Care to give me Gems? It helps my motivation to do better. To those wishing to contact me, kindly do so in my Discord. I accept private messages. My server's a bit dead at the moment, but feel free to join anyway: discord.gg/NZA6Jun Conversely, follow me on Twitter @FriedMokou.
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
Darkness.That was the first thing that greeted me the moment I hit the cold hard ground at terminal velocity. Part of me felt a bit surprised; that I still even have a consciousness after death. But at the same time, I've stopped caring about anything the moment I jumped off the highest building in the city.What's to care about when I've totally given up on living?Growing up being told that I was a genius did a number on my sanity, especially since I never felt like one the since the moment I idiotically signed myself up for medical school. I was a fool back then; thinking that I can handle the workload with my admittedly above average intelligence. Thinking back on it now, even after I graduated, I still hated my chosen field.God, I was an idiot! Why did I decide to shift from engineering when I didn't even fail a single subject?!
It's been five years. five years since I've been reborn into this backwater world. And while I didn't fault my parents, I was far from comfortable in living in a world without basic plumbing and electricity."C'mon, Cream~" Father beckoned towards the nearby stream, a ceramic jug under his arm as I blankly approached the heavily bearded man. "This is where we get our water."I nodded in understanding as I watched my father scoop out another batch of water for our usage. With our house being situated a good hour from the nearest market, we lacked the convenience of having a well to draw water from. As such, we had to get it from a small stream a few minutes north of our house."Can't we have a well of our own, Father?" I questioned, knowing full well just how good of a craftsman my father was. "You can build one, right?""Indeed, little Cr
"Don't smile just yet, Crimson." Father shook me out of my newfound revelry as he hefted the newly made sword over his shoulder. "It still needs to pass the final test.""Which is?""Elemental Channeling," Father answered like it was the most basic thing in the world. "Unlike armor, Numerators have to be able to use the weapon for it to have value, little Cream."Numerators? Like the fraction kind numerators? What're those then?"Judging from your face, I bet you don't even know about the Fraction System yet.""Fraction System?" Like the mathematical kind? This was kinda confusing, especially since I made sure to pay attention to the lesson mother taught me. Was it some kind of class system or something?"I haven't taught that lesson yet Dear," I turned my attention towards the roo
"She's not a normal child.""I know that, Eul, but she's still our daughter."Eul sighed for the umpteenth time as she had another one of those worrying conversations with her husband. She knew that Crimson was their daughter. Hell, she carried her to term and birthed her into this world herself! But there were still times that she could hardly believe she was even a mother.Currently, little Cream was out tending to the garden outside; the redhead only had to tell her once before her little firecracker went into her chores like it was nothing. It was far from what she expected from a child. What's supposed to be an unruly, yet devastatingly cute little daughter was instead an obedient, curious, and frighteningly intelligent student."I know, and I still love her with all my heart," the young mother stared out towards the garden, watching
Seventeen years. Never thought I'd actually live this long."Pay attention." My mother chided as I watched her demonstrate how to use a bow. "Breath in when you pull, breathe out when you release."With practiced efficiency, Mother followed all of her steps. With an arrow loaded, she breathed in slowly while pulling the string, the tension in the bow seemingly nothing for her before she released the taut bow with a guided precision.*WOOSH*The arrow flew straight and true, lodging itself directly onto the designated tree stump that we decided was today's target. I couldn't help but feel intimidated at the raw skill and talent that my mother has. I mean, what weapon was she not proficient in?!"Got it?" I was shaken out of my light hero-worship as Mother asked me with a straight face. I nodded in silent
"Should've used it a while ago."I muttered to myself as I followed Mother's lead. The moon was fully covered in clouds, a sharp contrast to just a few minutes ago when it was lighting our path as brightly as a fluorescent lamp. For just a few minutes, we walked almost blindly through the rocky plain before Mother finally decided to light a flame in her hand as a light source. But the damage was already done by the time we could finally see.We had somehow gotten ourselves lost in our own extensive backyard.Mother had stayed silent ever since she conjured up her ball of flame, with myself simply following her lead since she had the light source. It's been a few minutes already, but she seemed to just not find the way back to our house. At this point, we should've been sitting down at the table eating dinner, but Mother just refused to let me help her.&nb
My lungs burned as I braved the searing flames.He should still be alive...I made a beeline for Father's workshop where the fire was most intense, covering my mouth with a torn piece of my partly singed shirt. It didn't matter if I was running around naked anymore, what mattered was that I can at least find Father through all of this.Not like this..."Father?!" I shouted to the top of my lungs as I entered the workshop. "Are you here?!"The crackling of burning wood greeted me as I cautiously walked through the burning workshop. My eyes watered at the intense heat but I powered through with pessimistic hope.The fires of the forge were hotter than this. Surely Father wouldn't burn to death now."Father?!"I shouted once mo
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat