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Chapter 246 - Things Start To Go Wrong
🕑 Added 2025-09-10 16:18:10 +0000 UTC“Green mirage. We go around,” Feng said simply. “Stay close. You know combat spells too?”
Mirian kept a straight face. “I’m passable at them,” she said, glancing at Gabriel.
Feng made a grunting noise, then resumed his place at the head of the column.
“No combat spells yet,” Gabriel whispered to her. “The main route is a lost cause, but Feng’s good. He knows two alternate routes and where the derelict strongholds and caves are too.”
There was an earsplitting roar behind them.
“Oniwyrm,” one of the caravaneers muttered, and clutched his light charm for good luck.
Feng picked up the pace, then sniffed the air. His nose wrinkled. He cocked his head, listening for something. Apparently, one of the calls he heard was what he was listening for, because he immediately set off.
“Follow quickly,” he said. “No deviations from my path!” he called to the group, much louder than he normally was.
They heard the oniwyrm’s roar again, this time closer.
Feng pulled out a machete, using it to hack through a dense bit of brush, then wound them up a steep hill. The next time Mirian heard the oniwyrm roar, it was closer, but also to their left. The caravan leader smacked the rear of the lead marusaur lightly, then said something to it in Gulwenen. The beast made a deep sound resembling a sigh, but sped up. Around them, the birds had stopped chirping, though there was still the call of insects making a ruckus. They circled around another group of trees, backtracking slightly. The call of the insects seemed lessened here.
“Here. Stay put,” Feng called to the group.
“And definitely don’t move forward,” Gabriel whispered. “Look there.”
There was a small pond in front of them, and in the middle of it, the largest flower Mirian had ever seen. It had petals that were perfectly white, with long stalks in the center of the flower that had luminous green pollen clinging to them. Next to it was a lump of mud that she realized was a nest.
“A jade bloom,” Gabriel said. “It generates a spell that can dissolve flesh. Harmless to plants, but nasty to any creature that gets within its magical field—except one.”
“Petal demons,” Mirian said, remembering a distant lecture from Viridian.
“Yup. Petal demons are technically plants, even though they’re mobile carnivores. The parts they don’t eat, they feed to the jade bloom’s roots. Meanwhile, the jade bloom protects the nest. Symbolic relationship.”
“Symbiotic,” Mirian corrected.
“Whatever.”
The oniwyrm roared again, this time, much closer. Mirian watched as some sort of large rodent bolted from its hiding spot, dashing straight past the jade bloom. The rodent died so suddenly it was still in motion when its legs stopped moving. It skidded to a halt amidst the fallen leaves while its flesh began to dissolve. Red mist filled the air, gently drifting towards the jade bloom’s pond.
The oniwyrm emerged a moment later, bursting from between two trees, towering high above the group. The body looked like a huge snake, with overlapping green scales. Its face, though, was nothing of the sort. It looked like a wooden mask, the kind used in old plays. The creature caught sight of the dead rodent, and went in to sniff it. Then, ‘mask’ of the beast opened up, revealing five jaws arranged in a circle, each one with hooked teeth. Then it paused, apparently seeing the red mist for the first time.
That was when the petal demon emerged from its nest. The petal demon was much smaller than the oniwyrm—only about two meters tall, with petal-like frills. It stalked forward like a bog lion, mane of petals flaring as it hissed out a warning. As it moved, moss grew beneath its feet so that its steps were completely silent.
The oniwyrm drew back, rising up high enough its head scraped the bottom branches of the tall trees around the clearing. That was when the petal demon fired five beams of light, each one from the tip of a petal, then charged forward, letting out a burst of green mist as it did. The oniwyrm roared again, this time in pain, and started moving to flee, but it had failed to notice roots from the jade bloom wrapping around it.
What followed was a short but brutal tussle between the petal demon and the oniwyrm. The flesh-dissolving field of the jade bloom had taken a moment to pierce the wyrm’s thick scales, but once it was at work, the oniwyrm’s body was being quickly ripped from its skeleton. Meanwhile, the petal demon used its twisting vine-like limbs to wrestle the creature down to the ground where more roots from the jade bloom emerged, tying the creature to the ground. The oniwyrm got a single bite off on the petal demon, but no blood came from the wound; instead, it immediately began to grow back, the plant-flesh weaving itself together with small vines.
“Move,” Feng said.
Mirian took a moment longer, fascinated by the jade bloom’s natural spellwork, before a prod from Gabriel got her moving.
