Novels by OJOANI

"I was on the roof," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I saw the explosion in the alley. I followed you here. I saw you draw that strange square on the floor and burn the hounds. And I saw you turn a sack of poisonous Blight-wheat into a flesh-eating monster in under a minute." She stopped tossing the coin. She slipped it into her pocket and stepped forward, the playful look vanishing from her face. Her glowing silver eyes locked onto Brandon with intense, dangerous suspicion. "My name is Lydia," she said, resting her hand on the hilt of a curved hunting knife at her belt. "I am a hedge-witch. I was born with the Aether in my blood. I don't need the Sun-King's prayers to make a spark." She pointed a dirty finger at Brandon. "But you... you are an ordinary human. A weak, ink-stained scribe. You have no magic in your blood. Yet, you manipulated raw Aether without chanting, without praying, and without a holy wand. That is impossible." Lydia took another step closer, her voice drop

Brandon was dragged backward across the rough stone floor. The thick, purple vine wrapped around his left ankle pulled with the strength of a raging horse. The sharp thorns dug deep into his skin, sending waves of burning pain up his leg. He kicked with his free foot, but it was like kicking solid iron. Just a few feet away, the center of the wooden planter box had ripped completely open. A horrific, jagged mouth made of twisted wood and sharp thorns snapped wildly in the air. Glowing, purple sap dripped from its wooden teeth. Wherever the sap hit the stone floor, it hissed and melted the rock like powerful acid. The mutant plant let out a terrible, high-pitched scream. It sounded like rusted metal grinding against bone. It was hungry, and it was pulling Brandon directly into its deadly mouth. “Weapon. I need a weapon!” Brandon’s mind screamed. He had dropped his heavy iron hammer when the vine first grabbed him. He frantically scraped his hands across the dirty floor as he was d

Brandon picked up a handful of the black seeds. They were dead. They were poison. Even if he could somehow cook them, they would kill Veronica. “No,” Brandon told himself, his grip tightening on the black seeds. “There is no such thing as a magical curse. It is a biological infection. It is a disease. And diseases can be cured.”Brandon looked down at the black tattoo on his right hand. He could still feel the raw, blue Aether swirling in the air around him. The brand was a siphon. It allowed him to pull the energy into his body. He didn't know any magical spells. He didn't know any prayers. But he knew biology. He knew cellular structure. He knew botany and genetic mutation. Brandon moved quickly. He found a large, deep wooden planter box near the window. He dumped out the dry, dead dirt and filled it with fresh, damp soil he dug up from beneath the loose floorboards. He poured a thick layer of the black, blighted seeds into the dirt. He knelt in front of the planter box, placing

Brandon tasted bitter leather and old sweat. He was biting down so hard on a thick leather strap that his gums were bleeding. He did not know how the strap got into his mouth, but as his eyes snapped open, he saw Veronica’s small, shaking hands holding the ends of a leather belt against his face. She was crying, whispering for him to stay quiet. If he screamed, the guards outside would hear him. If he screamed, they were dead. So, Brandon bit down on the leather and endured the absolute agony. The glowing red brand—the parasitic magic that had ripped itself from Inquisitor Voss’s dead chest—was digging into the back of Brandon’s right hand. It did not just burn his skin. It felt like tiny, hot wires were crawling under his flesh, sliding up his arm, and plugging directly into his spine and his brain. He squeezed his eyes shut, his entire body trembling violently. The magic was forcefully fusing with his nervous system. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the blinding pain st

Voss flinched, instinctively tightening his shield. "Fool!" the Inquisitor shouted over the roar of the flames. "Your fire cannot penetrate the barrier! The heat cannot reach me!""I don't need the heat to reach you," Brandon yelled back. "I need the fire to eat!" Fire is a chemical reaction. It requires three things to exist: fuel, heat, and oxygen. The highly volatile solvent provided the fuel and the heat. But it needed oxygen to keep burning. And a fire that large, burning that intensely, consumes oxygen at a terrifying rate. The roaring circle of flames around Voss’s feet acted like a vacuum. It aggressively sucked all the available oxygen out of the surrounding air to fuel itself. And because Voss’s shield allowed gasses to pass through, the fire pulled the oxygen straight out of the inside of the kinetic bubble. In less than three seconds, the localized atmosphere inside Voss's shield was completely stripped of oxygen. Voss opened his mouth to laugh again, but no sound came

