Wish upon the Stars (Original Superhero cultivation sci fi litrpg)

[Malcolm Tent]

Valen…was in pretty bad shape. Callie had aimed herself at the Unity building, but the lockdown reinforcement had faded, and she'd gone through the building, into the WCP, and hit the underground district hard. The city wasn't going to COLLAPSE, but it was getting a little creaky.

Luckily, there was a ton of rubble around, and a modified use of Pit of Despair turned it all into Dust that I was able to work into a series of pillars to hold everything up. Song of the Soil helped me get a decent idea of the weak spots, and considering I was working mortal materials, even the amounts of Dust I was using was literally effortless.

Callie had arrived by the time I was done, and we piled into Bethy's Domain together. I was grinning ear to ear as she threw herself into my arms and we just…held each other, letting the world move around us as we reveled in the presence of the person we loved most.

"I missed you." I breathed as she squeezed me. "So much. Like a ridiculous amount. Fighting without you makes me feel so unbalanced, and trying to defend our own home while I knew you couldn't be there sucked. I'm so happy you're back. That was a hell of an attack, by the way. Serious power there."

"It was your attack." She said with a laugh as she pulled away. "I just borrowed it. Granted, my much higher Might helped me get the most out of it, but still."

I laughed, and we both sat on the grass. Jessie, Celine, and Benny came over, followed by my sister, and then Gabe, Abel, and Mel. "Thank the gods you're back." My best friend moaned as he slumped down. "He's been in the worst mood. No matter how I try to cheer him up. I made him breakfast last week and he nearly bit my head off."

"You kicked open my door, screamed 'BAGEL' and then hurled one at my face while I was asleep!" I spat acidly.

He snorted. "You weren't asleep by the time it hit you. You woke up because of the screaming."

Celine glared at him. "You told me you wanted to have a heart to heart with him about taking on too much."

"I DID have a heart to heart with him." He said innocently. "In our hearts, there is only bread violence. And he got me back like right after. He Pit of Despaired the ground under my foot as I turned to run. I smacked my head into a door handle as I went down."

"Which did NOTHING to you and irreparable damage to my door!" I raged. "So if anything you owe me twice for that!"

Callie shot Celine a pitying look. "I'm so sorry you had to put up with this the whole time I was gone."

"It wasn't that bad." The elf girl laughed. "Honestly it's a relief to see them so carefree. Shane really has been on edge, and Benny was worried. Of course, he SHOWED that worry in a ridiculous way, but that's just their relationship."

"Speaking of worry." Said Jessie hesitantly. "Do we need to worry about Travis mass murdering people out of frustration? Or to try to mess with our heads? I'm kind of shocked he hasn't been doing that already. I get he wants to mass sacrifice all the Ascendants as a show of force, but they've been leaving the mortals totally alone."

Chelsea grimaced. "If I had to guess, it's because killing them hasn't even occurred to him. People like friends and family would have been targets if they weren't at the wedding, but most Ascended like Travis…they consider mortals to be basically livestock. It literally isn't worth the effort to kill them in large numbers as far as they're concerned."

That was…depressing. It was good for our purposes, but hearing that the other side of this war (and some of our own side based on her tone) literally considered more than 98% of the universe not to be human was…dark.

"Anyway." I said, desperate to change the subject. "We're headed back to the volcano, and we'll be staying there a while. I considered continuing this party on to Wintervale, but after experiencing that raid and the exhaustion from consistent power use like that, I decided to wait."

"But won't we need to worry about Travis being ready for us?" Asked Jessie worriedly.

"I think the opposite." I said with a shrug. "The longer we wait the bigger our advantage. We took a huge chunk out of his forces, made a big splash doing it, and destroyed his only means of expansion. The longer we wait the stronger we get, and he can't stay on guard twenty four seven indefinitely. Let him waste his energy on defense while we recover, then hit him when his guard drops."

I'd been leaning toward taking the fight to him as soon as possible, but Valen had changed my mind. The patience they'd shown with that trap, mixed with my own growing exhaustion, had illuminated a better path forward. Plus I wanted to spend some time with my wife. We'd rescued everyone we knew, and with Travis shoring up his defenses we had some breathing room. I needed to breathe.

Callie reached down, taking my hand in the grass and twining her fingers through mine. I didn't look at her, but I didn't need to. Touching her after so long apart was relief enough in itself.

We weren't DONE with the occupation, but we had certainly turned things around. "I say we give it a month." I said eventually. "Between wishes and normal growth, it should be more than enough for us to at least scrape up against D-rank. Well, Callie and I. We can ride the planetary rank up when we finish liberating Callus."

I was honestly torn about becoming D-rank. I couldn't imagine what that was going to be like, and I'd be losing Zeke's protection. I was confident enough to survive without it, but I was going to seriously miss him, even without the additional worries that losing the defense of my guardian would drop on my head. Still, I'd had a lot of practice lately, between this incident and the Glade.

A month wasn't a short time, but I suspected Travis would be on his guard for a WHILE. Four weeks should be enough time for even the most paranoid defender to relax, and when we hit him, we'd be much more powerful than we were now.

More than that though…we were tired. Not just me, but all of us. We'd been running from siege to siege, blowing up buildings and dropping districts on people. The odd break for recovery wasn't the same as actual downtime, and if we tried to go into this fight half cocked people were going to die.

The Wendigos had ferocity and power, but they were ultimately animals. Too much instinct and not enough thinking. The enemy Ascendants were mostly thugs and bullies, most likely sent along because they were more trouble back at the base than dead. I'd definitely killed more than a few legitimate threats, but they wouldn't have been wasting their best.

Now though, the shoe was on the other foot. The longer we waited the better shape we'd be in, and the worse shape they would. Staying at one hundred percent alert for a few days was tough, doing it for a MONTH would have any sane human being, Ascendant or not, ready to snap.

Granted, we were living under a volcano, so our own people were likely to get stir crazy after a while too. But we could still do raids on claimed cities to free high rankers, assuming Travis didn't call them all back to Wintervale to dig in.

The more I thought about the situation, the more I became convinced that this was the worst possible outcome for him. If the labyrinth dropped, the high rankers would storm the planet and he'd be fucked. The only thing I could imagine saving him would be a god, and he'd made it clear that he didn't exactly have one on hand.

His plan was considered a low risk attempt that didn't waste anything important. Their gods had given him a few trinkets, but the basic concept was that he would create a big fuss without needing to waste a ton of time and energy from powerful Ascendants on their side. It was supposed to be a morale blow.

My instincts told me that his way out of this involved the sacrifice. Maybe some kind of summoning or something, or an emergency beacon. Whatever the case, he needed a way out from under the nose of a bunch of A-rankers, and if he couldn't manage the sacrifice, I doubted he'd have one.

He was going to get antsy as this dragged out. Honestly we'd gotten lucky with his whole outlook on mortals, but it would probably start looking like a viable option eventually. Which meant we needed a way to keep him locked up in Wintervale once his people got back.

I pointed that out to Callie through the bond, and she paused, looking thoughtful, then nodded. "I might have an idea." She said after a minute of consideration. "Give me a bit."

She came back looking excited. "Alright. I think supplemental wishes will help, but we've got a decent plan. Frostbite thinks she can work with Tempest to rig up a massive blizzard. An invocation with a few other powerful abilities poured in, some enchanting to anchor it, and some wishes to smooth out the problems."

Frostbite herself, who I hadn't seen in quite a while, appeared shortly afterward, with Bethy following behind her. "Hey" I greeted her warmly. "Heard you have an idea that might solve our problem.

"Hell yes I do." She grinned. "In fact, I have a much better one than I did a minute ago. I was talking with your vampire about her Domain, expressing some interest in how it worked, and she made a comment that gave me an idea. We have enchanters here. Formation masters, ice ability users spatial users, and a dozen other types of powerful Ascendants. Not to mention the layout of that place is set up specifically for formations, right?"

I nodded. "Pretty much, there's a huge on there already, that's what the aurora is. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because, the terrain, the possible formation applications, and the layout of that area all happen to resemble something extremely relevant to our situation." Holding out a hand, a sphere of ice manifested, and inside of it I could see a mini snowstorm.

I froze. "A snowglobe." I said slowly. "You want to use a formation supported by over a hundred E-rankers to turn the entire city of Wintervale into a SNOWGLOBE?"

"I mean, we'll need plenty of support, and it won't last forever, but it should keep them from burning down the whole planet out of revenge. Melissa from the Beast Lord Garden is into it, and she's going to need plenty of support from you and your cousin, but in theory we SHOULD be able to pull it off."

"We'd have to make it permeable from outside." I said slowly. "Let us and the other enemy forces in but not let anything out. Once we finish them off we can drop it. Is Moravian here? Bring him in on this. He's a Formation Grandmaster, and if anyone can pull it off its him."

I was getting excited. If we pulled this off, we could seriously limit the damage Travis and co could do, AND hopefully Moravian could use this whole idea as the step he needed to springboard his planetary formation into the rank up. At least if my understanding of formations and symbolism was right.

This was the closest thing to a solid plan for ending the occupation I'd had so far. The other plans were more reactionary than anything, but if we did this right, we could completely crush the enemy forces. I couldn't help but grin. Time to see how Travis liked being stuck in a bubble.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So can you do it?" I asked excitedly as I stared down at the Moravian. The Grandmaster of Formations was sitting cross legged in an empty volcanic chamber, eyes closed as he pondered…something. Might have been the truths of the universe, might have been a recipe for Paiea. Whatever he was doing, he'd made about a dozen minute changes to the cavern and had set up some kind of formation already.

He inhaled deeply, then blew out the breath in a slow cadence before opening his eyes. "Can? What is truth but the conviction of a possibility? Is my truth enough to sway this jaded world? Perhaps. Only time will tell."

"Oh, you're right." Said Callie from right next to me., "That's super annoying. I think he said yes though?"

The old man smiled. "Impatience. Ever the folly of youth. The answer, as is almost always the case, is more complex than it might appear. I can create a formation such as the one you request, though I cannot confirm it's effectiveness, as I said. What I CAN confirm is that it will require the use of resources I've saved."

"The Impact." I said with a nod. "I thought of that. My sister had an idea though. Could we reinvest the stored Impact into the spell THROUGH the snowglobe? Make it part of the process and then refine the triggering conditions? We're going to not only liberate the popsicles, but also break the labyrinth and liberate the planet, and then finally break the snowglobe as a final act of liberation. Symbolism is a big thing in formations, right?"

He put on a pensive expression. "That…may work. A pivot in the investment for a larger result." He stood, somehow managing to become one with the room as he moved, and the motion made my head spin. It was like one of those old stop motion flip books I'd made with Benny back in childcare, but somehow not. "Come along. Let's have a look. Do we have some sort of representation of the surrounding area?"

We did, actually, it had been one of the first things we'd gotten Nat and Celine on. We were doing this with or without Moravian.

We took him up into the cavern proper, into the room where we'd been planning raids. In the center, floating above the ground, was an actual physical model of the entire tundra. The towering old man approached the model, eyes gleaming. "What a marvelous representation. Wishcrafted goods always have such a unique feel to them. Technically perfect but spiritually empty. In this case an asset, as a model is meant to represent only itself. No lingering impressions to disturb my calculations."

He stepped up to the model, placing his hands above it and slowly running them just over the surface like he was trying to feel its body heat or something.

Benny stepped up next to me. "I know he's a Grandmaster and this is going to be really impressive, but the actual process looks ridiculous. He's just fondling an ice field and humming, abilities are weird sometimes."

"Formations are an incredibly esoteric art." Came a voice from behind us. We turned to find Melissa, the Beast Queen of the Beast Lord Palace, watching intently. "Seeing Moravian work is a revelation. Grandmaster is height beyond what many people on this planet will ever reach. I myself have only reached Mastery in the Skill, and even that just barely."

I blinked at her. "I didn't know you'd broken a shackle."

"It's not something I advertise. But past Mastery, having the room to improve isn't the same as being capable of doing so. Reaching Grandmaster status is a staggering undertaking." She glanced at where my sister was studying the older man's actions. "I think at least one of you recognizes the challenge."

"Well, Chelsea has more context for it." I shrugged. "Aside from being well versed in formations herself, she's from a larger faction where she comes into contact with more Grandmasters. All the Grandmasters I've met are actual C-rankers, and they tend to seem…less impressive, compared to other Ascendants I've met."

It was kind of funny how quickly running into B and A-rankers became the norm for me in terms of real power. I knew academically that D and C-rankers were a threat to me, but having rubbed elbows with S-rankers and spending all my time around A-rankers had given me kind of a skewed sense of normality.

Melissa raised a brow at me and chuckled. "You must have seen some seriously amazing things to have a point of view like that. I can't say it's one I share, but I do get what you mean in the abstract. Still, don't forget that a Grandmaster Skill makes you nearly unrivaled at E-rank. I wouldn't want to fight Moravian. Even if I had a whole army of E-rankers with me."

That was an interesting point. I knew Master ranked abilities and Skills could offset some of the Impact and Path differences. I'd run into powerful enemies on the Tricorn who had been able to hurt me for just that reason. It made sense a Grandmaster would be capable of flattening me and my friends, despite our many same rank advantages.

I wondered about Moravian's Path, and if he had one. You couldn't rank up without a Path, but I had no idea what the requirements were for going past Master with a Skill.

The older Ascendant turned to beam at us. "A truly fascinating display. I wonder if I might get a list of our assets. Abilities, relevant Skills, materials. I can make do with a bit more or less of one of the three, but an undertaking such as this will be a true masterwork. It is integral I have a thorough understanding of the elements from which I must craft this grand construction."

"Does anyone have a list of the people here?" I called. "I swear somebody made one for the formation training."

My sister rolled her eyes. "I've got a notebook with the various powers and Skills. I thought it might come in handy. In order to properly harness those, we need to let them out into the atmosphere, right?"

Moravian nodded. "Precisely. Formations are the art of using the native magic in the environment to shape power. Some feel that direct human intervention goes against the spirit of the Skill, but that's shortsighted. Humans are part of the environment and elements of the world just as much as rocks or trees. By placing our resources in certain positions and having them deploy their Skills and abilities in certain ways, they too become part of the formation."

"But we don't have enough people for some of this." I said worriedly. I'd been thinking about it for a while, and the main structure of the snowglobe needed to be spatial power. Spatial abilities were really rare, and Abel was one of the few people I knew on Callus who had one.

He shook his head. "The formation is made up of its component parts. Part of the value of such an arrangement is that the formation can be any and all of the things that comprise it. Spatial power is rare, but as long as it's part of the formation, it is among our resources."

"So it's like…one big invocation, but of all the things that make it up at the same time?" I said, impressed. "That seems pretty damned powerful. Why don't formations get used more if they're so effective?"

"All paths lead to the top of the mountain." He said with a shrug. "Some must simply be walked further."

My sister chuckled at me expression. "He just means that pretty much every Skill gets powerful at C-rank. Deep and profound Skills like Formation Mastery have an especially high learning curve, but are even more effective for it. Alchemy, invention, basically any of the major crafting Skills can accomplish terrible and awe inspiring things by the time you reach Grandmastery."

"About that." I asked. "Are you on a pure Formation Path? Because I know that multiple people can't reach divinity on the same Path, and even S-rank can be challenging."

"My Path is my own." He said with a laugh. "One of an infinite variety of tributaries that lead to the sea of formations. Don't worry about my advancements, I have them well in hand. Once we complete my grand work I will ascend to D-rank, and with the foundation of my higher self, reach the heights of Legend in my chosen field."

My eyes widened. "You're on the edge of Legendary?" I gaped. "I knew you'd been working at it for a few millennia, but I hadn't realized you were not only a Grandmaster, but a peak Grandmaster."
What really threw me off was that his actual ability was going to be stuck at Master rank. He wouldn't be able to integrate a Skill that was so far ahead into his ability in a way that would make it part of his Solid Path. Maybe that was what he meant by not being worried about his Path being overcrowded. Whatever his Path was had to be geared toward his ability rather than the Formation Skill.

I shook off the mental tangent. Just because I wasn't the one doing the formation didn't mean I didn't need to pay attention, I had to plan our assault, and though the whole point of this was to make sure I had time to do that, knowing how the formation worked would be key to taking best advantage of our forces for the final assault.

"So, how are we going to do this then?" I asked as he finished paging through Chelsea's notebook.

"Well, the flows of power in the northern regions are dense and cold." He said with deliberation. "We need to make sure to properly balance that. Luckily your spatial Ascendant's power set is lubrication as a base. We want slowing spacial thickness, which is an inversion of his power. That pairs well with the cold aspects of the tundra. Absence of motion, inversion of activity."

He pointed to a few key points. "We'll be using subformations in these locations, they'll harvest the flows of energy incoming from outside the region and can be used to conduct the Impact from my temple. An invocation that covers the area will be threaded through the entirety of the formation, supported and boosted by those of us without necessary abilities.

"As mentioned, the formation itself is both an invocation and a multi state structure, so we can broadcast the various abilities while minimizing individual strain on users. Everyone is equally supporting and conducting." He poked a few spots. "The ket is making sure that each of the broadcasters are positioned along the energy flows. Here, here, and here. The broadcast structure will flow naturally along the energy pathways, carrying the Impact and converting it as it goes as we activate each stage."

He flipped to a clean notebook page and stared writing a series of weird graphs and formuli, asking questions about altitude, time zone, sun placement, planetary alignment, and even plugging in some numbers he clarified were continental drift and tectonic plate movement. Finally, when he finished, he started his work for real.

With several fascinating looking tools, he began carving into the ice, creating pathways, placing down small models of what looked like trees and bushes, and even placing small houses and animal enclosures throughout the tundra. Once he was done, he pointed out a series of small subformations he'd carved out.

"This should be about what we need for the final layout." He gestured to small circles inside the formations. "Placement of our people, and we'll have several artisans and craftsmen busy arranging the plants and buildings. Once that's done…I'd say maybe a day. We can begin our preparations for the formation. A partial sphere of slow, surrounded by a powerful shield, with extraordinary cold magic seeping through it to maintain the temporal effects of the formation. Slowed time inside the area of the formation. One month and three days. That's all the time you'll have. I hope it is enough." I nodded slowly. One month and three days. It was enough. It would have to be. In just over four weeks, we would end this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Everyone is in position, right?" I asked my friends carefully as we stood out among the tundra. "Because we need Bethy and Gabe's formation in place to blunt any attempts to fuck with the formation. I'm talking sight range of Wintervale. Bethy is more than capable of detecting anyone trying to slip by, I'm sure."

Callie nodded confidently. "On top of that, those portable bulwark things Celine wished for should be enough to slow down any assaults. Benny really came through with that design. Seven of them should hold for long enough to get this running. Moravian says the actual formation will activate over the span of a few minutes. Setup is where most of the time needs to be spent."

"No shit." i said with a laugh. "Exhibit A." I gestured around us, specifically to the teams of Ascendants digging in the snow and planting bushes, flowers, herbs, and trees. Several were building small structures, and Moravian was guiding another team in stringing brightly colored silk ribbons between the various objects, along the same lines as the carved trails on the model.

I glanced across the field of snow at our work crews. "So…any of this mean anything to you? Because it seems basically random to me at first glance. The plants are all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Those buildings don't appear to be a cohesive style of architecture, and I think I saw someone drop an old toilet into a hole in the dirt over there."

"That's how it is with formations." She shrugged. "Different compositions of stats have different effects on ambient energy. So you set them up in patterns and as the energy passes through the formation it changes and reroutes in the way you want it to."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You realize you didn't actually just say anything, right?"

"My mistake." She said sweetly. "I meant 'shut up honey and do what I tell you' does that explain everything?"

"Perfectly." I said with a snicker. "It's nice to know that neither of us has any idea what's going on. Wait, hold on-" I checked the notebook in my hands. "Ephram!" I bellowed to a yellow clad man with a heavy handlebar mustache who was carrying a shed over one shoulder. "That shed is supposed to have ram's horns on the door, not deer antlers. And Rico, if you hammer in those tent stakes with a fur coat on you're going to catch fire." I stopped, rechecking the notebook. "Wait, no, you're going to BE fired. Still, no coat Rico."

Callie frowned at me, taking the notebook. "Why is that even in the notes? That's so specific. Most of these are pretty open ended, he just assigned specific people to do the tasks, but some of it. The person who handles the fifth ginseng from the leftmost hemisphere of the Zangada constellationary strata must be pure of the ingestion of spiced meats and fermented cheeses and…lefted of hand? Is that even a real phrase?'

"Who knows. But Drevorn the Bloodless is a left handed vegan, so we gave the job to him. Believe it or not, the Moravian had to make a bunch of adjustments based on our roster." I said with a sigh. "Apparently his original calculations called for a red haired school teacher with one green eye and one blue born on the third wednesday of the ninth month. Since we were short one of those he had to extend the formation a quarter mile and add a water slide."

Her head snapped up. "Wait, what? You're kidding me. Where?"

I pointed off to the left. "Over there. It hasn't gone up yet. It's supposed to be erected after the pinwheels but before the tent made of bearskin rugs."

"You ever get the feeling he's just fucking with us to see what he can talk us into doing?" She asked with narrowed eyes. "I swear that half of this is just bullshit pranks he's pulling because he knows we're desperate."

"I honestly don't care anymore." I said with a shrug. "If he can really seal them up for a month he can paint my face like a baboon and wrap me in flypaper. We have so much to do. I mean, downtime is important, but once we've got them contained we need to help do repairs on the various cities, let the E-rankers go home to check in, get a tally of the dead. So much depressing shit."

She took my hand. "And we're having our reception." She said firmly. "I know that things have been bad, but that's exactly why we need to do this. People need to feel something besides exhaustion, fear, and anger."

I smiled, pulling her close to me, inhaling deeply and enjoying the sensation of being back with the person I loved most. "You're right. I said softly. Being with people you care about and having a moment of joy makes a big difference. Plus you can't promise people cake and then back out. There's some things too evil to be allowed to stand."

She giggled at that, then glanced down at the notebook. "Strega!' She called over my shoulder. "You have to stand on one leg when you hammer in the giant pinwheel. And make sure you spin it counter clockwise the first time!"

"Thanks." I said with a laugh as I pulled away. "And thanks for your badass entrance. That was looking like a rough fight."

"Please." She snorted. "Like I was going to let some giant winter beast beat up my man. To have and to hold remember. I don't remember agreeing to anything about 'to allow to be cannibalized'."

I just laughed. "I love you too, honey. Now I think this section is done. We move in to the next area." I check the notebook. "Southwest point four miles and then due west for another five."

That got a grin, and she went up on her tip toes to kiss my cheek before she took off over the snow. "Bet I can get there first!"

I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind her, then tripped her with my staff and took off past her. "You're on!" I shouted back without looking.

I laughed as I sprinted over the ice, my feet finding easy purchase atop the snow as I used Ripple Running to maximize traction without sinking in. It was a pointless gesture, Callie and I weren't running full bore, we'd have damaged the environment with our passage. But it was still fun to run together, even keeping our speeds to manageable levels, and the sure footedness gave me that tiny bit of an edge.

My grin was triumphant as I threw back my head to whoop in victory…and promptly took a tumble as my wife tackled my legs out from under me, scrambling over top of my rolling body to bolt the extra fifty feet and then jumping up in the air triumphantly, pumping her fists in victorious excitement.

"You TACKLED me?" I squealed indignantly. "Who TACKLES a person during a race? I demand a recount, a do-over, I want a formal inquisition!"

She giggled musically, and I felt warmth flood me as I watched her face light up. THis wasn't from the bond, just my own happiness at seeing her so upbeat. "Sorry honey, looks like I'm the winner. Get used to eating my dust-" She squawked and dropped into the Pit of Despair I opened right under her.

"Sorry?" I said smugly. "What was that? I can't hear you through all that dust. You know you're not supposed to get that in your mouth, right?" I was cracking up still when the shadows grabbed my feet and yanked me off them, my back slamming into the snow as she dragged me into the pit after her.

I grabbed her around the waist and catapulted us both out, letting the ground resume its former solidity as we collapsed in the snow, cackling with laugh as we curled against each other.

"Okay." She said breathlessly. "That was kind of funny. I set you up for that I guess."

Laughing, I pulled her against me. "I missed you." I said breathlessly. "So much. I know we were still talking, but it wasn't the same."

"It wasn't." She agreed sadly. "And I missed you too. Sitting up there watching you do dangerous things while I couldn't help was a fun and exciting new form of torture. I'm glad you're ok. And thank you for getting Annie and Eric to safety. I suppose she's been avoiding my mother?"

"I've had Gabe keeping them out of the way." I assured her. "I don't want her, or gods forbid your dad, running into Amelia. Plus I think Alexander might kill him if he upset her, and I figure if anyone deserves to kill your dad it's probably you."

She snickered at that. "Don't tempt me. But he's not worth it. I'm already stronger than he is. I honestly wouldn't mind if I never see him again. With time, a lot of the anger faded, and now…he's just a disappointment."

"You sure you don't want to punch him in the throat. Punching deadbeat dads in the throat is the best therapy for abandonment issues. Ten out of ten Solomons recommend it." I winked at her, though she couldn't see it through the mask. She sensed it through the bond though, I could tell because I could see her dimple when she smirked.

"Didn't you break your hand punching your dad in the throat?" She asked wryly.

I shrugged. "No pain no gain. It was worth it. Plus your dad is way weaker than mine. If anything his throat would break. Though I guess that's really just murder."

She was giggling up a storm as I casually played out the scenario. She rolled out of my arms and up to her feet, brushing herself off. "I think its safer if I just keep my hands to myself. I appreciate the thought, but my anger tends to involve far less fantasies about throat punching. I think I'm good with the cold shoulder."

"We could have one of the bunnies curse him." I said helpfully. "Was it Sydney or Megan who has the bad luck power?"

"Sydney I think." She said with a frown. "But it's hard to keep track. And no thanks. Though…I did have an idea. What do you think about having Camden escort my mom and Alex back to Stratholme? To live in the village with Nat and Valk. They'll be safe in our territory, and if we get them citizenship in the empire they'll improve faster."

For people who didn't get up to all of our shenanigans, the imperial tithe system might actually be a benefit. "I mean…could they even handle it? It's a C-ranked planet. It might be safer to try to set them up on the Necromedes. Slower growth, but less strain."

I stood up, and we continued our discussion as we walked the last couple of feet to where we could best stage this stretch of the formation.

Having Callie back was…freeing. I'd been worried sick about her, even if that made no sense since she'd been safe in orbit while I was in danger. It just felt right being with her, especially just after our wedding.

Despite that, I felt a cold sense of foreboding. Not about Travis or any of his ilk, but something…hazier. Something big and scary had its eye on me, and it was waiting to make its move. I didn't think it would interfere in the final raid, or elevating the planet. But something deep in my gut told me that once we'd passed this hurdle, I'd have another coming my way.

I forced the feeling down, ignoring it for now as we got to work on the rest of the formation prep. We were so close to done, and I couldn't wait to see the results of all this work. A giant spatio-temporal snowglobe sounded pretty fucking cool.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we finished the setup, it was time for the main event. We all retreated to the edges of the formation, except the people that were actively involved. We left the defensive emplacements up as cover, but our advance team booked it out of the tundra at top speed. When we finally reached the edge, we found Moravian standing near one of the connections that hooked the formation up to the rest of the world.

"Is everything in place?" He asked me solemnly. When I nodded, he smiled. "Excellent. Begin the rite."

The signal went out, hitting multiple scan rings, and the pockets of Ascendants situation along the path of the formation began their work. Everything affected the formation, people, places, things. Moravian had put all of his considerable skill calculating this construct, and I could FEEL the world shift beneath my feet as it came alive.

First was Abel, closest to the edge. He raised his hands above his head, and between then a small cloud of warped space flickered into existence. Not his normal spatial lubrication, but the inverted form of it that he'd created through his own ingenious experimentation.

Nearby, in their subcircles, the others assigned to boost him closed their eyes and began the invocation. The powers of their souls and wills flooded out into him. I expected him to stagger at the sheer mass of it, but it landed on the formation instead of him. In my Eye of Revelation I watched it drop down like a train car onto tracks, entering the cloud of space without pressuring its master.

It was hard to conceive, really, processing what was going on was strange. My Eye of Revelation was a visual sense, but I was using it for something else now. Like it was boosting my sense of Impact, and the sight and tough feedbacks in my brain were mixing into something I couldn't define.

The train departed, carrying that impact forward. As it moved, it changed, between one inch and the next. Not in any obvious way, it was like…the sound of the way color smelled? I was extremely confused, but I COULD track it.

Spatial energy grew, but more than that, it shifted. The first pass took it by some shrubs, then a shack, and the ambient energy of the objects were sucked up into the wake of the thing, melding with and changing it, and speeding it up as they went. All along the line, key figures manifested their power, and others poured in their Impact. Even I was doing it, standing on the edge of the formation where I'd been told.

Momentum gathered, thundering along the formation, building up speed and force as it absorbed more, not just our power, but the ambient energy, twisted by all the seemingly random elements we'd taken into account.

My mind…expanded. I could sense not just the parts we'd put in place, but the external too, the stars in the sky, the mountains around us, the heartbeat of the very world of callus, all being sucked into the formation, a gathering storm of significance and meaning as the train made it back to the station and then…burst.

That bomb of still mutating energy exploded, set off at just the right time, and it rode the lines of the formation, funneling all that power, even now changing as its path was altered by the trappings of the working we'd all built.

In front of me, a translucent film began to rise from the ground, creeping upwards as a circle of blue flashed, creating a shield around the formation that I knew couldn't be passed through by anyone aside from the people who had helped create it.

Everyone had been involved, had been given a part to play, because that was how they left. Watching the formation come up was…transformative. The way the energy shifted and moved and transformed, it was poetry. I had no idea how it was happening, it wasn't like an enchantment, or an invention, or any of those things.

The way it happened was so subtle and natural. Like an accident. A flow of power running out of momentum just short of another as it crossed its path. It was like watching a series of marbles someone had spilled flow over a slick surface and perfectly stop in the pattern of a beautiful work of art.

This was all just part of the will of the world, and I was so mesmerized I almost missed the rising bubble of space closing above us as it reached its apex. As soon as that happened, the next step initiated, and I realized all of our people were gone. They'd run as soon as the train detonated, and we were all watching the power expand together.

At the center of the working (not exactly above wintervale, more adjacent), a spark of something glinted in the sky. Ice, a prism of crystalline winter that hung heavy on the air, somehow larger and more profound than the simple cage of clear stone it appeared to be. Silver flickered, flashing through facets, cold lightning and starlight caught in amber, mixing together into a howling cacophony of sensation.

The feeling became bigger and bigger until finally it burst, overflowing the stone and exploding out, shattering the crystal and letting loose a cloud of silvery snow that blanketed the inside of the bubble, melding into the warped space like water leaching into thirsty dirt.

Cold. All I saw and felt was cold. Not the same cold as the Heart though. That cold was a wicked and pervasive cold. The suffering chill of eternal silence and the death of self. This was something new, a cold of cessation, not of endings but of a complete lack of motion, a single leaf balanced on a precipice over and endless ravine forevermore, never falling, caught like the last gleam of light across a-

I rocked back. Callie had smacked me upside the head, and I blinked, taking long, shallow breaths. "You back with us?" She said worriedly.

Nodding, I closed my eyes, trying not to think about what I'd just been watching. Moravian chuckled. "It can be quite overwhelming, watching the full majesty of the natural world work its will with unlimited resources. Had I known your intention to watch the proceedings, I may have warned you of such an outcome."

I glared at him for a minute…but he wasn't wrong. Staring a massive working of Ascendant power as it went off with my super special energy vision cranked up to eleven by my crown was maybe not my smartest plan.

Since I had Eye of Revelation off, I turned to take in the completed formation, and my breath caught in my throat all over again. Even without peering into the deeper mysteries, it was an amazing sight. A colossal bubble of warped space with silver snow flowing to and fro like cold syrup sliding over ice.

The aurora was inside the bubble, which was a shame, but Moravian had been adamant it was necessary. Apparently the thing was already hooked up to the entire planet's energy. He hadn't managed to actually crack it, but after studying the way it interacted with the surroundings he'd been at least capable of mitigating its influence on OUR formation.

"So." I said as I stared up at it. "Time is paused inside? I saw…something like that. Hard to describe. The cold is strange, a complete stop but not an end."

He nodded. "An end is not complete cessation. Entropy is a force, and by definition that which degrades is not truly still. For the true ceasing of all motion, even the motion itself must be halted. Stored for a later date. When the cold thaws, motion will resume. Of course, we don't have the strength to stop time inside of a bubble that large. But even the slowing we've invoked has afterimages of true stillness."

"It worries me that the first half of that explanation made sense." I said slowly. "I think watching that fried my brain. No wonder formation masters were so hard to talk to. Conceptualizing the entirety of the energy ecosystem of even a small area was mindblowing, I couldn't imagine how Moravian stayed in that headspace for centuries, mapping the pathways and patterns of a whole world.

Without him, this wouldn't have been possible. His knowledge and understanding of this world was second to none. Not only was he a Grandmaster, he was THE Grandmaster of this world. A pseudo D-rank planet he'd religiously mapped out of generations.

Keeping my face calm, I bowed to him at the waist. "Thank you, Grandmaster Moravian. For helping us. I realize this wouldn't have been possible without your expertise. I know I've been a bit…impatient with your methods, but know that you have my utmost gratitude and respect for everything you're doing to help save our planet."

He smiled warmly. "I am humbled by your praise. I hold no ill feelings toward your impatience. It is the prerogative of youth to cast there gaze on the more immediate, forgoing the longer view, and it is the prerogative of old age to understand and teach that which their eyes do not take note of."

