Behold! The Harbinger of Doom [Fiction]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The end of the world begins with an administrative error.

Somewhere in the Pit of Despair… an egg spawns with a system.

Not a hero.Not a chosen one.An egg.

Now Kahli — reluctant apprentice, part-time disaster magnet, full-time bad decision maker — is the only person who realizes what’s happening. Unfortunately, nobody believes her. Not her mentor. Not the mayor. Not the archival society currently being buried under avalanches.

And the egg is leveling up.

With the help of a beta-stage system, a deeply questionable monster companion, and powers she absolutely should not have access to, Kahli races to stop the Harbinger of Doom before it evolves into something the universe can’t roll back.

Perfect for fans of chaotic LitRPG, cosmic absurdity, and protagonists who are technically a public safety hazard.

The apocalypse is nigh.

It just needs a few bug fixes first.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: gliglith

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.4/ 5.0
Followers: 1,141
Views: 272,699

Chapters(190 total)

What readers say about Behold! The Harbinger of Doom [Fiction]

“I must say, the writing style of this story is genuinely phenomenal. It is quite new to me but I enjoyed it nonetheless because of the execution. The multiple POV style the author uses is executed beautifully. I have nothing to say when it comes to grammar…”
trichoplaxRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Get ready for a wildly funny and unpredictable fantasy adventure with Behold! The Harbinger of Doom! This book is an absolute riot from start to finish. The story follows the misadventures of Kahli, a quirky young woman who gets caught up in a crazy chase a…”
SanteeeRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

trichoplaxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I must say, the writing style of this story is genuinely phenomenal. It is quite new to me but I enjoyed it nonetheless because of the execution. The multiple POV style the author uses is executed beautifully. I have nothing to say when it comes to grammar or vocabulary either. It is evident that the author is a seasoned writer with a polished style.
As for the content of the novel, I can feel the writer’s imagination through their ridiculous descriptions and their multiple quirky characters. The characters are, grotesque, for a lack of better words. Some, i can’t even begin to imagine how one would think of that. Then, the author heavily utilizes comedy in their writing and it is done quite well. The tone of every scene is made very clear, making it easy to know what type of story I am reading. An example of what I especially like in their writing is banter between characters. It does not feel forced and flows very naturally. Descriptions are done so well that I can almost see the character’s expressions when they speak.
Frankly, I can’t think of any category where I would remove a star. I’m looking forward to reading more even if this is far removed from the style of the stories i generally read.
SanteeeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Get ready for a wildly funny and unpredictable fantasy adventure with Behold! The Harbinger of Doom! This book is an absolute riot from start to finish.
The story follows the misadventures of Kahli, a quirky young woman who gets caught up in a crazy chase after the mysterious "Harbinger of Doom." The writing style is lighthearted and whimsical, filled with goofy jokes, wordplay, and just plain silliness that will have you cracking up.
It's a humorous book, the jokes are well timed and properly executed . The comedy hits the mark almost every time, rescuing you from the few jokes that fall a bit flat.
But there's more than just laughs - the story itself is super engaging too. You never know what's going to happen next as Kahli hopscotches from one madcap situation to another. The characters are all really amusing and likable, especially the lead heroine Kahli herself.
The world is creative and gets unveiled bit by bit without overdoing the explanations. You'll be eager to learn more about this funny, mixed-up place where misunderstandings are hilariously common.
There are a few minor grammar mistakes here and there, but nothing too distracting. The writing is breezy and easy to get hooked on.
If you're a fan of wildly imaginative fantasies with tons of humor, quirky characters, and nonstop laughter, then don't miss Behold! The Harbinger of Doom. This zany adventure is an absolute blast!
SkarabraeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: The style is really good. The author is able to keep up the perfect tone for the story. Their word choice is good. Their way of writing is unique. They make great use of the literary device of imagery as well. The tone itself is a humorous one, which is fitting considering how the story is a comedy.
Story: The story itself is great. It is paced how it needs to be, getting into the action right away before slowing down quite a bit. It also develops at exactly the right place. The story itself is about the adventures of a woman named Kahli. She links up with a creature, gets a system, and then all sorts of other crazy things happen. I don't want to spoil it for you, but they are quite funny. The humor, which is one of the focal points of the story, is very well done.
Grammar: I couldn't find any grammatical errors. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but I couldn't find any.
Character: The characters, main and side, are all three-dimensional, well-depicted, and realistic. They are very funny too. I like their interactions with each other as well as just how crazy some of the character concepts can end up being. So, no complaints here whatsoever.
Overall, I highly recommend this story.
Viktor A. ReillyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Behold! The Harbinger of Doom, reads like a mix of Princess Bride and Disc World. It is farce done well, which is difficult to do. The story revels in camp and silliness without devolving into a hot mess. If you're in the mood for a funny romp, this is the story for you.
Style: As I said, this is Farce. It is wacky and weird, and inconceivably putrescent in a delightful way. Every element of the story bends itself to that end. The jokes are quick, witty, and tongue-in-cheek. I'm sure many of them sailed right over my head. Written like a cult classic that will get better and better with each repeat consumption.
Grammar: I didn't notice anything egregious, good job!
Character: The Characters and their interactions are funny! The MC's main quirk may have been a tad overplayed, but that may have just been because it went over my head for a few minutes. I'm excited to see how they develop (and grow), and we progress further.
Story: This will be an interesting style of progression. I don't normally go in for LitRPGs much, but I really like how this story turns the genre on its head. The MC has to level up her pet, essentially, which is very unique. The World building is deep and original, managing to be both light-hearted and ominous at the same time.
AdvocateOfDoorsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Oh my goodness, this story is absolutely hilarious! It had me giggling like an insane person every single chapter. I've been in such a good mood since I started it. I think I got really lucky with the chance to try this story because it is exactly to my taste!
This is my first time reading gliglith's writing, and I'm absolutely in love with it. It is gloriously silly and irreverent in all the best ways, with a humour that doesn't feel forced at all.
I'm really reminded of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, with a little smattering of magical realism and LitRPG fantasy. As a blend, it feels so refreshing.
The chapters are easy to read and flow along perfectly. There are moments with characters that we meet that feel like perfect little skits, and I'm always excited to see what's coming up next because I know I'm going to enjoy it so much.
Characters are very vivid and suit the slightly absurdist tone. We jump into several perspectives and each one feels like a tableau that is drawn up for perfect comic effect, while telling us a bit more about the world and carrying the stakes of the story forward
I like the writing style; it knows what to dwell on and what to gloss over to keep up a great pace and work within its comedic timing. There is fantastic economy of language and description, honestly some of the best i've seen in a long time.
The story is compelling. We have an overarching structure with the hunt for the Harbinger of Doom, but also so much to keep our attention and keep us laughing within every chapter. I like the way these elements are layered in on top of each other. I was constantly engaged from the very first paragraph.
In terms of Grammar, I noticed a couple of typos and some clunky sentences in the first couple of chapters, which could maybe use a quick look to clean up, but it did not effect my enjoyment at all. Overall the writing feels very smooth and confident, with fantastic mastery of language based jokes and humour. Once it gets going, it
MrCarsonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style:
Very smooth flowing. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into creating the right feel for this story. The imagery is done very well. The detail put into the writing brings you into the story.
Grammar:
The grammar is excellent. I have read ten chapters and found nothing to complain about. The flow of the story is uninterrupted by the common problem that many authors face when putting the image in their heads onto the page in sentences that make sense to the reader. There is no choppiness or confusion about the points the author is trying to make.