Veronica’s feet kicked wildly in the empty air. She hung three feet off the ground, her small hands clawing frantically at an invisible vice around her neck. Her pale face was rapidly turning a sickening shade of blue. She tried to cry out for her brother, but the magic gripping her throat was too tight. Only weak, choked gasps escaped her lips."Veronica!" Brandon roared, his voice cracking with panic. He lunged forward, raising the heavy iron hammer in his left hand. With all the strength he had left in his battered body, he swung the hammer directly at Inquisitor Voss's head. The hammer stopped dead in mid-air, a full foot away from Voss’s face. It felt as if Brandon had struck a solid wall of invisible steel. The shimmering dome of warped air around the Inquisitor rippled slightly like a puddle hit by a raindrop. The force of the rebound jarred Brandon’s arm so violently that the hammer slipped from his grip, clattering uselessly to the floor. Brandon scrambled backward, his mi

Victor watched with a breaking heart as his mother was brutally dragged through the heavy doors, realizing that she hadn't abandoned him or attempted to flee, but had instead been betrayed by her own bloodline simply for possessing a power far greater than they could ever hope to wield.The harrowing vision refused to release its grip on him, seamlessly shifting into a new reality where the vibrant colors bled into a blurry, oppressive darkness. In that shadowy space, Victor was suddenly overwhelmed by a profound surge of intense maternal love that was inextricably tangled with a visceral, paralyzing fear.When the image of his mother materialized once more, she was confined within a desolate cell and bound by heavy chains to a weeping wall of glowing, humic stone. Her complexion had faded to a deathly pallor beneath deeply sunken eyes, painting a tragic portrait of a woman teetering on the very edge of mortality. Kneeling beside her was an unfamiliar stranger cloaked in simple brown

The atmosphere in the Grey Wastes entirely lacked the life-giving quality of normal air, instead filling Victor's aching lungs with a harsh, grating texture that felt like inhaling ground-up glass mixed with ancient ash.As Victor Chapman stumbled blindly through the jagged canyons, his heavy boots dragged unrelenting trenches into the grey, lifeless sand. Far behind him, the imposing city of Dagobah had dwindled to nothing more than a faint, mocking glow on the horizon, representing a golden cage that he had finally managed to escape. However, this newfound freedom exacted a heavy toll on his mortal frame, leaving his battered body feeling as though it were being slowly devoured from the inside out by an unnatural, freezing fire.With every agonizing step he took, a sharp, ragged pain shot directly through his chest. The volatile "Void Sorcery" he had unleashed in the city square bore no resemblance to the sanitized, elemental magic taught within the walls of the Academy, as it did n

As Victor stepped toward the podium, the stone ground cracked violently beneath his feet, forcing the Sentinels to back away with trembling weapons. They had never witnessed anything remotely like this display of power, for magic was supposed to possess strict limits and exact terrible costs upon its wielder. Yet, Victor appeared to be drawing inexhaustible energy from an endless ocean of pure darkness.Lady Bianca instinctively shrank back, attempting to hide her diminishing stature behind Lord Hestor's bulk as Victor came to a halt a mere ten feet away. He locked his glowing gaze directly onto hers, and for the first time in eighteen years, the oppressive dynamic had completely shifted; she was the one trembling as she looked up, while he stood tall and stared coldly down at her."You called my mother a traitor," Victor stated, his eyes radiating the same hypnotic violet fire that burned within Fiona's gaze. "You spent my entire life telling me she abandoned me because I was nothing

