I just recently finished a perfect deathless nuzlocke run of Vanilla Emerald (in my runs, a "perfect run" is battling every single trainer and getting all of the possible encounters), and I wanted to provide some tips for those wondering what to do for fights or encounter routing for dupes clause. Before I begin, here is my ruleset:
-Standard deathless hardcore nuzlocke rules (1st encounter only, gym leader level caps, set mode, no items except for held items, 1 death = reset).
-Shiny Clause: I can freely catch a shiny, but I have to use it on the E4 team (for the Champion Picture).
-Rare Candies are hacked in to avoid grinding and time poorly wasted.
-Battling wild encounters for the sake of grinding EVs is banned (This makes the game MUCH harder as you can only grind EVs off of the limited number of trainer battles).
-Rematching trainers is banned (Limited EV investments and limited money).
-Level Edging is banned. Once the Pokemon has reached the level cap, they are boxed until the gym fight.
-Legendaries are permitted if they are under level cap. In other words, Rayquaza is unusable, but the Regi Trio is fair game.
-Wallace is the end game.
Roxanne Split:
I prefer getting the following encounters, in ideally the following order:
-Mudkip on Route 101. He is undisputedly the best starter. Reset for a better nature/IVs than mine. I had Bold with bad IVs.
-Poochyena (Explicitly for Dupes Clause and Tate & Liza)
-Zigzagoon (HM Mule + Pickup. Reset if Zig is not the encounter on routes 102 or 103.)
-Wurmple (Reset game to roll Dustox)
-Taillow (Repel manip @ Level 8 on Route 116 for a 91% chance at rolling Taillow, after nabbing Poochyena. Reset if the game rolls Skitty. I also don't play with Shedinja, so no Nincada, not to mention Nincada is heavily inconsistent to encounter.)
-Whismur (Rusturf, useful for almost all of the repel manip strats)
-Shroomish (come back after getting Wurmple and Taillow for a 75% chance at getting Shroomish. Reset if Slakoth is rolled.)
Yes, I reset for ideal early game encounters. This set of encounters makes the game so much smoother. There is lots of coverage in this team and there are almost no chances for deaths if you play around crits and Bide Seedots. Use documentation in case you do not know what you are facing next.

• All of these particular encounters are about a 1 in 6 to get if done correctly.
• Taillow is great once it gets Wing Attack at Level 13.
• Zig should be Level 11 or higher for a small chance at picking up King's Rock.
• Whismur and Poochyena should not be past levels 13 and 14 respectively (for the next repel manip).
• I reset if Wingull appears, as you can catch one on the water routes after you obtain Surf.

Roxanne Fight: Use Mudkip for Roxanne's Geodudes and Shroomish for the Nosepass. Leech Seed until you win.
Brawly Split: Magikarp, Tentacool, and Repel manip @ Level 10 for a guaranteed Makuhita.

• Aron is not reliable besides boom fodder from Exploding Koffing
• Sableye is unnecessary if you have Dustox/Beautifly to fight Brawly with (plus you get one in Cave of Origin after catching Zubat in Seafloor Cavern).

Brawly Fight: Solo with Dustox/Beautifly or poisoned Taillow. Unpoisoned Taillow gets killed by Makuhita nearly every time.
Wattson Split: Roll your Route 117 encounter before rolling your Route 110 encounter. Remember your repel manip Poochyena and Whismur? Use these now. You want Level 14 Oddish on Route 117 and any of the other Level 13 encounters (repel manip to avoid Wingulls) on Route 110. Any encounter will do fine. If you roll Electrike here, you will need to roll the tedious 1% Kecleon on Route 118 (I typically go for Sharpedo on Route 122 for anyone trying to point out Carvanha).
Wattson Fight: This is a tough one. I make sure that Marshtomp, Breloom, Hariyama, and Gloom (if I rolled an Oddish) is all on my team. I hate that the AI is really stupid, so I typically do not bring Gyarados for that reason, unless I am intentionally switching between Gyarados and Marshtomp (Gyarados is great for pivoting in Rom Hacks where the AI is smarter). Equip a bunch of Cheri Berries onto everything, and maybe a Persim Berry on Marshtomp if you received one from the flower shop on Route 104.
Flannery Split: There are a lot of potential encounters here. Here are some highlights:

• Bring a Level 16 Pokemon with you for two different repel manips (Fiery Path and Route 113) and then once more at level 18 on Route 114 for Lombre. Repel manipping at Level 16 in Fiery Path eliminates the Slugma and Grimer encounters which are both pretty bad. If you want to increase your chances at Skarmory on Route 113 (explained in detail a few lines down), you can try your luck for Slugma here. Lombre sucks but Ludicolo will carry in the E4 when you give it Fake Out, Giga Drain, Surf, and Ice Beam.
• Repel past the Rock Smash rocks on Route 111 to avoid Geodude. If you do NOT roll Torkoal in Fiery path, get the Geodude so that you can guarantee Torkoal in Magma Hideout after Winona. Graveler is decent for Maxie, Flannery, Norman, and Winona. Garbage afterward. Geodude and Graveler are also harder to obtain in Magma Hideout because they will then have acquired Self-Destruct (Acquired at Level 21).
• I actually go for Skarmory here now. Waiting to roll Electrode in Aqua Hideout, then 50% chance for Magnet Pull Magnemite in New Mauville, then 55% chance for Skarmory on Route 113 is so tedious, and Skarmory does not have much use after Aqua Hideout anyways. It comes out to about a 26% chance to get Skarmory by doing all of this dancing around. But by repel manipping at Level 16, Level 14 and 15 Spindas and Slugmas do not appear, making Skarmory's chance of appearing significantly better because he is ONLY found at Level 16. It is approximately a 14% chance from the original 5% chance for Skarmory to appear. If you roll Slugma in Fiery Path, those odds are increased to approximately 19% Perma-box the encounter if you do not roll Skarmory.
• Save Meteor Falls for the 50/50 Bagon.

Nothing else major to note. Numel is nice to have for Winona (Evolves into Camerupt right at level cap). Spoink is guaranteed if you roll Numel and Machop. I've heard of useful strats out of Grumpig, but have never utilized those strats myself.
Maxie fight: Gyarados and Hariyama do well here. Graveler is notable. Marshtomp is ok. Bubblebeam Azumarill is great, especially if you have Thick Fat.
Flannery Fight: Oh boy, our first real run-killer if playing deathless like me. Everything can be washed away with Bubblebeam Azumarill or Tentacool except for Torkoal. Don't let her set up Sunny Day and don't get crit. Sometimes stealing her White Herb can help but it can also waste a turn for Sunny Day set up. Double Team is useful, but set it up on Slugma (Tentacool is ideal, just watch out for Body Slam crits from Torkoal, as those WILL kill without EV investment). Thick Fat Azumarill is actually ideal for this fight. Graveler Magnitude 10 will one-shot Torkoal. Dragon Rage Gyarados is great even though Intimidate does not work because of White Smoke. Try to avoid using Marshtomp, aa he does not do enough damage. Wobbuffet can be useful, but it is a guessing game on what move Torkoal will use.
Norman Split:

• 50/50 for Trapinch. Good luck. If Sandshrew is rolled, give it the Dig TM for Norman and caves. He is otherwise the best candidate for Dig. If you do roll Trapinch, wait to evolve into Vibrava until Level 41 so that it gets Dig.
• Also, the fossil is open for fair game. I typically pick up Lileep for fishing, since the Suction Cups ability increases the chance of encounters appearing vis the rods. But Protect Battle Armor Anorith is a nice option for Norman.
• Watch out for the trainer with a Slakoth in the gym, as it knows Counter and will one-shot your Breloom or Hariyama if you are not careful.

Norman Fight: Here's my strategy. Persim Berry Hariyama will kill the first three mons on Norman's team. Do NOT use Fake Out on Spinda, as it knows Encore. Just click Vital Throw three times. Make sure Vigoroth does not crit, otherwise you might need a backup mon, like Breloom.
When Slaking comes out, send in your Torkoal, Anorith, or Dustox (or Pelipper if you don't reset for early game encounters like me and you do catch Wingull early). Equip a Leppa Berry on your Protect mon and slowly whittle away the brute. Sandslash is also okay if you know whether you are faster or slower, as Dig can be handy if you have good defensive investments. Remember that if Slaking is intended to attack on the turns Norman heals, Slaking will NOT attack next turn. If he heals on loaf turns, Slaking WILL attack the following turn.
Winona Split: Here's a list of the encounters you should roll, in the following order:
-Wingull on Route 109
-Electrike/Manectric/Kecleon on Route 118 (Repel manip @ Level 26 if you are going for Electrike/Manectric.)
-Wailmer w/ Good Rod on Route 108 (you can also get this on the eastern water routes, I tend to forget about him if I catch him later though).
-Feebas on Route 119. Yes, get the Feebas. This is the ONLY reason I choose the Root Fossil (Lileep) in my runs, is that Suction Cups increases the likelihood of rod mons to appear, including Feebas. Fish 2-3 times per tile and move on. You only get the lower section to work with (since the upper section is unlocked after obtaining Castform, which would be your encounter for the route). I've gotten Feebas as early as the 2nd and 4th tiles on two separate save files. Use Kelpsy Berries to evolve into Milotic. Surf, Ice Beam, Toxic, Recover. Boom, you have a lethal weapon on your team.
-Wait for the Route 115 encounter until after rolling the repel manipped Level 39 Altaria at Sky Pillar.
-Anything except Kecleon on Route 120. Absol can ruin your day with Swords Dance/Quick Attack/Razor Wind.
-Notice how Route 105 was not mentioned. This is just in case you roll the 5% Underwater Relicanth so that you can bring Regice to the E4.
Notes: Trainers begin to get tougher now, with halfway decent strats and cores to ruin your day. Read the docs to know what you're facing. Make good use of the Exp Share, Amulet Coin, and Macho Brace in all of your battles. If you are Exp grinding, make use of the day care, just make sure your useless moves are in the top slots so that you don't lose a good move you can't get back. Remember also that the day care does not EV train your Pokemon.
Winona Fight: Use Bolt Beam Gyarados and sweep. That's it. Alternatively, Camerupt and Manectric are good choices.
Tate & Liza Split:
-Shuppet on Route 121
-Duskull on the upper levels of Mt. Pyre
-Safari Zone Encounter (Psyduck, Girafarig, Pikachu, Doduo, Rhyhorn, Natu, etc.): Go for the easy-to-catch encounters if you are playing hard Safari Zone rules (1st encounter only, no 2nd attempts for run-away mons). I like rolling Psyduck because they are guaranteed and are easy to catch.
-Kecleon on Route 123 if he is not already caught
-Magma Hideout encounter (Torkoal or Geodude/Graveler)
-Electrode in Aqua Hideout (Use the Master Ball sitting next to the Electrode, as you will not need the Master Ball more anywhere else more than on an Exploding Electrode. Your only other option is Damp Psyduck from the Safari Zone, whose ability is a 50/50 roll. and nearly dies to Spark Crit anyways.)
-Magnemite in New Mauville (Magnet Pull is preferred if you still have not rolled Route 113.
-Skarmory on Route 113 if you don't take my advice and roll for him in the late game. Just make sure Magnet Pull Magnemite is your first member in the party.
Get the Super Rod and use it for the following encounters (just be careful of over-leveled trainers) in no particular order:
-Staryu in Lilycove City (Can be used in E4)
-Luvdisc in Evergrande (Useless)
-Corsola on Route 128 (Mostly useless, this can be swapped with Luvdisc)
-Horsea on Routes 132, 133, or 134 (Useless without trades, with the exception of being a useful HM Water Mule)
-Corphish in Petalburg City (Useful for Tate & Liza)
-Sharpedo on Route 122 (Useful for Tate & Liza)
Once again, watch out for tricky strategies.

• Don't hesitate to battle trainers in single battles rather than double battles (Looking at you Rain Thunder Manectric & Weather Ball Castform combo on Route 120).
• There are a few Wobbuffets at this point who will ruin your day. One sitting at the top floor of Mt. Pyre and one in the purple room of the Mossdeep Gym. Use your Milotic or Dustox with Toxic, Will-o-Wisp mons, or Leech Seed Breloom to handle the Wobbuffets.
• Slaking double battle on Route 121 can be deadly.
• Magnet Pull Magneton can ruin your day on Route 123.
• Bring Gyarados or Pelipper to Maxie 2 as well as Hariyama and Manectric. They are also both useful in warding off wild encounters with their respective abilities (both Intimidate and Keen Eye reduce the likelihood of wild encounters appearing).
• Aqua Hideout is a cakewalk compared to Magma Hideout.

Tate & Liza Fight: Get ready to kill them quickly or be killed. My strat is as follows: Poisoned Swellow uses Facade on Xatu to OHKO it. Wailord uses Protect on the incoming EQ from Claydol or Water Spout if it is faster. Swellow either Facades again on Claydol, Protects, or switches out to a Water or Dark Type. Wailord blasts Claydol again or switches to something else. Some notable switches:

• Cloud Nine Golduck does well for the Sunny Day Solrock
• Mightyena gets Taunt right at Level 42
• Gyarados is immune to EQ and gets Surf
• Sharpedo and Crawdaunt do well with Surf/Protect if their Natures and IVs are not terrible

Make sure to have 2 dark types at minimum for this fight and leave Lunatone to be the last one on the field. Even though it has Calm Mind, the only attacking move it has is Psychic.
Juan Split:
-Underwater Encounter. Yes, the location description is "Underwater," not "Route 124." You want Chinchou, regardless of whether it has Volt Absorb or not (VA is a plus). Manectric and Electrode both have a 50/50 chance of having the Static ability, which boosts the chance of electric types appearing when the beholder is first in the party. It does not make Chinchou guaranteed, but much more likely to appear than the less-than-fortunate 30% chance. This is why Pikachu is an option in the Safari Zone since it is guaranteed to have Static. Just make sure you feed the PokeBlock feeder the color that Pikachu likes (never used this method myself but there are articles about it online) to have a good chance to catch it. Relicanth is nice for Regice. Clamperl would be good if you could obtain it early game but you can't. Even with the DeepSeaTooth and Shell Armor it simply cannot do that much.
-Seafloor Cavern: Get the Luxury Ball first in the Abandoned Ship and then catch Zubat here. Bring Vileplume/Bellossom with Sleep Powder and then whittle it down with other moves to have the best chance for capture with the one Luxury Ball you are guven in the entire game.
-Shoal Cave: You do Seafloor Cavern first to guarantee Spheal here. Spheal is better than Snorunt. Trust me.
-Cave of Origin: Sableye (Useless)
-Sky Pillar: Repel manip @ Level 39 on the 2nd to top floor for a guaranteed Altaria. It does not have Perish Song. That is much safer than playing with an Exploding Claydol.
-Route 115: NOW you may get your useless Jigglypuff.
Get the Blue Shards and Water Stones. These are useful for Lombre and Staryu. Everything else is mostly useless except for a Leaf Stone if you are evolving Gloom into Vileplume (do it after level 35 for Moonlight).
Besides Archie (Use Hariyama, Manectric/Electrode/Magneton, Gyarados, etc.), this is a fairly easy split and you can obtain a LOT of money from the trainers underneath Juan's gym with the Amulet Coin. This is useful for all the TMs in the Game Corner.
Juan Fight: Use your electric type on everything except for Whiscash and Kingdra. Whiscash is defeated with a grass type, just kill it before it sets up Amnesias and PP stalls you out of your grass type moves. Alternately use a powerful physical attacker who doesn't die easily. Kingdra can be PP stalled with a recovering water type, and that is usually your best option. Once again Milotic shines here. Starmie is also rather good here, given you made sure to teach it Recover before evolving it. Otherwise, you can use a mon with Shock Wave/Faint Attack/Aerial Ace/Magical Leaf and some sort of recovery, and wish for a crit.
Elite 4 Split:
-Bagon in Meteor Falls. Watch out for Fire Spin trapping Solrock, as I had to reset once here this late in the game because of it.
-Aron/Lairon in Victory Road. Cradily, Exploud, and Soundproof Electrode are your three options for catching this because all three are immune to Roar. This is why you go for Makuhita in Granite Cave because only Cradily is immune to Whirlwind Hariyama in Victory Road and it dies to Hariyama's Belly Drum + SmellingSalt. Hariyama is also so much more useful during the story than Aron/Lairon will ever be. Alternatively, you can roll for Mawile which is miles worse.
Victory Road trainers are tough. Make sure you battle the last two trainers one at a time because their strategies are top tier (Skill Swap on Slakings + Coverage). No Wobbuffets fortunately but plenty of other stuff to mess you up. Look at docs before battling each and every trainer. Having a Dig mon (Flygon/Sandslash) is nice to escape easily. Take Linoone to HM blast your way through the maze. Unlike what other sources say, you do NOT need Waterfall to get through Victory Road.
E4 Fight: I finished the E4 deathless with a mono water team consisting of Gyarados, Milotic, Starmie, Swampert, Ludicolo, and VA Lanturn. In my run, Starmie was almost never used, despite having some impressive coverage options and Recover. Milotic saved my run against Wallace. Gyarados can pivot into anything. Lanturn was the electric type for my team, though Gyarados also possessed T-bolt for Wallace.
Some other notable options include:

• Hariyama for Sidney (Bring another Persim Berry) and Glacia's Glalies.
• Manectric/Electrode for Glacia and Wallace if you miss out on Lanturn. Magneton is nice but gets shredded due to its poor Speed and Special Defense.
• Other bulky water types for Wallace. Make sure they have Aspear Berries in the last fight, as Wallace loves to freeze your team.
• Ice Beam mon for Drake. Doesn't matter, just make sure it is tanky.
• Something that doesn't die to Phoebe's coverage options. The Banettes are easy to handle but have coverage options like Thunderbolt. The Dusclops will quickly rid you of your PP. The Ace Dusclops has coverage beyond belief (Ice Beam, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Shadow Ball). Sableye is just there to cause trouble and frustration with Double Team.
• Wallace is the real threat that you need to set your team around. Everything else in the E4 can be covered with the tools that you bring. I opt for a mono water team often because it is so good at countering Wallace. You need OHKO answers for Wailord and Gyarados. You need to PP Stall his Milotic if you are not blasting it to the moon (Meaning you need either a Poison/Steel type or Rest to counter Toxic). You need an answer for Hyper Beams that Wallace will be launching at you. Use the Sludge Bomb or Aerial Ace TMs for the Ludicolo or stall it with a grass type. Nonetheless, this is the one battle you are truly prepping for. Everything else comes second.

If you have read this far, congrats and thank you. I enjoy completing nuzlockes in my spare time and wanted to share some information I could not obtain myself on the internet for others to read. If I missed or overlooked something, please let me know all about it.

Shonen Jump will be going through an interesting time soon, with jjk and mha ending, and the competitive landscape of manga constantly shifting. Its two biggest rivals Weekly shonen magazine and weekly shonen sunday also find themselves in times of transition for different reasons, and so comparing them may help give us some insights into the industry as a whole.
Since the last of these posts generated some interest, I thought id do more comparing Jump to some other magazines, just so that we could broaden the discussion a little.
So lets go over some sales, and then a general overview of each of the magazines, where they stand, and how the competitive landscape between the three is evolving.
(Sales taken from oricon and shoseki. Circulation numbers are from last known numbers. Compilation sales for Sunday and magazine come from mangahelpers forum member Haozz.)

Weekly Shonen Magazine monthly circulation 370,083

1. Blue Lock 28 — 270,085 copies
2. Shangri-La Frontier 17 — 111,553
3. Hajime no Ippo 140 — 68,849
4. Four Knights of the Apocalypse 16 — 51,863
5. Seitokai ni mo Ana ha Aru! 6 — 46,895
6. Rent a Girlfriend 36 — 46,352
7. Goddess Cafe Terrace 14 — 39,498
8. A Couple of Cuckoos 22 — 35,334
9. Amagami-san 14 — 26,569
10. Kuroiwa Medaka 13 — 24,232
11. Gachiakuta 10 — 22,404
12. To Your Eternity 21 — 19,057
13. Edens Zero 31 — 17,929
14. Ranger Reject 13 — 11,456
15. Kanan-sama 6 — 10,475
16. Mayonaka Heart Tune 3 — 9,366
17. Yowayowa Sensei 6 — 8,538
18. Akabane Honeko 8 — 7,567
19. Ao no Miburo 13 — 7,369
20. Orion's Board 1 — 7,094
21. Katana Beast 2 — 3,960

Total volume sales for first month 846,445
The state of weekly shonen magazine.
Blue lock was the biggest selling manga of last year, bigger than jjk and one piece. People will say it’s a product of the world cup in conjunction with the anime etc, but regardless that’s no small feat. Its absolutely a pillar of the magazine, in sales and renown. However, it is also slowly declining in sales after its initial boost as well, but there is a new season of the anime coming up as well.
Beyond that, shonen magazine has gained some notoriety for being “weekly romcom magazine”, and not without good reason. Obviously it spawned the mega hit quintessential quintuplets a few years back, but beyond that there are literally 8 romcom/harem/ecchi titles in the magazine right now. Everything from 6-10 in sales is one of these and then 2 ecchi series kanan and yowayowa, and harem newcomer mayonaka heart tune.
Its interesting, because the biggest sellers in the magazine are still stuff like blue lock, hajime no ippo and now Shangri la frontier. Sports and battle series. Like Sunday, they have a long term staple like hajime, and a new pillar to hold the magazine afloat, but other than a stable of solid mid- tier romcoms, they also have been struggling to find new series.
Also jump poached Ken wakui from them somehow, who had their biggest recent hit in tokyo revengers. This is a huge blow but well wait and see how astro royale does before gauging how big this is.
Some will say this romcom strategy is hurting the magazine and making it hard to find new battle hits, others will say it gives it a marketing edge. Regardless, like Sunday, they haven’t produced many hits in the last year despite having pillars to lean on.
They do have some exciting new series coming up, and what seems like a renewed focus on more diversity, which is where I think the strength of the magazine lies.
Any new series recommendations to get into the magazine?
Other than the big series its known for, and ranger reject( which has criminally low sales) there are three relative newcomers that are worth paying attention to. First the biggest hit recently is Seitokai ni mo Ana ha Aru! , which is a 4 koma gag manga. If you are into that kind of thing its actually really fun and even won a few awards in the first year of its serialization.
Other than that, I can recommend Mayonaka Heart Tune and Gachiakuta
Mayonaka heart tune may seem like another harem, but it has a really competent and interesting male lead, cute girls obviously… but also a performing arts aspect where all the girls are pursuing different creative vocations the guy is helping them with, but they still have agency in pursuing. Theres also a quints like mystery at the center of it, and the character writing and humour is well executed. Its very good for its genre.
Gachiakuta is something fans of a series like Kagurabachi will probably like….but also fans of battle fantasy series. On the surface an edgy manga about revenge, but it has a heart and interesting characters and something to say. It has a fascinating fantasy world that revolves around junk, but it blends its themes, power system and character writing with this conceit in really interesting ways. It also just has really cool art and character designs.
-
Weekly Shonen Sunday Monthly circulation 160,417

1. Sousou no Frieren 13 — 541,359
2. Conan 105 — 391,420
3. Major 2nd 27 — 63,859
4. Komi-san 33 — 57,860
5. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 27 — 32,041
6. Kiyo in Kyoto 25 — 31,796
7. MAO 19 — 29,035
8. Tonikaku Kawaii 27 — 25,905
9. Mikadono Sanshimai 9 — 21,239
10. Ogami Tsumiki 1 — 7,221
11. Aozakura 32 — 6,198
12. Ryuu to Ichigo 15 —5,947
13. Shibuya Near Family 3 — 3,595
14. Red Blue 9 — 1,820
15. Tokachi Alone Plantation 14 — 1,735

Total Volume sales for first month 1,221,030
The state of shonen Sunday.
Sunday is in a really interesting place. It obviously is known for long running series like Conan, but what has really spiked interest in the magazine of late is obviously the runaway success of Frieren, and in my opinion deservedly so , with some of the most thematically rich character driven writing in shonen and fantasy. It is also a mega hit now, with the incredible anime adaptation by madhouse, pushing it past 500k in volume sales in a month, well beyond the circulation numbers of the magazine itself.
So they have a new pillar of incredible esteem and repute to build their magazine around…whats the issue you ask? Beyond Frieren, and long standing successes like conan, komi san, tonikaku kawaii, mao etc, they have lost quite a few series recently that did really well, like call of the night that was a 100k + seller, (it ended organically) ….and have not really found any big hits at all in the last couple of years.
They operate different to jump, axe way less and introduce way less series….. and they are currently introducing some new series, a couple of which show potential….but other than that they are struggling to find new hits.
Any new series recommendation to get into the magazine?
Other than frieren, which you should all be either watching or reading(yes it really is that good) the one hit they found last year, ogami tsumiki, is actually really cute. To sell it to the jump audience, its basically ruridragon with some light romance. The FMC is a werewolf instead of a dragon, but is more extroverted than ruri, and the lead male character is more quiet and introspective…and also just a normal human. It shows their daily life in a world where monsters live freely amongst humans. Its very cute and has those intangible slice of life vibes im sure many will enjoy.
Overall, sunday is in an interesting place. Having something like frieren to build your magazine around is huge, but building a stable of new series around pillars is important as well. That’s when the magazine has thrived in the past. Hopefully they find a way to capitalize on the position they find themselves in now.

Weekly Shonen Jump Monthly circulation 1,176,667

1. One Piece 108 - 1,290,703
2. Jujutsu kaisen 26 - 1,097,061
3. My hero academia 40 - 510,677
4. Sakamoto days 16 - 116,712
5. Blue Box #14 - 115,428
6. Kagurabachi 2 - 69,266
7. Akane-banashi 11 - 45,305
8. Witch Watch 16 - 42,934
9. The Elusive Samurai 15 - 41,655
10. Mission: Yozakura Family 23 - 32,562
11. Undead Unluck 21- 30,945
12. Nue's Exorcist 4 -28,528
13. Kill Blue 4 - 25,058
14. Me and roboco - 20,000

Total volume sales for first month 3,466,834
Just for fun.....
Total volume sales without jjk and mha 1,859,096
The State of Shonen Jump and Overall thoughts
Of course, the discourse around jump revolves around how jjk and mha are ending soon, taking with them 1.5 million in volume sales, and creating parity between the three magazines. Doomers will say this is the end of jumps dominance, optimists will say that they will find something to replace them as they always do. Lets examine this though
Sakamoto and blue box are primed to be the next hits with an anime boost, but we don’t know what the impact will be. Sakamoto needs a great adaptation imo, and blue box is a romance. How well these can do people will debate, but they do have series that have potential to blow up
Next in terms of newcomers in the last year, jump has done pretty well. Between kagurabachi, kill blue and nues exorcist they at least found 3 series, each very different in their tone and who they appeal to. (chojos toc has also started great and its pre orders are decent, but lets wait for sales) When you compare the sales of jumps newcomers to the other magazines newcomers, there is no competition. Of course you have to consider circulation and how the bigger platform affords more exposure, but still, id say jump is doing about as well when compared to other magazines.
-Still it would be foolish not to acknowledge the hole jjk and mha leave in their wake, which also provides opportunities for new series, as well as other magazines. I think a more competitive manga industry will be more interesting. I care about manga in general than just being a fan of any given magazine….which brings us to the next point
-Sales are down across the industry. Not just in physical volume sales, but circulation for magazines as well. Of course, there is a massive shift to digital both in readership and volume sales, but we have no data on digital volume sales, and this leaves a gap for people to speculate and create their own narratives. Until we get more transparency about digital, we can't fully assess the industry shift and dynamics. We can say there is a change in the zeitgeist, and its worth keeping this in mind.
It is interesting though. Without jjk and mha, jump is relying on a single “pillar” one piece, which should still be around for a few more years. This brings it in line with the other two magazines, which also have one clear pillar each…or maybe 2 in the case of sunday(the gap between their top performer and the others is smaller) I think the way people think about “pillar” may also change. Instead of 3 big series, jump may have 1 big one, and a bunch of series that all do decently well. Between sakamoto, blue box and kagurabachi, you have potential for very solid selling series, even if they don’t approach the million mark. Lots of other series are also awaiting animes, like witch watch, akane, elusive samurai……and even though they probably wont get a massive boost, they can do decently well.
Overall I remain optimistic, and hope the period of increased parity between the three creates more of what I hope all of us want. Really good manga.

