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

[Malcolm Tent]

Harley was asleep. I tried waking him up but he straight up refused to talk to me during his "legally mandated five hour lunch break". He told me to come back in a few hours, so I left. I wasn't really in a hurry. I had a task to do, but I also had a week to kill, and this murder happened two hundred years ago.

It was kind of nice, really. I'd been sprinting from one fire to the next since I became an Ascendant. I'd had downtime, travel and vacations and stuff, but at the same time, even that felt…immediate. Like I needed to chill out RIGHT NOW so I could get as much relaxation as possible into as little time as I could. Which, of course, wasn't actually a super relaxing sensation.

This was weird. It was like…a working vacation. Just facts I was hunting, taking my time, walking my own pace. It was peaceful.

"Master!" Squealed Bella as she appeared next to me where I was sitting outside the bookstore. "Did you talk to the bookstore guy?" I chuckled, speak of the devil. It didn't bother me. In a way it added to my relaxation. Having a friend to share things with.

"I didn't. He's on lunch apparently. Did you have any luck at the tavern?" She seemed energetic, but then, she always did.

Her smile wilted a bit. "Not really. Chester is still there. He's better at this kind of stuff. I don't have a lot in common with small town people. I tried my best though." She looked like she expected me to kick her puppy or something, and it made me feel kind of bad. Was I being that harsh? I'd messed with her a little, but it had felt like banter.

I considered her for a minute then stood. "Follow me." I told her calmly. "I want to give you a lesson."

Her eyes widened in excitement. "A lesson? Is it going to be a technique? Maybe a new Skill?"

"Neither." I said with a shake of my head. "Something much more important. I've learned a lot from my own mentors, but one of the biggest things they've taught me is that WHY you do what you do is as important as how." I led her out of the small hamlet, into the woods to a clearing I remembered nearby. "Motivation and drive is what separates great Ascendants from flashes in the pan."

She nodded, accepting my statement, but seeming a bit confused. "So you're going to teach me…philosophy?"

"Among other things." I agreed. "But philosophy first. My mentor has his own, as does my uncle, who has helped shape me. My mother does too, though she's talked less about it with me. And during the time I've been traveling, I've been working on my own. It's still taking shape, but I'd like to share it with you."
My Path was a part of me. Not just literally, but figuratively. I was the Doom Sovereign, the Fatewalker. It affected the way I lived my life, the way I saw the world, and so much of who I was. And I'd never taken the time to put that into words. To crystallize what it meant to me.

"Destiny…" I said slowly, thinking about how I felt. "Is all around us. It isn't a single path, or a single concept. It's fluid, ever changing. Your destiny can be one thing one second and another thing the next. We all have innumerable destinies, uncountable possible paths, and we have to decide which one to walk down."

Her face was still confused, but it was thoughtful. "So…I should think about what my destiny should be? Try and choose my path as it comes?"

I shook my head. "The path we walk isn't just made up of what's ahead. It's also made up of what's behind. Every step you take is a brick in your road, but the entire thing is the sum total of your destiny. Both the next step and all the ones before.

"People like to treat combat, or contests, or even survival, like it's a zero sum game." I tried to articulate. "Like each incident you experience is discrete, a unique and unrelated moment in your life that you pass or fail. But that's the opposite of what it means to be an Ascendant. Destiny isn't just a step you take. It's MOMENTUM. Every step is leading to the next, pushing you forward. Everything you were before makes up who you are, and that's the person who takes the next step."

I didn't know what I was talking about exactly. Like I did, and I believed everything I was saying, but I didn't know WHY. I just felt like I had to get it out. Had to speak my truth into the world, and that Bella needed to be the one to hear it.

It felt like Enlightenment kind of, but more…personal. I somehow knew that if I could find the right words it would push my Path forward. Or at least help me understand it. But to do that, I needed my Path to not just help me, but to help her. I'd accepted her as my apprentice, and this was how she could help me grow. By learning what I had to teach.

Fate swirled around us, nearly visible it was so thick, and I felt words ready to spill out of my mouth, but I needed her to UNDERSTAND. To grasp what I was saying.

And to my utter shock, she did. It was like something clicked in her head, and her eyes got a little hazy. "You're saying you can help me find my direction, but unless I take my steps with all the experiences I've had before behind me it won't mean anything. You can show me the roads but I have to walk them. Or else I'll interrupt my momentum."

"Exactly!" I shouted, excited. "You need that buildup of purpose and drive to progress, so I can show you ways to choose a direction, but you have your own path to walk and have to choose your next steps yourself. Never compromise your destiny. Never change it to be more like someone else. Not even me. Find what works for you in what I have to teach and make it yours, make everything yours, and that'll be how you move forward without ever slowing down!"

My mind cleared. I'd been rolling along on my Path, having skipped a bunch of steps because I'd tripped into accidentally forming it. But I hadn't UNDERSTOOD it. And I was never going to create my Chronicle that way. I couldn't. I wasn't there yet either, but this had helped, had shown me the way. My Path wasn't just a skill or a thing I used to create techniques. It was like I told Bella. It was my destiny. It was the next step that all the other steps had led you, and I'd somehow managed to sprint a quarter mile ahead of myself, and I couldn't take another step until I caught up.

Which was a ridiculous metaphor that made no sense at all, but it made sense to ME, and that was all I needed. I glanced at Bella, who seemed to be in kind of a trance. I hadn't taught her anything tangible, but this was something she could incorporate into her Path like I just had.

In a way she was probably lucky, because her Path was still illusory, and incorporating this information into it earlier would help her get a better idea about how to proceed. She would UNDERSTAND how she could move forward, instead of just accidentally falling ass backwards into her progression like I had.

I think I'd needed this trip off on my own. Needed this chance to understand who and what I was without my team around, to find this direction. Honestly, I think I'd needed an apprentice. It made me wonder how much influence my Fatewalker instincts had on pushing me toward the ambush where I'd met Bella.

Regardless of the answer, she'd helped me here, in a way that I couldn't quantify, but that I absolutely KNEW was going to be integral to my future success.

And so, I decided to teach her more than just meta lessons. I waited, letting her digest the Epiphany she was having. I wasn't in a rush, like I'd just been thinking, though my current excitement made that harder to hold onto.

Finally, she blinked away her reverie, looking at me in wonder. "That was…weird. I feel like my Path changed. Not in a bad way, I did like you said and only took what felt right for me. But…it changed things. Like my Path is still escape, but a different kind of escape. Before it was reactive, like I was running away, but now I see that escape can mean other things. I can keep ahead of everything, run forward and outdistance my enemies not out of fear, but to be…free of them? I can't put it into words."

"And you don't have to." I told her with a laugh. "But you should hold onto the understanding. Put it into a technique. In fact, it sounds perfect for the one that I want to teach you right now. It's a movement technique."

She perked up. "A technique? Is it like that cool exploding flame teleport thing you do?"
"It's the technique I derived it from." I said with a laugh. "My mom taught it to me. It's called the Supernova Step."

I explained the concept to her, demonstrating it, and emphasizing the need to focus on the image. But instead of just having her use it as is, I told her to try to adapt her new understanding of her Path to the image. Mom always told me I was a genius at creating techniques, it was time to see if I could teach it.

"I feel like I can ALMOST see it." She hissed in frustration. "I just can't…find the connection."

That stumped me for a second. Her Path was personal, and I couldn't exactly create a technique for her when I didn't understand it…but I could give her a concept to link the two things. "Did you know." I said conversationally. "That the speed and momentum required to escape from the orbit of a celestial body is called 'Escape Velocity'."

I don't know why I decided to say that. Why I felt like it was important for her to hear. It was a connection between the Supernova Step and her Path, sure, but it was more than that. I think my Fatewalker instincts pushed me to that, a form of repayment for helping my crystallize my path.

Her clouded expression brightened like the sun coming out after a storm. Not with excitement or joy, but with understanding. She turned, and with a burst of flame, vanished and reappeared across the clearing…faceplanting into a tree.

She stumbled back, falling on her ass and cursing, holding her nose. I walked over and helped her up. "Looks like it needs some work." I told her wryly.

Her eyes were dazed and a little dizzy, not from the impact against the tree, but more from the drain of using a new technique I think. Her soul wasn't two ranks ahead like mine (though her dad HAD paid for her to break her shackles at a local heritage of a branch of one of the five factions) and she couldn't just ignore the costs of techniques the same way I could.

Still, she had figured it out, and it was enough. She laughed, pulling me into a tight hug. "Thank you master! I promise I'll work on it until it's perfect." And I believed her. Which was good. Because I suddenly felt like I had a lot more to teach, as long as I could figure out how to help her learn it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was in a good mood when I got back to the bookstore later that afternoon to talk to Harley. I'd already gotten my wishes stockpiled (I had seventy one), done some more training with Bella, and just generally had a fantastic day where I'd learned a lot. Sadly, my good mood didn't last long in the face of Harley's…Harleyness.

"Look man, I don't remember." The dark haired man yawned. "It was a long time ago. That was like…seventy five thousand naps ago."

Frowning, I pointed around us. "I mean, we're in a bookstore. I got the impression some of these books would cover, if not that subject, maybe the disappearances? It's been two centuries, SOMEBODY has to have written a book about it."

He blinked. "Hey, wow. That's a great idea." His brown eyes sparkled with excitement as his curly black hair flopped around, his head jerking to the side as he searched the messy stacks of nearby books. "You should check the books. They might have something about that whole thing!" He said it like he'd just had a brilliant epiphany, and I had to strangle a growl of annoyance.

"Where are the books on recent history?" I asked patiently, since I now thoroughly believed he would be no direct help.

He shrugged. "Over there." He said lazily, gesturing to basically the entire store. Rolling my eyes, I turned to the store in general, and of course, Harley took that as an excuse to go back to sleep. Sighing, I walked to the door, opened it, and called out loudly for my apprentice.

There was a loud crash from the woods off in the distance, and I watched a plume of smoke rise from where a tree had been not long ago. I waited another second or two, and Bella appeared, blazing into existence with a flash of fire and actually managing to stand still when she stopped, though she wobbled a bit like she might fall over.

"What's up, master?" She asked excitedly. "I've almost got the hang of this technique!"

I chuckled, pointing to her head, where a large piece of wood had gotten stuck in her hair by sap. She cursed, reaching up to try to pry it off, yelping at the pain when it pulled at her hair. I rolled my eyes and held up a finger, focusing a bit of black fire to the tip of it in a minute cosmic collapse and walking over to point at the wood, which exploded.

Given my new breakthrough, I suspected I could have actually tapped into both the black flame and the corrosion, even without my forms, but it would have been overkill for a piece of bark.

"I need your help with something." I said with a laugh. "If you're not busy." She pouted at my teasing tone, but I just snickered and turned to walk back into the shop. "So. We need to find any references to the disappearances, or to the murder two hundred years ago. I'm positive they're related, and we need to figure out where these people are going if we want to figure out the reasoning behind the murder."

She frowned. "I mean, it's kind of weird, isn't it?" She said slowly. "These people who were taken were people no one would miss, right? So why would whatever is doing it come into town and kill a shopkeeper? That doesn't fit the pattern at all. Are you sure it's the same thing?"

"Assuming it is, which both common sense and my instincts seem to concur with…yeah." I said in surprise. "It's a huge breach in pattern. That's a good catch, Bella. I should have thought of that." In fact, Echelon had actually helped do a lot of my work for me with this. Maybe because of the trial.

Unfortunately, it just made it more frustrating that there were no witnesses and no one to talk to about the shopkee-. I stopped mid thought, replaying what I'd been told earlier today. Old Ted Donahue's boy. I was still thinking like a mortal. If Ted junior had been murdered two hundred years ago, there was still a decent chance Ted Donahue was still ALIVE. If anyone would know what was going on with his son, it would be him.

"Bella, do me a favor, go through these books like we talked about. I'll be back to help, but I just thought of something." She gave me a sharp salute and picked up a random book, flipping through it and then tossing it on the counter before moving on to the next. Satisfied she had that under control, I headed back to the tavern, getting directions from bartender Kirk to Ted Donahue's place.

I was excited. Solving a mystery like this was kind of fun. Digging for clues, learning secrets, following leads. It made me wonder if I hadn't become an Ascendant, if I'd have wanted to be a detective.

Maybe after this whole war thing was over and my time as Wishmaster ended, Callie and I could spend some time solving mysteries. I had a feeling my wife would enjoy this as much as I did.

