RinoZ
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Chapter 1310 - Anthony On Tour - A Glimpse of Beyond
🕑 Added 2024-02-20 00:15:50 +0000 UTCWarning! This chapter ends on another cliff. Cause the hits keep coming and they don't coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming.
Saw people in the comments of the last chapter pointing out, quite validly, that there were too many cliffs, which is totally fair. Others pointed out that the cliffs wouldn't be so bad if the release schedule was more regular, which is also totally valid.
Being honest, last year, I just wasn't as productive as I should have been. I stopped working my day job, and went to full time writing, but really struggled to be as productive as I should have, for a variety of reasons. That meant the schedule was all over the place, I was writing in fits and bursts, sometimes putting out a good amount of work, and others just collapsing in a heap for days on end.
This year, I'm making a sincere effort to do better. Now that the lad is off to university and the younger one is back at school, I'm focusing on me and getting into better habits.
I cranked out 4500 words yesterday, which I was really pleased with, and I'm trying to hit 4000 again today, and every day during the week. Goodness knows if I can keep it up, but I want to get back to regular releases. I want to get back to having a nice bank of chapters to rely on (imagine the luxury). I want to get back to stability! Precious stability!
So yes, there will be more Chrysalis chapters today (that's today for me, it's 11 am down in Aus right now, I've got heaps of time).
Second Warning! This chapter ends in a truly terrible pun. You have been warned.
It’s a strange feeling, watching that terrifying sphere of complete darkness flying upward. More than anyone else, I have an inkling about what’s to come, but even I’m not sure exactly how it will go down.
I only have seconds before the inevitable impact, and expansion of the gravity bomb, and here I am, floating on a ship, unable to anchor myself to anything. Ah, hindsight, my old friend, we meet again, here on the edge of extinction.
Even my attempt to warn the ants within range is totally useless. The pull is already so strong that my pheromones are whisked away along with the air around me. My minds are currently sagging inside my head, finally relieved of the incredible strain I put them under, but I force them to keep working, spinning together a broad mind-bridge that I snap onto everyone I can reach.
[THIS IS AN URGENT, IMMINENT THREAT OF DEATH ALERT, AND I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE ROCK. The spell I threw up there is going to go crazy. Ants, you all know what I’m talking about. Weigh these ships down, anchor them to the bottom of the Lake if possible. Activate the bubble shield things because the water is going to rise up all around us. MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!]
People respond, shouting back questions, trying to make sense of what I told them. Thankfully, others are more proactive, already leaping into action. I can feel mana stirring all around me as ants and brathian mages frantically begin to weave magic, trying to keep themselves and the fleet safe.
All the while, that dreadful, horrifying shriek of the wind continues to rattle my carapace and send shivers running through my mandibles.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWLLLL!!!!!
It’s beyond deafening, and this is only the beginning. For the first time, I feel a quiver of genuine fear run through me at the thought of what I have made. This gravity bomb is going to be the biggest, most devastating thing I’ve cast, and it’s not going to be close.
I’m not sure I’m ready for the consequences. Or if I’ll even survive them. However, ready or not, it’s coming regardless.
Desperately I begin to cast about for something I can do to try and protect the fleet. How the heck am I going to counteract the incredible amount of gravity that bomb is going to produce? I’m floating on a boat for goodness sake! There’s no hole I can jump into, no way to burrow down to safety, or create a hardened shield of rock to protect the fleet, what the heck would I anchor it to? The water?!
A sad realisation strikes me. The only thing I can do to try and stave off the monstrous pull that’s going to come our way, is to counter it with another pull.
My brains groan in despair as I put them to work once again, sucking in mana and pushing in through the construct. If I can create a Well that covers the entire fleet, it might be enough to cancel out at least some of the pull that’s coming.
It’s possible that better ideas exist, but I sure can’t think of them, so I’m going to do this. The only problem is, there’s no way in heck that I’ll have a Gravity Well ready to go before the impact. I simply can’t push my brains as hard as I did before, they’re running on fumes right now.
As the fleet erupts into action around me, mages trying to coordinate, soldiers trying to impose order and tie down everything they can, I catch a glimpse of the Legion fleet in the distance.
Wisely, they are putting some distance between themselves and this golgari madness, sailing as fast as they can to get away from the drop zone. It’s not going to be enough.
I toss the thought back and forth in my mind for a second before I clack my mandibles in irritation. Morrelia’s over there, I can’t leave them out of the loop. With great effort, I weave together a mind bridge and fling it toward the Legion ships, hoping it will cover the distance, and latch onto someone.
Thankfully, it does, if only just.
[Tie yourselves down so you don’t get sucked off the deck of your ships! My spell is going to reach you!]
It’s not much of a warning, but it’s all I can muster. I cut the contact immediately, hoping whoever I managed to latch onto is smart enough to spread the word around.
Overhead, the blurred edge of the dark meets the plummeting stone, and I’m pleased enough to see that my aim was on point at least. The bomb flies directly into the hole carved by the previous one, vanishing within the rock and disappearing from view.