"I'm glad you think so." I said with a wry chuckle. "Because talking to you still kind of gives me a headache. But now I understand a bit more why that is. Your words and actions are in tune with nature. You're part of the tapestry of the world, and all of the things you do moves you through that tapestry to your desired outcome."

He barked out a laugh. "We are all part of the tapestry of the world, and I think perhaps you give me too much credit in regards to the scope of my grasp on it. But I appreciate your understanding all the same. I hope the things you've learned today will aid you in your journey."

I was sure they would, though I wasn't sure HOW. I considered the possibilities of a form or Skill that harmonized with the world, but it would be a lot of effort for something that could only work under very important circumstances. By their very nature formations were an abstruse and hard to conceive discipline at the best of times.

Maybe something about my divination could help? Only time would tell. I turned back to the bubble as the others surrounded me. "Damn." Said Benny in admiration. "That was really cool. If it hadn't taken over a hundred E-rankers working together and tapping the resources of an entire planet to pull it off I'd be so down to learn more about formations."

"It's certainly not for the faint of heart." Said Celine slowly. "But I wonder if it might be just what we need on Stratholme." She turned to Moravian. "I don't suppose you have any plans after you push the planet to D-rank and Ascend yourself. If you're looking for a new place to build a temple and explore the mysteries, I happen to have a very old C-rank planet with endless mysteries that would love to host you."

"Well, you have a territory." I corrected with a laugh. "But yeah, any place would be lucky to have a Legendary Formation master."

He looked intrigued. "I think…I may take you up on that. I suspect after this incident, I may have completely plumbed the depths of what Callus has to offer. Though I would like to study that cold storage formation. That might be the push I need to truly reach the Legendary sphere once I Ascend."

I laughed as Chelsea started chatting to him about formations, putting an arm around Callie as I grinned at our grand work. This would hold for the month we needed, let us get closer to D-rank, and then head in to attack on our terms. Travis couldn't possibly have seen it coming. I wasn't counting on an easy fight, once we entered again we'd be under similar restrictions and their slowed state would seem normal to us, but one thing at a time. For now, we had our reprieve. The first thing we needed to do? Help put right some of the damage these bastards had done to our planet.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Rebuilding Velan was my first pick of assignment. Well…assignment was a loaded word. I just kind of said what I wanted and people did it. Word was already spreading as the E-rankers returned to their cities, clearing out stragglers and beginning the rebuilding process. I went back to my city, to fix the damage that had been done.


Pit of Despair was so overpowered in this environment I was able to push it further out than I could have imagined. A mile of building and rubble reduced to ultra fine dust with a thought, and the same amount of dust captured with my Dust Construction, slowly reworking the buildings as I'd been told.


I had a parallel running to check over the blueprints, correcting any issues, and because of that, I had a lot of time to think.


Callie came with me. She looked worried, and I didn't blame her. Now that things had temporarily settled, I was finally decompressing, and the wounds my emotional adrenaline had been concealing were starting to burn.


"What did you do to yourself?" My wife asked me as she finally had a chance to take a good look at me through the bond. "You feel…fractured."


"I am." I said tiredly. The weariness wasn't from the manual labor, that actually helped, it was more from everything else. The emotional toll of commanding my troops, the mental exhaustion of being ON for such a long time, sure. But more than that, it was the recursion I'd been through.


The cold hate of the Wendigo, the sadistic glee of Limbo, the final frost of the formation. Normal recursion was fine. It was gradual and spread out over my soul. Like a coating of water that froze on layer at a time, making me bigger and bigger as it was applied.


But the things I'd been through since I came to Callus were different. When you flash freeze a person, the water in their blood turns to icicles, it perforates their cells, the uneven freeze pincushioning them from inside out.


This was like that. A few spots where I'd been flash frozen at different times and temperatures, and parts of me were torn apart by the ice.


Callie tapped into the bond, took control over the Dust Construction Skill, and created a parallel to run it, then she walked over and took my hands and led me over to a building nearby. She pushed me down so I was leaned against the wall and sat down next to me, curling up to my side.


"My big brave idiot." She said, her voice rough with pain. "How many times have you taken on the weight of the world because you were too stupid to be careful?" She removed my mask, taking my face in her hands as she set it beside us.
Then she reached through the bond and called forth Zagan. Her beautiful black hair cascaded into an emerald flame, her blue eyes lightning verdant green, and I felt a powerful tide of soothing, purifying peace enter my head through her hands. "You don't have to hold it alone." She murmured. "Not ever again. I won't let you. We're in this together."


Genesis Burst flooded through me. I'd never had the ability used on me before. I'd used it on Felicity dozens of times, but I'd never felt it from this side.


It hurt. Not just physically, although, yes, very much, but emotionally. It felt like my pain was a friend, like it was a part of me and it was dying. I felt my eyes well with tears as the various frozen pieces began to thaw, exposing open wounds and then starting the slow process of knitting them together.


Felicity wasn't very expressive. She'd never told me much about what she experienced when I used this technique on her, or hell, maybe she didn't feel this. Maybe the damage to her soul was so severe she'd lost the capacity to experience this.


If so, she was lucky. The flame from Genesis Burst finished the last of the thaw, and when it was finally done, when my wounds were all on the way to healing…they ignited. Fire blazed up inside and burned away the impurities, the damage, the pain, the emotions and sensation, they acted like kindling. No, like accelerant. I was burning alive, lit on fire by a cleansing blaze that felt like it would never go out.


My mouth was screaming, I think. I couldn't tell, except Callie's eyes were closed and she was sobbing and I could feel a distant echo of self loathing for torturing me like this. I didn't care. I couldn't. Caring was a feeling, and the pain was overstimulating my emotions so heavily it felt like my skin was an open wound and someone had pushed me into a pool of bleach and lemon juice and dried me off with a bundle of salt covered razor wire.


By the time I came back to myself, I was lying in her lap. She was crying and holding me, making small shushing noises as she smoothed my hair.


I blinked away the tears, realizing my vision was blurry and wiping my face to find blood. I wasn't in pain anymore, so the burst must have healed it, but I had been bleeding. "Sorry." I Croaked through dry lips. "That was probably loud."


"I kept it quiet with stealth." She rasped. "I didn't think you'd want people to hear."


Chuckling, I sat up with a groan. "That was…something. Holy shit, does Felicity go through that every time?"


She shook her head. "I think it was because we did it all at once. Felicity is still having the damage cleansed. We got rid of yours all at once, and it turned into like…fuel for the healing process. But in a bad way. I'm so sorry."
I cracked my neck. "It's fine." I said, life coming back to my voice. "Well, actually no. It sucked hard. But it was the good kind of suck. Like cleaning out a cut with alcohol. It hurts like a bitch, but you feel better when it's done." I shot her an appraising look. "I hadn't considered Genesis Burst to fix the damage. I just kind of took for granted it would be a long term thing."


"You're not used to me being able to use your forms." She shrugged. "It's one of the most useful things that came from the bond reaching Expert, I think. I'm glad I could help though. The thought of you being like that forever…"


I grinned. "Zeke once told me something. It was back during our trip to the Tricorn. He said 'Despite what some may tell you, there are very few things that cannot be undone. Unfortunately, the process of undoing them is often worse than having them done in the first place.' This situation kind of shows me what he meant."


She giggled wetly. "That sounds like him, all right. Are you really ok? I didn't…I thought Genesis Burst was supposed to be helpful. I know Felicity is different, but I hadn't realized HOW different until now."


"Yeah." I said slowly. "I might need to tinker with that one. But still, I owe you one. Those instances of forced recursion weren't just damaging my soul. I'm pretty sure they were causing corruption in my stats. If they'd been allowed to fester, my next rank up might have been…dangerous."


I'd never heard of anything like that before, but then again, forced recursion like that wasn't common. Or I guess it was, just not in a way I was aware of. Technically I'd gone through three different catalyzing incidents for a racial trait, but only partway. Thinking about it like that it was no wonder I'd been so fucked up.


"You took one look at me and knew." I said with a smile. "I had my guard up before and didn't even realize myself, but as soon as I relaxed you saw it and fixed it."


She snorted. "Obviously. In sickness and in health, remember? But please don't do that to me again. Fixing you…" She shuddered, eyes haunted. "Gods, Shane, I could feel it while it was happening. You were there in my head like normal, but you couldn't hear me, all you could do was scream. I felt the agony in my bones."


"Yeah. I'll give that a pass. No more monkeying with anything Domain related until D-rank." Because that had been what had happened. The damage was all Domain related. The Wendigo's Domain had been part of it, integrated early maybe, and a Domain was just a fledgeling world, so seeing the truth of Callus had been like brushing up against one.


Only I could find so many ways to scar myself in a fashion that should be borderline impossible at my current level. I laughed, climbing to my feet. Looking around, I marveled at the buildings. "Damn, you finished while I was out? How long was I unconscious."
"An hour." She shrugged. "I was already working on the Dust Construction thing, so I figured I'd take it off your plate."


"That has been your habit with most things." I nodded solemnly. "Even when you have your own plate." I let out a loud cough that sounded suspiciously like 'french fries', and bent to pick up my mask, slipping it back on. Callie had some of the highest Perception on Callus most likely, so the Stealth didn't worry me, but I felt naked without it.


Laughing at my jab, she strode over and tucked herself under my arm. To an outsider it would look like affection, but I suspect she'd seen the slight tremor when I straightened up. I squeezed her with one arm, letting my gratitude flood the bond.


We stood like that for a minute, letting my sore and exhausted body readjust. My soul and mind were feeling fine, if not actually good, but my body had spent the last hour seizing up and screaming myself hoarse, so my muscles were feeling like shit. Once I was doing ok, we went to go check on the other nearby construction projects, to see what we could do to help.


On the way, I took Callie on a walk. We'd both grown up in Valen, but she'd been in a different social strata then I had. She'd never been to some of the places Benny and I had hung out. This hot dog stand, that park. Some of them had been crushed and were under construction, but some were still there and doing fine.


With the lingering damage from the Domain exposures going, I could actually enjoy the sensation of just…going for a walk with my wife. It was shockingly nice to just do nothing for a while. We stopped a few times when we did find construction that needed a hand, but it never took long.


By the time it was dark, we were ready to head home. We'd decided to stick with the cavern base, since we'd put so many wishes into reinforcing it. We figured people would stay more combat ready if we kept the base around, too. Though of course we approved missions home to do repairs and just decompress. We needed everyone at their best for the fight.


We piled into a shuttle at dusk to head back to the volcano, and Callie curled up against me as we watched the night sky. Even through the trails of labyrinth, the stars were beautiful as they started to peek out in the sky as the light of day faded.


Despite how rough things had been only an hour earlier, i counted this as one of the best days I'd had in quite a while. Despite all that, the sense of foreboding never faded. Something was still coming, and when it got here…I wasn't sure what would happen. Whatever it was though, I knew one thing. I wouldn't be facing it alone.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next month was surprisingly peaceful. I spent it relaxing with Callie, repairing the planet, hanging with Benny and Chelsea, and just generally taking some time to get my head right after the pressure cooker of tension and nightmares that was running an active opposition to a planetary occupation.


Of course, I still did my wishes every day, and I focused most of it on Fantasy again. Sadly, the majority of my point gain was from renown, and most of that probably ended up going into Focus and Might.


Callie and I had decided to take in our gains together out of the public eye, so we were down in the caverns, in an offshoot that was out of the way of any of the passages in consistent use.


"You ready for this?" I asked her with a laugh. "I haven't seen your numbers in like…half a year. Never had a chance to check in after the trip, and we've been down here for months. I'm looking forward to seeing how far ahead of me you are. And with you on the streets for the last month helping with repairs, your profile down here is as high as mine. Maybe more, what with Valen trumpeting your victorious return."


She grinned at me. "Well I need all the help I can get. With you putting all your wishes into progressing, it's tough to keep up."


I laughed. The truth was we were both on the express train. Between the wedding, the occupation, and our big victory, we were practically bathing in renown. Smiling over at her, I took in a deep breath and let it out. "So. You ready? I'm going first."



Wishmaster candidate status. E-rank. Ability: Expert Wish- Seven times a day grant an Expert wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.


Might-21,200
Impact-65
Fantasy-14,020
Vitality-12,674
Focus-15,920
Perception-15,004
Creation-14,054
Progress to next rank:92,937/100,000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body



Stored:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 0 triple strength density shifted attacks. 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 0 heal bursts (0 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)


Pet- Wolf named Jin


Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 42 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


Skills: Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Intermediate Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Expert Paired Dueling, Expert Dust Construction Mastery


DS Subskills. Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance.


Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality


Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rhythm of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind



Goetia Staff Art:
First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.
Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: comdensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground iself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches
Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction

Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance

Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner
Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.



Fifth form- Bael. Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation (inverted), Afterburner (full effectiveness is seven times base Perception due to stacking, can only currently stack a single stat, unlike wish power which stacks them all)

Sixth form- Beelzebub. Piece of Mind, Stone Limb, Dust Construction, Shadow Clone. Create twelve copies (thirteen versions total) of Shane, each copy able to use a single form without straining Shane's soul past the strain of the original technique, which is only slightly more of a strain than a normal form and still allows one additional form to be used without overstraining. Can't remote control the forms, but can communicate with them remotely via telepathy principles from Paired Dueling. Might and Perception stacking, most versatile and well designed form yet.


First Circle of Hell- Limbo. Belial, Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. A psuedo Domain of confusion and mental manipulation, distorting the senses and controlling the body.


The difference was…staggering. My Vitality hadn't gone up by much, only a bit under five hundred, probably since it was already faily high. Might had skyrocketed, which I supposed happened when you started dropping districts on people. My Focus had spiked up by another four thousand points, and the power leveling of all the other stats had dragged Creation up by a few thousand as part of the package.


All in all, it was a colossal month. Seventeen thousand four hundred and thirty two points. I was less than eight thousand points from reaching D-rank. My wedding, this occupation, it was the perfect storm of renown. Not just on planet, there was no way word of the siege wasn't getting out, and the fact that we hadn't been ritually sacrificed yet must be making the vanished gods look like idiots.


Travis had poured a ton of resources and time into this plan to tank our morale, and I was betting it was having the opposite effect. It was almost enough to make this whole thing worth it. Callie took the paper I'd written out my information on and whistled. "Damn. You HAVE been busy. You ready to see mine?" He grin was challenging and I knew she'd made similar amounts of progress, if not more.


She let her own stats hit her, relaxing her soul and letting a torrent of power pour into her. When she opened her eyes, she had an odd look on her face. "Oh." She said shortly. "I guess we've been so busy I hadn't checked. It makes sense, but I wasn't really expecting it." She glanced at me almost shyly, blushing slightly, which wasn't really like her at all. She scrawled out her stats for me, passing it over and averting her eyes, and it took me a second to realize what she meant.


Calliope Wyndham. E-rank. Ability: Expert Abyssal Infiltration. Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies.


Might-25,550
Impact-65
Vitality-9,742
Fantasy-17,520
Focus-7,908
Perception-22,375
Creation-14,485
Progress to next rank: 97,645/100000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body


Pet-Wolf named Rellia


Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Dual Dagger Mastery, Intermediate Stealth, Intermediate Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Expert Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Expert Paired Dueling.


Path of the Abyss-Illusory. Technique: Shadowed Glide


Putting aside the MASSIVE nearly fifty thousand point jump (I'd made an even bigger one, but I had wishes to fall back on) the thing that really stuck out to me was right at the beginning. It was clearly what had thrown Callie off so badly, and I couldn't really blame her. I hadn't expected the swap myself, though I suppose we both probably should have.


"Calliope Wyndham." I said with a grin. "It sounds good, don't you think? I mean I knew you were planning to take my name, but I didn't know it would change in your stat sheet. I guess that means you've really internalized it."


She smirked. "That's your whole takeaway. Twenty thousand points in Might and you're focused on my name change?"


I shrugged. "Godslayer. Plus you literally fell from the sky like a flaming meteor and decimated a giant Wendigo that was about to destroy a city. You have to figure that gave you a bump. It is a lot though."


"Less than it seems." She chuckled. "You were way further behind me not long ago. I was just holding back showing you my progress so I could drop all the big numbers on you at once." She winked at me. "Still, I AM ahead by about five thousand points."


I swallowed, staring at the paper. "Do you think we'll hit D-rank when we unseal the planet?" I asked after a minute.


"Probably." She admitted. "We're already damned close. Elevating Callus to D-rank should bridge the gap. It's going to be a huge operation, not to mention the E-rankers that'll be there with us. We should be able to ride the event into Mastery. Why do I feel like you're more worried than excited?"


"This foreboding feeling I'm having." I tried to articulate. "It feels…close. Not in the next few days, not the fight with Travis. This feels bigger, more unstoppable. Something is coming, and I can't help but feel being D-rank might be what's bringing it. D-rank is when we really step into the higher orders of Ascendant culture. It's when we become real players."


She smiled knowingly. "And when we say goodbye to our safety net."


"That too." I conceded. "I do worry about life without Zeke. I've gotten used to watching my own back, but it still feels…dangerous."


"Oh I get it." She said emphatically. "I've been terrified. I've been talking to your mother about it. But I think you've overlooked a few things."


I cocked my head. "Like what?"


"Well for one, when you lose your guardian, it's not just sacrificing protection. It's breaking the moratorium on external help. At least in part. Once you hit D-rank as a candidate, you're officially under the protection of the WCP. Maybe no as personally as with Zeke, but messing with you means messing with your whole family." She sounded triumphant, and I could see why.


I had been worried about being undefended, so that was good to hear. "I'll be able to create wish scrolls too." I said with a slow nod. "That means I won't need to use my wishes on the spot every day. I can stockpile them. That'll be useful when I'm not around anyone useful enough to worth wasting one on."


"Exactly." She beamed. "As for this foreboding feeling…we'll handle it. Together. As a family. Once the labyrinth breaks and we ascend to D-rank, we'll have your mom, Zeke, Andrew, and all their backup here with us. I'd like to SEE who can come snatch you out from under that kind of entourage."


I laughed, letting my body relax, but deep down inside my stomach churned. She was right, I knew she was, but I couldn't shake this undercurrent of dread. I DIDN'T want to see who could come take me. I didn't want that at all. Because whatever the answer was, it would be someone too powerful to even consider fighting back against.


For now though, I was home, I was strong, and I was ready. Only two more days before we set off on our final raid. I still needed to check in with Jessie and Benny about their stats (and Jessie's Path) before we left. Helping my wife up, I offered her my arm, and she took it with a wink and a warm smile, and we headed off into the cavern in search of our friends.


It was almost ever. We were almost free, and then we could finally have our reception with all our family and friends and put all this nastiness behind us. After that, who knew? We had a year or so before the competition for the Wishmaster position came due. I was sure we could find some trouble to get into before then.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Well if it isn't the lovebirds." Said Benny as we walked into his room with Jessie on our heels. He was leaning back in his chair, and Celine had her feet in his lap, which he was rubbing. Her head was tilted back, and she was snoring lightly, but when he spoke she snapped awake, falling off the couch they were sitting on with a mortified squeak.

Benny laughed, then groaned as she punched him in the leg with a scowl. Scrambling to her feet, she fixed her…I didn't actually know what to call her clothes. Some kind of green tunic dress. It was very elfin, but I hadn't seen her wear it before. Then again, I wasn't exactly the king of noticing people's wardrobes.

"Benicio and I were just decompressing after a long day." She said loftily, cheeks red as Jessie whistled suggestively. It was kind of hilarious to see graceful, steady Celine so out of sorts.

Callie giggled at her, gripping me arm as she leaned around me. "You're ALLOWED to sleep, Cel. Or do other things. We promise we won't tell your mom." She winked and the elf girl turned such a bright red I was briefly worried about her head exploding. My wife took pity on her though, and turned to Benny. "We wanted to check in on our bestest buddies and see how they've been progressing. It's been like half a year since we checked."

I doubted either of them hit Callie levels of stat gain, nevermind mine, but six months was bound to be a big windfall.

Benny shrugged modestly. "I did alright. A little better than Jessie but also substantially less concentrated, obviously."

Our healer friend blew on her nails, buffing them on her cloak. "Everybody loves the healer."

Laughing, we all headed out to a side chamber. They had some built up points from their own efforts helping out around Callus. Benny in particular was very popular, given his parents connections. He'd been much more involved in the local social scene than I had growing up, just by virtue of being dragged to so many parties by his mom.

"I'm not even close to D-rank." He cautioned. "But I think I've definitely grown a ton compared to your average joe. With the residual fame from helping kill a D-ranker, even obliquely, and all the renown from our repair efforts and helping liberate the planet, or close enough, I've been sailing through E-rank."

I could see the shift in his posture when he allowed the renown to hit him. It wasn't much, he didn't really stockpile like I did. He shuddered theatrically when it was done, then pulled out some paper and copied his stats. "And here you are." He said smugly. "Check that out."

Benicio Cortez- E-rank. Ability: Expert Body of Inspiration- Allows the integration of existing artifacts into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them, two items per placement. insignia is a half gear in the shape of a C

Might-20,044
Impact-65
Fantasy-3486
Vitality-2441
Focus-18,141
Perception-3582
Creation-5471
Progress to next rank: 53,230/100,000


Soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current integrated tech. 14/20. Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts, Three times multiplication of Might for five minutes. Right fist: triple punch. Left forearm: F-ranked energy barrier or variable shape. Left fist: minor slow acting tranquilizer effect. Right foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps. Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly. Head: slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time, Three times multiplication of Focus for five minutes. Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage. Chest: Pair of golden G rank spider legs that arch up from the shoulders. Waist: Belt of spiritual calming, Three times Multiplication of Perception for five minutes. Heart: Illusionary double, Three times Multiplication of Vitality for five minutes.


Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Intermediate Inventing Mastery, Lesser Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

Path of the Dracolich-Illusory. Proto Technique: sword art, Dance of the Dracolich


I let out a low whistle. "Holy shit man, that's not bad at all. I know it's been a while, but you really bulked up. Your Might is almost as high as mine. Really focused growth too. Like you got some buzz on your other stats, Creation and Fantasy especially, which makes sense given your Path and your hobby, but still you really kept your renown locked in."

He shrugged. "I have to manage my legend a bit more carefully than you, since I don't have the wish thing to fall back on. Cel acts as kind of a PR person for me. She's excellent at managing perception because of all the political training." He smiled at his girlfriend. "I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Starve, presumably." She said with a soft smile. "Or possibly decompose from wearing old unwashed clothes." She shot Callie a wry grin. "Does yours have problems with cleanliness too?"

I barked out a laugh. "Me? She's the biggest slob I've ever met. Besides maybe Jessie. I think Randall cleans up her room these days. Apparently even wild animals aren't comfortable in the environment she lives in."

My blonde friend scowled at me. "That is a hateful lie! I'm as clean and graceful as a princess. My room is the height of organization. I can find anything in there. Just last week I found a whole chicken I wasn't even looking for. I'd just left it there-" She trailed off. "Shit, that might have been a counterproductive story."

I just laughed, unable to resist reaching over to ruffle her hair. "It's fine, Jess, we love you anyway. And hey, at least you can drive."

"Excuse me!" Said my wife in an offended tone. "I'm an EXCELLENT driver! You're just a big scaredy cat who's afraid of a little vigorous space redistribution. Vehicles are specifically made to withstand dents."

I threw my hands in the air. "Vigorous space redistribution isn't a thing! It's called rear-ending, and it's ILLEGAL and DANGEROUS. And vehicles are made to withstand dents when they HAVE to. Your crash test safety rating is not a fucking MANA bar in a video game you can spend to make your trip faster!"

She just shrugged. "Agree to disagree."

"I don't think that phrase means what you think it means." I said flatly. "But fine. In any case. Jess, you were going to do yours? I'm curious what you got, though I can probably imagine where most of your points went."

Our healer grinned at me. "Hell yes you can!" She cheered with a fist pump. She reached into the air and whipped out a piece of paper. "Read it and weep, nerds!"

"You asshole!" Scolded Callie. "You were supposed to wait like the rest of us! When did you let yout stats in."

"On the way here." Shrugged Jessie. "You guys bore me." She winked to take the sting out of it, but we all grumbled as we reached for the paper. Benny and I went for it, but Callie snatched it first, then smacked out hands away when we tried to grab it.

She nodded sagely, stroking her chin in a ridiculous imitation of a wise old man with a beard. "Very curious."

"Yes." I said flatly. "We ARE very curious. Now spill, or I'll drop you in the Pit of Despair and fish the page out." I waggled my fingers at her. "My control of the Dust is not of this world. BEWARE!"

"I'll eat it if you try." She threatened. "You may no believe me but-"

We all shook our heads, putting up our hands in surrender. "We believe you." I said bluntly. "You'll eat anything. Paper isn't a stretch."

"Hey!" She shrieked in outrage. "I have a VERY discerning palate. You can't just- SHIT!" She whirled as Benny dipped back, clutching the paper he'd snatched from her distracted hands. I just grinned. Having the old team back together like this on Callus…it was like the last few months never happened. I felt so at peace here.

Benny read over the paper and then handed it to me. It was about what I had expected, honestly.

Jessica Evans- E-rank. Ability: Expert Lifeweaving- Infuse living things with life itself and direct their actions while the user's power flows through them. Control has limited effect on sapient entities. Prolonged exposure to life energy may cause lasting effects in controlled subjects.

Might-3625
Impact-65
Fantasy-2758
Vitality-37,256
Focus-1755
Perception-1765
Creation-2958
Progress to next rank: 50,182/100,000

Pathath of the Green Sun

Pet- Wolf named Lily and Undying Lifestorm Ursa named Randall(Intermediate Beast Bonding with Jessie)

soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

Skills: Intermediate Horticulture,Intermediate First Aid, Minor Herbalism, Minor Flower Arrangement, Intermediate Beast Taming Mastery, Intermediate Beast Bonding, Intermediate Shape of the Wild

I clicked my tongue. "Damn, your VItality is out of this world. Highest stat in the whole damned party. You think you'll hit fifty thousand before D-rank?"

"I do." She said excitedly. "And I'm pretty sure my ability will upgrade if I do. You know that specific milestones can influence changes on rank up. Honestly I'm not even sure what it'll turn into. I'm about to be a Master, who knows what that'll look like." The anticipation in her voice was heartwarming.

She had a point too. Her power was already absurdly strong, most likely BECAUSE of how hyperfocused her stat distribution was. Master was a watershed, and I was seriously looking forward to what her lifeweaving was going to become.

More important than that though, was the entry I hadn't noticed until my second glance. "You created a Path!" I said excitedly. "It's…weird sounding. What is the green sun?"

She grinned widely. "It's my own creation. I actually started telling stories about it recently. During cleanup. It helps me cement the image in my head. Like I'm creating a new mythology. People seem to like hearing about it. The green sun is native to a planet called Mercuria. It's a harsh world, and large, and as it turns in place, the suns travel across the surface, meaning there are nine 'days' happening there at a time.

"Each sun does something unique. The green sun is the sun of life. It burns with the fires of creation and Vitality, and its light causes plants to grow and wounds to heal." She sounded so animated I almost got sucked into the story myself, forgetting she'd made it up. "Animals grow fast and large under the green sun, their bodies imbued with strength"

We listened as she went on and on, filling us in on the other suns, the native flora and fauna. It all came bursting out, and it occurred to me that Jessie hadn't just been resting on her laurels while we were all pulling ahead. She knew she needed a Path, and she was doing her best to make an amazing one. I couldn't wait to see what it was capable of.

After Jessie filled us in, we all headed to one of the empty caverns, and I cooked for us. So much of my interactions with my team were based on food and the sense of community that came from sharing a meal, and cooking for them all after months without my wife and then a month of cleanup was…peaceful.

We'd had some downtime together during the month off, but nothing quite like this. Maybe because it was the eve of battle, so to speak, but this felt…different. Like old times. I loved it. By the time the night wound down my face hurt from smiling so much, and I had to carry Callie to bed because she'd worn herself out doing shadow puppet theater (in three dimensions) of HER favorite movies, as revenge for making her watch soul puppet. Tomorrow we'd begin preparations for the final battle, but for now it was just the five of us, the old gang plus one, and it was all I needed to enjoy my night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"No." I said bluntly. I stared across the room at Bethy, who had come up with a last minute 'plan' to hide our entry into the snowglobe for the attack.

"But it's FOOLPROOF!" She yelled in frustration. "Look how convincing it is." She gestured manically to…what could generously be described as a hooded cloak made of Wendigo skil with antlers on top.

It was not convincing. It was way too long, had no limbs, and was weirdly stiff in places. There were little bits of meat still clinging to it in random spots too, like she'd skinned it herself and didn't know how to do it well. "Bethy. No." I said with a sigh. "We don't even NEED them. I'm going to stealth is in again. Why do we need disguises?"

"Because that's BORING!" She wailed, throwing up her hands in despair. "We keep being all sneaky and boring all the time! It's going to skew all of our points into Perception, and I have SO MANY points in Perception already."

I paused. That was…actually kind of a good point. I'd been thinking about how to win fights and minimize losses, which was a good way to run a war, but not as good of a way to run an Ascendant war. That said, Bethy was taking that stance from a position of overwhelming strength. We were still going to be heavily outnumbered, two to one once we sprung the popsicles. It wasn't a risk I was willing to take in these conditions.

Surprisingly, when I explained that, Bethy nodded absently. "Yeah, that's fair. Daddy says that you have to consider how squishy your thralls are. Not that you guys are thralls, but daddy doesn't have a lot of weak friends, so it's kinda the same, right?"

"Sure." I said, not at all qualified to comment on the thought processes of millennia old Vampires who fought gods for fun. "Anyway, we're heading out soon, can you go gather up the others and get them ready? Stealth is easier when it's just you."

She agreed and happily headed off to find our hundred and fifty strong army of Ascendants. A hundred would be joining me in the initial siege, while fifty would be heading off to enter the cold storage and spring our reinforcements.

Since Zagan and Eye of Revelation were necessities for entering and freeing them, Callie would be leading the second team. Bethy, Mel, Chelsea, and Gabe would be with her, while Abel and I led our ground forces in a decapitation strike to take out Madigan and Travis. We were expecting lots of resistance and some tricks, hence the split, but I'd stacked Callie's team as high as I could with badasses to offset their lower numbers and I'd have to trust that was enough.

Speaking of my wife, she slipped out of the shadows next to me. "Is she gone?" She asked warily.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you and Bethy fighting or something?" I hadn't thought they were on bad terms, Bethy was a hard person to dislike for more than a few minutes, and only then when she did something thoughtless.

She cleared her throat. "Not exactly. I lost a bet to her and I have to let her be my stylist for the next week. There was discussion about neon green fabrics and leg warmers. I'm hiding until after the battle, when it won't matter what I wear."

"I think she was messing with you." I laughed. "She isn't usually the neon green type…" I paused. "Although her disguise during the siege was bright orange. Maybe she's experimenting with niche color palettes. Probably safer not to risk it."

She grinned, leaning up to kiss my mask. "See, this is why I married you. You're such an enabler."

"I thought you married me because I'm handsome and charming and an inch taller than Benny." I said in a faux shocked voice. "It's just because I let you get away with shenanigans? I am shocked, shocked I tell you."

"You're also a pretty decent cook." She said seriously. "Had to lock that down before you took your culinary skills on the road and hooked some five faction floozy."

I grinned, pulling up my mask and leaning down to give her a peck on the lips. "I haven't seen another girl since the first day I met you face to face." I said with a soft smile. "And I'll never see another one besides you. So be careful out there, ok? If you need power you take it, no hesitation. Mornax should keep you safe."

She put a hand on my cheek tenderly. "I'll be fine. I'll have an army backing me. Plus your powers. Plus MY powers. Plus all the contingency wishes that we managed to cobble together from you and Nat the last three days."

"Those should help." I admitted. "Though some of them are pretty niche. Escape wishes and a bit of luck nudging will be the most overtly useful. Don't take it as an excuse not to pay attention." Celine had paid us in D-rank chits (I was up to 45), for our fallback wishes, and they should help us out of any REAL crazy traps Travis tried.

Trying to think of every possible freak trump card had been an exercise in annoying headaches, but we'd spread our bets pretty evenly and it should be enough.

Travis…Travis was going to be a problem. He was smart and nasty and vicious. I'd be the one fighting him, and I wasn't sure if he'd stack the deck hard to make sure I was outnumbered or try to ensure he could fight me alone. Killing me in front of Zeke and mom might not be the sacrifice he wanted, but it would be a hell of a blow to morale on his way out.

It didn't matter. He was a dead man. He'd done far too much to be allowed to walk away. I knew exactly how to counter him, and no matter how many bullshit tricks he pulled, he wasn't going to see it coming. I'd specifically crafted my last two forms for this fight, and the synergy would nullify his one big advantage perfectly.

We heard someone coming, so Callie pulled me into a tight hug and I readjusted my mask to cover my face. It turned out not to be super necessary, because it was Bethy, but still. Safety first.

To my surprise, she wasn't alone. I'd expected everyone to be in her Domain, but my sister was with her, flanked by two winged forms. She was ALSO holding a very familiar shape I hadn't seen in ages. "Is that Chalk?" I asked in confusion. "Has your rabbit been here the whole time? Where the hell were you keeping it?"

She scratched the monstrous asshole behind his floppy ears. "Oh, Bethy was watching him. She keeps him in Domain and lets him play with her cats."

"Poptarts and Donuts just LOVE chalk!" The vampire said enthusiastically. "They play this funny game where they run away from him real fast. It's so cute seeing the little guy hop off after them. They really need the exercise."

I said a silent prayer for the cats, but chose to move past what I believe was a PROFOUND mischaracterization of their relationship. "What's with the powwow?" I asked. "And why are Holly and Serah here. They should be going with Callie."

