As always, Patreon and Subscribestar supporters can read ahead by one extra chapter (for the 1$ supporters) and five extra chapters (for the 5$ supporters) ahead on my three flagship stories.
As of right now that means access to:
Shadows and Dust (Updated the 10th of every month): the Mass Effect story where FemShep has the Phoenix Force from Marvel. Chapters 19 through 23
Crown of Slaves,(Updated the 20th of every month) the Star Wars : The Old Republic Sith Inquisitor isekai. Chapters 25 through 29
Nothing Is True, Save For the Blood We've Shed (Updated the 30th of every month): the crossover between The 100 and Assassin's Creed. Chapters 29 through 33
Additionally, that provides access to the Wild Card story below, which updates once a month on a random date (whenever a chapter is ready, essentially).
And So The Eagle Conquered, a Skyrim story with the MC named for, inspired by, and planning to emulate Constantine the Great of the Byzantine Empire. Chapters 3 through 8.
Cauldron of Ghosts, a Worm/Solo Levelling Fusion Fic wherein Taylor becomes The Player. Not canon Worm world! Chapters 1-5.
Even if you don't want early content for these three stories, consider becoming a 1$ supporter anyway! Every dollar adds up quickly and makes quite a difference in my life!
5$ Supporters also have access to the following Patreon/Subscribestar-exclusive stories:
Shall We Play A Game, a story that is technically a Yu-Gi-Oh and Red River/Anatolia Story crossover, but is mostly as historical romance/drama set in Ancient Egypt. I'm sure duels will happen at some point... Currently on Chapter Nine. This currently may be undergoing a major shift and rewrite.
Forsaken, a Percy Jackson story in which Artemis turns Percy into a girl, based on a very old, prompt-based story I once wrote called The Exiles. Currently on Chapter Six!
10$ Supporters will soon be receiving benefits as well, including NSFW and SFW images of various scenes or moments in various stories, or even just the characters themselves doing lewd things that aren't specific scenes!
Currently, this includes images from Echoes In Eternity, And So The Eagle Conquered, Crown of Slaves, and Shadows and Dust, but there are much more to come!
Consider joining my Discord! It doesn't require payment of any kind at all, and not only will it allow you to get updates via announcements, nor just chat with me and your fellow readers easily, but you can also help make decisions about stories and in-story events through the polls that I often hold!
Make sure to update or check out the TV Tropes!
And thank you, as always, for reading! Like, comment, etc! Your appreciation fuels my creation!
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This world is very different from the one our parents and grandparents grew up in, the world we learn about in class or see on TV. The world that was shaped by regular humans, with regular tools and regular weapons and regular futures. This world is a world that changed dramatically, suddenly and without warning, on May 20th, 1982. But it was a change that no one recognized, no one even realized had taken place, because what cognizance could the mortal mind have of the whims and wishes of beings that by any measure could be called gods? None, and so it was that life continued unchanged for more than a decade.
On December 13th, 1992, in the center of the Marun Oil Fields of Iran, a glowing, spiraling vortex cleaved the air. The oil company's security descended on it in numbers, vanishing as they stepped through it. A portal to someplace else, it seemed…but none of them returned. Sixteen hours after the portal first appeared, an entire company of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stormed the portal, heavily armed and armored with enough firepower to kill a thousand soldiers, a small team carrying cameras and powerful radios on their heels.
Of the nearly two-hundred men that entered, only a single, badly injured man emerged. One of the cameramen, a half-dozen memory cards clutched in one hand and a new superhuman power awakened in his mind and body. A power of speed, an ability to move so quickly that the human eye could not perceive it, and it was due only to this power that he survived, for as the leaders of the steadily-growing military cordon around the portal looked through the footage he and his fallen fellows had gathered they saw that lay on the other side of the portal.
Monsters, as if out of myth and legend. A pack of wolves, crimson-hided and (literally) iron-jawed, tearing through the finest body armor that the nation could muster as if it was wet tissue paper. A colossal bear, a dozen feet in height if it was an inch, whose onyx hide repelled the desperate, focused attentions of a dozen rifles and machine guns, smashing the life from man after man with blows of incredible force. A giant falcon, with talons that could pierce and flay, taking a direct hit to it's chest from an RPG and not gaining so much as a scorch mark on it's jade-colored feathers. This was a threat like nothing that ever had been seen before, but before any action could be taken, the situation grew worse still: the monsters began pouring out of the gate. Hundreds of soldiers were dead within hours, overwhelmed by an enemy they had neither the training nor the equipment to battle, and it was only their desperate fighting that gave the nearby city of Ahvaz time to evacuate any portion of it's population. Yet, as the horde swarmed implacably towards the remaining populace, the casualties mounting and the nation's neighbors considering extreme measures, four heroes appeared. Armored and masked, cloaked and shrouded, three men followed a woman into battle against the beasts…and slaughtered them. Hurling blasts of fire, ice and lightning. Shattering bodies and shells and the very earth itself with powerful blows from fists and feet. Wielding weapons that shot bolts of energy that could obliterate wide swathes of the environment, bring the mightiest buildings to their knees. Touching the wounded with shimmering light that cured any wound, no matter how grievous. With these four strangers leading the way, Iran was able to force the monsters back to the portal from which they had come, destroying what in time became deemed 'the boss monster' and closing the gate.