Despite my exhilaration though, I forced myself to calm down and take an appropriately somber tone as I knocked on the door to Ted Donahue's house. It didn't take long to answer, after a few minutes, a tired looking man in what appeared to be his early forties answered the door, dark circles under his eyes and grey in his beard. "Ted Donahue?" I asked.

"Aye?" He asked tiredly. "What can I do for you?"

I grimaced, trying to decide how to word it. "I came to ask about your son." His face hardened, and I held up my hands. "Please, I don't want to dig into painful memories for some Path nonsense. I think it might be related to a case I'm working on." It felt pretty awesome to be able to say that. That I was working a case.

He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Might as well come in." He said with a shrug. "Not like I have much better to do." He waved me inside, turning to head toward the small kitchen tucked behind an open bar in the back corner. "You want a beer?" He asked blankly.

"I'm good." I said politely, scanning the room as he dug in the fridge. It was…neat. But cluttered. Lots of things packed into a small space, but none of it looked out of place. On the mantle I saw pictures of Ted with a younger boy who looked a lot like him, a teenager. Photos of them with a snowman, awards from contests they'd won, and even one with a smiling dark haired woman that only appeared in that single image.

He saw me looking when he came back. "Sylvia." He said with a sad smile. "She was mauled by a mountain lion the same year. Beasts in these parts get antsy sometimes, and we have to send for a subjugation quest from one of the larger cities. My Sylvie had the bad luck to stumble on a wildcat. I'm ashamed to say I didn't take it as well as I could have. Left too much work on Teddy's shoulders."

I heard the guilt and regret in the sentiment, and easily followed it to its logical conclusion. "Like the shop?"

"It was a weekend." He said tightly. "He shouldn't have even been there. He wanted weekends off. But I was too drunk to open." He closed his eyes, voice jagged with grief. "I let myself fall apart and now my boy's gone. You mark my words, lad. A parent should never outlive their child. Ain't nothing worse."

"I'm sorry." I said truthfully. "I'm sorry to bring this up. But like I said, I think it might be related to a case I'm working. Did Teddy do anything strange or different in the weeks leading up to his death? If you don't remember that's fine-"

His eyes snapped open, narrowing at me in fury. "And who says I don't?" He snapped. "Who says I forgot the last days I had in this world with my son. You ask your questions, boy, and you see if I don't answer them! I'm good for that much still. Good for somethin'."

"I know he was…I guess the local word would be courting, some girl named Dana-" I started.

He burst out laughing, a genuine smile on his face. "Only in his dreams, boy. Dana Cassidy never had eyes for nobody but Brady Thornton, whom she eventually married. She was friendly enough, but never gave my son or Harley the time of day aside from polite chitchat. No, they 'admired' her from afar, and argued themselves stupid over the girl, but neither of them had a chance."

"So you don't think Harley did it?" I didn't either, but I'd met the guy for all of five minutes.

"Maybe if he was sleepwalking." He snickered. "No, Harley didn't hurt my boy. Doesn't have it in him. I saw the body. Had to identify him. Wasn't no bookstore clerk that killed him. That was trained knifework. A Skill, most like. I was in the army when I was a lad, and I saw men killed like that. Killed cold. Whoever did that knew what they were doin' and they didn't spare it no nevermind."

I nodded slowly. "Did you tell the constable?"

"Until I was blue in the face." He said with a shrug. "But I was just a grieving drunk. Ain't nobody minding me."

"So what about the weeks before." I prompted. "DID anything strange happen?"

He looked pensive. "Well…I'd never really paid it any mind. But maybe. He started asking me some questions about his ma. Where she liked to take her walks, if she knew how to fight. Dab hand with a long knife, my Sylvie. Damned cat must have surprised her."

"Really?" I asked in a faux casual tone. "That's an interesting thing to bring up out of nowhere. Where did it happen, if you don't mind me asking?"

Snapping out of his reverie, his eyes narrowed again. "Up by Deadman's Drain. The falls. She used to go up there to pick blackberries. They grow wild up on the ledges. Prickly, but sweetest damned berries you ever saw. She was making a pie for Teddy's birthday." He said absently. "Blackberry was his favorite."

I winced, realizing from the timeline his sons birthday was probably very close to the time he was killed. Not that anything could make losing a child worse, but still…that definitely wouldn't have helped.

But the last thing he'd done…that was interesting. His mother's death had been an animal attack. But him dying so close to poking around about it couldn't be a coincidence. Had the mysterious killer slipped up and left a corpse. Were there clues up at the falls maybe? I smiled at Ted. "I appreciate your time, Mr. Donahue. Sorry to bother you."

He shrugged, not even bothering to comment one way or the other. I said my goodbyes quickly and left, heading back to the bookstore to check in with Bella, a new lead in my pocket. The falls, animal attacks, plenty of possibilities to check.

As I walked, I thought to myself of what I would do if I lost a child like that. I didn't even have kids and the idea was unbearable. Then I thought about my mom. She'd lost a child, in some ways. Had been forced to give me up for my own good. Had she been like Ted, after I was gone? Drowning in her grief? Or had Chelsea saved her?

Whatever the case, I sent a quick message to my wife, to let my mother know I loved her. It didn't cost me anything to say, and it made me feel better. Then I arrived at the bookstore and stepped inside. For now, I needed to focus on the task at hand.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, what do we got?" I asked enthusiastically as I dropped another book on the pile of finished texts. I had all my clones out and multiple parallels going, offloading some of the strain to Callie, who was free and willing to help, which meant I was reading multiple times faster than normal. Of course, Ascendant books were stupid dense and used absurd microscript, so it was still taking a while. Especially since I could only keep a few parallels going at once.


Bella looked up from her book. "Oh, are we reporting? Let's see, i found a few mentions of those falls. They are apparently "tears cried from the eyes of hell", "the blood of an ancient evil god", "the saliva of the mouth of eternity", I'm not even sure what that last one means, but there's an illustration and it's disturbing. Giant tentacle tongue with tastebuds for eyeballs, gross."


"I'm pretty sure none of that is real." I said cautiously. "I mean…I feel like someone would have noticed, and probably tried to build a city on it or something. Ascendants are stupid like that." She nodded, acknowledging my point, but I continued. "That said, just because the falls themselves aren't special doesn't mean there isn't something special ABOUT them. There might be a place nearby housing a monster or something."


I was skeptical that was the case, honestly. Monsters didn't sneak into town and assassinate witnesses by slitting their throat. I trusted Ted's instincts, if he thought that was a professional job, it probably was. Someone with knife experience and probably experience killing people.


Chester, who had shown up a few hours ago, emerged from his own book pile. "I found a few references to animal attacks. They're not commonly talked about, but they've had to call a few "subjugation" quests. Mountain lions, bears, that kind of stuff. They always find something, but sometimes they spend a few weeks looking and have to range pretty far out. The assumption is that the "incidents" scared them off, but that doesn't sound right."


"It really doesn't." I said thoughtfully. "At least not to me. I'm not an animal expert. Luckily, I know someone who is, and she's within easy reach." I mentally shot a question to my wife, who had been relaxing helping me with my parallels. She sent me an impression of waiting, then went to ask Jessie about it.


It took a few minutes, but eventually she came back. I paused, listening to her, then thanked her and told her I loved her. Thought communication was so convenient. I made a show of bringing up the screen on my ring and fiddling with it, keeping one side of the projected image opaque while I pretended to text, then closed it.


"Alright, my source says it doesn't sound like common animal behavior. Most predators are territorial. An incident with prey wouldn't scare them off." Which had been what I'd thought. "That said, D-rank is a milestone, and the results of that rank up can be unpredictable, so it's not completely impossible. We'll have to go check the place out ourselves. If you two are interested."


They seemed excited, so I packed up all the books into something approximating their original piles (I wasn't too fussed about being exact, Harley didn't seem to have much of a system, and if he had requests he should have woken up) and then we all set off for the falls, ready to take the next step on our journey into mystery.


We arrived at the falls pretty quickly, they weren't that far away, and we were D-rankers, so travel time wasn't an issue. We came up the path across a small gorge from the falls themselves, and staring down at them…I could see why they had such an ominous name.


The water itself was normal, I could see that at the base where it collected in a pool, but because of the positioning, or some kind of material effect, it looked black as ink as it poured over the cliff. Liquid darkness, cascading off the peak of the falls, plummeting into the pool below, almost eating the light like the darkness of a collapsing star.


Deadman's Drain. I could see it. The pool at the base looked like it was consuming all life. While the edges were visibly translucent like water should be, showing the crystalline sand beneath, the center of the pool churned with the same fathomless black as the falls themselves, like the water was eating the world. "I wonder what causes that." I said with interest. I'd triggered Eye of Revelation, and I could tell it wasn't anything based on Impact or stats.


"The rocks at the top." Said my apprentice, surprising me. "It was in one of the books I was reading. They're a weird sort of inverted prism that creates a kind of anti-light. Don't ask me how it works. I read like three chapters on the effect and I still don't really get it."


I nodded with interest, tapping on the bond to send the image to my wife. I made a mental note to pick up one of those rocks as she responded with delight, clearly interested in the effect.


"Let's check around the top of the falls first. Unless there was a specific area where the bodies were found?" I addressed the question to Chester.


He shook his head. "Nothing concrete. Top, bottom, even in the woods nearby. It wasn't too obvious, or someone would have noticed it." He frowned as he stared at the dark waterfall. "Maybe. Do you guys feel…"


"Like this is a bad place and we shouldn't be here?" I finished. "Yup. It's a soul effect. It's not hitting me very hard because my soul is MUCH stronger than yours, but I can feel it a little. Scratching at the back of my brain. You guys ok here? If it's too much I can go it alone. Though I would mention this place is probably good soul training."


Bella looked interested, but Chester didn't. "My soul is already pretty decent. Sapphire. I never managed to break my second shackle, but honestly I don't mind."


I winced. Soul strength was FUNDAMENTAL. Sure, you could theoretically stick to the base soul level for your rank, but at the later ranks you NEEDED a Path. D-rank was doable at base, but once you got to C-rank it was extremely difficult and time consuming to progress your Path, and using techniques was extremely tiring, if you could do it at all. Ranking up to D-rank without breaking both shackles was essentially consigning yourself to cap at C-rank. Nobody with a weak soul could handle condensing a Chronicle.


To be fair, C-rank was decent in most forces, and that was still fifteen thousand plus years of life. That was enough for some people, and it seemed Chester was happy in his comfortable life.


Getting a running start, I pushed off, exploding forward into a Waltz that crossed the distance easily, landing neatly on the other side next to the falls. Kneeling down, I snagged a dark crystalling rock that looked a bit like obsidian, stashing it in my ring before I began my investigation…until I realized I didn't know what the fuck to look for.


I reached out through Callie to Jessie again, and she informed me that I should try to find any signs of consistent passage by a predator. If any animals claimed this area, they would either BE what we were looking for, or they'd have come across it. At least assuming it was still around and they had been born when it had been here two hundred years ago.


I activated Eye of Revelation, Rhythm of the Wild, Song of the Soil, and Scent of Truth all together. The pulse of the earth, the song of the plantlife, the smell of fact, all these things blended together in my head as I opened myself to the stimuli, giving myself as much data as I could while I scanned the area. I saw so many things. Little tunnels dug by insects, holes in the wood of the trees made by woodpeckers, and so many other things…and somehow, all of it converged into my eyes, pushing my revelation to an even higher level.


Following a path that was nearly invisible, I trekked through the trees, down a small embankment, until I came to a spot where a divot in the earth dropped into a small cavern. Overhanging roots and overgrowth hid the entrance, but it was there, and I grinned triumphantly as I dropped down into the hole.


I found myself in a cave, low and smooth, seemingly worn from the rock naturally, but sculpted in a way that told me it was made with intent. Along the walls crystals poked from the stone, a low, blue glow illuminating the space.


In the center of the chamber was a long rectangular stone, flat on top like a table, and wicked iron bolts had been driven cruelly into the stone, pinning ragged cuffs of badly cured leather. Cuffs that stank of blood and violence to my revealing eye and truthful nose. I stepped back, able to almost feel the pain and despair soaked into the rock along with what looked like LOTS of blood. It had been soaked in the stuff more than once, stained in a way both ethereal and physical.


Bella had dropped down next to me and she gagged. "That's awful. What is that?"


"It's an altar." I said grimly. "Though to what I'm not sure. Based on those, I'd say some kind of…forest demon?" I pointed at the walls, where images could be seen of some kind horrible beast, crouched and menacing. Its limbs were long and spindly, with two jointed legs like a goat, ending in flat hooked feet with five equidistant talons that formed a circle around them for stability.


