All Chapters of LIROIDS: Chapter 201
- Chapter 210
236 chapters
Toh
The night air of Toh tasted different, older, heavier, as though judgment itself lingered in the dust.They had spent days on the road before the valley finally opened beneath them, a wide scar in the land where stone dipped and rose like a frozen wave. At its heart lay Toh, territory of Varun the Judge, one of the old gods, and one who had never forgiven the Liroids.Dragon stood at the ridge, arms folded. “Blood and Irinrod’s trail ends here.”Snake frowned. “Of all places,” he muttered. “What in the roots would possess them to come to Varun’s land? He hates Liroids. Always has, especially after his child wed one.”Dragon’s jaw tightened. “Then Irinrod is either desperate or deliberate.”“Both,” Snake said. “And that makes her dangerous.”They waited until morning before descending. The city of Toh was awake early, merchants shouting prices, judges’ scribes moving with scrolls tucked beneath their arms, robed envoys slipping between alleys. Snake felt eyes on him everywhere. Varun’s
The Price of Obedience
The training ground was quiet in the way only slaughter could make it.Bodies lay strewn across the packed earth, men twisted where they had fallen, blood darkening the dust into mud. Some still twitched. Others stared sightlessly at the sky. The air reeked of iron and sweat and spent fear.Irinrod stood at the center of it all, unbothered, balanced on the balls of her feet as though she had merely finished a dance. Her dagger gleamed wetly in her hand.Snake took it in with a slow breath. “This,” he said flatly, “is venting?”Blood answered without shame. “Grandmother has her way about things.”Dragon stepped forward, fury finally breaking loose. “I almost died defending you,” he snapped. “I stood between Snake and the Goddess’s blades…and you’re out here, in the land of a god who wants us all dead, enjoying yourself slaughtering his people?”Irinrod lifted the dagger to her lips and licked the blood from its edge.“They were escapees,” she said calmly. “Remnants of the replacement s
Vil dren [Drens Heart]
The house rose from the valley like a quiet defiance.White stone veined with gold, wide terraces carved into the hillside, old god–script etched into its pillars so ancient even Varun’s priests pretended not to notice it. Vines crawled lazily along the walls, heavy with night-blooming flowers that perfumed the air.Dragon slowed despite himself. “How,” he asked, eyes narrowing, “does a Liroid own something like this in a land that despises us?”Blood did not look offended. He almost looked fond.“It belonged to Dren,” he said simply. “My grandfather.”Snake’s gaze flicked to him. “Irinrod’s husband.”Blood nodded. “He loved to travel. Said a man who never leaves home never learns what he is defending.” He paused, fingers brushing the stone railing. “He built this place long before Varun’s hatred hardened into law. Left it to Grandmother before he passed.”Dragon huffed softly. “Bold man.”“Dead men can afford boldness,” Blood replied without humor.Servants emerged the moment they cr
Blood’s Resolution
The house gradually fell quiet as the servants withdrew and the lamps were dimmed. One by one, doors closed, footsteps faded, and only the low murmur of the fire remained. Snake lingered in the great room, standing before the hearth, its flames reflecting faintly in his eyes.He wondered, not for the first time, how far Evilside’s unrelenting grief had spread through their kind, how many lives it had hardened, how many hearts had been turned to stone in the name of law. And more troubling still, how many among them now carried silent grudges against their own goddess.Footsteps approached behind him.Blood came to stand at his side, a cup of root wine in each hand. He offered one with an easy grin. “Join me for a drink, young killer.”Snake accepted it, the warmth seeping into his palm. “We are all killers.”Blood smiled, unfazed. “Exactly. That’s why we drink.”They stood in companionable silence for a moment before Blood spoke again, quieter now. “I know what you’re thinking. This l
Home Again
They slept little, but it was enough. Before dawn, the house in Toh had already begun to stir, servants moving like ghosts through long corridors, cloaks laid out, blades cleaned and returned to their sheaths. No one spoke of goodbyes. Among liroids, departures were promises enough.The road to Kindraloy stretched long and familiar, winding through lands where magic thinned, and old wards whispered rather than sang. With every passing day, Dragon grew more animated, his steps lighter, his temper looser. Snake, by contrast, grew quieter, his thoughts narrowing to one thing alone.Home.Kindraloy greeted them without ceremony, just as it always had. No horns. No banners. Only dust, stone, and the echo of voices he had once feared he might never hear again.Dragon barely made it past the outer courtyard.A clay pot came flying out of nowhere.He twisted on instinct, laughing as it shattered against the wall behind him. “Ah,” he said brightly, already grinning, “this feels right.”Rage’s