We fought them all not just the dreaded Eldar but also the humans. In flames the battle did not end not did the resistance wane, but in the unnecessary bloodshed the horrid terror rendered but one i would call sister. Though is it truly unnecessary if it works, is she really a sister if everything in her being disgusts me.…..Can i truly judge after what i did…….
She was Eldar but she was also a child. She meant me harm but her ability to do so was minimal if existent at all. She was the enemy but i did not kill her, burn her from existence because she was my enemy nor because it was my duty. Merely because my Fire-sight only saw the flames of rage and the witch as something to burn.Then the voice came; my sister’s voice Curze taunts me that i am no better than her. Maybe she is right, maybe father’s genetic gift to us was mindless violence but we are more. I must be more…..I must……otherwise what will i become.
As if sensing my uncertainty, or more likely seeing it plain on my face even from such a low angle. “Even that which you forge can be imperfect so why can’t you be, simply reforge”. I allow myself to look away from my crime, a crime that was already miles away as I embrace Wyrmheart.REFORGE…..that is what i must do.
First at the design table i begin to draw to empty my thoughts. To imprint them on the page, to show my purpose in way that felt true to myself. Taking in the thoughts of Wyrmheart when my cherished came by to drop my favorite baked goods while i work; a patty is a semicircular pastry that contains various fillings and spices baked inside a flaky shell, often tinted golden yellow with an egg yolk mixture or turmeric. Bouncing of ideas that i felt needed an outside perspective from someone who truly knew me or simply need to voice a roadblock to find a way around it. Though in time the nature of my project and the nature of my true self came clearer.
*PING PING PING* I hammer on the forge working on my project. Hammering it out before i reforge it as I cleanse the metals or impurities cleanse myself of impurities. Then bringing it back out of the fire *PING PING PING* to reshape it, to reshape myself. As i check my work against my designs. Carefully looking it over my muscles truly straining in a way it rarely does but my resolve on my project my ideal remains firm. Even as my sons come to drop off refreshments or relay intel. I answered of course even as Artellus Numeon would comment that between me and the forge this wing was hot enough to reforge his own ass. ……Finally it was finished the Gates of Hestia, I admit the name probably needed work and while i will certainly ask my sons later i looked over my work pleases. Interlinking bulwarks to be places anywhere within 100 yards of each other ;that ignite flames that burn so hot they are invisible to the naked eye 400 °C (752 °F). These can be operated remotely and can be turned on and off, becoming a defensive maze for non-fireproof enemies. However with the Fire-sight of the 18th ;my sons; would know what gates are on and off as apparent as a door open or shut. Of course we would provide appropriate tells for our allies……allies.I sat then down stepping away looking them over while I thought green pillars with a salamanders coat of arms that could function as a shield in their own right. Between them there are what appear to be short blades that adjust and point towards another pillar. Allies……the soldiers of the Astra Militarum, Uncle Malcdor naturally, and my sisters……all my sister….even Curze. As i place my hand on my new work, my defensive gate, if I could reforge metal and indeed myself, maybe Kassandra could be reforge too if she was willing to work at it.Speaking of work after so long at the forge my clothes were not fit for anything but the trash heap. Out the corner of my eye I catch Wyrmheart with a plate and a fixed eyes on me unable to speak……well maybe they were good for other things as well

Introduction

I am Vic and I love all Renothal decks. Recently, I discovered how much I loved DK as a class for its complex deckbuilding. Today, I will show you what I cooked up!
Like with all Reno decks, this deck doesn't have much internal synergy due to the no duplicate rule. Instead, this deck contains many strong standalone cards (mostly legendaries, which aren't affected by the one card clause anyway).
That's why these decks can get quite pricy (looking at you, Uther and Malfurion) and I don't recommend crafting this, if you want to break the meta.
For reference: I at times had winstreaks of 5-7 games before switching to another deck I cooked and restarting at D5. Sadly, I don't have any records due to playing on mobile. Right now, I am dedicated to bring this to legend, maybe with more discipline and not trying out Tier7 cooks

Code (check comments, mobile users)

YvlBijDFoUX/KMD5bAEl+8Eh/YEs/cE4qQFzaUFoaoF/cQFgvgF/PkFk/sF7f8FyoMG0IMG9YwGhY4G85EGg5IGi5IGlJUG/5cGgJgG65gGkqAGnaIGr6gGy7AGubEGu7EGvbEGwbEGqLgG2OUGpPQGpvQGrPQGQGAAABA4L4Bf3EBdaABv3EBfWMBv3EBQAA

The Cards

Essential

I recommend playing all of these cards in all builds, they are the backbone of every list I'd ever play
Renothal package:
(2) Zephrys the Great - The GOAT
(6) Reno Jackson - The other GOAT
(9) Reno, Lone Ranger - Fuck this card (as long as I still get to topdeck and play it vs a full board)
(3) Prince Renathal - Enables you to play 40 cards at 40 hp, makes your Reno stronger
Good stuff:
(1) Sir Finley, Sea Guide - Like with every Renothal deck, some hands can become clunky or don't have a certain response to an opposing threat. Finley gives you a second chance
(2) Astalor Bloodsworn - Very good standalone card, offers removal, healing and damage in 1 card
(4) E.T.C., Band Manager - Very strong card, I will explain some choices in the sections below
xxx (2) Cold Feet - Just a good disruption card
xxx (2) Down with the Ship
xxx (4) Skeleton Crew
(8) The Primus - God, I love him so much, he's just such a cool card
(10) Climactic Necrotic Explosion - Our main wincon. In case you can't kill your opponent, you can just play this to heal your hero and fill your board with tokens that give you many corpses.

Corpse package

In order to make CNE lethal, you need ways to efficiently spend many corpses. Efficiency means: Gain and then spend corpses and profit off of it. This is one of DKs core mechanics, their Hero Power is basically giving you 1 corpse a turn
Weapons
(1) Runeforging - Part of the four card Weapon package. 1 mana draw 1 is already good. Spending 1 corpse to to make it cheaper? Even better
(4) Quartzite Crusher - Heals for 9, stops Titans from using their effects, removes minions and pisses off Kingsbane Rogue massively
(5) Foamrender - The newest card in this deck. I'd put this into the Essential list, if this weren't a more thematically fitting place. Infinite Arcanite Reaper that also spends 3 corpses a turn???????
(1) Runes of Darkness - 1 mana get a good weapon, spend 3 corpses and cast Upgrade! in one, nothing more to say other than this gets infinetely more fun when you discover one of the above weapons
Gaining Corpses
(2) Mining Casualties - Flood the board and gain 4 corpses, nothing more to say
(3) Rainbow Seamstress - Basically 3 mana Zilliax that gives you two corpses
(3) Blightfang - Insane vs any board based aggro deck, getting 1 token is already good, getting more than that is jsut insane, especially because every one of them becomes a corpse for you to spend
(6) Dr. Stitchensew - Very good standalone card for long games, basically a Mini-Rattlegore that gains you 4 corpses over time
Spending Corpses
(2) Defrost - Pay two, spend two, draw two. Fair deal, right?
(2) Hematurge - Gets you a generally good card for 1 corpse
(3) Corpse Farm - Very efficient, spends up to corpses for a body. I'd say, this pays off at min. 5 to 6 spent corpses
(4) Maw and Paw - A hybrid between gaining and spending. Either a [4 mana 2/8 with Taunt and Battlecry: Gain 5 corpses] or infinite life support, very cool card

Removal

Not only is DK know for its corpse mechanic. Especially its Blood Rune is known for efficient removal
(1) Fistful of Corpses - The bridge between this and the last section, comparable to The Light, It Burns! in its efficiency
(2) Threads of Despair - Defile-adjacent 4 mana nuke that is triggered remotely by your Hero Power. I highly suggest doing the math properly before playing this (definetely never happened to me) (never)
(2) Obliterate - *Insert Exodia joke* I honestly think, this is the best single removal card of all time
(6) Gnome Muncher - This basically has Charge, if you coordinate your moves right. Heals your for 10 more times than not and is honestly one of the best and underrated DK cards
(6) The Headless Horseman - DKs first Hero Card, and it's a cool one too! Basically a very, very overcosted Shadow Word: Death that gains you a lot of value and damage in the lategame
(7) Frost Queen Sindragosa - Aman'thul at home. At least she synergizes with Quartzite Crusher, that's gotta account for something at least, right?
(7) Patchwerk - He and Mutanus walked, so that Boomboss Thor'gun could run. Insane with Brann.

Excavate Package

I know, I know, halving the available cards in a synergistic package is stupid (See Reno Galakrond decks other than Shaman), but to be honest, more times than not, even without the Azerite Rat, they are Battlecry: Get a good card
(2) Kobold Miner - Evil Cable Rat now says "Invoke Galakrond"
(3) Reap What You Sow - Pls make this 2 mana Blizzard, I promise I won't build an Even Excavate Death Knight, I promise
(3) Timeline Accelerator - Basically a tutor for ...
(5) Burrow Buster - Devoted Maniac, if it weren't totally shitty
(4) Skeleton Crew - I'd play this earliest for the Rare treasure, since this makes it cost 0. I play a second copy in ETC because in the late game, you often have excavated 2-3 times and this gets you to you...
The Payoff: The Azerite Rat - Very cool and sticky card, this revives Reska, Sindragosa and anything you summoned off of Corpse Farm. Just keep in mind that this cannot revive The Primus

The Rest

These are just good cards to round off the deck
(1) Miracle Salesman - Best neutral 1 drop that helps cycling
(2) Down with the Ship - Good removal that - like Fistful of Corpses and Reap What You Sow - profit off of The Primus' Frost Rune ability. Strong with Helya, especially vs Reno decks, that's why I play a second copy in ETC
(2) Dryscale Deputy - We don't play many spells and the ones we play are good. Either gives you more removal, a second Reap What You Sow or even a second CNE
(3) Brann Bronzebeard - Helps with Excavating and other Battlecries
(3) Chillfallen Baron - Solid card that draws you 2
(4) Helya - I miss her messing up Reno, Lone Ranger and Doc Holiday, still good to turn off Zeph, Old Reno, Raza and others
(20) Reska, the Pit Boss - Sylvanas on crack, this off of Azerite Rat is disgusting

Mulligan

Normal: Keep a low curve (duh), keep Excavate cards apart from Burrow Buster if you don't have the Coin
For certain matchups:
DK - Doesn't exist
DH - Doesn't exist
Druid - Most often Treant or Reno. I suggest keeping your Plague cards, as well as Threads of Despair, Maw and Paw and Blightfang
Hunter - Doesn't exist
Mage - Doesn't interact with you anyway
Pally - Anything that clears a board early, Zeph and The Primus are insane midgame
Priest - Either Aggro or Reno. Same as Druid
Rogue - Idk how to prepare vs 4 Tier 1 decks, Quartzite Crusher or the cards that get to it always were silver bullets
Shaman - Either Even or Reno. Same as Druid
Warlock - For Darkglare, keep Helya and removal for any early mana cheat bullcrap
Warrior - Doesn't exist

Other playable cards

This wouldn't be a good Renothal guide without suggesting how to personalize this list to your taste. For bigger packages, I suggest cutting the excavate package, some cards from the last section or similar cards (e.g. Hematurge for Frost Strike)
Forge package: Watcher, Eulogizer and Ignis. Eulogizer can gain or spend corpses and is therefore very cool in this deck. I would swap this for the Excavate package. I played this, as well as 1 Bone Breaker and a Zilliax 3000 before Foamrender, but right now, Foamrender is just one of the best cards in Rainbow DK
Zilliax 3000 - You could think about playing a second Mech for Timeline Accelerator, but I dont like it
Other Reno cards - Alex: messes with your Azerite Rat pool // Maruut: just Excavate World Pillar Fragment // Elise: Valid option
Disruption - (e.g. Loatheb, Boompistol Bully, Speaker Stomper, Cultist, Cold Feet, Okani, Pozzik, Theotar, Mutanus) Definetely possible, I'd cut the Excavate package, but keep Brann
Frost engine - (e.g. Harbinger of Winter, Northern Navigation and Frost Strike as well as other Frost cards) make Sindragosa a bigger threat and offer more draw
Pile of Bones - pls give this Rush and make RWYS 2 mana. I promise again Blizzard, I won't abuse it
Handbuff Package - (e.g. Darkhorn Quilter and Handbuff stuff) pretty fun, but weak
Some more Plague Cards - This is fun, but Staff of the Primus is another weapon inferior to Foamrender. Chained Guardian clashes with Azerite Rat, bc it already has Reborn, in case you wanna play all Plague AND Excavate cards
Some cool single cards that I liked in some builds: Card Grader, Nerubian Vizier, Thassarian, Corpse Bride, Boneguard Commander, Hollow Hound, Cage Head/Blight Boar or Mr Smite for Azerite Rat, Toysnatching Geist, Arthas Gift

Closing words

Thanks for reading my guide! I am open for suggestions and your experiences. You can add me, my name is Sonnenaxt#2515

It was a dark day at Furlong keep as Tora looked over maps of the island, trying to decide if it was best to fight from within the walls or in the open field. Both seemed like terrible ideas, and worst of all they had just received news from Fortress Dana.
“What do you mean ‘We cannot expect them to lend aid?’ Is that not their very purpose for existing?! What we have been paying our yearly tithes to expect!? For heaven’s sake there are darklings in their midst! Tell that crawly little spineless whelp of a fortress commander that I expect him and his forces to depart immediately or my dying command shall be a bounty on his head, dead or alive as a traitor!”
“Uhm… are you-”
“AT ONCE!” she snapped at the servant, who recoiled under her ire.
“Yes my lady, at once. Who shall we send?”
“My name is Tora. I am not your Lady yet. Should the gods see fit to let us survive this disaster then perhaps… Send Ilaril… With instructions not to return lest it is with a sizable force. If it cannot be managed, she is to go to Bartelion and stay there… carry on the line.”
“But Tora… She’s 13!” Shiva protested. Shiva was Tora’s sister and the keep’s smith. They were the same age, but Tora had always been destined for the high chair. Groomed for years to lead. And so she would. It didn’t help that Shiva was now missing much of a leg and had her wing in a splint. Tora had carried her much of the way home, an effort that had damn near killed them both.
“And unwounded!... Unlike you, Harkur, and Toliar. Jackalope and River are far too young to go. If our line is to carry on she shall have to show that we are worthy of it… Make sure to impress upon her the seriousness of her mission. Give her what supplies can be spared and what equipment she wants, but she must travel light, do you understand?”
“Yes my Lady, I shall inform her at once,” the servant went, bowing and moving to leave.
“Yes… and send a copy of the message to Fortress Dana to Baretelion at once as well.”
The servant stopped, looking back at her with a hesitant expression. She was about to demand his reply when he spoke up meekly.
“We don’t have any Bartelion birds left, we have sent them all.”
“No, not by bird, use the rings you halfwit!” Tora snapped again, feeling the end of her rope approaching.
“We sold the rings my lady...”
“Oh for crying out loud…” Tora broke out, head sinking as she felt Shiva’s hand on her shoulder. “Empty threats, is that what it has come to then? A Furlong unable to stand by their words… Disgraceful.”
They had been peering over maps for hours trying to deduce just what was to be done. They were coming, her scouts had done well. Rashan had made camp but an hour's flight west on the island and showed no sign of knowing he had been discovered. “Be off with you, send the threat. If anything, maybe we will get someone to arrest me for my insolence who can hold a blade. In fact, add that if they intend on arresting me they best bring an army.”
“Yes of course my- Tora,” the servant replied, finally running off to see her will carried out.
“What of Naxima? How far out is she?” Shiva questioned, simply and coldly.
“We don’t know… We do not even know if she accepted the contract. And we cannot afford to extend the offer to anyone else. No one believes we have the funds, so payment was needed in advance.”
“What if she simply took the money? We do not know her well.”
“Then we may curse her from the depths of hell or the reaches of heaven… Wherever we may go.” Tora replied darkly. There was not much real hope to be had. Certainly not after the loss of Tarin and Kalbida.
Tora cast her mind back to that dark day. They had done battle with Rashan and his band many times during the summer, both in defence of fellow keeps and during the attempted siege of Lochen keep. A siege which proved to be their undoing.
Either it had been a trap or the gods had been against them that day. They believed Rashan had been driven off following injuries sustained at the battle of Yandar keep. A valiant defense that nevertheless ended with the keep but a smoldering ruin and what remained of the Yandars’ fighting strength flying alongside the Furlongs’ and the Travdas’ to Lochen for revenge.
They had laid siege, not willing to destroy another keep with the Yandar family now homeless. They would take it by force instead. They had the red dragon Tarin on their side, who had served alongside them for many years at Furlong keep. And despite the dragon suffering wounds in the previous battles, they were certain of victory.
Camp had been made, and work commenced to whittle away at the defenses. Rocks were dropped on roofs, and doors were rammed through. It was slow work, but progress was steady. They would slaughter the traitors in their homes and take it for themselves so the Yandars could be repaid for what they had lost.
But it was not to be. Rashan had returned during the dead of night on the third day. And in the darkness they had struck. Darklings and Lochen keep dwellers alike descended upon the siege camp, the sentries barely managing a warning of the impending disaster.
In the chaos that followed Kalbida had fallen to some sneaky slimy traitorous bastard. THE Kalbida Furlong, slain by a knife in the night. The armor which might have saved her was locked away in a collection somewhere in the capital to help fund the fighting after the long years of struggle. It was a disgrace.
A disgrace that left Tora in command. A position she had long envied and prayed to receive, but not like this. Not in the hour of disaster and shame. She had given the only order she could. Fall back to the keep. Fall back and regroup… but not everyone. They could not outfly a dragon in the night. Rashan must not follow them to their halls.
Tora did not know if her mother would have despised her or lauded her for what she asked next. But Tarin was to be commended. The dragon stood his ground and in his fury, wounded the traitor Rashan once more, this time grounding the traitor and setting Lochen keep ablaze, even if he paid the ultimate price.
The inferno drew away the distraught dragonettes watching their home burn to the ground, and the darklings swarmed to protect their master. No chase was given as those left worthy of the white slipped away into the night, making for what keeps still stood. Soon they had all consolidated in Furlong keep. It was smaller and easier to defend, and most importantly built tougher than most. So here they stood. Those who remained, aiming to fight against the night, a battle they were bound to lose.
They did not know how long they would have. Rashan would come for them, but the coward would not seek battle until he was healed and possibly reinforced even further. They were hoping for a month and they had nearly gotten it. The brazen arrogance of the traitor, that he did not believe aid would come to the Furlongs.
And what infuriated Tora most of all was that he had been proven right… no one had come. Nothing. They had sent for more mercenaries and most importantly a dragon able and willing to fight. They should have been here by now.
The price had been steep but it was the last hope they could muster and the last coin in their coffers. They would not flee their home. The Saga of the Furlongs would not end with cowardice. They would do as their mother had taught them. They would fight to the last, and they would die well. And if necessary, alone.
“Open the armory, we have preparations to make.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
“A well fought battle, Lady Bizmati. Was this your first?”
“No Major, I have served on many occasions. But it was the first fight under banners for my son Fanto,” Nunuk replied to the major, glancing towards her son who was busy recounting the events of the battle, though it could hardly be called a battle.
“I see, I did not see him fight, did he acquit himself well?”
“Better than the opposition. What a farce this was.”
“Yes, quite,” the major replied, glancing about the surrendered garrison. Nunuk was not privy to how it had been uncovered that something was rotten at Fortress Dana, but they had nevertheless set out expecting a full-fledged siege against a royal guard fortress, a daunting challenge for any force.
But upon their arrival, they were not met with much opposition at all, only confusion and hastily opened gates. It had taken some time to discover what had transpired. Orders changed or ignored, falsified information relayed, and reports hidden. Only one person had the authority to orchestrate such a thing, and he could not have been alone.
They had found the fortress commander barricaded inside his offices. A quick council was held to determin what to do about him, ideally the traitor should be taken alive, for questioning. And so they elected to smoke them out.
The last charge of the commander and his entourage had been the only true excitement of the day. Nunuk had fought alongside Fanto and Kokashi in the corridors. They had managed to capture a lieutenant who had sought to flee the scene, and only with a mild dismemberment. He would be fit for questioning even without an arm.
“I have been led to believe that you brought a mage, is this true?”
“Yes, my husband Apuma, not much of a fighter but capable nonetheless. He is the lore keeper of our keep.”
“Ahr, very good. Fetch him, would you? Who knows what magical secrets might be hidden in that office. We shall have to comb through it. Let me know if you find anything of interest.”
“Of course, major, right away. If there are any traps or hidden compartments we shall find them.”
With a brisk nod she excused herself to go fetch her kin. She knew that bringing the old coot along was a clever idea. Even with the lack of battle to gain favor, there were often other ways to make oneself stand out when banners were called. She just hoped the major would be generous enough to make mention of her, and more importantly, the name Bizmati.
“Listen up you three, work to do. Apuma, we will need your spellbook. We are going through the office.”
“Oh right, of course sweetheart. Anything specific?”
“Not in the field, Apuma,” she replied, trying not to chuckle. “Anything a traitor could think of. Traps, hidden compartments, messages and the like. Do your best.”
“Of course, anything for you sweety… Oh I mean Nunuk… Lady Bizmati?” the old man tried, clearly probing the waters of whatever she approved of.
At that she could no longer help but let out the chuckle and shake her head. “Just move your claws, come on now.” And so she led the way through the fortress courtyard towards the administration wing. As they walked she called over her shoulder. “So Fanto, what do you think?”
“Honestly?... Bit disappointed, I mean all we did was tie up a fleeing coward,” the young man replied with a shrug. He had been hoping for more, she knew that.
“Yes, I suppose so. Then again one should hardly wish for blood. All in all I think this has gone as well as it could thus far. We did our job, and possibly we even acquitted ourselves well enough to to be credited for our part. And not a scratch to be seen on any of us.”
“Yes mum. Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I know what you were wishing for. Plenty of dark skies around, you shall have it one day.”
“Could we make it after I have retired?” Kokashi questioned with mirth in his voice.
“Looking at our mothers I shall end up retiring after you, old man,” Fanto said with a snicker, giving the slightly older guard a soft punch to the pauldron.
“Old man, pah. I am the old man here, 65. Whatever I am doing out here is a mystery,” Apuma added heartily.
“Oh please, I am 78 you know, and I do not plan on putting down this blade till I make 100,” Nunuk added, shaking her head. ‘65 old? Let me be free of such nonsense.’
“Oh I don’t know mum, my back is starting to feel a little stiff you know? Maybe I’ll call it at 30.”
“If so it will be under a different name than Bizmati,” Nunuk replied, feigning seriousness as she led them up the stairs. “But until then, you shall continue to do me proud.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
“What is the plan then, Tora? He shall take a run on the keep if he is given one,” Chenglu questioned as the two of kept an eye on what equipment they had and who received what.
“Exactly. Lances, up high. Hide in the clouds and dive upon the red flare. With the master dead darklings become a far less dangerous threat,” Tora replied, the freshly appointed captain of the guard nodding his assent.
“All or nothing aye? I suppose there isn’t much else to do.”
“Even if the keep is lost the battle is not yet over.”
“What if he does not appear today? He may be waiting for weather or scouts?”
“Or nightfall… We cannot let him know we are above him. Give Tanaruk a flare and send him out to the northern treeline, once he sees Rashan approaching he shall signal and we make for the clouds. Anyone who can hold a lance must be on the roof from now on ready to fly. Have some hot soup brought up, it may be our last meal.”
“Yes ma’am. I shall see to it, but won’t the flare give away that we know he is coming?”
“It will. But we have no alternative. See that it is done, hopefully he shall believe we intend to fight from within the walls.”
“Right away, I shall see you up top.”
“Indeed, I shall be but a moment,” she replied, glancing about the armory, wondering if there could be anything she might have missed. Some edge they could use. Her eyes landed on the small wooden crate, straw sticking out the sides of the lid reminding her of the contents, grabbing a satchel from the wall she opened the lid.
“Live with honor… die with glory.”
Tora and all who could still fly worth a damn had made it to the roof once their kit had been sorted. The servants had brought up the soup for them. It was not a filling meal, it felt wrong that this may be the last thing that was eaten before a final battle. But it was warm and they would need that part to stave off the night.
She had made it very clear that alcohol would not be allowed tonight. They could drink if they survived, but various snacks and dried meats were brought up from the stores. They would not need it for winter after all.
They had watched from the rooftops for hours and hours, and darkness was starting to fall. ‘Come on you bastard, show yourself, do you need the night behind you as well? Damn darklings, this better make it into the history books,’ she cursed to herself as she kept staring into the darkening night sky. The cloud cover was thick yet dry. Ideal for concealing high-flyers.
She knew full well their chances were much lower at night against darklings. But it would seem Rashan wasn’t overconfident enough to give them that advantage. Hopefully his thralls would find navigating the darkness difficult. One could only hope it would force them below the clouds to stay in formation and on course. ‘If they don’t the plan will not work. They may even slip past Tanaruk.’
__________________________________________________________________________________
“So what is this Furlong place?” Fanto questioned as they jogged to the northern hangar. They would investigate these strange reports.
“I don’t know, but we best check up on all this. It sounds like a feud which has escalated to baseless accusations, but they are very serious accusations nonetheless,” Nunuk answered as she glanced around, trying to discern just who were being sent and how many.
“I wouldn’t be so sure, if my memory serves these Furlongs have fought well in many battles for the crown. They are, however, well known for being troublesome, you see. But I do not ever think I have heard of them using subterfuge or acting cowardly. In fact, I remember this one tale of a young huntress of theirs who once challenged a black dragon to single combat for insulting her fashion sense… she didn’t win, of course, but still.”
“I see. Well, I suppose we shall soon learn if these darklings are imaginary or not,” Fanto added, sounding just a touch excited.
“That we shall Fanto. That we shall. I believe we intend on flying through the night. We may then spend the morn either listening to their apologies or being celebrated for coming to their aid. Either way should be a fine day.”
“Quite the plan you got there mum. Sounds good.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
As the night wore on the sounds of snores had started to echo from the cold windy rooftop. The fires were tended for warmth, but the post could not be abandoned, not on Tora’s watch.
But as the hours wore on she too had succumbed to sleep. It was no kind sleep. Tormented with visions, of battles fought, and battles to come. Rashan the red prominent throughout. There could be no mistake. The dragon was coming. And by the gods they would give him a fine welcome.
Tora could almost feel a smile forming on her face as she thought of the look of horror on that wyrm's face. If this was the end, she would be taking that overgrown waste of scales with her. And she had just the tool for the job, her mother’s lance and her satchel.
Her reverie was broken by shouts and a pair of hands shaking her awake, coming to in confusion she glanced around as Captain Chenglu shouted at her. “He is here! Quickly, quickly!”
She scrambled to her feet peering into the darkness. To the north a bright red light was glowing in the night sky, and in front of it a black silhouette was getting nearer.
“He has made it past the treeline, there is still time. Douse the fires!” Chenglu commanded as Tora got to her senses. The dragonettes on the roof were already jumping off the sides into the air and beating skywards. Tora grabbed her lance and scrambled for the edge, checking her satchel one last time before she leaped into the fray. ‘All still there. Very good.’ Glancing to Chenglu, he too had three flares strapped across his chest. If darklings could go blind, they would find out tonight.
They had all headed for the clouds as quickly as they could, and with mighty beats of effort Tora pushed herself into the lead of the formation. She was an excellent flier. As a gilded huntress and first in line to the Lady, nothing less was acceptable. Once at the head she bellowed back. “Form on leader,” the order echoed back through the climbing rabble. They did not have time for their original plan. There would be no proper formations or waves of attack.
Looking down at her army, the far off red flare made it all but glow in the night even this far away. ‘Why did we not have some dim ones?’ she cursed, knowing full well it was a blessing that they even had flares that worked. A gratuitous luxury in these times. In the end, it would not matter. They all knew their mission; kill the dragon, then retreat to the keep for now. It must be done, element of surprise or not.
As they climbed she anxiously watched the dragon as it carried on towards the keep, flying straight towards the hilltop. He was perfectly open. ‘You think you will get your one run at us. I say different,’ Tora cursed to herself, heart pounding as she leveled out the formation, pushing on forwards into a perfect position for a diving attack. They had no more time for altitude, they would not reach the clouds. It would not matter.
Letting silence reign for but a moment, she drew her breath and shrieked as she rolled over onto her back, lance couched as she pulled up into her dive, the others following the sounds and acting in kind. She knew the maneuver by feel, she let herself plummet, wings tucked as she gained speed, streaking silently through the night. A dozen fliers behind her coming down as a cloud rather than a line and one target in front of her. ‘Come on you stupid girl. Hit. Hit the bastard!’ Rashan flew onwards, either unbothered or unaware of the dragonettes hurtling towards him.
Something was off, he was no idiot. He knew they saw him coming, he had to know they would not let him reach the keep. Perhaps he thought them a beaten force? They had fled their last battle without any true opposition.
Behind her flares were fired to either flank, lighting up the dark silhouette bright as day, the massive beast of 40 tonnes at least, did nothing. Then without a sound the dragon simply vanished, as if nothing had ever been there. Only the ground beyond. ‘Did he turn invisible?!’ Then Tora’s heart sank at the sound of the massive, familiar roar. Behind them.
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The final number setting out from fortress Dana had come to a mere 3 dragons, two young greens and a middling red at the lead. Less than Nunuk would have liked to see considering the reports from the island, but still a force which should see off a darkling raiding force with little trouble. They were traveling with one of the greens, a charming young lad by the name of Quera.
He was a keep-dweller himself from further in near the city, so they had plenty to talk about to while away the hours. Nunuk had taken a few stints flying by herself of course, it would not do to have Apuma give up the comfortable spot after all. He would need to stay on his wings in case battle was joined after all so the dragon may do his job.
As morning broke, the light shining from the horizon behind them lit up the majestic flying island ahead of them. It was far above them too however, its craggy grey underside clearly visible in the morning sun, dew making it glint and shine back at them.
There was some cursing as all realized the long climb needed to match heights. But the ocean below was an excellent motivator, and it was an awe-inspiring sight. Two hours of steady advance and climb later, the winds carried them over the edge of the island as if to welcome them to the green paradise contrasting against the receding blue hell behind them. Landmarks were found and maps were studied as they turned for the nearest keep on the island, which just so happened to be this troublesome Furlong place. It would be interesting to hear what they had to say for themselves to be sure.
As hills and trees slid away beneath them, Nunuk took the time to appreciate the landscape. It wasn’t every day you got to see a new island, and it was always said that every last one was truly unique. This far north, there were even a few needle trees to be seen here and there, something they would never find at home.
“Smoke ahead!” Quera called out. Looking ahead the dragon was indeed right. They must have found their target. A very successful journey all things considered. “There is an awful lot of it isn’t there?”
Attention sharpened, looking at the rising column of smoke in the distance. On closer inspection, it seemed to be much further away than might first have been guessed. Which would make it a truly calamitous amount of smoke.
“The Furlongs aren’t miners or something like that, right Apuma!?” Fanto shouted, flying in close to the green dragon.
“No no, warriors and hunters, I am certain of it!”
“Quera, what speed you can manage,” Nunuk decreed, putting on her helmet. She had no command over the dragon, but it had been very clear she knew more about the matter of war than he did. And he obeyed well enough. His surely already tired wings redoubled their efforts towards the pillar of smoke. Any keep-dweller knew what those often meant.
__________________________________________________________________________________
“The fire is burning down through the stories. We do not have long here,” Shiva noted with resignation.
It was over. She was only walking with the help of a crutch. Tora and nearly all those still able had been lost to the deception. Rashan had gotten his reinforcements. Or perhaps they had been here all along. A witch. Maybe even more than one. It was the only explanation for the illusion spell.
It also meant that their friends, her very own sister, would likely soon be coming back to fight them. And darklings remembered their past. Tora knew their tactics, she knew the corridors. All the hiding holes and secret traps. It was over.
“We cannot leave either, we would be cut down as deer at a hunt!” Naran broke out, evidently holding back tears as he clutched their young boy in his arms. Jacky was clinging to Shiva’s remaining leg in terror.
“Then what do you prefer, young man? Wait till the flames reach the basement, or follow my mother’s teachings one last time?”
“The flames… they cannot bring back a pile of ash. I will wait for the flames,” he responded after but a moment’s thought, clutching their boy even tighter. Shiva could feel Jacky tighten her grip as well, though she didn’t make a sound.
“Very well, then we wait. I doubt Rashan will let us all be lost to the flames anyway,” she sighed, looking to the door leading to the outside. They had a pair of such doors, one right after the other. thick oak with metal bracings. They would hold for some time should someone attempt to get inside. And they still had the vats of oil above ready to pour onto anyone attempting the door. Of course, Tora knew that.
“No! I will not sit here and wait for them to come for us.”
“Naran…” Shiva wanted to object, but what was there to object to? If he wanted to die on his own terms, she couldn’t blame him. “Right. I will stay at the door. If I am lucky they will be dumb enough to try it. Darklings don’t come back from the dead.”
“No don-”
“You go. I am not moving.”
It was evident he wanted to object, to plead with her to not be stupid, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned to the rest of those huddling away from the smoke. “If we stay the smoke will take us, the fire may never reach us. We only have one chance to not be turned! To make it to the gates… please. We have to go up.”
Shiva turned to look at everyone here. Servants, mothers, fathers, children. All either too wounded, too young, or too old to fight. He was right. She was the last living Furlong now able to hold a blade, and the others could not fight, there was no point in staying.
“He is right! Outside you will get the blade, here you will choke to death. Run into the flames. Keep a knife with you to cut it short. You will suffer less.”
There were tears in her eyes as she laid it bare for them all. No one moved, some stared at her or Naran, others huddled closer to each other. She couldn’t bear to look at them. The people she was responsible for, and what she had to ask of them. They wouldn’t go by themselves though.
“I order you! I-I I order you to do it. Go into the fire. It is the only chance left!” she shouted at them as the tears won out. Naran looking back at her, clutching Toril, their boy, their sweet baby boy. “I ORDER YOU TO GO. NOW! I will cut down any who delay. There is nothing for you here!”
On her crutch she hobbled over to the battle axe she had once swung with grace, picking it up and letting the crutch fall away as dragonettes started to get up, fear and horror in their eyes. “In the name of the great god Tula. I swear it.”
Jacky pushed her head into her leg as she to started to sob. “I won’t leave you, I won’t leave you! I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!”
People started to get up, the sound of crying and sobbing filling the room as one by one they made for the stairs. Naran crouched down in front of Jacky as Shiva stood firm. What else could she do? The tears were rolling down her face as she stared down friends and even family as they glanced back at her, filing out. Some gave her a nod of recognition, a final goodbye, others refused to even look at her.
“Heeey. Jacky. Come now, Mum has to do this. And we have to do something else. Okay?”
“I WON’T LEAVE HER!” Jacky screamed out the top of her lungs, refusing to let go, claws digging into her mother's leg. “I WILL NEVER LEAVE HER!”
“Listen now,” Naran went, Shiva’s husband, the man she had loved for over 30 years.
“I WON’T! WHY WON’T YOU GET IT!”
“Jacky list-”
“It is okay,” Shiva forced out through gritted teeth. “She can stay.”
“Are yo-”
“She can stay,” Shiva repeated, looking down at her crouching husband. “Go. We will be fine.”
He rose back up to his feet before giving her a nuzzle, his one free hand wrapping around the back of her head to hold her close one last time. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
“Interceptors coming up! Darklings, lancers with them!” Nunuk called out from her perch at the dragon's neck, peering down at the developing battle. “He is running!”
They were bringing their whole formation down on the back of the red dragon. They had caught him sitting pretty outside the keep, likely waiting for his minions to do his job for him. A red dragon next to a burning keep with darklings flying around could mean only one thing. And as they dived it became blindingly obvious just how real the Furlongs’ pleas had been.
The red was a venerable beast, and who knew what tricks he may possess, allied with the dark as he was. They would take no chances with him.
“Slow down, Quera! We shall clear the way. Do not show quarter!” Nunuk shouted out, her final words of advice as she disembarked to join the diving dragonettes heading for the deck. They had the element of surprise, the darklings taking off from the field in front of the keep rising to meet them.
Glancing behind her, she saw Fanto and Kokashi forming a V behind her. She smiled back at them. She knew Fanto had dreamed of this. He loved all her stories from when she was younger. Finally, he would have his own. She just hoped it was not too late for the Furlongs and whoever else had sought refuge in the blazing keep.
‘Here we go then.’ She drew her blade and calmed her mind. Few expected a talon blade as it phased through their parry, especially in a split-second flyby. And her armor would see her through this day, like it had done so many times before.
A moment of stillness, of howling wind, then the pass. They picked their targets, she spied the glint of a golden crown and maneuvered to take them on. That one might be dangerous, best she handle them.
She juked to the side of the darkling, it was a beast of a woman who came by in a flash carrying a lance, a poor choice of weapon for fighting a dragonette. She was easily a head taller than Nunuk, if not two. But her bulk made her slow and her weapon even more so.
Nunuk dragged her blade along the darkling’s flank, drawing blood and eliciting a scream from the monster as it tried to pull away from the lady. Nunuk smiled, looking back ahead to check for more targets. Then there was an explosion, she snapped her head around to look behind her, seeing only Kokashi, staring in horror at the puff of smoke and crackle of lightning where Fanto had been but a moment before. “FANTO!”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Shiva sat on the bench she had dragged over in front of the door, head in her hands crying. Jacky trying her best to console her, blessed be her heart. The screams from above, the horror, then the silence. And now the smoke was growing thicker. Soon it would be too much to bear. She would have to use the fire bomb she had left. Jacky didn’t need to know. She had faced enough horror for a lifetime tonight.
Her ear twitched, was it a trick? Or had someone landed outside the doors? She snapped her head around to look at the sturdy oak and steel. Tears receding, grip on her axe tightening.
“What is it mum?” Jacky questioned, looking up, scared to the bone. Shiva listened intently, both ears front. There was someone out there.
“We are not alone.” With a grunt of effort she rose to her feet, rolling her shoulders one last time as she leaned on the axe, glancing to the rope which would see the intruder bathed in burning oil. All she need to do was cut it. She had to wait. She needed to get as many as possible.
Then a series of knocks. Shiva stiffened, staring at the door. Then a shout muted and muffled by the stone and wood.
“Anyone in there! I am Lady Bizmati, open at once!”
“NEVER! WE KNOW YOUR TRICKS!” Shiva roared back in defiance, Jacky hiding behind her.
“There are no tricks! Are there any more of those bastards in there! I wanna kill them myself!”
“All you will find here is Furlong steel!” Shiva retorted, not backing down, instead moving closer to the rope and readying her axe.
“THEY KILLED MY SON! I WANT EVERY LAST ONE LEFT, AND I WANT THEM NOW!” came the screaming reply. She sounded manic. A mother in grief. A sound Shiva knew all too well. She didn’t want to believe. She couldn’t believe. That would mean that. That they didn’t. The screams, the flames. Her baby boy. She had told them. Ordered them to do it. It could not be. “OPEN THIS DOOR AT ONCE OR I SHALL GAS YOU ALL OUT!”
Shiva hobbled over to the lever, and with a pull the stones swung free and the heavy doors parted open. She prayed it was a trick. That she would see a witch, or some other foul creature. As light peered into the smoky room she stood and watched in horror.
“About time where are-” Out of the smoke came a small-ish woman. Wearing fine shining armor. Covered in blood, and bits of black. Fire and fury in her eyes. And Shiva dropped the axe.
“No…”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tigra, the baby killer back in the game with a new high score! Knocking it out of the park with the father, too, this time! co-co-co-combo kill!
Will Shiva and Jacky ever get revenge? Will Nunuk find a replacement son who's less boring than Rachuck? Tune in to HoH as the story continues!
Any and all children harmed in the making of this episode er strictly imaginary... that's why it's funny.
HoH Chapter 1 HoH Chapter 190