Although the black fire did not kill Lady Bianca, it was never truly meant to end her life just yet. The devastating wave of dark energy had slammed into the high podium with catastrophic force, shattering the grand marble pillars and sending the once-dignified noble family scrambling for their lives like terrified rats. Across the Great Square, the heavy air grew thick with the acrid stench of burnt stone mingling with something ancient and oppressive, carrying the distinct scent of a storm that had spent a millennium brewing in the shadows.Victor Chapman stood firmly in the center of the utter destruction with his chest heaving from the exertion. Beside him loomed the six-winged Seraph, Fiona, remaining as motionless as a magnificent statue carved from obsidian and pulsating violet light. Her overwhelming presence pressed down so heavily upon the courtyard that the very ground beneath Victor’s feet ceased its violent shaking, as though the earth itself was far too terrified to tre

Lifting its magnificent head, the Seraph revealed eyes that burned like twin pools of violent, violet fire. "They lied to you, little master," the creature intoned smoothly. "They did not fear her because she was weak, but rather because she was the only force in this entire world that they could never hope to control. They caged a dragon and dared to call it a worm, just as they obscured the blazing sun and dismissed it as a mere shadow."High upon the podium, Lady Bianca trembled violently as the blood drained entirely from her face, leaving her complexion an ashen, sickly grey that mirrored the visage of someone confronted by their darkest, most unspeakable nightmares. "Shut it up!" she shrieked wildly at her paralyzed soldiers. "Archers, fire at the boy and kill him this instant!"Driven far more by their ingrained terror of the Lady than any immediate dread of the towering Seraph, the guards hastily raised their bows and unleashed a volley of a dozen arrows. Tipped with spirit-sl

The world did not merely go dark; it felt as though the very essence of the world itself had abruptly died.Throughout the Great Square of Dagobah, thousands of people stood paralyzed in a silence so suffocatingly heavy that it felt as if they had been submerged in the depths of a freezing ocean. The golden banners that had fluttered so proudly just moments prior now hung limp and invisible against the sudden, absolute ink of the blackened sky. The only illumination remaining in the entire city emanated from the Resonating Crystal, though it no longer cast a warm, inviting glow; instead, a jagged, violent violet light bled maliciously from the expanding cracks in the ruined stone.Victor Chapman remained rooted at the absolute center of the chaos, staring in dazed wonder as his broken hand—which had been a gruesome mess of shattered bone and purpling skin mere seconds ago—became enveloped in a soft, soothing black mist. He watched in breathless disbelief as his crushed fingers mirac

Julian woke up to the feeling of biting cold.His head was heavy, and his mouth tasted like stale mint and old blood. He tried to rub his eyes, but his hands would not move. He pulled harder. Nothing happened.Julian blinked, his vision slowly coming into focus. He was sitting in a heavy, wooden chair. Thick, glowing blue ropes made of pure magical ice tied his wrists to the armrests and his ankles to the legs of the chair.He looked around. He was no longer at the bottom of the toxic, dark Miasma Rift. He was inside a room that looked like a dungeon, but a dungeon built for royalty. The walls were made of smooth, grey stone, completely covered in a thin layer of sparkling frost. A beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling, made entirely of glowing icicles that cast a soft, cold blue light over the room.There was a large silver mirror on one wall, a plush white rug on the floor, and a grand wooden desk in the corner. It was luxurious, but the heavy iron door and the freezing tempe

Rachael’s eyes shot open. The dark madness was completely in control now. She looked at him with pure, untamed rage. "Get off me, you filthy animal!" she screamed, raising a hand to blast his head off.[3 seconds... 2 seconds...]"Shut up and let me save you!" Julian shouted.Before she could release her magic, Julian slammed his body down on top of hers. He grabbed her beautiful, pale face with both of his bloody, rough hands.And then, he smashed his lips directly against hers.[1 second...]Kiss initiated.[Miasma Shield deactivated.]For one terrifying second, Julian thought he had made a huge mistake. The moment the green shield vanished, the terrible, absolute-zero cold of her body hit him. It felt like jumping naked into a frozen lake. His blood felt like it was turning into slush. His heart stuttered in his chest.Rachael’s eyes went wide with pure shock. A filthy, bleeding Null was kissing her. She tried to push him away, her hands glowing with deadly ice magic. But then, the