"Nope." Said my sister firmly. "I'm going with Callie, as is Bethy, as is Gabe. You need SOMEONE besides Abel to have your back. The girls will be your bodyguards."

Serah nodded mechanically. "Yes. You will simply need to…bear with it."

I stared at her for a second, then turned to Chelsea. "So I take it Jessie is going with me too? Because that sounded like a pun attempt. If so, I want Benny with you."

"This isn't some kind of trading card game." Protested my wife from beside me. When I shot her a dismayed look she shrugged. "I think you're not being safe. You're sending our heaviest hitters with you. I'm not letting you just randomly sub out whoever you want."

"Benny and Celine." I said mutinously. "And if you say no I include Abel."

She growled up at me. "Insufferable moron. Fine. IF you take the girls as backup, AND Abel, I'll take Benny and Celine. Jessie and Randall will be with you. Having a healer is more important for the larger force anyway. And Randall is well practiced at killing Wendigos."

Laughing, I reached down to hug her. "Fine." I said as I pulled back. "But only because I think it's cute when you worry."

"It's not." She said in annoyance. "I should know, because you make me do it all the fucking time. If you get injured because you took a stupid risk I'm going make you visit every city on Valen for political meet and greets…and I'll DRIVE."

I flinched in horror, and she smirked at me, then turned and sauntered over to Bethy, who flexed her Domain enough to let her through.

The angels both nodded seriously, since everyone was in the Domain waiting to stage the attack, and then my sister followed them in, only stopping to give me a hug. Which left just me and Bethy.

The vampire was beaming, excited to be heading into the action, despite her earlier complaints. I sighed, then gestured for her to go ahead, and the two of us left the volcano, taking a nearby shuttle that had been left out for just such an occasion to the edge of the snowglobe. When we landed, Bethy was practically bouncing in excitement.

"This will be so fun!" She squealed happily. "We're gonna sneak right up on them, and be like 'rargh, time to die' and they'll be like 'oh no it's Bethy!' and I'll be like 'bow before me snack boys', and they won't even see you about to whack them with a stick!"

"I thought you were anti stealth?" I said with amusement. "Starting to come around to sneaking in and ambushing them?"

She shrugged. "Well it's just to start. Your plans always end up being big knock down fights. Plus, chances are good you'll blow up some kind of building. I'm just sad I have to leave and go thaw out those lame icicles instead of seeing you beat the bad guy."

"Honestly…me too." I said with a shrug. "I'd feel better if you were there."

She looked at me with big starry eyes. "Oh my god, I KNEW it! We're besties! Benny is going to be so jealous. You totally traded up."

I laughed, then turned and offered to let her climb on my back. "I'll be sure to tell him he's been replaced. Now let's go." I paused. "And can you…can you keep an eye out for Callie?" I whispered, invoking my Bael stealth to cover the question, hopefully preventing my wife from hearing.

She gave a solemn nod. "Bodyguard Bethy is on the case." She said seriously. The effect was somewhat ruined when I looked over my shoulder and saw that she'd somehow pulled a pair of sunglasses from somewhere and put them on, her blank face made even more serious with the big dark shades.

I couldn't help it, I cracked up. Bethy always knew how to lighten a mood. She climbed on my back, and with a joyful cry telling me to 'giddyup', I covered us both with Bael and set off into the snowglobe.

As I entered, I felt things slow down. Time in here was distorted, and there was no way to dispel that without breaking the globe, which it was too soon for. Luckily our enemies were just as slowed down. We would be perfectly fine to engage. I felt myself tense in anticipation. This was so close to being over. Just one more fight to win and the planet would be saved. No pressure, right?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It was time. I felt my hands tingle as I clenched and unclenched my fists. A hundred people with me. Callie was gone, taking her fifty along. The angels, Abel, Jessie, Randall, and dozens of others were standing behind me, and all of us were stationed right outside the canon where Wintervale was situated.

"Go." I said shortly, and we went. The formation training had been useful, helping us maintain a cohesive assault force, but Ascendant tactics were kind of paradoxical in that they prioritized being the best individual team player. Our movements were in synch, but very individual, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I triggered Beelzebub, letting my clones move out to attend their own tasks, and then Mephistopheles, before blitzing over the canyon cliff with Mephisto's Waltz. Ripple running came to my like divine providence and my feet tapped the air in a mesmerizing cascade of shifting movement as I flickered across the open space toward…an army.

Travis had set his people out in rows, and it took me an activation of Eye of Revelation to see WHY. A Path. Travis had a Path, and he was using a very large and scary technique. The fighters were laid out like a giant chess board, with the Wendigos as pawns and his own people in the back as power pieces. Travis himself was the King, and I could see his smug smirk as he watched me descend from the sky, my forces behind me.

Three hundred. Three to one odds. That meant two hundred were waiting for Callie and the others, four to one, and I hated that ideas, but I couldn't let it break my focus. They needed us to make enough noise to potentially pull in their reinforcements, and damned if we weren't going to.

We hit Travis's lines like the fist of an angry god, and I slammed down my staff in a brutal Cosmic Collapse, setting off a wave of black flame. Abel's bloody fist manifestations rained down, the angels manifested their metallic light powers, and Randall expanded with a roar of horrifying bloodthirst as Jessie saty on his back, channeling a torrent of green energy into him.

The other worked the formations we gave them, maximizing their abilities in the context of smaller group while sticking to the plan, and for a second I thought we might win this easily…but that wasn't happening.

Abel's fist hit a massive wall of dark iron and rebounded, his body suddenly wrapped in a labyrinth of energy as he tried to slip away with his spatial powers, the angels were attacked by some kind of dark liquid mass, and Randall hit a pair of very large Wendigos that operated as a unit more effectively than I'd seen.

All over the battlefield, people were suddenly matched against their perfect counters, and I snarled as I watched Travis flicking his hands like a conductor, transporting his attackers this way and that, swapping out the worst possible enemy for each and every one of my people. This chess technique was letting him dictate the pace of the battle, suck us into his tempo, and his translocation was letting him perfectly counter our every move.

But I could transport too. I triggered Double Trouble, my staff licking out at him, and he vanished in a blink, the blow crushing the skull of an unsuspecting swordsman that had previously been matched against an ice used we'd brought along. I reoriented, found him again, and repeated. He glared at me from afar, flickering constantly as I matched him beat for beat, a run and gun battle across the chessboard.

Left and right, I left broken and dead enemies, his people plucked from wherever he could find them and unprepared for an assault with my most powerful offensive form.

As we moved, the technique started to break down, dissolving at the edges as I forced him to snatch pieces from wherever he could to survive. I had him on the back foot, but he was far too smart not to have a backup plan.

After my tenth kill, he glanced off in a seemingly random direction, and vanished…replaced by Mad Madigan. I felt my Danger Sense scream and, kicked off the air as the other man gestured dramatically. The labyrinth slammed down across the board, twisting lines of energy coruscating around us as they spatially separated the squares, locking all of our people into individual battles manipulated by Travis.

I prepared myself for the fight. I hadn't been planning to fight Madigan, he was supposed to be Abel's prey, but I could figure that out later. Or at least, I would have, if not for the colossal crimson fist that smashed through the spatial warping to one side of us, carrying the battered form of Travis, who had apparently ended up in a square WITH Abel, and had regretted it.

The translocator rolled off the momentum, coming up to his feet with a snarl as he glared at both of us. "You know." He said with frustration. "The whole rabbit out of a hat thing goes from cute to annoying REALLY fast. Can't you just fucking die like you're supposed to?"

Without waiting for me to answer, he switched with a piece of rock behind me, ready to cave my skull in with a wicked looking black mace…and not at all ready for the staff that came down unseen on his ankle. He blinked out, appearing across the enclosure created by the two labyrinthine chess squares we now inhabited since Abel had collapsed a wall.

He glared at me. "What the fuck was that?"

I smiled unpleasantly. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. You were just about to backstab me again, right? Please, be my guest. I'll wait."

His eyes narrowed, and he scanned the area. Off to one side, Abel had engaged Madigan, and their fight was kind of hurting my head. The crazy labyrinth architect was using some kind of short range hand to hand style that warped space inside his guard, and Abel was bashing through and around it with spatial lubrication and his Path.

Try as he might though, Travis couldn't see anything around us that could have attacked him. He was favoring his ankle and he had no idea what to do next.

Last time we'd fought, Travis had backstabbed me. His battlefield control was unassailable, and he had a nearly limitless number of options for how to attack. Predicting him was too reactive, and I wouldn't be able to keep it up. I'd burn energy dodging and slow down the more we fought.

When I was a kid, I'd had these weird little colored blocks. They were tiny and had bumps that locked together, and they were infamous among parents in our childcare. Kids would leave them out and parents would step on them in the dark, and they were apparently INCREDIBLY painful. Zeke never seemed to care, but he was a B-ranker, so that made sense.

The thing was, those blocks were basically impossible to avoid, because they were small and blended into the carpet, especially in the dark.

Moral of the story: invisible obstacles could really fuck you up.

Secondary moral of the story: invisible CLONES of the person you're fighting scattered across the battlefield in perfect stealth waiting to attack no matter where you landed could fuck you up even more.

I'd put a LOT of thought into beating Travis. My issue came down to the fact that he could just go anywhere, and if he went somewhere I wasn't, I'd still be in the same spot. I couldn't be in two places at once. Well, fuck that. I'd be in two places. I'd be in ALL the places. If he wanted to hop around the battlefield like a menace, I'd be there waiting every time.

He had no clue what was happening, because the clones (which had been marking me and following my trail as I Double Troubled around the battlefield waiting for him to do THIS exact thing) were all using their one form to lurk around in Bael, waiting to see where he went.

There was a lot of debris around (because Abel was not a precision instrument) and he was trying to figure out what was going on. He blinked around a few times, assessing the battlefield.

My clones had good reach, especially with staves in hand, and the layout of their positioning meant he basically couldn't get within a hundred plus feet of me. He wasn't coming in close though, just sort of circling, trying to suss out not only where his limits were, but exactly what was happening.

Sadly for him, that wasn't going to work. I triggered my overlay, as did the others, and a parallel Piece of Mind was activated to track and sort all the data as I rushed toward him. He froze for a second, but then appeared off to one side of me, swinging his mace down at an angle to cripple a leg.

It was deflected, one of my clones knocking at aside as another swung at his head. I drove forward, explosions of black flame erupting as my staff blurred in a series of short, brutal thrusts. He deflected it with his mace as best he could, wheeling backward in panic, he tried to swap out with something nearby, but another clone tripped him, and the entire dozen of us just dogpiled on the bastard.

An explosion from above dragged my attention away from my enemy long enough to look up and see the rainbow manifestation of the formation above the snowglobe shatter, a cascade of falling fragments of colored light sprinkling down like rainbow glitter snow.

Unfortunately, that was when things started to go wrong. The snowglobe had been woven into the formation, at least as far as was necessary. Releasing the popsicles shouldn't have broken the cold storage, which meant something ELSE had done it, but with the cold storage gone the snowglobe was falling.

Seeing his chance to escape, Travis bellowed. "DROP THE MAZE!" And the separating labyrinth keeping the squares of the chess board dissolved even as the technique itself fell apart.

It. Was. Chaos. Formerly separated groups of clashing enemies unleashed into a single large area, reinforcements from both sides falling from the fucking skies as the now unleashed E-rankers from both our team of fifty and the cold storage battled the two hundred soldiers (mostly Wendigos) Travis had position to block them.

They hadn't gotten INSIDE, obviously, but the bastards had been waiting on the rainbow paths, and now the pandemonium of the falling battle was mixing with the chess board battle and no one knew which way was fucking up.

I glared at Travis as he blinked away, but I triggered a skill with one of my clones as it tapped him with a grazing blow. Marked for Death. It mostly worked to bypass armor, but it WAS a mark, and I could track it.

I left Abel to handle Madigan (breaking the labyrinth was the last step to elevating the planet and letting the high rankers back in) and took off after Travis, my feet blurring as I blinked across the sky in bursts of black fire.

He was a pain in the ass to follow. Fighting he'd been tough, but running he was a menace. Constant switches with random people, sometimes friends sometimes foes, and always in an erratic direction and distance, made him a nightmare to close in on. But I didn't care.

Travis had done all of this to hurt me. To hurt Callie. Killing my friends and family and even my wife had been his main goal, just to make a statement for his gods.

Well I had a fucking statement to make two. I'd make it with his shattered corpse. He wasn't getting away again. My clones were following behind me, but not able to keep up because they weren't in Mephistopheles, but I ignored that. They'd get there eventually, and I wasn't giving up my chance at revenge because of a slightly more even fight. Travis died tonight.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

He stopped running about twenty miles from Wintervale. I wasn't surprised. He was trying to get away from the situation more than me. I suspect he'd partially figured out what I was doing, and had brought me out here to counter it. The little flurries of snow on the tundra would stick to my clones even in stealth. They could hide still, but there would be disturbances.


To my amusement, he looked enraged when I caught up. "Do you know how much effort I had to put in to make this happen?" He asked in a voice as cold as the hard packed snow around us. "How much influence I burned, how many favors I had to both use and promise? This was my shot. My big break. And you've turned it all to fucking DUST."


His breath was billowing in the air, like he was literally steaming at the injustice. I laughed. "Am I supposed to feel bad?"


"Do you think I give a fuck how you FEEL?" He spat. "I had goals. Plans. I WORKED for this. I didn't just have some divine bloodline fall into my lap. I dedicated my fucking life to the vanished gods, I sacrificed, I waited. And when I finally pulled off that double cross at the academy, I took full advantage. And now all of it is gone, wasted because of some little godspawn dilettante."


"If you were someone I liked, I might argue." I said after a moment. "I might go on about how I've worked hard too, about how much time I put in making my own Path instead of just relying on my wish power. But you know what? I'm not going to do that."


I made sure he could hear my vindictive grin in my voice. I was buying time for my clones to arrive. I couldn't let them get too close because of the snow, but I could still use them as an early warning system.


"I'm not going to argue, because I want you to feel humiliated." I continued talking, eyes tracking him. "I want this to HURT. You're a failure. A waste of meat. You ruined the only thing of consequence you've ever tried to do, and I'm proud to have played a part in it. You're going to die alone and embarrassed and ridiculed. I'm going to spread the word. For the rest of eternity people on this planet will remember you and what you tried to do, and remember that you fucked it up."


He looked ready to attack me, but I saw his eyes darting around, still worried about the clones. So he didn't know exactly what was up then. Good. "Fuck you." He spat.


"No Travis. Fuck YOU." I shot back hotly. "Forever. I'm going to fucking ENSHRINE your failure in the legends of Callus. In every planet I ever get control of, in the whole fucking WCP if I can. There will be holidays where people walk around dressed like you and get pelted with rotten fruit. People will burn you in effigy on cold nights, I'll hold FESTIVALS where people will compete to see who can create the most humiliating Travis costume. Stories of your pathetic waste of a life will echo across the fucking universe. You'll be such a laughing stock people will never use the name Travis for another child, because they'll be so ashamed to have it associated with you!"

I was panting now. I MIGHT have gotten a little overly emotional there, but I was just so angry. Killing Perit, stabbing me in the back, ruining my wedding, almost breaking my cousin's heart. He'd done so much to me, and I HATED him for it. I'd never felt anything like it before. Not really. I'd never felt real, pure, undying hatred for anyone. Not until now.


He stared at me, rage flaring in his eyes, and then he vanished. I could have attacked from behind, had my clones move in, but that felt…impersonal. I left them there, watching from a dozen angles so he couldn't sneak up on me, and when he appeared, my elbow flashed up and shattered his fucking nose as I sidestepped the mace.


I spun, following up, and he blinked again, using bits of snow to swap places with. I didn't panic, didn't rush. I lashed out with a kick, and when he vanished again I waited. He tried to get behind me again, and Danger Sense told me before he even appeared. I let myself fade into the rhythm of the fight, opening my mind to try to forge the clones perspectives into one whole.


The obvious choice was using the overlay, and I did, and the Danger Sense, all the clones, and the predictive lines sort of blended together into a song of perfect violence.


I took hits, but just glancing ones, giving ground to slow him down enough to grab hold, and I realized I wasn't holding my staff anymore. Black flames licked my knuckles as I beat him into the snow, slapping aside mace shots where I didn't need to tank them and sinking my fists hard into his ribs, throat, face.


Eventually, he stopped teleporting himself, letting his rage take over as he matched me blow for blow. With the explosive power from Mephistopheles and my enhanced Impact I was able to match him despite his obviously higher Might stat.


It wasn't fluid, or pretty, it was brutal and nasty and stupid. We weren't in battle, we were just fucking BEATING each other. It was more of a brawl than anything, and blood flecked the snow as we bashed each other about, my nose broken by my mask, his eye swollen shut as his own nostrils dripped blood.


I could have healed, could have done a thousand things, but I didn't. I didn't want to stop. Every thought, every breath, was dedicated to HURTING Travis. Any time my knuckles weren't mashing into his flesh was unconscionable.


After about ten minutes one of us slipped, and it took me a second to realize it was him as I bore down on him, raining my fists down on him from above as he turtled up under me, trying to get one arm in the way as the other smashed into my ribs and side. But it wasn't enough. Not enough pain. Not enough damage.


I triggered Steam Arrow, firing a black flame imbued projectile of superheated water into his eyes at point blank range, and he screamed, clutching his face as I get my hands around his throat and started to squeeze.

He roared in pain and confusion, but managed to translocate away, and I dropped into the snow, scrambling to my feet from hands and knees as he appeared beside me, crying blood and face burned, but still able to see as he planted his knee into my gut and started slamming his fist into my from below.


I stomped on his instep, and he screamed, stumbling back, and I tackled him down to the ground again, my hands going to his face as my thumbs forced themselves into his mostly burned eyes. His grip shot to my wrists and he screamed in agony, and I poured black flame through my hands, into his eye sockets and across his face.


He screamed, beyond words or coherent thought, and I took the distraction as the perfect time to finish him. With a colossal heave I jerked his head up and to the side, snapping his neck, and the screaming just…stopped.


I slumped over onto my side dismissing my clones and letting Mephistopheles fade as I breathed heavily into the arctic air. I was in shock. I'd never been in a fight like that, where both parties just…gave in. That hadn't bee Limbo or recursion. That had been me, my hate, my own pure loathing coming to the forefront.


I stared at the corpse, wondering if I'd done something horrible, but I didn't feel bad. That had been messy and brutal and hateful, but it had also felt right. He deserved that, and the only thing in the pit in my stomach right now was cold satisfaction. Also probably blood. I was almost positive I was bleeding internally.


A quick scan heal to quantify my injuries confirmed that, and I was a bit confused how he'd managed to injure me so badly, until I checked his body and found the D-rank knuckle dusters he'd been beating me with. I'd been so lost in rage I hadn't even noticed the heavier blows. Presumably part of that had been my armor.


I was in bad shape. Not critical, just REALLY fucked up. Broken bones, shredded muscles, I'd torn my rotator cuff somehow, I had a vague memory of an arm bar at some point during the melee. I triggered Zagan, then fell back in the snow as I let the healing energy flood my body, focusing entirely on recovering.


No one approached me for a while, and my Danger Sense was functioning fine, so I was able to just lie there and breathe for a bit.


I was on my back, staring up at the sky, when the labyrinth shattered at last, and I felt…the world SHIFT slightly. I considered triggering Eye of Revelation, but it felt like a reckless risk to watch something so massive with my third eye, so I just waited, staring up at the sky as a torrent of meaning smashed into the planet from above.


The sensation of the Impact flowing into the planet was staggering, and the overflow permeated the air, creating an atmosphere crackling with power. I relaxed my soul, knowing it was time, and the renown crashed over me, skyrocketing me up past mm breaking point, and the Impact in the air was flowing into ME as my rank up crashed through me. I'd never really bothered ranking up hurt before, but I felt my body being rebuilt as it Ascended, as the new flesh and bone and blood replaced the old, creating something far more than I had been before.


I let Zagan drop, and I rode out the power as it detonated inside my body unlike anything I'd ever felt before. This wasn't just a quantitative bump in state of being, I was being remade, becoming something completely new, something prepared to be the vessel of great cosmic forces. A foundation was being set for my power, my story, and I knew right then that I'd never be the same.


My eyes were rolling back in a combination of pain and any number of other sensations. I wasn't sure it even hurt, it was just so MUCH. I heard something beside me, and I turned to find Callie on her knees next to me, eyes clenched tight as her body was wracked with overwhelming surges of feeling. I opened the bond, not realizing I'd closed it, and she collapsed onto me, arms going around me as we clung to each other through our rank up to Mastery.


It felt like forever. Like it would never end and had never started and like we'd always been like this, lost in an endless cascade of noise and fury and power. And then it ended. And we were lying in the snow, panting and twitching as we processed what had just happened.


I glanced around me, and was shocked to see my mom and Zeke standing not too far away, standing guard over us. Chelsea was nearby too, though she was handling the upgrade better than we had, just on her hands and knees groaning.


Slumping down, I grinned up into the sky in triumph and relief. Travis was dead, I was D-rank, I was married, my family was here. The process had been rough, but I felt the weight of sorrow and hardship just dissolve from my shoulders as I took in the results. Things weren't perfect, a lot of damage was done that would take years to fix…but for now, this was pretty great.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Being a D-ranker was…surreal. Literally, reality felt different to me. A qualitative shift in my perception of the world. It was hard to describe, but I finally pinned down the sensation, and once I did it made way too much sense. It was my sense of Impact. It had always been there, useful for keeping track of other Ascendants and detecting threats. I still remembered Abel teaching me to fine tune it beyond just detecting rank.

But not it was so much more. I could do more than sense Impact. I could smell it, taste it, feel it on my skin. I could even kind of see it if I squinted, though it was hard to describe in that context. Synesthesia, the phenomena where sensory input becomes entangled.

The weirdest part was that nothing had actually changed. Well, a lot had changed around us, but that wasn't what I meant. My body had shifted as it usually did with rank ups, and quite a bit too, but I was still…me. I was just more of me. It was extremely difficult to put into words, but I realized why D-rank was considered such a watershed. I was much greater than the sum of my parts, in a way that no rank up had ever brought me close to being before.

"I feel like…" Callie paused for a minute. "Like I'm drunk on minutes and I just threw up my sense of equilibrium."

Zeke burst out laughing. "Yeah. That happens. I've never heard it described like that, but it fits. It's called 'the Blinks'. It wears off pretty fast." He looked around with interest. "I can't believe Moravian's ridiculous formation actually worked. I always kind of assumed it was a pipe dream. Grandmaster or not, it takes a LOT to rank up a planet.

"Legendary Formation Master." Corrected a smug voice. "If you please." We all turned to see the huge form of Moravian standing nearby. It…kind of hurt to look at him. My new altered senses detected that same weird oneness I had seen before, but moreso. Every movement, breath, eye blink was one with nature. Which was still deeply in flux around us. It was really weird, lots of slight adjustments too fast and minimal for me to track.

"Rave." Said my uncle with a nod. "I owe you a blue dwarf star." He admitted. "I'm TEMPTED to claim it doesn't count because this was an unforeseeable freak accident. But you changed tactics on the fly and you helped my nephew, so I'll pay up."

My mom rolled her eyes. "Idiots." She said fondly. "But thank you, Moravian. For helping my son. I won't forget it."

He gave a regal nod, then turned and loped away. He looked kind of stop motion in the shuddering Impact of the still Ascending planet. It was weird. I stepped forward, pulling my mom and then my uncle into tight hugs. "I'm glad you're both here. I don't think we would have gotten hurt while ranking up, but it doesn't hurt to be safe."

"For sure." My uncle nodded. "And congrats on D-rank. Saving a planet is always a nice bump. I remember my first planetary siege." He grimaced a bit. "Did not go nearly as well. We sank a continent. Pulled it off in the end though. I think there's a statue of your dad in some sunken city on Rattfeld still. Their princess was a sculptor and she was REAL into him." At my mom's look, he shrugged. "What? This was way before we met you. Plus she wasn't his type. Too slithery."

Deciding I had no desire to ask what THAT meant, I changed the subject. "So…I should probably check my stats after my rank up right?" I grinned at Callie. "Do you want me to go first again?"

"You earned it." She laughed. "You really kicked his ass in that fight." She glanced at Travis's body. "I would normally be a little annoyed you felt you needed to 'defend my honor' but since we're married I think you get a pass."

My mom nodded. "It's in the rules. A certain amount of overprotectiveness is allowed after they put a ring on it. It's mutual though, and if he's anything like his father you'll need to bail him out of more than enough scrapes to make you even. Don't even get me STARTED on the mess Elijah got into on our honeymoon."

Rolling my eyes and internally promising myself to ask more about my parents past after things settled down, I closed my eyes and focused, letting the purple flames of my status screen roll across my vision.

Wishmaster candidate status. D-rank. Ability: Master Wish- Eight times a day grant a Master wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Master Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might-26,200
Impact-105
Fantasy-14,020
Vitality-12,674
Focus-20,920
Perception-15,004
Creation-14,054
Progress to next rank:102,977/1,000,000
Soul strength- Amethyst Soul Body

Stored:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 0 triple strength density shifted attacks. 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 0 heal bursts (0 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 45 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


Skills: Master Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Intermediate Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Expert Paired Dueling, Expert Dust Construction Mastery


I didn't bother copying down the whole thing. Aside from a change in my Skills to reflect my upgraded Path, there wasn't anything really different aside from the stats, so I didn't need to rewrite all the subskills and forms and techniques. Five thousand Might and five thousand Focus. Ten thousand points was such an innocuous difference at this level, but it was like night and day.

The biggest change was my Impact though. A hundred and five. It was staggering to see it in the triple digits, even being able to feel it in my bones now.
Callie read over it, beaming as she took in the differences.

"We did it." She whispered. "We really did it. I mean, I knew I did it, and I knew you did it. But like…WE did it." She snatched some paper from the air and copied down her own stats, passing it to me excitedly.


Calliope Wyndham. D-rank. Ability: Master Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies.


Might-30,550
Impact-105
Vitality-9,742
Fantasy-20,520
Focus-7,908
Perception-22,375
Creation-14,485
Progress to next rank: 105,685/1,000,000



Soul strength- Amethyst Soul Body
Pet-Wolf named Rellia

Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Dual Dagger Mastery, Intermediate Stealth, Intermediate Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Expert Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Expert Paired Dueling.

Path of the Abyss-Illusory. Technique: Dance of the Abyssal Fairy

I blinked at the last line. "What is the 'Dance of the Abyssal Fairy'?" I asked with interest. That wasn't on there last time I saw your sheet." Which had been like, a few days ago.

She grinned. "I was doing some training up on the Necromedes. Your mom and I were trying to figure out a movement technique based on a combination of her Supernova Step and my Path of the Abyss. I hadn't quite gotten it down when I arrived back on Callus, but it clicked during the fight. I ended up working Balam into the technique a bit. I'll show you later, it's pretty cool."

I laughed at that, sweeping her up into my arms and spinning her around out of sheer…joy. We were together, we were safe, the planet was ok and none of our friends had died. Sure, Valk was probably traumatized, but I could fix that eventually, like I was with Felicity.

Who wasn't here, actually. I wondered if she was helping with cleanup. I glanced back at Wintervale. "So…I'm guessing the wedding venue is going to have to change. Think anyone will mind if we have it back in Valen?"

"Who cares if they do." Shrugged Zeke. "You guys have been through a lot. And you saved this whole planet. Anyone with a problem can fuck right off."

"Crude language aside, Ezekial is right." Said my mom enthusiastically. "And the ceremony is already done, so now it's just the party. Anyone who doesn't want to come doesn't have to. It's not like we have any reason to force them to come eat free cake." She whirled on Callie excitedly. "Speaking of which, I couldn't help but notice the name on your stat sheet. Welcome to the family!"

She mirrored my actions from earlier, sweeping Callie up into a tight hug. My wife just laughed, hugging her back, and Zeke reached out and patted her on the head a few times condescendingly, which got a sort of pouty glare that reminded me of a cat during bath time, and that made all of us burst out laughing, even Callie after a second.

We headed back to Wintervale after the Blinks wore off, and it was a heady experience. We weren't one with the world like Moravian, but we'd definitely become more entwined with the universe. A distinction without a difference before I'd made the change, but now I could see the line easily.

Benny was waiting when I arrived, along with Jessie, Chelsea, Bethy, Gabe, Mel, and Abel. My teammates had been nowhere close to D-rank, sadly, but the rest of my crew had ridden the wave of the Ascension event and their role in it up into Mastery, and it was gratifying to see them standing around looking so powerful and sure of themselves.

Behind them, I could see many D-rankers actually. Probably a hundred of our original hundred and fifty (though we seemed to have had some minor losses, which I tried not to dwell on) and the entire hundred from the cold storage had ranked up, contributing heavily to the swirl of ambient Impact on Callus.

I wasn't sure exactly what would happen, but Zeke informed me that places with dense ambient Impact like this tended to give birth to more Ascendants, people, places, and things. It seeped into otherwise mortal things and pushed them over the threshold if they were close. It wouldn't directly strengthen established Ascendants though. That wasn't really how Impact worked in an ambient form.

Everyone was excited about the changes, chattering and patting each other on the back and filling each other in on our battles. I told everyone in broad strokes about my fight and rank up, listening to all the stories, but eventually we all decided to head out.

Wintervale was wrecked, and while we could probably have found a reasonably intact room at the lodge, no one was really feeling like staying here. We moved to Valen, where I'd helped them rebuild well enough that there were plenty of places to sleep, and rented out one of the local hotels for all of our guests, both new and old.

By the time Callie and I made it to bed, we were both too exhausted to even speak to each other, not physically, but mentally drained from the day's events. We communicated through the bond until we fell asleep, talking about our reception and what we were going to do. I wanted it to be more than just a day, maybe a festival or something to commemorate the wedding and the end of the siege all at once. I even had a few ideas for festival games. I'd made Travis a promise, after all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"And Shane informed me that he didn't want to get 'caught up in the rat race'." Zeke said with a wide grin. "When I asked him where he heard that term, he said a bunch of the boys on the sixth floor were racing rats and they kept making everyone bet their lunch money."

The crowd around us burst into gales of laughter, and I sulked a little bit, because I'd been TEN and had no idea that phrase had another meaning.

"You were so CUTE." Cooed Callie from the other side of me. We were all seated around a huge table in a park in Valen, and all around us people were dancing, eating, and competing (there was a lot of overlap between those three things, and I gaped at the sight of Jessie demolishing a fifty scoop sunday while Abel desperately struggled to catch up). Our reception, months late but still happening.

Benny shook his head. "I remember those guys, Shane was right, they were dicks. They tried to get me involved in that race every time I came over."

"At first." I pointed out. "But once they realized you could afford to just keep going double or nothing until you won, they stopped. You lost like five times that first day you agreed, but number six cleaned them out. Then you just left."

He shrugged. "Like I said, they were dicks. I was lucky I won too, because I lifted those credits from my dads wallet. I did NOT have that kind of cash on hand when I was ten. I returned it though, and I had a bunch of extra money for the next few months. We ate SO MANY moonbeam pops."

Amber, Benny's mother, glared at him from across the table. "Theft and GAMBLING?" She said reproachfully. "These are not the kinds of stories I enjoy hearing about my ten year old son."

"Sorry ma." He grinned shamelessly. "People want to know about my rise to power."

"I think it's sweet." My mom said with a laugh. "He was defending his friend. Admittedly, they BOTH could have used a bit more oversight." She stared at Zeke, who was leaning back in his chair sipping a bottle of some kind of beer as Stella listened to the stories.

My uncle just sipped unapologetically. "He turned out fine. No need to coddle the boy. I was keeping an eye out, and they handled it well. Though I did have to have a word with that Kyle kid's dad. He seemed pretty intent on insisting Benny and Shane pay his son back. Something about rich bastards cheating salt of the earth folks like him."

"Wait, what?" I blinked in surprise. "I didn't know about that."

"You didn't need to." He smirked. "He and I had a casual and forthright discussion about boundaries, and he made the calm and rational decision not to pursue the matter any more. Just a mature discussion between grown adults where no one dropped anyone else in a pit full of snakes."

We just stared at him, but he didn't even bother to look at us, just smugly sipping his drink and staring off into the middle distance. There was a brief lull in the discussion, everyone at a loss for what to say, until finally, Amelia cracked up. Her laughter set the rest of us off, and even Amber laughed a bit.

Benny's dad, Hector, grinned at him. "I have to say Zeke, I like your style. I'm sad we didn't get to know each other better when the boys were growing up."

"Yeah, work kept me pretty busy." He shrugged. "Working on my projects, running things at the local branch."

Stella nodded. "He's shockingly reliable if you catch him RIGHT in the strike zone of things he actually cares about. Otherwise he's a lazy good for nothing with a drinking problem." She winked at him, and he just snickered as everyone else laughed. Zeke wasn't the type of person to be bothered by a little shit talking, he was easily one of the most self confident people I knew.

My mom laughed along with everyone else, but it was kind of forced. Not in a sad way, but in an impatient way, like she was desperate to hear more stories. She'd been really intense about listening to the ones everyone had been telling, and I got the impression she was trying to make up for lost time a bit, or at least experience my childhood secondhand.

Chelsea was at the table with us too, but she seemed content to just go along with the flow of the conversation, listening politely and asking questions. She looked like she was having fun, but it was less…aggressive than mom's attention.

"So, Amelia." I finally asked. "You said you think the baby will be a boy? Any of these stories putting you off the idea? There's still time to change your mind. Not that it would do much, but still, at least you won't feel complicit. Though if you do have a son, Shane is a very strong and dignified name for a baby boy." I winked, and everyone laughed, though Amelia rolled her eyes as she did.

