harm the messengers over the long term.
Adrian
Don't see too many quotes encompassing both Tropic Thunder and Dune 🤣
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter. Hope we get descriptions on his upgraded powers soon. Would like to know what craziness he used for that combo
Benjamin Grant
Jason just casually declaring a billion year jihad is cold af
Chris Nowak
That's probably more his transcendency talking there, not so much his gold rank. =)
Maudley
Jamis is scary tho, he's very much not stupid and stuck in petty politics. He's had who knows how long to make decisions, study. And he could be a bad enemy, unless he's an early adopter of emancipation
Tartlet
Booo Jamis! I say push him down the stairs!
Jordan Brennan
I think the sword was a replica based on the weapon he took.
Maudley
Yeah, that soul was guarding the sword, protecting it. The soul was engineered to do that, and Astral Kings are known for soul engineering considering they all have soul forges. Clearly astral kings wouldn't want people getting a sword that drains messengers well enough that it's a threat to AKs, and the inferior copy just nuked a prime vessel.
Mike
TYFTC
Tony
through the air through the air
Maudley
Jason's gonna fight the Grox
Jarrett Glass
I think she is in Rimaros getting things ready for their eventual return there
Zachary Blevins
1 billion year quest for the perfect sandwich And then 1 billion years later, be sitting on some cliff munching on some subpar sandwich and suddenly realizing they are all perfect
Zachary Blevins
Yeah, I thought he foreshadowed all that pretty good two books ago in the town with the Earth taker worm the messenger there he killed so hard that’s what she said what kind of astral has an apocalypse beast a reality assassin as his voicess of the will and oh no a shadow of the Reaper and not just any shadow but his long lost wandering famous child Or something to that effect I really like that chapter I remembered a lot of it even though it was year and a half ago
Zachary Blevins
I’ll be honest I’ve always thought when he showed back up we would get a redemption arc not an evil villain from the first few books And I think we all know Jason‘s eventually going to end up with that sword with the handle full of thorns it was tea so thoroughly in the astral space
Zachary Blevins
so did Zara not come with them? We essentially got the whole team with the exception of Gordon in the last few chapters
The Dyslexic Cloud
i think the weapon is a copy of the blade that vampire thadius mercer ( i know i spelled that wrong) had/was taken over by
DirePants
I think the VampWick is behind the swords, but I doubt it has anything to do with Jason, as far as most seem to think, like he’s harboring some kind of obsession or revenge. We still have a lot to learn about that vampire in general- I could be wrong but I recall it being its own person and only having Thadwick’s memory’s because it took over his body. It also seemed to have a sense of morality and cares more about finding out who and what it is. As far as the Astral King that just showed up. I think too many are viewing him as your typical “drank the kool aid” messenger, even tho everything he’s said and done shows the exact opposite. Whatever his plans or motivations are they’re much bigger than what we’ve been given knowledge of so far and I’m hoping to get a good info dump for Friday’s chapter.
GentlemanG33k
I think lesser astral beings do to Shirt has hinted at it a couple times most specifically with the astral kings marks his mark means "Hegemon" the astral kings was "Soul Shaper". Then there was th talk about some Dimond rangers like "Cloud Weaver" using monikers i wonder if some high rank Dimond ranked can see something similar to their own Astral mark
Sean C Jackson
She is yes, so what?
Kalanaere
Never said The Deal was with Thadwick. Just that he had to honor the deal
Joshua Batts
Makes me wonder if Thadwick's sword CAN handle infinite energy...
Joshua Batts
All of a sudden, everything's coming together. A diamond rank apocalypse beast can literally scour an entire planet of all messengers. And since Colin is a good boy, he could probably do that with very minimal biting of non-messengers, too. Go full on scrubbing bubbles mode. I also get the feeling that a reality assassin would be exceptionally good at just... removing assets from existence. Jason may just be the perfect weapon for a billion year jihad.
Diviknight
I wonder what vladwick made a deal for? Is that why Jamis is here to talk to Jason? He said he had to honor it.
Thomas Bell
One thing I note. The system calls him "The Hegemon". That's a title, compared to the other AK names. The only other beings we've seen with system titles like that are select GAB, even the lesser functionary GAB didn't have them. Add in that jason is the one who sat on the shattered throne... Jason is a Great Astral Being known as "The Hegemon".
Aaron Van Wormer
I was really hoping it was Vampwick….. must be one of minions.
Malcolm
Looks like Jason finally has his glorious purpose
Hunter
Billion year jihad… ok Muad’dib
lucien rose
@shirtaloon, these chapters make the entire week for me. I don't think you know how much looking forward to each chapter keeps me going and how each chapter brightens my day. Thank you for your hard work and amazing breaks from reality.
Justin
I knew we’d get this conversation this week! Hopefully next chapter has some huge nuggets of info in it! TYFTC!
Kalanaere
Nit sure, Jason himself sensed how angry he was at the VoW.
Kalanaere
I think it's possible. But Jason has a point, he's there to talk either way. Never hurts to listen
Kalanaere
Now see! That little info bomb Jason dropped could be useful if you can gode a hot head AK into acting. Then the God's can go all out. It's rather nice to see a sensible and collected Jason being the voice of reason too. I think they missed an important factor though, isn't Farrah now a Gestalt entity too?