First, identify your pillar, a broad theme that resonates strongly within your arena. This could be 'nutritional health,' for instance. Next comes cluster identification; these are niche segments beneath your umbrella theme, like keto diets or plant-based proteins. For each subtopic, you'll seamlessly integrate associated keywords into the mix; they're supporting actors to our star—the main topic! 

There was an abandoned ship in my town.
Looking back now, of course it couldn’t have been abandoned; some company had to own it, had to have paid for it to be towed there and had to be paying for the slip at which it sat. It wasn’t so easy to find these things out back in the day, though. I couldn’t Google it, and I never would have known who to ask, so all I could be sure of was what I saw- and what I saw looked pretty well abandoned. (And speaking of Google, it’s one of the reasons I know a lot more now than I did then. I’ll be using proper ship-words when I tell this story, but please don’t take this to mean I knew much of anything about ships at the time. I didn’t, except that they floated and carried important things.)
I’d been noticing it for a few years, because I could just about see it from the on-ramp of the highway that I took to go and visit my parents. Nowadays they call freighters like it “classics”, because there are so few of them left, but back then they were dirt common. I saw them from a distance almost every day, coming and going in the harbour. As far as I could tell, the only interesting thing about this one was that it never moved at all.
It's easy to start taking things for granted when your routine never changes. In my case the change that started all the trouble was a new job.
I interviewed at an office downtown for a position at a warehouse in the industrial part of town. The first time I drove into work, down gravel roads I'd never seen despite living here for the better part of a decade, it occurred to me that I was very near to the water.
A minute later I saw it.
It was only a second's glimpse, at the far end of a side road that I was past in an instant, but it drew my eye and lingered like an afterimage: a wall of grey, streaked with faded vertical stripes where time and rain had worn channels into the paint, and a flash of a rust-speckled black smokestack. Just enough time to catch a handful of details, but those details filled in the broad strokes I’d been seeing all along from up on the bridge. All of a sudden it was more real than it had been before.
The next day at lunch I asked one of my new coworkers about it.
“The what?” he replied around a mouthful of tuna sandwich.
“The ship, just down the road and around the corner from here.” I gestured in that general direction. “Do you know how long it's been there?”
“Oh, that thing. It's always been there- least, as long as I can remember.” He paused to ponder this, then added, “Twenty years for sure. Maybe longer.”
I nodded as though my curiosity had been minor. To him this clearly made it uninteresting- it had just always been there, like a strange and not especially pretty rock formation- but not to me. There was a very bad idea coalescing in my head.
The day after that, I got up early and took the long way in, down the sideroad that ran right along the water. The ship was visible ahead for a full mile, bathed in the light of the sunrise; no part of it was shiny enough to sparkle or flash, so it glowed orange instead, and shapes emerged from the glow as I approached. First the outline of the pilothouse, then the long line of the hull behind, and finally the sharp angle of the bow looming high above the water. It wasn't until I pulled up next to it- or as close as I could get, with a chain fence and wide expanse of battered concrete between us- that I could blink away the glare and take it all in at once.
It was huge. I'd been right in my initial impression of it as a wall. Six hundred feet long, and there had to be forty feet of that wall above the water, looking ancient and solid as petrified wood. It made me wonder whether they were all this big- none of the ones I’d seen from up on the bridge had seemed anything like this- and even though I now know that it was small compared to them, I still can’t quite believe it.
At the top of the wall I could see strands of green that had taken root where dirt had blown in over the years. The windows of the pilothouse had been covered over in the same pale cream as the rest of the structure, and looked like nothing so much as closed eyes. Just below, a heavy rope held the sleeping giant in place, looped around a flaking bollard.
The bad idea was solidifying.
I wish I had an excuse. I wish I could say I was young and stupid, but I was closer to thirty than twenty. I wish I could say that I had a really good reason, but when I look back on it I know I didn’t have a reason at all. Looking at the ship up close, I simply had the undeniable feeling that all the time I’d spent taking it for granted, not really noticing it, had been time wasted- time I ought to make up for, now.
I waited until Sunday, for purely practical reasons, consumed by impatience the entire time. Then, Sunday evening, I set out from home on my bike with nothing but a flashlight and a folding knife, and pedalled down side streets in the dark.
I parked the bike against a warehouse fence a block away and walked up. It was a bad idea, but I’d thought it through.
It looked even more ancient in the dark. Behind and below it, unseen, the waters of the harbour lapped gently at the concrete. In the relative quiet of the evening, I could even hear the creaking of the ship itself.
The fence was easy to climb. The rope was very difficult. I’d overdressed, anticipating the cool late-summer breeze from the lake, and by the time I managed to haul myself up those forty feet I was sweating like a pig and my sweater was covered in moss that had flaked away from the rope. I swung a leg over and flopped onto my back on the deck. Rust and dirt crunched below my shoulders.
When I sat up, the city was far away. The deck was all around me, a long row of hatches stretching away to the stern where the stack stood, silhouetted by the city lights. I took it all in for a moment, feeling no sense of danger. No one was going to catch me here. No one cared. Atop the hatch immediately beside me, a patch of grass waved lazily in the breeze to prove it.
I stood up, touched it and turned towards the bow.
I had all night- why not start at the start?
There was a staircase on the outside of the superstructure, and it creaked and settled as I climbed it. The higher above the deck I got- the more of the ship that was below me- the more I could hear it, creaking and whispering like a house settling endlessly.
The door to the pilothouse wasn’t locked. I reached into my pocket for the knife, expecting to have to jimmy it, but the handle turned under my hand and the door swung open with a shriek.
The darkness inside was absolute, and the smell was powerful; it didn’t waft out but hit me like a wall instead, a smell of dust and stagnation, like an empty attic. I turned on the flashlight for the first time and illuminated the old helm, the leather captain’s chair, the telephone hanging on the wall, all looking untouched. If it weren’t for the opaque windows, I’d almost have thought that the last crew to leave this room did so with the full expectation of walking in again the next day to get right back to work.
I sat down in the chair for a moment. Why not? The leather crackled under me. From the new vantage point I could see a small pile of modern-looking trash in the corner next to the door. That explained the open door, but brought up a whole new set of questions regarding the condition of the room.
As I sat there and pondered it, listening to the sounds of the ship, it occurred to me that those sounds had changed.
I froze, stopped my foot from tapping, listened.
The creaks and groans coalesced into a rhythm that seemed to spread up from the floor and through the walls. There was no one moment of transition, only a moment of realization, like when you finally recognize the beat of a familiar song that had already been playing for a minute.
It was words.
BACK TO WORK?
BACK TO WORK?
BACK TO WORK?
It was a voice, a voice of shifting metal, quiet and slow and enormous. That’s what you have to understand- that’s why I wasn’t afraid, at that first moment. The unknown is frightening, but understanding came to me instantly, so that there was no time for fear. It was the voice of the ship, asking one short question, over and over.
BACK TO WORK?
“Are you talking to me?”
I stood up- it felt right, somehow- and the voice fell quiet for a moment, as though surprised into silence. Then-
YES.
I had the dreamlike sense that this should not have made as much sense as it did, that I ought to be disbelieving the evidence of my own ears, but I couldn’t. It was like I’d known deep down, from the moment I’d first seen the ship lit up by the rising sun, that I would be talking to it before the week was out.
But what to say to a ship?
I settled on “How long has it been?”
SINCE LAST MOVING… TWENTY-SIX YEARS.
Another pause.
SINCE LAST WORKING… THIRTY-FOUR YEARS.
“Damn,” I whispered, and the floor shivered a bit under my feet.
I WAITED. I AM STILL AS I WAS. COME SEE. GO DOWN.
The pitch of the voice had risen just a little- it was insistent, almost defensive. I swung the flashlight beam around, searching the room for what it might mean by go down, and in the corner across from the door I found the stairs. I went down.
The dusty room became dusty passageways. I opened doors as I went, looking in on empty cabins and other rooms whose purpose I couldn’t quite discern. The voice stayed quiet, waiting for me to find my way; the creaking of the ship sounded like breathing now.
After three more flights of stairs, and several more minutes of wandering, I found the right door. The floor shivered again as I turned the watertight handle, and the voice made me jump a little when it suddenly spoke again.
LOOK.
I looked. The door opened onto a tunnel, and a split second after raising my flashlight to peer into the darkness I knew it had to run the entire length of the ship. The light couldn’t find the end. The floor was metal mesh, and the walls and overhead couldn’t even really be called that; they were not solid but made up of pillars and struts and a long tangle of pipes and cable, stretching away into the gloom.
It smelled damp and moldy.
LOOK. LOOK. PLEASE.
The mesh squealed when I stepped onto it. The railings on either side of the walkway were cold and greasy, and I leaned on them gingerly to get a closer look at the wall. I saw ancient wiring, ancient pipework- green copper and rust everywhere- a tiny puddle of brown water standing in the hollow of one pipe bracket, another bracket rusted through entirely. Were they supposed to look like this on the inside? Had all this happened after the ship had been abandoned, or before? Surely it had been laid up for a reason- but if the reason was that it was worn out, surely they would have just scrapped it?
Thirty-four years. That meant it had been out of service since the fifties.
DO YOU SEE?
“I…” I hesitated. “I'm not sure what I'm looking for.”
NOTHING… NOTHING WRONG. YOU NEED ME… I AM READY. READY AS I WAS. BACK TO WORK?
BACK TO WORK?
The question echoed.
I stood there in the tunnel, silent, as a weird guilt settled into my heart. “I can’t get you back to work,” I answered at last. “I just… wanted to visit.” Explore was closer to the truth, but it felt like the wrong thing to say. The answer, when it came, was very slow and very low, reverberating through the pipes around me. Somewhere in the distance, a shower of rust shook itself free and rained down on the metal grating.
YOU ARE NOT CREW.
It wasn't a question, but I answered anyway. “No. I'm sorry.”
BRING CREW. PLEASE. PLEASE.
It even sounded like a desperate last attempt. Overconfident, I answered without thinking. “But even if I could, I don't think-”
I cut myself off too late. The ship spoke no words, but I felt something begin to vibrate the air in the tunnel, something like the gathering of charge in the air before a lightning strike. A discordant note came rippling down the metal railing from far off.
Suddenly I knew the fear of something very small caught at the mercy of something huge, incomprehensible… and upset. It came rushing in all at once, dropping my heart into my guts; all the fear I should have been feeling up until that moment. I spun for the door just as a sound like no other I'd yet heard shook the walkway- a great THUMP like a trapped animal throwing itself against a locked door.
The flashlight fell from my hand, bounced off the floor and fell between the railing slats. Its beam illuminated me from below, shaking as the THUMP came again, and then again and again with increasing frequency. I stumbled, fumbling for the opening in the awkward light, and ran straight into the now closed door. The thumps came faster still, shaking the walkway like an earthquake.
“What are you doing?” I yelled over the growing noise, throwing my weight against the handle. It had moved easily on the way in- now it seemed like a hundred years’ worth of rust was jamming it. “Please, stop! I'll try! I'll bring- I'll bring crew-”
My foot slipped, and terror cut me off as the floor jolted under me. A metallic clang of indeterminate origin echoed madly through the tunnel- steel on steel, not the low, slow steel on steel of the ship’s breathing but the sharp, harsh shift of a sudden movement.
“Just please, open the door!”
No answer. The thumps settled into a frequency so high that they all but blended together, rattling my teeth, sending pieces of who-knows-what raining down all around me. With a strength born of panic I wrestled with the door handle, moving it by millimetres at a time, one foot braced against the railing. The deck was tilting under me, slightly but undeniably, and though I didn’t yet understand what it meant I knew it was nothing good.
Then something gave with a SNAP like a great gunshot, and the walkway jolted more violently still, and the pillars around me thrummed like tuning forks. A second later, another SNAP, further away.
The tilt had disappeared. Then I knew, and I bit my tongue to keep from screaming for help again- it would let the panic in if I did, the panic that was already screaming from the back of my mind. One snap, and then another; one ancient, dry-rotted rope breaking, and then the other.
We were underway.
I gave the door handle one more tug, and the infinitesimal movement it made pushed back the panic and replaced it with frustration. Some old quote about the definition of insanity came to mind. I turned away from the door and set off at a run- hand trailing along the rail- into the darkness that had to hold, if not a better option, then at least another option. There would be a door on the other end. Maybe it would be open.
The cacophony grew louder as I ran; now I know it as the grinding of rusty bearings, the protests of a steam engine left to the mercy of time and the elements for thirty years, but at that moment all I could hear was an endless roar of anger.
It must have been the overwhelming noise that kept me from registering the smoke.
I didn’t realize it until the railing ran out and I slowed just in time to run into the door at only half-speed. The handle turned when I tried it, and the stench of smoke washed over me when I wrenched it open.
Smoke and darkness. I turned around, blinking away the burn, to look back the way I’d come, all the way back to the tiny distant glow of the flashlight, then shut my eyes and stepped through the door.
It was a stupid thing to do. Maybe when it all hit me, deep down I was thinking I'd rather burn to death while actively looking for a way out than burn to death in a long, dark tunnel like a trapped rabbit. I had no plan. I couldn't see a damn thing. I felt my way forward under a mind-numbing barrage of noise and stink and growing heat, and stumbled into the side of a metal staircase through sheer luck. I had gone down to get to the tunnel, so up meant out. I ascended until I found windows, grubby with rusty water streaks but letting in just enough light to show me the way through the smoke.
At the top of the stairs I took in a breath that seemed to be nothing but smoke, and the panic I'd been fighting back finally broke through. I couldn't breathe. I was suffocating. With one hand over my mouth and nose I broke into a sprint for the nearest shadowy shape that might have been a door.
I burst through into the night and ran. The long, open part of the deck next to the rail was ahead of me, and I could think of nothing but getting away; my vision was a tunnel. Stumbling over a clod of dirt on the deck brought me back to my senses. I was going the wrong way.
I turned around.
The smoke was billowing from every window, black against the deep blue of the night sky. Flames licked deep inside, rising up, casting an evil dancing light on the rising pillar. It had to have started in the engine, but it wouldn't be long before the fire would consume the entire stern- and well before that point it would have spread through the rest of the ship as well.
The lights of the city still twinkled beyond. I ran to the deck rail and jumped.
It was a long fall into darkness, and the impact was a shock. Before I'd even reached the surface again I was already swimming, terrified of being caught up in the ship’s wake and dragged into the screws. I heard and felt it pass by me from underwater; heard its roar, no quieter than it had been in the air, and the whap-whap-whap of its propeller blades that sounded close enough to reach out and grab me. Felt its massive bulk pull the water along with it, so that for a moment I was swimming in place- and then being slowly, slowly pulled backwards- and then breaking free and surfacing with a gasp.
I was swimming in darkness. The only possible bearing I had was the lights of the shore, the ones that seemed nearest. I had no real idea where I was, or how far the ship might have travelled. I rode the wave of panic, letting it power my kicks and strokes, until another light- a light I couldn’t see, but which I knew to be behind me- demanded my attention one last time.
I paused, treading water, and looked back.
The sight held me spellbound for a moment, fighting with the self-preservation instincts that told me to keep swimming. The entire vessel was lit up by the golden glow of the flames, just like it had been lit up by the sunset when I'd first seen it. It steamed away like a ghost ship, making for the open water of the lake, and I could hear the fiery-hot steam venting from its whistle in a long, wordless howl of grief and rage and pain.
That howl followed me as I swam, and I could still hear it when I dragged myself up onto a rocky point covered in birdshit, but I didn't look back again. One last glimpse had been enough.
I found my bike. It wasn't hard to parallel the water until I found a familiar building. I made it home, half-frozen. I even made it to work the next day, feeling and looking like I had the world's worst hangover. I hardly said five words, total, that day, even when my coworkers were asking me if I'd heard.
Had I heard about the fire?
It was just “the fire”- nothing about the far more interesting aspect of the incident- which might have caused me to doubt my own memory if I were the type. I’m not. I knew what had happened; I just accepted that most people hadn’t seen it. There weren’t many people living near the water, and it had been very late.
Then it showed up in the newspapers. No photos, just Freighter catches fire and sinks in harbour. Nothing about the fact that it had to have been nearly out of the harbour before its rusted hull finally succumbed to the heat and vibrations- or hell, maybe it made it all the way out into the lake. I can’t say I liked to think about any of it, but thinking of that at least felt right. But the article let it sound like it had sunk at its berth. Total loss, it said. The vessel had been out of service since 1952.
It was a cover-up, and I can see now why they did it. What really happened was something impossible. You can't just hotwire a ship and start it up like a junk car; it takes a whole crew of experts to get it to start running and stay that way. There was no logical explanation for a ship starting itself up in the dead of night and steaming away- so, better not to mention it.
I didn't mention it either, though it weighed on my mind.
I came to terms with it early. For me, who had been there when it happened, it made a strange sort of sense right from the start, but it took me a while to put that feeling into words and explain it to myself. Now I’ll explain it to you.
What makes a ghost, if not unfinished business? What is unfinished business if not purpose unfulfilled, enduring after everything else is gone?
And what stronger sense of purpose could there be than that possessed by a singular, purpose-built machine?
It waited, its sense of purpose growing even as its body rusted. Maybe it would have waited forever if I hadn't been drawn in by its will- and I'm sure now that that was what happened. I stumbled in like a fool, spoke to it, raised its hopes and then crushed them. And then… its patience finally ran out. Its anger gave it the power to act on that will. The most powerful ghosts are supposed to be the angry ones, aren't they?
And I was the stupid mouse, in a cage with an angry elephant.
I was never sure if other machines had this capacity- to run out of patience. For thirty-eight years I thought it was a freak case, a one-time thing.
Then, last month, coming home from a road trip with my daughter’s family, I felt it again. It. The pull. Like something desperately wanted me to look at it, notice it.
“Look! So cool,” my grandson exclaimed, and the twin forces of that pull and my need to humour him dragged my eyes off the road.
It was an old combine harvester, crouched like a huge metal troll in an overgrown circle in the middle of a farmer's field, surrounded by low green rows. Its black windows stared at me as I drove past, and I could almost hear it.
BACK TO WORK?
PLEASE?
It all came flooding back.
“Pretty cool, buddy,” I agreed, hoping that my voice didn’t sound too high, and that it didn’t waver when I shivered. If it did, no one said a thing.
So there you have it. Maybe not all machines have this capacity, but some of them do. Maybe most people don't have the capacity to hear them and feel them, anyway, but some of us do. Maybe it’s even genetic- maybe my own flesh and blood all have it. So I've got to come out with it.
If you ever find yourself inexplicably drawn to an abandoned old machine, it's not just curiosity. Please don't go inside.
And if you do go inside, for God's sake, don't make any promises you can't keep.