“That was clever,” Mirian whispered as they quickly moved through the jungle again.
“Yeah, we’re not the usual petal demon food, so they won’t prioritize us. But, you know, if you were a horrible myrvite that ate just about anything, you wouldn’t say no to an egg-roll with legs,” Gabriel whispered back.
“Is that… are we egg-rolls with legs?”
“Obviously,” the other Prophet said.
Behind them, they heard the dying gasp of the oniwyrm, and then silence. Gradually, as they moved farther from the predators, the chatter of insects and birds resumed.
Twice more, Feng redirected their route, looking more and more concerned each time.
Finally, a few hours later, they saw the next rest point. It was a stout, stone building, half buried in the ground, with large trees looming over it. The stone walls were cracked where roots had penetrated.
“This is no good,” one of the carvaneers said. She was mixing Adamic and Gulwenen, but Mirian could pick up on the gist of it. “Why didn’t we head back to the main path?”
“Because it was blocked,” Feng said. “You saw the shadows in the undergrowth. You think you can outrun a light eater?”
“We have daylight. We could still head back east to rejoin the safer route.”
Feng shook his head. “Too many warning calls coming from that direction. And, Snake Mountain is between us and that trail now. This path isn’t in good shape, but it works. I’ve been this way twice before. We won’t get lost.”
The other caravaneer looked like she wanted to argue, but decided against it. Feng’s reputation, Mirian was coming to find, was beyond excellent, and now she could see why. With only his knowledge of the environment and careful positioning, he’d just avoided four lethal predators.
They entered the derelict stronghold cautiously. There were several types of fungus growing out of a refuse pile, but no myrvites. The enchantments that had once guarded the place were all broken.
Feng led the maursaurs into a fenced-off stable area, where they immediately began to munch on the mushrooms that were growing. Then he joined two of the caravaneers who were staring at the door mechanism, arms akimbo.
“The hinges fell off,” one of them said. “We can’t stay here without a proper door. Either we—”
Mirian didn’t particularly want to hear the argument. She’d just seen how much mana a jade bloom used when it was tethering prey, and she was quite sure that the predatory myrvites couldn’t detect auric mana as well as the caravaneers feared. She used shape iron to pick up the hinges, reattaching them to the thick wooden door by using shape wood to anchor them. “Done,” she said, and then turned her attention to the broken enchantments while the caravaneers gawked at her. If you thought that was impressive, you’re certainly in for a surprise, she thought, amused.
When the others were busy, she talked quietly with Gabriel again. “What did you do last time?”
“I just repaired the heat stone glyphs because I don’t like cold food and the scent-masking glyphs on those two walls. We didn’t get attacked, so it must have worked.”
Mirian shrugged. They only had so many magical inks with them for enchanting, but that wouldn’t take much. “I’ll do those, then.” That would give her more time to train with Ibrahim, which was what she wanted. He was teaching her The Sheathed Blade Splits the Light, which was similar to the Sinister Hand auramancer stance, except instead of extending spell resistance outward, it focused it inward, concentrating the effect so that it only protected the user. The soul flow was similar to what she was used to, and so she picked it up quickly. The one she was more interested in was The Desert Flower Blooms Without Rain. That one, she was having more difficulty mastering.
She’d also tried and failed to assume two dervish forms at once. It was certainly related to whatever soul-ascension Ibrahim had achieved, and the longer she studied the flow of his soul, the more she was convinced that certain soul-ascensions were incompatible like her father had said. Even with the flexibility of flow she’d gained from Ceiba Yan, she couldn’t see how she could make the simultaneous flows she was picking up from Ibrahim work without sacrificing the beneficial flows she was using in the sub-outer layer of her soul.
As for Ibrahim’s lessons, she’d moved from trying to teach him arcane magic to celestial magic.
He was picking that up quite a bit faster. “This is easier. Why didn’t we start with this?” he told her that evening.
“Plenty of people think it’s harder,” she said. “I’ve come to think magic is like anything in life. Some people pick it up easier, some people pick it up with more difficulty. Just like music, calligraphy, or playing cards.”
Ibrahim snorted. “Who’s ever had trouble picking up how to play card games?”
Mirian grinned at him.
The dervish’s eyes grew wide. “You can’t be serious.”
She shrugged, and he just shook his head in mock anguish.
That night, Mirian’s sleep was shallow. The dark of the Jiandzhi was full of howls and screams.
