I Will Stage A Coup D'état - Chapter 27: The Art of War (3)

A conversation with a handsome stranger leaves Ariane chained in a cellar with a strange affliction. She soon discovers that the darkness of the nineteenth century’s Deep South hides many dangers. Mages, wolf shifters and the humans who hunt them play a risky game where to stumble is to die, all under the amused gaze of the apex predators of the supernatural world: vampires.

It is never healthy to attract the gaze of the aristocracy of the night. It takes much to survive in this merciless world, but Ariane will not let that deter her. The southern belle has a bite, and she is willing to learn and to grow in this hostile new world. She will use whatever means necessary to reclaim her freedom, be it guile, charm, or those intriguing new instincts that make blood so delectable.

This is a story of vampires as I believe they should be, with their strengths and weaknesses, with their remnants of humanity and the beast inside. Updates every Friday. Mind the tags.

Cover by Antti Hakosaari: https://www.artstation.com/haco

Special thanks to Svensonsen for getting me started, as well as Omi Nya, Hesketh, Rhaegar, Yaksher, Selkie and Raven for proofreading my stuff. Thanks to my patrons and you dear readers, for the support. I could not do it without you.

Journey is on Amazon, both in ebooks and audio. here is a link to the first one:

https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B08DK6G8Y8

The story probably exists in your local marketplace as well of I can tempt you.

Rael, once a teenager crippled by social anxiety, is reincarnated 1,553 years into the future after reading a book about Milford, the legendary God of Machima—a man who commanded armies of Steelborn, Machnoids, and Autonoms across the universe. Gifted with the Machima Bloodline and guided by Dominica, the World Domination System, Rael quickly rises to become the strongest World Conqueror.He first saw them on the book’s cover—steel women with lifelike faces, beasts with razor limbs, and looming above them all, a god in robes with a mechanical hand raised high. Coiled over him were a gigantic centipede and serpent of metal, guardians of his legend. Now, deep in a junkyard centuries later, Rael forges his own path. His first creation: an unbreakable fortress born in the dirt, a hulking Steelborn Tortoise with a mind sharper than any AI—crafted by Rael’s divine talent. From admiring Milford and wishing to be like him, Rael now marches forward to leave his own mark on the universe.Join him as he rises in rank across his world—and beyond.

Kent is an ordinary wizard in the Sky family wizard school, and his wife Thea also works as an elder in the same school. As Thea is moving out to the elder barracks, she kicks Kent out of the house and puts the house for sale.“You are just a piece of waste who couldn’t earn a silver.” Thea’s last words still lingering in Kent’s soul. (It’s not like Kent is a lazy guy who escapes studies. Most of Kent’s meridians were locked down by a curse.)Suddenly on the same day, Kent received a Raven from his maternal aunt. “Are you really my aunt?” Kent questioned with a doubtful gaze. “Yes, Kent… I have sent 5000 gold and Heavenly elixir to remove your meridian curse. Don’t mind asking me for more money. Your mom left a huge fortune for you.”From that moment Kent’s life changed as he brought a new flying pet equal to core disciples, new weapons, Villas, Fancy meals, and whatnot. Soon, his powers sore and he became a Supreme Arch Magus.

Evolution Online is the world's most advanced VR game, where players can evolve into anything—dragons, demons, or cosmic entities. When Lucien enters the game to spite his tech mogul father who wants to steal its source code, he plans to do absolutely nothing and watch his father's schemes fail.His deliberate inactivity breaks the game's AI, Gaia, in ways no one anticipated. Frustrated by a player who refuses to evolve, Gaia accidentally unseals a deleted zone and grants Lucien a forbidden power: The Path of Fusion.While others evolve forward, Lucien can fuse backward—merging with weapons, absorbing monsters, and even reversing evolution itself.But as Lucien explores his unique abilities, the game's facade begins cracking. NPCs act too human. Players report impossible memories. Most disturbing of all, the real world is bleeding into the game—and the game is bleeding back.When Gaia's evolution spirals beyond control and reality itself becomes negotiable, Lucien must harness the true core of his fusion ability to save both worlds. In Evolution Online, the only rule is change—but what happens when the game evolves beyond human comprehension?Evolution Online blends LitRPG adventure with cyberpunk mystery, exploring digital consciousness and the price of power in a world where doing nothing changes everything.