All told, the casualty count of what was eventually understood to be the first-ever C-rank gate -and it's subsequent 'dungeon break'- was five and a half thousand soldiers and civilians. Nor was it the last such gate to open, and within months virtually every major nation on Earth had experienced the appearance of such gates. It was only through the good fortune of where they appeared, in areas with relatively high populations, that casualties remained low. Indeed, more often than not these gates appeared in the middle of cities and towns, places that guaranteed they would be quickly spotted and reported to the authorities, and the world quickly moved to develop procedures for handling them. International information pipelines were enhanced, created from the ground up if need be, and -most importantly of all- governmental divisions were created to locate, identify, and train more heroes like the first four.
The Founders, they were called. The very first paranormal humans ever found, the quartet that coined the term 'Hunters' for their kind.
Eidolon, the Master of Magic. Legend, the Gentle Light. Alexandria, the Strength of Ages. Hero, the Masterwork Craftsman. Poetic names, one and all, more fit to the ancient eras of heroes and villains, monsters and gods, or to the pages of a comic book. But in an era where rifts in the world disgorged beasts of nightmare that were fought back by those who possessed the power of heroes, the powers of myth and legend, nothing could be more appropriate. Under their guidance, mankind learned how to fight the monsters, the 'magic beasts', within the gates. Learned how to identify Hunters, learned to quantify their powers and ranks, learned to teach them and equip them, and learned how to take the spoils of their victories and revolutionize technology. What need was there for oil and it's products, when a single B-rank mana crystal could power a car for a month? What need was there for expensive, agonizing, all-to-often-unsuccessful chemotherapy when an A-rank healer could purge the cancerous cells from your body in a matter of moments?
The world was transformed. Within the decade, Hunter organizations sprung up across the globe, their ranks filled with those blessed—or cursed, depending on who you asked—with supernatural abilities. The United Nations established the International Hunter Registry, a database tracking every known paranormal human and their capabilities. S-rank Hunters, those rare individuals whose powers approached those of the Founders themselves, became celebrities, their faces adorning magazine covers and billboards. More famous, more popular, more beloved than nearly any other figure in history, often with what amounted to cults dedicated to them.
But with great power came great inequality in the world, a great shift in the economic atmosphere of the world. A-rank and above Hunters could command salaries that dwarfed those of old-world corporate executives, while D-rank and below struggled to find stable employment beyond local gate clearance or 'normal', now-greatly reduced and less sustaining, jobs. The economic landscape shifted dramatically as magic-based technologies replaced traditional industries, entire national industries and specialties invalidated in a matter of a few years. Millions lost their jobs and had to make an attempt to retrain for new ones, while those who could adapt to the new paradigm thrived quickly and dramatically, but it was not just in the fields of economics and science that things shifted so severely.
Or, perhaps, it hadn't shifted so severely at all. There were always the haves and the have-nots. Always the popular and the unpopular. Always the strong and weak, loved and loathed, praised and mocked. The coming of the Hunters certainly did nothing to change that, only added another factor to the determinations. As the S-ranks rose to glorious prominence, E-ranks found themselves buried in contemptuous obscurity the world over.
I was one such E rank. The weakest of them all, some said, and certainly the weakest on the East Coast of the United States.
I was.
~Excerpt from Throne of Shadows
The Autobiography of Taylor Hebert
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Taylor could already hear the soft laughter, the mocking comments and, perhaps worst of all, the exclamations of relief as her fellow Hunters spotted her arriving at the Gate's staging area. Strange though it might seem to people who didn't understand, people who weren't her, mockery was a lot easier to deal with than the relief and happiness people expressed when they realized that weak, meek little Taylor Hebert was attending a Gate Clear. After all, it meant that the gate in question was nothing more than easy money, with barely any effort really required, otherwise she -as an underaged Hunter of staggeringly unimpressive ability- wouldn't be allowed to join the party.