I was joking, but Callie cut that line of thought off immediately. "Nope." She said bluntly. "No Shane's in the family until at least the generation after next. That sounds like a one way trip to tons of annoying misunderstandings."

"We could just give him a nickname." I protested, getting into it despite having no real stake in this. "Like…" I paused. "Fuck, how did I never notice that there aren't any good nicknames for Shane." I glanced at Benny. "Did you notice that? Someone has to have called me by a nickname at some point."

He shrugged. "Well in our third year of childcare they called you-" I lunged across the table, hand clamping over his mouth.

"I will tell EVERYONE about your most humiliating memories." I hissed. "That bird attack, the time you tried to adopt that scorpion, the LANYARD incident! If I go down, you're going down with me." I released his mouth, slowly backing off the table to take my seat like nothing happened.

Benny cleared his throat. "They called you Shane. Because that's your name. The only name you've ever had and the only thing I would ever call you." His tone was robotic, but his eyes were darting side to side desperately.

"Ok, as intriguing as THAT was." Said my mother with a laugh. "Maybe we should change the subject. Shane, Callie, have you considered where you're going to take your honeymoon? There's a LOVELY paradise planet in the Holy Dominion I could get you into. The clouds are edible, and there are waterfalls of delicious fruit juices. Plus there are unicorns."

Chelsea clapped her hands. "Oh, you mean Obvium! I love that place, you guys have to go. The animals there are all so sweet and cuddly, and the fruits and vegetables are delicious. There's no hunting, obviously, but you're free to bring meat with you. It's a favorite planet for cooking enthusiasts."

"I'm enthusiastic about cooking!" Cheered Callie. "Mostly Shane's cooking, but it still counts."

"I love cooking for you." I laughed. "And anything described as a paradise planet definitely sounds like my kind of place. Is it like…super high ranked or something?"

My mom shrugged. "B-rank." She said cheerfully. "Now that the two of you have passed your Mastery Milestone there are far more places open to you. If you had any other locations in mind you can ask about those too. We can drop you off and hang around in orbit for a few weeks. The Necromedes is an excellent place to post up and enjoy some relaxation time."

And so the topic switched to honeymoon destinations. My mom and Zeke took turns trying to one up each other's suggestions while Chelsea chimed in occasionally. Bethy actually made a few declarations of her own, but her idea of fun tended to be a bit more…energetic than we had been hoping for.

Finally, it started to get dark, and it was time to cut the cake. Callie, excited as I'd ever seen her, manifested a giant carving knife out of shadow and stared at the thing from across the party. "I'm gonna cut it up so good." She said emphatically. "And we get the first piece." She turned to glare at me. "And if you smash it in my face instead of letting me actually eat it, we're getting the world's fastest divorce."

"You are severely underestimating how quickly people get divorced." Said Benny bluntly. At our look he coughed lightly. "Not you guys though, you guys will be together forever. I know that was just a joke."

Callie glared a bit longer at him, then got up, dragging me by the hand to stand next to the cake. She gave a little speech thanking our friends and family for coming, then she cut the cake, and the two of us each took a bit of the first piece before everyone swarmed the table. It was fantastic, of course.

"Hey who saved the cake when the invasion happened?" I asked as we headed back to the now mostly empty table. "I didn't think to grab it, did you?"

Off in the distance, as the sun set completely, a fire sparked up, and I was amused to see a familiar shape set alight. Travis, burning in effigy on the first night of the new festival we were starting to celebrate…well a bunch of stuff honestly.

"I grabbed it on the way out." Callie said in an embarrassed tone. "It's been in my ring. I was just looking forward to it so much."

I laughed, then gave her a quick kiss. "Come on." I said, pulling her hand before we reached the table. "We should dance. We ARE the guests of honor." She giggled and I spun her onto the dance floor, where we slow danced despite the quick beat of the song.

The rest of the night went by in a flash, and then it was time to head home. We'd be back tomorrow, and I told everyone I'd catch up as I ran back to the main tent to get my mask, which I hadn't been wearing during the festivities. It wasn't like it could get lost or anything, tracking was part of the enchantments.

When I entered the tent though, I found a girl sitting inside. I stopped as I saw her examining the mask.

She was…odd. Supernaturally good looking, as was common with Ascendants, but kind of scary. Her features were symmetrical and sharp, kind of like a razor blade, and she had this aura of icy contempt around her, though that was the only aura. I realized that I couldn't feel any Impact from her at all.

"Excuse me." I said as I stepped closer. "That's mine. And the party is over, maybe you can come back tomorrow."

She glanced up at me, and as I met her eyes, I realized I recognized them. The same icy blue as my mother. My blood ran cold in my veins. I was pretty sure my grandmother would have introduced herself if she was visiting. She seemed to notice as I figured it out, because her lips peeled back, exposing bright white teeth that were just a BIT too sharp.

"Whats the matter?" She asked in a voice like a cyanide popsicle, cold and sweet and poisonous. "Can't a goddess visit her own great grandson's wedding celebration?"

I went still, like a deer in headlights, as I stared into the eyes of one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. "Of course." I told Black Sorrow, goddess of the Enshrining Darkness, mother of Drowning Shade and wife (or ex wife maybe) of the Red Revenant. "You're welcome here great-grandmother. To what do I owe the pleasure." I felt the weight of fate slam down on me, catching my like a rat in a trap, and I knew this was the coming disaster I'd been sensing. Gee, thanks fate sense, real fucking helpful.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

She stared at me expectantly. For a minute. Then two. Finally she sighed. "I was hoping you might run away screaming. Or attack me. You must have a lot of frustration aimed in my direction? You have a perfect opportunity to cave my skull in. I won't even resist, you can just take your shot."

"You're a god." I said bluntly. "Attacking you would be the LITERAL definition of hubris. I'm not stupid. You could kill me with a particularly emphatic thought."

She snickered. "I wouldn't need much emphasis, truth be told. But fair enough. How about the other way around, you could suck up to me. Tell me how amazing and powerful I am and how you've always wanted to meet me. I don't much care about Alistair's little game. You could ask me for anything. Power, money, protection."

"Not to be offensive." I said in a measured tone. "But I'm not a huge fan of yours. You've tried to have me killed several times."

"Boy, if I wanted you killed you would be dead." She said with a laugh. "I merely ignored some of my more…ambitious supplicants as they made efforts to end your abominable existence. Imagine, my darling girl SPAWNING with one of Samuel's little sycophants." Her cheek twitched, and something changed subtly.

The darkness around us got deeper, more hostile, and something in the air became heavy and cold. Not icy, but more spiritually cold, like the Wendigos.

She closed her eyes when she noticed me shaking slightly, taking a deep breath. "Apologies. I forget how fragile you little things can be. My Celia has shown herself to me again, and begged intercession on your behalf." She studied me coldly. "You're not…unsalvageable, I suppose. But I'm not convinced you represent a sound investment."

"Well, like you said, if you wanted me dead I'd be dead." I pointed out. "So you're not here to kill me. Which means you want something. I'm just having trouble getting a handle on what that might be."

She smiled like I was a cute little dog who had done a funny trick. "Perhaps you CAN be taught. Celia was adamant about your potential. Which is good for you, because if I thought your sycophant grandfather tainted my little girl and produced inferior offspring, I would be compelled to annihilate all trace of such a disgrace. It just so happens, however, that I've recently become aware of an…opportunity, you may be of some help with."

Her casual mention of murdering my S-ranked grandfather and then eradicating the rest of my bloodline was far from comforting, but a task was a good thing. It meant wiggle room. I wasn't an idiot though, I wasn't just taking it on faith. "So, you need my help. How do I know grandma isn't already dead? What if I come back from this mission and everyone I love is dead. Not to mention the reason you need me to begin with. You're a goddess, you have plenty of your own 'sycophants', don't you?"

Her eyes narrowed and that cold feeling came back. "I'll ignore the implication that I would harm a hair on my perfect angel's head. My daughter is a fucking MIRACLE. She was born with a mirror soul body. I may have been angry about her running around with that jumped up little nobody of a disciple, but I would never hurt her."

"You don't think killing her family members would hurt her?" I asked incredulously. "Her DAUGHTER? Have you even spoken to my mom?"

She snorted. "Putting down her little abomination would be a favor in the long run. The girl has promise, your sister. I'm on the fence about you. But given the current political climate, I've been pushed to find a more…diplomatic, solution. It just so happens that you're in a position to help me retrieve something important from somewhere no one else can go."

I thought about it. She didn't need to lie to me. She could literally snuff me out with a light breath. I'd panicked a bit when she mentioned killing my loved ones, but I was still pretty sure helping her was the best way to get out of this. "What do you need?" I asked slowly. "And keep in mind I want EVERYONE in my family safe from you. Including my wife and her relatives."

"Of course." She said cheerfully. "Personally, I like you two together. She seems sweet. As for my job, that's a bit complex. What do you know about Domain seeds?"

"I know using one basically hard caps you at S-rank. Tops." I said bluntly. "At least unless you get one from somebody who has pretty much never shared their domain with anyone else and who is very suited to you." Bethy's Domain seed was like that, specially prepared for her by Lark not to prevent her from growing.

She nodded. "Usually correct." She said with a smile. "But not always. Domain seeds from DEAD gods still work fine. Nothing to split the renown. They have to be added later, much like a normal Domain, but if you merge a Domain seed from a deceased deity into your Domain at S-rank you can use them to massively boost your potential. It's a complicated procedure and it requires a very specially aligned Path, but it's doable."

"Ok…" I said slowly. "Interesting bit of info, I appreciate the heads up. What does that have to do with me?"

"Simple." She said bluntly. "I used a Domain seed. Well, Samuel and I both did." Based on context she was talking about the Red Revenant, and I was pretty blown away by that little bit of information. It did explain why Black Sorrow and the Revenant had managed to Ascend where so many had failed.

I stared at her. "Why tell me this?" I asked slowly. "That seems like private information."
"It would be." She shrugged. "Except I've recently been made aware of something interesting. I aligned my Path with a dead god and used a shard of their Domain to establish mine. This means were I to FIND that Domain, or the world that was created from it, I could incorporate that into MY Domain fairly easily. The reason this is so intriguing, is that the daughter of the god whose Domain I captured, Strakkenthar, happens to be a member of the enemy faction of gods. The Lady of Lamentation."

That actually WAS interesting. Or at least it was until I thought through the rest of what she'd been saying. "So what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Chirped the insane death goddess that was my great grandmother. "I need someone to approach the Lady of Lamentation as an outside contractor and get close. It needs to be someone decently powerful, which means five factions, and someone only recently into Mastery, so no one has heard of them, and someone who has an alternative powerset that isn't immediately recognizable as belonging to someone of means."

The blood drained from my face. "You want me to…approach one of the vanished gods and try to WORK for her?"

"Exactly! It's so nice to talk to someone reasonable." She practically crowed. "There are a limited number of worlds in their possession. Strakkenthar's world will most likely be practically barren of intelligent life, but not using it is a waste. She'll most likely farm it for beasts and materials. Resource worlds like that are plentiful, but manual labor is too pathetic for powerful Ascendants. If you approach them and manage to distinguish yourself, becoming an herb picked should be JUST about your limit."

I considered her proposal. Separating from my friends, approaching the vanished gods, fighting to get their attention. "They'll notice me." I said after a minute. "There's no way they won't be able to tell what I am."

"There aren't as many Perception focused gods as you'd expect." She said with a sigh. "The god of secrets won't be anywhere near the Lady of Lamentation. They're all scattered across the universe right now, trying to influence the battlefield. But to make sure you aren't noticed, I have a gift for you."

She held up my mask. My strong, faithful mask that was one of the first things I'd gotten as an ascendant, and sort of…flexed. The world cracked, shifting in her hands, pure elemental darkness warping the space between her palms in a way that made me want to throw up and cry at the same time. Then it stopped, and she tossed it to me.

My hands moved without thinking, snatching the object from the air, and I stared down a twisted mask of gleaming obsidian, a hideous death's head grin carved into the bottom. "You'll want to change your outfit." She said lazily. "But that should keep them from noticing your origins. Use that corrosive attack form combination of yours. The psudo domain was interesting. They'll think you're a defected cultist."

I just stared at it. My mask. I'd had it for…it had to be years now. It was always with me, my second skin, my identity. And she'd just changed it like it meant nothing. I wanted to yell, and scream, and curse. But I knew it wouldn't do any good.

She didn't care about my feelings. Not about this or about her task. She wouldn't care if I died trying to attempt it, and would only care a bit if she had to kill me herself for refusing. I wasn't anything to her. Just a tool, a speck of dust. This was how I was to all the gods. Some of them might take a bit more interest, but as long as I was weak, this was how the world would work.

"Fine." I said after a moment. "I'll take your job. I'll need information before we go in but-"

"Oh not we." She said quickly. "Just you. The new mask and your niche power set might keep you from being discovered, but if you go in with your wife or your friends, someone will put two and two together. They've had too many dealings with you. I'll get you the information, but you won't be taking anyone with you."

I blinked at her dumbly. She was sending me into enemy territory ALONE? No friends, no backup, no protection? I'd known I'd lose Zeke's defense when I reached D-rank, but this was way more than that.

"Give me a week." I finally said. "To say goodbye to my family. To make sure they'll be safe."

She shrugged. "I suppose seven days isn't too much to ask. I'll have Celia talk you through the intel. I dislike being in this part of the universe. It's so…gauche. Unity has no sense of style or aesthetic." Hopping to her feet, she beamed at me. "Well, kisses great grandson. So nice to see you're reasonable. Accomplish this task and your family is free of my ire, don't…well, you'll probably be too dead to care."

And then she was gone, vanished in a blink as she turned to shadow and scattered. It took me a second to process. Seconds later, the tent flap burst open and my mother rushed in, eyes blazing and body glowing with a terrifying white light. When she realized I was alone, she scoured the tent, but eventually relaxed, then turned to me in concern.

"Shane? What happened? Are you alright?" She grabbed my shoulders, looking panicked.

Before I could respond, a new voice cut in. "Don't crowd the boy, Sasha. Give him a moment. My mother isn't exactly the easiest person to talk to."

My mom spun, staring at a woman who looked uncannily like the one who had just left, but maybe with a little bit of my mom around the eyes. My mother gaped at the dark haired lady in the formal gown, her eyes wide with shock. "Mother?" She asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?" I sighed. This was going to be an annoying story, I could just feel it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is bullshit!" Snapped Callie as she paced back and forth inside the tent. She'd felt my distress through bond and rushed back, though apparently Black Sorrow had somehow delayed the sensation until she left. "She can't just DECIDE you need to go on some suicidal mission to the war front or she'll kill us all."

"Actually, she can and definitely has done that." I said with a grimace. "I know it sucks, but honestly, the idea of being out from under her death sentence and free to be an actual family sounds AMAZING." I turned to my grandmother, who was sitting primly at the table sipping…tea, I think, though I had no clue where she'd gotten it. "Though I feel like she wasn't that committed to us dying. Like she knew I existed but wasn't really pushing for my execution?"

Drowning Shade, also known as Celia Anders, shrugged lightly. "My mother is a god. Her attention span is…odd. She can be both incredibly patient and incredibly impatient, depending on the circumstances. In any case, her lifespan means time passes differently to her. The idea of waiting a few years for you to die wouldn't bother her."

"Don't talk about my son's murder like it's a day at the fish market, mother!" Snapped my mom. "This situation is bad!"

"Less than you might think." Celia said with a shake of her head. "I wasn't at all certain my mother would listen to me. My attempts to use the war to pressure her were a long shot, at best. I expected her to extract HARSH concessions, perhaps separating me from our family for the rest of my life. This mission, while dangerous, is an opportunity." She glanced at me intently. "Your boy has a strong fate, Sasha. For things to move in such a way."

I wondered if my Path was helping. Fatewalker was a class and not the Path itself. Did it even matter anymore?

"So, what am I supposed to be doing." I said tiredly. "She said you'd have the details. She mostly just showed up, mocked me a bit, and then vanished. I was expecting her to be more…unstable, based on what I've heard."

She sighed. "You need to understand that gods are a PART of their Domain. To become a deity is to become one with a concept, to become part of a legend. All your stats, your soul, are dispersed into your Domain and become permanently fused. Becoming human again, or at least creating a physical form, is taxing and requires concentration anywhere OUTSIDE that Domain. Like being in two places at once, and doing the world's most complex puzzle in one of them."

I tried to imagine that kind of strain. It had to be tens or hundreds of times more exhausting than normal soul weight from a technique or Skill. I could see how someone might be erratic if they were under that kind of stress whenever they were physically present in the real world.

There was kind of an implication that divine worlds didn't really move. Like they seemed to be pretty stable in terms of real space. Or maybe I was making assumptions where it wasn't warranted, but I added it tentatively to the structure of cultivation I was building in my mind. "So…" I said sadly to Callie. "On a scale of one to ten how pissed are you I'm going to miss our honeymoon."

"One fucking MILLION!" She spat. "But not at you. If she wasn't a god…"

I laughed. "Yeah, but she is, and I'm too young to be a widower, so how about we don't shit talk the divine being who might still be nearby. I still have a week to finish the festival and say goodbye to everyone." I turned to Celia. "I assume you guys have a LEAD on the Lady of Lamentation's forces for me to follow, instead of just blindly showing up at a random event and hoping she decides to give me some responsibility."

"We do." She chuckled. "I consulted the Judgement Pope, hoping to get his support for this journey. He's given us a direction, and we were able to narrow down exactly where you need to go." She flicked her fingers, and a sphere of textured darkness appeared in front of her. "This is Rackham. A small planet at the edge of the Unity galaxy, near church territory. Unity is the youngest of the gods, and the least capable of policing his galaxy. We believe some sort of examination will be held there."

Chelsea, who had been unusually quiet since she arrived with Callie, looked drawn and upset. "This is bullshit." She echoed my wife, but her voice was weak. "Why would she send Shane. I could have done this, could have helped, and you could have enjoyed your honeymoon."

"Because I'm expendable." I shrugged. "She thinks you have potential, having her ability AND grandpa's is interesting to her. I'm just a candidate, and she won't lose anything if I die." Callie made a scared noise, and I smiled at her warmly. "Which I don't intend to do. She's underestimating me."

Probably. Or she genuinely didn't care. This little mission cost her nothing, and potentially gained her a lot of power. I honestly worried about giving her more power, but then I considered she was already a god and could kill me effortlessly. It would be like trying to lift a whale instead of an elephant as a mortal. It wasn't going anywhere either way.

"You really think so?" Asked Callie hesitantly. She could feel my relative certainty in my own abilities, mostly because I was projecting it at her so she wouldn't notice the crippling terror.

Oddly, under THAT I was kind of excited. Sure this was terrifying and kind of shitty, but it was also amazing. I was going to be going on a solo mission for pretty much the first time as an Ascendant. A solo mission as D-ranker. I would be able to keep in touch with Callie and my friends through the bond, but I'd be on my own. I could finally prove to myself what I was capable of.

Speaking of capabilities though, I turned my mind to my Path. Doom Sovereign had yielded new skills again on my rank up, and I'd been so busy I hadn't really had a chance to check them out. I figured that might distract my wife from her worrying, so I mentioned it to all the members of my family, and mom, Chelsea, and Callie seemed really excited to hear what I'd gotten.

First was a finishing blow. I got those every other rank, and I'd been quickly approaching one that I'd been waiting on for quite a while. Blood Curse. It was a nasty little Rogue trick that let me attach an attack to a sample of someone's blood and use it as a medium to attack them from a distance. It might not sound like a finisher, but it was particularly effective on sleeping targets, and nearly impossible to block (certain defensive abilities in the game could deflect it, and given how absurd Ascendant abilities could get real life was probably the same).

Next was a water based Monk ability called Dark Reflection, which bounced back spells at a certain level of power (usually weaker ones) and a very useful divination called Scent of Truth, which let me smell lies (it was exactly as weird as it sounded). Which really rounded out a lot of my skills. And of course, another poison skill called Creeping Darkness, which allowed me to use air as a medium for my corruption by literally poisoning parts of the sky.

DS Subskills. Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance, Dark Reflection

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality, Blood Curse, Creeping Darkness

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rhythm of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind, Scent of Truth

I noted with a wince I'd pretty much never used False Fatality, and that I now had a staff that did the same thing. It made sense the Monk and Rogue classes might overlap a bit, but it sucked knowing that I was letting abilities go to waste. I glance at my staff with interest. Maybe I could make a damage reflection form. It would be great mixed with Mornax, I put a pin in that for future consideration.

"So, as you can see, I have plenty of new tricks up my sleeves." I smirked. Then paused. "Speaking of, I need new sleeves. BS said I needed new gear for my 'new and improved' mask." I sneered, holding up the obsidian monstrosity that had become of my sleek and well crafted classic wooden mask.

"Oh hey." Callie said cheerfully. "It's the face in the mirror in all of my childhood nightmares. Dear gods, did she TRY to make it a waking nightmare?"

Celia snorted. "Knowing her, probably. And I wouldn't refer to my mother as 'BS' outside of current company. If it gets back to her she might turn you inside out in outrage. Or buy you a pony. You can never tell with her."

"Pass on both." I said bluntly. "I don't do horses. I don't trust any means of transportation that can think for itself."

My mother burst out laughing, and I raised a brow at her. She was gasping a little when she finally calmed down enough to talk. "I'm sorry. It's just most of the time you take after me or act like Ezekial, but now and then you do something so catastrophically ELI that it just sends me reeling. Your father used to say that exact thing, word for word."

I frowned, trying to remember when I'd started saying that and where I'd heard it. "Anyway." I said with a shake of my head. "I was going to ask. Since I'm going to be done, I was wondering if grandma could maybe help Callie out with training. If she wants I mean. If both of them want. I'd just feel a lot better knowing Callie was working with someone with a similar Path."

My grandmother chuckled. "An S-rank tutor for your new bride. You inherited your grandfather's flare for the dramatic. She's family, I would love to help. If she's interested. I was going to work with Chelsea a bit now anyway. Since she's no longer operating under restriction, I think it's time for her to learn how to wield the Enshrining Darkness."

Chelsea's head snapped up. "Wait…what? I thought that pass was just for this incident. I didn't even use my full powers anyway. We can still keep it secret."

"It's fine." Celia said with a laugh. "We've engaged directly with my mother. As long as we accomplish her request, her enmity will be dissolved. That won't be an easy task, but we're safe during the war in any case, so it's not like we're rushed. As for the new gear you need." She pursed her lips at me. "I can arrange that. This mission isn't related to the competition, so it shouldn't be a problem for me to pitch in. Plus I owe you twenty years of birthday presents."

It was odd, because this whole conversation had been so formal and she'd been so austere, but when she said that, it was like a dam broke. We all started laughing, and she smiled broadly, stepping forward to hug me, and then Chelsea, and then Callie.

Suddenly, this was a tent full of family for real, and it was amazing feeling so surrounded by warmth. I tried to savor the sensation, and would do the same throughout the festival. I had a feeling it would be kind of lonely on my own in enemy territory. I would make it though, and then I'd meet up with the others in time for the beginning of the candidate selection, whatever that may entail. If I had my way, this time next year I'd be the next wishmaster.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day we got back to the party. I decided to test out my newest and most consequential perk from my rank up and created wish scrolls, just like I'd been told I could at D-rank. I added eight scrolls to my ring, and was looking forward to finding new ways to trade for them. The mechanics were a bit vague to me, but I was assured they were extremely useful.

Not having to worry about getting those done within a time limit was a load off my mind, and if gave me ample time to hang out with friends on my last week with them. Thoughts like that made me spiral a bit, so I avoided them, and I tried to throw myself into the celebration.

"So tell me again how this works?" Asked Benny as he stared down the strip of park grass. "Because I don't think I get the concept."

I laughed and pointed at the trees above the Travis scarecrow. "It's simple. Throw the axe and chop a branch. If it lands on the dummy, you get ten points, if it lands in the circles, your points vary based on which one. But don't hit the dummy WITH the axe, or you're out. Jessie grew the trees just for this purpose, and they'll try to dodge, so be prepared."

He squinted at me suspiciously. "That seems like the kind of thing that your overlay would be great for."

"I would NEVER abuse my powers just to win a game." I said as I tracked the colored arrows of the overlay to try to find the optimal trajectory. "You have deep seated trust issues and need to learn to have more faith in people." I winged the axe (at our level throwing anything with little enough force not to clear the horizon to absurd levels of concentration on a planet like this) and it clipped through a branch, which plummeted and stabbed into the ground in the third ring.

Cursing, I passed Benny the next axe. "Seven points. You're up."

"I want to go next." Announced Bethy. "I bet I could totally win. I could throw the axe way further than that. I could throw it to the moon."

"That is not the object of the game." I explained with a laugh. "But I kind of want to see it. WEe'd need a really nice axe so it didn't break up on reaching escape velocity. Plus someone would need to go get it."

Callie cleared her throat. "NO." She said bluntly. "If you throw it too hard you might damage the moon, or maybe even move it out of orbit. We are not drowning a continent because you two want to see if you can hit a lunar body with a throwing axe."

"You see." I complained to Bethy. "She used to be fun. We get married and now I can't do anything interesting."

"Keep it up." Smiled my wife sweetly. "And you can have all the fun you want on the couch for the rest of the week." She winked at me, and I laughed, even though both of us felt the ache from the other knowing we'd be separated so soon. We'd hardly had any time together since we got married, and I was already off to parts unknown to do crazy god shit for my psycho great grandma.

Benny frowned at me. "Why do you seem weird about that. Not worried or amused, but like…sad." He glanced at Bethy and the others. "He seems sad, right? It's not just me?"

"Pay up." I told my wife with a sad laugh. She cursed and handed me a D-rank chit. "I told her you would notice. You ARE my best friend." I paused at Bethy's glare. "ONE of my best friends." I said with a laugh.

I looked around with a sigh. "Let's go get some funnel cake and sit down. I can explain to everyone at once. Someone get the others. Cark and Cass too."

Heading over to the funnel cake cart, I bought like…five pounds of the stuff, loaded it onto a huge tray, coated it in a snowfall's worth of powdered sugar and then dropped it at a table set up in the shade of trees that DIDN'T move.

Everyone else came to join us, and Cass seemed especially excited about the funnel cake, snatching it up triumphantly and digging into the still hot dessert. It took her about two seconds to joke, and her brother patter her back with a sigh. "I don't know why you aren't more careful about that. You ALWAYS inhale the powdered sugar and choke."

"Worth it!" Wheezed the younger girl with a thumbs up. We all laughed, but the amusement was soon gone as everyone quieted down to hear my news.

"So, I'm going to be going away for a while." I said after a minute. "Probably five or sixth months. We'll meet up before the candidacy competition, but you'll be on your own for a while. Callie is going to be training with my grandma, and I made some arrangements for the rest of you if you want them. Or you can hang around with one of the others, that's all on you."

Bethy looked crestfallen. "What? But we all have so much fun together. We should be coming with you. We're your backup!"

"She's right." Said Benny unhappily. "Why do you need to do it on your own. We always stick together. That's like…the whole point of the candidacy to begin with. To see how you build a faction."

"Which is why I need you to keep doing that." I said bluntly. "I HAVE to do this. I don't have a choice, but once its done, things will be a lot easier. For one thing, I'll have my mom's support. Overtly. I'm betting I could sway a few big factions with that before the candidacy competition starts, assuming I get this other thing done in time."

My mother's blood, and my grandfathers, would open up possible alliances that I hadn't even considered before. Glancing at my sister, I took in her nod. That was a possibility. Interesting.

Honestly, the idea of a stop on the way to…whatever the competition was going to be, didn't exactly lack appeal. Looking at her though, my attention was brought to a different problem. Chelsea looked…angry. Not just a little angry either, she'd been seething since we'd talked to grandma.

Weirdly, I was conflicted about her reaction. I think some part of her was bitter I got chosen, and I think some part of ME was gloating about that bitterness. It wasn't nice, but she'd literally gotten everything good in our lives, knowing she was jealous kind of made me a little cheery. Of course, then I felt like shit for gloating while my twin sister worried about my possible death, which brought my attention back to the danger, and the cycle started over.

"So what are these 'arrangements'?" Benny finally asked, seemingly trying to distract everyone from the downer mood. He also tried to grab some funnel cake, though Bethy snatched the piece he was going for last second.

"Well, like I said, Callie will be working with my grandmother." I said, smiling at my wife. "She actually suggested Bethy might benefit from working with her as well. If anyone understands being born as something unique and powerful it's Celia. She might be able to help with your control. I'll leave you with some wish scrolls so you can keep up the seals, but we thought that might be helpful. Any of you are free to turn us down."

Bethy looked uncharacteristically serious for a second, but nodded. "That…that's really sweet. Thank you guys." She stepped up to hug both of us, and I nodded warmly. Bethy had my back during this mess, I was going to have hers too, and I knew Callie was grateful for her support when she couldn't be around to help me, too.

"Benny, you're with Zeke. The ability to weaponize crafted items that are a part of you is right up his alley. I can't imagine a better teacher for you." He blinked, but thanked me, not noticing the pitying glance from Cark.

I glanced at my sister. "You know grandma is training you, but I figured maybe you guys could stick with mom. Mel is perfectly suited to train under her, Cark could learn a lot, and Gabe could train with Andrew." I tried to make it sound like I was asking a favor, because I wanted her around Bethy and Gabe, who would keep her from spiraling if she got too worried. I didn't like the look in her eye.

The suggestion seemed to snap her out of her funk a bit though, and she smiled. "Of course. You know I love having…" She glanced at Bethy quickly. "Everyone around."

"Jessie and Celine will be working with mom's friend, the Princess from the conclave." I said with a smile at our healer. "I'm sure she has a ton to teach you both about plant and animal magic, at least based on what mom said."

Finally, I turned to Bethy. "As for Abel…I was thinking about it. We need someone uniquely powerful, with a connection to blood and a staggering amount of combat potential. Is there anyway you could ask your dad to take over his training while I'm gone."

She squealed and clapped. "Oh that sounds wonderful! I don't know who this Abel person is, but daddy needs a new project. He hasn't taken an apprentice since the last one…actually it's probably better if I don't tell you what happened. The position is open, though."

Abel looked concerned. "Wait…what happened to the last one. Don't ignore me Bethany, you can't just say something like that and not explain!"

"Abel's gruesome horrible death aside." I said cheerfully. "Does anyone else have any issues with the arrangements I made? Like I said, anyone can turn down the chance and go with anyone else."

Contrary to his outraged expression, Abel went silent. I knew he wouldn't ever turn down an opportunity to become stronger, and being trained by the most terrifying S-ranker in the universe was an opportunity it would be stupid to pass up. I had faith Bethy would tell her dad not to ACTUALLY kill him, and honestly, given his own training methods, I was enjoying the uncertainty a bit.

"Whatever." Said Benny with a sigh. "I'm going to hit D-rank before you get back for sure. I want some of those damned wish scrolls too."

"I talked to grandma about that." I said with a grin. "She gave me a late wedding present." I held up my hand. "His and hers spatial rings. Shared pocket dimension that Callie and I can both access from anywhere. Mom looked SUPER jealous, so I think they're really expensive, but I can use them to store the scrolls for you guys. It'll be like I never left."

Use of the scrolls still worked through my power, so the payments would reach me directly in the case of stats, and Callie could use the rings to store more physical pay. It was exhausting making them, since I had to preload them with enough stats to accomplish most wishes, but the extra flexibility was worth it.

After that, the conversation drifted to the task itself, and I filled them in. They all seemed worried as hell, but eventually Callie put her foot down, saying we only had a week left and that we'd better make the most of it. She forced us all back to the festival to play Travis mocking games and listen to a contest where everyone tried to make up the most humiliating backstory for the dead translocator.

All in all, it was a great night, and I felt so much better about leaving knowing my friends were taken care of. I could strike out on my own without worrying about anything happening to them. I just hoped I'd be able to make them proud when we reunited.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the week just flew by. My stockpile of wishes grew, and I marveled at how convenient the whole thing was. Using the rings would help maximize the power, since the scrolls wouldn't need to transport any physical items for payment, and automating part of the process was ridiculously useful.


I had fifty six scrolls total for the week, and I passed them all to Callie for distribution, though I gave six to Abel, since he'd be leaving the group to train with Lark. He didn't want them on hand, but I insisted he have at least some just in case.


One of them we tried out, passing it to Celine so she could pay out of pocket (25 E-ranked chits), just to see what it did. It was extremely jarring to see the purple flames of my ability roll across my vision unprompted, but it was a nice tidy note in the same style as usual, with an added commentary on what the wish was about.


Whoever created this process was a genius, it was so convenient. I suspected it was probably the original Wishmaster, given what I knew about him.


And then…it was time to say goodbye. Callie, Chelsea, Benny, all my friends came with me to meet up with Celia, who would be taking me to a staging point to explain the plan. My wife wrapped her arms around me, clinging to me tightly as if I was a life raft on a stormy sea. I held her back just as tight.


I WAS excited about this, going out on my own as a D-ranker…but I was also going to miss my friends. My family. I was so used to them having my back, Callie most of all.


She leaned up to press a hard kiss to my mouth (I'd taken to not wearing my mask when I didn't have to, ever since Black Sorrow changed it I didn't feel right in the thing). We stayed like that for a minute, then she pulled back and glared at me. "If you get yourself killed, Shane Wyndham, I'm going to shift my path to some kind of ghost conjuration just so I can call you back from wherever you end up and kick your ass."


"I love you too, Cal." I said with a laugh, pressing my forehead to hers. "Take care of our family, ok? I'll be back annoying you before you know it."