It's head looked kind of like a wolf, but with raw muscle exposed on its flat ugly snout. It was disturbing how much detail was in the picture, given it seemed to have been drawn in dried blood. Someone was quite the artist.


The image showed the creature looming over a bowing figure in a hood, with a body place on the table. In the next panel, it had torn open the chest and somehow folded itself up to climb inside. Once it was finished, it cut away the face, gifting it to the figure. After that it was hard to tell, pictograms only went so far, but I was pretty sure the figure did something with the face that made it stronger.


It didn't show what happened to the monster, or why the bodies needed to be replaced, but it was clear from the context that this was a regular thing that needed to happen every so often.


Glancing around, I could see that this place hadn't been used in quite a while, but while it might not give me any special insight…it did give me a new clue. A tunnel, leading out of the chamber and off into the darkness.


"Well, I'm going down there." I pointed. My Danger Sense would alert me if anything was going to jump out and murder me. It hadn't gone off yet, and my instincts weren't telling me something impossibly dangerous was ahead. I trusted them to pick up if that thing was C-rank or something. Plus I was pretty sure that town wouldn't exist anymore if it was.


Bella took a deep breath, then nodded. "I trust you, master. I know you won't let me die. Plus if you do, I can always haunt you later. I'd make such an awesome ghost."


I laughed, and we looked at Chester, who looked annoyed. "You're both bad influences. Fine, idiots. Let's go." He gestured for me to lead, which I did, and we took off down the corridor into the unknown. I didn't think the monster was here, but hopefully I would find some sort of clue as to who the figure was. I didn't see the faceless forest demon sneaking into town and slitting someone's throat, but that hooded figure…that I could see. Time to find us a killer.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The corridor was…disqueiting. Not because there was anything in there, but because there wasn't. I was an Ascendant, which meant I had powerful senses when I chose to use them. I had all my Perception dedicated to watching out for potential traps, just in case they were too fast for my Danger Sense, and I was listening close for literally any sign of local life. There was none.

No insects, no worms, no small creatures burrowing. Even the wind seemed somehow dead, and with a flex of Song of the Soil, I could feel the earth around me, and I was horrified to discover what was in it. Bones.

Big, small, and medium bones, human and animal and some things in between. Old bones, new bones, broken and whole, some chewed upon and some pristine. A sea of silence and death surrounded us, floating in the dirt like the scattered corpses of a sunken ship in an endless earthen ocean.

I could FEEL death. It was all around us, beneath and above us, I was choking on it, like I was buried alive with all the dead interred here in these walls.

Turning to check on the others, I found them on the ground insensate and terrified, and I pushed back the sensation of death, grabbing them and dragging them behind me until we finally emerged from the tunnel. As soon as we did, it was like the air cleared of poison, I gasped in relief, panting as the other two sat bolt upright, finally lucid again out of the influence.

That was…awful. And OLD. Those bones were countless, and some were ancient. This wasn't a few hundred years of sacrifices. It was thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Not that I was stupid enough to think some million year old monster was in here. No, this place was old, but any creature who had eaten that many high rank Ascendants would be WELL past C or even B-rank by this point.

I looked around the new cavern we had entered. The sensation had gone, at least the ambiance, but if I focused I could feel it gushing from the tunnel. It just wasn't sitting stagnant. It was being funneled into the room and around a huge formation, shoved into a number of statues surrounding us. More than a number in fact. Thousands. Tens of thousands, we stood in an ampitheater, surrounded by alcoves filled with statues.

The statues were humanoid but indistinct, vague manlike shapes, with only one thing unique about them. Their faces.

Screaming human faces, all perfectly preserved and lifelike, locked in a rictus of agony but not able to make a sound. I searched the faces, and I saw one in particular that I recognized. Sylvie. Ted's wife. Her face was hard to recognize without the rest of her body, but I'd just seen her picture earlier that day. There was no mistaking it. The statue had somehow mimicked her facial bones.

Animal attack. Ted hadn't mentioned that her face had been eaten. But why would he. Animals did that kind of thing all the time.

"Oh gods." Gagged Bella. "That's…what is this? What kind of person would do this?"

"I don't know." I said with a frown. "I don't understand any of what's going on here. The monster takes the faces and gives them to the hooded figure. I assumed he kept them, but it seems he…offers them here? To something. The faces don't seem dead. I think they have SOULS caught in them. They're using them to gather something."

I needed help. Some kind of advice. This was out of my depth, lorewise. I didn't know sacrificial rituals. Or soul harvesting. But I knew who fucking did. I reached through my bond to my wife, asking her to find my uncle. She did, bolting from the room when she felt my distress, when she arrived, I reached for Shadow Manipulation, and used the darkness and our bond to create a simulacrum for Zeke.

My uncle's shadowy form rose from the dark, just like we'd done back on Callus. He raised a brow at me. "Hey kid. What's the big idea? I was working on my tan." He froze. "Shane…why does it look like you're standing in a Soul Abattoir? Where did you even FIND one of those? They haven't been in common usage for longer than your GRANDFATHER has been alive."

I shrugged. "Fuck if I know. Also watch the real name stuff old man. I'm here with new friends." I had used stealth when I'd seen him forming my name to block out the sound, but it was still sloppy of him to slip. He must be shocked. "What is it?"

"It's…complicated. They're used for soul transplants. The spirits of the unwilling dead are harvested and suspended in a state of agony. The spiritual suffering drains into the center of the room, condensing into a kind of bath. A newly transplanted soul that bathes in the Abattoir for three days and three nights can stave off rejection."

Frowning, I described what I'd seen to him. Then I described the creature itself, and he grimaced. "Varenkarsel. Nasty. They're a form of evolved undead. They're concentrated decay manifested as a spirit. They burn out bodies when they wear them, the Abattoir probably helps, but they need new bodies regularly. The whole face thing must be to feed the Abattoir. The Varenkarsel is strong, but it's difficult for them to grow. Their nature is corrosive, and it eats away at their own progress."

"So this one could be as old at the Abattoir?" I asked in worry. If it was millions of years old we were fucked."

He shook his head. "They're spiritual beings but they're not eternal. Even with a regular supply of bodies this one probably doesn't have much longer to live. They don't accept supplicants until they're on their death bed. They spend a few centuries testing their faithful by having them acquire bodies, and if they follow through, when the Varenkarsel dies, it bequeathes its essence to the supplicant to use as a catalyst for a racial trait."

Bella looked sick. "Who would want to be something like that?" I'd dropped the stealth once I knew Zeke was paying attention and the others had been listening.

"Varenkarsel are rare, and they possess a particularly unique ability." Zeke said grimly. "They have three times the lifespan. A D-rank Varenkarsel lives longer than an A-ranker. Part of their nature shifts the corrosion of age onto their host body. It's why they burn through them so quickly. They were originally created by undead sorcerers seeking immortality."

I shuddered. "I don't think that's worth it. Living for what? Thirty thousand years as a corrosive body jacking ghost?"

"Most people don't." He acknowledged. "But there's always somebody. Someone with no talent or a weak soul, or a flawed Path who can't advance and is afraid to die. Based on what you told me about its pattern, this one is probably almost gone. But you need to find the supplicant before he can use the catalyst. It's almost impossible to KILL a Varekarsel. Even if you kill the body it can escape. You need someone with a soul altering ability, and you don't have one of those."

Cursing, I turned to look around. "Thanks for the help." I told him with a nod. You should go. Not safe to be talking like this."

"I'm masking us." he said with a shake of his head. "Unless someone much stronger is actively watching you, they wouldn't notice. Hopefully none of the vanished gods are keeping a close eye on you. I don't think it's a problem though. I couldn't do a thing to stop a god from watching me or you, but I could at least FEEL it happening."

I wanted to ask if that included Delthrys, the god I was doing this trial for, but I was afraid if I said the name it would call his attention. I just thanked my uncle and shut down the bond, letting the shadow fade.

"Well that was…terrifying." Said Bella nauseously. "I don't think I wanted to know about that kind of monster."

"Me neither." I said with a bitter chuckle. "But we have a chance to stop one from being born. We have to take it. Help me look around for clues in here. Don't touch the statues. We'll come back and free them when this is over, but if we wreck this place now and the Varenkarsel comes back it might spook and run off without passing on its essence here. It could pick some random asshole to turn and we'd never know."

She didn't look happy, and I didn't blame her, but Chester came to my defense. "They've been here for centuries." He said gently. "I know it sucks to leave them, but they'll be free soon. And I think they would want us to destroy the thing that put them here." He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, and my apprentice nodded resolutely.

"You're right." She said after a deep breath. "We need to help them, but we can get them justice first. They deserve it." Her sad eyes floated over the statues, horrified, before she turned and started pacing the hall, searching for anything that might be a clue.

Delthrys had sent me here, presumably to stop the transfer, so I could only assume it was happening soon. Sylvie had been one of the victims, possibly having stumbled on the cavern, and Teddy had been looking for her killer and maybe found this place. Or at least found the sacrificial chamber.

I paced around, Eye or Revelation active as I went over the details. The timeline felt off. Weird and stretched. Two hundred years after the last sacrifice felt off. But then, maybe there needed to be another one. Or maybe there had been and we just hadn't known about them. I remembered the man from the bar, talking about his niece.

"Hey, I found something!" I stopped, turning to where Chester was standing at a seemingly random corner of the formation. Walking over I stared down at a spot on the ground. There was a scrap of cloth there. I reached down, skeptical it could help. Maybe I could use it to track the owner, or try a blood curse and see who got sick.

I rubbed it between my fingers. "I don't think it's anything." i said regretfully. "Looks like a piece of like…towel or some-" I froze, then slowly, raised the cloth to my nose. I sniffed. It smelled like must, and death, and dirt…and alcohol.

My eyes widened. I remembered the first person I'd talked to. The person who had pointed me at Harley as a suspect, the person who had been sat behind his bar, cleaning a glass. Kirk the bartender. I turned to the others. "I think I know who it is." I said angrily. "And I know where to find him."

I passed them the scrap, telling them what I'd figured out, and their expressions flattened.

"We don't need to stop him." I admitted. "We completed the task. Find out who and why. We did both of those things. But I'm not leaving this unfinished. I'm going to find that bastard and put him down before he becomes some unkillable evil ghost. You guys in?"

Bella snorted. "I would be doing it myself even if you didn't master. I'm not leaving something like that loose on my planet. Abominations like that have no place on my world." Her eyes hardened. "I walk the Path of Escape. And I say there will be none for our enemies." Her voice echoed slightly, and I didn't know if it was the chamber or her Path, but I grinned in response.

"Well them, let's go kick some bartender ass." I said viciously. I turned and stalked toward the exit of the chamber, rage pushing me forward as I prepared to confront a monster. Even if I was working for the dark gods, I could still help people.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We arrived back at the tavern after dark. It was still open, but everyone had left. I stepped inside, letting the others in behind me, then chucked my chin, letting Bella know to go around out of sight. As I approached the bar where Kirk cleaned a glass, Chested bolted the door, though how much good it really did in circumstances like ours was up for debate.


The bartender smiled at me as I approached. "Evening." He said jovially. His smile was wide and friendly, but it didn't reach his eyes. In fact, nothing reached his eyes, because he didn't have any.


The picture on the wall hadn't had eyes either, just empty black holes in its face. I'd assumed that was artistic license, but it wasn't. Kirk's face was sporting a pair of black pits in its eye sockets, devouring the light like gravitational singularities in miniature. Seeing those eyes in a human face was deeply disturbing.


"So you're not even going to pretend not to know what's going on?" I asked tiredly. "I assume you watched us in the cavern somehow?"


He chuckled, the same friendly chuckle as before I'd known who he was, but it was somehow infinitely more grating coming from someone I knew was a monster. "Of course. So many of my faces in that temple. How could I miss you? That mask seemed to cause problems with my vision, but I was able to gather enough to figure out that you know who I am. I already initiated the ceremony. I even had a snack before you arrived."


His head turned toward the bar, and I followed his lack of gaze to where he was facing to find several bloody corpses, faces missing. "Don't you need the temple to absorb their souls?"


Shrugging, he gave a wry smile. "We existed before we found the temple. It just made the process more streamlined. We've been using it a long time, and we've learned how to imitate the mechanism. With limited results." He burped. "Bar snacks. Never very filling. But don't worry. I'll be sure to consume you properly. I want to keep this body as long as possible. Guess I'm sentimental like that."


