Hey everyone, I hope you all have been well. I'm coming back and will resume posting chapters from Monday, Oct 21st.
As a special treat for those who've been waiting a long time for the story to continue, I'll drop five chapters right away. Yay...
Here is a detailed summary of the events so far for those who don't want to re-read or skim through almost 280K words again.
If you don't want to or need to refresh yourself on the story, skip to the end, where I reveal some things to come in the next arc.
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To find her missing brother, Neel, Meera stepped through a magical mirror that harbored the goddess Midiea and arrived on Rhione, one of the worlds of Mirithia. The other two being Gethys and Ealisto.
There, she was introduced to the system and given a class that allowed her to steal skills by hurting her enemies. The goddess Midiea also granted her a divine weapon, the Chakram of Echoes.
She met an old man, Asterion, who informed her that her brother had been here for six months, but he had been missing for only one day on earth.
Later, she was saved from a group of monkeys by two brothers, Silas and Cossus, who informed her that her brother was the prophesized savior of the worlds.
They also trained her as they trekked out of the forest, but Cossus lost his life when they fought a mighty great ape.
Silas left Meera at a village at the edge of the forest and went to see his mistress, Domina, a renowned oracle. Cossus was waiting for him there, alive and well. Domina tells him they must find Neel and ensure the brother and sister are reunited, or the worlds will end.
Meera traveled from village to village where her brother was last known to be and found that the Cosmarion King, Rothedon, was hunting Neel. She also found that Neel might be heading towards—the Shadowsteel Warlord, the Sorceresses of Akhessai, or the Warlords of Winter's Embrace to find an artifact called the Reflectora.
After some more travels and stealing skills, Meera was informed of Cliffshield Valley, where a Sorceress of Akhessai had taken residence.
When she arrived in the valley, she was immediately attacked by some mirror golems. She barely survived and reached the village.
She learned that the sorceress, whom the villagers called a witch, had kidnapped all the men.
Meera set out to find the witch. After a harrowing fight with another mirror golem, she arrived at the witch's hut to find the men under a spell and doing the witch's bidding while others were being turned into the mirror golems that Meera had fought.
The witch, Kalrina, told Meera that her brother had come to see her and that she would tell her where he went if she retrieved the Crystal of Darthin for her from the Cave of Wraiths.
Meera, having no choice, agreed. She entered the cave to find it infested with wraiths, which only her chakrams could harm as they were divine weapons.
There, she met the ghosts of three animals: a horse—Onyx, a bat—Shade, and a rat—Cinders. Together with the ghostly animals, she learned the history of the cave.
The cave was the experimental lab of Edwyn Toller, who was under orders from Kalrina to replicate the powers of the god Darthin, the Master of Skills.
Meera found a few Crystals that gave her some skills, and some she pocketed for use later. At level 100, her class evolved, and she learned how to fuse her chakrams and forged level 2 chakrams.
After a climactic fight with the mad scientist Edwyn Toller, Meera finally acquired the Crystal of Darthin. However, Edwyn unleashed a devastating explosion that started a massive cave-in.
Meera escaped with her friends but realized that her ghostly friends couldn't leave past a certain point. Time was ticking, as Edwyn had infected Cinders and Shade with a curse that was corroding their souls.
The Crystal of Darthin allowed one to make a wish, but they had to sacrifice a willing soul. Cinders and Shade offered themselves rather than succumb to the curse.
Meera honored their last wishes, sacrificed them, and received five more skill slots. She bonded Onyx to her soul with another crystal she had found in the cave.
Meera returned to the witch, Kalrina, with the Crystal of Darthin. Kalrina freed the men in exchange for the crystal, and the two played a game of truths using the Mirrors of Dorheia, which would punish you if you lied.
From this game, Meera learned of the Great Prophecy, Aetheron's and Midiea's past, and that Neel had gone to see the Shadowsteel Warlord in Azeria.
Meera destroyed the Mirrors of Dorheia. Kalrina and Meera scuffled, and Meera lost. She had to give up one of her chakrams to escape with her life.
