Hope's Light

Chapter 28

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Questions

There, hovering before what only pretended to be the blackest of clouds, lurked a sinister metallic sphere. How, one might ask, does a smoothly specular ball floating within an emptiness pressing against the true Void of Voids earn such a moody description?

The answer is simple: it emanates a hum of resonance filled beyond the brim with barely restrained violence, like a coiled spring which required industrial machinery to press into place and then held back only by a worn and rusted clasp on the brink of snapping. The tension so mighty that, if unleashed, the sphere would launch itself across a cosmos and plow through any stellar object foolish enough to happen to be in the way.

Rules of physics literally be damned.

Chapter 4: The Rest of the Show

When we were finished with breakfast, but before we left to start the second day’s activities, I found a moment alone with Paul.

“How much do you remember?” I asked.

“About your gift? That it made you pretty convincingly look like a woman.”

“I gave it away.”

“What?”

“Last night, I roomed with the one who introduced herself as a trans-woman during our icebreaker.”

“I don’t remember that.”

Chapter Seven: Returning Home

The drive home was quiet, the tension in the car palpable. David leaned against the window, watching the familiar streets roll by, but his thoughts were far from comforting. The doctor’s words echoed in his mind, and though his parents tried to keep the conversation light, the weight of the unknown loomed over them.

Hope's Light

Chapter 27

by Erisian

Book 6

Part Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Pursuits

Entire chapters spin past.

A terrible encompassing war visits destruction’s touch to every level of Creation - slaughter and fire, anguish and ruin, all spreads ahead. Victories and losses pile on, culminating in the great rift cleaved across the tapestry, and a Gate forever locking one side from the other.

After flubbing a powerful incantation, meant to give newly coronated Demon Queens the wisdom of their ancestors, Devilla Satanne awakens to memories of her past life as Jacob Divington, a human from Earth. Having gained a new perspective on life, she quickly comes to a rather horrifying conclusion: she's been a complete and utter brat! No wonder everyone hates her!

And then there's the fact that she's apparently been reincarnated as the villainess of Tower Conquest, a lesbian porn game with a surprisingly intricate plot. One in which the Heroine conquers Dimona Tower, turning Devilla's people against her in the process. In victory, the Heroine brings about a glorious age of peace between demons and humans for the first time in millennia. ...Which actually sounds pretty good for her people, come to think of it. Devilla knows her terrible behavior is beyond forgiveness, but maybe she can still make up for her past mistakes? She just needs to make sure the events of the game unfold correctly. Though there is one little detail she'd like to change - the part where Devilla herself is killed or enslaved!

The series cover was commissioned from https://twitter.com/HaizeUqei

A group of people wake up in a video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

Artemis completes the mission with the help of an ‘ally?’

Chapter 15 Recap.

It hesitates, its tone softening even more. “I want what you want, Artemis,” it says. “To survive to thrive. To protect those you care about. But to do that, we need, each other.”

Hope's Light

Chapter 26

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Twenty-Six - Threats

Cassiel was helping Turiel to his feet when Krux’s military force finally swarmed the cavern, his soldiers bursting through the steel doors or clambering over the broken stones of the walls. Seeing three angels as the only ones moving, they didn’t know what to do. Deciding it was safer to simply leave us alone, they spread out to check the numerous cultists unconscious or dead splayed messily across the cracked tiles.

It was 3:00 AM, and the Thief…opened the large, ornate door. That was it. He couldn’t believe it. If his trusted Agent of so many years hadn’t been the one to tell him, he wouldn’t have. They had met earlier that day, in the busy food court of the local mall, the smell of bad Chinese food heavy in the air, stale, tinny pop music playing from some hidden speaker above their heads.

Akari, driven by her unyielding determination and the dragon’s hearthstone in her possession, was acutely aware that her journey was far from its conclusion. The next phase in her quest to craft the divine artifact was to locate the rare pyresteel, a metal forged in the most scorching of volcanoes. She foresaw this leg of the journey to be as treacherous as the previous ones, but her resolve remained steadfast.