I sniffed. I could smell…something. Truth, but not. He wasn't telling me everything, but that wasn't a surprise. I considered just attacking him, but my instincts told me I could learn more, could understand more about what was going on. And beyond that, I wanted the truth. I'd spent days trying to track this asshole down, and I wanted to hear the end of the story.


Despite that, I slid a hand behind the bar and began to concentrate, a parallel split off with a flex of Piece of Mind, controlling the condensation of the Cosmic Collapse as I built up my biggest punch. Corrosion and black flame swirled into an orb of pure destruction, but I left it up to my parallel, focusing on the murdering psycho currently explaining his evil plan. He seemed almost enthusiastic to tell me. I think he'd been frustrated that no one knew how brilliant he was. Villains and their fucking monologues.


"It's not like I'm some bloodthirsty demonic lunatic." He said jovially as he cleaned a glass I didn't think was even dirty. "I just want to live. Really, ten thousand years is an eye blink to people like us. And I never took anyone important. Just strays no one cared about. I think I did them a favor, really. Gave their lives purpose."


I snorted. "Say I bought that, which by the way I don't. Say I agree that not having close friends or family makes it less evil to sacrifice someone to a soul torturing temple. What about Sylvie? What about Teddy? I know Teddy stumbled on your lair when looking for what happened to his mother, but why kill her to begin with."


He grimaced. "It was so stupid and avoidable. Back when Sylvie and Ted and I were kids she had a cousin. Sweet girl, her name was Mary. Pretty, desperate, followed me everywhere. She was my first, you know. Before I knew what I was doing. I buried her body out by the falls. We got into a fight, you see, and I had my knife on me. I used to apprentice under Harley's father Brock as a butcher, before I took over the bar. That's how I met Him. The blood attracted him."


"So you killed her cousin?" I asked. "Because you're a hell of a lot older than two hundred years. The timing doesn't add up there."


"Rain washed up the body." He said with a sneer. "I told you, I was new. I got much better over the years. You'd be surprised how much you can pick up about murder in a butcher shop, especially with lots of practice. I went through a phase in the beginning where I went a little overboard, but eventually I got my rhythm. Once a decade, sometimes twice. Slow and steady.


"Anyway, a storm rolled through and unearthed the bones. Mary had this charm bracelet Sylvie had given her." He shrugged. "Everyone thought she'd run off. Even Sylvie wasn't suspicious. But once she saw the body…well, like I said, I was sloppy my first time. She connected me to the spot and to Mary. Lured me out there to 'talk'. She was a formidable woman, but I've gotten some nice perks from Him over the years. And lots of practice with my knife."


Truth. I was choking on it. Gagged with it. This was almost all the unvarnished truth, and he was RELISHING getting to tell me. Because there had been one lie he'd told for sure. He WAS a bloodthirsty lunatic.


I triggered Double Trouble, my Cosmic Collapse already formed and condensed to the most dangerous attack I had, aimed at the back of his head as I fired it off. There was a sort of…shift, in the space, like a hitch in the world, and he ducked and whirled, gracefully avoiding the attack like a snake as the eruption of dark corrosion blew a hole out the side of the building the size of a bus.


Snarling, I reached for Limbo, triggering it complete with mist as I triggered Double Trouble again, appearing behind Bella where she'd been positioned off to the side. The illusory copy of me was shredded by dinner plate sized clawed hands as Kirk's fingers stretched and warped. He'd seemed amused when I tried to attack, but the dodge wiped the smile off his face as he scanned the room with his empty pits.


"You can't hide from me!" He hissed, jaws distending. "I don't have eyes. And your little tricks can't fool me senses for long." I scented the air. Lie. I could hide from him. Whatever trick he'd used to sense my attack wasn't enough to pierce my pseudo domain. Limbo was holding him off.


Which was good…because he was WAY stronger than I was. This was a fucking PEAK D-ranker. Probably with a Solid Path, and a rather developed one. He was, from what my Eye of Revelation was telling me, halfway through digesting the spirit, but he had access to all its years of experience and instinct, and all it's hoarded power. It had been grinding away for millennia, ancient and horrible and strong. It might just be D-rank, but it was a KING of D-rank, and if I let him fully integrate it we'd all be FUCKED.


I triggered Mephistopheles, Belial, and finally, in the safety of my domain, Beelzebub. Twelve of me manifested, all burning weith black flames as they assumed their OWN Mephistopheles form, and we fucking blitzed it.


Something I hadn't known, or had no way of knowing, was that the number of possible future actions a being could take SCALED with power. All my enemies in Limbo had been around my level, but something about this one, Path or power, made it so much more than me. An endless ocean of possible ways this could go wrong was arrayed before me, tens of thousands of overlapping futures.


With thirteen of me, I went to work, revving up Abomination Engine as I shifted into a Waltz, blasting apart possible outcomes as I began the long work of whittling away his options.


I heard a scrape and felt hot blood on my neck, felt a slash through my elbow tendon between plates on my arm, caught a blow under my armpit, and that was just my main body. One of my clones got fucking eviscerated, and I FELT that, felt the pain and horror of the slow draining death, but I ignored it.


He was so far, so vicious, and despite not knowing where I was, he was somehow FINDING my weak spots. I was destroying futures as fast as I could, but there was always a dozen of them where I got hit, and I couldn't get rid of them fast enough.


Bella and Chester were staying back. My physical form was getting stronger, and my armor was C-rank, but either of them would be dead by this point, like one, no sorry like THREE of my fucking clones were. A second one had its throat slit, and the third was snapped over his knee like an oversized tree branch that wouldn't fit in a garbage can. Ouch.


I'd taken this fight WAY too lightly. I needed to have Callie and the others cash in those fucking wish scrolls, because I wasn't advancing fast enough. If this guy had actually been at peak D-rank, I'd be dead right now. But he wasn't. Not really. KIRK was early to mid D-rank. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Which was why I had managed to blow several holes in it.


My staff licked out and I tapped a shoulder, unloading my injuries back onto my enemy, sighing with relief at the lack of pain. As I watched, the damage mounted, and the number of futures to destroy began to dwindle. Rather than eliminating them in singular, as was the case in a more even battle, my damaging attacks were withering possibilities by blocking off actions he could take.


A hundred thousand, eighty thousand, fifty. The futures dwindled, and as the tide turned I was in less and less danger. I could see the dangerous futures, and I was destroying them before they could be used against me. The stealth aspect of my domain wasn't doing much here. He couldn't see me, but I'd narrowed down how he was tracking me to attack. His Impact sense.


D-rankers had it integrated with ALL their senses. Sight was the big one, but also hearing, smell, and even instinct. He'd integrated it with whatever sense he had that wasn't eyes, and he was using it well. It was a shame, but it was good to know there were ways around it early rather than late.


Finally, I'd taken so many chunks out of him that I was able to destroy all the futures where I'd miss. Using my twelve bodies, I narrowed all paths to victory, and slowly beat him down, one blow at a time.


My clones managed to restrain him, switching to Mornax to make sure he couldn't escape, and with one might heave I slammed my staff butt first into his head, or more accurately, and empty eye hole, detonating a Cosmic Collapse inside his skull. I watched as the body died, and the soul rose from inside it, screaming.


The spirit of the Varenkarsel was…hideous. Ancient and twisted and falling apart, like it was rotting in front of my eyes. Zeke told me I didn't have anything for this, that I couldn't affect the spirit…but he was wrong. As soon as I saw it I knew. This was an abomination against nature. It was a blight. And I could cleanse it.


I dropped Beelzebub, triggering Zagan, and I started blasting holes in the creature with my purifying flame. Again, and again, and again. I obliterated it. And when I was done, I finally let my domain fall, and slumped to the ground. I was exhausted. But it had been worth it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next week was pretty peaceful. Train, teach Bella, talk to Callie, I just chilled and did my own thing, getting ready for my first trial for the Lady of Lamentation. I had a feeling it would be a doozy. I made another fifty six scrolls, bringing my total to one hundred twenty seven, and I had Callie and the others use a hundred of them (I didn't tell them what FOR, just asked they hurry up).





Fifteen points per scroll netted me fifteen hundred, and I got another fifteen hundred from the renown gathered during the trials (kicking the shit out of the D-ranker with pseudo Domain and fighting a crazy spirit monster serial killer on a B-rank planet really paid off) split evenly among Might, Focus, and Perception. I got fifteen D-rank chits for the lot of it bringing me to forty five, and it became clear exactly how much help I needed to rank up.





I'd have to start pushing to higher per wish stat payouts soon, and more than that, wishes weren't going to let me keep up if I didn't push myself. I kept two scrolls for personal use, gave the other twenty five to Callie and my friends, and left it at that.





It was becoming clear that advancement, even independent of Path stuff, wasn't something the Wish power could support on its own. Not quickly at least. EVENTUALLY, if I kept at it, I'd reach B-rank. But there was a built in secondary requirement in the competition that was only now becoming noticeable. You had to keep up.





Which was why I had arrived early for my meeting with the Lady of Lamentations representative. This trial would suck. I knew that. Ray, Desria, Cavallo, Archie, Vesper, and Tanner were here too, all taking the second trial as theirs had yet to come up. I fully expected them to regret that decision, knowing what was to come, but it was nice not to be in this alone. Chester had left after the investigation concluded, deciding life with me was too weird, and I'd made Bella stay home for this.





I stepped into the empty tavern we'd been asked to meet at (the Lady apparently believed in manners) and scanned around for our contact.





What I found was…not what I'd been expecting. I'd thought we were going to be meeting some doom and gloom edgelord, maybe with fangs, or whips, or some kind of chains hanging off them. Instead I found a peaceful, cheerful looking girl a bit older than I was. She had a round face and a wide smile and eyes covered with a grey cloth, over which say a nun's habit.





"Good evening." She said as I approached. "I bid you welcome to my table."





"Um, thanks." I said after a minute. "Are you my contact? For the task of Felicity, Lady of Lamentations?" I mostly called her the lady in my head, since I had a cousin with the same name, but formality seemed like a decent idea here. "I expected someone more…malevolent."





"Please, sit." She said with a kind smile. "I am Sister Bernadette. It is lovely to meet you. I understand your confusion, but if you might wait until the others arrive, all will be revealed."





Shrugging, I sat down, and since the staff was here this time, I ordered a milkshake and a steak with a baked potato. After a few minutes, everyone else showed up, and they seemed much more confused than I was, which was saying something.





Once our final member arrived, Sister Bernadette pushed back her chair, standing to bow. "Peace, my friends. And be welcome at my table. I am Bernadette, a sister in the order of mercy in the service of our Lady Felicity, the Lady of Lamentations." Her smile was bright and welcoming, and my confusion did not abate.





Ray, of course, raised a hand. "Um. No offense but…what the actual fuck?" Desria elbowed him in the ribs and he yelped. "Ok, OW. But seriously. Your goddess is a dark torture god. Why are you…" he waved at her appearance. "This."





"Our Lady is NOT a goddess of torture. She is a goddess of torment. Of suffering." She corrected.





"Not traditionally cuddly things." Ray said. "I don't see the difference."





She smiled sadly. "There are many who do not. And once, long ago, they swarmed in droves to kneel at the feet of my mistress. They did not understand her gifts, the lessons and the wisdom she had to bestow. They saw only the chance to harm, and through that harm enrich themselves in material wealth."





"Ok." I said slowly. "So why don't you tell us what her true message is. Tell us about her gifts." Everyone else had ordered, with Bernadette assuring us she would pay for everything, which seemed nice. The food arrived and she finally decided it was story time.





Nodding, she sat back down, taking a deep breath. "When man is born, he is a blank slate." She began. "His empty, a vessel to be filled. We fill this vessel with family, with life, and love, and joy. But as with all drinks, to sip only of joy deadens the palate. For what is joy without sorrow?





"And so comes pain." Her voice was a whisper. "And pain gives shade to the light, gives the eyes respite, and teaches us the contrast between suffering and delight." That part was said like it was a rote prayer she said all the time, and the rhyming made me believe that might be the case.





She bowed her head three times to touch her interlaced fingers after she said it, and only when she finished the motion did she continue. "Many people despise pain. Suffering. Torment. Whatever name you call it by, pain is the enemy of man in their own minds. But that is not so.





"When a person is born, they are empty, and through their years, pain fills their cup. Tears and sorrow mold them, not just in contrast to the joys of life, but in contrast to others. Pain unites us, teaches us, it shows us how we are alike." Despite the dour topic, she had a soft smile on her face. "Without pain we could have no empathy, no understanding. Pain is the commonality between all people. The single universal constant. Pain is life. Life is joy. Joy is pain."