The Road To the Trial
The news came with the morning mist.Cellok.Not Doomsany. Not the shadowed halls where Doom’s word carried weight and Death’s presence bent even the proudest liroid to silence. Cellok, Evilside’s seat, her city of roots and stone, where law was not debated but observed.Snake felt it settle in his chest the moment Heartless’ messenger spoke the name.“This will not be mercy,” he said quietly once they were alone.Dragon leaned against the table, arms crossed. “No. This is her territory. Her rules. Her eyes on everything.”“If she wanted reconciliation,” Snake continued, “she would have let Doom preside. Or Death. Cellok means she intends to watch every word, every breath.”Dragon grimaced. “And Irinrod hates being watched.”“Which is exactly why this spells trouble.”They did not delay. Within the hour, they had sent word requesting formal permission to partake in the trial, not as blades, not as enforcers, but as witnesses bound by root and oath.Heartless’ reply came faster than ex
Busy Streets
By the time they reached Cellok, the city was already choking on its own importance.Wagons clogged the stone streets, their wheels grinding against roots that had broken through the pavement long ago. Carriages marked with sigils from distant sectors lined the avenues, iron crests, bone emblems, and living wood standards that whispered as they passed. Snake needed no herald to tell him who had come. The weight in the air said enough.Liroid leaders. Elders. Enforcers. Observers.Everyone had answered the call.“This is bigger than a trial,” Snake murmured, adjusting Shiver in his arms as Trina walked close at his side. “It’s a measure.”“A test,” Dragon agreed. “Of tolerance.”Of Irinrod, Snake finished silently. Or of how far Evilside would bend before she broke.A light tap touched Snake’s back.He turned, already half-smiling.“Phantom,” Dragon said dryly. “Of all the roots in all the realms.”The Phantom Liroid stood there as though he had always been part of the crowd, cloak shi
The Trial of Root
They took their places as the hall settled into a tense, expectant hush.Creature stood beside Center, his posture rigid, eyes already tracking exits and threats. Phantom moved without sound to Assassin’s side, his presence a quiet promise of violence should the balance tip. Blood remained standing until the very last moment, jaw clenched, refusing to look toward the dais until he forced himself still.At the high seat, Evilside sat carved from shadow and authority, her presence pressing down on the hall like gravity itself. To her right stood Heartless, composed and unreadable, and beside her Darkside, arms folded, gaze sharp as a drawn blade. Further along the semicircle of elders, Death took her seat close to Varun, her expression calm, almost distant, too calm for one who had ordered chains placed on blood of her own blood.Varun sat like judgment incarnate, pale eyes reflecting nothing, his divine aura scraping against the roots of Cellok like a foreign infection. The city did no
The cruel
Evilside’s silence stretched long enough to make the torches hiss and the roots beneath the hall creak in unease.Irinrod took a slow breath, then spoke again, her voice firmer now, stripped of heat and sharpened into truth.“Whomever here has not obeyed the law by killing the spouse they loved,” she said, eyes cutting across the assembly, “has no right to question me.”A ripple moved through the elders; some stiffened, some looked away.Darkside stepped forward, her tone careful. “Gently, Irin…”But Irinrod did not stop.“We,” she continued, “the first blood, are the real Liroids. We were forced to kill the men we loved to uphold a law that demanded our hearts as payment. Is that not so, Grandmother?”Darkside froze.For a moment, she looked very young.She said nothing.Irinrod nodded once, as if that silence were answer enough.Then she turned, sharp as a blade’s edge, to Varun.“I will not answer to a god who sheltered traitors beneath his wings and claimed ignorance,” she said co
Under Cellok
It was later that Snake met with Evilside, though Heartless had warned him not to raise the matter again. He went anyway.He descended into what they called the Underground Palace, Evilside’s true domain, where her real self resided. At its center stood the Great Tree, vast enough to rival ten houses, its roots spreading endlessly through stone and darkness. Beneath those roots lay Cellon, her former home, buried by her own hand in fury and grief. All that remained of it was ash, shattered walls, and the memory of what had once been.Very few were permitted to see her in this state.Snake was one of them.She appeared to be asleep, the tree still and breath-like pulses moving slowly through its bark. But the moment he laid his hand against the trunk, the wood stirred, alive, awakening, responding to his touch.The roots shifted at his touch, slow and deliberate, like a beast waking from a long, uneasy sleep.The great tree inhaled.Bark groaned and folded inward, reshaping itself with