***
Feng spent most of the next morning going on a careful walk around the stronghold. “We go southwest,” he said when he returned.
“That path hasn’t seen a caravan in a decade!” one of the others exclaimed.
“The western path takes us up the pass. There’s too many mist jellies that way. I was watching them float past all morning.”
The other caravaneer’s eyes went wide. “Mist jellies don’t hunt together.”
Feng said nothing.
They moved southwest, following the marusaurs’ slow pace.
An hour later, they came across several torn up saddlebags and a dead marusaur.
“Another caravan,” Gabriel muttered. Then, from off in the woods, they heard a scream of terror.
“Survivors!” one of the caravaneers said, heading in that direction.
“Wait!” Feng said, grabbing the other man’s arm. “We check, but we check carefully.”
They crept forward through the jungle. Ibrahim kept his hand on the pommel of his sword. Mirian looked to Gabriel.
“You’ll see,” he said in a low voice.
Another terrible scream pierced the jungle, this time closer.
They stopped suddenly, and Feng looked to the other caravaneers and shook his head. He clutched his light charm and muttered a prayer. “Altrukyst, your fellow travelers rest on the path now. May their families and friends find the courage to continue on their own roads. May they find peace under the veil of the sky. Life is our jewel we treasure; as their suffering has ended, let this treasure be passed down. Your soul is freed from grief and possession. Let it be born anew to joy and prosperity.”
There was another scream, close now, but no one made a move.
There was a great tree in front of them, its huge branches arching over them like an umbrella. It seemed like a peaceful grove at first, but crouched in the bushes, they could now see the source of the screams.
Ten travelers dangled from the branches, suspended by thorny vines that wrapped around them so that only their legs and feet were visible, dangling.
“An Emperor’s Tree,” Gabriel whispered. “Named that because political commentary isn’t always subtle. No emperors in Zhighua anymore, but the name stuck.”
Another scream. This time, Mirian could see it was coming directly from the tree. Some sort of spirit-construct that created an auditory illusion. Without the corpses dangling from the tree, the area looked harmless. The other caravan had diverted this way. They’d been dead for a few days now.
A nasty way to go, Mirian thought as their group retreated away from the predatory tree.
Feng was having a low conversation with the others. “Ten in the tree. There were likely four more, but I don’t see any sign of them. We’ll keep a look out. Everyone knows to find a stronghold and wait.”
Another shook his head. “Too far from the usual trail. They would have risked going east to find the better traveled hideouts.”
“Maybe. I’ll keep an eye out for signs.”
“That was Shao Cai’s group,” one of the women said quietly, letting a piece of one of the torn marusaur bags fall back to the ground. “I know his wife. I’ll tell her.”
Mirian watched them reorganize the marusaurs and move out again. Such a pity they won’t live, she thought. But then again, who will? She turned again to Gabriel. “This is all very dramatic, but I want to know when the attack is that you need me for.”
“And ruin the surprise?”
From a dozen feet away, Mirian saw Ibrahim mouth the words, “ambush predator.”
Gabriel, thankfully, hadn’t noticed. “Fine, fine. Four hours from now. They find one of the old caverns, but there’s a cave maw in there. Uh, that’s a fungal myrvite, sort of like what we just saw, but it pretends to be stalactites and stalagmites instead and crushes sleeping victims. So we all ran outside to relocate. A band of light eaters picked off most of the group. Three of us made it to another cavern, but it’s not set up for defense. By morning, we were exhausted, and that’s when the big nasty guy shows up. Don’t know what it’s called.”
“Why not simply kill the cave maw?”
“With arcane magic? It’s burrowed in the stone ceiling and floor. Real bitch to dig out.”
Mirian shrugged. “Either I can take care of it, or the necromancer can.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Should have just sent you south to begin with. I could be relaxing in a palace right now.”
Mirian stopped and looked at him. It wasn’t her usual anger, but something related. A simmering resentment. “Are you saying you’re useless? That you serve no purpose in this timeloop? That there’s nothing you can contribute to saving Enteria?” She let the illusion drop from her eyes so that they went from gray to glowing silver.
Gabriel stopped too, the amusement draining from his face. “It was a joke.”
Mirian continued staring at him. If you can’t save me three days worth of time… she thought, her eyes settling on the void in his soul where the temporal anchor was hiding.
“A joke. Five hells, lighten up a bit,” he said, and turned away.