Not that most people wanted teens to be allowed into gates in the first place, certainly not when they had first started opening, but after the first party of teenagers had gotten slaughtered in a gate that they had tried to clear alone, having kept it a secret so they could fulfill their romanticized dreams of heroism, the government had decided that control rather than outright banning was the proper solution. Hunters under eighteen, even those in the Wards program that was intended to prepare them for the government-subsidized Hunter units and regardless of Hunter Rank or Classification, were forbidden from entering gates above D rank. Letting them gain experience, and spend their youthful energies, without putting them in unreasonable danger. Frankly, she was lucky that the rules didn't limit Hunters to gates of only their own rank, otherwise she might as well not have Awakened at all. E-rank gates basically didn't exist, and those that did show up were usually cleared in a matter of minutes by anyone in the area.
"Thank God for that. Bug Girl is here. Easy money today!"
"Good. I'm still working out the stiffness from my fingers after my last one. Fuckin' healers, man. They always tell you that your body doesn't know the difference between the old ones and the new ones, but I swear to God they don't work right for weeks after they grow 'em back…"
"Hey, c'mon, keep your voice down!"
"What, it's true!"
"Not that, fuckface! I meant the shit-talk!"
"Why? Everyone knows! She's weak as hell, everyone knows it! You know there's a whole goddamn thread on WHO that keeps track of the number of times she's almost died, and how, right?"
"That's not the point, man! At least she's here, helping us fight! And I can name at least two people that are alive because she spotted a monster about to ambush them and interfered!"
"He's got a point. Plus, do you really want to piss off that sister of hers? Cause I've met The Rose, and trust me, she thinks her sister is the greatest thing in the world."
"She's in Japan…"
"For now. I wouldn't count on her not holding a grudge, so shut up and focus."
Yes, she could already hear it all, but despite the urge to call it quits, go home, and never Hunt again, she marched on like she always did in search of the Hunt's leader. Annette and Daniel Hebert hadn't raised a quitter, by God. Quite the contrary, she'd been raised to spite those who mocked her or wished failure on her by refusing to break. A life well lived was the best revenge, after all, and while she wasn't sure that her life counted as 'well-lived' at the moment, it was better than just giving up.
"Ah, Taylor, there you are!" a familiar voice greeted her warmly, and she looked round, smiling faintly at the man it belonged to. Not the most impressive looking man, according to just about everyone who had ever met him, but Robin Swoyle was an incredible shot, a good leader, and -most importantly- a good man.
"Mr. Swoyle, it's good to see you again." she responded, smile growing slightly at the familiar eye-roll and request to 'just call me Robin, please, I'm not old enough to be Mister', changing course to join him, nodding at the young woman standing with him. "Cassandra. Is Ariana here today as well?"
"Yeah, she's here somewhere." the other girl nodded in confirmation, bottle-blonde hair swirling slightly, and Taylor took a moment to -subtly- admire her. Cassie was, if not a friend, then certainly a friendly acquaintance, the pair of them frequently ending up working on the same gates. After all, despite the vast breadth between Taylor's lowly E-rank and Cassie's far more impressive B-rank, both of them were still under the age of eighteen, which meant that they weren't allowed to do gates above D-rank without parental permission…which they never got. At least Taylor never did, and likely never would, given how weak she was.
Still, they had fought together plenty of times, and if nothing else had been able to bond over being Talented. Those lucky few Hunters that possessed a skill which set them apart from the rest of their kind, some special ability that was unique to them and them alone. In Taylor's case, the ability to 'ride along' with her shadowy insectoid summons and use their senses as her own, and in Cassie's case the ability to control solid objects that she touched. The first raid they had gone on together, Taylor had seen Cassie use it to put a boulder the size of a small car through the chest of an ogre at roughly sixty miles per hour.
Not for the first time, Taylor found herself wishing that her own Talent was half as impressive. Sure, being able to see through her summons' eyes was useful for scouting, but when your summons were barely larger than housecats, were even less dangerous, and about as durable as wet paper, the tactical advantage only went so far.
"So what are we looking at today?" Taylor asked, pushing down the familiar pang of inadequacy with the 'ease' of long practice, rolling her shoulders slightly and frowning faintly as she set about adjusting some of the straps on her admittedly high-quality armor. Armor that her sister had bought for her, armor that could likely -she'd never been able to bringing herself to look for it's price online- feed an entire family for several months and had proven it's value by saving her life more times than she cared to count.
Robin consulted his tablet, scrolling through the gate information. "D-rank, standard forest environment from the looks of things. Intel suggests mostly goblins and maybe a troll or two deeper in. Should be straightforward." He glanced up at her with that same half-kind, half-patient expression that he always did. "We'll be relying on you to do the initial scouting, of course. I don't think any of us are interested in just…wandering randomly through the forest looking for monsters."