First_Previous_Next_Royal Road
Unlucky 13 up next, and it really feels like it. Hope you enjoy this one.
Edit. Unlucky 13 was hasty, something went wrong with this post, that´s why I had to reupload. So we have an unlucky 12.
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Saphine hid behind a metal pillar after firing a lance of water at Ranbor, hiding from the retaliatory fireball, she could feel the metal pillar slightly heating up, so she changed her cover while attacking again. While she moved Ranbor fired again at her, but this time she just used a spell of her own to cancel the fire spell and give herself some cover from the emitting steamcloud. Only brawn no brain, she thought to herself, Ranbor hasn´t moved once this whole fight, just using fire spell after fire spell. Well if he wants to tire himself out, it would be fine by her. Ducking behind another pillar she readied her next spell, hurling another lance of water at the still-standing Ranbor, who in turn tried to block it with a wall of fire, but wasn´t just fast enough. She smiled to herself at the hit and changed position again as Ranbor shouted enraged. "You bitch! How dare you!"
Saphine stunned for just a moment, shouted back "This is not how you should address a lady, you boor! It is your fault if you just stand there!" as she evaded another firespell. "I´m a high noble, I will not hide like some scared commoner!" He answered her and she shrugged to herself. If he wants to be that way, then she would let him. Maybe losing will bring him down a peg or two, hurling another water stream at Ranbor, who now put more energy in his fiery shield and blocked.
Like this their duel went on and got more and more heated, as somehow Ranbor kept up that high energy output, while Saphine slowly got close to her limit, this is when she knew she had to do something, gathering most of her remaining energy and unleashing a tidal wave flooding the whole arena, and with shock witnessed Ranbor withstanding this spell. That´s when she heard him chuckle and raise himself into mad laughter, Ranbor unleashed a grand spell himself instantly evaporating every trace of Saphines´ water, breaking through her quickly raised water sphere shield and almost burning her to a crisp. Luckily the protective magic of the arena saved her life.
°Holy shit, how much power does that ass have?! But at least he should be low on energy now.° The human said, but Mor was unconvinced. °Are you sure, I don´t see any sign of exhaustion on him.° With dread both concluded, they probably bit off more than they could chew. Still, they had no time to fall into panic, as they would be up next and a teacher came to get him.
As Mor entered the arena once again he noticed that the sand in the arena was glittering and a closer look, revealed to him that almost all the sand had turned to glass and some of the metal obstacles had a kind of runny look. Mor´s gaze fell on his next opponent a girl whose name he also didn´t know. As the gong sounded again the duel was on, and again Mor exploded into movement getting into cover and taking a look at his opponent, who was nowhere to be seen.
°Where is she?° Mor asked. °How would I know?° The human said. °Let´s keep moving, standing still is just an invitation to get hit.° And they began to move again, holding a stone in preparation for an opportunity to attack. Suddenly a spear of stone shot up from below, almost hitting Mor as he jumped to dodge, and still he could not locate the girl. °Could it be, that she´s using our first trick?° The human asked, and Mor agreed. °But why can she see us?° He asked back and as soon as his feet hit the ground another thorn of stone shot up to skewer him, ripping through his robes from the close hit. °The ground! She can somehow see us if we touch the ground!° The human said and Mor sighed. °What can we do about that? Flying is not something we can do with our energy reservoir. Also attacking while flying is not possible.° Mor asked as they had to dodge another attack.
°Well either we keep on moving and hope her energy runs out before our stamina does, or we need to do something more proactive.° The human put forward. °Great, what proactive thing do you have in mind?° Mor asked. °I don´t know, I didn´t think that far ahead.° Came the answer. °Great, how to be more useless...° Mor chided as they again dodged an attack. °Shut it, if you don´t have a better idea! Rather dust of the stamina recovery magic we trained and get that shit going.° The human complained and as Mor began concentrating on the spell the human kept moving and dodging.
The Headmaster watched in amazement, as the boy Agaton was moving while using some kind of healing magic and thought to himself, that this should be incredibly hard, but dodging attacks while doing so should be impossible. Was this evasive action maybe trained as some kind of reflex, but even then how would you go about something like this and all that while seemingly channeling some sort of body enhancement magic to move like that. "This boy is too interesting." He whispered as a wide smile grew on his bearded face. Then another close hit ripped up Mor´s robe around his chest revealing Mor's toned body, and a gasp ran through the stands mainly, the Headmaster noted, from the female students, for some kind of reason.
°How are we holding on to our energy reserve?° The human asked, moving their sweating body out of another attack. °We´re still good, but we should do something soon. We don´t know how much energy she has. So much for "tired herself out in the last round"° Mor said. °I have an Idea, maybe she forgot to use the stone slab to close her hidey-hole. So let's get water into this arena, and where it seeps away faster than somewhere else she is probably hiding.° Mor nodded and stopped concentrating on the healing magic, while the human dodged another attack. °This may cost more than we would like, but I also have no better idea.° Mor said, as he channeled more power to water the soil of the arena, and as they watched for suspicious places he channeled another spell to give them more jumping power and the human jumped.
As they looked around while being up in the air, they saw a hole open up and their opponent surfacing from the ground, looking surprised for a second. °Found you.° The human said, and Mor grinned. They touched down on the ground and sped towards the hole, coming up from her blindspot, stopping just behind her and Mor let out a little cough. Their opponent turned around shocked and Mor smiled. "If you don´t want to get hurt, could you please give up?" He asked her sweetly and the human added in Mors´ mind °Yeah, it´s over! We have the high ground!°
She sheepishly looked at Mor, blushed, and looked away. In a tiny voice, she said "I give up." Mor then reached down offering his hand, which she took and pulled her out from her hidey-hole, giving her a smile, she shyly repayed. "Why did you come out from your hiding spot?" Mor asked and she looked to the ground. "I thought it would get flooded, and I didn´t want to drown." She told him dejectedly and Mor laughed. "I understand you very well. This hiding spell is great for dodging many things but it´s dark and cramped, and letting water flow inside, is not something I want to experience." °Hey lover boy, back it off!° The human interjected which confused Mor some, he was just happy to have won, and she was a graceful loser, so he wanted to be nice to her.
"What´s your name?" She asked in her quiet voice and got another smile from Mor as a reward. "Me? I´m Mor Agaton." "The commoner?!" She said shocked but instantly put her hand on her mouth. "I´m sorry. I´m Clare Celestyne. Nice to meet you Mor, but we probably should leave the arena, the next contestants are probably already waiting. Maybe see you sometimes at school?" She asked and Mor happily agreed. Finally, the chance to make his first friend. °I thought I was your first friend.° The human interrupted again. °Yes, but this is something different, we are not only friends we are partners.° Mor said and they left the arena exchanging a last hand wave with Clare.
He was brought back to the stands, and the tournament went on as expected, but halfway through the second rounds, the Headmaster called a stop and closed the tournament for the day, as it got pretty late. The next duels would be continued on the next day. For today all students would be recommended to get some food, look to the infirmary if they got hurt, and get to sleep. Homework and reports would be extended with the duration of the tournament.
This made the losers of the first round somewhat happy, as they could just enjoy the show for the next day until the tournament was concluded. Mor took the recommendation to heart and quickly got a new robe from the school store, food from the mess hall, and retreated to his room. After doing some evening stretches and cleaning up before falling into bed and instantly drifting off into dreamless sleep of the exhausted.
The next morning Mor felt rested and ready for the next duells, but as he went to get breakfast he felt someone watching him, but no matter how suddenly he turned to catch his stalker, no one was to be seen. °What´s up with you?° The human asked, as Mor spun around again. °I feel like we are followed.° He answered, and the human snickered. °Stop being an idiot and get breakfast, I´m hungry.° The human instructed Mor and they got on with their day. As they ate their breakfast a familiar figure waved to Mor and came towards him. "Can I eat with you?" Clare asked and of course, Mor agreed, while the human let out a whistling tune. °Shut it, parasite° Mor chided the human, happy to maybe have found a friend.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This series of mine is a Narrative rewrite of Existing Destiny Content. This chapter specifically is of the First Mission, "A Guardian Rises".
Several Changes have been made in dialogue and over all flow. Lore has not been changed (At least, too drastically)
One notable change is that my version of this mission specifically takes place hundreds of years before Destiny 1, only several years after the Battle of Six Fronts.
This series is my rewrite of Destiny. My goal is to attempt to satisfy and remedy the various inconsistencies in writing and dialogue as well as Lore from the course of the Destiny Universe as well as including Lore from more recent Content. My other goal is also to make The Guardian (or in my rewrite's case, Guardians) more significant a factor in the story rather than letting us be a simply heavy-hitting plot device from which a player may interact with the world.
I wanted to give our Guardians Character and that will show as I introduce more Lightbearer Characters into this series as I continue to write.
Lastly, story is told through 2nd Person Perspective until the very end when it suddenly shifts to 1st Person. It was a risk I decided to take to make the story more intense but if it doesn't work, feel free to let me know!
Also pls point out Grammar Mistakes f you find any. I've been writing for 7 Straight hours because I got bored playing Competitive Crucible.
Criticism is Welcome! Have at thee!
STORY START:
You wake up.
You don’t know what you woke up from. A dreamy sleep? A cold coma? It doesn’t matter now.
You didn’t feel it at first. You really didn’t feel anything at all. That’s how it was for the past 4 Centuries since you died.
You died a scared man, traveling from white, sea washed shores to a frozen hell farther North. You feared death. You don’t remember anything. Of course you don’t. That’s what She wanted from you. That’s what She got. As soon as the warmth of those memories could be sensed, they were dragged away into nothingness.
Everything changed when you began to feel, though you didn’t know it at the time. All you knew was that you felt something warm upon your face and your body where there was once a hollowness indescribable.
Then the chill. A breeze of cold wind. And then the rustling. Sounds so familiar yet so unrecognizable to you. You hear a quiet voice whisper from directly above you,
“Eyes Up… please. Get up!… Lightbearer!”
Whatever the voice, it feels urgent. An order from an Angel on High, urging you to wake up from the Pit of Death you knowingly or unknowingly stumbled into. Your eyes attempt to function. You can see the Light from behind the lids you keep shut. You open your eyes.
You see nothing but a see of White for the first few seconds. Your eyes adjust and you can finally make out colors. A bright White Light on a sea of Blue, streaked with White splotches.
“Lightbearer! You’re awake!”
You crane your neck downwards, attempting to pinpoint the location of the Voice. Your eyes meet the Strangest Sight. An Orb, not even half the size of your own head, encircled by Triangular Shapes. The Orb at its Center with Blue Markings on a Sea of Black. Its eye.
You couldn’t take it in all at once. The shape was blurry at first. You took a good minute to make out the shape, and that thing continued to ramble as you did so. You groaned as you began to move your head. The Stimulus of every single perfectly working sense overwhelms you. The smell of dirt and iron. The Cold wind and concrete you lay upon. The sight of the bright Blue Sky and the even brighter White Star.
You sat up.
In front of you were rows upon rows of… cars... You still remember what they are...
There were trees, dead and brown, caked in White. “Snow” you thought. Despite the Heat of Sol, your Star, water was still capable of freezing over. To your Left, columns of Cars ran for miles. To your Right, an object of grandeur. A concrete and rusted metal wall running for what seems like Forever, whose signs you could no longer read, either because you didn’t know the language displayed or the sign was too far gone.
Your attention once again fell on the Drone-Like thing in front of you.
"I... finally found you... Lightbearer... Mine..." It speaks with apparent admiration and enthusiasm.
You try to speak. A small pack of wind blows out your mouth as you try to speak. A groan and slight whistle is all that comes out. As you continue to try, language flows back into your mind in a rush of sudden intelligence.
"Wh-... Haa...."
"Shhh.... It's ok... Don't strain yourself..." The Drone comforts you, floating near your face, its warm Blue Light caressing your face with its glow.
Questions begin to flow, spurred from your returning intelligence.
"It's all going to be okay... Lightbearer... We-" The Drone's voice is cut off as we hear a load roar. It's to your Left, passed the many rows of cars.
"No... Can you..." It pauses. "Can you move?"
You lift one arm, tentatively. Your skin, the color of the dead branches, tanned to the color of the dirt below you. You looked down at your legs, exposed to snow and dirt and twigs. Your whole body sat naked to the biting cold.
You stand up. The Drone floats back as it witnesses your strength returning. You take your first step. Your feet finds purchase on solid concrete. You take another, this time crunching a dead twig beneath your fragile heel.
A rush of cold wind flows by. Your skin pricks and sends shivers up and down your body. The Drone notices.
“Oh... right! Hold on..."
Out of its eye sparks a ray of Blue Light and the Twigs and Dirt surrounding you coalesce. The fibers of the dead are shaped to serve you as the rock, concrete, dirt, and twigs all form over your body. The fibers of the dead things are woven into fabric, the rocks and concrete turned into slabs covering various areas of your body, areas you somehow already knew were vital.
As the Drone finishes its work in forging protection for you, thousands upon thousands of questions race through your head. Your world spins in dizzying confusion. As the heat of the Drone's work ends, you collapse onto the ground. Your, now gloved, hands finding purchase on ash from burned and toasted twigs.
"What... am I... What are... you?" I look up at the Drone. It looks down on me. Its shell contorts in a friendly way.
"I'll explain everything... But we need to move!" It looks past the many cars on the Rusted Highway. "Follow me!"
You do as it says. The Drone floats towards the massive wall. You follow it, stumbling as you work your body, strong but unwieldy from decades of inactivity. You clamber over cars as you follow that Drone. As you make your way towards a rusted door, the Drone, with a burst of light, tears the door from its hinges, sending it flying into an adjacent wall, allowing you to enter. Before you do so, you turn around to see what is chasing you and that Drone.
The sight perplexes you. A humanoid thing, with a crested helmet. Four piercing Blue Eyes and a Dark Red Cloak. It has Four Arms, protected in Cream-Colored Armor. It brandishes something that appears to be a Rifle. Molten things drip from its barrels. Your eyes widen in fear as it raises its weapon at you.
"Lightbearer!" You hear that Drone call you out to break you from your stupor.
You enter the Wall. The Drone, with a ray of Light, picks up the door slumped by the wall and places it back where it was previously. Its hinges now fixed.
"It won't hold them for long... Let's move." The Drone speaks, guiding you further.
The inside of the Wall is dank. Moisture drips from old steel supports. Light enters through Orange tinted windows. Signs litter the decaying walls. You can barely make out the words.
"осторожно"
"Be careful" The Drone says as you make our way up a flight of stairs. As you do, you hear a soft movement emanating through the complex.
The pitter-patter of feet, the clenching of steel. From a decayed opening in the Walls of the complex, you catch a glimpse of something climbing up inside. The Shadows made it hard to visualize but you swore It wore a Red Cloak and Cream Armor, just like the thing outside.
"What..." You stumble back as something crawls up the opening in front of you.
"Keep Moving..." The Drone speaks up in stern determination. "I'm not losing you so soon..."
You exit a claustrophobic hallway and enter a Dark opening, a gap inside the Wall. You decide to walk over a balcony overlooking the imposing gap in the magnificent structure. Railings and catwalks cross the sides in vast webs of logistics.
As you look over the edge, you notice... Things... in the wall. Creatures climbed the rusted scaffolding. You hear something sounding like speech as Bright Blue Eyes centered upon you and that Drone. The Drone in question floated about, not minding the eyes upon it. You hear a strange whirring sound.
Looking over the edge, you see flat headed Drones, much more... rudimentary... than the Drone that guides you. They whir past the balcony, their fronts glowing with Orange Light.
"Okay... Okay... Maybe... just like..."
"Can... you tell me... what is... all of this..." You formulate your first complex sentence as the Drone floats about, tearing open panels and fiddling with Technology using its own Light.
"Like I said... I will explain everything... but we really need to move..." It declares as it rips open another rusted panel, this time fiddling with the ends of two wires.
"We're not... really moving, aren't we?" You say as you simply stare up at the Drone, trying to ignore the many Blue Eyes staring at your from the Darkness of the gash in the Wall.
"You were just Dead a few minutes ago and now your being all sassy with me?" It mumbles to itself.
"Look... Everything will be fine.... we... I... just have to-" Lights suddenly blare on. The Wall is illuminated. "YES! Haha!"
You look across the Balcony. The Light illuminating the owners of those Bright Blue pinpricks, revealing more of those Things. Four armed and robed in Red. Some of them have two arms, their second pair reduced to strange stumps.
"Fallen!" The Drone Yells. "Run... Run!"
Several Drones with Orange eyes whir up from below the Balcony. On their underside, long rifles point themselves to me. You take heed of your Drone's advice and run, following it to a pathway to the right of the Balcony, skirting a side of the wall. Blue bolts strike at the concrete beside you, leaving scorch marks and the smell of Ozone in its wake.
"What... is Going ON!" You yell to no one in particular as you hide behind a small crate on another Balcony. The Drone floats into a room across from you. The wood of your crate catches fire as the vibrant shots of your assailants, these Fallen, scorch the wood. You run towards that Drone as it shatters a crate with its Blue Light, revealing something known to you.
You understand nothing. Instinct takes over. You run to it and dive. You grab the contents of the shattered crate. A Rifle, its scope cracked but functional. You pick up a Magazine. Its Bronze casings glint in bright floodlights. You insert the Magazine and charge the rifle. You point it at the closest Orange-Eyed Drone and Fire.
Your shots land True. The Drones fall into the Chasm as their systems are damaged. In your rage and confusion you fire more shots at the Fallen climbing the rusted steel on the opposite end of the wall. They screech in apparent fear as a few of their numbers fall into the chasm.
"Nice Shot, Lightbearer!-" In your confusion you turn your rifle towards that Drone. "Hey!"
"What... is... going... on..." You say, sternly. Confusion and frustration boiling over into Rage.
"What am I...? What are you?.. What is all of this..? And how can I understand you...?"
The Drone makes a sound as though it is sighing.
"Come here..." It floats around a corner, its Blue Eye trained on you, beckoning you. "Make yourself hidden and we'll talk..."
You follow the Drone into another Hallway, this time wider and illuminated in White Floodlights.
"This will all sound very strange... Don't question it... just accept it..." You nod your head in understanding, encouraging the Drone to speak more.
"Those things... We call them Fallen... They're not from here... they're not very friendly..."
"You... are a Lightbearer... You have..." You wait for an answer. The Drone looks around as though it were thinking.
"You have Powers! Special Powers! Yes!- You are blessed with special powers in order to Fight for the Survival of Humanity!"
"What...?" You say in blank confusion. The Drone's explanation only triggers more questions in you but you don't pressure it.
"Why do these Fallen... why are they not friendly to us?" You ask.
The Drone stares at you for a few seconds formulating an answer.
"You are a Human, chosen by a being so much more than you could ever hope to be..." The Drone starts.
"I... I am a Ghost... of what? I don't really know myself... But I do know this..." The Drone-no... Ghost, Continues.
"I resurrected you... You were dead. In that resurrection, you were Reborn... You have no memory because the thing that sent me to you wanted you Free from its burden..." The Ghost Finishes.
"Who... sent you..." You ask.
"It has many names in many different languages and cultures... But you Humans... call it the Traveler..."
"The Traveler..." You repeat its name. "But what do these Fallen have to do with this... Traveler?"
"The Fallen are in a state of Rage... A few ago... they came, en-masse, towards Earth in a deadly assault... These Fallen seek the Traveler because it's currently theorized they were once blessed with its Light before us..."
You catch The Ghost's specific wording. Theorized, assault, blessed. You form another question, hoping for a clear cut answer as to what happened. What happened to your world and maybe, even, what happened to you...
"Theorized? By whom?"
"By the People... of the Last Safe City on Earth..." The Ghost replies slowly.
You stand there, rifle in hand, analyzing the very name. Last implies there are no major Cities, no major hubs of civilization. Safe implies that no where on Earth is safe enough for bastions of Civilization to form. You ask another question, hoping to find purpose.
"Where is this City?"
"I'll take you to it... We're an Ocean away... We need to find a ride to take you there... In the meantime, grab some ammo and we'll be-" The creaking of metal surprises you and the Ghost.
"No... They're coming! Eyes up Lightearer!"
The Ghost Suddenly dissolves into the aether. You hear its voice ring out inside your own head.
"Move it, Lightbearer!"
You don't question it as you speed down the wide hallway. The Fallen break in through loose panels. Smaller Fallen with only Two formidable arms jump out at you with blades and guns. Their guns, smaller than the ones owned by Four arms, still unleash the same Blue shots as before.
You raise your rifle and gun them down.
As your bullets tear through the lightly armored fallen, Blue Gas spills from the bullet holes within their body. Their skin, grey and shell-like, shattering as their bodies fall. One catches you by surprise, raising a dagger, sparkling in Electricity, to kill you with.
You don't let that happen. You grab the creature's arm. It's lighter than you thought. With Age-Old Instinct, you glare at the thing with the confusion of a cornered animal and crush the creature's arm. It yelps through needle-like teeth. You push it it to the ground. It wriggles in pain. You raise your rifle and place a bullet between its brilliant Blue eyes.
A Blue gaseous substance flows around the hallway.
"Don't breath that in." The Ghost inside your head advises. Sadly, it's a moment too late. You breath the substance in. It smelled like a mixture of Sulfur and Iron. You cough.
"That's... their blood..." The Ghost says in hidden disgust.
You groan in disgust, gently nudging a corpse with your legs. It's lighter and coarser. Its face is shriveled. You ignore it and speed on, running towards an opening leading once again to the gash in the Wall. This time, you spot a large bridge leading to the other side of the Wall.
Making sure that none of those creatures were following you, you sped across the bridge.
"Mind telling me what happened? What happened to my world... And what happened to my people... Humanity..." You ask as you reach the opposite end of the wall.
"Humanity..." It began. I blasts a Blue Ray into an Alien looking crate, opening it up. Inside was another weapon surrounded by pieces of Blue Crystal-looking things.
"Fell... The Traveler is a being of Healing and Growth... It made Humanity Thrive for a Thousand Years... Then... it's enemy found it... Humanity and the Traveler Fell... Collapsed..." It continued to explain as you walked up to the open Alien crate. You pick up the weapon. Rusted but functional. You look into the crate, seeing Red Shells. Shotgun Shells.
"Pick those up too..." The Ghost says as you pick up the shotgun shells. "No! The Blue things!" It clarifies.
You look and see the glowing Blue shards. You pick them up. It hums in your hand
"It's Glimmer. Pure potential... Matter and Energy stored in a single, Crystalline Form..."
"Keep it... It's a fuel source and currency... we'll need it."
You question not. You look to your body and notice several small pockets woven into your leggings. You shove the crystals into them and move on. You load several shells into the Shotgun you picked up. You go to take your Rifle but find it gone.
"I have your rifle. Don't worry." Your Ghost chirps up. You do not question it as you continue speeding off.
As you sped on, winding through rusted hallways, gunning through the foes that stand in your way, more questions form in the back of your mind. You open a rusted door and finally see the Light of the Sun. You walk out. You've made it to the other side of the Wall. You look to the skyline, seeing rising towers. No... Rockets. Long shipping containers atop broken vehicles remain rusting. Vehicles of war rust the same way, barrels of long dead guns point up and sideways in all different directions just as you are confused now.
"What is The Traveler's Enemy?" You ask as you hunker down in rusty room, peering out at the glass ringing the room's perimeter.
"Well... these Fallen are certainly your enemy..."
"But what about the enemy of the Traveler? Why did the Traveler Fall?"
"I'm going to let you know, I don't know much. I know you are confused, but I'm not going to lie, I am too..."
"You're not very helpful, aren't you..."
"Are you really this sassy?"
"Can you at least tell me what you know?"
"Sure... On the First Day, the Sky filled with Darkness... on the Second, the Traveler Fell..."
"Is that it?... Is that seriously all you know?"
"Alright... I'm going to explain something to you right now..." The Ghost materializes in front of you. in a flash of White Light.
"When the Traveler's Enemy fell onto it and onto Humanity... The Traveler fought it... struggling... It suffered injuries but it won..." The Ghost gently floats up, looking out at the Courtyard from the Window. You follow its sight, seeing Red Cloaked Fallen roaming about.
"The reason why I don't know much... was because the Traveler's Final Move... The Traveler's Sacrifice... was what birthed me..."
You stare at the Ghost. It stares back.
"I was born out in Space... I saw the Traveler... an orb of White Neutronium falling towards the Earth. I only knew one thing... I needed to find someone..."
"And that someone... is..." I ask, already piecing the answer in my head.
"You... I was looking for you..." The Ghost continues.
"There were Billions of us... We roamed throughout the System... scanning ancient debris and ruins... We were destroyed... fed upon... killed by all manners of weapons... We suffered... But ultimately all so we can find you..."
"And what did you do when you found me?"
"We brought you back... The Embrace of Death, you'll come to find, is nothing compared to the Powers at Play..."
"Why am I alive? Why did you bring me back? Was it because you had to?" you ask, gripping your rifle. "What is my purpose?"
"You want me to be really honest?" You nod in affirmation.
"You were resurrected to fight..."
"To fight what? A war?"
"Yes... you were brought back with instinct and immense power... to fight for your species and your new God..."
"Which is the Traveler?"
"Yes... The Traveler's Enemy... an all consuming Darkness... seeks to wash over everything you know... to Drown you in the Deep and smile..."
"are these Fallen... the Darkness?" You ask, looking up at the creatures, lounging about, waving their pistols at each other in a docile manner.
"No... but they are enemies..." The Ghost continues to explain. "After the Traveler fell, beings who've taken interest on it begun arriving into the system... These Fallen are one of Four..."
"And what of these other four..."
"The Fallen are the most tame... there are the Cabal... the Scouts of an Ancient Empire whose tendrils have managed to find your Star... The Vex... who have apparently been known by your species for some time, have been arriving to your desolate worlds turning everything into clocks and glass..."
You stare at the Ghost in confusion.
"That is not a Metaphor... And lastly... the Hive..." The Ghost looks up into the Sky. "They claimed your Moon... Wherein they practice their Arcana with impunity, taunting us with the chants of their Worm Gods..."
You and the Ghost remain there in silence before it speaks again, turning to you.
"I brought you back. I am Your Ghost... You are my Lightbearer... We need to find a way to the City... we're in an Old Russian Cosmodrome. Everything here hasn't been used in at least the Three Hundred Ninety-Something Years since the Collapse..."
You look around the Rusted building. You decide to open the dank cupboards and drawers hoping to find something useful.
"I found a Map..." You declare as you pull out a large swath of paper. Its quality is much newer than what its surroundings tell.
"It's New... It must be..." Your Ghost takes the piece of paper and analyzes it. It notices a small signature at the bottom left of the paper.
You analyze the Map. There is a clear Red Circle marking where the Map was placed.
"We are currently in the Divide..." you mention to your Ghost. You look over and see your Ghost analyzing a small ink line near the Bottom Left corner.
"Scouted and mapped by... Tallulah Fairwind... Who're they?"
"The Hunter Vanguard and his friend... They must've crawled around here sometime ago... We oughta thank them when we get to the City..."
"Hold on... what is a... 'Hunter Vanguard'?"
"Oh... right... Let's move... I'll explain it to you in the meantime... I have the Map analyzed. Let's head towards Dock Thirteen. There should be a ship there capable of making the Journey... Extra Glimmer wouldn't hurt too" Your Ghost disappears. You feel its presence in the Back of your Mind.
You leave that rusty shack. Your Ghost pinpoints the exact route towards Dock Thirteen. You venture towards the Dock. As you walk through decaying, moist rooms, you feel the weight of your situation fall upon you. You are a Lightbearer, gifted with Supposed Power... You do not know what that power is, only that you have it.
"The Hunter Vanguard is one of Three Leaders within the Lightbearer Society within the Last City. The other two being the Warlock Vanguard and Titan Vanguard... They all represent the Martial Leaders of the Surviving Humanity... They are also the Highest Magistrates of each of the City's Lightbearers..."
"They call themselves Guardians... Fitting I'd say. They make the defense of Humanity their Highest Priority. They usually keep to themselves and ever since the Six Front Battle a few years ago, they've done nothing but heal and repair. Commendable really... I wouldn't mind if you became a Guardian..."
"However, despite their Unity... There is an arbitrary split among the Population of the Lightbearers in the City... Depending on the Disciplines they choose to hone their power into, they either distinguish themselves as Titans, Warlocks, and hunters, each learning from the lessons of their own Magistrates, the Vanguard."
"Of course, the Vanguard is not the only Government... there is a City Consensus made up of various Lightless and Lightbearing people. There are Factions... Each Civilian, no matter the background, has a say, born from Human Recognition and the innate survival of Humanity at stake... Of course usually meaning the Consensus may take power from the people in key moments such as the Battle of Six Fronts a few years back-..."
You continue to listen to your Ghost's info dump as you make your way towards Dock Thirteen. You manage to find your way to an old terminal. You activate it. The Dusty screen shines awake into an Orange Screen. Your Ghost materializes and begins to manipulate the device, scanning through available vessels stored within the docks. Dock Thirteen contained Ten Docking Sites, all of which are labeled unoccupied barring one.
"That One! Our ticket Home!" Your Ghost cheers.
"Wonderful... Home..."
"You'll love the City..." Your Ghost encourages. "Its vibrancy... the Sentiment... The Culture? It's the Last Safe City on Earth! It's Humanity's Soul, through and through!"
"Maybe I will..." You declare.
You make your way to the last occupied docking site. It was befitting... about a dozen of the Fallen scuttle around a vessel, tied up in corded rope. You think of how to proceed. You think about the power you've been supposedly given... This... Light you have been assigned to Bear... How do you use it...
"Time to Learn..." Your Ghost says inside your head before materializing. It hovers into the open and yells out.
"HEY!"
This obviously attracts the Fallen to it. The Drone floats back towards you and disappears back into your head once more. The Fallen fall onto you.
"Damn you..." You mutter as you ready your shotgun.
These Fallen are larger. They all bore four arms and carried rifles or rifle-like armaments. They were cloaked in Red just like every other.
You fire your weapon. Three Fall before you, spilling their gaseous blood over the landscape. You run towards cover, rotating about a pillar, hiding from Blue Dart-like things which weaved and flagellated around the room towards you. Several charged at you. Two armed Fallen with Spears and Glaives, tips buzzing with Electricity, stabbed and swiped at you with abandon. Several find its mark into your skin and armor. You feel the Electricity surge through you. In pain, you grit your teeth and throw them off, rushing away.
You turn your weapon back towards them, firing several shots, the pellets ripping through the least armored ones. You hear a crackle behind you. You instinctively duck. You smell Ozone as you luck up and see Four Blue Eyes peering from almost nothingness as the air shimmered. You thought of nothing as you tackled the invisible foe. You take your shotgun and, like a hammer, smash your shotgun's stock against the creature's mask. It shatters both mask and face.
Enraged, the largest Fallen fires several shots from its weapon, a clawed rifle dripping molten metal. You feel several of the shots bury themselves into your armor and into skin. You fall back in pain as the fiber and cloth of your armor catch on fire. You continue to push beyond the pain and fire. You turn and see the largest Fallen reload its rifle, its magazine falling to the floor. You take your chance.
You discard your Shotgun, letting it fall aside. You instinctively reach for your rifle by reaching to your back. Your hands find purchase as your rifle materializes behind you and your shotgun disappears into Blue Data.
You fire several shots into your opponent. A Blue Field of Energy encompasses the creature, absorbing all damage, giving the creature enough time to reload and send another flurry of Molten Lead at you. You close your eyes, fearing the pain.
You fall back to warmth caressing your face as expected. You open your eyes and expect to see your body broken but find only minor damages this time around.
"Wards up! Understand It!"
"Understand what?" You shout to your Ghost inside your head. You roll and run behind another pillar. Several Fallen approach you with Daggers and pistols. You gun them down with your rifle before taking cover once more.
"Where is my shotgun?" You shout out loud.
"I have it!" You hear your Ghost say, exasperated.
"Give it to me then!"
"Just think of yourself swapping weapons as though it's stowed where it is..." The Ghost explains to your confusion.
You do as it says. You drop the Rifle. You watch it dematerialize and your shotgun rematerialize in your hand.
"You have so much to explain..."
"I know... but we have more pressing matters! Remember what you did!"
"I thought of it?" You question as you dodged and wove through enemy fire, shooting what you can. You take some extra shots in your pocket and load them before firing off more.
"NO! You Willed it." Your Ghost clarifies.
Willed it. That's what it said, no?
"But how is my Will supposed to make a difference here?"
"That's how you use the power you've been Blessed with!"
You think of what your Ghost says. At least, until you were knocked off your feet with a tackle. The Fallen who tackled you raises a knife to finally put an end to you. You crane your neck aside so it misses. You overpower it, pushing it off you and rising to your feet. Several more Fallen charge you with Electrified Spears and Swords. You try your best to hold them off.
You weave past their blades, using your shotgun like a club, spilling their gaseous blood. The smell of the carnage makes itself more intoxicating. You yell out in pain as one of the Fallen manages to stab you in the stomach, the blade itself frying your insides. You feel your consciousness wane.
"Fight or Die... Which one is it..." You hear your Ghost mumble in the back of your mind.
You grit your teeth, grabbing your stabber's arm, pulling them closer. You punch them in the face. You turn to another attacker just as it tries to stab you. You grab its spear and send it to the side as you kick its knees out from under it and crush its head on the ground.
You pull out the sword with great effort. Your warm blood spilling onto the cold, pale grass inside the docking site. The sight of your own blood enrages you. You hear the largest of the Fallen bark out orders. The rest of them back off.
One of the creatures decides to flank you. With a dagger, it attempts to stab you from behind.
You hear the crackle of its dagger before it strikes. The rage and frustration you feel boil over.
You are bleeding. You are dying. Your organs are fried yet you still live. You declare you will continue to live within your mind. You hate these things simply because they hate you back. You hate them. You need to survive.
Survive
Survive
I need to survive.
I whirl around. With a glare, I grasp my attacker's wrist, bringing its spider-like arms down before sending my own wrist into a strike. The heel of my palm, wreathed in Fire, collides with my attacker's chin. It makes no noises as it collapses into Ash and Orange Sparkle.
"You did it..." My Ghost speaks up.
I turn around with a glare to my opponents. The largest of the Fallen, the Captain of the group, barks an order. Its entourage flees. It discards its Molten Lead Rifle and unsheathes two swords. They hum to life with Blue Sparks.
I clench my fists. I feel the warmth encompass me, but I feel my rage propel me on. As the Fallen Leader charges at me, I raise my arms up to defend myself. The thing's blades catch my arms as expected, but the damage it does is minimal once more. It bounces off my rudimentary armor with minimal pain. I open my eyes to see my whole body covered in Fire. It's warm but it doesn't burn me. The Fallen Captain staggers back. I steel myself for another attack.
I Hear nothing inside my ears but the roar of flames. I don't know what I'm doing, but I do what's natural. As the Captain passes again with a flurry of slices, I weave and dodge, jabbing at the creature. My punches land, scorching its cloak and armor.
I remember what my Ghost advised earlier. To Will. That's how to use this Power. And so I did. When the Captain swiped for my head, I ducked and Willed into being a ball of Fire nestled in my palm. I struck my palm towards the Captain's Chest. In one moment, it lived. The second, it died.
Its corpse fell back. Everything, including the armor and technology making it up, burns to ash. Flames spread from a hole in its chest. It doesn't scream as everything became Dust.
My Rage subsides.
"You did it... You used the Light..."
"You... need.... to explain yourself..."
"Now... hold on..."
"NOW!" I shout, angry and frustrated at the Lack of answers.
"Okay! Okay! Just let me..." My Ghost appears in front of me. I glare at it.
"Just... hold still..." It orders. I grunt as I do its bidding.
It fires a Blue Beam into my grievous wound, still dripping with Blood. I stagger with pain. However, just as soon as it spiked, it soon fell away, replaced with a comforting warmth.
"There... All healed..."
"Why...
"Your Power comes from the Traveler... Comes from the Light..." It begins to explain.
"The Power to create something from simple Will, it defies all laws of physics... manifesting as simple Flame and Combustion... to Arcing Lightning and Magnetism... to the Energy of the very Vacuum itself..."
"Your power is the Power inherent to Nature given form by your will. The Light is your power's source. I am your power's conduit... So long as I live... these Miracles are yours to command..." My Ghost speaks in determined spirit. It turns and looks at the vessel corded in wire and rope, several panels torn off.
"This Will do..."
"Why hide all of this?" I ask. My frustration subsiding.
"I needed you to understand, by yourself, how it works. How to access it and what its effects can potentially be..."
"So I can just... Conjure Fire from the palm of my hand just like that?"
"And Electricity... and the Vacuum... Well... the proper names you Humans have given them are Solar, Arc, and Void respectively..."
My mind spins in the possibilities.
"Hey! Understand this, Lightbearer Mine... You're special to me because you are Mine and I am yours... But don't think you're hot stuff just because of this..." My Ghost floats around me, speaking in a serious tone.
"Where's this coming from?" I ask, concerned.
"You're not the first Lightbearer I've seen... I've seen many... Many who've fallen to Avarice, Lust, and Wrath... You are in possession of Power beyond the Universe... but understand the use of that power..."
I nod in acceptance.
"You Will use it to defend Humanity."
"Yes... Why shouldn't I..?"
Satisfied, my Ghost floats near my face.
"No reason. Humanity is cowering behind walls. I'm not about to let those innocent people suffer because I was cursed with a Lightbearer with a specific Type of Ambition..."
I look to the vessel the Fallen had lashed up. I extend my palm towards a strand of rope. I will my palms to light. Fire once again circles around my arm, coalescing into a ball, then firing at the rope, quickly burning it. I free the Ship from its confines. It crashes not-to-subtly into the concrete floor, thankfully not suffering too much damage. My Ghost zaps a panel on the ship's hull, opening a door on its underside. I enter.
The Ship was really, really old. Nothing but Dust and Echoes remained. The inside was uneventful. Entering the Ship, to the left was a sleeping bag attached to the ship's inner hull. To the Right was a set of drawers. Set on top of the drawers was a picture of a Family of Three. Crouching over to the cockpit, I find a dusty Skeleton. I look over at the Picture, then back to the Skeleton.
Sorry. But I'm going to need your ship...
I remove the Picture and roll off all the bones from the cockpit. I flush out every item inside the Ship that isn't part of the ship itself. Everything that I consider a belonging of the long-dead man, I set onto the Cosmodrome ground.
"Hey... Ghost... Can you... make a ditch?"
"For... him?"
"Yes... Please..."
My Ghost, using a ray of Blue Light, tears up the Dirt and Concrete in the docking site's floor. I drop every belonging and bone into the Ditch. Before I order my Ghost to bury it all, I will a fire onto my finger tips and set everything ablaze.
With everything reduced to ash, I bury him. The unknown Pilot of a Ship that is to be my Salvation...
We board the Ship. My Ghost analyzes the controls and instructs me appropriately. I open a compartment near the backside of the ship and dump in the Glimmer I have collected. I return to the front of the Ship and start it.
Soon enough, we take to the skies. The Snowy landscape expands below me as I take off into the Stratosphere. My Ghost feeds Data into the Ship, pinning the coordinates to the Last Safe City... A whole Continent and Ocean away...
We fly in silence.