Mirian recast the illusion over her eyes.
The cave maw, when they got to it, was burrowed deep in the ceiling and floor. Mirian used necromancy to bind and kill it. Pieces of it still remained, so she used shape stone to trap the remains deep in the stone. With no source of nutrients, and no way to grow out, it would eventually wither and die.
For the first time, the caravaneers started looking at her the way people did when they realized what she could do. Together with Jei, she grew thin bars of quartz to block off the cave entrance.
That night, light eaters stalked about, but their acid spit couldn’t dissolve the quartz. They tried sneaking in through spaces in the fourth dimension, but Gaius was standing watch. After he killed a few, they scattered in search of easier prey. By then, the caravaneers were badly shaken.
“The route is not usually like this,” Feng said over breakfast. He kept glancing over at the desiccated body of one of the light eaters the necromancer had killed. Its six sinewy legs were lined with spikes, and three snake-like heads had far too many teeth.
Mirian dismantled her crystal portcullis. As soon as they were outside the cave, though, she felt a tremor in the ground.
“Back in the cave,” Feng said.
She shook her head. “No. This will only get worse. The sooner we push through, the easier this will be.”
“Lady, I don’t care if you’re Sun Shuen come again. The only thing that makes the ground shake like that is a lesser titan.”
“I’m aware of that, thank you,” she said, letting the illusion spell over her eyes dissolve.
More tremors shook the jungle floor. She heard branches snapping as the lesser titan pushed through the forest. Feng and the other caravaneers began to retreat back into the cave, slowly, to avoid sudden movements. The beast emerged from between two trees, the top of it brushing the lower canopy. It looked a lot like Apophagorga, but smaller, and with lots of tusks rather than tentacles. It was covered in too many eyes, dozens of vestigial wings, and the strange, grayish flesh that Elder creatures often had.
“That,” Gabriel said, “is the fucker that ate me.”
Mirian smiled, though the smile didn’t touch her eyes. “Then let’s put it down. Ibrahim?”
The dervish drew his sword. His soul began to blaze. “This ought to be fun,” he said with a grin.
Comments
Michael Vonica
A titan can gather souls on its own to heal itself. I don't think the centiscerator can do that. But the centiscerator may be immune or very resistant to most soul and arcane attacks that the titan can dish out, and can probably match the titan physically. So, I'm betting on the titan, for higher intelligence, and the ability to heal itself.
Mr NerfGun
Is a Centiscerator stronger or weaker than a lesser Titan?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I doubt that they can change the past as-is. However, the burning tree likely represents possibilities, aka timelines that are unchangeable in terms of causality - apart from the initial conditions at the start of each loop, caused by the temporal needles. Also, it's not like the Ominian's sight is guaranteed to be perfect - you can see a tree, but that doesn't mean you can make out each individual branch end or what path it took there, at least not without climbing it (aka letting things play out, which is what's happening rn). Also, remind me, at what point did Mirian plan to try and change history?
Alexander Dupree
I love how basically no one is worried about the huge monster she has to fight. We’ve got juicy drama to discuss!
M Tan
With each passing chapter, I’m feeling more and more on edge regarding Mirian. Great writing you’ve done to depict how much the lack of allies/social skills and general disregard for life have really affected her. Mirian is increasingly snappish (rip Gabriel LOL) and handles their conversations with very little care. If she doesn’t get it together, I fear she’ll have few allies left who will be willing to follow her. She has the power, sure, but definitely not enough charisma to navigate the fallout after her lies are exposed.
