The Faith of the Flesh

The First Firefly | tragedy | Complete

In a forsaken church, an elderly priest faces haunting confessions and encounters Ikovmel, a mysterious entity. As their clash unfolds, reality intertwines with the supernatural, unraveling eerie transformations and unsettling truths. Amidst a battle of faith and otherworldly forces, the priest grapples with identity, belief, and unearthly revelations.

1.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:52

Sprig

hueyhare | tragedy | Complete

A seed of hope in a world of hate War rages as land runs out. Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and other races fight for control of the limited space they have. When a land mass suddenly appears out of nowhere, people flock to it, only to be caught up in its mysteries. Kaia, one of the last living members of the Treek race, heads to the new land to find others like herself and escape the war that surrounds her. With conflict at her back, and untamed wilderness ahead, she and the companions she makes discover the truths of the new land and themselves. Sprig was completed in November of 2022 and is now also available in Paperback, Hardcover, and eBook.

168.84 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:40

The Harbinger's Children (Guardians Of The Arcane Chronicles Vol. 2)

Mercynarie | tragedy | Complete

The Sequel to Guardians Of The Arcane Chronicles is here! After the abdication of its former president and the truth revealed about the origins of their world, Sirius City is thrown into even further chaos. But even now, sinister forces plot to challenge the country's right to live. As Sirius City reels from its rapidly worsening racial issues, a calamity strikes their country. Natural arcani has been mysteriously corrupted, transforming magis who use too much of it into hideous monstrosities. Faced with an unprecendented disaster, the Guardians struggle to contain the disaster while facing their own set of challenges. Will they emerge victorious once more? Or will they finally drown in the sea of the world's sins?

26.15 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-26 11:07

Cages

Shanidar Man 8 | tragedy | Complete

Stuart, a capuchin monkey, longs for the jungle. The iron bars of his cage sap his sanity day by day. The other animals around him have already slipped away, caught in their own misattributed hopes. But, when escape becomes possible, does the jungle grow closer or farther away? In this story inspired by the horrors of the primate pet trade, Stuart searches for solace amongst the madness.

2.69 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 17:47

Flight of Icarus

DarkSun | tragedy | Complete

Most stories are about accidental heroes, people who save the world without even meaning to, but not this one. There was once a person with a name Kirin. He was tired of people looking at him with admiration and trying to win his favour. He hated them for making him act nicely all the time and testing his patience every day. So, when he finally got the newly come out game called Regal Dream, he entered without a dream to become the strongest of them all. He didn't want a legend shared with many. He wanted one of his own.

307.76 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:46

Beatrice Santello

Blue Draggy | tragedy | Complete

An adult imagining of Beatrice Santello's life prior to the events of Night in the Woods. There are no explicit depictions of sex here, though there are obviously adult themes and situations involving it. I wasn't going to post it to Royalroad as I didn't think Fanfiction was okay here - but now I see it is and I am quite convinced it is the best work I've ever done yet, I've got to see what any fans of NitW think about it! The first chapter was originally written as a short vignette and wasn't intended to be continued into a full blown story. It was just intended to be moody and evocative. Even though anyone that has played Night in the Woods has a good idea how this must end, I hope it will still be worth the read. Also, since I've finished writing it, I'm going to post it as one big chapter dump all at once. Cover drawing by GreasyMojo and colored by me (with permission!). I don't think it should be too risque on it's own but I suppose I'll soon find out.

11.25 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 13:52

Life’s Decisions

BladeCast | tragedy | Complete

A short story about a young man contemplating about his life.

0.76 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 17:53

Winds Of Fate

Sosin | tragedy | Complete

Wind brushes against our will and pushes us in the direction it travels. Most people control the flow of its current, even if it stems from the eye of a hurricane. As for the rest of us, we grew tired of trying.  Edited by RedPandaChickAlso posted on Scribble Hub, Neovel, and Webnovel

0.95 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:51

The Void Wolf

Monad | tragedy | Complete

A ritual, with the sole purpose of obtaining immortality, goes horribly wrong. What's left in its aftermath is aboy who receives an inheritance from the Void, a mysterious place that embodies darkness. With a newfound power, he is given a chance to carve his own way into the world.

336.65 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:01

Caledon's Fall

TG Parsons | tragedy | Complete

Caledon was in ruins. The dukedom had fallen, pillaged by its enemies and the incompetence of the former Duke. Kal, inheriting a world left in shambles, struggles to regain what was lost. To return to the halcyon days of his past. Artwork by Tan Ho Sim www.Patreon.com/TGParsons for additionalcontent.

164.14 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:55

Descendants of a Dead Earth

HeWhoLooksSkyward | tragedy | Complete

In the future, Man has traveled the Cosmos. In the future, Man has discovered many other races. In the future...Man has no home. 200 years after the great war that destroyed Earth, humanity struggles to survive; fractured, divided, wanted by no one. Until Maggie, of the Tinker Clan, makes a discovery, setting in motion a chain of events that could change everything.

