So, the first thing that I want to say is that I have still not abandoned Sacrificial Ascension. It has simply been put on the backburner for a bit.

This is primarily due to holiday troubles. For one, I was planning on getting a lot of work done over my school's winter break, both for SA and for a college class that I'm taking in order to graduate early, but that simply was not possible. Instead, I often spent the vast majority of my time with my relatives, sometimes arriving at their place by 10 A.M and leaving around 12 A.M.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted and needed a break from thinking. Luckily, I recently started reading Defiance of the Fall on KU, which has helped me not go raving mad from mental exhaustion and boredom. It's pretty great, in my opinion. I've certainly read better, but it's still pretty good.

My creative process used to mostly involve just sitting down in front of a chair and writing, but lately that has felt inadequate to me.

I kinda know where I want Sacrificial Ascension to go next, and I most certainly know how I want it to end, but lately its been hard for me to think all that much about this story. Instead, I've been working on planning my next ones (this should excite you: it's looking pretty awesome!).

Now, again, I'm not dropping Sacrificial Ascension. Heck, I'm not even going on an "indefinite hiatus!" All I'm saying is that I need a bit of time. This book should be done by the time I start college in the winter. I just need a while to get back into the swing of things and remember why I started writing this story in the first place. My reasons and my style changed over time, becoming less for passion and more for practice.

I still have that passion, though; that burning desire is still within my heart. It has simply been left to smolder unattended for too long. I need to stoke the embers.

If you can't wait for the next couple (2 for now) chapters of SA, then they're up on my Patreon. Also, Patrons now get access to a Discord a friend and I made so that you guys can interact with me more directly. While the comment section is a great way to leave responses to the chapters, I find that it's hard to have actual conversations about... anything, lol. Hence, Discord.

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I intend to eventually release it to everyone who doesn't feel like wasting $3, but for now, I need a good trial run. Complexity will come later, first we need to see if it will even work in the first place.

Discord will also be the best place to ask System- and character-related questions. I'll still do my best to answer them if they're asked on here, but it'll be less freeform. I am far from formal, as I feel that my writing suffers when I attempt to push that aspect, but I have completely given up all such compulsions on Discord. I let the chaos in my brain go wild, and just say whatever I'm thinking.

In reality, I can't do that without feeling judged, because I usually end up screeching at someone incoherently. People on Discord, though? We're chill.

I'll also be doing writing streams at some point. My computer and WiFi are both crappy as heck, so Discord struggles to capture my screen properly, but I'll see what I can do.

Chapter 22 is currently titled and sitting in my drafts, waiting to be written, and Chapter 21 is released onto Patreon. 20 and 21 are focused entirely on Sybil and Abel and development of their relationship, as well as some practice in other things. I'm actually going to be putting a poll up both on here and on Patreon: I'll average the results (and weigh in the opinions of my friends) when I'm ready to really formalize it.

The question is this: should Abel and Sybil enter into a romantic relationship, or just be friends? To be clear, if they're going to be romantic, then it'll be at least towards the end of this book, maybe at the start of the next, but I'll start building up tensions and planning things for it soonish.

It'll also be wholesome and chaste, so if anyone's thinking that I'm going to get into excruciating detail about bad stuff, it's not happening.

Rant about why nothing sexual is even going to happen in the time that this series will cover:

I will not be writing anything that even alledges to something sexual, partly because it's not happening. Their relationship won't get there in the short-term, and by the time anything like that would even have a chance of happening, it'd be like book 5. By then, they'd have already gotten married, ascended to higher planes multiple times, achieved Tier 8 (at minimum), and decided to settle down and raise some kids. There would be a lot of timeskips, and I honestly kinda doubt that this series will even go that long. I imagine maybe 3 books? End at about Tier 5, and then show a few cuts of what life would turn into for the pair? A larger reason is that I don't want to write that kind of stuff and it would make me feel dirty.

Aaanyways, I hope you've all had happy holidays and are enjoying the new year.

I love you all.

Crusader out.