Baal X Aether Novels & Stories

“You could still be sitting on a magical bomb from Kyante’s little potion party. Might have some freak powers waiting to crack open.” I shook my head. “I doubt that. I don’t feel anything. No sparks. No urges to burst into flame. Just… me.” Baelorin tilted his head, wings flexing slightly behind him. “Maerwynn didn’t feel anything either. Not at first. And she turned out to be the Aether.” That made me pause. My arms slowly dropped to my sides as I looked at him—really looked. “You think I might be something like that?”

A crack, thousands of miles long, appeared across the Atlantic Ocean, glowing with a terrifying, molten-blue light. "The Aether was the distraction," Elias laughed as he dissolved into light. "The real game... is the Core." Elena looked down at the crumbling world. She had saved the sky, but she had just awakened the Earth.

Their leaves were all silver and shiny because of the Aether that was always being released. Malachi said, "The Royal Pack thinks Aether is like a battery that you can use up and throw away." He was standing there with his shirt off. You could see the glowing tattoos all over his body. They were like a map of his history or something. ". For a Celestial like me Aether is more like a conversation. You do not take the power Elowen. You are the power."

It should have been unlikely since to declare such was to oppose Ayla, an action tantamount to blasphemy by the teachings of the credence. The priest led them past a stall and Sethlzaar caught sight of elixirs and varying concoctions, some of which he could recognize where fashioned to aid treatment of illnesses as well as a few to heal wounds. He spotted a few Ventril had claimed where designed to give a man the strength of ten men by inducing an unnatural rush of adrenaline known to often drive men into a blind rage.

To have Kaelion. To be the name sung by the howling wolves. And if Seraphina stood in the way of that again—no spell, no force, not even the Moon Goddess herself would stop her. Not this time.

As everyone watched in stunned silence. “I thought I lost you,” Aether whispered. “You almost did,” Laziel replied quietly. “But I found my way back… and I’m ready to fight beside you.” Aether looked at him, eyes fierce. “Then you’re most welcome, it hasn’t been easy doing it alone, you can be my beta if you want to, I don’t have one for now” Laziel blinked. “Just like that?” “You’re blood, you’re back. And I think that position fits no one more.”

His presence was a sinkhole, swallowing the heat, the sound, and the fear in the room. "Eclipse at thirty percent," Helena reported from the sensor station. Her fingers flew across the holographic interface of the stolen cruiser, her face pale in the glow of the tactical map. "The ambient Aether levels are spiking. The celestial alignment is thinning the veil between the physical world and the magical currents." "It makes the air taste like metal," Vane grumbled, checking the load on his pistol for the tenth time. "And it makes my eye itch."

The ethereal realm twisted and contorted in response, the air crackling with energy. But the True Alpha was not easily bested. It lunged at them, a blur of black fur and bared fangs. Amelia and Leo evaded its attacks, their agile forms darting and weaving through the ethereal realm. Spells and energy clashed in brilliant bursts of light, filling the air with crackling power and tension. As the battle raged on, a sudden realization struck Amelia. "Leo, we need to disrupt the True Alpha's connection to the Veritas Reliquary," she called out, her voice determined yet tinged with urgency.

Aetherion stepped forward, his violet eyes wide with something between awe and concern. “You’ve surpassed every prediction,” he murmured. “Even I didn’t anticipate this speed of control.” “Then help us,” I said sharply. “We don’t have time for lectures.” He nodded, lifting his hands. Dark energy rippled around him, but this time, it wasn’t hostile. He formed a barrier around the fissure, holding back the black tide rising from below. The Creator hissed, slamming one massive shadow hand into Aetherion’s barrier. “Your allies cannot save her. She belongs to me!”

He poured the seeds, thousands of tiny, obsidian-colored pearls, into the center of the basin. They looked pathetic against the vast, dead concrete. "Sophia... release the Aether," Leo whispered into his comms. A mile above them, in the heart of the Spire, Sophia slammed the final override. The Aether-Core let out a sub-harmonic roar that shook the very bedrock of Neo-Tokyo. A bolt of pure, emerald lightning traveled down the copper shunt, hitting the center of the basin with the force of a falling star. The Violent Harvest