Michael Vonica
So, this is something I wanted to post last chpater, but I'll post it here, now that the new one is out. The problem with the idea of Mirian talking to past prophets, for me, is the question of if it can change the timeline. There are two main possibilities. The past and future are set in stone, or you can change the past. If time is set in stone, then any cross time communication the prophets do can't change the timeline. If Mirian warned the sixth prophet about something, it couldn't change the course of history, because in the past, the sixth prophet had already received that exact warning, and still failed to circumvent whatever he was warned about. There are no paradoxes here, because everything is stable and nothing can change. But the problem is, this is in contradiction to what the Ominian said. They claimed that They didn't know the correct path to take. Hence the burning tree, representing the decreasing number of possibilities, with no clear solution. But if the past and future are both already set in stone, how is it possible not to know? There would only be one course of events, that can't be changed. So, if time can't be changed, and future prophets can talk to past prophets, the Ominian is either lying, or somehow incapable of observing the conclusion to this static course of events. The other possibility covers a wide range of options. I don't think I could even list all the different sets of rules that could define how time travellers could change the timeline. But the big question, to me, is how the prophets could possibly dodge the butterfly effect? The personality and genetics of a child are very random, and even small changes can lead to radically different outcomes. Individuals typically can't exert much influence over the course of history, but there are always some extraordinary people who can nudge it, or even change it. Make even small changes far back enough in time, and all these little random events will build into something massive. And I haven't even considered something like quantum randomness, which might make it near impossible for a random event repeated twice to lead to the same outcome. If the modern prophets send a message far enough back, it wouldn't be surprising if they managed to cause enough changes, even inadvertently, that the political situation they live in could be radically different. Or all the prophets could just be butterflied out of existence, because their personal family lines took a different path, and so they ended up never being born. And if that is all possible, would this mean the past prophets are somehow getting messages ex nihlo from prophets who never existed? Maybe, if prophets can send messages across time, this time loop isn't what we think it is. Maybe, instead of one timeline with loops across it, the timeline branches out when prophets communicate with eachother. So a prophet can only talk to alternate versions of the prophets from their own past, instead of the actual prophets from their past. And if they say something that would butterfly their own self out of existence in that new timeline, a new prophet is chosen instead. The point is, I feel like, if prophets can communicate across time, and it can cause meaningful change, there most be something more to the nature of the time loop that we don't understand.
SlickMongoose
"I am kind of hoping someone tries to use her father against her and fails miserably." Yeah me too, it feels like we're being set up for that to happen eventually and it's going to be glorious.
Schuh
One of the other prophets could still eliminate Mirian by drugging her while she sleeps and then mutilating her soul or removing the needle. I am kind of hoping someone tries to use her father against her and fails miserably.
lunatic
I mean, he does have a wife. I don't think Miriams that evil, then agin things can happen in a time loop.
Gustav
People called me crazy for shipping Ibrahim and Miriam a couple of chapters ago, but see, they have great chemistry!
Dessico
Agreed. But Mirian has been shown to not be socially skilled enough to realize how to do that. And since Gabriel is also a time traveler she can’t brute force it thru time loops like she has done for other characters before.
Nyto
Honestly think that Mirian is mis-managing Gabriel. He's not wrong in that Mirian could've handled this a lot easier - Gabriel's strengths were never in combat and exploration. He would've been much more effective as an intelligence agent, such as being a counterweight and check against Liuann who is definitely positioning herself to eventually remove Mirian. Yes he's slippery but he hasn't done anything antagonistic towards Mirian and her cause so far - in fact he shares the same anti-war sentiments as Mirian does. I'd be pretty disappointed in Gabriel just turns out to be a two-bit scoundrel - it's much more fun when Mirian can make mistakes.
Anonymous
“with lots“ have an extra space here
Stormbuilder
Seeing some glimpses of Ibrahim being capable of leadership and normal human interactions, instead of perma doom anger :D
Anonymous
“when the realized” Should be they instead of the
Mr NerfGun
It's a question of, if Gabriel cannot contribute, letting him keep all the power and strength he has when he isn't contributing anything while sacrificing 3 days in the cycles or simply removing him from the loop. He won't be dead. He would have just forgotten everything. Given 3 days could drastically change the outcome of how it ends, she must decide if he is worth keeping.
Michael Vonica
It starts bringing friends. Or it gets its mom. Mirian could use the extra soul energy and practice, and at some point, they'd learn.
DrSubterfuge
I wonder if the titan is enough like Apophagorga that it remembers the loops. That might be problematic if they just kill it this time without binding it
Michael Vonica
Pretty concerning how Mirian just straight up considered permanently murdering Gabriel over a joke, and just to get three extra days. Honestly, at this point, she's kind of a workaholic. It's what has gotten her so far, but her idea of time off is visiting her home town or family once every two years. I can't really imagine what she would do if she didn't need to work all the time. She feels like the fate of the world rests on her constantly moving forward (which it might), and she expects the same level of effort from everyone else. Mentally, she would probably benifit a lot from someone slowing her down. The best person for that is probably Gabriel, if he could ever make her respect him enough to actually take his advice.
Alexander Dupree
Thanks for he chapter. Man Gabriel is all about playing with fire. He’s gotta go and poke the largest bears he can find in the most sensitive of places.
Anotherb Account
Awesome chapter. Fun.
