Showing results by author "Luke Chmilenko" in All Categories

Reidon Ward will become a god. He doesn't know it yet, of course. Reidon was born weak, sickly, and small. Afflicted with a painful disease and abandoned by his parents because of it, he has had to fight tooth and nail for every minor advantage life has allowed him. However, his perseverance has not gone unnoticed, and when the most powerful artificial intelligence in human history takes an interest in him, things began to change quickly.

Diving into a revolutionary new video game, Marcus and his friends escape a stagnant society, entering into a world that defies their wildest imaginations. But from the moment that he logs in, Marcus finds himself separated from his friends and thrown into a remote village under attack by a horde of goblins. Forced into battle, Marcus rallies the beleaguered villagers and, with their help, manages to drive off the invading creatures. With the village in ruins and their supplies spoiled, the villagers turn to Marcus for help in rebuilding the village.

After arriving back to civilization Sylvas and the others scramble to discover what to do next. Do they return to the Ardent and stand fast against the eidolon incursion? Do they answer the council’s call and return to the core worlds, saving what lives they can? Or do they leave the Empyrean Alliance behind and pursue the legacy of the Aions? Whatever they choose, they must choose quickly.

Fresh off their victory over Graves and his followers, Marcus and his friends have managed to enjoy a few weeks of relative calm and peace as they continue to build Aldford, preparing the town for a new wave of settlers coming from Eberia. But as the days wear on with no new arrivals in sight, they begin to fear the worse, eventually setting out to search for their promised reinforcements and soon realizing that they weren’t as alone on the frontier as they thought they were.

Barely surviving the collapse of an entire planet, Auric and West have escaped to the only place they could. Unfortunately, that place is a world out of time—or perhaps—frozen in it? A shattered, purgatorial instance where gravity doesn’t make sense, ancient guardians slumber, and the secrets of the inner workings of the System wait to be uncovered. In this place, staying alive is unlikely. Staying sane even less so.

Betrayed by those they'd taken in and narrowly avoiding a disaster of untold proportions, Lyrian and his friends are once again thrust into a fight for their very survival, this time against Carver and his band of murderous adventurers. But as their newfound war quickly reaches a stalemate, both sides find themselves scrambling for a way to break it, while viciously battling one another for every inch of ground that they can steal in the process.

When a fierce aetherstorm unleashes a wave of demonic aetherbeasts on New Albion—capital of the Valestra Kingdom—Callum Stross and his friends Quinn and Marcella answer the call, defending the city with a courage befitting the next generation of Great College archmages.

Absalom Scryne, the greatest wizard of his generation, has been murdered. There's no other explanation for why his consciousness now resides in his well-worn but perfectly pointed hat. Well, he isn't going to take that lying down . . . or hanging from a branch, as the case may be.

All Auric Cain ever wanted was a chance. A chance to prove himself. A chance to take control of his life. A chance to be more than a lowly D-Tier, the lowest of the low, in a world broken by the arrival of an alien, enigmatic being known as The System.

Despite his youth, Declan Idrys knows of the evils of the world. He knows of the bastards and brigands who plague the King's lands, of the monsters skulking in the wooded depths of the realm. Together with his companion, Ryn—a beast of rather peculiar talent—he has spent the last decade of his life beneath the bloody banners of a half-dozen mercenary guilds, hunting precisely such festering wickedness within the borders of Viridian.

In the Domains, those born with magic have only one place where they can prove themselves worthy of it: the brutal pits of the arena, where they will either grow in power and build a following with every victory, or risk dishonor and death in defeat. For these "Gladiators", the ultimate prize for their struggle is a place among the Chosen, the immortal rulers of that vast and decadent empire.

Absalom Scryne isn't himself. On the one hand, he's a well-rounded gentleman of a sentient hat with two beloved apprentices and a tagalong swordsman. On the other, he's a rather furious wizard sitting on the opposite side of a desk, demanding they give back his hat. Needless to say, it's not an ideal situation. And it's about to get worse. Because the battle between civilization and all the monsters of the Badlands and the underworld is about to begin.

Maulkin and his Eternal allies may have just caused the apocalypse, but at least they’re doing it with style. The Voidgod is back and the Alvaren Queen is now convinced that Maulkin is the second coming of the Voidgod himself, but at least they have the totally awesome magic sword made out of the weapon that put the big bad down for a long nap last time! No wait, they don’t. The first thing Araphel did after stretching and yawning was to turn it to dust.

Sylvas Vail is a big fish in a small pond, the most powerful mage on his planet. But when the doors to the cosmos come crashing open and all the untold wonders and terrors of the universe come pouring in, he is left with only two options: Ascend or die.

The Culling is over, and against all odds, Sylvas stands victorious. But even so, his training isn’t over. In fact, it’s barely even begun. Before he can do anything more than catch his breath, he and all the other cadets are whisked off planet for their next trial. Onslaught Citadel. And this time, dying won’t be enough to save them.

Once more, and against all odds, Marcus and the rest of Virtus have managed to snatch victory from the jaws of total defeat, capturing not only Carver but also destroying the orc advance completely. Yet there is no peace in store for the exhausted victors, for not only must they pay the price for their desperate triumph, but they must also rise up once more to meet a new terror that has revealed itself.

The unimaginable has happened. Sylvas has taken in War, Blood, and Strife and bound it to his heart. A feat that has seen the Empyrean Alliance plucking him from the comforts of the Ardent and pulling back the veil that once masked everything. Now, for the first time ever, Sylvas can see his place in the galaxy, standing between the threats that seek to unmake it.

No matter how Declan Idrys looks at his situation, he comes to the same conclusion every time: He is about to die at the hands of the first dark elf seen in 700 years. Fate, fortunately, is not so cruel, though, and after barely surviving this initial encounter with the er’endehn of Eserysh, Declan and his friends find themselves in a tentative truce with the war-loving elves. They share a common enemy, after all, and their mutual hate for the Endless Queen and her growing legions is enough for the two groups to set aside their mistrust for one another, if only for now.

Eighteen-year-old Callum Stross never asked to become a hero. Struggling through a brutal harvest alongside his father, he's more concerned with surviving the season than reliving ancient wars. But when a devastating aetherstorm strikes, Callum is forced to seek shelter in a cursed manor, where he discovers a dormant Aethercore tied to the bloodline of the legendary Demonslayer. The core fuses with his soul, awakening latent power and binding him to Fen, a mana-bound fox who claims Callum is the Reborn Heir meant to finish what his ancestor started.

Auric Cain found his chance. He proved himself, took control of his life, and became stronger than he ever thought possible. So why is everything falling apart? Literally. With the help of allies old and new, Auric thwarted Salvo’s plan and narrowly avoided cataclysm. But in the wake of that confrontation, something went very, very wrong. Now everywhere Auric turns he sees that his home, his world, and even the System itself are coming apart at the seams. Entropic gateborn roam the wilds unchecked while rogue storms and freak anomalies spring up seemingly at random.