I pulled away, hugging Benny, Bethy, Chelsea, and everyone else one by one. Finally, I turned to Celia. "Alright, I figure we do the gear thing on the ship. What's my mode of transportation?"


She smiled warmly. "You'll be taking my personal transport." She snapped her fingers, and a ship appeared behind her, floating in the air. It was hard to look at. A strange dark shape that seemed to eat light. It was like I was looking at a black hole, but Eye of Revelation showed me the form of a sleek, edgy metal vessel about the size of a bus.


"This is the Acheron." She said proudly. She put a hand on my shoulder, and we were suddenly consumed by shadows. The darkness that carried us was thicker than Callie's, but also deeper and more peaceful than the Enshrining Darkness of Black Sorrow. Drowning Shade had changed her ability, which didn't surprise me, she was S-rank and that was when the Path became part of you and bloodlines were created.


As we came out of the dark, we were standing in a large, metallic hallway. There were branches in three directions, and the ground was subtly humming under my feet. The ship was obviously much bigger on the inside, but it was still much smaller than the Necromedes. "What rank is this?" I asked as she led me down one of the halls.


"S." She said simply. "The Acheron is made from Stygian Starsteel, death infused metal forged by the dying gutters of an undead sun. It's understandably difficult to source, hence its conservative size. Most S-rank ships are much smaller by necessity. Proper S-ranked materials are a challenge to acquire. It is, of course, much faster than any A-rank ship, and will provide you will all necessary amenities for your journey, such as it is."


She led me to an open chamber where a small crew of people were waiting. The first one to see us was a woman in silvery armor with a white cloak. She bowed deeply to my grandmother. "Madam. Welcome back. The arrangements have been made to your specifications."


"Well done." She beamed. "Now, why don't you show us the new outfit I got for my grandson."


The woman nodded. She turned and clapped her hands, and a wardrobe materialzed in the air beside her. Reaching up, she unlatched the thing, then pulled it open.


"Out of necessity we needed to change your style." My grandmother explained as I took in the new gear. "The samples of your pseudo Domain, your dark flames, your corrosion, and the combination thereof were all given to our finest smiths. As a Master, you're capable of withstanding C-ranked artifacts, and this armor should last you quite a while."


The new suit was…big. I was a big guy, but my previous armor was specced for mobility and finesse. My large form came across more lithe in most of my gear, and I actually kind of preferred that.


That was no longer the case. My new gear was a massive thick suit of heavy plate armor. The black metal was shot through with veins of green, giving it a sinister and terrifying look, and I knew that on my six foot four frame, I would look like a fucking colossus wearing this suit. Combined with the creepy new mask, it cut a VERY different picture than my current regal attire.


"The plate is Nightiron." My grandmother announced. "We sourced it from a particularly corrupted demonic volcano, so the compatibility with your attributes is off the charts. This suit will massively boost your raw destructive power, as well as resisting any form of corruption or corrosion. Less versatile than your previous accouterments, I admit, but what it loses in versatility it makes up for in raw force. For your assumed identity, it will be perfect."


"Speaking of my assumed identity." I said cautiously. "What kind of name should I use? I'm guessing Solomon is out."


She nodded. "We assumed you might just like to call yourself by one of your form names. It will be your decision which to use, of course. Any of them should feed you stats more easily. Having multiple identities is a known phenomena, but in this case it's a temporary measure."


"Mephistopheles it is then." I said with a grim smile. "It suits this beast of a suit best I think. So I need to change my weapon?"


"Unlikely." She said with a shake of her head. "Your weapon is perfectly fine. It's relatively new, from what I understand, and not to be indelicate but…it's a stick." At my mutinous look she held up her hands. "A very nice stick, to be sure, but still a stick. People can't really tell one stick from another, especially not based on stories, so your staff won't be a danger."


I considered complaining, but in the end I just sighed. "Fine, at least I don't have to learn a new weapon. I'm pretty good at using…a stick." I said, putting a bit of acid into the last word.


She rolled her eyes, easily the most human thing I'd seen her do. "I swear. You and your grandfather get so out of sorts about the most inane things. He once sulked for over a decade because I told him his boots were too gaudy. He STILL brings it up when he's in a bad mood." She smiled sadly. "It heartens me to see you inherited so much from him, even if you were kepy away from us."


In the week I'd known my grandmother, we hadn't interacted all that much. When I heard her sad tone, it occurred to me that she had been staying away out of a misunderstanding. "I don't blame you." I said bluntly. "For the way my childhood turned out."


"You should." She responded in a tired tone. "It's my fault. I was a reckless and selfish girl who threw away the dreams of many people to be with the one I loved. I won't ever regret that, but I will always regret the damage it did to those who cared for me." At my surprised look, she chuckled. "Yes, even HER."


She shook her head. "I won't ask you to forgive or understand her. She's done more to you than can be easily overlooked. But to me she's just my mama. She gave me everything I ever wanted, loved me unconditionally, and I spat in her face. Honestly, I expected her to be angrier at me. But even in this, she couldn't bear to turn her anger on me. So if you have to hate someone for the way things went. Hate me."


"That's dumb." I said bluntly. "And you're dumb for saying it."


Her mouth dropped open, the shock of my words completely cutting through her pity party. So I kept talking. "I don't hate her. I don't LIKE her, but she's a god. It's like hating a hurricane for blowing your house down. Huge waste of energy. And I don't hate you either. We have a chance to fix our family here, and I'm going to take it. I'm not wasting my energy seething over shit I can't control that happened decades ago. Ain't nobody got time for that."


She stared at me for a minute, then burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she almost fell over, then pulled me into a tight hug. "By the gods, you really are just like my Nicky in so many ways. You're right. I'm feeling sorry for myself. We've got work to do." She snapped her fingers and that model of Rackham came up again.


"You'll be entering the planet on the Acheron, and it'll wait for you there. Chances are good you may be moved if you win the selection. I've placed a starpluck anchor on the ship, and there's another in your armor. In case of an emergency your wife can retrieve you and bring you back to Rackham to escape. I can't promise it'll work perfectly if you reach the world you're assigned to find, so do try not to require rescue."


"Plan B stands for barely feasible." I said with a grin. "Got it. Anything else I need to know?"


She shook her head. "Not as such. There are some geographical surveys of Rackham on the ship servers, feel free to peruse them at your leisure. Sadly there isn't much cultural or historical data, the place is very new as these things go. Other than that, i can only say that we aren't sure of the details of the selection. Judgement only noted that success will lead you toward the thing you seek. Karma is vague like that."


"Check and check." I hugged her again. "Thanks grandma. Take care of my wife for me will you? In a perfect world, I'd come back to find her with a Solid Path of her own."


"I'll see what I can do." She said with amusement. "Be safe, grandson. Or as safe as you can be in the ludicrously dangerous place we're sending you." She paused. "I think I might be a bad grandmother."


I shrugged. "If it helps." I said with a grin. "You're definitely the least terrible grandmother I've ever had. I've never met the other one, but she had a kid with a sociopath, so chances are good she's probably kind of an asshole. Although if that's my metric, I guess I'm kind of smack talking mom a little too. Forget I said anything." I winked and she started laughing again. Then she left, and I was alone with the crew and my suit. "Do you guys have a room for me?" I asked eventually. "I need to get changed."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Celia left not long after finishing our talk, and the journey was underway. This ship was apparently shockingly fast, and we were looking at a month to Rackham. Which meant a month of…not much. Just me sitting around and parsing the changes to myself from my rank up, sometimes talking to Callie and doing whatever else I could think of. Training probably, I'd have to see.

My first big event of the trip though, was the most obviously necessary. I needed to try on the new armor. It was trickier than expected to get into, but it still only took a few minutes, and once I was done, I stood in front of the full length mirror in my room and took it in.

I looked…terrifying. The plate made my shoulders seem like…twice as wide, my biceps looked like thighs, and the domineering design of the black plate made me look even taller than I already was. I'd added my mask, and it went with the plate perfectly, the obsidian giving my features a demonic visage that gave ME chills.

"Mephistopheles." I boomed into the empty silence of my room. "So nice to make your acquaintance. We're going to do terrifying things together."

The voice wasn't mine. And it didn't come from the mask. It came from somewhere…else. Somewhere dark and primal deep inside of me. Not in my soul, but more like I'd called it up from my Path. Like this was a technique, but much less…intentional. It felt as natural as breathing, and I couldn't say I didn't enjoy the effect.

A knock sounded on my door. "Young master?" Came the melodic voice of Sonara. "Dinner is served in the galley." I opened the door, and the woman's eyes widened as the climbed to the face of my towering visage. "My, you certainly cut a diabolical figure." She said with a smile. "The madam would be proud."

Sorana was apparently the captain of my grandmother's personal guard. Since she was a member of the Church and not the Cult, she was a saintess and tended more toward the divine and holy aesthetic. Still she seemed thrilled when my grandmother told her she'd be watching over me, especially when she disclosed my identity, and was taking every opportunity to show her support.

As a saintess, Sorana was an A-ranker. The warrior branch of the church had different Jobs, but only up to B-rank (Arch-Paladin), after which it converged with the clergy. Saint and Pope. Sadly, even an army of A-rankers wouldn't phase a god or an S-ranker, and we were heading into a hive of enemy Ascendants, so having her here didn't mean I was any better protected. Still, it felt reassuring to have an A-ranker after losing Zeke as my guardian.

We headed to the galley, where Kristoff (Sorana's second) and Keiko (a cheerful girl with blue highlights in her hair) were stationed outside, waiting for us to arrive. The entire crew couldn't eat with us, since someone had to actually pilot the ship, so it was just the four of us for dinner, not that I minded. I was interested in learning more about my family from people who worked for them.

Luckily my mask still had an eating mechanism. A flex of will and the terrifying fanged grin opened for me to insert a spoon or fork. I took a bite of the steaming lobster pot pie in front of me and groaned in enjoyment. "Wow, grams didn't skimp on the food prep." I said, still in my Mephistopheles voice. Clearing my throat, I chuckled awkwardly. "Oh, sorry."

Kristoff waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. We're not exactly easily spooked. Feel free to maintain the effect. You need to to have internalized this new personality by the time we arrive. Speaking of the new you, have you considered your new fighting style?"

"I was going to work on it later. I have a base for each of the forms I can use. I just need to train out some bad habits. I don't suppose you'd be open to some training?"

He grinned at me. "Keiko is the heavy combat fighter. I mostly just lean into speed and stealth. I'm sure she could give you some pointers." He jerked his head, covering his mouth with the back of his hand as he stage whispered. "She uses a hammer taller than me. She can't fit the thing through the door to this room."

"I CAN fit it through the door." She snapped. "I just have to turn it sideways…and tilt it at a forty five degree angle."

They chatted away as we ate, Sorana keeping mostly silent, though she smiled at their antics. It really helped put me at ease. Being on a ship to the ass end of this galaxy with a bunch of high rankers I didn't know wasn't exactly a comfortable experience. I wasn't scared or anything, mostly just kind of stiff and formal. Walking on eggshells, but more socially than anything else.

The fact that they tried so hard to make me welcome was pretty cool. Once we finished eating, they brought me to a huge metal chamber with padded floors. "Alright. This is our training room." Said Kristoff proudly. "Madam Celia informed us of some of your tricks, but you can't do anything to this place. So feel free to go nuts with it. I wouldn't use the Psuedo-Domain though." He cautioned quickly. "It isn't going to work properly on any of us."

Considering what Limbo DID, that was a good point. Manipulation of the body was unlikely to even make them twitch. Still, it was a good opportunity to see my new power in action.

I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial. I felt the power roll out of me and into the suit as Belial activated, resonating and feeding back into me like some kind of echo chamber. It made my blood and body SING. I loved it. I drew my staff, spinning it up to get a feel for this new power level.

To my surprise, having the two forms active was…nothing. Not only was the strain infinitesimal compared to before (I was positive I could keep three forms up for a while even under normal circumstances) but the armor's power boost seemed to feed into the exact part of me that was strained by those forms to begin with. What little stress it DID still cause was alleviated almost completely. I could literally keep this up all day. I bounced lightly on my toes, something that should have made tons of noise, but the Nightiron in the suit barely even clanked.

Focusing hard on myself, I decided to try out something new. I'd been considering my mother's martial art, and while I had many forms, I didn't really have much of a physical enhancement ability. Her flaming body technique was perfect for me, with some tweaks, and I'd been trying to adapt it for a while.

In the past though, something was missing. Maybe my soul wasn't strong enough, maybe I didn't have the Impact. Whatever it was, I found it much easier to work with techniques now. A quick Piece of Mind and I was able to set up a rough outline of what I needed.

I used Belial as a base, since the form was made of corrosive magma. I just funneled the dark flame of Mephistopheles into Belial's toxic flame, supercharging my muscles and bones as the hellfire pushed my physical body to a new level. I leaned into Jessie's method, creating a story in my head as I worked.

Mephistopheles granting his great power to Belial to help the demon lord ascend the throne of the first circle, a dark alliance of unparalleled might that created an unstoppable demonic prince. Infernal power supercharging the body to create a machine of pure demonic destruction. I called it the Abomination Engine.

I bounced again, but this time I felt…smoother. Like the air around me had gone from being gelatin to oil. When I touched down, I blasted forward in a Waltz, spinning staff coming around as I struck at Keiko, who WAS now holding a giant ass hammer with a rectangular head as big as my torso.

She smirked as she saw me coming, shifting her grip slightly. She was suppressing her Impact down to my level, but even so it was laughably easy for her to counter…my first blow.

Her eyes widened as I vanished, the Waltz carrying me forward. The next blow was stronger. The Abomination Engine was a machine, and it ramped up endlessly. Each explosive step from my Waltz pushed my body to greater heights.

Blink, behind her, blink, above her, blink, on her left. Explosions rocked the training area as my staff unleashed corrosive black destruction, the powerful mix of my two forms.

"Enough." Said a voice as I was jerked to a stop. I spun to attack, but Sorana caught it easily. "Stop." She said calmly. "Feel."

I did…and I was shocked. My body was fucking destroyed. Swathes of the magma was ripped apart. I was pretty sure if I'd been solid I'd have broken bones and torn muscles. I heaved out great bellowing breaths, toxi steam erupting from my mouth. Luckily they were all high rankers.

"Impressive." Said Keiko cheerfully. "That was one of the most effective augmentation techniques I've ever seen. Maybe a bit TOO effective."

I put my hands on my knees, storing my staff. "Yup. That was…wow. That one doesn't stop scaling up." In retrospect, a technique that used the power of destruction to supercharge the body was bound to be rough on the physical form. Belial alleviated some of it, but I was pretty sure I would need to add Mornax in to the rotation to keep that up long enough to be useful.

Sadly, I would ALSO need to add a cap. Still, it was exciting to see how many new techniques this rank up had opened up to me. I had so many options even using just the two (or maybe three with Mornax) forms I was planning to focus on.

"Sorry." I said as I straightened up. "That was a little embarrassing."

"Nah." Said Kristoff with a laugh. "Testing new moves is what training is for, kid. Better than trying them out in combat. You've got a month to work out the kinks, and we're here to help. I can see serious potential there. You'll be a menace by the time we're done with you."

I laughed, but it felt good to hear it. I'd been worried about what to do with myself on the trip without my friends here, and now I had the answer. Training I was more than up to. I was going to need it too. I needed to pass this selection and get pulled into the camp of the Lady of Lamentation, and I needed to be strong to do it.

My stats should climb pretty fast from the wishes I'd left behind, I should be able to do thirteen or fourteen per wish now, having passed D-rank. A month would be a big bump, and I'd have Callie tell the others to focus on Might. I had a feeling this particular alter ego would be Might heavy to the extreme, and both corrosion and raw force would benefit.

After a bit of a rest up, I settled back in to spar with Keiko again. Kristoff was right, I could learn a lot from them. My first big solo adventure would start not too long from now, and I needed to be as prepared as possible. I squeezed my massive gauntleted fists in anticipation of the power to come, and I felt a rush of pure adrenaline at what I could become.

Shane had so many things to worry about, I'd almost forgotten what it was like to just lose myself in training. Mephistopheles though, he didn't have to care about god wars or planetary invasions. Just how to be a bigger badass. And I was going to make sure to be the biggest of all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My staff came struck out with the force of an exploding sun, smashing against the armored form of the C-ranker I'd been sparring with and sending them back a step. I tried to follow up, but Abomination Engine had capped out with that last blow. It was about as much as I could take, even using Mornax to reinforce my body.

"I'm kicked." I called as I dropped onto my ass, the heavy plate thumping down on the mat as I slumped back, sprawling out in an exhausted pancake of pure relief.

Keiko happily strolled over to look down at me. "That was pretty good." She jerked a thumb at my opponent. "Vandal is one of our most durable C-rankers. Even moving him back a step is way beyond your current Might stat. Which is what, actually, I forgot to ask? You got a bump recently, I can tell."

"Thirty one thousand two hundred." I groaned. "Five thousand points in that one, with my wishes and the last of the income from the siege combined. That's starting to taper off sadly. The renown from all those mortals was used up pretty fast. But hey, I got another thousand Fantasy at least."

She held out a hand, effortlessly pulling me to my feet. "Being able to make those scrolls and store them for your wife to pass out was definitely a good idea. But your techniques have come a long way. You've refined that Abomination Engine into a brutal fighting style. I still think you should consider a maul like mine for usage though. Or maybe an axe."

"Goetia is a staff art." I said firmly. "I can't deviate too far from the essence of my ability. I've just got to keep working. Do you think that attack was enough to keep up with the stronger D-rankers I might run into?"

Crossing the rank divide was tough, but possible from D to C-rank. That said, it would be way more likely when I was closer to the peak of my rank, and up against someone a little closer to the beginning of C. Which was why they'd picked Vandal as my sparring partner. He was tough enough for me to go all out without any real risk, but still had enough Impact at C-rank to be vaguely movable.

I'd been hoping that my new combat techniques would bridge the gap a bit more, but a part of me had known I wouldn't be actually beating him. This was realistically the best I could hope for.

"Hard to say." She mused. "There are so many kinds of abilities out there. Some of them are a hard counter for even your levels of power. That said, barring some kind of perfect defense or kinetic absorption that also has some kind of corrosion offset, I'm pretty sure you have the raw power to take on most early to mid D-rankers. As for the rest…"

"I need to grow." I sighed. "I know. I still have ninety percent of D-rank ahead of me, it's unrealistic to be invincible at the same rank. Hell, I wouldn't even say I was that at E-rank, even if I was pretty close."
She nodded sympathetically. "Your Path puts you pretty far ahead of most people at your stage of development, though. So you might not be invincible, but you're still punching far above your weight. At the end of the day though, you're not Might focused. Not really. You can't rely on brute force, which is part of what we've been doing here."

"Working some of my other tools into my combat techniques." I said with a sigh. "I know it. Are we almost there? We should be reaching orbit around Rackham soon, right?"

We'd spent the last month in transit on my grandmother's S-rank spaceship, heading for the planet Rackham at the opposite edge of Unity space from my home planet of Callus. I'd been separated from my wife of roughly six months soon after being reunited to do some crazy infiltration job for my lunatic great-grandmother so she would declare my family off limits to her fanatical cult of followers.

When a goddess gives you a job, there isn't much to say but yes, so I was en route to this backwater planet to enter some kind of selection tournament to get in good with one of the vanished gods, a member of a pantheon of rogue deities currently at war with the six gods of our current universal order, of which my great-grandmother, Black Sorrow, was one.

Her daughter, my grandmother Celia (formerly known as Drowning Shade), had defied her mother to run off with my grandfather, Nicholas Andres, the current Radiant Pope of the Church of the Red Revenant (another god and her husband and worst enemy, not to mention Celia's father, who Nicholas was the youngest disciple of), decades ago. The situation had been hidden from Black Sorrow until recently, but once she found out only the truce brought on by the god war had forestalled her attempts to have us all killed (except Celia, she was still attached).

To say my family situation was a hot mess was an understatement on the level of referring to your average exploding sun as 'warm'.

Still, my grandmother had left me with her guard captain Sorana, her assistant Kristoff, and Keiko, who was an expert in strength based combat, not to mention a bitchin' suit of extremely powerful C-rank armor aimed at boosting my combat abilities enough to make this task only ALMOST impossible, instead of just being a blatant suicide mission.

It helped that my grandfather's senior bother, another of the Popes of the Church, had given us a heading with his karmic abilities so we would be sure to maximize my chances of being accepted by the Lady of Lamentation so I could get my hands on the location of her father's world so that my great-grandmother could integrate it with her own for a big power boost.

Thinking of Callie made me reach out to my wife with our bond, the connection created by the Expert Paired Duelling Skill we shared. I felt a pulse of warmth and reassurance, but didn't bother to reach out. We had a call (for some value of that word) set up for night time before bed, just so we could keep in touch and be there for each other over longer distances.

"We're coming into orbit." She said as we made our way out of the training room. "You'll be descending tomorrow morning. Madam Celia wanted us to make sure you were well rested and fed before you go planetside." She smirked at me. "Apparently the incredibly broad shouldered armor was a hint. She thinks you're too skinny."

I made an outraged sound. "I am PERFECTLY proportioned. I have a swimmer's build. Also I'm an Ascendant, she does know she can't ACTUALLY put more meat on my bones right?"

"She might've been kidding." Admitted Keiko. "It's so hard to tell with her. She does NOT emote much. There's always at least a fifty percent chance that she's messing with us and we just don't notice."

That made me laugh. "That I can believe. No way she's married to grandpa Nick without a sense of humor."

My grandfather was one of the most laid back people I'd ever met, and loved to joke around. He liked to play up how strict his wife was, but I'd always gotten the impression he just liked putting people off balance. Celia had seemed pretty chill to me.

We entered the galley still chuckling, and Kristoff, Sorana's lieutenant, and my grandmother's captain of the guard herself, waved us over to the table. "Shane!' Boomed the big man who specialized in fast paced combat. "Heard you knocked Vandal on his ass in training!"

Laughing, I dropped onto the bench seat. "Not even close. I barely moved him. Nice to know people are making me look good though."

He clicked his tongue. "No, no, no. You're an Ascendant. Always take maximum credit. Hell, go further. Say you destroyed him so thoroughly he can't even look you in the eye anymore. You shattered his confidence and he can never be in a real fight again."

"Please don't corrupt the Madame's Grandson with your showboating nonsense." Said Sorana mildly. "He's a very powerful young man and will have no problem establishing his legend in the proper way. Shortcuts create weaknesses in your foundation. What if he starts getting a reputation for exaggerating and people stop believing the TRUE stories."

"That can happen?" I asked worriedly. "Because some of the shit I've done probably seems unbelievable."

She smiled reassuringly. "I wouldn't be concerned. Ascendant culture is built on stories, and we have our ways of verifying information." I nodded in relief. I was pretty sure that was what made secrets such a blindspot for the wish power, how hard it was to keep them. If something stayed buried, you knew for damned sure someone wanted it that way.

They waved over a server, who set down a silver tray in front of me and removed the domed cover to reveal a huge plate of prime rib with mashed potatoes and vegetables (some kind of squash and zucchini mix). "Man, you guys definitely went all out today. Decided to give me a last meal, huh?"

"Nah," said Kristoff cheerfully. "If you die it'll be weeks from now probably. You'll eat tons of stuff before then." There was a thump and he grunted, grimacing in pain at Keiko before clearing his throat. "I mean, you're definitely not going to die and will eat many more meals, some of them on this ship for sure."

"You will do fine, I'm sure." Said Sorana warmly. "You're a talented young man. I've never seen anyone take to technique modification like you. You've got an unbelievable talent for it. Your-" she grimaced. "Abomination Engine, despite its unpleasant name, is a wonderfully complex technique with endless potential."

I actually blushed a bit at the praise. Being told you're talented by an A-ranker is always a fun thing to hear, especially someone strong enough to be my grandmother's guard captain. "Thanks, that means a lot. I'm excited to see what I can do on my own, really."

"We've all been there." Said Keiko with a laugh. "You're in a good position. D-ranker with a bit of extra Impact and a Solid Path? Plus your pseudo Domain. You've got plenty of advantages. If I could give you any advice, it would be not to get in your own head. You don't magically become a different person without backup. The things you've done until now you can still do just as easily on your own."

That was really good advice. It was easy to think of this as almost the first step in my great journey, but it definitely wasn't. I'd been through a lot, and had proven myself time and time again. I could do this.

"Thanks." I smiled at her. "That helps a lot actually." I glanced at the other two. "How about you guys? Any notes?"

Sorana shook her head, but Kristoff responded. "You should change your demeanor a bit more to match your imposing presence in your new identity. You have the voice and the power, but you're sort of informal. Which is fine, but think about who you want to be seen as when you're being Mephistopheles."

"He's not wrong." Admitted Sorana. "Presentation is an important aspect of Ascendant culture."

We talked more about possible things I could do to improve my first impression, things I'd learned about Rackham, and exactly what Id do when I got down there, and the more we spoke the more relaxed I got. This wouldn't be easy by any means, but it would definitely be exciting. Now that I was out of my head a little, I could focus on the adventure, and I was pretty sure that was exactly what I needed.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The descent to Rackham was uneventful. They put me on a shuttle, ferried me down to an out of the way forest, pointed me towards a town and then wished me luck. The Acheron was going to wait in orbit (its stealth capabilities were apparently pretty impressive) in case I needed a quick exit. Grandma might be willing to go along with her mother's plan, but she wasn't willing to leave me completely unprotected.

Once they were gone, I was on my own, and I just felt…peace. I'd broken my shackle at the temple in much lonelier conditions than this. I wasn't abandoned or forgotten. My friends were still with me, even if they weren't here. With that surety, I could really just let myself enjoy my own solo adventure.

Rackham, to my surprise, was a B-rank planet. I hadn't been aware there were any of those at the edge of galaxies. This one was on the border between Conglomerate and Imperial space, and from what I'd seen on our flyover, they had that anachronistic magi-medieval feel that Stratholme had. The weight of the planet wasn't too bad, nothing more than a C-ranked planet had been when I was still an E-ranker, and I had plenty of energy to head off into the unknown.

Even the fact that I was in a forest didn't bother me. I had some bad experiences in the woods, but here, now, I felt like the world was holding its breath. I could hear the little noises that came with the ecosystem, the chiming of insects, wind through the trees, little animals scurrying on branches, but there was no hum of humanity. No hustle and bustle.

I could have pushed my Perception until there WAS, but I didn't. I left it balanced with my Focus so I could enjoy the sensations around me.

The grass was cold, crunching under my metal boots as I walked, and I lost myself in the solitude for a bit. Sadly, all good things must end, and even with my senses limited to a normal range, I eventually reached the vicinity of the city I'd been aimed at.

I admit, I took a bit of dark amusement in the image I must have projected, walking calmly from the dark forest in my colossal dark armor with my terrifying obsidian mask. I noticed the attention on me nearly instantly as they noticed my approach, my Danger Sense pinging softly. I was pretty sure they had their weapons at the ready but weren't planning to attack. I was able to pick out five different guards on the walls surrounding the city with my Eye of Revelation, and two of them appeared above the old fashioned gate as I came within easy speaking range.

"Halt!" Boomed the one on the left. "Who seeks entry to Drakensburg?"

The other one rolled his eyes. "Come on Jerry, do you have to do the super formal gate guard thing every time someone new shows up? You sound ridiculous."

Jerry the gate guard growled and stomped his foot lightly. "Damn it Carl! Don't undermine my authority in front of the new visitors! We need to assert our authority! All these weirdos have been showing up lately and if we don't project a strong image they'll like…burn down the tavern or run off with all the pretty girls."

"And the truth comes out!" Crowed Carl. "You're still sore because that handsome guy with the gold eyes and the wolf ears asked Lisa out."

"I told you not to bring that up!" Shouted Jerry furiously.

Carl shrugged. "Then you should have asked her out ages ago. It's your own fault. I mean she might have said no, but you can't expect her to wait around, especially since she didn't know you existed beyond the occasional hello when you went into the general store."

"We had a connection!" Spat Jerry. "She always gave me an extra few stalks of corn when I-"

"SILENCE!" I finally boomed. The ground trembled as my Path infused my voice with an edge of destruction, giving the sound waves a bit of a bump. Nothing like an actual attack, but something beyond mere words. They froze, eyes wide as they turned to look down at me. I could see fear flickering across the expression, and I toned it down a bit, point made. "I seek entry to your city." I boomed in a flat voice.

Jerry cleared his throat. "Right. Well…yes. We can let you in. It's considered polite to offer some compensation to the brave men and women who risk their lives to keep the city saf-" I snagged an E-rank chit from my ring and flicked it at him in a blurring fast motion. The coin smacked into his forehead and he squeaked in dismay as he stumbled backwards and off the wall.

The small flash of black flame on impact went unnoticed by the others, but the D-rank guard was blown back in a gesture that was both impressive and a clear statement. "Was that enough?" I asked glibly. "Or should I pay some more." I called out a few more coins, rolling them dextrously over the knuckles of my gauntlet in a very visible way.

"No need." Said Carl hurriedly. "That was more than enough. Please, come inside!"

He tapped his toe against the stone of the wall twice and the gate began to open. I stashed my coins again and strolled unhurriedly through the opening once it was large enough. As I passed Jerry, who was lying in the mud on the other side, I glance down at him dispassionately. He stared back for a second, then slumped bonelessly, letting his head fall to one side and his tongue loll out in the least convincing approximation of unconsciousness I'd ever seen.

I kept my laugh internal, but it was pretty funny. Playing the big bad was kind of fun, if I was being honest. I felt the Danger Sense continue as I strode down the path into town, and if I stretched my senses I could catch the slight sounds of pursuit. I debated triggered Bael just to fuck with them, but blowing my cover on a joke seemed dumb.

Belial and Mephistopheles, with the occasional burst of Mornax. That was my skillset in this identity. I'd need to get used to that.

I had been walking for about five minutes when I realized something kind of embarrassing. I had no clue where I was GOING. I knew this planet was supposed to be where the selection took place, but that was as much as we'd been able to learn. Sure, I was aware of the major landmarks and some historical trivia about Rackham, but barring a planetwide scan for a giant sign that said 'vanished gods recruitment here' I was kind of on my own.

Which, of course, meant I needed to lean on my experience. So…I needed to go to a bar. Literally every piece of information I'd ever gotten that wasn't from a literal information broker had been found at a pub, tavern, bar, or some other liquor slinging establishment.

I wondered if all the stories about info being found in seedy bars had altered the universe to fit that narrative. It wouldn't be the first time widespread belief had changed things up. Regardless, it was the only lead I had, so I searched for the nearest tavern and made my way over, throwing both doors open dramatically as I entered.

There was a slight pause when I entered. Not the music in the background, but conversation came to a halt as everyone turned to stare at the giant armored beast that was Mephistopheles. It was kind of a confidence booster.

I took a deep breath, trying to think of what to say, and finally settled on. "I have come for the reckoning."

My booming demon voice carried through the tavern, and I saw a bunch of people avert their eyes. The term I'd used wasn't one I'd heard for the selection, but it sounded demonic and pretentious while still being easy to link to the selection. I was betting it was going to catch on. Maybe I could add trendsetting to my list of Skills.

At the back of the bar, a man grinned. He had dark skin and close cropped metallic gold hair. His eyes shone like golden coins, and they were calm and centered. Next to him, a massive pale man with aquamarine hair in a braid sat with a slim girl with literal seaweed growing from her scalp. Their eyes were a matching shade of blood red, and they shone with interest. I pointed at finger at her ominously. "You." I boomed. "You've come to be chosen."

The eyes reminded me of what Carl had said about recent visitors. Apparently having my limited brain space taken up by Jerry's babbling had accomplished SOMETHING. I stalked forward, footfalls shaking the glassware on the table (not stomping but just letting my body settle harder than it needed to with each step). I stopped in front of them, looming over their table.

"Well." Said golden eye. "Aren't you a menacing bastard? What do you two think? Is he the scariest one we've seen so far?: It's either him or that ogre with missing eye."

The big man shook his head. "Trying too hard." He said simply.

That got a laugh from the girl. "I think he's making it work." She framed me with her fingers like she was taking a picture. "The height is doing a lot of work, but that armor is fucking monstrous. It's C-rank, and definitely custom to fit someone that size. I get the chills just looking at it. Plus that mask is a horrifying work of art. That's a face even a mother couldn't love."

I wasn't exactly complaining about how scary the mask was. She was right, it was terribly disturbing. Black Sorrow might be capricious and sociopathic, but she had her aesthetic down pat.

"I can agree to that." Said golden eye. "Well, you going to sit down, tall dark and disturbing, or are you expecting to loom over us all night?" Looking at him for a moment, I grabbed a chair and pulled it out, settling down heavily and crossing my arms. He nodded cheerfully. "See now, that's better. What's your name friend? I'm Rayden Strent, and this is Cavallo and Desria Mek. We've come to this charming little hamlet to seek our fortunes."

"Mephistopheles." I rumbled. "I seek only greatness." It was a pretentious answer, but it was in character. I could let the formality drop over time, but I didn't know if I'd see these people again, so I wanted to maintain my mystique.

He whistled. "Hell of a name." He said with a wink. "But a bit of a mouthful. I think I'll call you Fist. You've certainly got two big ones. Tower menacingly if you don't mind. Perfect, it's settled then."

I sighed. "Address me as you wish. I care not. But when you speak of me to others, do so with the proper respect."

"Seems fair." He chirped. "So, Fist. I suspect you're here for the same event we are. How exactly did you hear about this little get together. I was told invitations were awfully tough to come by."

I opened my mouth to give some vague answer, but I was cut off by an explosion that rocked the floor beneath us. Rayden and friends snapped to their feet, staring out the door, tension in their formerly relaxed bodies. I almost had to smile at the turn. This kind of shit happened to me all the time, I was used to it.