That was…interesting. I couldn't necessarily argue those points. I wasn't entirely eager to volunteer to be tortured to…what? Season myself? Though I guess that's exactly what I was doing. "Look, this is fascinating." Said Vesper politely. "But what exactly IS the trial? Because if we have to go out and torture some random person to "enlighten them", I'm going to pass on this one."





"Such suspicion." Murmured Bernadette. "Such cynicism and doubt. My heart breaks for you, young one. For you have clearly been hurt by the cruelty of others, but gained through that pain no understanding. Pain without clarity, without understanding, is waste.





"And so I bring to you a gift." She beamed. "A chance to gain knowledge, to sharpen your understanding of the human condition. Experience pain with me, children, and through that gain enlightenment. Suffer and learn to grasp the suffering of others, and you will never truly be alone."





Ray cocked his head. "Sorry. I missed that."





"She's saying WE'RE going to be tortured." Archie said gruffly. "The trial is an endurance test. At least the first one. But what do you mean we? Are you going to take it with us?"





Nodding happily, she chirped. "That is my honor. The Order of Mercy are the teachers and students of human understanding. We experience pain, and through our suffering feel the truth of all living things. Tonight, you will take my journey with me, and you will gain the wisdom to understand all who may be at odds with you in the future."





"Ok, but HOW?" I asked in exasperation. "How are we going to experience the pain. I guess we have to give consent to take the trial?"





Laughing, she shook her head. "Oh no, your continued presence is considered consent by my mistress. You've already agreed to take the trial." Her tone was pleasant and upbeat, but I was annoyed.





"Ok, fine!" I said unhappily. "But when does it START?"





"Any second now, I would imagine." She chirped. "It takes a minute for the poison to kick in." We all froze, then looked down at our plates…and then the screaming started.





I keeled over. I'd been through some serious shit in my life. Mindmelting agony, bonecracking pain, I got eviscerated once which is objectively not great. But literally NONE of it felt as bad as this.





The pain wasn't constant, it strobed through me like a second heartbeat. Bursts of agonizing torment melted my fucking stomach (except they didn't unfortunately) and I just laid there and screamed.





"Don't worry!" Called Bernadette cheerfully through gritted teeth. "It won't kill you. Simply allow the wisdom to wash over you. It's so much less unpleasant when you let the pain into your heart. Oh, but not literally, because that would probably actually kill you. So if it goes near your heart you should take this antidote. If you do so, you will of course forfeit, but worry not about the missed chance for enlightenment. I know the pain of losing this opportunity will be integral to your spiritual growth."





There was a clink and we all jerked up to stare at a bottle on the table. It was tall and sturdy, made of dark blue glass and full of a thick liquid.





We all glared at her, but we didn't have the strength to yell or protest. I just held on suffering. I considered using Mornax, but I didn't think it would DO anything. All I could do was wait it out, screaming and twitching as the agony ripped through me. Oh gods, I could TASTE it. Wait, no, that was just vomit.





Finally, after what seemed like eternity but based on my scan ring was an hour. it subsided. I lay on floor, shaking and sweating, lying in a pool of my own vomit and having spent at least twenty of those sixty minutes just dry heaving. I groaned, climbing back up into my chair to glare at Bernadette, who was sipping a cup of tea, the rest of the food having been cleared.





Tanner was gone. As was Archie. Vesper, Desria, Cavallo, and Ray were the only ones left, and they all still had to shake off their poison. They'd eaten a bit after I had. I glared at her. "You proud of yourself for that shit?" I rasped.





"Very much so." She said excitedly. "We've taken such a marvelous journey together. Do you not feel closer to your fellow trial takers? Do you not understand their struggles?"





"Yes!" I snapped in outrage. "Because they're MY struggles too! I just went through them!"





She clapped in delight. "Precisely! Oh, I do hope you continue on your path, new brother. I feel so close to you now that we've shared this suffering. I believe in time we will become great friends!"





"You POISONED ME!" I shouted, throwing my hands up. "I'm extremely upset at you."





She nodded in satisfaction. "Yes." She said in a glowing tone. "I know. I understand you completely."





"That…IS A VERY FRUSTRATING ATTITUDE!" I screamed at her, even as the others climbed up onto their chairs groggily. She just hummed happily and drank her tea, and I had to bodily restrain myself from diving across the table and attacking her.





As I watched Bernadette 'enlighten' the others, I felt a strong pang of loss. Why couldn't I have gotten edgelord Echelon for my emissary. He'd been a dick, but he was better than THIS. I had a feeling this frustration would get worse before it got better. Fucking Black Sorrow. This was all her fault.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I groaned as I thumped down into my seat in the inn's dining room. "Oh gods. My stomach. What the hell did she give us? I'm still in pain, even after it 'wore off'. Also I'm so hungry, but I can't imagine eating." I looked at the others. "Are you guys hungry?" Dropping all the false formality was a relief, since I actually liked everyone I was working beside here.





Ray moaned pitifully. "Please don't talk about food. I'm pretending to live in a universe where I don't need to consume sustenance to live. Do you think there's a racial trait that lets you live off photosynthesis like a plant? That sounds pretty good right now. Just lay out and work on my tan when I'm hungry."





"Dryad maybe?" I said slowly. "I'm not even sure if they're actually green. I don't think I've ever seen one. Now I'm curious."





"You're really going to keep going?" Vesper said with a groan. "After that? From what the second trial for Delthrys was like, I assume that they get harder. That was…agonizing. I can't imagine the next one will be better. I'm not taking the second one, I'll wait for one of the other gods."





I nodded. "It's what I'm here for. I'm honestly relieved that its not torturing small animals or something. Pain is inevitable."





"You sound like HER." She teased. "Are we going to start hearing long diatribes about pain and how it brings us together. Don't you feel CLOSER to us now Fist?" She crooned that last bit in a sugary voice that was so over the top it couldn't be anything but mocking, and we all burst out laughing, yes, even me.





"Well, when I get offered salvation by the Lady of Lamentation and welcomed into her super special best friends afterlife where everyone is at peace with each other, you guys aren't invited." They stared at me in shock, and I wondered what the hell they were so surprised about, since it had obviously been a joke, until I realized something had felt different. "Huh." I said in my normal voice. "I lost the demon tone just then, didn't I?"





They nodded slowly. "Yeah, it sounds weird." Said Vesper. "Like…human. I don't associate you with that. What brought about this change? You trust us now?"





I shrugged. "I'd already let my real personality show. Might as well drop the pretense." Also voices weren't particularly distinctive, and no one I'd be interacting with had met me. People took pictures of faces, but I doubted anyone was going to be sending recordings of my speaking voice across the galaxy on the off chance I showed up somewhere.





Plus, now that I was in the right series of trials, I had no reason to keep people at arms length. I wasn't competing with any of them anymore. They were all dropping out of the Lamentation trials because they weren't fucking insane (or working for someone insane), and I wasn't taking on any others, so I was officially out of the running for their respective goals.





It felt nice to let my guard down a LITTLE. I'd already accepted maybe making some friends, but this felt different. I could relax a little more, even outside of my downtime and training Bella (she was currently working on her movement technique, hoping to get it functioning after my last round of advice). Of course, a poorly timed spike of stomach pain reminded me I wasn't exactly out of the woods.





This series of trials was going to push me beyond my limits. Mornax might help with some of it, but I was going to have to come up with another technique to help offset some of it. I even had an idea of how it might work.





Triggering Mephistopheles, I focused on the pain in my stomach. That was a mistake, my Focus homed in on the pain, amplifying it, but that didn't matter right now. I let myself feel the suffering, like a flame in my gut, and then I pushed my power into it. Black flame flooded my gut, condensing inside the pit of my stomach into…well, a pit.





I could feel it readying, hungering, I pushed the pain into it, and I felt it slam into that pit and start to break apart. It wasn't enough though. I needed not just a place to put the pain, but a way to shunt it out of the rest of my body. I had to turn myself into a vessel, a spout to pour the agony down that led right into that endless yearning pit of black fire.





I triggered Mornax, then Dark Reflection, False Fatality. Both methods of reflecting or altering the impact of damage. I felt something start to click, to blend together in a familiar way, and suddenly…I felt it snap into place.





A pseudo Domain manifested in me, condensed to the size of my body. The second circle of hell: Gluttony.In the original myths circle two had been Lust, but I had no use for that, and my circles weren't going to follow the original script anyway.





I spun myself a story. About a monstrous place where Mephistopheles and Mornax created a pit of destruction contained within an unbreakable body. A consuming chasm that chewed up their enemies and digested them for strength.





Gluttony was a powerful ability. A condensed domain that operated within the limits of my body. Mornax made me nearly indestructible at my level, but Gluttony didn't just tank damage. It ATE it. Gulped down attacks and burned them away in the destruction of the pit in my stomach. I could feel that it would synergize with Abomination Engine too, providing another way for my body enhancement technique to gain power faster.





The others were staring at me in shock. "What the fuck was THAT?" Desria demanded, having been mostly keeping quiet in her suffering.





"That was a new trick." I laughed. "I can't go into details. Just a technique I was working on."





I'd succeeded too. Gluttony didn't JUST eat pain, but it definitely did that too. It gave me a way to withstand what was coming.





"You just…invent techniques?" Said Ray in an impressed tone. "Because that's kind of terrifying. Most people take a lot longer than…a minute or two to make them. Techniques require focus and structure. Imagination and vision. Making them is one of the hardest parts about being an Ascendant."





He sounded serious, which was kind of a shock coming from Ray. But honestly, what he said didn't seem right to me. My mother's surprise at my ease of technique use had seemed odd to me for a long time. Techniques were easy. You just…made them. You came up with an idea and then put it into practice.





But hearing Ray talk about them like that made it clear that I wasn't the norm. I'd helped a lot of my friends make Techniques, but they didn't have as many as I dad and theirs didn't seem to be as powerful.





Was I really just a natural genius at techniques? I mean, I'd gotten my Path by accident way too early. Was it some mixture of having a lot of Path to work with and a strong soul? It was an intriguing thing to think about. It felt good to have a talent like that, but it seemed to have come from nowhere. If it was Skills I'd get it, the original Wishmaster was a Skill genius, so maybe it was genetic. Could my ability with techniques just be some kind of mutated bloodline talent? Did those even exist?





"Hellooo?" Said Vesper, waving a hand in my face. "Fist, you in there? Or did the black flames on your head literally fry your brain?"





"I was just considering how to tell Ray that he's probably just bad at techniques." I said in a faux contrite tone. "He's already D-rank, I was worried that finding out he's not cut out for being an Ascendant might break his poor little heart."





Desria, Cavallo, and Vesper all burst out laughing. Ray just gasped. "I liked you better when you were pretending to be all menacing and silent." He grumbled. "Talky Fist is mean."





"You're just pissed you don't get to be friends with Devilghost." I snorted. "Sorry I'm not the fictional character you idolized as a kid. I may be badass, but I'm a perfectly normal person under this C-rank armor."





Vesper snorted. "Sorry Fist, but jokes aside, Ray isn't wrong. You absolutely are NOT normal. You have a partial Domain at D-rank, and not a fake one. You also have way more techniques than you should. I'm betting we haven't even seen all of them, but I've seen you use a couple at least."





I suspected she was assuming some of my forms were techniques of their own, which…they almost were? But not really. Still, I wasn't going to explain to them how my powers worked, that would have been absurd. Instead I just shrugged. "It's ok." I consoled them teasingly. "Someday you too may be as strong as I am."


"I mean, that day might be pretty soon." Reasoned Ray. "If you get tortured into insanity by that crazy nun."





"Gee, thanks Ray." I said wryly. "Because I needed more reasons to have nightmares." I paused after that. "Actually, I have surprisingly few nightmares considering all the things I've seen." Admittedly, having Callie around probably helped. I always slept better when my wife was next to me. Which was still a crazy thought to have, but if I went down the 'holy shit I'm married' rabbit hole every time I thought the word wife I'd never do anything else.





I felt a surge of amusement and affection through the bond, and realized that even without a direct communication thought Callie was good enough at reading my emotions to pick up the general shape of my thoughts. I sent a burst of warmth through the bond, just a quick I love you, and got one in return before going back to talking to my new friends.





They were going on about possible trials they might have to face, and some of them made me kind of glad I was locked in on my current series. I wondered how many others would be involved in the trials later on. I was pretty sure that there were other groups of people on Rackham for the selection and they just weren't nearby, there was no way there was less than ten of us total.