Kaidō's office, Onigashima 

Rooftop 

Former Handle+ a day club card carrying member.
I was in a deep and dark depressive cycle near the end and was pretty sure I was going to be certain in my early death. I can't really articulate it, but the stupor started to feel different. My liver enzymes came back high a few times and I had a couple of tachycardia events in addition to a panic attacks due to not eating and dehydration.
Somehow had a moment in my stupor where I just didn't want to do it anymore and said I'll give it one more go.
I was a functional alcoholic for many years, had great results at my job, but covid and then it slowly crept more and more into my life.
I passed up opportunities to hang out and do activites to drink. It completely consumed my life and eventually the phone calls stopped coming.
I was too ashamed to get help. My Dad told me since I was 16 that our family can't drink, but never elaborated on it further. He finally told me a bunch of stories about alcohol basically destroying both sides of the family (Wish I would have known sooner, but who knows if I would have heeded the advice.)
They broke the cycle, so I was never exposed to alochol as a kid and couldn't really "get" what the problem was with it.
I was a better version of myself, less reserved, more bold, no anxiety. I short circuited the dopamine feedback. I didn't need to do the other things, if I just drank I could have all that anytime I wanted.
The problem though is it slowly creeps and seeps into more portions of my life.
I stopped doing activities that I liked and just drank instead.
It's an all consuming mistress and slowly isolated me from my friends, family, and everyone I cared about.
I phoned in a couple of family holidays because I refused to drink around my family similarly as I wouldn't ever drink and drive.
The process that I went through in order to get sober focused on a few primary pillars that everything else could flow through:

• Finding activites that I like to do to try to fill the time that alcohol used to take. (I was literally drinking a handle+ daily, so literally my whole day)
• Finding "Fellowship" or a positive social circle that would help me not self isolate and be stuck in my own thoughts
• Starting Therapy and actually holding myself accountable
• Breaking out of my old routines and processes and inserting other activities

The first 2 weeks I don't think I left my couch (not that I did when I was just drinking), but I gave myself a lot of grace because I knew the withdrawls were going to suck massively.
Withdrawls: The first 48 I slept in two 30 minutish fever dreams. The next 10 days were not fun. Sweating, shakes, brainfog, weird body drops. I had terrible insomnia. I had gone through withdrawl before and hadn't experience DT's. Looking back I probably should have gone to a medical facility, but I was in a state of, "If I die, I die". The anxiety is terrible, and it's a constant racing, but unclear mind, along with a feel of impending doom. (Your GABA is firing like crazy and there's no booze to counteract it). After the 10 days, I still felt terrible and like shit, but I could actually semi-function.
I started really small. My only requirement for a "Good Day" was one in which I didn't drink. I gave myself a free pass on everything else. Didn't wake up at my alarm, didn't get anything done, doesn't matter.
I made a list of things I used to like to do before Alcohol took over. Going to the gym, walking, learning languages, reading books, etc and started doing those things.
It's kinda silly, but I started playing Pokemon Go. It was free and got me outside. It filled time, so I couldn't drink. I ended up meeting people playing, so it was social too.
My car had some troubles and I hadn't driven it in over a year. I met a mechanic playing pokemon go. He was really nice and helped me fix it. (It was leaking oil out by the crankshaft. I did my sparkplugs, filters, and oil change, he helped me with my radiator , water pump, and valves). I couldn't and didn't have that happen while I was actively using.
I got up to about 255lbs at one point, which is was my highest. I started losing weight near the end of my drinking days because I wasn't eating. I have tried to make sure to walk and go to the gym everyday. I made it about 2 months before there were times I didn't feel like going, and that's ok. I ate all the junkfood in my house and just don't but the bare essentials to eat. (I don't have the impulse control to not just binge snack if it's there, suprise suprise). Just weighed in at 218 and that was after a whole pack of oreos last night at my meeting.
I decided to start AA about 15 days in. I figured if I am in a meeting I can't drink, so I started going to them as a way to not be around temptation (the goal is still to get to 10pm). Fridays/Saturdays were the big ones. It's a great meeting and the crowd was great. It was kinda big because I don't necessarily believe there is a divine being, but I don't really care, since my only goal is to not drink.
I got a sponsor and he has been really great. I have heard horro stories about sponsors before, but I just picked the guy running the meeting I was at, so I just got lucky I guess.
I haven't maintained a schedule for about 2 years, so I was really cognizant of that and it was going to be a slog getting back up to living a functional life.
Slowly and slowly you start to feel just like 1% better than the previous day. Your head gets 1% clearer.
I like volunteering and decided I would just make the comittment. If I don't have anything scheduled. I'm just gunna be sitting around anyway.
They asked at the AA meeting for greeters, so I said yes to that. I honor my comittments, so if I just make the commitment, I will show up even if I would never seek something out. It's why it's important for me to just do it because I won't be doing anything anyway. It's a lie I tell myself to get out of doing activites.
They needed someone to bring a meeting to an inpatient treatment facility, so I said yes to that. If I can help someone who was where I was not too long ago, that's great.
I actually showed up to my nephew's birthday party the other day and my cousin needed a cat sitter for the summer, so I said I could help. They were really struggling to find someone, so it was a blessing for them.
I'm volunteering with the sailing club, and helping teach a class over the summer.
I go to the gym on most days.
I am pretty open about my struggles with addiction and I have recieved nothing, but support for people. I am so fortunate and grateful.
It's a slow slog, but just keep at it.
That's my story. Thanks if you made it this far, and I'm sorry if there are any gramatical errors. I just felt compelled to get it down today less I put it off and forget, or I just never do it.. It's not really organized and was more of a stream of conciousness.
I'm free to answer any questions anyone might have. I am a process oriented person, so that was my focus on to get my recovery on track.

Former Handle+ a day club card carrying member. I have been drinking since I was 16. I'm now 34. Probably been a real problomatic drinker at least 8 years. Completely non functional the last 2-4 depending.
I was in a deep and dark depressive cycle near the end and was pretty sure I was going to be certain in my early death. I can't really articulate it, but the stupor started to feel different. My liver enzymes came back high a few times and I had a couple of tachycardia events in addition to a panic attacks due to not eating and dehydration.
Somehow had a moment in my stupor where I just didn't want to do it anymore and said I'll give it one more go.
I was a functional alcoholic for many years, had great results at my job, but covid and then it slowly crept more and more into my life.
I passed up opportunities to hang out and do activites to drink. It completely consumed my life and eventually the phone calls stopped coming.
I was too ashamed to get help. My Dad told me since I was 16 that our family can't drink, but never elaborated on it further. He finally told me a bunch of stories about alcohol basically destroying both sides of the family (Wish I would have known sooner, but who knows if I would have heeded the advice.)
They broke the cycle, so I was never exposed to alochol as a kid and couldn't really "get" what the problem was with it.
I was a better version of myself, less reserved, more bold, no anxiety. I short circuited the dopamine feedback. I didn't need to do the other things, if I just drank I could have all that anytime I wanted.
The problem though is it slowly creeps and seeps into more portions of my life.
I stopped doing activities that I liked and just drank instead.
It's an all consuming mistress and slowly isolated me from my friends, family, and everyone I cared about.
I phoned in a couple of family holidays because I refused to drink around my family similarly as I wouldn't ever drink and drive.
The process that I went through in order to get sober focused on a few primary pillars that everything else could flow through:

• Finding activites that I like to do to try to fill the time that alcohol used to take. (I was literally drinking a handle+ daily, so literally my whole day)
• Finding "Fellowship" or a positive social circle that would help me not self isolate and be stuck in my own thoughts
• Starting Therapy and actually holding myself accountable
• Breaking out of my old routines and processes and inserting other activities

The first 2 weeks I don't think I left my couch (not that I did when I was just drinking), but I gave myself a lot of grace because I knew the withdrawls were going to suck massively.
Withdrawls: The first 48 I slept in two 30 minutish fever dreams. The next 10 days were not fun. Sweating, shakes, brainfog, weird body drops. I had terrible insomnia. I had gone through withdrawl before and hadn't experience DT's. Looking back I probably should have gone to a medical facility, but I was in a state of, "If I die, I die". The anxiety is terrible, and it's a constant racing, but unclear mind, along with a feel of impending doom. (Your GABA is firing like crazy and there's no booze to counteract it). After the 10 days, I still felt terrible and like shit, but I could actually semi-function.
I started really small. My only requirement for a "Good Day" was one in which I didn't drink. I gave myself a free pass on everything else. Didn't wake up at my alarm, didn't get anything done, doesn't matter.
I made a list of things I used to like to do before Alcohol took over. Going to the gym, walking, learning languages, reading books, etc and started doing those things.
It's kinda silly, but I started playing Pokemon Go. It was free and got me outside. It filled time, so I couldn't drink. I ended up meeting people playing, so it was social too.
My car had some troubles and I hadn't driven it in over a year. I met a mechanic playing pokemon go. He was really nice and helped me fix it. (It was leaking oil out by the crankshaft. I did my sparkplugs, filters, and oil change, he helped me with my radiator , water pump, and valves). I couldn't and didn't have that happen while I was actively using.
I got up to about 255lbs at one point, which is was my highest. I started losing weight near the end of my drinking days because I wasn't eating. I have tried to make sure to walk and go to the gym everyday. I made it about 2 months before there were times I didn't feel like going, and that's ok. I ate all the junkfood in my house and just don't but the bare essentials to eat. (I don't have the impulse control to not just binge snack if it's there, suprise suprise). Just weighed in at 218 and that was after a whole pack of oreos last night at my meeting.
I decided to start AA about 15 days in. I figured if I am in a meeting I can't drink, so I started going to them as a way to not be around temptation (the goal is still to get to 10pm). Fridays/Saturdays were the big ones. It's a great meeting and the crowd was great. It was kinda big because I don't necessarily believe there is a divine being, but I don't really care, since my only goal is to not drink.
I got a sponsor and he has been really great. I have heard horro stories about sponsors before, but I just picked the guy running the meeting I was at, so I just got lucky I guess.
I haven't maintained a schedule for about 2 years, so I was really cognizant of that and it was going to be a slog getting back up to living a functional life.
Slowly and slowly you start to feel just like 1% better than the previous day. Your head gets 1% clearer.
I like volunteering and decided I would just make the comittment. If I don't have anything scheduled. I'm just gunna be sitting around anyway.
They asked at the AA meeting for greeters, so I said yes to that. I honor my comittments, so if I just make the commitment, I will show up even if I would never seek something out. It's why it's important for me to just do it because I won't be doing anything anyway. It's a lie I tell myself to get out of doing activites.
They needed someone to bring a meeting to an inpatient treatment facility, so I said yes to that. If I can help someone who was where I was not too long ago, that's great.
I actually showed up to my nephew's birthday party the other day and my cousin needed a cat sitter for the summer, so I said I could help. They were really struggling to find someone, so it was a blessing for them.
I'm volunteering with the sailing club, and helping teach a class over the summer.
I go to the gym on most days.
I am pretty open about my struggles with addiction and I have recieved nothing, but support for people. I am so fortunate and grateful.
It's a slow slog, but just keep at it.
That's my story. Thanks if you made it this far, and I'm sorry if there are any gramatical errors. I just felt compelled to get it down today less I put it off and forget, or I just never do it.. It's not really organized and was more of a stream of conciousness.
I'm free to answer any questions anyone might have. I am a process oriented person, so that was my focus on to get my recovery on track.
Edit: Tried to catch some grammar stuff and fill in missing words.