For the first time I wondered if maybe Black Sorrow wasn't just fucking with me. Maybe she was also fucking with THEM. Sending someone as heavily drenched in fate as I was into an event like this was basically a guarantee it would go off the rails. The thought put a smile on my face. The suicide mission had been a depressing though, but this? I could have fun with this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

strode out the door fast enough to be noticeably hurrying but not fast enough to seem panicked. Mephistopheles was a methodical, implacable kind of guy, and I wanted to really cement that image.

Rayden caught up to me within seconds, jogging without any worries about image. Lucky bastard. "Hey, Fist-o! Wait up."

"I have changed my mind." I intoned. "I do care how you address me. You will refrain from using such a ridiculous moniker for my person." I didn't mind Fist that much, but Fist-o wasn't anything I wanted to go by.

"You got it Fisty." He said with a thumbs up. "I'll keep going through nicknames until we find the perfect one. It'll be Fisteriffic."

I almost groaned out loud. It was like dealing with Bethy. Actually it wasn't, Rayden wasn't half as endearing. I really missed my vampire bestie. And Benny, and Jessie. But I shook that off. If the act of talking to people made me homesick, I needed to socialize more than I thought. I sighed. "Fist-o is acceptable."

"No can do Fisterino." He chirped. "I refuse to call you something that you so clearly hate. I'll never use the name Fist-o again. We'll find you the perfect nickname Fistocles."

"Oh look." I drawled as we rounded a corner. "A distraction."

His head whipped around, his lips peeling back in delight as he watched what appeared to be a giant green ferret made of lightning jump on a towering figure with the head of a bull as it tried to smash the beast into the ground. It dissolved into a shower of verdant sparks as the bull man roared his anger.

"Puddles!" Shouted a green haired girl in a green leather jacket. "Tanner, what the actual fuck? It takes him hours to reform when he gets destroyed, what are you waiting for?"

A figure appeared behind bull man, climbing his back and reaching around with a dagger to try to hook back and slit his throat. The knife got caught in his fur and he reached back, grabbing the formerly invisible guy and hurling him at a nearby building. The armored sneak hit the shadows of the building and melted in, and I heard the green girl sigh.

"Fools!" Boomed the minotaur. "You speak to me as equals? I will crush you all!"

I knew Mephistopheles wouldn't do anything. He would probably just watch and enjoy the show…but I was still Shane in real life. I was a hero, or I tried to be, and I wasn't going to let this big asshole crush these people because they'd TALKED to him informally. My instincts were screaming at me to help, and I tried to listen to my gut. Withdrawing my staff, I stepped forward, and I reached for Limbo.
Despite the month of training, I hadn't gotten much of an opportunity to work with Limbo. It didn't work on people too far above my rank, and most of my sparring partners were. Still, I'd been workshopping the pseudo Domain. After a month of backstopping and tweaking the imagery, I'd managed to refine the ability into something both more useful, and more deadly.

As I stepped into the First Circle of Hell, I felt the world around me shift. Not overly much, not a full change. It was less like a real Domain and more like a film I'd laid over the world that lubricated my powers a bit.

My mind split. Piece of Mind creating parallels of me to parse the information from a combination of the Overlay and Eye of Revelation.

The last time I'd used this ability my mistake had been following the narrative in the heat of the moment. I hadn't done my due diligence, hadn't shaped the pseudo Domain to be what I needed, and so it shaped me. This time though, I'd done the work, come up with the legend I needed, and I had tied it intimately into who I was.

Moonlit Night to set the stage, Eye of Revelation and the Overlay to predict their actions, Piece of Mind to parse the multitudes of possibility, and the hyper corrosive black flame of Belial and Mephistopheles to destroy the other options.

Rather than manipulate him with the Domain like a puppetmaster, i identified the possible outcomes, and used the power of my destructive energy to eradicate the paths they had until they walked the one I wanted. I still controlled and deceived, but this was more in like not only with my destructive side, but with my Fatewalker nature.

The minotaur spun, roaring at me, and I saw a thousand reactions, blazing through my head like an infinite map. In a feat I wouldn't have been able to do without my pseudo Domain (I was just going to start thinking of it as a lowercase D domain for ease of consideration) I saw all the possible outcomes, parsed and analyzed them as a dozen people, and discarded the ones I didn't want.

My staff licked out, explosions of dark energy destroying possible outcomes as I boxed the minotaur in, getting rid of possibilities before they could be realized and slowly constraining the big bastard to dance on my string like a puppet. I felt that cold, sadistic joy well up in me again, but it was muted this time, balanced by the Fatewalker and by my own new and more powerful soul.

The bull man roared, diving forward…into my staff. An explosion knocked him back, and he fell right onto a strike as I Double Troubled behind him. Every step was like destiny, implacable, inevitable. I wasn't just beating him. I was making him beat himself, smashing into my staff at the exact right time.

It took only a few seconds for him to drop, flesh sizzling and burning from my powerful dark corruption. Everyone around us was just staring at me as I let the First Circle recede, the domain returning to where it came from. I felt a surge of weakness after it was gone, but not enough to seriously bother me. Much more manageable than before.

Rayden whistled. "Damn Fist, that was fucking brutal. Did you guys see that? That was some 'quit hitting yourself' type of shit."

I almost laughed, before I remembered I was playing tall dark and brooding, so I just loomed ominously. The one upside to the shock and awe approach I'd taken was it had been so overwhelming people had forgotten to ask WHY I'd done it. I probably just seemed like I wanted to kick the shit out of some huge powerful Ascendant.

"That really WAS awesome!" Chriped the green haired girl. "Thanks for the save, big guy. I'm Vesper, and that over there is Tanner. Puddles is my summon, though he's gone, and our friend Archimedes was setting up a big attack to take down the beefcake over there." She gestured at bull guy. "Still, it was really nice of you to lend a hand."

Shaking my head, I boomed. "I simply wished to test my strength against a worthy foe. Your fates were immaterial to me."

She chuckled. "Whatever you say, big guy. I can tell you're a big softie deep down."

"Right?" laughed Rayden. "He's definitely a nice guy. I can tell." He grinned charmingly, holding out a hand. Rayden Strent, at your service milady." He leaned down to kiss her knuckles and she rolled her eyes, though she smiled at a bit at the gesture. "I was just about to step in to help.

Desria snorted, her seaweed hair drifting oddly on the light breeze in a way that resembled actual underwater plants. "Can you not be a shameless flirt, for like…five minutes, Ray. These people are probably our competition. I'm guessing you guys are here for the selection like we are?"

Vesper shrugged nervously. "I mean…maybe? I'm not sure. My faction is kind of under a lot of pressure. I'm from a system near here, and when I heard about this…I don't know if I really have any other options, but a lot of these gods don't really sit right with me. I'm still deciding on whether we're going to enter."

"We are." Said another voice as a tall blonde man with broad shoulders stepped into view. Over one shoulder he was carrying a massive war maul, the head glowing with condensed power. Archimedes, I took it, and that would be his big hit. The fact that it was still teed up was a bit alarming, and I immediately went on guard.

Rayden seemed not to care, and Desria remained relaxed, but Cavallo, the big quiet aqua haired member of their trio, narrowed his blood red eyes at the other warrior, sizing him up.
Vesper glared at the blonde. "We decide that TOGETHER, Archie. And we haven't. Tanner and I are still on the fence, so unless you want to go it alone you'll wait for us to make a decision. I don't appreciate you trying to bully us into falling in line.

"Tell you what." Rayden said cheerfully. "Why don't we treat you all to a bit of food. We were just going to break bread and get to know our terrifying friend here before your fight caught us off guard." His tone was bright and inviting and I felt kind of…confused.

This wasn't going how I expected. I thought everyone who showed up here would be an edgy lunatic hell bent on crushing people under their boot. These people all seemed…nice. Just friendly Ascendants my own age. Sure the minotaur was a dick, but that still wasn't like…evil. These people were here for their own reasons, and they weren't all bloodthirsty monsters like I'd expected.

But that didn't matter, really. I was still going to have to get through them to win this. To beat them all so I could be free of my great grandmother and my family could be back together. Granted, my dad would still probably be off doing whatever until I kicked his ass and dragged him back, but being able to go visit my grandfather in the Holy Dominion, see where my sister grew up. It all sounded like a dream.

So I firmed my resolve and settled into my character, but I also promised myself I wouldn't ignore this feeling either. Callie was there with me, her love and support giving me the resolve to do what I could for these people. People like Vesper and Rayden might be decent despite their desperate situations, and if they were, I would help them.

I could have Sorana pick them up on the Acheron when I left if I felt they were worth saving. So I followed the group back to the tavern, and we all sat down and ordered. I got some shepherds pie and a mug of root beer, and everyone was suitably terrified when they saw my mask mouth open.

After we decompressed a bit and got to know each other, I turned my attention to something Vesper had said. After a brief pause, I finally asked. "Tell me about 'the selection' as you call it. Tell me what you know of those who are chosen."

Vesper chuckled. "Seems like its the least we owe you. We can do that. I don't know how much it'll help though. We just heard a rumor and came here on a whim. I THINK someone said something about the selection happening in Deltaverde, but the trip there is taking us a while." She coughed in embarrassment. "We're not used to B-rank planets."

I got that, though I couldn't say so. Rayden had no such compunction, however. "Yeah there's an adjustment period. Don't worry, you can stick with us. We can track down Deltaverde together. Once things kick off we might be rivals, but there's no reason not to work together until then." He grinned at me. "You're invited too, big guy." I thought for a second and then nodded. Having some help certainly couldn't hurt. I'd take what I could get.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So you're making new friends?" Asked Callie as I leaned back against the wall. She'd manifested a copy through my shadow, and it was curled up next to me. "Because I'll be honest honey, you can be an acquired taste at times." She winked at me. "I joke, but seriously, new friends are always good."

"Unless they're evil psychopaths who are going to end up being our enemies." I pointed out.

She shrugged. "Do they seem like psychopaths? I trust your divination Skills to keep you out of trouble, and as long as they don't try to stab you in the back, I don't see why you couldn't offer them a spot with one of your factions. You know your mom and Chelsea would be perfectly happy to scout some new talent."

"We'll see. I have to get to know them better." I was still in my armor, but with my mask off I felt more myself. It was strange how much that aspect of things had changed. I used to feel naked without it, but since Black Sorrow changed it, it didn't feel like mine anyway. I was going to have to ask Zeke to make me a better one when this was over. "Speaking of Chelsea, how is she doing?"

My wife snickered. "Not bad. She's learning to use both her abilities, and to try to slowly mix them in combat. Bethy keeps trying to 'help' and Chelsea gets flustered when she's around and accidentally blows herself up."

"That sounds like her." I snickered. "How about Abel? Anyone heard from him?"

Her snicker became a full on cackle. "He calls Mel to complain like every day. I'm sure they talk through their bond too, so I think he just wants to make sure we all hear about how pissed off he is. Apparently Morgan is not a gentle teacher."

My own grin matched hers in sadistic amusement. "Gosh." I drawled maliciously. "That's so sad. I can't imagine what it would be like to suffer at the hands of a cruel and capricious teacher. It certainly wasn't my INTENTION for him to suffer in such a way. I'll keep him in my thoughts."

She rolled her eyes, and was about to respond when a knock sounded at my door. I tensed, grabbing my mask and sliding it back on. I hadn't heard anyone coming, which meant Stealth, and my Danger Sense wasn't pinging so they weren't hostile. I came to my feet slowly, nodding to Callie as the clone melted back into shadow. She couldn't help me from where she was, those clones being far too fragile for a prolonged long distance fight.

After mentally preparing, I strolled to the door and pulled it open, glaring down at the person on the other side. "What?" I snapped.

The figure before me simply stared back, unaffected by my ire. "Mephistopheles." Came the voice from under the darkened hood like the rustle of dead leave over a cold gravestone. "You are requested in the dining room." The face beneath the cloak wasn't visible, but a mask was. A half face mask carved of black wood to resemble the top half of a skull, with bright red eyes that cast a dim glow over the unrelieved darkness inside the hood. It gave the impression the mask was floating in an empty abyss, and was deeply unsettling.

"And who are you," I intoned. "To command me in such a way?"

"Attend or do not." Rasped the figure. "But know that if you choose to defy the invitation, you will forfeit all rights to the divine selection. The eyes of the dark gods are on this world. Your trials have already begun, and they watch carefully. Be warned, for if you are not a willing vessel for their power, your only choice is to bow to their awful might by force, and for those who stand against their fury, only tragedy awaits."

There was a flutter in the air, and the figure dissolved into a few drifting black feathers, which vanished as they touched the ground. I rolled my eyes. "Melodramatic ass." I muttered as I turned to head for the stairs.

To my complete lack of surprise, Vesper, Archie, Rayden, Desria, Cavallo, and Tanner were all converging at the top of the steps. We'd all chosen to stay in the same inn, though obviously our rooms had some distance between them. Still, thinking back, I should have heard the hooded figure addressing any of the others, or even knocking on their door. Whatever the thing was, it had some interesting tricks.

Thinking about it, I suspected he might be some kind of servant of Delthrys, the god of secrets. It would certainly fit.

"Fist!" Called Rayden as I joined them. "Good to see you got the call too. Anyone know anything about creepy mcweirdmask back there? Because I tried a few of my analysis Skills and I got jack and shit."

Archie shook his head in annoyance. "Likewise." He grunted. "But they did give me a fun little ultimatum. I take it we're all heading downstairs to meet with our new friend now?"

"I chafe under their assumptions." I rumbled. "But I came for the selection. To throw away my chance for greatness to sate some fleeting sense of personal pride is pure foolishness. I will attend this conclave."

Vesper nodded. "Pretty much where we landed. We should stick together then. Just in case our new friend has impure intentions."

Nodding solemnly, we all got into a tight grouping, though not so tight as to limit range of movement. We were all experienced, and Archie, Cavallo, and I took the front, being the biggest. I triggered Mornax along with my two consistently active forms, just in case something attacked.

We reached the ground floor, and the whole place was shockingly empty. An almost blue moonlight flooded the area from the windows, leaving dark shadows pooling everywhere. We headed for the dining room, and when we arrived, the cloaked figure was standing among the tables, hands clasped behind their back.

"Well, we're here." Said Rayden. "It's late though, so if there's a version of this where you don't posture dramatically and waste a bunch of time, can we go with that one? Also what's your name, because I can't just keep calling you 'creepy mask guy' in my head. We already have one of those and it's getting confusing."

The figure paused menacingly. "You may address me as you wish, my name matters no-"

"Cool, you're Scott now." Interrupted Rayden. "Problem solved. Now, what are you doing here, Scott, and what do you want?"

The pause this time was less menacing and more confused. "I…yes. Well. I have come to extend your invitations to the selection, as well as give you your first task. To serve the dark gods is an honor that not just any may accept. You must prove your worthiness."

"Worthiness?" Rayden said skeptically. "How high can the bar be? I mean, you're worthy, and your name is Scott. That's a ridiculous name."

"You don't…please stop calling me that." The cloaked figure formerly known as Scott sounded frustrated. "Take this seriously. Your very lives hang in the balance."

Rayden snorted. "Yeah, because that's an unfamiliar set of circumstances."

"Look, what is the task?" I asked, figuring I'd better interrupt Ray before he got up a head of steam. I'd learned to handle unpredictable teammates when I'd been working with Bethy. Sometimes you just had to make them focus.

Not-Scott nodded, clearly pleased. "Very good. At least one of you is treating this situation with the gravitas it deserves." His tone was almost reproachful, and I smirked behind my mask, seeing that Rayden had done exactly what he'd probably intended to do, and taken the wind out of Not-Scott's creepy sails.

"Exactly." I boomed. "So tell us what we need to know, Not-Scott."

Rayden burst out laughing, and I could swear the masked figure glared at me. "My NAME," They hissed. "Is Echelon. I serve Delthrys, the god of secrets, and he is not amused by your antics!"

"Oh please." Snorted Desria. "There's no way an actual god is giving us enough attention to care about this conversation. So just tell us what the task is."
The figure glared for a moment, then sighed. With a snap of their fingers, a series of birds coalesced (ravens, of course, because what else would a creepy masked cloak person use) they flew to us, each dropping a small scroll. I snatched mine out of the air, and after opening and reading it, looked back up at Echelon. "Its a person." I said flatly.

"Of course." Echelon said with a nod. "A target. Delthys is one of the six whom you may serve. The first trial shall weed out those who might stand at his side. Every person in the trials is given a target. You have three days to find them. Should you fail, you will be barred forever from service to Delthrys, and all that he may grant you, though you will not be precluded from the other trials. Those who succeed most quickly will more on to Delthrys's next trial."

I blinked at her. "So this trial has no benefit for those who seek to serve a different deity?"

Echelon shook their head. "Not so. If you succeed in a trial, you may use that success to offset a failure for the first trial of another deity. The top scorer in any first trial may even beg intercession from that god for aid in another trial down the line, even if that trial is for a different god."

That sounded complicated as hell. That meant there would be, eventually, six different selections going on all over Rackham. I could blow some of them off, but if they were all thematic…having a free pass for the Lady of Lamentation's task might be a good idea. As a goddess of torment, there was a chance it would be incredibly unpleasant.

Having a free intercession from the god of secrets could certainly come in handy. I was just really hoping the Lady of Lamentations had some other domain than torturing people, or I wasn't going to make it through this.

I glanced down at my target. For now I just had to find this guy. Chester Baddington, professional thief and a D-ranker on the Path of Stealth. Fantastic. Echelon, seemingly ignorant or uncaring of my mental dilemma, turned their back to us. "And so your task has been passed. The first task of the next trial will commence in one week's time. Some of you will not bother to move on, and will serve at the hand of Delthrys. For the rest, this will be the last time we meet."

Echelon vanished in a puff of raven feathers, and we all turned to each other. "So…" Said Rayden. "Did he say anything about us helping each other? I bet teaming up would make this way easier."

I considered the trial, and the god behind it. "I think not." I said slowly. "Not on this one. At least not yet. Perhaps if we run into difficulty on day one. Is anyone planning not to bother with the task?"

No one was. It made sense, it was a big opportunity for some free credit in case our task down the line was too hard or painful. That thought resonated oddly. Too painful. The Lady of Lamentation was a goddess of torment, though based on her liquid, probably also corruption. What if her task was to ENDURE those things. I felt my blood run cold at that. In some ways it would be easier, but in others…yeah, I definitely needed to make sure I had a free pass for the first trial for the goddess I was aiming at. I had a feeling it would be one of the hardest to endure. Before that though, I had to do some research, because if I was going to pass any of these trials, I needed to know more about the dark gods.

https://www.patreon.com/malcolmtent/posts?filters[tag]=WUTS

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, is anyone else hungry?" Asked Rayden. "Because I'm starving. Being menaced at makes me ravenous. Besides, you don't want to team up, but maybe we can share info. I'm the best at sharing info. I share everyone's info. Desria collects stuffed turtles, and Cavallo is obsessed with baking."

"Ray!" Snapped Desria in an annoyed voice. "That's a secret, it also does NOT make you seem more trustworthy. Literally the exact opposite of that." She sigh and gave me a small smile. "Sorry about him. He means well, but sometimes his brain and his mouth aren't speaking, even when his mouth definitely is."

I shrugged, not wanting to break character but unbothered. "His blathering has no effect on me." I intoned.

"Speaking of you." Ray brightened. "What's up with your ability? That was a Domain right? But it felt unfinished. Also kind of creepy. Like…a bit demonic, but something else? What the hell is your power?"

Shrugging, I brushed it aside with a half truth. "I'm from the Black Sorrow Cult, but I never wanted to touch Black Sorrow's disgusting darkness, so I followed in my father's footsteps. He was a devil." This wasn't much of a concession to admit, the Cult interacted with the devils a lot, and there were plenty of hybrids in their territory.

His eyes widened in delight. "Oh my gods." He whispered reverently. "You have devil powers even though you're not a devil? You're just like Devilghost!"

Vesper's head shot up and she squealed in excitement. "You're right! He's totally like Devilghost! I can't believe I didn't see it before. I mean he doesn't have a horse, but still, they're so similar!"

"What is a…Devilghost?" I asked warily.

They stared at me in horror. "Devilghost?" Asked Vesper in disbelief. "The Specter of Salvation?" She took a deep breath and belted out. "He rides upon a fiery steed, his powers helping those in need, his claws will make his enemies bleed, DEVILGHOST!" Rayden stood up as she did, throwing their hands into the air as they howled the last word of what had to be some kind of theme song in unison.

Desria sighed. "He's a cartoon character native to this cluster. A lot of the systems nearby have a shared broadcast network, this planet doesn't because it's more Imperial than Conglomerate."

"Ah." I said slowly. "I'm from Cult territory, as I said. And I do not know anything about…Devilghost. In fact, I'm ignorant of a great many things, including the identities of all the dark gods. I know of a few, but perhaps we might exchange information and you could share your own knowledge of our potential benefactors."

Rayden slumped, pouting petulantly. "You're boring. Devilghost is way more fun than you. Devilghost would totally team up with us. And he would use his flames of spectral revealing to burn away the obstruction in our path so we could all find our targets like…today."

"Nuh uh!" Snapped Vesper. "Devilghost would tell us it was too dangerous, he never puts the innocent at risk."

"I will literally pay you money if you stop talking about this." I groaned, belatedly realizing that had been WAY out of character, even if it had still been in my demonic voice. Everyone turned to stare at me in shock. I flinched. I'd just gotten so comfortable with their bullshitting, it was almost like being back with my friends. "I mean…your prattling becomes tiresome."

Desria snorted. "Oh no." She laughed. "Cats out of the bag big man. You don't get to go back to being the brooding mystery behemoth now. The whole tall dark and gloomy thing was getting old anyway."

"Fine." I snapped, throwing up my hands. "But don't tell anyone else. Not that the fact that I'm being pretentious on purpose would mean anything to anybody, but I want to keep up the role in public. Now can you PLEASE tell me more about the dark gods. I've got four of them down, how about you."

Rayden looked devastated. "Man, you're even less like Devilgho-" I cut him off, pointing at him angrily. "Whatever. Fine. We know about two of them."

"And so do we." Vesper said. "So assuming we don't have more than one overlap, maybe we can learn about them all. Which ones do you know about…what did Ray call you again? Fist?" I realized I hadn't been introduced with the others.

"Mephistopheles." I said flatly. "But Fist is fine, as long as you don't make any weird nicknames out of it. As for the gods I know of, as I said, there are four. One of them you know about already, Delthrys, God of Secrets. He's running this trial."

She nodded. "We hadn't heard of him before now. We came to try to work under Verdyn, the god of the Blood Forest. He's the patron deity anything that dies in the forest. It's a whole big 'man's darkest nature makes them no better than beasts' thing."

I filed that one away, since I hadn't heard of him. "I'm here to serve Felicity, the Lady of Lamentations. She's a deity of torment." I didn't elaborate, because I didn't KNOW much more. At their skeptical glances, I shrugged. "What?You guys didn't come here to pledge your service to the god of fluffy puppies either. They're dark deities, some edge is to be expected."

She shrugged. "Fine. Our other one is obvious. Hatescream is kind of a gimme, since he's the big boss around here."

I nodded solemnly. "Good to hear. Stralthrem is the Dread God of Fabrication. Some kind of mad scientist monster maker I think? I don't know the details."

"It's more than we know." Said Cavallo, who had been mostly silent this whole time. "Our last one is Raxus, god of deceit. We don't know much about him for obvious reasons. I'm not sure how deceit varies from secrets, however, they seem similar."

"They should." Said Ray. "They're twins. At least I think so. He's the one we're here for." He paused. "Also, sorry for the look earlier I guess, I don't think ours is any nicer than yours. But yeah, I heard Raxus had a twin, I just didn't know who it was. That makes the most sense."

I sighed. "It does. If I had to guess while this trial is about digging up secrets, Raxus's will probably be some kind of infiltration thing. Who knows. I'm just worried about what Felicity's trial might be. It's either going to be monstrous or VERY painful. I suspect the latter. It's easy to find murderous bastards, but people who can survive torture are harder to source. Seems like a more interesting quality for a goddess to search for."

My instincts were pushing me in that direction, and while that wasn't anywhere near proof, it at least helped me calm down a bit. Sure, undergoing horrible torment to pass sucked, but I had ways to mitigate that. I'd been through some awful shit, and my pain tolerance was solid. At least I wouldn't have to do anything really monstrous to another person. Hopefully.

With the details out of the way we finally had a chance to get some food. No one seemed to be in the inn except for us, or if they were we didn't detect them. So we raided the kitchen and Ray left some chits behind while I made steaks.

It soothed me to do some cooking, and carefully pan searing the steaks in butter made me feel like I was home with Callie. I reached through the bond and felt her answer me, glad to sense me and missing me as I missed her. With a wry grin, I opened the bond in a way I hadn't tried before, inhaling the scent of cooking meat, and I felt a slash of scolding faux outrage and sullen poutiness.

Not laughing at her reaction was a bit of a struggle, but I made sure to send some affection, and got grudging forgiveness along with a warning feeling that I was pretty sure was a promise of vengeance.

Her presence retreated back into the bond, always with me, but it was less…well, present. I finished the steaks and brought them to the dining room, dropping the plate piled high with meat onto the table. "I did what I could." I shrugged. "The meat here isn't amazing quality. It's a little lean for my taste and it's only F-rank."

Not that I was surprised. This was a small place, E and D-ranked meat was far too upscale for them to keep on hand in their stores. I took a bite and grimaced somewhat. It wasn't BAD, but it wasn't great.
To my surprise, everyone else froze when they bit into their food. "Holy shit, this amazing!" Shouted Ray. "Fist you're a culinary genius!"

I shrugged. "It's just pan seared in butter. If I'd had time I could have done a marinade. I was able to use a very light touch of corrosion to tenderize the meat. Don't worry though, the skill fades when I dismiss it." It was one of the possible uses for my Skills I'd picked up on the Acheron. I was surprised they liked it so much though.

Although…I'd been eating food from a master chef recently. For the last month I'd only been ingesting professional quality meals, so my own read on what was good might be off.

Vesper shook her head. "He's right. This is fantastic. I've never had food this good."

"I have." Said Cavallo. "But not often. This is an exceptionally well prepared meal." I nodded to him, and he returned to eating with a slow, methodical intensity that I was pretty sure meant he was trying to reverse engineer my exact steps when cooking the steak.

"Well, if we're already sharing a meal, why not share a bit about ourselves." Said Vesper cheerfully. "We know each other's names, but not much else. If we might work together in the future, even if it's once we all pass the selection, it might be a good idea to make some new friends."

Ray nodded slowly. "That's a good idea. Well, I'm local, as you might have guessed. Not to this planet, but to the cluster. Me and the twins are from Crayton Seven. And no, I don't know why they decided to name all eight of the planets in our system the same thing. It's super rare because of how confusing it gets, but hey, I didn't name them."

"You named one of them." Said Desria with a grin. "Or renamed it anyway. Your family had to have smuggled off world when the governor found out it was you who started it."

He shrugged. "In my defense, I had no idea Shitworld was going to catch on. Sure, it was accurate, but come on people, have some decorum. Anyway, I wasn't really the kind of person who would fit in with the Empire, and I find the Unity kind of pointless and childish. When I got wind of the selection I decided to give it a shot."

Desria chuckled. "We don't let him go anywhere alone, since he has zero filter and tends to get into trouble." I remembered Jerry the guard mentioning someone with eyes like Ray and knew what she meant.

"We're local too. We're from this system actually." Said Vesper. "We're looking for a chance to change our fortunes a bit. No powerful factions nearby, so we can't join anyone. When we heard about the selection we knew it was our big chance. But…well, with the whole dark gods thing we're still deciding if we'll actually take part or not." She bit her lip, looking a little worried.

I fed them some story about wanting to get away from the Cult which was technically true based on my wording, and then steered the conversation away from the subject and back to general getting to know you stuff.

By the end of the night, I was in a surprisingly good mood, and ready to take on tomorrow. My hunt for my target would begin, and it would be time to head off on my own. I couldn't wait to see what I was really capable of.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

As much as I wished I could just charge off to find my target I had to figure out who the hell he was. I only had a real name, and while Chester Baddington might not be the MOST common name, I was sure there was more than one around. Being a D-ranker should help narrow things down, but this WAS a B-ranked planet. Most of the people I'd met so far were D-rankers.

Which meant I needed local information, which meant I needed a source, and I needed some way to pay for it. I had some cash on hand, as well as another eight scrolls on hand just in case. But using those to pay for anything seemed premature. Instead, I decided to see if there was some sort of census or information database for the planet. I headed for the nearest library, which was sadly three towns over, but I made decent time with my Waltz.

It was about noon when I arrived, and the clerk at the library was, in a reaffirmation that people everywhere can be the same regardless of environment, a bored teenager reading a book and trying to ignore everyone who showed up.

"Child." I boomed, really leaning on the demonic voice. Sure, it might be a bit mean, but I didn't have time to deal with disaffected youth, I had shit to do. Luckily, I was fucking terrifying, so I was able to lean on my intimidating visage to pressure him to do his job a bit more quickly. I MIGHT have stifled a laugh when he squeaked and fell out of his chair, looking up at me with confused panic. "I seek knowledge."

I was back in character since I was away from my new friends. Plus it was way more ominous when I talked like this. He swallowed, scrambling to his feet. "Yeah, ok. I mean, sure. I can find…knowledge. What do you want to know?"

"I seek the Ascendant known as Chester Baddington." The guy himself was actually an Ascendant, an F-rank from the looks of it. I'd have assumed this planet would be too much for him, though the building seemed to offset the Impact slightly. He was wearing an odd bracelet that interested me, maybe some kind of offloading device for Impact. I'd have to look into it later.

He snagged a mirror from under the counter, fingers flying over the glass. "Um…is he like…historical or something?"

"No. He yet lives." I said gravely.

He grimaced. "Hold on. Population records are sort of buried. He might not be on there. They haven't been enforcing the census as heavily lately. But maybe…huh. I found him. I think. There's three of them. How old is he? One is a baby, one is an old man, and one seems to be like…mid forties."

"The third, I believe." I said thoughtfully. "He is D-rank, if that helps your search."

He tapped the screen. "Ok. Got him." He glanced up at me nervously. "This is a census, man. It's not exhaustive. I only have his hometown, his eye and hair color, and his next of kin."

I reached into my ring, withdrawing a piece of paper, and handed it to him along with a pen. He copied down the details, and I returned the paper to my ring. I withdrew a single chit, E-rank, and pressed it down on the counter. "My presence, will you conceal it?"

His eyes widened and he snatched up the chit. "Hell yeah!" He said excitedly. "You were never here, man. Big scary demon mask who?"

Nodding, I turned and walked out. As I strolled, a cloaked, shadowy form coalesced beside me, keeping pace. It didn't speak, at least not out loud, but my wife's voice rang in my head. "You had far too much fun scaring that kid. This planet is a bad influence on you."

I smirked at her. "You could talk to me mentally without the shadow clone. Miss me that much? Because I'll be honest, I don't know much about hunting down a target, and I could use all the help I can get."

Her laugh tinkled in my head. "You're doing fine. If you really need help we can ask Cark, but I thought this was your big moment running solo?"

"Well sure." I laughed internally. "But you're my wife. We share everything, so asking you for help doesn't count. Your successes are my successes. Except in a literal sense, because I got none of that sweet, sweet, godslayer renown."

She snickered. "Poor Shane can't coast on his wife's success. The world is so unfair. Anyway, I was just on break in my training and I felt you were alone. I missed you. I love you and good luck." She popped up on her toes, pecking me on the cheek before the shadow construct dissolved.

No one had seen, she'd covered us in Stealth before she'd done it, and I smiled under my mask at my wife being thoughtful enough to try to preserve my fake reputation. I walked for a bit longer, then stopped and leaned against a tree, withdrawing the paper. The information was sparse. I'd hoped Chester had some kind of unique hair or eye color, as sometimes happened with Ascendants, but no. His hair was brown, his eyes were green.

His next of kin was listed as "Millicent Baddington" and his hometown was called Runkleton, Which was objectively the towniest name for a town I'd ever heard. Sighing, I pulled out the map I'd bought earlier today so I could reach Bentworth, where the library was situated. It was a pretty decent area, and it covered enough that I was able to find Runkleton easily enough, albeit barely, since it appeared to a literal blip up in the mountains.

Sighing, I turned and began my Waltz, blasting forward, though not bothering to go all out. My travel speed was staggering, and I was moving so quickly, I almost missed the ping from my Danger Sense. Almost. Instead, I pushed off the ground, my next burst of movement taking me up into the air.

As I vanished, a whistling sound broking out, and a dozen arrows from a dozen directions smashed into the ground where I'd just been. "Surrender or die!" Bellowed a voice as I dodged. I expected another volley, but instead I heard a voice howl. "No,no, no STOP. Lower your weapons. Who the hell told you all to fire?"

I landed, State of Grace letting me balance casually on the shaft of one arrow as I glanced around at the slowly revealed forms of those surrounding me. The leader was a short woman with close cropped red hair and bright blue eyes. Her pixielike nose was scrunched up in annoyance as she glared at the other figures, most of whom wore identical leather armor and cloaks.

One of the men in the back raised a hand. When she raised a brow at him, he cleared his throat. "Beggin' your pardon miss, but it was David."

"Fucking snitch!" Shouted one of the others. "I was just saying he looked scary. Letting him know we were there seemed dangerous. I thought we should shoot first and worry about decorum later is all."

"I SAID." The girl said, "That we would offer them a chance to surrender. I don't PAY you to think, David."

