NokiMo
davidmusk

davidmusk

patreon


davidmusk posts

Web of Chaos - Chapter 33: Mastery Part 2

Power rushed through Akari’s soul, spreading through her channels until it slammed against the cuffs and collar. Trask’s mana cleared from her brain like morning mist before the sun. Every cell...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 33: Mastery

Akari’s eyes snapped open, and her soul ached with a sudden pain. She tried to move, but cold metal bit into her wrists and ankles. Impedium. Not to mention Nightfang’s technique—wha...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 32: A Hidden Knife

Akari followed the Darklights through the empty clinic. The halls stretched endlessly before them, all gleaming floors and harsh fluorescent lights that made her eyes water. Or maybe that was somet...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 31: Borrowed Time

Elend sat in the hotel room, watching the shadows lengthen as evening approached. His tablet lay dark on the table in front of him, and he drummed his fingers against its smooth glass surface.

<...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 30: True Clarity

Akari curled up beside Kalden in their hotel room, listening to his steady breathing as he slept. The healers in Pine Hollow had done good work, but Master-level techniques left their mark. He coul...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 29: Broken Pieces

Relia stood with her father in the Palace Prime’s medical wing. Dain’s body had been scattered across three separate gurneys, draped with white sheets. Crimson stains seeped through the fabric,...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 28: A Thousand Blades - Part 2

Akari stood with her back to Kalden’s, cycling spacetime mana through her channels. The snow stung her bare feet, while her dark hair thrashed in the mountain wind. Puffs of white air blew out th...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 28: A Thousand Blades - Part 1

Kalden sprang up in his bed, glancing at the digital clock on the nightstand. Three o’clock in the morning. Battle mana surged through his channels, and his heart beat like a war dr...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 27: Soul Reapers

“Breaking tonight on KCN—exclusive footage of the criminal duo known as the Soul Reapers.”

The screen showed a grainy video from a dark alley, where two black-clad figures fought a squa...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 26: No Justice

Detective Evan Trask stood in the middle of Silver Court, scanning the crowd of protestors as they marched through the dark mist.

"Form a line!" he called out.

Rows of officers spread a...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 25: Haste

“How’d she look?” Elend asked as he stepped through the open portal. His dark gray armor bore the scars of battle—not just dirt, but scorch marks, and the craters from enemy Missiles.

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 24: Breaking Point

Shit hit the fan later that night.

A group of Artisans struck the mayor’s home after sunset, and three civilians died in the crossfire. The news showed footage of the aftermath, including c...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 23: The Coming Storm

Rain pounded against the loft’s windows, warping the skyline in a blur of hazy lights. A wall of storm clouds hid the morning sun to the east, dark gray with traces of bright blue mana around the...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 22: Shattered

Ashur pushed open his office doors to reveal the familiar space beyond. Bookshelves lined three walls from floor to ceiling, and tall glass windows dominated the fourth, looking out over the Inner ...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 21: Fate

Relia sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor, back pressed against the foot of her bed. The room looked like a dark chapel with its polished marble floors, high ceilings, and ornamented glass window...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 20: Possible Futures

Akari kept waiting for a knock on her door, but the days stretched into a week with no word from Trask or the KCPD. The Artegium also kept quiet about the break-in, along with their missing quantum...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 19: Rewinding Time

An enemy Missile tore through the forest with a whistling shriek. It came as a faint pinprick of light on the horizon, but Akari couldn’t dodge or block it in time. One second, it was there beyon...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 18: Escape Part 3

Step Six: hide the evidence.

Zukan stood his ground as the chief stepped through the front doors of the Mirage. He looked like an older version of Trask with his pale Espirian comple...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 18: Escape Part 2

The officer stopped at the end of the aisle, turning to face Kalden’s group. He was a broad-shouldered man with a blue uniform and a jagged scar that ran across his left cheek. “I found somethi...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 18: Escape

Step Five: get back to the Mirage.

Kalden cycled his battle mana as the newcomers fanned out across the restricted section. Trask headed straight for the row of locked doors while th...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 17: The Restricted Section

Chapter 17: The Restricted Section

Step three: open the locked door.

Arturo led the others up the stairs toward the library’s top floor. Unlike the rest of his team, Arturo h...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 16: The Mirage

Step one: Find an alibi.

“Here’s another problem,” Akari told her team. “Everyone at school thinks I’m a troublemaker now.”

Arturo chuckled from his desk chair. “...

View Post

Web of Dreams Cover Reveal

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 15: Impossible Standards

Relia watched a dozen memories unfold from Elend’s childhood, from the day he created Glim, to the moment he trapped her with the soul oath.

Akariel’s ashes. This explained ...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 14: Moonfire

Relia loomed over her patient’s bed, fingers splayed, shaking with the force of her technique.  Angelic mana surged through her like a storm, cleansing every cell in her body. The rush sent ...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 13: The Whole Story

Kalden sat cross-legged on his bed, trying and failing to make a new Cloak technique. He’d already spent some time working with Irina’s Cloak of a Thousand Eyes, but that felt wrong for his asp...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 12: New Rules

Akari woke up early the next morning, then she and Kalden headed straight for the Student Admissions Office on the north side of campus. They turned in their second-year insignias at the front desk...

View Post

New Design Direction for Covers

Hi everyone,

For various reasons, the illustrator for the first Web of Secrets cover ended up not being a good fit for me right now, so I won’t be continuing the series in that style.

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 11: An Act of War

Silence fell over the chamber, and Kalden took in Akari’s words. She’d been quiet these past few minutes, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. He’d known she was plotting something, but he’d...

View Post

Web of Chaos - Chapter 10: Back to School

The next week flew by, and the team continued hunting mana beasts around the Trenches. That first gloomfang had been a headache to kill, and Akari had barely squeezed out fifty mana points from its...

View Post