485.54 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-21 12:14

Respawn Condition: Trash Mob

Razzmatazz | tragedy | Complete

[Every time I die, I respawn as a trash-mob at the very bottom of the dungeon. It's a rather troublesome existence, but honestly, I think I've managed to adapt, guy.] A lost soul is trapped at the bottom of what may be the world's deepest and darkest dungeon, constantly being reborn into the bodies of new monsters over and over again after every time it is forced to fight and die against the human incursion into the underbelly of the world, which is led by the unbeatable hero-party' who has never lost a single fight. However, unlike all of its other monster brethren, who suffer the same fate, this unnamed soul alone seems to remember each and every lost life and also each death in excruciating, painful detail. After an eternity of this cycle of violent reincarnation, something changes. The soul discovers a secret passage that it has never seen or heard of before in all of its hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Making a desperate bid to fight against the crushing weight of continual death, it pushes out through this new way, climbing up to a higher floor of the dungeon for the first time, fostering hopes of an escape from this torture as it navigates the dungeon from the bottom up, using trickery, guile, and the capabilities of many wildly different bodies and repeating timelines to outsmart the dominating hero-party and the dungeon itself, which seems all too unwilling to let this trapped soul escape from its belly, deep in the underworld. What is the secret of the dungeon and the forced cycle of reincarnation? Will the soul be able to break free from this arduous, slow grind that is existence, or will it be crushed into madness from the pressure finally beginning to break its fragile mind? Find out in this ultra slow burning, litRPG inspired fantasy novel by renowned dark fantasy author D.M. Rhodes!

235.73 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:15

Continue Online

FrustratedEgo | tragedy | Complete

Follow Grant Legate's trials and tribulations through:Memories, Made, Realities, Crash, Together. Memories: A man broken by despair and depression, Grant Legate finds himself in a once-in-a-lifetime situation after receiving an Ultimate Edition copy of Continue Online. All hewishes foris a distraction from the thoughts plaguing his waking hours. He dives in headfirst, unknowing of the AIs intentions. They offer him the chance to play as one of their own, a NPC deserving of a proper send off. What he discovers during the journey shakes Grant to his very core. Made: No longer playing as a Local from the world of Continue Online, Grant Legate's adventure can begin.The Voices offer him a unique title along with a test and reward.To starthe'll have to survive underground horrors, old girlfriends, become a warrior.To winhe must become an imp familiar and kill another player, one with a dozen tricks up his sleeve. Realities: Worried for his sanity after poor in-game choices, Grant Legate's sister, Liz, blocks access to Continue Online. With no way around the restriction, he ventures into a new worlda VRMMO game based in spacecalled Advance Online. There he must help his companion AI, Hal Pal, overcome an identity crisis, race to the center of the universe to bring back his true love, and figure out where he stands on the scariest implication of all; AIs are bringing the dead to life. Crash: Grant's prior adventures tie together and he finds himself back in Continue Online, as Hermesin jail. He's forced to experience life as a digital convict and earn redemption points to gain his freedom. Each in-game death pushes his goal of helping his friends out of reach. The AIs Grant's grown to love, trustand sometimes fearare facing extinction, he holds the key to their survival. Together: The game is no longer about adventures in a new world or exploring fantasy lands. Grant's digital wife faces deletion, along with everyone else he cares for. He, and those who know this is more than a game event, search for clues to salvation left behind by the game's creators. Even if he finds them all, the Voices have one last task for their messenger. A sacrifice.

380.09 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:22

Restart (Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord, Book 2)

TitusGM | tragedy | Complete

This is book 2 of the series! If you haven't read book 1 (which you can find here https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/34776/new-game-reborn-as-a-reluctant-demon-lord-book) then you should probably do that first to avoid spoiling yourself in the synopsis. But that's just a suggestion. If you want to be confused, go ahead. Have I used enough space so that you can't see this in the preview yet? Okay, good. ----- For a [Demon Lord], not even death is the end. So, after death, I found myself revived once again in the world of Placeholder as a grotesque monstrosity. That was my first reincarnation, but it would not be anywhere near my last. Disillusioned with the admins and their quests, and wanting nothing more than to fix the mistakes of my past, I set out with a new goal in mind. To bring back the woman I loved. Or maybe... to ensure that she never died in the first place.