I glanced at them with a sigh. "You seem to be vagabonds and cutpurses by trade." I said stoically. "Might you know of a man named Chester Baddington?" My fate had caused weirder shit to happen, might as well see if they knew my target.

The girl whirled on me. "Excuse me." She snapped. "I am TRYING to discipline my employee, giant demon man. Can you please wait until we get back to robbing you?" She turned back to her people. "Honestly, rude."

I stepped off the arrow, my foot touching the ground as I unleashed Pit of Despair. I pulsed my corrosion through it, the dust turning black as green energy sparked through it, and they all shrieked as they fell into the pit. I heard shouts of pain and alarm as the toxic dust burned their skin and some of them even inhaled it.

Sadly, Dust Construction was a very noticeable and unique Skill, but Pit of Despair fit my destructive motif to a T. I cancelled it, leaving them all stuck in the dirt as they gasped for air. Immediately after, I reached for Belial's power, and I pushed, converting the still hot ground into hardened magmatic stone, pulsing with toxic heat. "My mistake." I drawled menacingly. "Please, resume your conversation. You can stay there for as long as you like."

The leader chuckled nervously. "Oh. Never mind. I was the one being rude. We'd be happy to help you kind stranger. Maybe you could…let us go first." She whimpered. "This really hurts."

I realized that I'd accidentally used my full corrosion, the combo with Mephistopheles, and I pulled back on it a bit. They all relaxed. "I'm looking for Chester Baddington. Do you know him?" They had never answered my question.

"No sir." The girl squeaked. "Never met him, why? Did he do something to you? We can help you find him."

I frowned, thinking about the other bit of info. "How about Millicent Baddington?" I asked.

"Millic-" She froze, eyes widening. "You're looking for BAD MILLIE? Listen big guy, you're really tough, and very scary, but Bad Millie runs half the thieves guilds on Rackham. Helping you find her would be suicide. She'd kill us."

I walked over, shoving my hand into the dirt and grabbing her arm. I released the stone hold on the ground and pulled, lifting her effortlessly into the air. "And what?" I growled as I leaned in close. "Do you think I'M going to do to you if you say no? You accosted me unprompted mid travel, confessed to be seeking to rob me, and are now standing in the way of my hunt. Where I'm from people have sold their homes to try to repay a tenth the insult you've given me this day."

I decided Mephitopheles was the kind of scary asshole who would demand tribute, and I thought it would play well here. I wasn't going to hurt a bunch of idiot thieves too badly, but she didn't know that.

Her eyes were wide, and I could literally see the reflection of my terrifying mask in her pupils as she quailed under my glare. She closed her eyes, puffed out her cheeks, and said. "Just me." I raised a brow and she demanded. "Promise you'll just take me with you. That you'll tell everyone I was the person who sent you. Let my friends go. If you don't I'll just fight to the death, I don't care."

I dropped her, letting her feet hit the ground. Honestly, I was impressed. She was clearly scared shitless, but she refused to back down. She wanted to take care of her subordinates more than she wanted to be safe. "Fine." I said shortly. "They may leave. As may you, after you escort me to her location. I won't have you running off after giving me a false lead."

She looked offended at that but snorted and turned to the others. "Get lost, you sorry sacks of pig puke." She said loftily. "You're cramping my style."

David, the one who had been arguing to kill me, stared at her in horror. "But boss…what if he kills you? You can't just go off with some scary monster guy. We can totally take him. He's just D-rank like we are."

She shook her head. "Not a chance. That attack had several more Impact than a D-ranker should have. He's probably here for that evil god contest or whatever. If we kill him we might piss them off. Better to play along." She squinted at me. "I'm Beladonna Darrow." She said, holding out her hand. "And I hope my instinct about you being an ok guy is right. Lets go."

I was impressed she'd picked up on the selection thing, and by her instincts. I shook her hand thoughtfully. "Mephistopheles." I said in a booming demonic bass. And you will come to no harm as long as you complete your task." Internally, I was excited. I already had another lead. This manhunter thing was super easy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bad Millie apparently made her home in a town called Sparsburg. It was actually fairly close to Runkleton, which convinced me I was on the right track. Her place was, nostalgically, a casino. It reminded me a bit of the one in Doomtown all that time ago, though less…flashy. It was still incredibly over the top, but in a more residential way. Like a super high end mansion rather than a crazy casino.

The door was guarded by a pair of D-rankers, and to my immense surprise, my Danger Sense started whispering in the back of my head as we approached them. I didn't know who they were, but they were at least partial threats to me. I'd gotten way too used to being invincible at the same rank.

"Well if it isn't little lady Darrow." Said the shorter one, a woman with dark skin and purple hair. "I didn't know you were coming to visit. Look Theo, the little princess is here. We'd better be kind of her daddy might scold us."

The taller guard, a man with a thick blonde beard and a scar over one blue eye, sighed. "Be nice Tessa." He nodded to Belladonna. "Miss Darrow. Who's your friend?"

Belladonna froze. "This is…Dan." She said, searching for a plausible lie. "He's my stylist."

I almost sighed. She should have just given my name, no one on this planet really knew me yet. But it didn't matter in the end. I nodded solemnly. "Fashion is my life." I intoned in a demonic baritone.

They both stared at me in stupefaction, and I had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. Tessa raised an eyebrow at me. "You don't seem like someone who takes fashion too seriously. You're dressed like something that lives under a kid's bed."

"It's called Grimpunk." I boomed snidely. "It's the next big thing."

They stared at me for a minute. "...right." Said Theo. "Well, if you're with Miss Darrow, I guess you're good. But don't start any trouble, demon man. You probably think you're hot shit, but we've got a dozen people your level."

He was bluffing, but it was confusing to hear, because I was so low in D-rank. I shouldn't have even registered as a threat with my level of development…and then I got it. People used Impact to detect how strong someone was within their rank. Even people at the same rank had differences, that had been what Abel had taught us way back at the fish punching lake.

But my Impact was three points above where it should be. I was literally on an entirely different spectrum. They couldn't sense where I was in relation to where I should be, because they hadn't interacted with any people with one hundred and five Impact that they could compare it to. All they could sense was that I was stronger than a normal D-ranker in terms of Impact. I could be at any spot in D-rank from their point of view, and it was clearly making them nervous. Cool.

They stepped out of the way, and we stepped into the casino. Deciding to risk using a form that wasn't one of my main three for this mission (if only because of the nature of the form itself) I triggered Bael, using its enhanced Stealth to cover us both as I turned to Belladonna. "Your stylist?"

Stomping her foot in frustration, she whined. "I'm not good at lying! I'm a very honest person!"

"You're a thief!" I said incredulously. "You were ROBBING me when I met you!"

"Yes, but I was very honest about it." She countered. "I always try to be up front with my targets. It's important for people to feel comfortable and well taken care of when you're stealing from them. Otherwise nonsense like that sneak attack happens. David's new, he doesn't really get how we do things yet."

I shook my head incredulously. "So, where exactly is this 'Bad Millie'. I have questions for her, and it would probably be smarter to try to ask them peacefully. I have a sneaking suspicion she's going to attack me, so you might want to leave before I meet up with her, but I'll at least give it a shot."

To my surprise, she shook her head. "I promised to bring you to Bad Millie, and that's what I'll do. You spared my friends, so I need to follow through on my end. Besides, I'll be fine. I, the unstoppable Belladonna Darrow, possess the unique ability of Escape." She struck a pose. "That's why they call me Belladonna the Blur."

"Does anyone actually call you that?" I asked curiously.

She slumped. "No, and I tried REALLY hard to get it started. I even paid some people to spread it around."

Weirdly, she reminded me a lot of Jessie, just in terms of her demeanor. Laughing lightly, I clapped her on the shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it. If things go bad, just get out of here. I can handle myself."

Between my pseudo Domain, my C-rank armor, my extra Impact, Abomination Engine, and Mornax, even a bunch of normal peak D-rankers would have trouble putting me down. With the speed of my Waltz, I could escape if needed, so unless they had a serious elite with a Solid Path here, I was pretty confident in my odds.

She nodded, and I added her to the list of pretty decent people I might extend an invitation to after this mess was over. She wasn't sticking around out of loyalty to me, she didn't know me, but the fact that she took her word so seriously spoke well of her.
I dropped Bael, switching back to Mornax as my third, just in case anything went down, and I followed Belladonna into the casino, keeping an eye out for possible threats.

There were a LOT of possible threats. Like…so many. The place was crawling with enemies, even though a lot of them seemed to be trying to blend in. I spotted several dealers, waiters, and bathroom attendants that my Danger Sense pinged off hard. Bad Millie wasn't the type to take risks it seemed.

Belladonna (she insisted I start calling her Bella because it wasn't as stuffy) and I headed for the center of the casino where a poker game was ongoing. Leading me around, Bella stopped in front of a pretty blonde woman who looked to be in her mid twenties, wearing a blue dress and sipping a cocktail. When we approached, two men in suits appeared (literally appeared, they'd been in Stealth) and blocked our path.

Millie smiled, waving them off. "No need to be so testy boys. Walthrum's daughter is always welcome at my place. Bella, darling, give your aunt Millie a hug." She smiled, spreading her arms, and Bella stepped up, pecking her on both cheeks before meekly stepping away. Despite the familiar greeting and the smile, Millie's ice blue eyes never thawed or warmed for a second. It was like looking into the eyes of a venomous snake. Those predatory orbs turned to me. "And who is your enormous friend? I don't think we've met. I thought I knew all your friends."

That statement seemed to make Bella deeply uncomfortable, and I could imagine why. That innocuous comment implied a level of observation most people would balk at. I didn't bother to be polite about it, given her icy demeanor. "My name is Mephistopheles. I'm looking for someone."

She fluttered her eyes at me. "A seeker of romance? Have I perhaps caught your attention? Or were you hoping to court our darling Belladonna?"

Purposefully misunderstanding me was annoying, but only briefly. I decided to be MORE blunt. "I'm looking for Chester Baddington. I heard you know where to find him." There was a sort of snap in the air. One second everyone was talking and gambling, and then it went eerily quiet.

Millie's eyes lidded dangerously. "Oh? And what might you want with my nephew?"

I felt my Danger Sense ramping up as the people around us slowly started to close ranks. It might have been subtle if I hadn't been expecting it, but as it was, they mostly just looked silly trying to casually shuffle into a formation around us.

"That's my business, but I mean him no harm." Once I caught him I just had to report to Echelon by burning the scroll, at least according to the item. He had to be immobilized, but once they confirmed the capture he would be released.

She snapped her fingers, and the people around us stopped being subtle, forming a wall of flesh between us and the exit. I cracked my neck slowly. "You should let Belladonna go." I said bluntly. "She was forced to be here, and you've got bigger things to worry about."

I called my staff from my ring, gripping it tightly as I triggered Abomination Engine, letting myself start to build power. Nothing impressive until I started fighting, but the cascading energy inside my armor began the process. Millie smirked at me. "Well, aren't you the confident one. But I have you surrounded, how exactly do you think she's going to le-"

Triggering Mephisto's Waltz, I blasted myself past her, right at the circle of waiting minions, my staff horizontal and acting as a bar as I smashed into them at top speed. The staff and my own momentum knocked them all flying, leaving a large gap in the circle. Bella bolted at top speed, vanishing into a haze of red mist, and I turned back to Millie.

"Now. I need some information, and you have it. So you can give it to me, or I can take it." I felt the power rioting inside me as I rumbled my demand. Shane would have been more circumspect, asked more questions. But Mephistopheles was a being of force and violence. This was far more his style.

She scowled as she took in the crumpled forms of her people, writhing on the ground. My staff was imbued with the dark corruption of my overlapping forms, and it had seeped into them on impact. While there were plenty of top level D-rankers here, I'd hit some of the weaker subordinates to make a point, and the corruption had seeped in and was burning away at them.

"You've just made a grave mistake, boy." Said Millie coldly as she stood. "I don't know who you think you are, but this is MY place. No one comes in here and hurts my people without paying a price for it. The only information I plan to impart to you is the exact process by which you can die in the most pain."

My Danger Sense went off when she was mid sentence, and I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind the back of the guy on the opposite side of the circle as two nearby people assaulted my illusionary double.

My fist lashed out with an explosion of black flame, stoking the Annihilation Engine just a bit as I blasted one of her helpers. Still, that wasn't going to be enough. I needed to put them all down as economically as possible.

I grinned as I reached into myself and called forth Limbo, the world rippling as the space around me filled with divinations of possible futures and responses to those attacks. I brought my staff up, readying to start the battle, and glared at Millie, who had whirled to spot my attack when I made it.

"One last chance." I boomed. "I don't plan to harm him. Give me the information and this doesn't need to get violent." I knew she wouldn't take the offer, she couldn't let this provocation go, but some part of me felt the need to make it fair. I'd come in here spoiling for a fight, I might be Mephistopheles, but I was still Shane too. I needed to at least offer her an out. Sure enough, she howled at her minions to attack, and they all converged. Which was fine by me. Now the fun could start.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Limbo was a fundamentally different place when I was up against so many fighters. In my last battle (if you could even call it that) against the Minotaur, I'd simply destroyed every possible timeline, whittling away his options until he had no choice but to walk headfirst to his destruction.

This time, things were a bit more complicated. I could still see the timelines, but I was running into a new issue. While I could destroy a series of events to ensure one came to pass, I couldn't find one where everything went perfectly. With this many attackers, the longer I went on, the more compromises I needed to make to keep up.

But that was fine. I had my Abomination Engine active, and as I exploded forward into my Waltz, the power inside me roared to life, stoked higher and higher by each blast as the energy cascaded around inside my armor.

Deciding to worry about potential sacrifices later, I focused on doing the most damage possible in the shortest time. I found that future, blasting toward a specific spot in the circle. I appeared in front of an innocuous random minion, slamming my staff into his foot, releasing an explosion that lifted him off his feet. My staff came up, slamming into his side and imbuing him with my corrosion as I whirled and tossed him into the crowd forming as they converged.

Stepping two feet left, I slammed my staff back, grinning as it met the kneecap of one of the faster minions, the blast of black flame taking out the leg as I hopped up and blasted off the shoulder of another as they fell, launching myself at a group of them.

Deciding to cheat JUST a little I used my bond with Callie to retain Mornax in the air, using her planted feet to offset the requirement for my ultimate defense, and then the dance began.

My staff whirled and smashed, batting aside bodies and blasting attackers away. For the first few minutes I avoided all the responses, my body filling with power as Abomination Engine roared to life inside me.

Four minutes in, the numbers caught up to me. I felt a spike of red energy slam into the joints between my plate mail, skewering my shoulder.

Even Mornax couldn't stop it, some kind of layered energy attack with a piercing attribute. It had been intentional. Tanking that hit would save me from being impaled through the spine in five minutes. The next hit I had to take cracked a bone, then a sprain, slowly I was worn down, but it didn't matter. Their numbers fell one by one as I danced, destroying them, getting stronger and stronger.

Until my Limbo hit something new. I lashed out to destroy a possible timeline, pushing the battle toward my perfect victory…and my staff slammed to a halt. I stumbled backward, eyes wide as I realize I'd been knocked OUT of my pseudo Domain.

A man stood in front of me, looking solemn, with plain brown hair and brown eyes, holding a ragged looking metal blade. The edges were chipped and torn, and his clothes were dirty and matted with blood. Millie was standing off to the side, glaring at me, and she turned and spat at him. "Took you long enough, Bount."

I realized quickly what he was, and why I'd lost my domain access. C-ranker. Not a strong one, or he wouldn't have been here working for her, but still, even a beginner C-ranker had too much Impact for my domain to effect.

My body was already moving before I made the decision to attack, Abomination Engine still pumping me up to absurd levels of power. My staff crashed against his blade, sparks flying up as I forced him back a step, my staff blurring as it became an ocean of crashing wood and metal, raining down on him like a dark hurricane.

Explosions of corrosion erupted at the point of Impact, and his blade batted them aside, slowly being tainted by the energy, but too slowly. His Might stat was lower than expected, or mine was so absurdly inflated it bridged the gap, but I suspected the former.

Bount, as she'd called him, was a bare minimum C-ranker, and I was pumped up with energy to the limits of my nearly unbreachable reinforcement form, but even so, without my armor I'd have died right there. His blade lashed out, seeking gaps in my assault, and scraped off C-ranked plate as he took the openings he could.

He stared me down, and I clenched my staff. My wounds were gone, I'd used the weapon to pass them to my enemies as I'd walked among them, cutting them down like firewood, but Abomination Engine was reaching its cap. I didn't have a way to take out a C-ranker yet.

So I did what any reasonable person would do in that situation. I bluffed. Lowering my staff, I put away the weapon, turning to Millie. "This is pointless. Are you really going to waste a C-ranker taking out some random person you've never heard of? What is it going to do to your business if you lose him?"

I figured that her grip on the section of Rackham's underworld that she currently held had a lot to do with this guy, and that he was an asset she couldn't afford to lose. She stopped, looking at me suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" Her voice was cautious, which made sense. From her point of view, I was able to punch up a rank. She, much like her people at the door, couldn't see where I was in D-rank. The ability to hang with him meant I was probably peak of D, and fighting up against him was clearly possible.

I sighed, shaking my head. "You can see from my armor I'm not lacking in funds. I HAVE weapons to dispose of your guard. But wasting them on someone at the very bottom of the C-rank would pain me. You'd lose, I'd lose, there's no point."
I dropped Abomination Engine, letting the power drain from my body. It was a risk, but honestly not a huge one. I was GOING to lose this fight if it kept going. I didn't have the power to kill him yet. By dropping my technique like I was so confident it didn't matter, I gave myself a better chance of selling this.

"So what, you want me to give you my nephew's location to save a hassle?" She said hostilely. "That kind of cowardice would ruin me.." The fact that we were still talking told me they weren't hard limits, but that was fine. By giving me a problem to solve before we did business, she was showing me the path forward.

"What if you didn't give it to me?" I asked bluntly. "What if I bought it? You're a businesswoman. I have no intention of harming your nephew, but I know how things work."

She paused, clearly thinking. Looking at Bount, she glanced at his sword, then at the armor where it had barely left scratches. I said a silent thank you to my grandmother, because this shit was WAY too high level for me, and it made me seem way more powerful and influential than I actually was.

"Make your offer." She said after a moment, nodding to her C-ranker. He lowered his blade and I let myself relax marginally. I'd played this as well as I could have, given the information I had on this place. No D-rankers I'd seen were threats, and this guy had shown up later. Sadly, my divination apparently didn't even WORK on him, because I hadn't seen him among the futures I'd destroyed. Something to take note of for later.

It was a stark reminder that there were threats here that I had no way to counter. I was walking the line that other Ascendants had to walk, daring vs. stupidity. No Zeke here to bail me out, and if anyone on the Acheron stepped in I'd forfeit my shot at pulling this off.

That said, if I shied away from conflict and backed off at any inconvenience I'd never advance either. Reaching into my ring, I withdrew a small bag of D-rank chits. Tossing it over, I waited for her to check them. Fifteen. Not too much, not too little. Enough that she could save face, since it was nominally paying for the location of one relatively unknown D-ranker.

"Fine." She said eventually, storing the bag. "Since you avoided killing most of my people." She glanced around at the broken bodies, mostly still breathing. The corrosion had countered their Vitality, but it was hard to kill a D-ranker, especially with so little time to focus. I was disabling them, but most of them were fine.

Not all, I saw a few bodies here and there, people who took a blow to the head or spine that hadn't managed to survive. Small numbers compared to the total though. It was staggering, this casino had as many D-rankers as my entire home planet. I was just lucky they were all pretty unimpressive. I guess if they weren't they would be working for someone stronger than Millie.

Still, I was proud of what I'd just done. I could push back a relatively week C-ranker, and my attacks had been fast and hard enough to convince him I'd be able to actually fight him, even if I knew that was VERY untrue. It made me believe I would have a chance against ACTUAL peak D-rankers soon. At least under the ideal circumstances that they let me ramp up fighting dozens of disposable goons first.

Millie passed me a small piece of paper with direction to a town and an address. The town was apparently so small it didn't have a name. She seemed less upset than I'd expected about having to cave though. Maybe it really had been all about her reputation.

Belladonna was staring at me with a weird glitter in her eyes, like she just found her new personal hero, and as I left, she trailed behind me peppering me with questions. "That was AMAZING! What was that? Can you do it any time? What was that stuff that was exploding? Why did it feel like everything changed around us for a while? Can you teach me?"

"That was a pseudo Domain, yes, corrosive energy, domain stuff, and no." I replied in order. "And why are you following me. You accomplished your promise. I appreciate your assistance and your friends are safe."

"But I don't want to LEAVE!" She gushed. "That was amazing, you're the toughest person I've ever seen!"

I shrugged. "Statistically that says more about you than it does me. Plenty of people on this planet are stronger than I am. Not even just C or B-rankers, but other D-rankers higher up into mastery.

She shook her head stubbornly. "No WAY. You're awesome. I want to learn from you. Teach me!"

I blinked at her. "Teach you what exactly? How to use a staff? Techniques? Do you even have a Path yet? Plus your ability is obviously completely different than mine. What am I supposed to be teaching you."

She stopped, putting her fists together and bowing. "Anything you wish, master. Your humble disciple is eager to learn."

"That's…what? Don't do that." I was appalled. I didn't need a fucking APPRENTICE here. That was crazy. Especially one who was already a D-ranker. I mean I guess I could train her in techniques but- NO. I wasn't considering this. That was ridiculous. "I'm not your master. I'm not training you."

I turned and strode off in the direction the paper indicated, and Bella jogged after me. "Wait, did the training already start? Is THIS training? Like if I give up I was never worthy in the first place? Master? Is answering me making things too easy? Stop moving so fast, my legs are so short compared to yours!"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bella was still following me. In my head, Callie was howling with laughter over my new 'apprentice'. I thought it was much less funny, but I didn't dignify her mockery with a response, opting to take the high road (which is much less effective when the person can FEEL how much they're annoying you). Still, I wasn't willing to beat her up or anything to get her to leave, so I'd had to get used to her incessant questions.

"Your armor is so cool, should I get armor too? Should I start wearing all black? Or using a staff? Maybe a really big mace. Oh, should I change my name? But Belladonna is already a pretty cool name, maybe I should change my last name. What about "Nightshade"? Or is that redundant?" She chattered happily as she trailed behind me, until finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

I whirled on her. "Fine!" I snapped. "You can be my apprentice. I will teach you my ways. First lesson, we are people of mystery, and we let the silence speak for us. Practice looming menacingly, and more importantly QUIETLY as we walk."

She squealed in excitement, bouncing up and down. "Yay! That's so exciting! And you're so right, silence can be so intimidating, like you've been silent this whole time and you're super menacing and now that I know I should be silent I can totally practice that too and I'm gonna be so good at it, I'm gonna be the most silent silent person to ever silence and everyone will see me and be like wow she's so quiet-"

I slammed all my attention into my Focus, blocking out the sound as my new apprentice fell into one of the longest run on sentences of all time without a breath as she completely ignored my instructions.

My wife's smugness and amusement radiated over the bond, but I did NOT contact her directly. I didn't need to hear her gloat about how hilarious it was that as both a teacher and a student I was absolutely miserable in the instructor disciple dynamic. I understood Abel's sadism a little better now, even if I was sure I'd never been this annoying.

We came to a stop on the edge of a towering cliff, overlooking a small valley. The valley in question (more of a divot really) was set far up into the mountains, and could only really be seen from directly above. Bella whistled in amazement as she stared down at it. "Wow, I didn't know this was here."

"Pretty much no one does, from what I can tell." I admitted. "It doesn't even have a name. The locals just call it 'town' when they refer to it at all. I doubt I'd have ever found this place without directions."

Which made me wonder, had my fate pushed me along the path that had led to me being ambushed by Bella and co? Without them, I wouldn't have found Millie so quickly. Granted, I was pretty sure, given how close to Chester's hometown she had been, I'd have found her eventually. My research had definitely paid off in that department, even if I'd also kind of tripped over the answer. Better to be lucky than good, but being both was obviously better than either.

"So, do we go down and look for him now?" She asked excitedly. "I bet you'll find him in like…five minutes."

I laughed. "He has a Path dedicated to Stealth. Finding him won't be quite that easy." Unfortunately, busting out Bael right now would be a difficult thing to explain away, given my established powerset. Using it to hide a conversation was fine, but a long term usage dedicated to finding someone in hiding would draw far too much attention.

Eye of Revelation, however, would be fine. I could pass it off as a side effect of my mask, which was pretty eye catching on its own after the changes. I told Bella I'd be using it before I triggered my observations Skill, scanning the cliffside for traps out of habit before I descended to look for the man in question.

I paused. There were…several traps on this cliff. That was odd. Maybe Chester HAD prepared for company. They looked kind of old, to be fair, so he wasn't expecting me specifically. I glanced over them, then turned to Bella. "Second lesson, landing." I grabbed her by the back of her coat and tossed her off the cliff.

While that might SEEM harsh, Bella's ability was escape, which lent itself to landing just fine. I'd thrown her over the traps, and she managed to adjust in midair, landing perfectly safely (if somewhat disheveled and put out) in a small field at the bottom of the cliff.

Double Trouble put me right behind her, and I was in time to hear her cursing me under her breath as she stared up at the illusionary copy of me on the cliff face. "Sorry." I said calmly. "I didn't catch that. What did you say about my mother?"

She jumped out of her skin, whirling to stare at me, then spinning back to note the now vanished illusion. "Master!" She squeaked in terror. "How? When? It's so nice to SEE you! What a stylish and well executed descent. I was just saying your mother must be an amazing person to have given birth to such a suave and debonair master of the arts of…mountainclimbing."

"You should work on your lying." I informed her. "You're terrible at it. That's a character flaw. Lying is important. Now, what did you learn from that experience?"

She paused. "That…I need to be ready for the unexpected? Because danger could happen at any time? Was that what you were trying to teach me?"

I shrugged. "Oh I wasn't trying to teach you anything. I just needed you down here so I could teleport. Being able to learn from any experience is certainly important though. Good for you." I patted her on the head, ignoring the expression of horrified disbelief as I moved on. I definitely DIDN'T grin under my mask at a petty victory to pay back her incessant babbling.
To my shock, her sulking actually made her stop talking for a minute, and I peeled my eyes for any sign of…anything. I had the image of Chester in my scroll, but I'd never seen him. Still, upon searching the town as best as I could for anyone currently outside I didn't see him, or any sign of secret buildings or anything.

Resigning myself to asking around, I decided to take a horrible risk. I asked Bella a question. "So, what's your Path?" I realized earlier we were D-rankers, so both of us had to have Paths. I'd questioned if she had one earlier, but that had been stupid. She had to have a Path.

Her eyes brightened, her previous annoyance blown away in a storm of exuberance as she answered me quickly. "Oh, I'm on the Path of Escape! I decided to double down on my ability, that way I'd be super good at getting away. What's your Path? It must be really strong for you to be able to do all the stuff you can do."

DS Mastery might be a unique Skill, but Doom Sovereign itself was a very common game, especially in cult territory. Still, the less links between me and Solomon the better. "It's complicated." I said, brushing her off. "Has to do with my father's infernal heritage. I won't be teaching you my Path anyway. I'm going to teach you my staff art."

That was something of an experiment. Theoretically, if she could practice my staff art she could learn how to use my forms. Eventually. I'd have to teach her the stances first, but the forms themselves WERE fully functional skills constructed with proper Skill construction. I should be able to teach them the same as any other Skill. My Skill was Unique, but part of the reason those were so hard to create was because you were blazing a trail no one had taken before.

If nothing else, this little experiment would help me learn more about Skill construction and legacies, which should be valuable when perfecting Skills before S-rank. Seeing how Skills (even unique Skills) could be learned and passed down should help me better understand the way bloodlines worked.

There was a small chance I couldn't teach her, but I hadn't ever been told Unique Skills couldn't be learned, just that they often stalled out early because of the difficulty of development. Of course, from a Skill construction standpoint, I knew that most likely, the people making those Skills constructed them badly because they went in blind, and didn't have the soul strength to hold it all together through the bad engineering.

Mashing Skills together like I had been, or trying to invent new ones from scratch, was undoubtedly way harder without the ability to see and study the way Skills were put together. It made me damned glad for that book I'd gotten.

We walked through town, Bella going on about her Escape Path, and me looking for any sign of our target. Finally, we came to the place I was most likely to hear something, the tavern. We stepped inside and sure enough, all conversation cut off. I strolled over to the bar, dropping a pair of E-ranked chits and asking for a drink and a meal. As the barman scurried off to make the food, a woman emerged from the back. "Haven't seen you around here." She said blandly as she let both hands slip under the bar.

"Haven't been here." I answered, my demonic voice putting all of them on edge instantly. "Just here looking for a friend. Chester Baddington." The woman was older, maybe mid forties, and definitely an Ascendant, though only E-rank.

She glanced around. "Well, do you see him? I ain't seen anybody like that around, how about you Lyle?" Her icy blue eyes flicked to the man seated at the bar. She ran a hand through her thick black hair, showing the streaks of grey at the temples.

Lyle the bar fly, an older man who looked fifty and was probably MUCH older given his D-rank cultivation, just shrugged. "Doesn't sound familiar."

"There." She said triumphantly. "Doesn't sound familiar. And Lyle would know. If he's not here and Lyle don't know him he's probably not anywhere in town." She very carefully did NOT look at the table in the middle of the room, the one with a trapped door under it that I could see with Eye of Revelation.

I shrugged. "Maybe not. Maybe I'll just eat my meal and go."

She relaxed a bit…and then my apprentice decided to speak. "But master, Bad Millie told us he was here, if she lied we have to go back right? I don't want to go back, that big fight with all those guys was super scary, even if I wasn't fighting myself. I bet he's here and they're just lying about it!"

I closed my eyes, sighing in resignation as every person in the bar tensed up. I turned to look at Bella. "We need to have another discussion about the benefits of silence." I said tiredly. And then I moved, pushing her out of the way of the jagged knife Lyle had drawn from his sleeve and tried to open my throat with.

My fist lashed out, battering him off the chair with an explosion of black flame as I got in front of Bella, making sure Mornax was active.

"Look." I said bluntly. "I'm here for Chester Baddington, and I think we all know he's in your basement. Why don't you hand him over and this doesn't need to get ugly. Because you're not going to win if this turns into a fight."

I felt my Danger Sense scream and triggered Double Trouble on reflex, only for Lyle's knife to bisect not just my copy, but the fucking WALL behind it. I grimaced as I watched him cut the building in half on one side. That had been a technique, and a pretty nasty one too. Great.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"That was rude." I said dryly as I stared at the bisected wall. "I just came here looking for someone and you try to cut me in half. That's objectively bad manners. Don't you people have hospitality here?"

Lyle grinned at me. "Sure, I can put you in the hospital right quick, just stand still."

His arm blurred, but my Danger Sense warned me. I leaned to the side, the slash missing me and cutting into the wall behind me at another angle. Bella had backed up, giving the fight some room, and Lyle started to circle, drifting closer to the hidden door in the floor.

Once Bella was clear, i triggered double trouble, appearing behind Lyle, staff smashing down toward his collarbone.

Despite me lead, he spun on his heel and sort of…blinked. Like he skipped part of the motion. I had Mornax active, which was good, because that fucker had aimed at my throat, and the blade clashed off my neck in a shower of sparks. I grabbed him by the collar as he stumbled back, and then punched him in the face with the fist still wrapped around my staff.

Howling in pain, he lashed out again with his knife, and again he blinked. I was expecting it this time, triggering Double Trouble and vanishing as he tried to jam his knife into the joints of the illusionary armor.

I rubbed my neck in annoyance. He'd fucking CUT me. Not deeply, it had mostly bounced off, but there was a scratch.

Solid Path, at least. And that technique was GOOD. He'd spent time on it. Refined it. "You were cutting through the space." I said bluntly as he whirled. He'd already realized the illusion wasn't me and started looking, so I didn't try to be sneaky. "That's how you moved so fast."

He was starting to look concerned. Which was fair, I'd be concerned too. He was very obviously an incredibly dangerous person, and was probably used to killing his enemies in a strike. Priding yourself on cutting power and having your knife bounce off a guy's neck was probably a pretty unsettling experience.

His eyes narrowed as he adjusted his grip on his knife. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't taking Chess."

I adjusted my own grip, activating Limbo and Abomination Engine as I prepared to attack. Before I could though, a sigh echoed through the room. "Enough, Lyle." Rang a voice from the surrounding area, everywhere and nowhere at once. There was a ripple and the hatch I'd seen became suddenly visible, pushed open as a lanky blonde guy climbed up out of it.

"Chester Baddington I assume." I said mildly. Or as mildly as you can when you sound like a demonic bass drum.
"Friends and terrifying armored harbingers of doom call me Chess." He said, smiling winningly. "Especially ones with such lovely company." He winked at Bella, who glared back in a way that I suspect was supposed to be intimidating, but mostly just made her look like an annoyed kitten who'd just been dunked in a sink.

My apprentice must have realized her wrathful glower wasn't doing the job because she switched to a sneer before saying. "I'm Belladonna Darrow. Apprentice of Mephistopheles, the kingbreaker, avatar of destruction, ender of worlds, and sewer of…mean endings." She petered off a bit at the end, and I sighed.

"Bella, please don't make up titles. I haven't broken any kings…" I trailed off, thinking back to the Glade, I hadn't really broken Anna-Maria's father. "In any case, I'm here for the selection, and I've been given the task of tracking you down. Once I've accomplished my mission I can be on my way." I took out the scroll. I'd double checked the actual confirmation process and it was pretty simple. "I just need you to let me tie you up and slap you in the face with this paper."

He paused. "Well, that's…direct. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to respond to that request."

