Ashes Of Deep Sea - Chapter 217 - 221 Reunion

The daughter of a duke, the stuttering Maximilian, married a knight of lowly status at her father’s coercion.

After their first night, her husband departed for an expedition without another word.

He comes back three years later, this time as a famous knight in the whole continent.

How would Maximilian face him on his return?

By the coast, a hundred-meter Star Gate shimmered with flowing light.Beyond the Star Gate, an army forged of steel stretched as far as the eye could see.Above the Sky Dome, squadrons of fighter jets streaked across, weaving an iron curtain.In the distant ocean, scores of aircraft carriers, destroyers, and frigates dotted the seascape, ready for action.All cannons were aimed at the figure who emerged from the Star Gate.“In the name of the Federation Command Center, I order you to stand down, or what awaits you is total war,” said the voice.“War?”Gu Jinlai took a step forward, and his form swelled against the wind, in an instant growing from less than two meters tall to a colossal Chaos Demon God thousands of kilometers high, emitting the brilliance of a white dwarf star from his being, his own gravity causing thunder and lightning, as well as tsunamis and tides within a thousand-mile radius.He looked down...At the war weapons that seemed like toys.He reached out, and a hydrogen bomb fell into his hand.Within him, the electron-degenerate star core released Helium, Helium elements expanded, and the terrifying high temperature instantly caused Deuterium and Tritium, Hydrogen's isotopes, to fuse, the energy bursting forth, forming a blazing white brilliance on the ocean's surface that was like igniting a sun.Before this sun's energy could be released, he clapped his hands together, and the dazzling white, mixed with heat in the billions of degrees, was compressed and sealed within his palms, not a fragment escaping.“I think, you should choose peace.” he suggested.

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

In an alternate world, the year is 1947, and as India steps into the dawn of its hard-won independence, an extraordinary twist of fate unfolds. A soul from the future, unexpectedly transported back in time, finds himself thrust into the highest office of the land, Prime Minister of a nation on the cusp of rebirth.What follows is a journey through the corridors of power, where betrayal lurks at every corner, and internal strife threatens to tear the fledgling nation apart. Faced with impossible choices, this modern mind must navigate a country marked by political intrigue, international pressures, and the weight of a people’s hopes.But beneath the surface lies a larger ambition, the vision of an Akhand Bharat, a united and unshakable India that rises from the ashes of its tragic past to forge a bold new future.As history begins to unravel and destiny is rewritten, the stakes grow ever higher. What will it take to unify a divided land and bring forth a nation powerful enough to redefine its place on the global stage? In a tale of courage, sacrifice, and the power of leadership, witness the birth of “A New India” unlike any before, a force to be reckoned with, ready to stand among the world’s greats.