Once Meera left, Silas and Cossus arrived at Kalrina's hut. They fixed her Mirrors of Dorheia, destroyed the Crystal of Darthin, and made Kalrina forget that Meera or they were ever there to meet her. They also planted the idea in her head that the Daughters of Aksha knew where she was.
Meera ran into a trio of prisoners escaping from Azeria. The prisoners were being chased by a construct of mists called Mistblades. Meera defeated the Mistblades, but two prisoners died, leaving only Tamas, the cook.
The border wall of Azeria, which is made of mists, engulfed them, and she had to fight her way through the mist wall to enter Azeria.
In the first town, the local police confronted her. She killed the captain and was captured and taken to the Shadowsteel Warlord, Narikas.
Narikas informed her that the queen had been missing for over a week. The Mistblades had gone out of control since, and the border wall kept expanding on its own. Both instances were causing friction with the neighboring kingdoms, who had issued ultimatums to rescind the border wall and call off their Mistblades.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Narikas made a deal that if she could find the queen, he would tell her about her brother. He told her to start by going to Crown Prince Delkoris, who had gone in search of his mother.
Meera arrived in Nelees to find Delkoris had installed his friend in his place and gone searching discreetly. She had a deathly fight with one of the prince's bodyguards—the Phoenix Protectors, or Blazers, as they are called.
After the fight, a masked man named Dirik brings her to his room to let her recover. He tells her he wants to join the Wardens of Numheia—monster hunters—as they are in the city and would like to bring her as insurance as they don't like outsiders.
They arrive at the Warden's base and are challenged to fight and beat the leader of the Wardens, Melas, in a pocket world created by the Keeper of Records, Brison.
Meera and Dirik are both killed by Melas, but Brison revives them. The Wardens inform them that they are hunting a creature who has been making deals with the people of Nelees, granting wishes for body parts. The Wardens agree to let Meera and Dirik join them in hunting this elusive creature.
Silas and Cossus visit Narikas and give him a prophecy, which he discards as a ruse by the enemy king, Draros, to scare them. Narikas attacked the brothers, but he and his aunt Hilnoa were beaten to an inch of their lives.
Meera rushed back and healed the two. She learned that there were two assailants, but Hilnoa couldn't remember their names or faces, just that they were powerful.
The Shield Warden Pallas gave Meera lessons on building her class to suit her needs. Then Dirik and Meera started training as they were too weak to hunt this creature. After training, she reached level 200 and got a class evolution that gave her five more skill slots to store extra skills and swap them out for later use.
She left with Dirik to search for the creature. After a fight with a werewolf, Meera found the queen chained to a tree with a beating heart—the Heart of Doromar—and a necromancer was torturing her to give in.
Meera and Dirik are spotted by the undead army and promptly escape the forest. There, they split up as Meera had found the queen and thus finished her appointed task.
Meera reached Tearsfell Prison, Narikas's fortress, and got in a fight with a pair of Blazers. She made it to Narikas's throne room, where the king, Rokibor, arrived and ordered Meera to find Delkoris in three days or lose her life. Once he left, Narikas was attacked by immense pain again.
Narikas told Meera about the Shadowsteel armor he wore. How it came to his family, and as long as someone from his family wore the armor, his kingdom would never fall. But the armor extracted a heavy price—a soul must be fed to it once a week. But the armor's influence was growing stronger, inflicting unbearable pain on Narikas. He didn't think he had much time left before the armor would overtake him and unleash its fury on the worlds.
The Armor briefly overtook Narikas and ordered that it wanted the Heart and would release Narikas in exchange.
Hilnoa revealed that Doromar was a Cosmarian necromancer who fell in the war between the Cosmarians and the Gods called the Eclipse. The goddess Numheia shot out his heart and destroyed his body.
Meera was intrigued but wanted no part in this. She demanded that Narikas keep his end of the bargain. Narikas told her that her brother was here to steal the Miravane, an ancient artifact that could locate the Reflectora, but there was a problem with the Miravane.
But before Narikas revealed the problem and where Neel was headed, he changed the terms of their deal and now wanted Meera to bring back the queen.