I considered doing something ominous or threatening like telling him it wasn't a request, but…he seemed to be considering it. I had no reason to burn bridges without trying to cross the damned things first. "Can we sit down." I gestured to the bar. "I just paid for food and I'd like to eat it, if possible."

"Of course." He said seriously. " Heloise?" He called to the woman behind the bar. "Be a dear and fetch us my rocking chair."

That seemed like an odd seating choice to me, but I wasn't going to tell him how to sit. So when the woman left and came back with a heavy chair made of dark stone and studded with gems, I was surprised when it had four legs. "That's…not a rocking chair." I pointed out.

He shook his head. "You misheard, I said Rock King Chair. It's made from the bones of a rock king. I stole it from some Imperial Viscount passing through here a few years ago. Shockingly comfortable for a chair made of stone." He plopped down in the chair, holding out a hand as Heloise deposited a bejewled goblet of…probably wine?

Taking a sip, he hummed in bliss. "An excellent vintage, thank you." He gestured for us to sit, and our dinner was served, along with glasses of the same wine, at least based on the smell. I wasn't a wine guy but I tried a sip. It was actually pretty good.

"So." Said Chester as he swirled his wine. "What are you offering?"

I cocked my head. "Offering?" I said. "For what?"

"For my help." He said cheerfully. "You need me to agree to help you, or else this becomes a big mess, and sure, you might win, but you'd waste so much time and energy. It'd be so much easier just to pay me for my trouble, don't you think?"

Raising a brow, I considered the man. "You're trying to extort me?" I asked lazily. I let Limbo leak out, specifically the form of it with the mist bank. Moonlit Night's obscuring fog filled the room slowly, climbing from our feet and slowly creeping up our legs.

"Whoa!" He said, his face paling as he backpedaled. He clearly had decent instincts, since he recognized my domain for, if not what it was, at least a threat, just at a glance. "I was just saying that this is an inconvenience for me. A bit of compensation isn't out of line, is it?"

I stared at him murderously for a minute, letting the silence build…before nodding. "Fine." I said. "You want money? Because I doubt I have enough on me to catch your attention."

"Not at all." He said smoothly. "Just a favor. You seem like a civilized…product of my nightmares. I'm sure you'll honor a deal later on, and I have a good feeling about you. Plus your armor is stupidly well made. That's some bespoke shit right there. Anyone who can afford that is the kind of person I could stand to have owe me a favor."

I relaxed a bit. "I suppose that's not too much to ask." I admitted. "I'm asking you for a favor, after all. Very well." I held out a hand. "We will shake on it. Or do you require a contract?"

Glancing nervously at the fog still swirling at our feet, he gave an anxious laugh. "Not at all. I trust you." He took my hand and we shook, sealing the deal.

"Great!" Said Bella enthusiastically. "I can tie him up. Being a former elite bandit leader, I know how to subdue a target." A coil of rope appeared in her hands. "Lay down on the ground, and I'll show you all how a master criminal takes down her prey."

Raising an eyebrow, the thief laid down, and Bella knelt in front of him. "Now, observe, master!" She raised the rope…and then stopped. "Wait…through the loop, and then under." She paused. "Put your hands out." Smirking, Chester did so. "Alright, so I'm supposed to loop it back twice, and then fold over…wait, no that's not right. Two folds? Yes!" She wrapped him in a complex web of rope and knots before proudly holding up one end. "And now all I do is pull this and…"

Yanking the rope, I watched the hope die in her eyes as the web of restrictions disintegrated like sugar under a waterfall. Chester tried not to laugh, I really believe that, but he couldn't help it, and my apprentice slumped to the ground, broken and defeated as she held a pile of loose rope on her lap.

I sighed, took the rope, stood the thief up, and then wrapped the rope around him from top to bottom, tying the two ends in a simple double knot. "There." I said with an eye roll. "Now I just have to slap him with the scroll." She opened her mouth but I cut her off. "No. I have to do it. Sorry."

Sulking, she went back to her slump as I withdrew my scroll. "Hey, is that a unicorn?" I looked up over Chester's shoulder. Confused by the sudden change in topic, he looked up…and I slapped him clean in the face with the scroll. It glowed briefly, and then the image of him dissolved in a flash of red light, the ink rearranging itself into directions.

"Alright." I said with a nod. "Now we're done." Chester grinned, and with a slight flourish, the rope fell into pieces.

"Sorry about your rope." He told Bella a bit smugly. "I'll buy you a new one."

She stared at it, apparently devastated. "My mother gave me that rope before she died. It was woven from strands of her hair."

Chester looked horrified. "Gods, really?"

She grinned. "No, I bought it at a store. Honestly. Serves you right for laughing at me earlier though." She stuck out her tongue at him, and he gave her a rueful smile, but nodded, conceding the point to her.

We all sat back down, digging back into our food, which had lain forgotten after we dealt with the business at hand.

It was pretty damned tasty, and the wine was still pretty good, especially paired with the food. "So." Said Chester as he flirted shamelessly with my apprentice. "I don't suppose you'd have need of a wily handsome rogue on your team for the rest of this selection? I could probably be convinced to help for another favor."

Despite my amusement at his transparent attempt to get closer to Bella…I didn't immediately turn him down. Two people wasn't much of a team, and neither of them were part of the selection, so it wasn't a conflict of interests to get help from them, even if they might try my patience a bit at times.

"Fine." I said after a brief pause. "We'd like your help. Of course, we don't know what the future tasks will be." The Delthrys line of tasks was open to me since I passed this one. I could just drop out now that I'd finished the first, but what if Felicity's tasks were beyond me. It seemed stupid to pass up a possible in with a god who might KNOW where the world I was looking for was.

So I'd take the next Delthrys meeting, see what they had to say. If the next task wasn't too crazy I could do it while I waited for my proper task line to start up. I was sure I'd find SOME use for the favor of a god.

With that settled, I sat back and enjoyed my meal, letting my apprentice and our new partner bicker about whatever it was they were talking about. I had to admit, the nonsense chattering reminded me quite a bit of being home, bickering with Benny while Callie rolled her eyes at our antics. It wasn't a bad ambiance to eat a meal to. Maybe letting him come along wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The trip back to the inn I was staying at was surprisingly long. Not necessarily because of actual time spent, but because the bickering between Bell and Chester had gone from charming to unbearable fairly quickly. I'd retreated into my Focus as best as I could, but I needed SOME Perception active so I didn't trip and roll down a hill or something. I didn't want to trip and break my neck…at first.

When we finally arrived, I had them pay for their own rooms and went up to mine. I had barely gotten through the door when the shadows across my bed rose up into a familiar form, cackling her heart out.

"Your FACE!" Crowed my wife. "I couldn't even see it, but I could HEAR your expression when she bullied you into being her master."

I glared at her as she dissolved in near sobs of laughter. "It's not THAT funny." I grumped. "You could try being a bit more sympathetic you know. She's going to massively complicate this entire-"

"Suicide mission?" She said, her laughter cutting off. "Shane. Darling. Light of my life. I get that you're trying to be all serious and focused here, but you're overdoing it."

I snorted. "I'm not trying to-" I cut off, thinking over my new 'persona'. She…might be right. I might have picked this personality because it was hyperfocused on my goals. "Well, so what. This is a serious job. I can't afford to screw around. Lives are on the line."

"Lives are ALWAYS on the line." She retorted. "That's the world we live in. Black Sorrow isn't the first god to consider killing you. We live with danger every day, and if you don't take CARE of yourself, you're going to burn out and get murdered making a stupid mistake that could have been avoided. You're a charismatic and energetic leader, babe, but this dark avenger bullshit isn't you."

Which was fair. I'd never wanted it to be. This had been supposed to be a role I was playing, a way to separate myself from who I normally was…but that was the rub, wasn't it. I had taken it too far. I missed my friends, missed my wife, missed my family, and I'd decided to HIDE in Mephistopheles.

I considered what Abel had told me so long ago. About how he just had to be true to himself and screw the rest of the world. Zeke had told me something similar about rolling with the punches.

Wearing a mask was fine, but letting it wear me was going to get me killed.

"How the hell could you tell from all the way across the galaxy?" I asked her sheepishly, removing my ACTUAL mask. "I didn't even realize it was happening and I'm right here. You're making me look bad."

She sniffed loftily. "I'm your wife. I know you better than anyone. But I had some clues. For one, I did something similar when we first came to Rajak. Trying to be perfect all the time and never taking a minute to process. Not the same situation, granted, but you need to stop hiding behind this new persona."

"You think taking an apprentice will help?" I asked incredulously.

"I can feel your emotions, darling." She laughed. "It already has. She reminds you of Jessie. Benny may be your best friend, and I may be your wife, but Jessie was always the person who believed in you most out of all of us. Having someone like that around is good for you. You're not built to be alone."

Sighing, I conceded the point. I could do solitude, like I'd discovered in the temple, but…why would I want to. Just being able to endure something didn't make it positive. I had the strength to be an island, did that mean I should be?

Obviously not. I might not be pure support like most of my family, but I worked better with a team.

"So I should trust them?" I said with a frown. "Because that seems reckless."

She rolled her eyes. "Contrary to your experience, most people's alliance options aren't 'nothing' and 'friend you would trust with your life'. Trust, but verify. I know you've been with close friends since pretty much day one, but sometimes you need to work with people you don't implicitly trust with your life."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you." I sulked. "Getting to play the wise mentor again."

She smirked at me. "Comment on my 'wisdom' much more and you aren't going to touch me for the next decade. But yes, I have to admit, this is…kind of cool. You needed so much help when we started, and then before I knew it you caught up even surpassed me a few times. I miss you needing my advice."

"I'll always need your advice." I smiled softly. "I'm hopeless without you."

"You'd better not be." She laughed. "You're alone on a hostile alien planet doing a series of trials to serve a dark goddess."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm trying to be romantic. Must you ruin all my moments?"

"Considering you'd better only be having moments with me, I think I must." She giggled. "If I find out you're having moments I'm not ruining I'm going to be pretty upset. But I miss you too. Training isn't the same without you. Waking up alone makes everything seem so much emptier." Her shadowy hand took mine and squeezed, and I returned the gesture. I knew just what she meant.

"Speaking of training." I said, changing the subject forcefully. "How is yours? Any new techniques since we talked last?" We communicated at least once a day, but we hadn't talked about training in a little while.

She lit up (which was a weird phrase to describe a concrete shadow being). "Oh, I HAVE been working on something. I can tell you about it, since sharing the story will help reinforce it. I'm calling it…the Anti-Nova." I'd never been more in love with her than when she paused to announce the name of her technique with so much gravitas.

"Interesting." I said slowly. "Show your work."

"Well, supernovas are the explosions from a collapsing star. An Anti-Nova is what happens when an Anti-Star explodes. I'd been working on the Abyss thing with your mom and grandma, and I realized that just because I have an inverted image and theme, doesn't mean i can't use their star based techniques. Not just the shape, like you do, but also the form."

I hummed in interest, flopping down on the bed next to her shadowy form. "So you made like a dark star. How does that work?"

"It burns in an inverted universe." She proclaimed seriously. "The dark fire burns with the cold chill of the abyss, and when the dark star goes supernova, that chill expands, consuming the universe in concentrated heat-death. It's solid entropy, the flames from the end of creation, and one day, it will take us all."

Snorting, I grinned at her macabre enthusiasm. "A bit melodramatic, but still interesting. I wish I could use it. Sadly we both know it doesn't work that way, so I'll have to wait until I see you again."

We'd realized early on after our rank up, that while Callie could use my forms, and even the techniques from those forms, I couldn't do the same. Basically, because my Path was a part of my through my second ability, it was within reach of the bond as a Skill. Callie's illusory Path was still separate from her soul, having not gone through the same condensing that mine had when it had become Solid and then part of my ability.

She snickered. "Poor you. I tried using that new technique of yours and almost blew my chest apart. How the hell do you stand it?"

"Mornax, mostly." I admitted. "It's enough to help my body hold up under the enhancement. Also your Might is a lot higher than mine, so there's a higher requirement for durability. You can do two at a time, right? Try using Mephistopheles and Mornax together."

She shook her head. "Two is hard and I can barely hold it, much less do a technique. I can use your forms, but they're not really mine. That combo I used on the Wendigo was the best I've got for the moment. Maybe when the bond hits Master."

"Which might be years at this rate." I seethed. "It's impossible to progress it when we barely see each other. I mean, we use it all the time, but I don't feel like it's getting any stronger."

Her shadowy hand reached up to lay on my cheek. "Peace, love. I know its hard to be so far apart, especially just after our wedding, but we have thousands of years together, or more. A little patience will help put things in perspective. We're already growing faster than anyone has a right to expect."

"But is it enough?" I asked with a sigh. "The candidate competition is coming in less than a year. Do you know how SCREWED we are if we're not strong enough? There will be actual A and B-rankers."

She shook her head. "Not really." She corrected. "I mean, some probably, but only a few. Don't forget, you're not the only one who was expecting this to go on longer. They moved it up because of the war, but that means everyone else is losing just as much time. Your mom says most of the strongest are C-rank, with a FEW B-s as outliers. Not to mention this is a faction building competition. You have some serious power players on your team. Especially if you get this done and your mom can actively support you."

That was one thing that made me feel a bit better. I did have some built in support from my mom's side of the family. Grandpa and grandma would help (not directly obviously, I wasn't even sure we COULD bring an S-ranker to the inheritance competition) but they had access to quite a few A-rankers at the church, which would bridge the gap between me and some of the more powerful candidates.

Hearing that there wouldn't be a bunch of A-rank wishmaster candidates running around helped too. I probably should have discussed this with mom, but I hadn't exactly been flush with time before leaving.

"Tell her I said I love her." I told my wife. "Chelsea too. I miss them. It's weird, I spent so much of my life without them, but having them around for just a short time they became such a big part of my world. I guess that's family for you. Anyway, you'd better go. I need to try to get some sleep before Echelon wakes me up dramatically in the middle of the night."

She giggled at my sulky tone, then leaned up and gave me a soft kiss. "Sweet dreams." She said as she leaned against me and dissolved. I sent the same sentiment back over the bond and rolled out of bed, dragging off my giant set of plate armor. I put my mask back on before i went to sleep though, just so my face was covered.

I woke in the middle of the night to a rapping on my door. Groaning, I got up, stretched, and took the time to re-armor before I walked to the door and pulled it open.

"You are requested." Said Echelon in that raspy creepy voice. He dissolved into feathers again, and I rolled my eyes, walking down the hall and banging on Bella's door, and then on Chester's. If they wanted to be part of this they could wake their happy asses up just like I had to.

They looked fuzzy, but excited as I led them downstairs where Echelon waited. Their first exposure to the creepy bastard seemed every bit as tense and portentous as mine had been, but I'd kind of gotten used to him. "Alright." I said after a minute. "Can you hurry this up? I want to go back to sleep." Callie had been right. No more doom and gloom personality to hide behind. I was Mephistopheles in name only. Shane Wyndham was back, and he was going to kick the asses of everyone in the selection.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Greetings." Echelon rustled. "You've completed your task." He glanced at Chester. "Perhaps even more thoroughly than expected. I take it from your presence here that you wish to continue the trials of Delthrys?"

Bella stepped in front of me. "Master, this guy is super suspicious." She whispered too loudly to even pretend to be stealthy. "And I think he might be birds."

"What does that even mean?" Chester snorted. "That's not even- nope, just used my Path to pierce his stealth. My bad, he's totally birds. Like…a lot of birds. That's objectively too many fucking birds, man."

The servant of the god of secrets sighed. "I am NOT 'birds' as you so eloquently put it."

"He's like…a thousand birds in a guy suit." Chester reiterated. "He is very clearly lying to you. Why else would he be wearing that suspicious ass cloak?"

"We're getting off track." I said tiredly. "It's fine if he's birds. I have nothing against birds. He's here to give us our next assignment. That'll keep us busy while we wait for MY trial to come up. Speaking of, when is the Lady of Lamentation's trial starting?"

Echelon cocked his head. "Next week. Though I would seriously advise against pursuing that path. Her trials are notoriously horrifying to take part in. They're made to weed out sadistic lunatics, and usually end up picking up masochistic lunatics instead. Some of whom go insane. More insane. They're unpleasant."

I'd assumed that, but it was nice to know I wasn't going to need to torture someone else, just ENDURE torture. Joy.

"Your completely unbiased opinion is noted." I said dryly. "Now how about you give me the next trial. I need something to do for the next week, assuming I don't solve your next one as quickly as the first."

That seemed to genuinely offend him. "You will NOT. The Manhunter exercise is a basic introductory lesson to get you used to the concept of secrets. It's the easiest and quickest of all the tasks you'll undertake. The god of secrets governs all things hidden."

"Actually, I was wondering about that." Said Bella curiously. "His twin brother is the god of deception, right? What's the difference?"

The cloaked head snapped around. "That question." He hissed. "Represents a fundamental lack of basic logical thinking and a complete dearth of creativity. Deception is the deliberate obfuscation of a truth. It is a base and hamfisted method of concealing that which you dare not reveal. Secrets are truths worn away by time or desperation. They are currency. They are POWER. Deception is just making shit up."
"We're getting off topic." I soothed the angry bird person. "You were going to tell us about our next task?"

He sniffed. "Yes. I suppose. Your task is simple, and yet infinitely complex. Two hundred years ago, in a town not far from here called Devule, a shopkeeper was murdered. You are to find out who murdered him, and why." I froze, and the messenger's tone turned vindictive. "What, is that too easy for you?"

It wasn't. It was the exact opposite of easy. Two centuries of time…but then, maybe it wasn't. This was a B-ranked planet, everyone here was F-rank or higher. Which meant they all had a lifespan of far beyond two hundred years. Most of the people involved were probably still around.

Still, it wasn't a walk in the park, I just nodded grudgingly. "Alright. That's kind of tough."

Managing to look smug when your whole face was a floating half mask in a pitch black hood was impressive. With that, he turned to the others. "You may receive help from your…allies. Return to this spot at midnight when you've completed your task." There was an explosion of feathers as a massive wave of ravens burst from the cloak hood, streaking from the room.

The cloud of birds split in two, one half mobbing my apprentice and the other Chester, and the two of them shrieked and batted at the animals as they cawed and pecked at them before flying out the window, which had burst open in the exodus.

Bella was panting, hair askew and body littered with little cuts. "There are feathers in my MOUTH!" She screamed at the retreating forms of the birds in the sky.

"Petty bastard." Chester muttered. Then he turned to Bella and subsequently burst out laughing.

"What?" She demanded, checking herself over for possible reasons he might be so amused. "What did I miss?"

Chester gasped, leaning against the wall to prop himself up as he cackled so violently his legs went weak. "Nothing." He wheezed. "It's just…those ravens were murder on your hair." Then he dissolved into even louder cackles. Even i chuckled a little at that, though Bella just pouted harder than I've ever seen a human pout.

"Well, that was bracing." I said with a clap of my hands. "Apparently you two have a gift for pissing off people more powerful than you."

They both just shrugged sheepishly, and I rolled my eyes. "So, being locals I don't suppose you've heard of Devule? Any sort of lead would be a good thing. Like is one of you secretly from there?"

"You know where I'm from." Reminded Chester.

"And I'm from Delthaven. It's one of the largest cities on Rackham." Said Bella brightly. "My family is kind of a big deal. I could ask around though?"

Somehow, I doubted it would be that east. Like obviously we would still do it, but based on Echelon's attitude we'd probably need to go to the actual town and interview people connected to the incident. This was obviously supposed to test our mystery solving acumen. Which I totally had. I'd found MULTIPLE serial killers. Sure, one of them had just shown up and tried to kill me, but the recursion had to count for something.

There was a crash behind us, but before I could whirl to check it out, I heard a familiar voice. "Fist?" Camethe drowsey tones of Rayden from the doorway. "What are you doing down here this late." I turned to find Ray standing blearily in the door. "Wait, were you meeting Echelon? Fuck, you totally already finished your first trial didn't you? Were you the first?"

"Doubtful." I said, annoyed the bird bastard had clearly dropped his noise suppression on the way out to be spiteful. "At least he didn't mention it. Which I'm sure he would've. Guess someone else on Rackham is a better detective than me."

Chester raised his hand like we were in childcare. "Question. Who the hell is this person?"

Ray gasped. "Who am I? Who AM I?" He paused. "Wait, I just woke up, my head is fuzzy. Hey Fist, who am I?"

"That's Rayden." I said with an eye roll I was sure they could hear in my voice. "His keepers are Desria and Cavallo, who are approaching from behind. I assume they didn't notice him slipping out of his room."

Desria snorted. "We aren't his KEEPERS. We're just responsible for watching him to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, or dangerous, or crazy, or reckless, or rude…" She trailed off. "Son of a bitch we are his keepers." She turned to her boss with a glare. "I want a raise you chaotic bastard."

"But I don't pay you." He said bluntly. "So…sure. I'll quintuple your salary."

"I can't decide if you're going to be a bad influence on them or the other way around." I said tiredly. "But I'm almost positive that letting you all meet is not going to end well. I can hear the world screaming. Also, did you break down that door on the way in?" I pointed at the entrance to the room, where the door was hanging off its hinges at an angle."

He cleared his throat. "No way. It was always like that. All the doors are."

We turned to stare at the OTHER entrance to the room, where the door was intact. Chester perked up. "I think it was cool. I want to bust a door down." He strode over and raised her foot, stomping on the wood…and immediately bounced off, falling flat on his ass. "Ow." He hissed. "Ok, clearly that door has been recently replaced with some kind of security door much tougher than the other doors."

Bella walked over and knocked on it. "Nope. This is wood. And like…old wood. There's cracks and the paint is peeling. Plus the hinges have small layers of rust on them. This door is older than my dad. And he's super old."

Chester cleared his throat as he stood. "Right. Old world craftsmanship. Like I was saying. It's clearly much older than the other doors. Those are flimsy new doors made of inferior materials. Nobody takes pride in their work anymore. Half assed doormakers and their half assed doors." He pointed at the hanging door. "Look at it. So half assed."

"Luckily you don't need to worry about that." Said Bella sweetly. "You're an entire ass."

"I like them." Decided Ray seriously. "We should keep them. And Fist too. You're now our prisoners." Desria whispered in his ear. "Wait, what? That's the wrong word? Well that doesn't sound right." He shrugged. "Alright, apparently the proper term is 'friends'." He made the quotation marks with his fingers as he said the word.

Great. It was like dealing with multiple Bethys. I wished the original Bethy was here. They'd all be so confused.

"Anyway, I take it you haven't found your target yet?" I asked Ray. "How hard could it be."

He grimaced. "My target is part of a large family, who for several generations have named all of their fairly large numbers of multiple children Russel. Even the girls are Russel. And they're all Ascendants, so theres like five generations of Russel Devingtons spread out like a damned root network. We've found two hundred and five of them so far."

"Oh that SUCKS." I laughed. " You still have the picture though, right?"

"I told you, the family has a lot of multiples." He seethed. "Like ten sets of twins. ALL identical. Half the family has the same face. We've tried five different Russels and they were all duds."

I couldn't help it. I just cracked up. I wasn't bothering with my menacing image anymore, but I imagine the demonic voiced dark knight with the horrible terrifying mask leaning against the wall howling with mirth was a weird image to take in, because everyone else in the room was just kind of staring at me blankly. When I finished, I took a deep breath. "Sorry, I needed that."

Ray sulked, but Desria was grinning at me. "Now. Why don't we get some breakfast or something." I said. "It's early as hell, but we're up anyway. I could use some grub. I'll cook again."

They perked up, and Ray threw an arm around Chester's shoulder. "You're in for a treat. Fist can cook like nobody's business. I hope he makes waffles."

"Blintzes." I called as I walked into the kitchen ahead of them. "I'm in the mood for blintzes. Haven't had them in ages. Maybe with like, a nice fruit compote." I left the stunned silence behind as I walked away, enjoying the shock. It was nice to be back to my old self.

Laughing, Ray caught up. "Guess you're not doing the brooding loner thing anymore? You seem even more different than when your persona slipped the other day. Definitely more fun."

"Am I more like…DEVILGHOST!" I sang the last word.

"No." he said bluntly. "Totally different vibe. He's kind of a weary saint. You're alright though." He winked, dragging Chester off to one side as I prepared to start cooking. Now, I just had to figure out if they had all the ingredients for blintzes. I cracked my fingers as I got to work. I did so love to lose myself in cooking. Maybe I'd have some ideas for my investigation while I worked. If only life was that convenient.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Devule was smaller than I'd expected. Ascendant cities tended to be large, but Imperial towns ignored the convention because of the Empire's taxation system. Still, this wasn't actually Empire territory, and most of the cities I'd seen had been decently sized, barring outliers like the town with no name.

In contrast, Devule was more of a hamlet than anything else, and it was surprisingly peaceful and picturesque…until we arrived.

"And I'm telling you, that bear was going to attack us ANYWAY. We trespassed on its territory, and it wasn't going to let us go regardless of what I did or didn't do." Argued Chester as he and Bell trailed behind me.

My apprentice glared at him. "You have honey on your FACE right now, as you're saying that. That basin of cave honey was in the deepest part of its lair, it was OBVIOUSLY protecting it."

"You say that." Drawled Chester. "But you had some too."

"Because you didn't TELL us where you got it!" She shouted in exasperation. "Master, can you tall this sticky fingered lunatic that he shouldn't STEAL from dangerous wild animals. There's being a thief and then there's being an idiot."

I sighed. "Chester don't steal from bears, Bella let it go. We've arrived, so you two need to calm down so we can work. Now, obviously we're heading for the local tavern to collect information, I need you two to try to blend in."

"Master, you're nearly six and a half feet tall and you're wearing a full set of C-ranked plate armor." Bella said carefully. "I feel like that ship has sailed."

She wasn't wrong. I mostly just wanted them to shut up for ten minutes. But I didn't admit that. "Bella. Am I or am I not your master?" She nodded. "Then trust that I have a reason for the assignments I give you. I need to know you can move undetected. We'll be separating. Your mission is to make conversation with the locals. I'll be acting as a distraction, so they're less likely to single you out as outsiders."

Her eyes widened in understanding. "Of COURSE." She said in an awed voice. "You're going to be using your obvious and incredibly overdramatic presence to act as a cover for us." She bowed to me deeply. "I'm so sorry master. I should never have questioned your wisdom."

"Sure." I said unconvincingly. "That's definitely what I'm doing. Wait- what do you mean overdramatic? These are just my clothes."

She was already heading for the tavern, dragging Chester behind her. "Of course master, they're every bit as eye catching and pointlessly extravagant as you had hoped! You're truly a master of subterfuge."
Then they were gone. "Next lesson." I muttered to myself. "You'll be running laps. Around the planet. On your hands."

After giving them a minute to settle in, I headed to the tavern, taking a beat before I shoved open both doors loudly. All the talking stopped (opening both doors is such a power move) and I stepped heavily into the tavern, my boots thumping on the wooden floor.

Rather than talk and ruin the mystique too early, I walked slowly to the bar, thumped down an E-ranked chit, and said. "Your finest brandy."

The bartender looked at it, then raised a brow. "Our finest brandy is eight hundred years old and brewed from the tears of an Alderian Snow Wyvern. This will buy you a thimble of it. And it won't cover the actual thimble."

"Your most one chittingest brandy." I corrected. And the man laughed, pulling out a cup and pouring a healthy measure of amber liquid into it before passing it over. "So, I haven't seen you around these parts. Just passing through?"

"Bob?" I asked in a quavering voice. "You don't remember me? It's me, Lance." My mask opened up and I tossed back the brandy, having to take a beat to keep from choking at the burn. I really didn't like alcohol. "Kidding. I know I make an impression. Yeah, I'm here to ask some questions about something that happened about two hundred years ago?"

He nodded. "The Danhalt murder." He said knowingly. I stared at him in shock. He shrugged. "This isn't a big town. Not a lot of stuff happens. Two hundred years ago would have been the eighty third year of the Eclarian Red Calender. Pretty much the only thingsof note that happened in that whole decade were the Danhalt murder and the mayor accidentally inventing a new variant of local cheddar."

"Fair enough." I laughed. "Do you happen to have any-" He rolled his eyes and pulled out a block of cheese and a knife, cutting it into slices and quickly arraying it on a plate with a selection of sturdy cheese bearing crackers. "Cheers." I said happily, passing him another E-ranked chit. "So…the murder."

The bartender, who was an E-ranker, chuckled. "Aye, I was around. Just a boy at the time, but I still remember it. I'm Kirk, by the way." He held out a hand.

"Mephistopheles." I responded, shaking it. "But you can call me Fist. Apparently its easier to say."

"Less dramatic too." He said cheerfully. "Anyone ever tell you that you might be trying a little to hard?" He waved at my armor. "Don't get me wrong, it's an intimidating image, but it seems like a lot of effort."

I groaned. "It's NOT." I argued. "It's just good armor and I'm very tall. I use it when I need it, but it's not THAT over the top." He looked skeptical. "Look, I didn't ask for fashion advice, Kirk. If I want to know how to dress like an old timey bartender I'll give you a call. Stay in your lane, buddy."

He laughed, which had been my intention, and shook his head. "Touche." He chuckled. "Anyway, the murder was big news that year. Old Ted Donahue's boy Teddy. He was closing up one night and someone came up behind him and slit his throat. Bled out right there in the shop. No trace of who did it."

"There wasn't an investigation or anything?" I said, a bit put out. "Evidence collected? Maybe some pictures of the scene."

"Devule is a small town." He said with a shrug. "The local constable is also the candlestick maker. I mean, they looked into it, asked around. I remember Teddy having a bit of a beef with the butcher's son, pardon my pun. They were both after Dana Cassidy, though she ended up marrying the baker's boy."

I latched onto the comment. "Do you think the butcher's son might have done it out of jealousy?"

"Harley?" He said with a laugh. "Harley's too lazy to get out of bed most day's. He took a job over at the bookstore a few years later. Still works there. Sleeps most of the day behind his counter. No, the constable questioned Harley, and he wasn't motivated OR skilled enough. They were all F-rank at the time, just barely strong enough to live here. There really was no obvious motive."

"And there haven't been any other murders?" I asked, desperate for some kind of clue.

He snorted. "Of course not. We have some runaways once every few years. Someone decides they can't take it and leaves, but that's nothing big. They're always pretty vocal about wanting to get out of Davule. Most don't have too many connections here, so they don't keep in touch."

That sounded kind of suspicious to me, but he seemed not to mind it, so I just filed it away. I sighed, eating a few more crackers. "Can you give me directions to the bookstore?" I asked with a sigh. "I'd like to at least talk to Harley."

Laughing, he shook his head. "You kids and your mysteries. We get a couple of you popping up every decade or two. Hear about something suspicious and try to make your bones as a detective by solving the great mystery. Not a lot of those around. Your Path something related to investigation?"

"You could say that." I said wryly. "Anyway, thanks for the info Kirk. I'll be sure to swing back by for those bartender fashion tips."

He guffawed. "You do that. I'll show you the ropes. Nothing screams 'charming and debonair' like a stained leather apron with a dirty bar rag in the pocket."

Chuckling, I turned and headed out. I didn't move right over to the bookstore, but waited outside for about a half hour. Finally, Bella and Chester came out. "Well?" I asked. "How did you do? I made a big enough ruckus to give you something to talk about."

"It was genius master!" Bella squealed. "It actually seemed like you were a total idiot who embarrassingly tried to underpay for good booze. If I didn't know you were doing it on purpose, I'd have assumed you were completely incompetent." I took a deep breath, counting to ten and promising myself to double her laps when I assigned them.

"Yes." I said blandly. "That was clearly my intention. No need to keep going on about it." I'd actually planned to play up the intimidation vibe, but since it didn't work and I'd mostly abandoned my persona, I just went with friendly and personable. I hadn't realized they'd have decent brandy, and that part hadn't been intentional, but I wasn't admitting that to my apprentice.

Bella beamed, but continued. "Anyway, we asked about the incident after you finished talking to the bartender. A few of the other patrons had a bit to say. Most of them didn't want to talk to strangers, but there was a drunk or two who felt compelled to comment on your performance. You really had them convinced you were a complete dumbass.

"Basically, they said that they weren't so sure the 'runaways' were runaways. One of them said his niece vanished. She was an orphan, but he swears she would have called or written at some point." She frowned. "The others seemed to dismiss him, but I thought it was really sad. Do you think it has to do with the secret we're looking for?"

"My gut says yes." I nodded. "I'm going to look into the bookstore. I want you to go back in and talk to the locals some more." I passed them a bag with ten E-ranked chits. "Buy some people drinks, get them to open up. Try to get dates for the disappearances, we need to see if there's any patterns besides 'people who won't be missed'."

She nodded solemnly. "You got it master. I sent word to some of my contacts, but they don't know much about this place. It's kind of off the beaten path." Chester echoed the sentiment.

"I know. I didn't have much hope for outside sources on this one." I shrugged. "I'm sure SOMEONE on this planet knows something, but I'm not interested in paying some information broker a fortune to get answers. I sincerely doubt it would count anyway." My task was to find the secret, and the investigation and discovery was the whole point. I might pass by buying the info, but I doubted I'd make a very good impression, and if I was doing this I might as well do it right.

They headed back inside, and I turned and made my way to the bookstore. As I did, I smiled to myself. This felt…good. Looking for answers, hunting for the truth. Something weird was going on, and if I figured it out, i might be able to really help these people. I wondered what I was going up against. Surely nothing too overpowered, the god of secrets wouldn't send me after some ancient demon or something on my second trial.

As I arrived at the bookstore, I pushed the door open, the next steps on this journey were clear enough. I needed more info. A bookstore seemed like the perfect place to get it. Now I just needed to ask the right questions.