On the upside, it would take a…special type of person to follow the path I was taking, so I doubted it would be too busy. I was betting the Lamentation trials were the least popular of all the trials, actually. Which probably improved my chances if I could stick them out.





We spent the rest of the night talking, going on about all the crazy shit we might have to deal with, and talking about what we'd do if we got selected. None of us knew how the internal structure of the vanished gods forces worked, so it was mostly guesswork and nonsense, but it was still a lot of fun.





When the night ended, we said our goodbyes and headed up to our rooms, and I stripped off my armor and flopped into bed. After a quick conversation with my wife to let her know how the trial had gone (and ignore her laughter at my absurd experience) I was finally ready to head to sleep.





Tomorrow I'd be talking to Sister Bernadette again to see how long I'd need to wait for my next trial. I didn't know how many rounds the Lamentation series had, or any of them had, really, but I wanted to get started as soon as possible. Dragging it out was just going to make things ten times more agonizing. Surprisingly, I was smiling as I fell asleep. Painful and imposing things might be, but at the very least I wasn't bored.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After waking up the next morning and stockpiling my wishes (ten with twenty five still in the hands of friends back home) I gathered Bella and headed out to meet Sister Bernadette. "I can't believe I get to go with you this time!" My apprentice was squealing. "I want to see the trials you came here for. I bet you looked so cool resisting the pain like, 'you shall not break me'!" She put on a deep pseudo demon voice that reminded me so much of Bethy it was genuinely terrifying.





"I looked like a shuddering, vomiting, crying mess," I said bluntly. "She poisoned us without telling us, and it was agonizing. I THINK I have a way to counter it, though I'd be shocked if it's completely effective. These trials were designed by a god."





She wrinkled her nose. "Geeze, master. Maybe try to be a bit more dignified. Puking is gross."





"My mistake," I chuckled. "I'll try to suffer in stoic silence next time. I wouldn't want to embarrass you. Speaking of embarrassing, how is you movement technique? Still running into trees?"





"No!" She spat. Then she paused. "It was a cliff this time. It hurt."





Rolling my eyes, I just shook my head. "You need to keep iterating. Change the story behind your technique in little ways, refine it. You can brute force techniques to make them work, but it's easier to alter them to better suit you." It was what I'd done with Limbo and Abomination Engine. Techniques leveraged Fantasy and the power of the soul as a medium to leverage your Path directly on the world around you. They were an embryonic form of Domain usage, and just like Domains, they needed compatibility.





She sighed. "I know. I remember. It's just…this one is so fast. And honestly it might be TOO fast. But it feels like slowing it down would go against my Path. Escape Velocity has to be the fastest I can go."





I hummed in understanding. "Well, I can't exactly solve this for you." I shrugged. "Techniques are deeply personal. I can give you the tools, but you have to figure out how it clicks for you. If it's too fast for you to use functionally, it's not a useful technique. Only you can decide how it needs to work."





We kept walking in silence for a while, until we came to the clearing I'd been directed to, where Sister Bernadette was sitting on a stump. In front of her, a little doe was nuzzling her hand while a squirrel sat on her shoulder. She was cooing to the animals, seemingly enjoying just spending time with them. When we got closer, they heard us and took off, and she made a sad noise and stood, brushing off her habit.





"Sorry about that," I told her with actual contrition. "Though I have to be honest. I didn't expect a pain nun to be all buddy buddy with the animals."





Giggling, she shook her head. "Animals are lovely creatures. Simple and uncomplicated. Humans can be layered and complex, the types of pain you need to go through to truly understand another human are as numerous as the stars in the sky. Animals, in contrast, only know a few types of pain. Hunger. Grief. Injury. If you've known these things, relating to an animal is simple enough."





"That whole relating thing," I asked cautiously. "Are you an ACTUAL Empath? Like is that literal?"





She shrugged. "What is empathy? A sense? An action? I connect to others through shared pain. Of course, I can only connect through pain that we've both endured. There are so many kinds of pain, I could never experience them all. But you and I have shared a pain, and so we are connected. Can't you feel it?"





I couldn't. I had a connection with someone already, and didn't need any more. If Bernadette was really forming empathic connections with everyone she met….I shuddered at the thought.





"So," I said, moving the conversation on. "What's my next task. I was kind of figuring there would be more people here. Don't tell me I'm the only one on the planet who decided to pursue the Lamentation trials?"





"Not at all." She smiled serenely. "But the others won't be joining us yet. There are seven trials that the Mistress demands her chosen persevere through. Only five will be done in the company of others. They will, in fact, be competitions. Those who last the longest will gain favor. However, before reaching the third trial and meeting your future brothers and sisters, you must prove yourself."





I snorted. "The poison didn't do that? Because lasting through that wasn't easy."





Her smile this time was sad. "I'm afraid not. This next trial…it is my least favorite. While all pain is beautiful because it gives understanding, some pains are a sad beauty. The next trial is a pain of the heart, and one I wish we didn't have to inflict."





"I'm not already infected with it am I?" I said cautiously, spinning around to see if I was standing in poison gas or something.





"No," she responded softly. "This must be your own choice." She withdrew a small bottle. "This is Lamentation oil. A holy sacrament of the lady. If you accept the trial, I will pour this over your head, and light it aflame. The flame burns away your courage, and you will be inflicted with not just agony, but crippling fear. A world where there is no safety. No shelter. Nowhere to run. You can give up at any time, but to succeed you must endure until the flames burn out."





That was…ominous. My new domain would help with the pain, but I didn't think it could eat emotions. And especially not a lack of them. It sounded hellish. But I'd been through worse. Nothing could be more horrible than the total isolation under which I'd broken my schalke in the Ruined Soul Temple. If I could withstand that I could handle anything.


"I'm in," I said with a slow breath. "Go ahead and do it. If I can't take it, you said I can give in? You have a way to put it out?"





She nodded solemnly, pulling out another bottle. "Water from an arctic spring on a light based planet. This will quell the flames and soothe your agony. Are you ready to start?" I nodded, and she stashed the second bottle, uncorking the first and upending it over my head. The glass was black tinted, the bottle unassuming on rectangular, and as she dumped it onto me, I grimaced at the strange feeling.





It was like…shampoo. More than anything else. A thick and viscous chill dumping into my hair and sloughing down the sides of my head, seeping into my armor at the neck and running down my chest and arms. It was almost freakishly cold, nearly burning my skin with the chill…and then she clicked her fingers, and the oil caught fire.





Pain. My world was consumed with pain. This wasn't like the pain from the poison, this was so much deeper. A burning inside, eating away at my confidence. It hurt, sure, but worse than that was the fear. Was this going to permanently scar me, would Callie stop loving me, would people avoid me, would I lose feeling in my skin, would I lose my abilities? The fire seeped into my soul, dripping into the cracks in my courage and burning away inside me.





Crazy theories, absurd worries, a million different worst case scenarios. The air on my skin was eating away at me, animals circled above ready to attack, germs in the air could be infecting me. I didn't scream, because I was so afraid that someone would hear and know I was vulnerable, so I stifled it, horrible broken noises erupting from my chest as I choked back my cries of agony.





I was crying, because of course I was. The world was awful and everything was trying to hurt me. I triggered Gluttony, just as a last resort, and I felt the physical pain leach away as it poured into the pit inside me. It wasn't perfect. I still felt the pain, it was just brief, sliding through me and seeming to take hold less, but still hurting me on a surface level.





The fear didn't end though, didn't stop. I was hyperventilating, suffocating from unrelenting terror. I hadn't wanted this, hadn't been ready for this. No one was ready for this. I was going to die. I wanted to give up, but I was so paralyzed by terror I couldn't bring myself to try to speak.





And then I felt something shift inside me. The fear started to crack, then recede. I dissected the worries, the trauma. Explained patiently to myself how unlikely each scenario was. It shouldn't have worked, not out of nowhere, not when it hadn't before. But then I realized what it was. Callie. She was lending me her courage. Giving me the strength that was being taken by the flames.





It felt like a thousand years I was burning. A million. But eventually the flames started to flicked and then went out, a sickly grey fire I only really saw toward the end guttered and vanished, leaving me whole and intact, not even ash in my hair.


I put my hands on my knees, panting, sweat dripping from every inch of me, throat sore from the screaming I'd been holding back. Bernadette stared at me sadly. "It takes true strength to endure such a trial." She said gently. "The oil is a test that only our most pious undergo outside of selections like this. You've done very well." She pulled a piece of paper from the air, passing it to me. "You've earned your place in the third selection."





There were directions on the paper, and I memorized them before I put it away, just in case. "Thanks." I rasped. "I'm going to go ahead and go."





"I understand," she said with a smile. "I know you may be upset with me for this. It is a cruel trial. But I'm very proud of you for the courage you showed, new brother. Please know that this particular pain is not one I inflict lightly, nor am I ignorant of the toll it demands. You've done well."





I didn't have the strength to respond with anything more than a nod. I turned and limped out of the clearing, Bella trailing behind. My muscles were sore and torn, violent cramps and seizing from the fear had caused very real damage that the fire hadn't. My apprentice slid under my arm, propping me up. "I've got you, master."





"So," I croaked wryly. "What did we learn?"





"That not everything is an adventure." Her voice was quiet and hollow. "Some things need to be done, but I need to be aware that they'll cost me. That was…master, what could be worth paying that kind of cost?"





Smiling sadly, I just shook my head. "Family, Belladonna. Family."





I didn't elaborate, and she didn't ask, which I was grateful for. My throat hurt and I was exhausted. I just wanted to walk in silence, and my apprentice seemed to have picked up on that desire. Given how much Bella talked, I was grateful for her forbearance. The whole trip could have been much worse.





In my soul, I felt a soothing trickle of warmth. Callie couldn't use Zagan to heal me over a long distance, the power she had access to came from the bond so it didn't work that way. Still, it was nice having her love and care patch the cracks in my psyche. Because there were still cracks. That flame had damaged me in a very real way, even if it hadn't caused me physical hard. I hoped that whatever the next trial was, it was more physical and less metaphysical. I could deal with bodily harm, but this mental torment really fucked me up. I suppose I would see at the next trial. Only three days to go.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next two days mostly passed without incident. I didn't spend them crying in bed or anything, but Callie's shadow was definitely there for me while I slept. I was able to use Zagan to help purify some of the lingering effects myself, though I still had a few mental cobwebs. I didn't feel like working on wishes, so I just piled my extra sixteen into the ring, which brought me to fifty one total, counting the ones my friends had outside the ring.

Tomorrow was going to be my next trial, and I wasn't exactly thrilled about it, so instead of dwelling, I decided to spend some time working with my apprentice.

"Now," I told her as we hiked out to a clearing in the woods. "Here's where we take the next step in your training. You have your movement technique, but now you need to learn to use it for actual combat. Moving from safe and stable locations is fine for a beginner, but you neat to be able to not only trigger your technique but properly control it in the heat of battle, and that takes practice."

She frowned. "I guess…" she said slowly. "I was going to say Escape Velocity is aimed at escaping rather than active combat, but I could escape attacks as you make them, so it should work. It's more built to disengage than dodge thought."

"Not always an option." I said bluntly. "Sometimes you're dealing with someone faster in flat out acceleration and you need to move around constantly, sometimes you're in a confined space and the entrance is blocked, sometimes you're injured in a way that makes sustained flight impossible but you can still move in short bursts. There are lots of reasons to learn this. Now, you brought your staff?"

She held up the three foot stick confidently. "I went with a smaller version. More maneuverability."

"You sure you want to learn to use one?" I asked. "While it's true that I want to try to pass on my Goetia Staff Art, I'm not sure it can be done. I've never tried to teach a unique Skill before." And I technically wasn't now. Goetia was almost a subskill, though my forms DID have a base of stats like any other Skill, which should make them learnable.

Teaching Bella the staff are was something I'd waffled over. I wanted to see if she could learn, but at the same time, it could hypothetically give me away. I didn't think it was TOO big a risk, given how few people knew the details of my power, but it was a chance I was taking on my apprentice. Still, she'd helped me out so much with my Path, and I wanted to pay her back somehow. Sincere instruction seemed like the easiest way.

She nodded seriously. "I totally want to. I've been practicing all the movements you've taught me. All the underlying staff styles of each of your forms." She didn't understand what a form was yet, really, she just thought I meant it in the sense most martial arts would. Practicing the actual martial arts component of the art seemed like the best place to start.