Rachael slowly sat up in the crater. Her white hair floated around her head as if blown by an invisible wind. Blood dripped from her nose, freezing before it even hit her chin. The black veins of the Mana-Rot had reached her neck now. She was dying fast, but her S-Rank power was still overwhelming. She pointed a single, shaking finger at Julian. "Die," she whispered.Above Julian’s head, the moisture in the toxic green fog began to freeze. In just three seconds, a massive, deadly spear of ice formed in the air. It was ten feet long, sharp enough to cut through a mountain, and pointed directly at Julian’s heart.[Warning!] the System flashed bright red in his eyes. [Miasma Shield failing. 30 seconds remaining.]Julian looked at the massive ice spear floating above him. He looked down at his trapped arms. He was totally stuck. If she dropped that spear, it would blow a hole straight through his chest. No amount of System healing would save him if his heart was completely destroyed."Sy

The temperature dropped so fast it felt like a physical blow.Julian exhaled, and his breath instantly turned into a cloud of tiny, floating ice crystals. He shivered violently. Even through his torn black suit, the cold was biting into his skin like invisible needles.He stood at the edge of the crater. Down in the center, Rachael Blackwood—the Ice Queen—lay in the smashed dirt. The frost spreading from her body was freezing the toxic black mud solid.Julian took a step forward. His foot crunched loudly on the frozen ground.[Warning!] the System chimed urgently in his mind. [Target's passive Ice Aura is highly unstable. Entering the crater without protection will cause immediate freezing of the Host's blood. Time to death: 60 seconds.]"You want me to kiss her, but you're telling me I'll die if I get close?" Julian gritted his teeth, wrapping his arms around himself to save body heat. "Give me something! You said my Incubus blood is awake. Do I have a shield?"[Negative. The Host ha

Julian stopped pacing. The robotic voice was right. He really did have nothing to lose. He had lost his girlfriend, his dignity, and his normal life. He was a walking dead man with a ticking clock in his chest.He looked down at his hands again. He was tired of being weak. He was tired of being the dirt that rich Mages stepped on. If this crazy System was telling him to kiss an S-Rank Witch to survive, then he was going to find a way to do it. He refused to die before seeing Darius Cage bleed."Fine," Julian muttered, clenching his fists. "Fine. But first, I have to get out of this Rift."He finally took a good look at his surroundings. The bottom of the Miasma Rift was a nightmare. The ground was covered in thick black mud that smelled like rotten meat. Giant, pale mushrooms grew out of the canyon walls, dripping a sticky yellow acid. The toxic green fog was so thick he could only see about thirty feet in any direction.The air was heavy and quiet. Too quiet. Suddenly, Julian heard

The floating screen flashed red for a second, then went back to blue. New words appeared very quickly.[Scanning Host... Scanning complete.][Host Physiology: Severely damaged. Miasma radiation at 99%.][Error detected in Host Magical Pathways. Magic Veins are not empty. Magic Veins are blocked by ancient seal.][Breaking Seal...]Suddenly, Julian felt a massive surge of heat explode in his chest. It felt like someone had dropped a burning coal directly into his heart. He arched his back, screaming out loud, ignoring his broken ribs. The heat rushed through his veins, melting the green crystals on his skin in an instant.[Seal broken. Null status confirmed false.][Hidden Bloodline Discovered: The Ancient Incubus.][Host Soul matches System Requirements. Initiating bond.]"What... what are you talking about?" Julian asked in his mind. He realized he didn't need to speak out loud. He could hear the voice in his head, so maybe it could hear his thoughts. "Am I going mad?"[You are not g