Gotrek65
Ah the messenger from chapter713
Alex Cox
I'm kept on for the greatest reveal of all time, finding out who Clive's wife is.
gray matter
No, he’s ostensibly the highest ranked and oldest of the Council of Kings and leader of the Othodoxy (which tbh he may not even care about, he seems to look down on the more straight thinking orthodox AK’s, I think they may be more of a means to a certain long term end for him)
Noah
what about neal?
Alex Cox
I think Vladwick is going for the COK, some AK's are using the sword as a base for replica weapons as he tries to hunt down Jason in revenge if not to satiate what bit of everlasting hunger for 'revemge' thadwick had
Lora Greenberg
You think Janis might be with the orthodoxy? Otherwise he's not going to get the reception he wants with his invitation. 🤨
Raphael
TYFTC
Chris Furry
Colin just clothed him, he didn’t heal him. The Sacred Phoenix ability did that.
SmokeJam
Jason Bin Asano.
JonO
Seriously shirt.... you're seriously outdoing yourself this clutch of chapters. I'm so looking forward to what's next.
ReadingObsessed
That made me laugh so much I choked on my dinner
Iain Grubb
Pretty sure he is going to change his opinion on that pretty quickly when faced with the reality of a pissed Jason + team.
Andrew Q Dunckley
Hey!!! Hey Shirt! YOU ARE AWESOME AND EACH CHAPTER IS A BRIGHT SPOT IN THE FUCKING OCEAN OF DIARRHEA THAT IS THE WORLD! that is all.
Razeel Nightfall
Nah the melodrama will come when he's back on Earth retelling what happened here.
Andrew Johnson
Haha! Go team Collin. I didn't even think about what Collins gold rank healing powers could do. That's make Jason so OP it's ridiculous. Can't wait to see everyone's reaction to Jason's display of power. Li Mei's reaction in particular should be interesting. I just wonder now how much of the cat is out of the bag about Jason and his powers. Also I wonder if his astral spaces where effected and who all received the system messages.
Ligeia
Nope. It's the same length as about 75% of the chapters. The good ones just feel short.
Anthony
Today was a shit day of work. I forgot a chapter was due today, and this totally made it worth it. Thank you.
R P
I was wondering the same thing. I started thinking that maybe some of the power goes to bolstering that of the AK but maybe also the birthing trees to grow more silver rank messengers. It is an interesting question that we'll hopefully get answer to.
Amanda Begly
I like that he isn't immediately focused on all the people who died and that he's not full on blaming himself for it. Yay growth!
Philip Pleiss
Jason has finally decided he is done with following rule number one of the wasteland.
Michael Hawkins
He's setting up the vladwick to be the big bad eventually. I like it.
Ligeia
I'm hoping Jamis is Boris's astral king.
David Cooper
Look, I know this is apropos of nothing, but one of the things I am really looking forward to is Jason remeeting Cassandra. I don't care if he has to put her down hard, give in to her fascination, or ignore her due to her family connections. I just loved their time together and want to see the drama play out.
Mike Zebill
I think you are spot on with that idea.
Blue Falcon
Glad to hear Jason isn’t going to let a side quest distract him from getting back to earth. Keep moving forward, Shirt! TYFTC
ONEsie
"Billion year jihad" sounds like a band i would have loved when i was 20 😂
Mike Zebill
Since the Astral kings all brand their slaves and siphon power off of them, what does that power get used for? If Jason kills off all the messenger batteries for an AK does that cause them to slowly starve and waste away?
Daniel Storm
Damn this story is good. I'm like an addict, watching the clock slowly click until I can get another hit of that sweet sweet Biscuit. Team, Biscuit.
Justin Smith
It's it just me or have these last few chapters felt really short. I'm not complaining they have been excellent. They just felt short
Josh Vanderpool
That’s Boris’ king isn’t it?
Crispined Glover Potato Snacks
Jason should know better, you never go full Kwisatz Haderach.
Russell Ventimeglia
Awesome! Still pretty sure Thadwick is involved. Sounds like a knock off of his sword.
Allen Wilding
Loved it
lockx
Hooooooly biscuits. This is going to be a good discussion
Alexander Dupree
As long as he isn’t slowly turning into a giant worm.
Lizy Flore
Tftc !
David Yow
Dude: "It might take a million years. A billion, but I have a billion. What I need is a purpose to fill all that time." Pure Gold.
Seaspike
Nope
Alexander Dupree
Thanks for the chapter
Agent P.
When my friends are just as powerful or long dead.
Anthony Moreno
Biscuits
Julia
LISAN AL-GAIB
Nathan Roberson
Biscuits!
Bingus McCready
Cracking up at the billion-year jihad line. One of those things I can’t wait to hear Heath Miller read. TFTC!!
Pierce
Yes we get that chat!
Thomas Todd
Jason declaring Endless War against the messengers. Taking a page out of Rome's playbook and salting the earth until nothing grows there anymore.
mhaj58
I’m hoping that after countless assholes, we finally get a good astral king
John Durrett
A swarm of shadowy figures dashed through the air through the air, Looks like through the air got a copy paste right at the start. @shirt. Fyi
RGrocks
biscuits
Alex Cox
Tftc
David Yow
Dude, how are you so fast?
Andrew Johnson
2nd
John goode
1st Biscuits!
TimeDrawsNigh
Tftc