I'd created a unique style of combat for each of my forms, as part of designing the Staff Art. Mephistopheles involved lots of powerful blows and thrusting slams, Belial lots of deflection, I'd been working on proper styles for my more recent forms, and Bael involved lots of feints, but that was the only one I'd gotten so far.

"You get a Skill yet?" I asked hopefully. This was still kind of a proof of concept thing, and even a Minor Skill would be a huge coup.

She shook her head in frustration. "Not yet. I feel like I'm close though."

"Alright, then this might help." I gestured for her to step into the clearing. "Adding your movement technique in will bring you closer to how I actually use my Staff Art. And fighting against it will show you more of how it works. Just stick to the styles I showed you as we fight, there are movements that should work in any situation. I'll do the same, and we can try to get you that Skill."

She grinned eagerly, and I took up a combat position. "So, your first task…don't go down too easily." I moved. Black flames exploded as I vanished, appearing next to her, staff whirling as I brought it smashing toward her head.

Her own burst of flames flared up, but I was already moving, my Waltz carrying me to the spot her eyes had landed on as I continued my whirling series of strikes. Her eyes widened and she squeaked as my staff cracked down on her knee, taking a tumble and landing on the ground with a hiss of pain, cradling her leg.

"Lesson number one." I said as I whirled my staff in lazy figure eights. "Reactive movements are fine, but always know where you're going after your next step. One move ahead means you have no wiggle room. Your need to look around and find an escape route gave me time to mark your next move. If you'd planned ahead, I'd have had to chase you."

Wincing, she climbed to her feet. "Two moves ahead." She said forcefully. "Got it."

"Three is better, but that gets complicated," I admitted. "So yeah, two is fine for now. Reset and let me know when you're ready."

She steadied herself, took a deep breath, and then nodded. I blazed forward, appearing behind her, and she vanished. I noticed the slight flare of heat preceding her move and Waltzed across the distance, marking her again, but this time I was the one reacting. Sadly for her I was doing it in armor that enhanced my black flame, and with a very advanced movement technique.

My staff struck out at her head, but to my delight, she deflected it. Belial. Grinning I came in for another attack, and she stood her ground, defensive staff work bleeding off the power of my strikes ala Mornax, and thrusts towards my joints in response with Mepjistopheles.

I could have easily overpowered her, but I pulled back a bit, letting her vanish again before catching up and pressuring her more. The point of this was for her to learn, not take a beating, which meant I needed to pace myself. She was picking things up, and I was excited to see exactly what she could manage.

We battled like that, vanishing and appearing across the clearing, staves clashing against each other as we ran the gamut of the moves I'd taught her, then circled back for more. She looked like she was tiring, but I didn't pull back any more than I was. She needed to learn, and that meant at least some pressure. I couldn't say when the change happened, but it definitely did. Between one second and the next, something about her staff work just…changed.

I was striking at her knee again (because it was safer than head shot), when her staff licked out and tapped mine. Rather than bounce it away or even slide it off her staff, I felt the force sort of…bend. True deflection, and as I glanced at my weapon, I could have sworn I saw a faint flicker of green.

Backing off, I waited for a reaction, and sure enough, she froze, staring down at her hands and then back up to me. "Master…" she said quietly. "I did it. I got the Skill. Minor Goetia Staff Mastery."

I grinned manically. That was amazing. I could TEACH my staff art. I considered teaching it to my friends, and I would offer through Callie, but I doubted they'd take me up on it. Versatile and powerful as it might be, making any progress learning it would require full dedication.

Ascendants, by and large, picked one or two Skills to focus on, and they were usually either very basic or part of their ability. The only people I'd seen go the other way were people with Jobs that leaned toward multi-skilling, like Mages, who I was pretty sure had some kind of meta-skill to make them learn faster.

At the end of the day, even I had to choose between having a lot of Skills and just one or two. I'd just cheated by making my one major Skill absurdly diversified, and by getting a second ability so it would grow with without needing to be manually trained.

I was well aware that without my second ability, not only would I not be nearly as powerful in terms of my Path and techniques, but I'd probably never have managed to get my DS Mastery to Master. Even getting it to Intermediate had been a colossal task, and the effort had been unknowingly weakening the Skill as I'd mashed new ones into it, effectively preventing me from ever using it to create a Chronicle.

You could be known for being really good at one thing, or you could be decent at everything, but you couldn't do both without some kind of workaround.

Bella, however, was on the lookout for a decent combat style. Her 'escape' ability wasn't suited for the kind of lifestyle she wanted to live, and she was willing and able to give her full focus to the Goetia Staff Art. Which was something I realized I WANTED. Part of me wanted to pass on my legacy. I was excited at the possibility that something I created would pass on to future generations.

I held out a hand, pulling her to her feet. "Good work." I said proudly. "Of course, a Minor Skill is nothing. You'll need to grind it up to at least Intermediate before it'll be much use. But hey, you've got plenty to work on. Did you feel a little bit of Belial there just then?"

She nodded eagerly. "I did! It felt like some of the power from the deflection seeped into your staff."

"It did, though it was such a minute amount there was no chance it was going to damage a weapon like mine." I laughed at her disappointed pout. "Don't get down on yourself, a Minor Skill isn't much, like I said. I doubt anyone could have seriously damaged my staff with a Minor Skill at D-rank. It's a good sign though, because it means you're learning."

She nodded slowly. "So, in order to use the energy like you do, I have to use the corresponding style?"

"I imagine so." I said with a shrug. "I created the Skill, so it makes sense I'd be able to use it differently. It's ultimately a martial art, so you need to use certain moves to get certain effects." Benefits of a unique Skill, I supposed. I could just trigger forms with a thought, because the Goetia Staff Art was part of me. But being able to use the forms by mimicking the style was still a huge boost in power if she got it to a decent level.

For my part, I was nearly vibrating with excitement. I'd CREATED a Skill that other people could learn. I'd known that was a thing, in retrospect, but my own personal experiences and creations felt so personal. It was crazy to think that anyone could learn what I could do, if I decided to teach them.

It was a little different, and I was pretty sure she could never pass my own rank in it, but that hardly mattered. I'd contributed to the universe. I'd made something that was a part of this crazy world I lived in, and I was proud.

"Well," I said as she finished processing. "Getting the Skill was just step one. We still need to get it higher. Back in position, we're going again. I'm going to make sure you can use that staff properly if it kills you." Her elated expression became wary, but I just smirked behind my mask and got into position. She needed to learn, and if this part of the training helped me vent some of my frustrations at my own mentors…well, two birds and all that. I'd never claimed to be perfect.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I woke up and got my wishes converted to scrolls before heading to the meeting place where I was told to wait for Bernadette. This next trial was going to be my first with the other potential selection candidates, and I was kind of curious how they were planning to do this one.

Obviously it was competitive, but how did you compete on who could handle the most pain? See how many times each of us could handle being stabbed? I felt my gut clench at the thought and immediately regretted even putting it out there into the ether. I knocked on a nearby tree as I passed, a weird little ritual I'd read about that was supposed to diffuse bad luck.

When I arrived at the spot where Bernadette had directed me, I was surprised to see several other people there. A dour looking girl with a shaved head occupied only by a single spiked up strip of green hair, a tall man with a craggy face and a pair of extremely oversized gauntlets, and a motherly woman with long black hair and a kind smile.

When they saw me, the reactions were varied. The older woman smiled and nodded to me in welcome, glove guy looked away, and the green haired girl sneered at me in what I assume was meant to be menace. "Great," she snorted. "First it's poser mommy and captain oven mitts, and now frankenposer. What's next? A clown?"

"Seems like that position is filled." I snapped reflexively. "At least I assume the circus is where they trained you to wear that much makeup."

She froze, staring at me in outrage for a second, before bursting out laughing. "Well, at least you're not as boring as you look, tin man. Do you have a name, or should I just keep calling you 'can o' dark' in my head? I'm Mnemosyne."

"Mephistopheles," I responded slowly. "People around here just call me Fist. You're not…offended?"

She shrugged. "The fuck do I care if you like my makeup. Not like I wore it for you. Besides, with that hideous fucking mask on your face you're not exactly in a position to throw stones. More like the opposite really, bet if we stuck you in the middle of town in a stockade you'de have all the local kids reaching for some rocks."

"Honestly," said the older woman. "There's no need to be so…gauche. We're all competitors here, but we can still behave civilly."

Mnemosyne nodded to her. "That's why I call her poser mommy. She keeps saying shit like that." She glared at the woman. "You're not my mom, lady. Stop trying to tell me what to do, or I'll get annoyed."

"I wonder what THAT would be like?" I said sarcastically. I turned to the older woman, ignoring the green haired girl's diatribe. "As I mentioned to Mnemosyne, I'm Mephistopheles."
She smiled warmly. "Elena. It's lovely to meet you. Just because we'll be at odds in the trial doesn't mean we should abandon our manners. My daughter is the same age as she is, so I'm somewhat used to the sass."

I admit…I was kind of thrown. This woman didn't strike me as being some hardened warrior, or alternatively as being nuts. That fucking ego fire had almost broken me, and probably would have without Callie. How had these three all gotten through it.

But, of course the answer was the same way I had. They had tricks. Talents that lent themselves to this series of trials. Methods to manage or divert the pain. Underestimating someone because they seemed like somebody's mom, or because they had a foul mouth, was a recipe for another knife in my back. Travis might be dead, but the lessons he'd taught me were alive and well.

"Oh, lovely." Said the cheerful voice of Bernadette as she arrived with another entrant. This one was a dark skinned guy about my age, though much smaller than me. He was probably five foot ten, with amber eyes and sharp cheekbones. His eyes were cold and flat, scanning the rest of us with interest, though without any malice.

"Bernadette." I nodded to her. "Who's your friend?"

She beamed. "This is Harper. He's one of your competitors. I see you've met Mnemosyne, Elena, and Ajax. They were all the closest entrants that made it through. This is a large planet, so each of my brothers and sisters were given a wide area to oversee. That's why some of you had our trial on the first day of the second week, some the second, etcetera. Before we leave for the testing ground, does anyone have any questions?"

"Yeah," said Mnemosyne. "Where the fuck are you taking us? What is this trial."

Chuckling, Bernadette just shook her head. "Don't be silly, new sister. If I told you that it would spoil the surprise. That said, I AM allowed to tell you that there's a prize for this particular task. Incentives become a possibility once we enter the competitive phase. I can hardly wait to see what the mistress has gifted us for your reward."

She sounded so perfectly happy it was easy to forget we were probably about to be tortured in some horrible way. "Ok." I chimed in. "Well how do we get there?"

Smiling, she raised her fingers to her lips, letting out an ear splitting whistle. There was a rustle, and the trees parted, revealing a silver coach, flying through the air and pulled by…otters? Yeah, they were flying otters.

They slid to a stop in the middle of the clearing, and Bernadette gestured for us to enter. I stepped up first, pulling open the coach door and climbing inside, followed closely by the other candidates. Harper was the next one in, then Mnesmosyne, then Elena. Ajax, aka captain oven mitts, was the last to enter, his craggy face looking dour and serious as he scanned the area for threats. Or I suppose other threats, since we would all probably count.

We didn't talk much on the ride over. This sense of almost universal tension had come over us, like the world was holding its breath. We were all about to willingly torture ourselves for the approval of a goddess of torment and an as yet undisclosed 'prize'. I was sure we all had our reasons, but still, I think it was just sinking in for some of us. Or maybe they were all trying to come up with a new muffin recipe, I didn't fucking know these people.

Luckily, it was a short trip, at least as far as these things go. Twenty minutes and we stopped. "Alright, is everyone ready?" Bernadette asked eagerly. She didn't seem upset like the last time, so I was pretty sure that meant THIS task was just going to be physical agony, instead of soul breaking flames of hopedeath.

At our affirmations, she grinned and threw open the door. We were hanging in midair, not that it mattered to any of us. Even on a B-rank planet a twenty foot drop wasn't enough to ruffle any of us.

Below us was a small lake with a smaller island in the middle. The water in the lake was blood red and boiling, and seemed to darken as it approached the middle where that one single spire of rock sat untouched. "Welcome," crowed Bernadette excitedly. "To the lake of judgement! We had it moved here from a dreadworld in the Acteon cluster. I'm so jealous you all get to undergo such an amazing trial!"

"Um…" I said cautiously. "What IS that shit? And what does it do, other than apparently hurt a lot. Or I mean, I'm assuming."