Meera returned to the Wardens, and they began training in one of Brison's conjured worlds to take on the Cosmarian Heart and its undead army.
Over the next few days, Meera picked up many skills and gained a fair number of levels, but once they emerged, they learned that the war with King Draros was underway and no help would come from Narikas. They would have to fight to save the queen themselves.
They entered the forest of Pegonia and fought the battle with the undead army. After a hard struggle, Meera realized there was no way they could kill Doromar amidst his army. So, they escaped with the queen and ran to Tearsfell Prison.
Once at Tearsfell Prison, Doromar's spirit revealed itself. He had taken control of the Queen. Then Narikas lost control, and the armor overtook him entirely, unleashing another Cosmarian spirit. She was Erenyx, who happened to be Doromar's wife.
Together once again after many millennia, they unleash hell on the heroes. The Wardens take on Doromar while Meera, Hilnoa, and Dirik take on Erenyx. The fight started in Narikas's throne room, but the Cosmarians were thrown out of the fortress as they needed to be separated, for they were too strong together.
Outside, Doromar raised all the dead soldiers from the recent battle and unleashed them on Tearsfell Prison. The Wardens held them off but couldn't indefinitely.
Dirik, who revealed himself to be Prince Delkoris, implored the soldiers inside the fortress to run out and help, but Rokibor ordered them not to. Delkoris knocked him out, ran out by himself, and tried to reach his mother.
Queen Nisaya regained control momentarily and, in a last-ditch effort, destroyed the Mist border and the Mistblades. This exhausted all her mana, but when Doromar regained control, he still had quite a bit of his own.
With the help of Lexa, the Stormweaver Warden, and a group of Blazers, Meera brought down Tearsfell Prison, weakening Erenyx.
After forming a Level 3 chakram, Meera slashed open Erenyx's armor, killed the Cosmarian spirit, and freed Narikas from her control.
Narikas thanked Meera by offering to travel with Meera to help her find Neel. Meera happily accepts.
Doromar felt his wife's demise and gets angry. The Wardens are mostly down, with only Tekton and Zona holding on. Brison explained to Meera that he was preparing a spell to end Doromar but needed more time.
Meera once again threw herself into the fight, but Doromar was much more powerful than his wife, and she had to flee for her life.
Doromar almost killed her, but then the goddess Numheia showed herself. She dispatched Doromar fairly quickly.
Numheia told Meera that the prophecy she'd heard had been modified by countless oracles, who added and removed lines from the original prophecy of Serenya, and that only the original prophecy would come true.
But Meera's troubles have not ended. Draros was coming with his army to attack Narikas and his remaining soldiers, and Meera rushed to Narikas's aid.
Narikas challenged Draros to single combat, which the old king refused, seeing no reason to add to the bloodshed. Thus, the war ends.
Rokibor returned and demanded to know what had happened, but Delkoris showed up with his comatose mother. Rokibor made a flippant comment about her being useless, angering Delkoris to no end. He ends up killing his father.
The soldiers cheered and proclaimed Delkoris their new king, but he gave up the crown and made Narikas king.
Narikas apologized to Meera for not being able to go on an adventure together. She said it was okay, but Meera was secretly hurt, as she was looking forward to traveling with Narikas.
They walked towards the Gateway Mirror, and Narikas told her that the Miravane was missing much of its original power and needed a lot of Mana to work properly. A Cosmarian's worth of Mana. So, Neel has gone dragon hunting on Gethys to power the Miravane, as the dragons are very powerful beings.
With that, Meera said goodbye to Narikas and headed for Gethys.
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That pretty much covers everything that has happened so far. Hopefully, I didn't miss any important details. If I have, let me know.
The next arc will differ from what we have seen Meera do so far. I'm exploring a different side of her in this arc. I hope you all like it.
I've had a lot of thinking to do, so I've mapped out the next arc in its entirety—the tragedies, the lore, the twists—and, of course, the prophecy. Here is a little taste.
The Champion's footsteps mark the end,
Your world will the dragons rend...
Oh, and Meera's wish to have a traveling companion will be fulfilled. Let's hope she actually likes this person. See you all next week.