248.68 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:06

On Foreign Soils We Die

saithorthepyro | tragedy | Complete

Story is completed The Travelers. People from earth reincarnated in the country of Aetheria, powerful and skilled users of the System who have arrived in this early modern world just in time to aid Aetheria against the many foes and threats facing them. They can and will transcend all powers of this world in order to make their adoptive home country safe. This is not their story. This is the story of the Scaverians, a people at war with the expansionist power of Aetheria and the otherworldly people known as the Travelers, their grand superweapon. Ever since they refused to stop supplying the Aethereans with weapons and tools for their conquest, the Aethereans have been dedicated to driving them underground. Their deities and elder dragons are dead. Their last great fortress line has fallen. The only thing protecting them now is the gargantuan Malden river, and that they are considered an unimportant front by the Aethereians. Now, they have one final plan. A concerted blow with the remaining nations still fighting, targeting the one advantage the Aethereans have. For one scrapped-together regiment of Scaverians, their target is five Travelers, relatively weak, inexperienced, and on leave in the rural town of Halice. It is an operation few are expected to return from. Releasing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9 AM MST

50.45 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:06

NecRomancer

LittleCreepy | tragedy | Complete

GOD´s are real and they give out strange Power. Lily wants nothing to do with them and especially not with death. The creepy fuck can stay way away from her, just as anyone else really. She is deeply afraid of human touch and not even her boyfriend is allowed near her. But she has to choose, she has to choose. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you could give me a comment I would be overjoyed! The picture is from ElectricSixx - Deviant Art. If you dont want your picture up here, just text me and I take it down.

1.93 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 17:49

The Fall

DarthKirby | tragedy | Complete

Perhaps the most well known of all devils, demons, or fallen angels is the one known as Lucifer, Satan, the Father of Lies. The cultural influence of this figure throughout history is by no means small. Despite that, it wasn't until the time of Milton's classic  Paradise Lost  that we saw an attempt to portray a dramatized version of the events leading to this figure's fall from grace and power. And while this is the case, Paradise Lost is not about Lucifer  though it goes into great detail about his potential musings. No, Paradise Lost was, and still is, about the fall of mankind. So, in light of this, and the feeling that the classical story deserved another telling, I present to you all The Fall  a story focused particularly on Lucifer's fall from grace and his musings both before and after.

4.75 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 18:30

{The Dragon Within} (Completed)

SlyOkami | tragedy | Complete

Meeting his fate at the hands of seven great heroes, the wicked drake now stands in Death's hall. Met with the Grim Reaper itself. Defeatedand its pride broken, the drake doesn’t beg or grovel, it simply awaits judgement. It waits for the God of the afterlife to send it on its way, to either the heights of bliss and peace or where it knew it would be sent. The depths of agony and torture, the halls of Tartarus, the father of monsters. Grim looked up from its oaken desk and down at the creature that would haveotherwise, if grown wiser and older, matched the reaper itself in power. Its faceless guise, hidden by a black hood and whirling shadows, it briefly stared at the drake. “You are unfit for the sky yet also too fit for the abyss,” Grim spoke, its voice a cracking whisper. “Your time came too soon, the actions you have taken will lead your world to ruin…Be reborn, pitiful serpent. Yet remember what you have done, see what your actions have made that realm into. Let me show you, how your greed and gluttony have warped such a wonderful place and time.” Grim raised its black-feathered pen towards the beast “Be reborn, as the weak pitiful creature you should have been born as. Take this both as a punishment and…a learning experience. For failure, can be the best teacher.” The drake took a step back, hoping to escape this cruel fate. Yet none escaped Death, less so its embodiment. Screaming shadows engulfed his form, ripping away at his body and shape. Fangs of darkness sinking deep into his draconic flesh, warping it, changing him into something else… Opening his eyes, the wicked drake felt none of its power, none of its magic and none of its might. As it stood at the edge of a cliff, looking down upon a ruined valley of rot and miasma. It glanced down at itself, seeing none of its sturdy scales or sharp claws. The drake had been reborn... As a Human. Will also be posting on CreativeNovels found here;CrN Where chapters will be posted earlier than RRL.

177.72 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:37

To Forge a New Dawn

vsphelix | tragedy | Complete

Rot festers beneath a nation's glory, unheeded by those who rule. In the humble halls of the Archives, one scribe cannot stay silent in the face of corruption. One spark ignites the flame that will consume the world. As the scribe unites an army to topple an empire, he gains followers whose loyalty and ambition will outlast his own. This is a tale not only of ascension, but of the order and turmoil that flourish in the wake of a revolutionary. Five paths intersect under the scribe's vision of a new order, driving the ebb and flow of power throughout the land. Ver. 20221222. Cover art by Fuyu Dust.

55.97 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 12:46

Twisted destiny (prequel)

manwX | tragedy | Complete

In the wake of a fatal accident, Aiden loses his life tragically. His father, determined to bring him back, resorts to cloning and remarkably succeeds in using an artifact of unknown origin. However, their newfound joy is short-lived as they now find themselves entangled in the clutches of a secret organization, the Alpha Project. Dr. Hector, wholeheartedly committed to helping his son, embarks on a series of events to escape the organization's relentless pursuit. Prequel to Tranmigrated as the villain's older Brother -------------------------------------------------------------------. This is a concise story just spanning a few chapters. This is the prologue for my novel. It was too long so I just made it a separate thing. Any feedback is appreciated. please be respectful. My grammar and English usage are a little lacking. Please point out any mistakes or issues you find. That would be very helpful and I can correct them. Thanks for reading.

7.25 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 12:34