Chapter Five: Back to Normal—Almost

David settled onto the living room couch, the controller fitting comfortably into his hands. The new game his sister, Kelly, had gotten him sat in the console, its startup screen glowing brightly on the TV. He took a deep breath, the familiar sounds and sights of the game pulling him back into a sense of normalcy.

"What are– what you doing up?" he asked her, trying to sound casual, but failing.
He sounded nervous, gave off guilty vibes.

"I had to pee," she said. "What else would I be doing up?"
She gave him a suspicious look. "What are you doing up?"

"Nothing, nothing," he answered, a little too quickly.
"Just couldn't sleep. That's all. Heheh."

After flubbing a powerful incantation, meant to give newly coronated Demon Queens the wisdom of their ancestors, Devilla Satanne awakens to memories of her past life as Jacob Divington, a human from Earth. Having gained a new perspective on life, she quickly comes to a rather horrifying conclusion: she's been a complete and utter brat! No wonder everyone hates her!

And then there's the fact that she's apparently been reincarnated as the villainess of Tower Conquest, a lesbian porn game with a surprisingly intricate plot. One in which the Heroine conquers Dimona Tower, turning Devilla's people against her in the process. In victory, the Heroine brings about a glorious age of peace between demons and humans for the first time in millennia. ...Which actually sounds pretty good for her people, come to think of it. Devilla knows her terrible behavior is beyond forgiveness, but maybe she can still make up for her past mistakes? She just needs to make sure the events of the game unfold correctly. Though there is one little detail she'd like to change - the part where Devilla herself is killed or enslaved!

The series cover was commissioned from https://twitter.com/HaizeUqei

"Wait, wait!" he called. "Where are you going?
You're not mad at me about this stupid Fit-4-U crap, are you? Come on!"

A group of people wake up in a video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

Artemis wakes up to something new and struggles with a new challenge.

Super long double chapter!
Next one coming soon!

Chapter 13-14

Chapter Four: A Surge of Fire

The quiet hum of monitors filled David’s hospital room, the soft beeping marking the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. His mother and Emma had just stepped out for coffee, leaving him alone in his still-unconscious state. The fluorescent lights above cast a pale glow over his motionless form.

The peace was shattered when one of the machines began to emit a shrill, rapid alarm. A nurse, passing by the door, rushed in to check the monitors. Her eyes widened as she read the rapidly climbing numbers on the screen.

Hope's Light

Chapter 23

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Twenty-Three - Taijitu

In the coldest of air we gathered at the top of the Spires. Out of the rock face a matching henge to its counterpart at the embassy in Dis had long ago been excavated, though this one was not currently pockmarked from the insult of repeated energy blasts, having been resurfaced after its own checkered history. Twitch and Horatio stood at my side, while Vance, leaning on a short-yet-distinguished onyx cane and shivering underneath the thickest of silver-furred coats, had been busy examining all the sigils and workings carved into the stones - ensuring that each was still properly aligned.

"I wish men could have that experience," Camille said.
"... of being looked at like a piece of meat."
She managed to keep the edge of resentment out of her voice.

"That wouldn't work." Laura responded. "It wouldn't help at all.
Men would *love* being seen like meat, and being treated as sexual objects.
In their minds, it would work in their favor."

Hope's Light

Chapter 22

by Erisian

Book 6

Chapter Twenty-Two - Necessity

We kept at it, shoveling and schlepping, until each pen in turn was clean. Though at that point, we ourselves certainly weren’t.

A group of people wake up in a video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

The group struggles with what to do next, getting only more questions with each answer.

Chapter 11

“Lyra is gone. I don’t know where she went or… or how to get her back.” I say my voice trembling.

Hope's Light

Chapter 21

by Erisian

Book 6

Part Five

Chapter Twenty-One - Harvest

Pages flip past, a time-lapse of images documenting the expansion of a grand city rising in sacred service to the Throne. Structures of meaning and empowered will, each unfolding as perfect edifices of collaboration and interchange, each glittering under the eternal illumination shining from Above as channeled through the forged unity binding all to one, and one to all.

And below this glory of infinites, to a tower of dazzling brilliance a dark angel comes.