Fearful, I lower my body down to the deck of the ship, but there’s nowhere for me to go. Carefully, I fully crouch, letting the bottom of my carapace rest on the deck, and then extend my legs out, pushing through the gaps in the railing on the edge of the ship. If I start to rise off the deck, at least I’ll have something to hold on to.
A second later, it happens.
My antennae, sensitive to the ebb and flow of gravity thanks to a mutation, buzz like a phone set to vibrate. They literally begin to tremble and shake, as an unfathomable new gravitation force erupts directly over my head.
I can’t see it yet, but I know it’s there, inside the stone, like a hidden dragon, or crouching tiger that’s also a black hole.
Then it happens. The massive rock, millions upon millions of tons of condensed stone, which had been plummeting down toward us with enough force to flatten a mountain, begins to slow.
The rock above groans loud enough to send ripples flowing through the still frothing water around us. Cracking sounds can be heard, sharp detonations deep within the stone that echo outward for dozens of kilometres in every direction.
For a brief moment, I’m hopeful. Maybe, I’ve calibrated everything perfectly, and the gravity bomb will consume the city-sized chunk of condensed rock, and then vanish. That’d be nice!
Then I hear it, a deep, resounding crack, so sharp and profound it feels like the world was snapped in two.
The rock breaks right in the middle, and I see for myself what I have made.
Holy. Moly.
This is going to suck.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Elmithian
That pun... the pain!
Rodmin
Just wanted to write something similar. It was really nice to see that was aknowledged like that. :)
Ian Jones
Should just be a massive portion of the city that they carved off the outside to try and squash the fleet
Callum Macmillan
I appreciate you acknowledging the complaints/suggestions in comments RinoZ and I hope you think of them as indicators of how invested your stories get people. I love to hear that you are feeling motivated to write, this chapter was great and even better is that I saw the next chapter was released mid way through reading this one 😄
Anthony Romanov
Ahm they sliced a chunk of pillar using their swordsmen...
Anthony Romanov
Just imagine city sized rock turning into size of pebble but having same weight! I wander if it make a hole to fifth level!
Anthony Romanov
Well the City Cliff was falling from pillar toward the ocean over the city so center of mass should be over the city....
Joshua Morris
You misspelled Antnihilation. :))
John goode
I’m not sure I would have noticed the pun without warning. And I’m not sure if I should thank or curse rinoz lol good ch
Crazy Abe
because his default instinct when something is trying to kill him is Kamikaze esq gravity bombing the threat into extinction?
BallsDeep69
The legion attacked them full force unprovoked, and now their back for round two. That makes them Annihilation worthy in my book. At the very least, think of all the xp that would net anthony.
Koala Man
I like the legion Morellia and her mum and dad are really likeable, if it wasn’t for the fact that all previous iterations of ants were so devastating for the civilisations in the areas where they spawned , the whole call of the ancients thing and the belief that hitting 20 will end the world thing then I’m sure they would get along with Anthony too
Ether's Blessed One
Well, the pun "suck". But, that's what I am here to read anyways 😂.
Marter
Curse you cliff-kun, you strike again. Thanks for the chapter.:)
Veracis
What happens after the gravity bomb is over? There's still a hyperdense, smaller rock falling towards Anthony.
CUI13
I wonder why he didn't opt for that Gravity effect where he makes things lighter, and then using magic to push the rock off course.
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
As far as I'm aware, it's just a big rock.
Asekhan
They're a bit too rigid, but otherwise they're quite the good guys. If the colony wasn't monsters, we'd be cheering them
Ivo Wißen
Just a big rock The side of the mountain
Tsunami
I'd lump the Legion and Golgari together.
Asekhan
It's "just" a big rock, the _size_ of a big city
Asekhan
Knowing it was coming made it even better
D.M3L0N1 R3px
Love your puns and Humor. That accounts for a part of why i love the story so much😂❤️
D.M3L0N1 R3px
Its just a part of the pillar. A City sized part but still.
Buck
It is a portion of the mountain that makes up the city. The golgari strategically placed seismic charges that broke off a huge, outer slab of the mountain. Most of the mountain making up the city is still intact.
Tsunami
That chapter really set the mood. But, those awful puns. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Sucks. Uh, tragic really. No dessert for you. Straight to bed.
BallsDeep69
I'd rather he just had Brilliant extract Morellia and then dust the rest of the legion, since they probably deserve it.
Gardor
I really thought the plan was for an inverse gravity well inside the falling rock, not... compressing the falling rock with a gravity bomb?
ott043
Groan... the pun hurts... good one.
Ian Levy
Great chappies as always
Conner Kirk
Almost didn't catch the pun, and I wish I hadn't
Jaxer30
I just want to be sure of what exactly is happening, is that the entire city, a portion of it, or just a big rock.
No_Creative_Name
You apologize for the pun, but that was glorious!