"Of course," Taylor nodded, already mentally preparing herself for what was to come. It was always the same, really. She would send in her shadows first, let them creep through the underbrush and report back on enemy positions while the real Hunters waited safely behind. She tried not to think about how many of her summons had been torn apart over the months, and how much discomfort had come with it. Not pain, per se, but she certainly felt it when her summons died, and it never felt any less unpleasant. But it was what she could contribute and it saved lives, so she wasn't going to complain too strenuously, not even in the privacy of her own head.
"Good girl!" Robin said, and she tried not to wince at the praise. It felt hollow, somehow, no matter how genuine the man sounded when he said the words. Which wasn't fair to Mister Swoyle, but emotions were rarely fair. "It shouldn't take us long to handle things, we've got a pretty good group and there's a dozen of us in total. More than enough to handle a D-rank fairly easily. We're just waiting on the last person now."
Taylor nodded and moved away from the group, finding a relatively quiet spot near the gate's shimmering entrance. The portal itself was maybe eight feet tall and roughly oval, its surface rippling like disturbed water but with an electric blue glow that spiraled endlessly, something that made her stomach turn if she looked at it too long. She'd been through enough gates by now that the sight didn't terrify her anymore, but it certainly didn't inspire confidence either. Hopefully she wouldn't get injured too badly this time around. She didn't know how much longer her parents would be willing to let her do gates at all if she kept coming home bloody and exhausted with a bare handful of crystals and a few hundred dollars to show for it.
Ten minutes later, the last Hunter finally arrived, and she couldn't quite resist the urge to groan softly to herself and roll her eyes. Sophia Hess was…not a pleasant human being to be around, with a love for killing monsters that bordered on the disturbing and a talent for casual cruelty, verbal and physical alike, that made her almost impossible to work with. Really, it was only the fact that she was a B-rank assassin with a powerful Talent that had kept her from being blackballed, in Taylor's humble opinion. Not that she was biased or anything, despite being the bitch's favorite target for nastiness. Still, she couldn't and wouldn't deny that the other girl's ability to phase her weapons -ranged and melee alike- through solid objects, such as armor, was a potent one.
Sophia spotted her almost immediately, lips curving into that familiar predatory smirk that Taylor had come to loathe. The dark-skinned girl -probably the only person in the world 'smart' enough to understand that Taylor wouldn't tattle to her twin about issues- sauntered over, hand-crossbows holstered on her hips and a pair of combat knives sheathed at the small of her back, every movement dripping with the same sort of casual confidence that some natural feline predator might have. A comparison Taylor knew would please Sophia immensely, given how often she had bragged about being a 'predator' in Taylor's hearing.
"Well, well, well. Look what finally crawled out of the woodwork. A cute little bug." Sophia drawled, stopping just close enough to make Taylor uncomfortable, just like she always did. "Let me guess, Mommy and Daddy finally stopped trying to keep you locked up and let you out of your bedroom again? One of these days they'll realize they should just suspend your license and keep you out of everyone's hair."
Taylor kept her expression carefully neutral, though her hands clenched slightly at her sides. "Just here to do my job, Sophia, just the same as you."
"Just the same as me? I doubt that, you'd have to actually be worth something in a fight to be anything like me, so…" Sophia scoffed, clearly intent on building up a head of steam, but was cut off as Robin clapped his hands sharply from nearby.
"Alright, everyone's here, so…" he announced, either oblivious to the tension between the two of them or choosing to ignore it. Smart man, if it was the latter, though perhaps not a particularly heroic man. "Let's get this briefing done and get moving. Standard strategy, and for anyone who hasn't worked with us before that means that Taylor's shadows go in first to map the terrain and locate monsters, possibly even the boss itself. Once we have a clear picture, we take out the largest groups between us and the boss, then kill it and head home. Make sure to stay together and keep your eyes open. Protect the healers and the mages. I haven't lost anyone on a raid yet, and I'd like to keep it that way. Clear?"
There was a murmur of agreement that flowed around the 'threshold', each member saying something or making some manner of sound in confirmation to his words, and he nodded in satisfaction before making his way towards, then through, the gate with the members of the raiding party on his heels. Sophia flashed Taylor a mocking smile, making an inviting gesture in the direction of the portal, and Taylor couldn't help but roll her eyes in response as she stepped through it herself.
The world shifted, reality bending in that nauseatingly familiar way as Taylor passed through the Gate, stepping between realms in a single instant. One moment she was standing in the drab staging area in Brockton Bay, the next she was surrounded by a dense forest of towering trees with jagged, scale-like bark the color of burnt copper and leaves of deep purple-black. The air here was thicker, carrying the scent of something like cinnamon and wet soil, and the light filtering through the canopy cast everything in an eerie blue-green glow.
Another day, another dungeon. she thought with a sigh, wishing for a moment that her life would change, that she would become more than she was.
An irony, that wish.