Story:
This is a hilarious story. I haven't had a part that I want to skip ahead of in this book due to it being dull or slow paced. I did not read the synopsis of this story before diving in, so it has also led me in directions that I didn't think it was going, and I am glad for it.
Character:
All the characters have been done very well. You truly get a feel for the MC. Her personality is layed out very clearly so that you can see things from her point of view. All the characters seem to have hearing problems which makes the humor all the better.
Can't wait for this story to continue to unfold.
Pianos In The Evening SunRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I consider myself a comedic writer, reader and ardent fan of the craft. We need comedy in a dark world and that's exactly what Kahli's Quest is...in spades.
Imagine the British wit and offbeat fantastical comedy of Terry Pratchett mixed with dark world and creatures of Eldritch. I mean there's even an Octopus that feeds on bad vibes in a pit of despair! And if that isn't the man in a nutshell I don't know what is.
Kahli, as the summary describes, is an incompetent novice at her craft. And much like the bumbling wizard in Disc World, her lack of ability is great compensated by the hilarious situations she ends up in as a result. This is a golden formula and one that applies to the author's unique dark world.
How unique is this world? As wildly humorous as the plot. Example? Well, the boatman NPC gives a lecture about his business to the hero when she's trying to save the world. He doesn't care about her plight because he's trying to run a business and goes into a big monologue about it. It's meta comedy but it's delivered in the best way ever and set up so well.
Even the GameLit system which is normally dry in many stories is full of frothy descriptions about a Cthulhu creature that does slam Poetry and causes adverse health conditions such as dry eyes and making NPCs more unfriendly.
I've only read four chapters but let me tell you this, any GameLit that is a satire on the genre but yet so eminently loveable is worth a read. The laughs are not cynical, but rather the kind of humor we need in a doomed world. Bravo and consider this story followed and favorited!
RavensFantasyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Behold! The Harbinger of Doom is a fascinating tale that quickly grabs the reader's attention from the start. The author does an amazing job with each scene and with the characters that have been introduced so far.
Style: The overall style of the story is great! There are enough elements of jokes, suspense, and elements to keep the readers wanting more. The author does well at describing scenes that take place giving the reader enough detail to visualize what is happening. Overall, nicely done here!
Characters: The characters seem to be well developed as one can see by the opening scene. As the scene unfolds the author does well in depicting how Omar and Kahli interact with each other. The story mainly revolves around Kahli who seems to be a well written character that I can’t wait to learn more of as the story develops. One last thing to put here, the dialogue, it flows well between characters so no complaints here.
Grammar: I did not see any grammar mistakes, but I am not one to judge too harshly on grammar as I know, I make a few here and there myself.
In Summary: Overall, the author starts the story off well with an amazing first chapter! To which I’ll make note, I had checked this story out a while ago and when I was asked for a review swap recently I remembered what the story was, just from reading the first chapter. Which is saying something. This is one I’ll be sure to keep my eyes on.
Kanzaki_NamiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story only asks you of one thing - are you ready for a whimsical, chaotic world, setting, and style? If you are, then you are in for a treat of interesting characters, great comedic moments, and a promise of a funny adventure between a 'straight-laced' character and...a harbinger of doom?
Character
The story revolves around Kahli, a straight-laced character who is surrounded by interesting, larger-than-life, characters. This is fun as we can see how she reacted to others through comedic gags. The supporting cast, even the unnamed ones like the octopus that feeds exclusively on bad vibes, stole the spotlight when they were in focus. Would read on to see how the cast developed, expecting to see callbacks and inside jokes as the series progressed.
Story
Amongst the countless "I have a system from the demon lord" troupe we see, we have this story that attempts to twist that troupe with a comedic setting but leaning into absurdity. As far as I read, it sets up well for the story to progress in whatever direction it wants to.
The only minor nit is that Kahli's motivation to play the straight character should be better communicated in the first chapter. Took me personally a while to realize she was not a timid, shy character but a straight, play-by-the-book character.
Grammar
Nothing big to note, though the author's stylistic choices may offend some grammar purists.
Style
This makes or breaks this series for you. The story is written and structured as a string of gags forming a somewhat coherent story to move the plot forward. This means you would have uncanny monologues intersperse with quick banter, narration that pokes fun at the setting, and physical comedy through its description.
I do feel it is not for everyone, as the whimsy may be too much for some.
For a comedy-centric story, most of the jokes do land. But like everything comedy, it all boils down to timing. At times, the author would deliberately place a long paragraph of inner monologue or rant in the worl
Potato LordRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story twists the elements of the typical litRPG in ways that I found enjoyable. If you're looking for something that follows the tropes more so, then this might not be it. However, if you like litRPGs and are looking for something to mix things up, then I'd definitely recommend giving this story a go.
Style
I quite like the style of the writing and narrative. It's occasionally at odds with the dialogue (which I quite enjoy as well), but done in a manner that I found more interesting than distracting or off-putting.
I think that the style of the writing is its strongest point, however I must admit that it might also be the most polarizing point, as it is rather distinct. If you're a fan of the less serious tones, more satirical works, and those that know how to balance between taking themselves seriously and not, then you'll probably enjoy this story.
If you're one of the readers who prefers a more serious tone, then you'll probably find the style present in this story off-putting.
Character
Having only read to chapter 10, I can't speak much of the character arcs in the present. What I can speak of is the base fundamentals of the characters presented. They're more typical than the rest of the story, but not in a distracting manner. Characters will feel familiar, but on occasion this has been subverted. I wouldn't be surprised to see the character arcs within this story follow a more typical path, or veer into more uncharted territories.
I don't think this is a story you would pick up because the characters carry it, but it's definitely not a story that you'd put down because the characters drag on it.
And that being said, there's definitely readers out there who will find the character of Kahli, or perhaps her interactions with the world around her, to be more than enough to keep them invested.
Story
Having read up to chapter 10, I can say that the story, while presented in a less typical manner, does appear to be following a more typical plot development. I ha