First / Previous
Leon’s footsteps hammered into his ears. He allowed himself to drown in the sound, embraced it as he pushed all thoughts from his head. Ren looked at him and shouted something, but the words never met his ears. Memories of tragedy long past swept over him, causing the scars on his heart to ache once again. Everything shifted around him. The main hall of the Rikard’s mansion swept over the forest, replacing snow covered trees with walls of ornate stonework and a ceiling of gold and red.
Red as dark as the blood pooled at his feet.
Aria’s image twisted, bending into the form of Astraeus, hung by blackened threads that spooled from the shadow behind him. His brother’s face twitched, a small nod that told Leon what needed to be done. He pulled his sword back, readying a thrust as he marched towards Astraeus. A muffled noise rang at the edge of his senses, but he ignored it and continued his duty.
To do what he must.
His head snapped to the side as a projectile struck the side of his helmet, a bolt of blue Aether that burst upon impact. The mansion around him shattered as he stumbled back, and all of his senses returned in a tide as the biting chill of the forest’s air dug the pins of fatigue and wear deeper into his legs. His body yearned to fall, but the echoes of that day spurred him to stay on his feet. The Black Cloak widened his stance and caught himself, turning back to Aria.
Elly stood in front of the girl, sliding her fingers along the cut on her forehead as they glowed with blue Aether. Her one open eye still focused on Leon, she wiped the blood covered side of her face with a torn part of her robes, opening her shut eye as blood flowed from her wound no longer. The Weaver did not look upon Leon with disdain, but her golden eyes were alight with a determination that matched the one driving his body past its limits.
“Stand aside,” he said.
Elly spread her hands apart and shifted her feet into a stance. Rings of Aether appeared around her wrist and ankle, glowing with a pale light.
“I will not,” she said, “you may shatter my bones and flay my flesh, but you will not go near her.”
Leon clenched his jaw, “You invite tragedy.”
“I welcome hope.”
“You cling to it,” he spat.
Elly’s gaze remained unchanged, “Perhaps so, but I promise you that you will not break my grasp from it,” her eyes glanced to the side, “Nor will you break theirs.”
The Black Cloak turned, seeing Helbram approach. The warrior’s sword hung from his hand as he was held up by Leaf, who himself dragged his feet as they pushed forward, clutching a bow and a few arrows in his free hand. Jahora was at their side, her skin pale and eyes sunken as nothing but will drove her every step. The Mage’s gaze turned to Aria and, after sharing a nod with Helbram, she ran to the girl, three rings of Aether flickering around her head.
“What do you need me to do?” she asked as she approached Ren.
The Cleric, golden energy still flowing from his hands, looked at Jahora, “Aether, as much as you can gather.”
The Mage closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. As she did, the Circles around her head stabilized into a soft pale glow. Blue Aether gathered around her as she held her hand out towards the seal at Aria’s back, its color shifting to gold as it mixed with Ren’s own power.
A fool's errand.
Leon moved to end the futile gesture, but stopped as Helbram and Leaf joined Elly at her side. The archer stepped towards their back line as he let Helbram stand on his own, wincing and clutching his side with every step.
“I have no doubt that you think us desperate,” Helbram said, his voice steady, “but Aria has a dream, a desire that rings clear from her heart even now,” he readied his sword, “and we will make it come true.”
Leon started at the warrior. The man’s armor was broken, the plates of his brigandine bent or twisted through torn cloth, his metallic shoulder guard dented and warped around him while the one of leather was broken and torn in several places. His helmet was marred by countless scrapes and scratches. A clear tremor shook Helbram’s body, one accompanied by the sickly sound of shifting bone as they stitched themselves back together underneath his flesh, an effect from a draught that should have rendered the warrior unconscious. All of him quaked, trembled as if he would fall apart at any second. All except his eyes.
And the arm that held his sword.
Leon felt his chest fall. There was no talking to them. No matter what they would stand in his way.
He would have to go through them.
The Black Cloak stomped his foot, embracing the pain that surged from his heel as it struck the ground. A rush overtook him, one that he directed into his already strained Core to force what remained of its Ether to the surface. Fangs formed around him, three in number that hung in the air before shooting forward, towards Helbram. Leon followed after them, his sword alight with a soft golden glow. The Fangs would strike the warrior where they would only disable, not kill, and the aura around Leon’s blade was meant to knock his wounded opponent out of the way. It was the same move that had defeated Helbram when he was in much better condition, and the warrior was now without his shield. While Elly was a new factor, the Ether rushing through Leon granted him a speed to land at least one blow against the wounded swordsman. It would be quick.
Rather, it was supposed to be.
Helbram flicked his blade, deflecting the first Fang, then the second.
Finally, the third.
His sword moved with a practiced precision, an efficiency that circumvented the need for speed behind his movements. As Leon closed the gap between them, Helbram had already brought his sword down, catching Leon’s blade before the Black Cloak could bring it to the apex of his swing. As their weapons caught, the warrior slid back, but he maintained his footing enough to stop Leon’s movements for a brief moment. Helbram’s eyes met Leon’s through their visors, reading the Black Cloak with a focus that blared through the darkness of his helmet.
Elly struck right after.
The Weaver’s hand was alight with a green glow as she slammed it into the side of Leon’s helmet. Air burst from her palm right after, releasing a concussive wave that rattled the Black Cloak’s vision and knocked him to the side. Though he stumbled, he found his feet under him before balance left him entirely. He could not fall, if he did, it would be the end.
Leaf’s arrow followed next.
The archer had aimed for Leon’s shoulder, the projectile alight with a weak red glow as it hit him in the shoulder. It did not bite through, but struck with enough force to throw it back and knock him off balance once again. Elly followed the shot, her hand now wreathed in a pale blue aura as she closed in. Leon swung his blade at her, still wreathed in that same golden light meant to knock his opponents aside. The Weaver did not raise her guard as it struck, and Leon could only watch as the blade cleaved through her, only to leave no damage at all. Elly collided with him, but instead of feeling any force behind her, Leon could only feel a chill as she passed through him.
An illusion.
The real Elly attacked from the side, skipping to his exposed guard with a deft, almost traceless steps. Her foot was alight with yellow Aether as she stomped the ground next to him, summoning a swell of stone and dirt that swallowed his foot. She followed the restraint with another strike of her palm, alight with the same pale blue that her illusion held. The blow landed at his flank, triggering a surge of frost and ice that froze his arm in place. Leon forced Ether into the shackled arm, aiming to break the restraints with a surge of strength, but before he could do so Helbram appeared at his other side. The warrior’s sword was flipped, his hands wrapped around its blade as he swung.
Driving the handle into the side of Leon’s helmet.
Darkness swallowed Leon’s vision as the blow landed, encroaching upon it to the point where only a pin point of sight remained. That too appeared to be fading, flickering as his consciousness struggled to maintain itself. It would have been easy to let go, to slip into the comfort of his defeat.
But he couldn’t.
The blood at his feet didn’t let him.
The cries of his own voice that day boiled his very soul.
And the tears of his brother spurred him on.
Power coursed through Leon, a strength that tore at the void over his sight, flaring his eyes with a golden light as desperation fueled a surge of power. He flexed his sword arm, shattering the ice that restrained it, and swung wildly in front of him, repelling both Helbram and Elly as they stepped back. The warrior changed the grip of his sword as he retreated, grasping the blade with one hand and the handle with the other. He and the Weaver shared a nod before charging back into the fray, Helbram taking the van.
Leon ripped his foot from the stone that encased it, the strength flowing through him already waning as the embers of his Ether flared. He met Helbram’s charge with a rush of his own, blade carried by instinct and muscle memory. The Black Cloak swung towards the warrior’s head, clashing against Helbram’s blade as he raised his guard. Before Leon could get any leverage, however, Helbram angled his sword and hooked his crossguard around Leon’s blade, ripping his guard to the side. Elly slipped into the provided opening, striking the Black Cloak at his side with another spell of frost. The ice washed over him, but with a yell Leon forced his Ether outwards, blasting the area around him with a wave of force. As the ice around him shattered, both Helbram and Elly were knocked back, the warrior maintaining his position between Leon and Aria. Another arrow was loosed from Leaf then, striking and biting into Leon’s flank. The Black Cloak snarled in pain, feeling his knees tremble from the pain, but he dared not fall upon them.
He had to keep moving.
He had to be faster.
Leon broke into a sprint, charging at Helbram as the warrior readied himself once again. The two swordsmen clashed with Leon wholly on the offensive while Helbram focused only on defense. Even as he was lost in the rush of battle the Black Cloak could feel shock at the edges of his mind as Helbram deflected all of his blows. Even if Leon was not in peak condition, the warrior was far slower than him, far weaker than him, yet every move, every swing was met with interruption before it could be completed. Speed and power had met their match in technique as Helbram moved with a precision that was impossible unless the warrior could read Leon’s mind.
Or had fought him countless times before.
The Black Cloak moved to summon a Fang in his free hand, but his Ether did not respond. The last of it had fueled his desperate charge, and even that was fading now. Elly and Leaf soon joined Helbram, interspersing spell and arrow as Helbram created openings in Leon’s defenses. The Black Cloak’s armor absorbed the worst of the archer’s arrows and his Ether had kept the Weaver’s spells from overtaking him once again, but he was unable to gain ground as his opponents kept him at bay. The rush of combat started to fade, and he could feel the chill seeping into his flesh.
A chill that was growing colder by the second.
Amidst sword, spell, and arrow, Leon looked towards Aria, towards the web of fractures across the seal at her back, splitting more and more even as Ren and Jahora poured Aether into it. Both the Cleric’s and Mage’s power were flickering, fading fast as the woman of ice pried her fingers deeper into the seal, ready to tear it asunder.
A voice entered his mind then, one that at first carried with it the tone of a little girl, but it twists, distorts as the memory of his brother surged to the forefront of his mind.
“End this,” Astraeus said, his tone pleading as it crashed through Leon’s consciousness.
“END THIS!”
A roar ripped through the trees, carrying with it the sound of Leon’s voice as the Black Cloak’s aura of gold is tainted by wisps of black. His thoughts were lost as the power carried him, spurring him forward. Helbram moved to intercept, catching Leon’s blade.
His courage failed him.
The Black Cloak’s blade swelled with gold and black, bursting with a force that knocked Helbram from his feet and back towards Aria. Elly moved to strike after, but as she closed in Leon clenched his free hand and swung it towards her. The Weaver dodged his fist but was struck by the wave of power after, a tide that swept her off of her feet and into the trees. An arrow struck Leon’s helmet right after, grazing the bottom of his visor’s opening. The Ether that was infused into the projectile was miniscule, but had it been just an inch higher wouldn’t have mattered.
It was a shot meant to kill.
Leon looked to Leaf, who had dropped his bow in favor of his short sword. The archer’s hand still clutched his side, but he held out his blade regardless, eyes filled with a mix of determination and fear. Leon stared past him and towards Aria.
It all would end soon.
The Black Cloak slammed his heel into the ground, his vision turning red as he closed the gap between him and Leaf in half a breath. Before the archer could swing his blade Leon drove the back of his fist into Leaf’s shoulder and batted him aside, clearing the path to Aria. Both Ren and Jahora raised their hands as he approached, summoning bolts of Aether that crashed against his aura harmlessly. The Black Cloak pulled his sword back, readying the blow that would end it all.
He took a step, barely registering the movement that blurred in front of him as he drove his sword forward.
He felt his blade sink into flesh, dig deep and through the victim it bit into.
The aura of black and gold faded from him as the blow struck, the bloodlust it carried fading. His senses returned slowly, but as his vision cleared what he had done sent a tremble through all of his being and his heart fell from his chest.
Helbram stood in front of him, The Black Cloak’s blade driven into his gut. The warrior’s sword clattered to the ground, and, after what felt like an eternity, he fell to his knees. Leon could only stare, his vision drifting to the shock upon Ren’s face, the despair that wracked Jahora’s features.
Finally, his eyes fall upon Aria. The girl’s expression is no longer still, now warped and twisted in horror as she looked upon the blade that pierced through Helbram.
No one was able to react as the seal behind her shattered, as the woman of ice reached out and covered the girl’s eyes with her hands.
Leon was knocked from his feet as ice and frost exploded from Aria, and as its chill wrapped over him, consciousness was forced from him.
All is lost.
____
Frost crawled over Aria’s skin as she fell endlessly, a shell of ice forming around her as she felt herself fading away.
Away from the fear that trembled her very bones.
Away from the pain that clenched at her heart.
Away from the horror that was before her eyes.
Her senses faded, yet all she saw was Helbram on his knees, blood pouring from the blade that pierced through his body. An image that started to fade, to her relief, but soon replaced by one similar.
The falling sensation faded and she now found herself standing. It is at a height that she is not familiar with, and as she looked down her simple dress of white is replaced by armor of silver and white metal, colors that matched the armor of the knight standing in front of her.
The knight that was pierced by weapons too numerous to count.
He stayed standing for only a moment before collapsing to the ground. What lay beyond him is shrouded in white, a static of something that she cannot recall. All she can see is the floor of white stone beneath her, the blood that pooled on it, flowing from the knight that lay at her feet. The weapons that ran him through were tinged with a sickly dark energy, wisping away as the knight reached towards her. She could not see the face that lay behind his helmet’s visor, but the voice that trembled from it was filled with a regret that spurred the tears from her eyes.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” he said, “I won’t be able to keep my promise to you.”
She knelt down and took the knight’s hand. Words form at her throat, but the sorrow that wracks her body freezes them before she can let them part from her lips. She is unable to say anything as she felt life leave the knight’s body, and his hand fell to the ground with a deafening thud.
She cannot remember the name of the man that lay in front of her, nor does the sorrow that coursed through her feel like it belongs to her, but it told her he was important.
Is important.
She clutched at her chest, a pain that wasn’t hers blending with the pain that was.
Helbram coursed through her mind. The way he stood around her, protective at all times. The way that he smiled at her, spurring on impossible dreams as if they were just a matter of time. His laugh, ringing with strength yet somehow with a gentleness that granted her a warmth that she’d never felt before.
Taken away from the blade that was driven through his stomach.
She looked down at her hands, ones that were not hers yet were hers at the same time, and she started to feel sleepy. She was tired of it all, and just wanted it to go away. The Cold wrapped around her, its touch gentle as darkness draped itself across her vision. It could have her, if it wanted.
If it could take the pain she felt away, then she would embrace it.
The image around her faded, and ice burst beneath her feet. Countless fractals spread, clustered, and sheened before her, melding together into the shape of a large, grand room made entirely of ice. Its ceilings felt as tall as the skies themselves, the pillars throughout the room reaching endlessly towards the top. Aria turned towards the far end of the room, seeing a large throne of frost.
And the woman of ice that sat upon it.
She wore a dress that moved with the fluidity of water, matching her long hair as she moved, and a crown of frost sat atop her head. The woman rose from her throne and walked towards Aria, her posture upright and dignified. Yet, when she drew close, the woman knelt down, holding out a hand towards the girl. Though the woman’s eyes possessed no irises to see, the smile upon her face was gentle, comforting. Aria looked towards the hand, and instinctively she knew that if she took it, everything would go away.
The pain, the sorrow… everything.
The girl reached for the woman’s hand.
[Music suggestion: Hear Our Prayer by Yuki Kajiura]
A loud crash boomed through the hall, a deafening sound that cracked the ice around them. Both the girl and woman looked around, and then Aria heard a familiar voice.
“Aria, listen to me,” it said, the tone it carried was strong and gentle.
She felt a pair of her hands around her shoulders, and for a moment the image of the room faded. Helbram was in front of her, his helmet removed as he looked at her with desperation. Her eyes drifted to the sword still in his stomach, and the room of ice started to take over once again. Helbram grabbed her chin and forced her eyes to match his. They blazed with an intensity that she’d never seen before, a determination that bled into her, and she felt a fire spark within her heart.
“What do you want?” he asked, keeping his eyes on hers.
Aria’s lips tremble, and she can produce no more than a tremble.
“I..I…”
“Do not whisper!”
His voice was thunder, cracking the icy room around her further as it boomed through its endless expanse.
“The nature of what you possess is not one that gives way to weakness. I see the strength in your eyes, smothered by fear and uncertainty, and I say to you that a whisper will not banish such poison from your thoughts!”
The grasp on Aria’s shoulders tightened. The fire inside of her started to grow hotter.
“So cry out! Let loose the strength that lies within! Roar, and let the world know your defiance!”
He brought his face close to hers.
“Tell me! What! Do! You! Want?!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Aria could see the lady of ice. Her hand remained outstretched, but even her eyes lay upon Helbram as he started into Aria’s very soul. The pain she felt remained, now stronger than when it first started. Part of her wanted to grab it, to take the woman’s hand and let everything go. It would be so easy, so simple, but as she looked into Helbram’s eyes, felt his fire fuel her own, that desire burned away. In its place, came memories.
Memories of Jahora, who reached out to her with a warmth she’d felt nowhere else before, who hummed her to sleep with a melody that brought her peace.
Memories of Leaf, who guided her hand as she brushed Bessie, showing her the comfort of her hide, the joy of the smile hidden beneath his frown.
Memories of Elly, always always watching her, always studying, ready to aid in her own subtle way. The one who gave her a name, who saw nothing but promise in one such as her.
Memories of Helbram, of a man who held sorrow behind his eyes, yet smiled and spurred her on no matter what childish fancy she spoke of.
She remembered a calm night, the twin moons hanging above them, their glow a blanket as he spun a tale of sisters, a tale of tragedy that she sought to fix.
She remembered a promise made under moonlight, to pursue dreams yet to be fulfilled.
Aria embraced the flame in her chest, letting loose her voice as power welled in her heart. Words did not form as she screamed, but as the ice around her shattered, its message was clear.
I want to live!
First / Previous
Author's Note: And there we are, the fight scene is finally over. I know a lot went down but overall I am happy with its execution. There were a few things I could have been more detailed on but after a while I think it was just bogging down the pacing. Honestly this chapter felt the best to me, particularly because of all the pay offs here. I won't spoil the moment too much with my commentary though. Let me know what you think! (Also let me know what you think of the music suggestion, its something I was toying to bring up in particularly intense scenes)
Till next time everyone, have a wonderful day!
If you wish to read ahead and gain access to the audiobook version of this story, consider supporting me on Patreon (https://patreon.com/criticalscribe). If you want to leave a donation, here is my Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/criticalscribe).

NOTE [1] : This is only my theory based on what I've read and learned so far in the materials present in Genshin Impact and understandings based on how I perceived those information.
NOTE [2] : There's a TL:DR below the full content.

I. OVERVIEW

Teyvat consists of the Seven Nations under the purview of Seven Archons. These Archons were primarily selected based on the outcome of the Archon War within each nation. The victorious god in their respective nation gets a Divine Throne and a Gnosis that contains an element that belonged to a Dragon Sovereign. Thus, Teyvat, through the Seven Archons and the Gnoses as representations of the "laws" set by the Heavenly Principles, is under the authority of Celestia/Heavenly Principles.
The Abyss, on the other hand, is a whole other world that exists in the same world as Teyvat. The Abyss's environment is complex to be comprehended properly (e.g. the mechanisms of time in the Abyss). People like the Wanderer and the Raiden Shogun, being artificial beings, can endure and survive in the Abyss without any complications. There are also people who can survive the Abyss with some unique techniques such as Tartaglia (thanks to Skirk's teachings) and his master, Skirk. Possibly Surtalogi and the other two "perfectionists" as well.
Beyond The Firmament, according to lore, is the generalized phrase when referring to the origin of foreign entities such as the Heavenly Principles. This area is not within Teyvat, thus it is not affected by whatever changes or effects that originate from Teyvat.
Now that we're done with the overview, let's proceed with the theory that I have. Refer to [1] to refresh on how you may interpret my words in the next section.

II. Teyvat and the Heavenly Principles

Thousands of years ago, Teyvat had the Seven Realms under the rule of the Seven Sovereign Dragons. After 40 years of PO (Primordial One)'s arrival, the Elemental Dragons were defeated with the help of the Shining Shades. PO and his four shades created the world and humanity. Alongside these is the creation of the three realms: The Void, The Light, The Human. The Void Realm, commonly known as the Abyss, is the devastating to both realms. Whereas the Human and Light realms can adjust for each other.
Following the creation of humanity is the creation of the unified human civilization, the origin of the present Enkanomiya. Years later, the Second Throne (ST) came and had a war with PO. The war destroyed both heaven and earth, and later caused the fall of Enkanomiya to the ocean depths. At the end of the war, PO and ST worked together and later on, creating the Gnoses using the Dragon Authorities and the body of the Third Descender. But before the creation of the Gnoses, first PO casted down divine nails to repair the damage to the world caused by the war. However, these divine nails also brought disorder to its affected area. PO did this to suppress the dark poison— AKA the Forbidden Knowledge. The Forbidden Knowledge, as we know, is a form of truth that does not belong to this world. It can also be tied to the "true sky" and the Abyss.
Seeing that Forbidden Knowledge is so dangerous to Teyvat to the point where just knowing it is enough to cause damage to the body and mind, the only solution was to eradicate any memory of it and its source. Here are my theories concerning these:

1. The Divine Nail has three intended purposes:

• Repair
• Protect
• Conceal

The first known intention was that the Divine Nails were to repair the damage caused by the war between PO and ST. Given that all the Divine Nails are located on places with an Irminsul peeking out of the ground, the second intention could be to protect the Irminsul. Since the Irminsul is the repository of everything and can easily be bypassed (in terms of the Irminsul's natural mechanisms) by foreign entities and can be corrupted via "knowledge", the Divine Nail is deliberately placed there to suppress the dark poison in the Irminsul-grown area. The third intention, conceal is somewhat aligned with the second intention. As I mentioned before, the Forbidden Knowledge is a form of truth that does not belong to this world and can be tied to the truth behind the fake sky and the abyss. PO and ST, being foreign entities trying to sustain their control and order over Teyvat, would attempt to prevent the world from becoming an apocalyptic wasteland due to Forbidden Knowledge. But since the Divine Nail is preventing the Dark Poison from latching itself to the Irminsul root, this wouldn't be a problem for them. To sum up,
The Divine Nails repair Teyvat's damages, protects the Irminsul from harm, and conceals the secrets of their origin and identities as foreign beings.
Next is the Fake Sky. Now, my theories for this one builds on the condition that the Second Throne were two entities, possibly more. Let me explain.
We know that PO had a war with ST. But we were never really given a lot of detail about who ST is. The condition I mentioned above is based on the Amethyst Crown artifact:

"It was a faraway time of calm and peace. Divine envoys spoke openly with the people then, bringing them the word from the heavens..."

See how she referred differently between PO and ST? In here, she doesn't seem to bear any ill-will towards PO, even referring to the time before ST as a time of calm and peace where the divine envoys, the Four Shades, speak to humanity. And she calls PO "master of the heavens". That means PO is not an invader in her view. But she said INVADERS. With an S on the end, hinting multiple.
According to Neuvillette's Character Story, PO and ST worked together to create the Gnoses to contain the Elemental Authorities of the dragons and take control of Teyvat, with the purpose of being an alternative power over Teyvat since PO can no longer sustain the order he wanted. But after the last Archon Quest, we now know that the gnoses were made form the Third Descender's remains WHICH MEANS, PO, ST, and TD (Third Descender) were all together at one point.
If you read the Seelie lore, you already know that there was a Traveler from afar that fell in love with a seelie. I theorize that this Traveler from afar is the Third Descender. However, given that the disaster involved the Third Descender which caused not only the downfall of an entire race but also the catastrophe between three moons and the fall of a stachariot, PO and ST would want to prevent such thing to happen again. The Seelie curse is that both lovers will lose their memories and lose their strength. This would be beneficial to the two gods. Since TD is weakened and has no memory anyway, he no longer serves any purpose as an external being. But regardless, he is a Descender, immune to the natural laws of Teyvat. After the Seelie Downfall, I suggest two things have happened:

1. ​
   1. TD's body being converted into a suitable vessel for the Elemental Authorities
2. 2. Creation of the Fake Sky.

For an explanation as to why this leads to the creation of the Fake Sky, here's my theory: PO and ST obviously would not want another repeat of a destructive event involving a Descender. They already caused a dark poisoning to Teyvat and had to suppress it with a nail that distorts environment and now a fellow Descender causes the downfall of the entire race and ruination among three celestial bodies? Of course, they would prevent another instance of that. Continuing the theory, I think after the Gnosis were made of the Seven Dragon Authorities, PO and ST used these to establish a barrier or a veil that prevents the descension of other foreign beings or the Forbidden Knowledge from entering from beyond. Perhaps the two gods became wary of the existing capability to read the stars or divination. For their intention to be sustained, being a barrier or a veil is not enough. They had to turn it into an artificial sky, with its own stars tied Teyvat's existence. Not only would this fit their theoretical intentions, it would also fool anyone trying to read the skies or acquire information through divination.
Later on, this barrieveil would be torn for a moment.

Since my level of learning could not compare with the sages, I failed to earn the favor of the previous ruler. So too did I fail to stop them from tearing away the veil of sin, ushering in a tide of divine wrath, destruction, and foolishness...

Pierro mentioned that the other sages of Khaenri'ah tore away the veil of sin, perhaps the fake sky. At the same time, Khaenri'ahns were also summoning someone that can rival the Heavenly Principles. Knowing that the Heavenly Principles were foreign entities, perhaps they also needed the aid of someone or something beyond Teyvat.

...Of course, I am keenly aware that the four pillars of our kingdom have achieved the prosperity they have today precisely thanks to us spying upon secrets from beyond the skies, and thus have our mechanisms been able to throw off the shackles imposed by this world's laws...

The secrets from the skies is also the Forbidden Knowledge that Khaenria'hns brough after trying to acquire the secrets from the skies. This caused another surge of Forbidden Knowledge in the Irminsul. This makes me believe that, despite Rukkhadevata saying that Forbidden Knowledge comes from the depths of the Abyss, Forbidden Knowledge is also anything that originate beyond the Fake Sky.
The Cataclysm was doing the two things I theorized that the Heavenly Principles is avoiding since the Fall of the Seelie: Arrival of another Descender which may cause the downfall of another race, and another instance of the Forbidden Knowledge. Based on the events told in the game, Celestia instructed Rukkhadevata to protect the Irminsul while they took care of the Descenders and the sin of mortal arrogation committed by Khaenri'ahns.
The Sustainer (which I know assume is the ST, since it is only because of them that they can sustain control over Teyvat with PO, thus the title "Sustainer of Heavenly Principles") pursued the Traveler Twins, with the sibling being captured and the MC being sealed and thrown away.
After the events of Sumeru, it was revealed that while the Traveler is a descender, their sibling was not. After the Interlude quest with Scaramouche, it was revealed that the arrival of us, our rather our sibling, is just the outcome of the summoning being responded to by the Heavens. I have my THEORETICAL possibilities to why the Sibling had records on the Irminsul:

1. Because of the summoning and the influence of whatever heavenly power responded to the summoning, their fate was forcibly manipulated to anoint their destination in Khaenri'ah. Additionally, the summoning being conducted within Teyvat may have "etched" their existence in the Irminsul.
2. It was only after ST capturing the sibling were they included in the Irminsul. After captivation, the ST extracted all their memories since their first descension to Khaenri'ah. After these memories were extracted, the Heavenly Principles imported these memories into the Irminsul, forcing it to acknowledge and start recording the sibling's existence. There would be no need for ST to return those memories to the sibling since the sibling is now recorded by the Irminsul, they would naturally regain the memories as if they were never removed. But why would they need to do that to the sibling's memories? To watch and guard their every move.

Wait, why didn't they do the same to Aether then?

I've mentioned earlier that Forbidden Knowledge is any form of knowledge or truth that hails from the Abyss or beyond Teyvat. In essence, the Descenders are Forbidden Knowledge in living form. But why isn't it affecting the Irminsul when a lot of people are perceiving them?
Answer (POSSIBLY): They don't intentionally infest the Irminsul. Irminsul processes pure information, and is even prone to it considering how it became quickly affected by the Forbidden Knowledge. The Descenders, on the other hand, are tangible life forms that are not the byproduct of divine power clashing with abyssal power / intangible Forbidden Knowledge. Since they, as Forbidden Knowledge, has their own body to store themselves as Forbidden Knowledge, they do not need to infest the Irminsul as intangible knowledge. (I hope you get what I mean here aaahhh).
Okay going back, why didn't they do the same to Aether? Well, memories are also form of intangible knowledge. Not to mention, the very way information is presented and extracted in and from the Irminsul is in the form of experience or "memory". Forcing the memories of a Descender to a repository constantly rejecting non-Teyvat information is basically forcing it to accept Forbidden Knowledge. Therefore, injecting the memories of the Sibling is risky enough since they basically extracted Forbidden Knowledge information as memory and inserted it into the three.

But if that's true, shouldn't there be side effects like when Rukkhadevata was infected and when Deshret introduced FK?

Answer (POSSIBLY): There memories do not express anything from outside Teyvat. According to Nahida, the record starts from when the sibling first appeared in Khaenri'ah, which is in Teyvat. While it is considered Forbidden Knowledge due to its natural source being a Descender, the content or the information in the memories are all of Teyvat, giving the Irminsul no reason to reject a common theme.
TL:DR ,
NOTE [1] : This is only my theory based on what I've read and learned so far in the materials present in Genshin Impact and understandings based on how I perceived those information.
Background:
- Teyvat was once ruled by the Seven Sovereign Dragons, later defeated by the Primordial One (PO) and its four Shining Shades.
- PO created the world and humanity, dividing it into three realms: Void (Abyss), Light, and Human.
- Enkanomiya originated from a unified human civilization.
- A war between PO and the Second Throne (ST) destroyed Enkanomiya, sinking it into the ocean.
Divine Nails:
- Purposes:

1. Repair: Fix damage from PO and ST's war.
2. Protect: Safeguard the Irminsul (world tree) from corruption by Forbidden Knowledge.
3. Conceal: Hide the truth of PO and ST's origins and identities as foreign entities.

Fake Sky:
- Theory that the ST comprised multiple entities.
- PO and ST created the Gnoses from the Third Descender's (TD) body to control Teyvat.
- Events:
- TD, who might be the "Traveler from afar" in Seelie lore, caused a catastrophic event leading to a curse.
- PO and ST, wary of another such event, possibly created the Fake Sky to prevent further descensions and conceal Forbidden Knowledge.
- The Fake Sky is a barrier preventing foreign entities and knowledge from entering Teyvat.
Forbidden Knowledge:
- Comes from the Abyss and Beyong the Fake Sky.
- The Cataclysm in Khaenri'ah involved tearing the Fake Sky, leading to another influx of Forbidden Knowledge.
- PO and ST aimed to protect Teyvat from this knowledge, which can corrupt minds and bodies. Another potential hidden agenda to hide the truth of their existences.
Traveler and Sibling:
- The sibling, summoned to Teyvat, is recorded in the Irminsul, while the Traveler is not.
- Possible reasons for the sibling’s records in Irminsul:

1. Manipulated fate due to the summoning.
2. Memories extracted and imported by ST to monitor the sibling.

— I implore you to read my first note one last time hehe. Anyways, I might continue this analyses in terms of Abyss, the Dark Sea, or each region to be specific. But for now, this is where it ends.

