Hastum

35. To kill or not to kill, that is the question

“I can’t just kill someone,” whispered Ophelia, her eyes glued to the table in front of her.

I tilted my head a bit. “Sure you can. If the opponent’s size is the issue, then don’t...

34. All power comes at a price

I told Astrid we would meet in the morning. As for Q’Shar, he went to get some shut-eye since it was almost sunrise, while I knew I couldn’t just sleep with a riddle like that hanging over me.<...

33. Kill the heretic

The newcomers were locked up in a barn as the elders and all the people in the village with any say gathered for a meeting.

Around fifteen minutes earlier, the oracle, accompanied by the warr...

32. Oracle

My duel with Astrid marked the end of the fighting portion of the celebration.

I went back to the table, still breathing heavily from the fight, moving my body robotically as I felt the side ...

31. Dreams of the ancient forest

It was a strange feeling, anxiety. The kind that just bordered on fear but is not entirely there. A feeling born of an obvious truth hanging in the air, a truth that everyone was all too well aware...

30. Counterspell

The area between the long feasting tables was now cleared, prepared for duels. In the middle of the cleared space stood a man. He was about my height and had a physique typical of someone who works...

29. Astrid

The sight was an interesting one, to say the least. Everything together—the wild dancing, the ritual choreographed movements, and the pounding beat of the drums—gave the scene a wild, primal, a...

28. Meet the pagans

The negotiations with the Norwegian sect took only three weeks. Apparently, the lynx was good at what he did, as we got permission to witness the ritual and promise of the ent creation technique. 2025-08-30 09:14:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Interlude 3 - A trip to Norway

On one side, it was beautiful. The mountains, the forests, and the bright sun shining in the sky. It all painted a picture of an almost perfect morning. A morning so beautiful it nearly made her fo...

27. Q'Shar's story

I looked at the cat smoking the pipe and realized how much I didn’t know about him. He worked primarily with my father for years, only working directly with me ever since I took over the family a...

26. Uncertain future

We both took another swig of the liquor, followed by an ice cube and a strong inhale. I could feel my muscles relax.

“Ok, why would you assume something like that?” He asked, his face a m...

25. Red head

I sat absentmindedly in the storage room. The journals were back in the coffer, locked away for now. I was lost deep in thought.

The Miracle Bringers, a name that was almost forbidden to spea...

24. The meaning of miracles

The plane landed in the USA without much trouble. With a bit of creative bargaining on my side (threats of violence), I managed to convince one of the trafficking pilots to take us to the States. A...

Interlude 2 - Ophelia

** College in Washington **

Ophelia sat down in her seat in the college auditorium. Today's lecture was pharmacology, a fairly complicated subject even for someone s...

23. Time to cause some panic

Right, I was here to do a job. Almost forgot. So, after celebrating the solution to the mystery, I went to the ‘punishment room’ and picked up some handcuffs in case the guy woke up. I then wal...

22. No better sacrifice than a fire giant

I ducked back immediately after noticing the guards in the next room. In the moment I managed to look inside, I saw rows of cells with women inside them and around eight more guards in the middle o...

21. Like a wolf between lambs

I looked at the moon slowly climbing the night sky. It was the beginning of the week, so hopefully the whole palace would be empty this late.

A perfect time for an ambush.

But I needed ...

20. Information extraction

I looked around the bar. Eight bodies lay there in different states of dismemberment.

The fight hadn’t been much. Since they were sure of their victory, they let me prepare, overcharge, and...

19. Why can't anything be simple

With my soul soothed a bit and mana replenished by a large mana crystal I carried with me, I was ready to get to the meeting.

As I walked slowly through the tourist-oriented streets with thei...

18. Calm after the battle

I approached the mana. It was slowly dissipating but was still present, floating over the smoldering corpse. I had to clear and adjust it before absorbing anything, as I was not interested in havin...

17. To burn the soul

To construct a spell this complicated, I needed time. But it looked like time would be given to me. As I was about to use Panther's Agility, the violent ball of fur crashed into the beast’s suppo...

16. The triple spell

I had faced demons before. My father possessed some artifacts containing them—nothing too crazy, primarily imps and hellhounds. But this time it was different. This time, the demon hovered one ci...

15. A homunculus, a wizard and a demon

“Is this thing alive?” asked the nun with a mix of surprise and disgust in her voice.

But we could all feel it deep inside. The thing had a presence. When you look at something alive, som...

14. Sometimes it's better not to know

The cat obliged my request. He jumped onto a chair in the corner of the room and started the story.

“It started around three months ago. At first, we thought that Marco had just gotten ill....

13. A spell without a caster

“A curse that acts like a possession? The last time I checked, those were very much different." I said, confused. Of all the things similar enough to be mistaken for one another, curses and posse...

12. I hate negotiations

“Second class,” I murmured, entering the plane. “Cheap furball”.

But I had some time to plan now. The frumentarii’s information-gathering ability was sorely lacking in the mundane w...

11. What emotion is appropriate for murder?

I sat a bit closer to the man. “You see, they say that the very procedure that I’m about to perform on you is the very precursor of lobotomy.”

I showed him the two bottles. “Those are...

10. A really bad day for assassinations

Henry was crouching in the shadows. He was positioned to the side of the building, perfectly covered by some shrubs. His eyes were glued to one particular window, watching silhouettes move across t...

9. God-given stats

I sat cross-legged next to the opening and started on the ritual circle, using the previous summoning runes as a base for the new ritual.

The ritual of judgment, or “fortune-telling for ama...

Interlude 1 - Feline discussion

After the man had left, the cats shuffled back into the room. They were met with the sight of their leader sitting on his pillow like a statue, lost in thought. They knew better than to bother him ...