Nemo

Class: Rider True Name: Nemo/Triton Gender: Unknown —> Male (His gender was not yet determined when he was summoned. After deciding to be "Captain Nemo", he took on a male form. In the myths, Triton is said to be “the son of the sea god”, but in the world of Fate, he is an androgynous being.) Source: Greek Mythology, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (also known as "Twenty Thousand Ri Under the Sea," "Twenty Thousand Miles Under the Sea," etc.) Region: Europe Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Height: 150 cm Weight: 40 kg
Strength: C Endurance: B Agility: C Mana: A Luck: A Noble Phantasm: B
Scenario Writer: Kinoko Nasu Character Designer: DANGERDROP CV: Yumiri Hanamori Main Appearance: Fate/Grand Order
○ Class Skills
Riding: A+ Can freely control all beasts and vehicles, except for dragons.
Divinity: A Triton, sometimes referred to as a god, possesses high divine aptitude.
Blessing of the Sea God: B Triton, born of the sea god Poseidon and the sea goddess Amphitrite, is naturally familiar with the ocean and receives the blessing of the sea god. As a child of the sea god, he has innate abilities. All kinds of water spontaneously follow Triton's (Nemo's) guidance and will. This is why it is a passive skill.
There is no difference whether it is fresh water or seawater. However, it must be "water" to some extent in quantity. Water molecules in the air or water contained within living organisms cannot be manipulated. Defensive power increases Near Water.
○ Personal Skills
Voyager of the Storm: C++ A skill employed by captains. This skill is a lower rank than many other captain Servants because Triton was not a sailor, and Nemo's ship was an advanced technological marvel of his age, so he never had to sail through a howling gale on a tattered vessel. However, if the field is Near Water, this skill's effectiveness doubles, which explains why its rank is appended with a "++".
Indefatigable: B+ The spiritual nature and conviction of Nemo given form. While it's both a Battle Continuation and NP Gain skill, it has a hidden effect of significantly increasing NP when Guts is activated after reaching HPO (Hit Point Out), as the captain's spirit burns brightest in the direst of circumstances.
Guide for Travel: C++ Triton, who once guided the Argo, is known for having been a guide of heroes. As Triton protects the hopes and dreams of those who seek uncharted territory and unknown lands, he is comparable with the young Da Vinci, whose fundamental drive is to go beyond in pursuit of a better world. This skill's effects also double if the field is Near Water.
Proof of the Journey: EX Aronnax Phantasm.
Aronnax is the professor protagonist in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." The mechanism is named after his assumption of "a monster with horns" at the beginning of the story.
By adding this mechanism to the Shadow Border, it adds the existence of a “ram-equipped underwater lifeform," allowing Nemo to unify the Nautilus and the Shadow Border as his Noble Phantasm.
In the alternate world of India, Nemo recognized the courage and pride of the staff of Chaldea, and chose to serve as their captain.
Later, the Nautilus switched from the Shadow Border to the Storm Border as its proof mechanism, becoming the flagship of Chaldea.
○ Noble Phantasm I Shall Conquer, the Great Ram of the Nautilus: Great Ram, Nautilus Rank: A NP Type: Anti-Sea Noble Phantasm Range: 2 - 70 Maximum Targets: 200 people
Great Ram, Nautilus. Summoning the submarine Nautilus, this Noble Phantasm surges forward with its greatt ram. Endowed with a special concept, it may pierce any enemy, no matter how massive, be it a giant squid or a battleship. While this Noble Phantasm can be used outside the water (both above ground or in the air), it is far more accurate and powerful if it is used in the sea. It is more effective whenever the field is Near Water, making it a rare Noble Phantasm.
○ Character First person: boku Second person: kimi/○○ (first name) Third person: kare/○○ (first name) Addressing Master: (first name)/Master
○ Personality Originally, Triton was beloved by all for his honesty and kindheartedness. Prince Dakkar was known to be both decisive in his actions and judgment as well as a man of faith. As Nemo is a Phantom Spirit who combines these two Heroic Spirits, his personality slightly deviates from each of the originals.
As both Triton and Nemo, this Heroic Spirit gained his own unique ideal: rebellion against domination and devastation. Even if it be a god, Nemo will not tolerate those who abuse the weak. Ironically, this principle extends to him rebelling against modern human society (consumerism) as well. Even now, he tends to get irritated whenever he considers European culture. Of course, Greece wouldn't be an exception either, but according to him, "there are no national borders in the world of the ocean." The sea child Triton is safe, even loved.
Upon his first appearance, Nemo did not show any emotion even when interacting with Protagonist or Mash. The memories of Prince Dakar frighten Triton's innocent soul, and he developed an instinctual wariness for humans who are the authors of their own tragedies. So he can be very blunt at times...
His original personality is straightforward and affectionate, never abandoning those he likes. He is the consummate captain—tough as nails and possessed of a militaristic bearing. As someone responsible for many sailors' lives, he is strict with others and even stricter with himself. He is an indomitable captain who always seeks solutions, regardless of the dire circumstances, and thus his expression remains cool at all times. When Nemo's expression darkens, it means that "there is no solution left.”
Even if he cannot see the end of his friend's travels, he numbers among the Heroic Spirits who truly love mankind, and so will always offer his blessings to humanity.
○ Motives and attitude towards Master While he carries the name of Nemo, Triton is one who gives his blessing to all manner of adventurous journeys. Upon his summoning as a Servant in Chaldea, he deems Protagonist a traveling adventurer, and so offers his blessings and guidance.
At first, he adheres rigidly to his given role, hiding his true self and insisting that he is "just a submarine" even in his interactions with Master. Gradually, as he lets down his guard on recognizing his Master is trustworthy, he becomes much more companionable, even friendly. Naturally straightforward and goodhearted, he will never betray those to whom he's taken a liking. His silence remains unchanged. Due to his constant usage of "Memory Partition," his brain's energy consumption is high, craving sweets. He craves them, but as a captain, he never mentions it in public. When the Nautilus docks, he quietly sneaks off to a café to enjoy a parfait.
Sample Lines (Before revealing his True Name) "Understood." "Hmm. Is that so?" "Adorable like an ammonite." "Charming like a starfish." "Brave like an ocean sunfish." "As for my true name, I'll keep it to myself for now.” “...I'm no one. I don't have a name. If you have to call me something, just call me Nameless.”
(When excited) "Submersion, commence! Full speed ahead!" "I will not tolerate oppressing or mocking others. Captain Nemo will not tolerate it! Are you ready? We sail with the Nautilus!”
○ Historical Portrayal According to Hesiod's "Theogony," written around the 8th century BCE, Triton was born to the sea god Poseidon and the sea goddess Amphitrite. Amphitrite was one of the fifty daughters of the sea god Nereus and the Oceanid Doris. Triton himself is a sea god who presides over the depths of the ocean and blesses those who embark on adventurous journeys. In the "Argonautica," written in the 3rd century BCE, Triton's true form is described as having a divine, beautiful upper body and a monstrous lower body with a split tail like a sea creature. However, when guiding the crew of the Argo, he appeared in human form.
○ Character Portrayal in Fate/GO Triton, the merman who was raised and loved by the gods of the sea, is combined with Prince Dakkar, the character in the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas," or at least the man he was probably based on to create a “Phantom Spirit”. Although “Phantom Spirits” have only ever existed in the Pseudo-Singularity Shinjuku so far, an alchemist from Atlas named Sion managed to extract the data and summon this special Servant as a Phantom Spirit.
Sion opted to summon Nemo as a Phantom Spirit since she was worried about the success rate of a non-standard Chaldea summoning. By combining the Spirit Origins of two Heroic Spirits, a workable Servant Origin was created.
As a result, Triton bears the name and memories of Nemo and is unified with his "sea Noble Phantasm," the submarine Nautilus. He wields a conch shell trumpet, as depicted in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," to control water and sound for attacks.
He appears as a Chaldean Servant from FGO's second part, Chapter 3. Summoned by the alchemist Sion, who had taken refuge in Wandering Sea, Nemo helps upgrade the protagonist's mobile magic workshop, the "Shadow Border," to the "Storm Border.”
This "Nemo" has experienced and traversed the journey to protect human history. His exploits are strongly recorded in the world, and he eventually establishes himself as a singular Heroic Spirit rather than a Phantom Spirit. He often overlaps his Spirit Origin with Heroic Spirits other than Triton, but that is a story for another world.
○Standard Weapons Nemo uses a jet water cannon modeled after a conch shell trumpet.
In addition to firing blasts, he can freely manipulate water, creating water tornadoes, blades, and walls as he wishes. Beyond controlling water, he can also perform sonic attacks, thanks to the trumpet.
Additionally, by having Sion as his Master, he gained the ability to use "Memory Partition," which allows him to create duplicates specialized for different roles. These duplicates are known as the Nemo Series and are used for strategic operations. He also carries a concealed automatic pistol for intimidation, an attack method bestowed upon him by Sion.
○Connection to other Characters
Sion Eltnam The initial Master. A very rough mermaid handler who taught him much about humans. To Triton, filled with the prince's memories, she repeatedly said, "Humans don't only bring tragedy," even though she had never experienced this herself. She spoke this with such strong conviction.
Jason As a fellow captain, he finds Jason somewhat capricious but doesn't dislike his adventurous spirit, which he himself lacks. "I feel like I used to be a bit cooler... Am I tangled in seaweed?"
Drake An illustrious predecessor who overcame the impossible. "Like a flying fish born of grass, and a fierce captain like an orca. I wouldn't want to be her enemy."
Blackbeard, Anne & Mary, Bartholomew "I cannot condone piracy alone. If you encounter me at sea, you'll have to reflect accordingly."
Columbus "Your conviction is commendable. But your actions, I cannot condone."
Caenis As Nemo, he has no particular thoughts, but Triton's soul has a strong aversion to Caenis. A Heroic Spirit whose life was disrupted by his father. He feels sorry but cannot tolerate their roughness and temper.
Poseidon A father god like a storm, a volcano, or a giant octopus. "Having too much love is very difficult... I think one is enough for a destined partner."
Nemo Series Operating a submarine, especially a military-grade vessel, is impossible for Nemo alone.
Anticipating that Nemo would eventually struggle to manage his own ship, Sion, upon summoning Nemo, incorporated the foundational and secretive skill of the Atlas Institute, "Memory Partition."
As a result, Nemo can now create "specialized duplicates, each with nearly identical roles," by dispersing his own magical energy. These duplicates are known as the Nemo Series, who work at the Wandering Sea Dock. As the story progresses, the Nemo Series members begin to appear as staff on the Nautilus and the Storm Border.
Including Captain Nemo, the gender ratio within the Nemo Series is 3:3.
○Nemo Series
Nemo Marine
Nemo Marine uses "boku" or "bokutachi" as their first-person pronoun. This is the most numerous series, with around 24 members (12 active, 12 in reserve). Although they share the same personality and appearance, there are slight individual differences. When acting as a group, these individual traits are suppressed. They handle all sorts of tasks on the ship, including cleaning, piloting, and maintenance. Their personality is endlessly cheerful and they harbor no hatred (though they can dislike others). During emergencies, they scream while fully committing to resolving the issue. This series exhibits the purest aspects of Triton's character.
Nemo Professor
Nemo Professor uses "watashi" as her first-person pronoun. She addresses men by adding "shi" to their names, which gives Blackbeard a sense of affinity with them. Serving as the onboard scholar, she handles analysis, measurements, and strategy planning. Her demeanor is polite but somewhat downbeat and quirky. When greeting others, she often starts with a laid-back "Hai, konnichiwa," beginning with "Hai" to convey a relaxed attitude.
Nemo Engineer
Nemo Engineer uses "atashi" as her first-person pronoun. She is the gruff, seasoned chief engineer who oversees the engine room. Among the Nemos, she is one of the rougher types but are a pillar of responsibility and possess a deep love for humanity. Their command of the engine room, the ship's most dangerous and harsh environment, stems from a mother-like conviction to protect humans at all costs. She believes she could replace the captain if necessary due to their equal standing and the love they have for both humans and the Nautilus. Due to the high temperatures in the engine room, she constantly licks rock salt to stay hydrated.
Nemo Nurse
Nemo Nurse is the kind, older-sister type who uses "watashi" as his first-person pronoun. He manages the medical bay, remaining calm and methodical during emergencies. While he usually wears a gentle smile, h opens his eyes wide when angry. He is so skilled in science that he can substitute for the professor in the computation room when necessary.
Nemo Bakery
Nemo Bakery is the gentle, elder-sister type who uses "watashi" as her first-person pronoun. She manages the ship's essential cafeteria. Maintaining the morale of the crew through meals, this Nemo is ultimately the most vital. In the harsh environment of the sea, surrounded by machines, she ensures the cafeteria is a comforting and vital place for the crew.
Comment from Illustrator The overall silhouette was designed to evoke the image of a ship's bow and ram splitting the sea, creating a wake. Originally intended to be a mermaid, the design varies in visual tension between the upper and lower body, with a structured look on the top and a somewhat precarious feel at the feet. In implementation, the captain turned out to stand firmly, without paying much attention to these details, which was fortunate. Designing the Nemo Series, each with the same face but subtly different individualities, was interesting. We incorporated small differences in their eyes and ways of smiling, which we hope you will notice and appreciate. (DANGERDROP)

Part 1: Shadows of Whitman Town
Chapter 1: The Day of the Massacre
Whitman Town was a quaint, serene place where the biggest excitement was the annual summer fair. Kev's Thrifting Warehouse, known for its eclectic mix of secondhand goods, was a community staple. On a bright day in 1998, the warehouse was bustling with activity. Families, bargain hunters, and curious passersby were drawn to the thrifting haven.
Jonathan, a seasoned journalist, was among the crowd. He was there to cover a story on local businesses and was particularly intrigued by the warehouse's rapid success and its enigmatic owner, Kev. Jonathan noticed Kev seemed unusually tense, frequently glancing at his watch and whispering urgently to his employees, including the manager, Vonitsu.
Suddenly, the air was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Screams erupted as Kev, armed and coldly determined, began shooting. Jonathan dove behind a stack of old books, his heart pounding. He watched in horror as Kev methodically gunned down the terrified customers. Amid the chaos, Jonathan saw the five employees, including Vonitsu, being herded away by Kev. Just as Jonathan tried to move, a heavy blow to his head knocked him unconscious.
Chapter 2: The Aftermath
Jonathan awoke in a dark, damp sewer, his hands bound and his head throbbing. Panic surged through him as he struggled to free himself. The massacre replayed in his mind—Kev's cold execution of the shoppers and the employees' forced removal. Jonathan realized he had to escape and expose Kev's sinister plans.
Hours turned into days as Jonathan pieced together what he had overheard before the massacre. Kev had been paranoid, whispering about bank blueprints and security schedules. It became clear to Jonathan that the massacre was a cover-up to silence the employees who had discovered Kev's plan to rob the town's only bank.
Chapter 3: The Visions
Meanwhile, Tygo, another employee of the warehouse, discovered the bodies of his coworkers in a hidden section of the building. Horrified and driven by curiosity, Tygo, who had a background in medical studies, transformed a storage room into a makeshift morgue. Using the equipment he had, Tygo began experimenting, hoping to unlock the final memories of his coworkers.
One night, as he connected electrodes to Vonitsu's body and adjusted the machinery, Tygo was suddenly sucked into a vivid vision.
Chapter 4: The Grey World
Tygo found himself in a grey, empty world, an eerie and surreal landscape with shadowy silhouettes drifting aimlessly. The air was thick with an unsettling silence, broken only by the occasional whisper of the shadows. As he wandered, he saw the thrifting warehouse, a ghostly echo of its former self. Shadowy silhouettes represented the shoppers, flickering and fading in the eerie light.
Every five minutes, the scene shifted like a macabre slideshow. The first slide was of the warehouse, bustling with shadowy figures representing people shopping. The next slide showed the five employees, detailed and distinct among the shadows. Tygo felt a chill as he recognized their faces.
In the next vision, Kev pulled out his pistol and started shooting everyone. The shadowy figures fell, one by one, as Kev moved through the crowd with terrifying precision. The scene shifted again. Now, it displayed a gruesome tableau: the floor littered with bodies, blood pooling around them. Only the five employees and one more person, a man who seemed to have tried to stop Kev, remained alive.
The man stood defiantly, trying to reason with Kev, but Kev shot him in the head, the gruesome act playing out in horrifying detail. The final slide showed Kev taking the five employees, dragging them out of the warehouse and forcing them into his van. Kev then drove off, leaving behind the bloody, horrific scene of the thrifting warehouse.
Tygo, shaken by what he had seen, understood the full horror of Kev’s actions. He now had a clear vision of the massacre and knew he had to find Jonathan and bring Kev to justice.
Chapter 5: The Escape The Showdown
Jonathan's persistence paid off. He managed to free himself and navigate the sewer system, emerging in an abandoned part of town. Weak but determined, he made his way to the motel where Kev was hiding. With Tygo's help, who had tracked him down using clues from his visions, they broke into Kev's secret room. The sight that greeted them was chilling: detailed plans for the bank heist, maps, schedules, and a list of accomplices.
They gathered the evidence, but just as they were about to leave, Kev returned. A tense standoff ensued.
"You think you can stop me?" Kev sneered, his eyes wild with desperation. "You're too late. The plan is already in motion."
Jonathan, holding up the blueprints, said, "It's over, Kev. We have everything we need to expose you."
Kev lunged at them, but Tygo managed to subdue him. "This is for Sarah, Mark, and everyone else you hurt," Tygo said through gritted teeth.
The police, tipped off by an anonymous call Tygo had made earlier, arrived just in time.
Chapter 6: The Scars
The aftermath of the massacre left Whitman Town reeling. The warehouse, once a symbol of community and connection, was now a site of unspeakable horror. It was temporarily closed and draped in police tape, but the townspeople were determined to rebuild. James, the owner of the local bar, organized fundraisers to support the victims' families and repair the damage.
Martin, the motel owner, who had unknowingly housed a murderer, struggled with guilt. He had noticed Kev's odd behavior but never imagined it could lead to such violence. He cooperated fully with the authorities, providing them with access to Kev's room and any information he had.
Homeless Johnson, who had seen more than his fair share of hardship, became an unexpected hero. Living in the sewers, he had heard Jonathan's struggles and provided him with water and food through a grate, helping him survive until he could escape. His knowledge of the sewer system had also proven invaluable to Jonathan's eventual escape.
Hooligan Harry, the town's notorious eavesdropper, had overheard bits and pieces of Kev's conversations over the weeks leading up to the massacre. While his reputation made him a less-than-reliable witness, the information he provided helped the police piece together Kev's movements and plans.
Chapter 7: The End?
In a climactic confrontation, Jonathan and Tygo managed to subdue Kev, but not without a struggle. The police, tipped off by an anonymous call Tygo had made earlier, arrived just in time to arrest Kev. The evidence they had gathered was irrefutable.
As Kev was led away, Tygo felt a strange sense of peace. He knew the spirits of his coworkers could finally rest.
Part 2: Echoes of The Past
Chapter 8: The Reopening
Months after the massacre, the Thrifting Warehouse was repaired and reopened, though some windows remained broken as a somber reminder of the tragedy. The community gathered for the reopening, their faces a mix of hope and sorrow. The warehouse stood as a testament to their resilience.
James, who had played a key role in the recovery efforts, spoke at the reopening ceremony. "This place represents our strength," he said, "and our ability to come together, even in the darkest of times."
Martin, the motel owner, and Homeless Johnson were also present. They had become unlikely friends, bonded by their shared experiences and roles in the aftermath. Hooligan Harry, too, had found a new sense of purpose, using his knack for eavesdropping to help the police monitor suspicious activities.
Chapter 9: The Hidden Blueprint
As the town healed, Jonathan and Tygo continued to investigate Kev's broader plans. They suspected that the bank heist was just one part of a larger scheme. In Kev's motel room, they discovered another hidden blueprint, this time of a government building.
"Kev was planning something much bigger," Jonathan said, his voice filled with urgency. "We need to find out who else is involved."
Their investigation led them to uncover a kept-away bulletin board of corrupt officials and criminals who had been working with Kev. The conspiracy ran deep, threatening the very foundation of Whitman Town.
Chapter 10: The Turn
Just when they thought they had uncovered all of Kev's secrets, Tygo had another vision. This time, it was different. He found himself back in the grey world, but instead of shadowy silhouettes, he saw Kev standing before him, a look of desperation on his face.
"You're not supposed to be here," Kev said, his voice echoing in the emptiness. "You think you've won, but you don't know the whole story."
Tygo, confused but determined, demanded answers. "What are you talking about, Kev? What more is there?"
Kev's expression softened, revealing a hint of vulnerability. "I wasn't acting alone. There are others, more powerful than you can imagine. If you don't stop them, everything we've fought for will be destroyed."
With that, Kev vanished, leaving Tygo with more questions than answers.
Chapter 11: The End.
Jonathan and Tygo, armed with new information from Tygo's vision, worked tirelessly to uncover the true masterminds behind the conspiracy. The high-ranking government official they were after was known only as "The Director," a shadowy figure with connections that ran deep into the fabric of Whitman Town's political and economic systems. This discovery marked the beginning of their most dangerous and complex investigation yet.
The first breakthrough came when they stole Kev’s documents they had retrieved from his motel room. The files revealed a series of coded messages between Kev and The Director, detailing plans for the bank heist and other criminal activities. One message, in particular, stood out: it mentioned a clandestine meeting at an old, abandoned factory on the outskirts of town.
Jonathan and Tygo decided to stake out the factory. Under the cover of darkness, they positioned themselves strategically around the dilapidated building, watching and waiting. Hours passed before a convoy of black SUVs pulled up, and several men in suits emerged, including The Director. Jonathan's heart raced as he recognized the man from photographs – a respected member of the town council, long considered a pillar of the community.
Using a small, home made drone taped with a camera, Jonathan and Tygo captured footage of the meeting. The men discussed their plans with chilling precision, confirming their involvement in the bank heist and other crimes that had plagued the town. The Director outlined his next target – a major government building that housed sensitive documents and large sums of money.
"This is bigger than we thought," Jonathan whispered to Tygo. "We need to act fast."
They quickly formulated a plan to expose The Director and his network. Jonathan sent the drone footage and encrypted files to trusted contacts in the media and law enforcement. They knew they had to be careful; any misstep could lead to their discovery and silencing.
The next day, a massive police operation was launched. SWAT teams surrounded the factory, catching The Director and his associates off guard. The ensuing standoff was tense. The Director, realizing the trap, attempted to escape, but Jonathan and Tygo were one step ahead. They had anticipated this move and had strategically positioned themselves to block any escape routes.
"You're not going anywhere," Tygo shouted, emerging from the shadows with a determined look on his face.
The Director, cornered and desperate, pulled out a gun. "You don't know what you're dealing with!" he screamed. "This goes far beyond this town."
Jonathan stepped forward, his voice steady. "We know enough to bring you down. It's over, Director."
A tense silence followed as the two sides faced off. The police, moving swiftly, disarmed The Director and arrested his accomplices. The evidence Jonathan and Tygo had gathered was overwhelming, ensuring that the criminals would face justice.
As The Director was led away in handcuffs, he glared at Jonathan and Tygo. "You think you've won, but this is just the beginning. Others will come. You can't stop them all."
Jonathan met his gaze with unwavering resolve. "We'll be ready."
The aftermath of the operation was a whirlwind of media coverage and community reactions. Whitman Town was rocked by the revelations, but the sense of justice and closure brought a renewed sense of hope. Jonathan's book chronicling the events was published, becoming a bestseller and a powerful testament to the town's resilience and determination to seek the truth.
Tygo, now a local hero, used his medical skills to establish a clinic in honor of his fallen coworkers. He dedicated himself to helping the community heal, both physically and emotionally.
As the years passed, the memory of the Thrifting Massacre of 1998 and the subsequent uncovering of the conspiracy became an integral part of Whitman Town's history. The Thrifting Warehouse, once a site of tragedy, was now a symbol of renewal and unity. The community, stronger than ever, stood together.
Epilogue: A New Beginning
Whitman Town, though scarred by its past, emerged stronger than ever. The community's resilience and determination to seek justice had prevailed. Jonathan's book became a symbol of their triumph over adversity, and Tygo's medical skills were put to good use, helping those in need.
The Thrifting Warehouse, now a symbol of hope and renewal, continued to serve the community, reminding everyone of the strength that comes from standing together.
As the years passed, the story of the Thrifting Massacre of 1998 became a part of the town's history, a testament to the power of truth, justice, and the unbreakable spirit of Whitman Town.
Credits:
Main Source - Thrifting Warehouse
Authors - A.DT, A.GZ

FIN.

It took a few minutes for a few aides to retrieve the billets of iron, the final heaviest one causing the most difficulty as it was no larger than a playing card. The small size making the aide think it was light, but the smooth surface and surprising weight caused him to fail to pick it up a few times. Eventually he managed to get it off the table with a grunt of effort, struggling to carry it from the room. Moments after he left a loud crash could be heard as he put the billet down somewhere, Orlan and his two knights smirking in amusement.
Finally the chairman called the meeting back to order, signaling for Orlan to continue but before he could the lady from New Jersey spoke up.
“I must continue to object to the claims of magic,” she said, “a heavy bit of metal is hardly proof of mystical powers.”
“Oh? Then what would you like for me to do?” Orlan snapped, standing up suddenly. With a slight turn to his right and a step he was suddenly on the rightmost side of the committee room.
“How about teleporting? Is that magical enough for you?” he asked, taking a step to the side to appear next to the left-hand wall, “or am I somehow managing this with smoke and mirrors?
Another step took him to the middle of the hall.
“Perhaps you want more? How about this?” Orlan then took a step forward, a rune appearing in the air just beneath his foot as he did, allowing him to step onto air like he was climbing a set of stairs, he took three more steps stopping when his head was level with the committee, “go on, call this a trick.”
The meeting quickly devolved into shouting from there, forcing the chairman to break for the day earlier than planned.
-----
“It feels like there’s something wrong with the moon,” Lailra said later that night, they were back aboard his protectorate after the first day of the meeting, looking up at the night sky.
“You just aren’t used to it yet,” Orlan replied with a smirk, “I remember thinking the same thing when first seeing the moon on the other side.”
“Really?” she asked, “I remember you running outside that first day after the anchorheart summoned you and falling to your knees when you saw the moon. Don’t think you ever told me what was going through your head.”
“I was terrified,” he admitted, “I was kind of like those idiots in that meeting, everything you showed me was somehow a trick. Something that could be explained by hidden mechanisms or slight of hand. But the sight of a purple hued hurricane moving across the face of the moon? The longer I watched the more convinced I was that it couldn’t be faked.”
“Right, there was a purple storm on its surface that night,” Lailra nodded, “I wonder if it was caused by the anchorheart summoning you.”
“Who knows,” he shrugged in reply, the moon was subject to all kinds of magical storms on that side. Many thought it was a reflection of the movements in the aether on the Earth, or that it was portents of the future, displayed upon the lunar surface. In theory a tier ten mage of the right attunement could go there and check it out, but if one had done so in the past they hadn’t told anyone.
“Oh, Nallia said some other nations were putting out statements welcoming you,” Lailra said after a few minutes of silence, “mostly in eastern Eura and South India… or Eastern Europe and South America, as I guess they’re called on this side. Some places near Juda, er, the Middle East, are calling you a Jin. That’s a stupid name by the way, ‘Middle East’ makes no sense.”
“I didn’t name them,” Orlan chuckled, “Not that your side of the world is much better, I mean, Atlantis really exists, except it’s called Atlia and it’s just the British Isles.”
“I was excited when you told me the Atlians were real on this side, you know,” Lailra replied, “one of my ancestors is from there supposedly, her whole family died when the island sunk. Thought I might be able to learn more about them.”
Orlan smiled and nodded, pausing as a message came in from Nallia.
“Another rift,” he reported, “in Australia this time. About as far from here as you can get and still be on this world.”
“One every two days,” Lailra replied, “if only it was so peaceful on the other side.”
“If only we had more protectorates on this side,” Orlan countered.
Despite the humor neither of them could find it in them to laugh knowing on the other side of the planet a rift was currently spewing out monsters.
-----
“Now, Mr. Orlan, I’d ask you to refrain from engaging in wild behavior today,” the committee chairman said seriously as the meeting began again the next day, “you are here under subpoena to answer the questions of-.”
“Excuse me,” Nallia interrupted, “but point of order, we received no subpoena.”
“Really?” the chairman asked, looking surprised, his gaze turning to the first senator who spoke the day before, “the lady from New Jersey was responsible for sending the subpoena I believe.”
“We found it… impossible to deliver a written subpoena to Mr. Eckhart,” the senator explained after a minute, “the best we could manage was to call him on the phone number acquired from KNF news.”
“I see, then, technically, Mr. Orlan is here under his own volition, not congressional mandate,” the chairman said, “given the already unorthodox nature of this meeting, I believe we’ll have to shift to a more open format.”
That alone caused several minutes of argument as senators who’d been in the first few spots to question him argued that their time should be granted regardless. But, eventually the committee calmed down with the chairman promising to allow questions in the order they would have been allowed to speak.
“So, Mr. Orlan, lets move forward assuming your magic is the real thing,” the chairman said, if he was exasperated by dealing with the others, he was good at hiding it, “I assume you know that, while the constitution protects the right to bear arms, there are limitations. Based on reports at Jefferson you, or one of your knights, managed to reduce an entire hole of a golf course to little more than ash. Is that level of destruction common with your magic?”
“Her spell was on the upper end of pure destructiveness for her level,” Orlan replied, “but, after tier four or five, spells become far more destructive far faster.”
“You’ve mentioned these tiers before, could you explain them?”
“Sure, as you cram mana into something, be it a person, object, whatever, it will become more and more difficult to put more mana in. Until you cross a threshold where it suddenly becomes much easier again. Each threshold you surpass is a ‘tier’ though, it should be noted, for mages we call them spheres as you can’t simply cram mana into a living creature without some structure to it. At best it would cause unexpected mutations, but more likely they’ll become crazed and monstrous. That’s the difference between a mage and a monster, a mage has control over the power within them, a monster is controlled by that power.”
“Objection, chairman,” the senator from Michigan spoke up, “this talk of monsters is unbecoming of this committee, I move to strike Mr. Eckhart’s comments from the record.”
“Overruled, senator,” the chairman said, barely holding in a groan, “terminology can be debated later, for now we’re here to assess the risks of these events.”
“To be honest, you’ve barely seen anything yet,” Orlan spoke up, “the rift in Jefferson was a third tier rift, Botson was second tier at most.”
“How high do these tiers go?”
“There is no known upper limit,” admitted Orlan, “but to give you a taste, I am currently fifth sphere and, without hyperbole, could likely take on every single guard you have in the building at once. Against most firearms my skin is effectively immune, I can bench press a car and run three-minute miles for over an hour. And that’s just my physical abilities, not getting into my inherent abilities, magical spells and the like.”
“Are all of your knights capable of these… feats?” the Chairman asked skeptically.
“Those who focus on physical ability could likely match me, depending on their sphere,” Orlan nodded, “mages can vary much more in specific capabilities than monsters though, we tend to be more focused on certain aspects based on how we attune our spheres.
“But to the point, the most powerful mage on the other side was ninth sphere, he’s the one, ultimately, who allowed us to bring my protectorate through to this side. Though he perish in the act,” Orlan paused, “a man at the tenth sphere, named Noach, built the protectorates a millennia ago. The most powerful rift I ever witnessed was seventh tier, and it nearly wiped out a nation even with four protector lords like me helping.”
“And you expect these rifts to become more powerful?” the chairman asked.
“I do, and more frequent. Seems like rifts are appearing every two to five days apart now, somewhere around the world. The other side averages two rifts a day, I don’t know why rifts started appearing on this side, but I would consider it likely to approach that frequency eventually.”
“And what would you suggest?”
“In the long term raising up local mages is the only real way to counter the monsters,” Orlan said, “it can take years to train a single class of mages, and that’s without the difficulty of locating people who can safely use mana on this side. One of the biggest advantages of the protectorates is the mobility it give us, with modern technology that isn’t as big a concern on this side, so a few thousand skilled mages can likely protect a nation with proper support.”
“And in the short term?”
“Honestly? Individual strength and preparedness. A gun can’t kill most monsters, but it can keep a family safe long enough to reach a shelter. I’d recommend every family have a plan ready if a rift appears near them, somewhere to shelter, a weapon to ensure you’re safe long enough to make it. Monsters can appear anywhere up to several miles away from the main rift, but they are unlikely to appear below ground level for whatever reason so a basement with a solid door should keep you safe for at least a while.”
“That’s your suggestion?” the senator from New Jersy scoffed, “a gun and a bunker?”
“To put it simply,” Orlan nodded.
“It’s clear that individuals are unable to handle these events, the people should wait at home for government instruction,” the senator continued, “no need to encourage people to arm themselves.”
“Do you have similar complaints about his long term plan?” the chairman asked.
“Not as such, a solid military utilizing these new powers could be of great benefit to the United States. In fact, I suggest we move to create a bill to form a special commission to work with Mr. Eckhart in pursuit of such a thing.”
“I hope you realize, Ms. Senator,” Orlan said, leaning forward, “I plan to share this knowledge with countries all over the world, my goal is to protect human life, not a single nation’s interest.”
“You’re a US citizen, you’d give advantages to our enemies?” she asked in surprise.
“I don’t plan to only share with governments, but with people,” Orlan explained, “magic isn’t a power you can monopolize, nor would I allow you if it you could.”
“You are a US citizen, sharing arms with national enemies is treason,” she pressed, “you could be brought up on charges, and even put to death.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Orlan snorted a laugh.
“Excuse me?” the woman asked, seemingly aghast.
“It seems you have a false notion of the power balance of this discussion,” Orlan growled allowing power to seep from his body, dark lightning snaking across his skin as the room seemed to darken in some imperceptible way, “I am not some powerless citizen you can push around, I am the leader of the most powerful group of mages on this planet right now. Your power comes from mutual agreement, mine come from my strength.”
“You dare threaten this committee?” the senator from Michigan stood, “I demand you apologize to us on this committee and to the nation at large.”
“Or what? You’ll use the submarine hiding beneath my protectorate to threaten my people?” Orlan asked, nodding to Nallia who placed one hand on his shoulder, with her other she projected a spell that showed a view from the edge of the protectorate island, “you want to see power, this is power.”
Orlan reached out through his bond with his anchorheart, and through that into the space surrounding the island. With a scowl he focused, the ocean shown by Nallia seemed to dance as he expressed his power, a massive circle of purple energies appearing in the air, facing the water. Slowly the circle rose, and with it the ocean water formed a great column, like it was being sucked up a straw hundreds of meters across. Within the pillar of water a submarine could clearly be seen, resting silently, seemingly unaware of what was happening to it.
After a moment, to ensure the news helicopters that constantly circled the island got a good view of it, Orlan slowly lowered the column back into the ocean. Moments after the spell vanished the submarine breached the water, seemingly having undergone an emergency surface, a perplexed looking navy man poking his head from the hatch for an instant.
“I’ll have you held in contempt for this threat!” one of the senator’s shouted as the display ended, but before he could continue Orlan waved a hand and his voice fell silent despite his mouth still moving.
“I understand these open session are largely for grandstanding, but I’m done with the show,” Orlan said, nodding to his three companions to join him, “if you’re willing to listen to me more openly, without the showboating, feel free to call me.”
With that he turned and swept out of the committee room. Almost as soon as he was out of sight he sagged slightly, his show of power had been costly. Remote casting of a spell on such a large scale took nearly a third of the reserves of his anchorheart. He hated having to resort to such measures but he refused to be belittled, and judging from the aura Lailra was giving off, his action was the less radical.
“Orlan!” a voice shouted as he made his way from the building, causing Orlan to turn and see the senator from Texas who’d been largely silent today.
“What?” Orlan asked, hiding his weakness in an instant.
“I’m sorry about those two, they’re part of what we call the Bird Party,” he explained, “they got elected through social media, so they like to make scenes constantly in attempts to get trending and boost their profile.”
“So I played into their hands?” Orlan asked.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, they talk big but when it comes time to vote they’ll go party lines,” the man assured him, “honestly I’m surprised your missus didn’t kill them.”
“I’m still considering it,” Lailra said in a too sweet voice.
“Don’t,” Orlan replied dryly.
“In any case,” the Texas senator chuckled as if it was a joke, “if you want a more friendly place to talk I know a few talk shows or pod casts you might consider.”
“Pod cast?” Orlan asked.
“Basically a multi-hour interview on the internet, they’re quite popular nowadays,” he shrugged, “point is, it might be good for you to be seen in a less confrontational setting.”
“I’m not opposed to it,” replied Orlan after a moment, “feel free to send them my phone number, I can’t commit to anything now but…”
“Of course, I’ll have my people give you a call after seeing who might be interested,” the senator nodded, speaking up as Orlan once more turned to leave, “by the way, were you serious about your physical abilities? Bench pressing a car?”
“If anything, I was understating it,” Orlan said with a smirk.
-----
“Well that was… shit,” the new grandmaster of the mage’s spire commented as they boarded the sky-cutter once more, “why did I have to come again?”
“I thought they might have actual questions about magic,” Orlan admitted, “as the grandmaster you-.”
“I’m no grandmaster,” the man snapped, “I’m only in charge because I passed out upon dropping to seventh sphere, making me the strongest mage. At best I’m keeping the seat warm until a more qualified mage rises back up.”
“You’re still the strongest mage in the world,” Orlan pointed out.
“My specialty is long range magic and weather manipulation,” he snorted, “if you need a light rain shower in the next kingdom over, I’m your man. But in raw power? I’ve spent most of my career working to end droughts, weakening hurricanes and the like. In combat the best I could do is make it slightly uncomfortable.”
“You still made it to eighth sphere like that,” Lailra pointed out.
“Because smart nobles are willing to pay a good sum to ensure their lands won’t suffer a failed harvest.”
“Regardless, you’re better positions to answer questions on magical theory than I am,” Orlan said.
“Fine, but don’t call me grandmaster like it’s true,” he retorted, “though if you want me to ensure the estates of those counsellors suffer some hard weather, I’d be happy to help.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Orlan sighed.
***** Discord - Patreon *****

Greetings,
I’m an engaged father existentially torn by the compromise that I’m accepting by choosing a busy householder lifestyle.
What follows is a narration of the events from the last few years that lead to this situation, accompanied by some considerations and questions.
I would be very interested in reading the perspectives and advice of this community, both on my personal situation and on the general topic of practice and close family relationships. Discussing personal circumstances and choices of a stranger on the internet could be perceived as a delicate matter so I would like to give green light to frank or even stern comments, if deemed helpful. I assume the responsibility for receiving the feedback skillfully. Before getting to the story, I would also like to express my gratitude to all the contributors of this supportive and insightful community.
A short history of the last few years
I'm 33, European living abroad in another European country, in an intimate relationship, father of a 2,5 years old boy. My journey with Buddhism started in 2016 in a period of existential crisis, depression and anxiety with the books of Ajahn Sumedho. Buddhism played a central role in helping me recover my mental health. Not so much through meditation but by showing me that the anguish over the fundamental lack of control on my health, mind and ultimately life was not the sign of a pathology but the natural consequence of starting to see life as rooted in apprehension and ignorance. Easier said than done though, I had to spiral down all the way to the bottom, my attempts at management and control of the mental space swept away, so that I had no choice but to face the extent of my vulnerability and ignorance. That forced surrender might have felt like dying but life went on. I slowly came out of that dark period with increased confidence and I gradually nurtured enough energy and courage to leave my country and to travel in order to "find myself” and to find a place where to settle and start a new life.
I landed in my current country at the end of 2019 and just three weeks later I met the woman that is to this day my partner. On October 2021 she gave birth to our son. With the demands of having and raising a child together our relationship was put to a test. Our true characters and entrenched views and values emerged. On my side Buddhism started to re-emerge and worldly engagement to diminish. On my partner side the physical exhaustion and a rough return to work solidified a situation of depression. As a couple we lacked the common ground and communication skills to navigate the tough situation we found ourselves in. We were swamped.
Notable recent events
The crisis lasted for months and reached a turning point last November, when we decided to take a one-week break. After that we resumed with renewed energy and commitment to try better. The first half of December was a period of cautious optimism after two years of struggle.
In the second half of December I spent one week in a sort of retreat as a lay supporter: one monk (currently residing in Samanadīpa) spent two months in a winter refuge supported by a rotation of 2 to 5 lay people. This event turned out to be unexpectedly impactful on me. The monk shared with me his monastic experience and the transition toward HH/Samanadīpa. I recall telling him that a few months earlier I came across a video from Ñāṇamoli and proceeded to read a bit of his latest book. While I was intrigued by the clarity and power of his exposition I put it down because it sounded too self-assured, a level of confidence that I was not used to within Buddhist contexts. I assumed that something had to be off considering that the most respected monks of the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah were all adopting a more cautious approach. The monk suggested me to consider giving it a second try, all while maintaining my alertness and critical sense.
In a table in the corner of the main room there was a printed copy of the essay from Venerable Anīgha "Sīla is samādhi". To call it eye-opening is an understatement. I felt like I found the answers to the deepest questions I had about Buddhism and meditation since the beginning of my search. I felt an intense trust in the concepts and the practice explained in the essay, I could not detect any "red flags" or weak points to anchor my general tendency to skepticism. I use the word feeling since understanding as a puthujjana is an elusive concept. This said I knew in which direction to strive after coming home from the retreat: first, with new-found clarity on the role of virtue, examining and improving my conduct with regard to precepts. Parallel to this, investigating further the teachings of Ñāṇamoli, Anīgha and the other Hillside Hermitage monks. Along with this, with time for reflection during the retreat, it became clear to me that the option of a second child was off the table.
But...Samsara stroke back and just a week after my return we found out that my partner was pregnant. The result of recklessness in that short peaceful period at the beginning of the month. We had multiple factors pointing to a very low risk of pregnancy (also based on the experience with the first one). Yet low is not zero.
This said it would be simplistic to consider it just recklessness, we both had a shared nebulous aspiration to have a second child and the awareness that the biological clock was running. Considering the already difficult situation we had we knew that it would have been extremely distressing for everyone involved for a few years. But we also imagined it to be a preferable long term scenario for the kids to have siblings, and for the family to be bigger, especially in case the parents would separate. If this doesn’t make full sense it’s because these were instinctual considerations for the most part. Not taking precautions was a sort of semi-conscious yet intentional distraction from the burden of a choice with complex implications. Eluding the responsibility of choosing between actively trying to have children or carefully refraining from risking. During the retreat I had some space to listen to myself, to see this dynamic from a distance and to resolve to put a stop to it. But it was already too late. Few things in life remind us of the extent to which we are heirs to our actions as sex. A few minutes of pleasure leading to a new life coming to this world and multiple lives getting further entangled in the wheel.
The first trimester of pregnancy was, as it’s often the case, very hectic. For my partner nausea and emotional ups and downs. As for me, I was determined in pushing us to face our relationship issues and at the same time I was restraining sex as much as I could, and similarly reducing my social life, entertainment and distractions. It sounds like the recipe for a (mundane) disaster, and indeed it was. With the increased pressure the relationship with my partner steadily deteriorated. At the end of March we broke up, with the awareness that it would only be a partial and ambiguous separation due to the children.
During this phase I was reading Ñāṇamoli books, most of the essays and many threads in here, the Youtube videos became a daily Dhamma talk, and I got much pondering on sensuality, relationships, sex and how to conduct myself as a partner and father. The struggles I was facing were actually confirming the validity of the practice, as I could see that all the worldly pressure that we were experiencing could not be solved by worldly solutions or meditation. Those domains could either temporarily mitigate the suffering or suggest a new arrangement with slightly less suffering. Projecting this over the years or the decades I found it unsatisfying, simply put I couldn't believe in this approach. Other insights came from the stricter virtue that I was upholding and that heralded a crisis of sex. With the crisis of sex the myth of romantic love showed all of its fragility. Without the cover-up of unrestrained sensuality the problems could press with all their weight and could hardly be avoided. We realized how different our values and aspirations had become and our hope for a future together reached its minimum point.
Going to back to the break-up and its fuzzy nature. On one hand it's very easy for it to be just a nominal thing, since we are committed to being parents together and with physical proximity and the fluctuation of feelings, we are basically guaranteed to "fall" again for each other (as it’s been partially happening in the last days). On the other hand after two months of break, despite the stronger cravings for sensuality and the intoxication that accompanies them, I’m stable in the conviction that, as far as the two of us are concerned, we would be better off separating our lives completely. She could find a more aligned partner. I could pursue a lifestyle more suitable to training.
The predicament
The matter of fact is that as there are father and mother, there are son and (in three months) daughter. The bonds and needs of these four people become stronger and more complex than those of just a man and a woman. Juggling such a situation is already challenging in a conventional scenario, stark differences in values and desired lifestyle among the partners make it prohibitively hard. This is the crux of my conundrum. Not that it is unique to me, it’s actually a common situation that millions have faced before and that millions face today. The romantic relationship becomes the easy part to figure out compared to the implications on two human beings that are not self sufficient. All of this distress and struggle ultimately coming from ignorance and liability to the craving for procreation.
If I were to ask for advice for my predicament, the most simple way to phrase it would be: "what should I do?" To which the clean, unadulterated, answer seems to me to be: give all you have to your family, leave everything and go forth. Or at the very least sculpt a lifestyle that would allow to live as similarly to a renunciate as possible. If one could commit to that decision with unremitting determination, that would be it, given that the kids and the mother will not risk their lives.
I can see a few problems with that. First of all I would not do that fully for the right reasons. More or less consciously there would be the intention to dodge the burden of responsibility and of the many duties. In my puthujjana view that would make the action unwholesome, rooted in the desire to not reap the fruits of my unwholesome actions. On top of that I don’t see myself as able to sustain a fully renunciate lifestyle while enduring the sting of remorse for abandoning my family. I can see that avoiding remorse remorse is not a good reason to choose the householder life. I decide it to be such out of aversion for the displeasure of remorse and the pressure of societal norms and morality. Yet I can’t deny the right-in-front-of-me reality of this suffering, I can’t reason it away and I think that I wouldn't be able to endure it in the long term.

I would phrase my question like this: what is the best among the inferior alternatives that one has to choose from when deciding to remain a father householder? How to minimize suffering for the all parts involved considering the limitations in my virtue, wisdom or faith in the Dhamma?

You can stop reading here if you want, this is already quite long. Below are some notes of mine, attempts at tackling the thorny situation. Plus a couple of very recent developments.
Some considerations that I made in the past weeks
These are more explorations of different scenarios, to investigate my inclination and reactions, rather than thought-out solutions.
I don’t have much doubt regarding the first months of the newborn, I’ll be there and do my part. The doubts arise when thinking about the vague "mid-long term”.
I could try to keep a clear distance, be available when needed, but not on a daily basis as an "engaged" father. Or having a schedule with days for family and days for seclusion. Is that sustainable? Is it imaginable that my partner would accept to carry this uneven burden? If I saw them struggling and I had the desire to help more, should I refrain from doing so?
As a more extreme variation of the above I could move away from family, keep sustaining them financially and only occasionally visit them, provided that my partner would be willing to see me. This seems just a strictly worse alternative to becoming an anagarika, as I would keep the family/relationship door half-open while not taking steps toward the renunciate life.
I could commit to continue as a father until the newborn is past the critical phase of the first 1-2 years and then detach. But commitments for the future don't truly exist, you can only commit in the present. In the future it will be a new decision. And likely not any easier than now. Is there truly a better moment for kids to lose the constant presence of the father? These are for the most part mundane considerations that would in any case openly oppose the idea of the father disengaging from the life of their children.
The only option that I see having the potential to support my practice goes in the opposite direction of what I mentioned so far. Since I have a good amount of savings I could provide for myself and my family (my partner is also earning a solid salary) for quite some time without working. I could resign from work and dedicate my time to either practice or family. If I can't fully choose between family and practice, I can then choose to not pursue other things outside of these two. This could help in a few ways:

• more time, of course. Although it’s all to be seen whether I will manage to spend this time wisely.
• pressure on myself, financial and societal.

I’ve always been a conscientious person, saving, restraining my expenses in gratification and status. The main reason for this was the famous safety net, preparing for the worst, but also giving myself more options for future decisions, without having money as a constraint. The flip side of this is that it favors an orientation toward the future and attachment toward savings, nurturing a misplaced sense of safety. Seeing the finances that I accumulated going down will induce stress and anxiety, possibly a good subject of contemplation.
When it comes to work, my conditioning and the societal consensus would agree that not to work is reproachable, a choice that denotes a lazy or immature person. In the case of a man or a father it would acquire an even stronger connotation, of failure, of going against the way things are, including the word of the Christian god that still influences us all. Going against this particular grain of the world would be a remarkable source of pressure and as such a further dimension of training.

• pressure on the couple: this is quite evident. If sex is one of the pillars of worldly love, a mutually advantageous financial and status arrangement is another. Many women don’t need a man to earn as much as possible in absolute terms, but they would definitely want for their man to earn as much as he can without sacrificing family. I’m not judging here, but money plays an important role in the level of reassurance and trust that most women feels towards men, thus leading to attraction and attachment. Willingly renouncing a salary is throwing a wrench into the mundane happiness and stability of a couple, possibly even more than abstaining from sex. Another source of pressure, one that could accelerate the couple toward its destiny. Another subject for contemplation.

What is clear to me is that regardless of how the specific family/relationship situation will look like, I should make the establishment of the Eight Precepts my main aspiration in the practice. More on this in a minute.
Latest developments
I wrote the first draft of this post few weeks ago. In the meantime two things happened:

• I had a couple of conversations with my partner. I made it clear that I don’t want to "get back together” as a "traditional couple”. At the same time I’m of the opinion that if sex is in the picture, then it doesn’t really matter how you call the relationship. We both know that we are in a partnership for the kids. From my side it feels like a tender friendship that becomes unstable and unclear in its nature due to the pull of sexuality. It’s surprising how little remains about romantic love once you imagine to remove sex from the picture. Striving toward and sustaining celibacy is going to be a hard endeavor for me, but I see that as a necessity if I want to make progress.

Celibacy seems unattainable with the current situation and my level of development. At the same time I can’t accept not striving toward it. How to approach this situation? Any insight on this subject is particularly welcome.

• Just few days ago we signed a rental agreement for a house in the suburbs, a much calmer area compared to the city. The kids needed a bigger place, this has to be done regardless. But the practical implication is that I go back to fully living with my partner and I can only assume that this will bring complications alongside the practical advantages. The upside is that the new environment is quieter, slower and less proliferated in sensuality compared to the city.

It’s time to put down the pencil, one last comment connecting with the initial paragraph: I would not share such a personal and sensitive topic in 99% of communities, including Buddhist ones. I would be basically assured to come across as either socially maladjusted or thoroughly misled on what the Buddha said ("you are a lay person so feel free to enjoy responsible sex with your partner”). Yet even in this community I got to see that the topic of family and detachment remains a delicate one. I appreciate the different perspectives on the subject. And once again I would like to clear the way for forthright comments if any comes to mind.
Thank you for your attention and insights, may you all progress steadily in the Path.

With another recent Karan Thapar's "jal lijiye" moment, pk is being trolled left and right, for which he should be honestly. He lost his cool in a pretty cringe way, and even though I believe that Karan was purposefully baiting him throughout the interview to re-emphasize the same point about BJP winning majority and questioning his confidence and credibility. PK should have the grace to handle a man like Karan as he has done numerous times in previous interviews with Karan.
As for the "prediction" shown on the screen of Prashant tweet was exaggerated as his tweet said.
“I’ve been repeatedly asked to comment on the outcome of #UdaipurChintanShivir In my view, it failed to achieve anything meaningful other than prolonging the status-quo and giving some time to the #Congress leadership, at least till the impending electoral rout in Gujarat and HP!”
He is telling his opinion about the impact of Congress status-quo leadership though #UdaipurChintanShivir which was in Rajasthan, and will result only in “electoral rout” in Gujrat and HP, Congress lost Gujrat which Karan didn’t highlight, and pk didn’t gave any numbers like he gave in West Bengal 2021 and for BJP 2024, also, INC won HP with 1% greater vote, so the margin was very close (INC=44.2% & BJP=43.2%).
Also, I didn’t find pk’s prediction for BRS Telangana anywhere as Karan mentioned. Still, pk was technically wrong and should’ve handled it better.

So why I am making this post? Because I noticed people weren’t only trolling him for losing his cool, but people were labelling him a BJP agent and sent by BJP and what not.

If you look at PK’s history, He is the most anti-BJP person you can find, because he may not have criticised them as an influencer on their optics, but he has run against BJP in every election after he ran Modi’s campaign in 2012 & 2014, (also, Modi never made a communal Speech during his campaign) when asked why he left, he said PM was not interested of his proposals to introduce lateral entry in political post, as he claimed most revolution in India has been possible by bringing people of speciality into the cabinet be it, Green revolution, telecom revolution etc.
He made JDU win Bihar defeating BJP in 2015
He made Congress win Punjab defeating BJP/AAP in 2017
He lost Congress in UP against BJP in 2017 (his only lost)
He made YCP win Andhra against TDP/BJP in 2019
He made AAP win Delhi against BJP in 2020
He made TMC win Bengal against BJP in 2021
He made Stalin win Tamil Nadu against AIADMK in 2019
Now, you can say its business and he is doing it to earn money, how such a money driven person be a good person? And you may be right, he is doing it for himself, whatever his personal reasons be, but he is definitely not cosy to BJP.
Hell, he even pointed the 4 pillars of BJP’s dominance are Hindutva, Nationalism, Welfare & organisational force. If Congress can challenge them or give a counter to even 3 of these, BJP will lose. He said that Modi is BJP’s Star, but also their biggest weakness.
Because even though people vote Modi in Lok Sabha, Modi’s ability to garner voter on this name for regional Vidhan Sabha is declining rapidly since 2019. So, people are not voting BJP in Vidhan Sabha on Modi’s name only anymore.
He also said Brand Modi is declining as well, because even their supporters are not mesmerized by him anymore, they will vote for him this time, but only because they think there’s no alternative.
He also said the level of resistance against BJP will rise in the 3rd term, because BJP is ignoring the rural distress, unemployment & economic issues by the poor people as their income is not increased in this tenure.
Tell me any other BJP agent who has the balls or clarity to say this about BJP.

He was one of the most vocal critics of CAA-NRC

When he joined JD(U) after 2017, under Nitish Kumar, which later alliance with BJP, he resisted, as he was against BJP’s tactics of doing work after 2014, but he stayed for time because he wanted to develop Bihar, He had three goals in mind.

1. Thousands of youths should enter politics, as the median age of Lok Sabha has been increasing and increasing, he wanted to train young people who wanted some guidance and help them understand the nitty gritty of it.
   
2. He wanted lateral entry of experts in positions which require it. So that we can get more innovative and creative ways to grow our sectors, he gave examples of the green revolution, telecom revolution, etc.
   
3. There should be decentralisation of power. From centre to state and state to local. He believes right now, resources are controlled too much by the people above and although it would take years, it still is a necessity.
   

Now to CAA-NRC, He was very vocal that even though CAA maybe alright, NRC will create a divide in society based on religion that shouldn’t exist in our country. He made multiple tweets begging non-BJP states to reject this bill.
He shouted in interviews that BJP can’t strongarm non-BJP states, if they decided to reject it, he was confident that Bihar will never accept it.
But Nitish Kumar voted for it the Parliament, this made PK leave JDU, as he was wholly disappointed with Nitish and his decision.

What’s his ideology, what he believes in then?

If you scour his interviews, whenever he has been asked this question, he says that he is a believer of Gandhi. He quotes him frequently and has a banner of it on his twitter profile "The best politics is the right action”.
His ideology lies with the Congress, centre left. He believes in the wisdom of crowds, that people are smart enough and will tell you what they want, if you listen to them carefully without thinking they are poor hence lack intelligence. He believes India will always have an Opposition as only 38% Hindus voted for the BJP, hence 62% people are still not satisfied with the Hindutva narrative, so half Hindus still not believe Modi’s appeal, implying Hope for the future of this country. Even though Democratic values have taken a hit under Modi as had under Indira, he believes no single person can steamroll a population of 1.4 billion, unless they have more than 55% of the voter share.
He was a public heath care manager working for UN in Chad, (I know), Africa. For 10 years before his election journey, so he already has plenty of experience in public intervention and data analysis. In fact, he met Modi for a paper he wrote on the child malnutrition epidemic in Gujrat.

Now, why us liberals felt so strongly about his remarks on BJP?

Since the beginning of this year, we were certain that BJP is winning with a clear majority, even though INDIA had some fuel, we were pretty sure who’ll win. But some things happen that changed the wave, electoral bonds put BJP on the back foot for the first time, even though only narratively. We started believing that maybe it’ll help, then ED arrested Kejriwal, this was also very bad for BJP. So, we saw aha, then low voter turnout, Modi’s Mangal sutra, ECI’s sleepiness, Dhruv Rathee’s explosive series unmasking all the propaganda, and positive feedback from the culture were taken as a at least we are winning culturally, so every mishap by BJP we thought, yes it’ll decrease votes or increase INDIA’s chances, this was our resistance.
but we made a mistake.
We assumed that if INDIA won culturally, it WIILL transform electorally, but the reality is, it takes months to reach the masses and that’s what Prashant Kishore exposed. He himself said Modi’s Brand is decreasing, but it won’t really matter electorally as its too little too late.
So, when he said it publicly it felt like all our efforts to resist the dictatorship were in vain. That’s why we started questioning his intentions & motives, as he isn’t criticizing BJP’s horrendous politics, but rather beating an already dead horse like the opposition, which needs are support. That’s what caused pain, I was also depressed, but deep down I think he’s right.
Because he is not saying these things after Electoral Bonds or Kejriwal arrest or low voter turnout to build BJP’s momentum. He has been saying this for the last three months, since January. He maybe wrong or right, but his assessment is consistent, hence worthy to consider. And we liberals should at least, take his word seriously, as he is not just another mouthpiece for ‘saheb’, but one on the finest minds to enter politics in our time.
My 2 cents.
I didn’t even mention his Jan suraaj moment, where he is doing pad yatra for the last 2 years in every village of Bihar and preaching the values of “vote for the future of your child nor Caste”, “Vote of education” and self-governance. He claims to take Bihar from the least developed state to the Top 10 in the next 10 years.