"Oh, no, it definitely hurts a lot," she confirmed. "But it's not JUST pain, it's also a test. You'll all enter at the bank, which is equidistant from that island in the middle. Each step will not only increase the pain, but will increase the pressure on you. The further you walk, the deeper your suffering, and the harder it is to take even another step."

Mnemosyne blanched. "Wait, we're going to be going UNDER that lake? Like submerged? How the fuck do we survive that? Whatever that shit is, I doubt it's supposed to be in a person's lungs. Are we supposed to hold our breath?"

"Not at all," chirped Bernadette. "Breathe freely. The water is highly oxygenated. You won't drown." She paused. "Well, you won't drown ALL THE WAY. Fluid will enter your lungs and it will be agonizing, and it'll get worse as you go on, but that's part of the trial. You'll even be given a special rock to crush in case of emergency. After all, it's not a competition if you can't forfeit."

Around us, other people were arriving, or some were already here. There was a huge cross section of humanity surrounding the lake, and some other things too. I saw some fae, a devil or two, and I think at least one demon. There were easily a hundred people there, and I was shocked so many could handle the trials before. "So, what happens if we use the rock?" I asked as I scanned the forming crowd. "Are we out of the trials?"

"Not at all," she said serenely. "We've passed the point of expulsion. It's unnecessary in any case. The first two rounds are meant to weed out those too fragile to survive the trials. They're a mercy from Our Lady to prevent the unnecessary breaking of her possible supplicants. From this point, you're trusted to know your own limits. You won't be expelled, but you can drop out of the trials at any time if it becomes too much."

That was surprisingly cuddly for a torture goddess, but then, the order of mercy seemed to be the nice side of the Lady of Lamentation's worshippers, for some values of the word. I wasn't going to complain that they weren't sadistic enough.

"Well, come along new brothers and sisters," Bernadette said energetically. "We need to get you all in position to begin the trials once everyone arrives. Oh, and of course, as I mentioned, there is a prize. The first one to make it to the center will receive…" She squinted at the island. "I feel like that's some kind of egg?" She shrugged. "Guess we'll find out soon! How exciting."

She led us to the shore of the lake, lining us all up, and some of the others took positions at our sides. A single line of candidates ringing the entire lake, side by side and all the same distance from victory.

"So, the rest of you as terrified about this as I am?" I asked the others in my group.

Mnemosyne snorted. "Hell no, I'm way more terrified than you. You can't even come close to how pantshittingly terrified I am right now. Get on my level."

I burst out laughing. "Is everything a competition with you? Wait, no, don't answer that, you'll probably tell me it's more of a competition for you than it is for me." At her sulky glare, I snickered loudly. "I totally nailed your reaction, didn't I?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Children," she said chidingly. "Can we focus please?" As she spoke, her skin started to shift, red metal rolling across the surface of her body as her eyes started to glow a deep crimson. "It's time to be serious now. Because I'm certainly not going to hold back just because you amuse me."

Snickering, I let Gluttony pour forth, my body turning stony as the pit of black flame swallowed my gut. "Feel free not to hold back at all." I boomed in my demon voice. "It won't make a difference."

Across the shore I saw figures shifting and changing. Some becoming powerful hulking brutes, some shifting to forms like humanoid slimes, and some just manifesting small signs of energy use. All of them looked confident though, readying for battle, and I hoped my advantages were enough. I had a feeling this wouldn't be easy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first step into the lake was agonizing. My foot passed into the water and pain poured into me. It rolled up my, into the pit in my stomach, but it left trails of broken glass dragging through me as it passed. It wasn't the same as I suspected it would be on its own though. Pain, energy, all of that poured into the pit and sat there. I triggered Abomination Engine, and the power roared through me, pulsing in time with the beat of my racing heart.


Another step, and I was up to my knees, more contact and more pain, but it flooded me with strength as the consumed power fed back into my enhancement technique. My face stretched into a vicious grin as I continued moving.


Beside me, Elena was wading in, red eyes blazing as the boiling crimson water rose around her metallic red form. Her teeth were bared in a rictus of pain, a mockery of the kind smile she'd had earlier, but her eyes didn't just blaze with power, they flared with determination. I tore my gaze away, focusing on the island completely, then I stepped forward again, submerging up to my chest.


The pit in my stomach pulled the pain through me like water down a drain. Not only was it emptying my body, it was increasing the rate of entry, making the agony hit me much faster. It was pretty much an even trade in terms of utility, so I ignored it, and without much preamble, I took my final step off into the lake and my head went under.


Madness. Liquid horror and torment pouring into my lungs, exploding into me like jet fuel that combusted as I inhaled, setting off mushroom clouds of torture in my lungs and flashes of agony behind my eyes.


I froze for a second, my body locked with fire and fury pouring through me. My instinct was to stop, to hold my breath and not let the water in, but that was the trick. We needed to breathe, even us, especially as we got deeper and the pressure redoubled. On a B-rank planet, we weren't nearly as strong, and the constant crushing weight of the D-ranked lake around us made breathing a necessity.


My hand flexed around the rock I'd been given, a chalky red stone that I could crush without thinking. I had to be careful not to flex and powder the thing by mistake.


It took me a minute or two to adjust to the new dimension of horror, but I got there. I breathed through the pain, letting it flow through me and out of me into the pit. It was horrible, and I choked and gagged on the liquid agony in my lungs, cramping and spasming at the pain, but eventually I managed to get past it.


Once I could breathe without seizing up, I took another step, an experimental step. I was paying close attention to the sensations of entry, so I was well aware of the slight increase in the physical strain of moving forward. I felt…not weaker exactly, but like the water was denser. Like I was walking through jello, but jello that could affect a D-ranker. Admittedly, it was still pretty watery jello at this point, but I could feel it getting harder.


I turned my head, Eye of Revelation flaring, to try to see the people around me. I could, at the moment, though the deeper I got the more opaque the water became. How that worked in terms of actual fluid dynamics and water intermingling I had no clue, but I decided 'Ascendant bullshit' was as close to accurate as ever and decided to ignore it.


That proved to be a timely decision, because my casual glance around picked up a slight shift in the water. Danger Sense was screaming at me, mostly because I was being TORTURED and it was pretty much maximum dangerous to keep moving, and I was ignoring that like a dumbass. Which, you know, fair enough. But that meant I had no warning other than my eyes when one of the nearby walkers tried to perforate me with a spear.


Moving through weird superpressure water wasn't as easy as he seemed to think though. The spear was sluggish, and I slipped aside with ease, my hands clamping around the shaft as it passed.


The other guy started jerking back, but his eyes widened when he realized his spear wasn't moving. Every beat of my heart increased the power flooding my Abomination Engine, and it wasn't just that either. Gluttony was a pseudo Domain, and that meant it was MUCH more effective at what it did than Limbo.


The power flooding me kept rising, kept making me stronger, and I couldn't feel it slowing down. No cap, no ceiling. I felt like I could keep getting stronger forever. I was guessing that WASN'T the case, but my limits were far more elastic than they were using the technique normally, and I was already ferociously powerful.


This was, however, a very niche technique. Having nonstup input to pump me like this was obviously not replicable. Sure, this would be useful in combat, but I wasn't likely to find the circumstances to become a juggernaut like this again.


I also realized that while something like grabbing a spear let me use my full strength, actual movement was restrained by the water, and a fight wasn't likely to go well for me down here. So I didn't have one.


Turning, I took a step, and then another, shoving myself against the pressure as the pain redoubled. Moving faster seemed to ramp the agony, which wasn't ideal, but it was much worse than that for spear guy. I fucking DRAGGED him deeper, stepping implacably forward, pulling us both into the stygian depths as the torture rolled through my body.


He finally couldn't take it anymore, letting go and crushing his rock. I looked down at the reasonably pricey D-ranked spear in my hands and shrugged, stashing it in my ring before resuming my underwater trek. I looked around for any others, but it seemed like I'd pulled ahead of most. I saw others close to my depth, but they were all a ways away, in different parts of the lake leaving their own nearby candidates in the dust.


The opacity of the water was climbing, making it hard to see more than a few feet away, the deeper I got the darker it became. The pain, the pressure, it was unbearable. Except it wasn't. I could bear it, could hold up, and I did. One foot in front of the other, all I needed was another step, and another, and another. One more step, on repeat.


I could have reached for Callie, could have pulled on her resolve, but I didn't want that. I wanted to get through this myself. This was my trial, and it was only the first. If I couldn't hack it with all my cheats at number three of seven, I wasn't going to get through this, and that wasn't fucking acceptable. I owed this to my family.


Which was a weird thought, given all the resentment and regret involved in my situation, but there it was. I wanted this for them. I wanted to give my mom a hug in public without worrying about being hunted down, I wanted to introduce my sister to new my friends, I wanted to visit my grandparents at the home where Chelsea had grown up and see for myself what that side of the family was like.


And that spurred me onward. It gave me strength, and purpose. Contrary to what most people will tell you, pain isn't actually the end of the world. Pain is a response to stimuli, a consequence of damage, and the reason we fear it so much is the primal understanding that every time we feel pain, damage might be occurring that we can never recover from.


But as Ascendants, the rules for what can and can't be recovered from are wildly different. Pain is, in some ways, a vestige of our mortality. An outdated fear response that is so ingrained in who we are that it's hard coded into the human psyche, even when we've left our old bodies far behind.


I reached a state of equilibrium. Agony pouring in, power poring out. My muscles started to strain under the pressure, bones creaking. Even my domain enhanced body wasn't going to hold out forever. I had no clue how anyone else was keeping up with me, or if they even were, because the water was pitch black as I sunk deeper and deeper into the endless abyss. My mind reached a sort of…peace. The peace of complete and utter satiation of sensation, of feeling too much and not being able to process any of it.


Then I hit the wall. Not metaphorically, I literally walked right into a rock face. Surprisingly it kind of hurt. I ignored that, my fingers skimming over the rock until I found purchase, and then I started to climb.


I really hoped this wasn't just some random outcropping I was wasting time with, but I'd run across literally no debris on the floor of the lake as I descended, so somehow I doubted it. I hauled on the rock, pulling myself up, and it took all the strength I had in my body. When I found balance, my other hand reached up, searching, and then I did it again.


If I'd thought the steps were hard, the climb was IMPOSSIBLE. Every single movement was more effort than I was physically capable of. Each time I stopped, I was sure I'd never start again, that this would be the movement that would kill me. Each time I reached up, my arm was shaking with the effort and when my fingers dug into the cliff, I was barely in time to latch on before my muscles gave out forever and I fell back into the dark, hungry water.


I lost track of time, of light, of space and thought and anything but pain and struggle, and when my hand finally broke the water, the lack of agony in that part of my body nearly made me let go of the rock and fall back into the lake, because I was convinced someone had cut my fucking arm off. The sensation of not hurting was so alien to me at this point I thought my fucking LIMB was missing.


Once I realized what it was, I scrambled to find a handhold, and with all the strength left in me, I HAULED, my muscles tearing under the sheer effort, even with the power from my domain and technique flooding me.


When I slumped down on the rock, exhausted, I let my technique fall away, let Gluttony recede, and felt the pounding of soul strain wrack my head as all the power debt I'd been deferring hit me at once. That had been the most exhausting thing I'd done with my soul since F-rank, and from what I could tell I was fucking MICRONS away from cracking it in a way I couldn't undo.


But I didn't have time to mope around. Now the soul strain was gone, and it was just bodily exhaustion. That was nothing compared to what I'd just been through. I staggered to my feet, knowing that I had to keep going. I didn't see anyone else, and that meant I was first.


I scrabbled up the incline of the rock, slipping and staggering until I reached the top, where I found a small, intricate nest woven of black brambles. When I reached down to pick up the nest, I hissed as the thorns somehow slid through my armor without breaching it, tearing into my flesh, and my blood dripped between the joints to spill onto the egg.


Stashing it away without time to look at it, I turned to leave, only to find Bernadette there waiting. I slipped and tumbled forward, and she caught me without effort. "Easy there, new brother," she chuckled. "Your journey is done. Let me take you back across. You earned it." And that was the last thing I heard before I blacked out. Damn it. I thought I'd broken that habit.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up in a dimly lit room with a headache. This was pretty consistent with my unfortunately vast experience as an unconscious person, so it actually took me a second to remember why that wasn't where I was supposed to be. If my people had been around, I'd have got it, Callie or Benny or even Abel might have toted my metal clad ass back to the inn to sleep off my soul trauma hangover.

But I HADN'T been with my friends. I'd been mostly alone with a bunch of randoms I didn't know, and I'd just won a PRIZE. Honestly, passing out would have been legitimately stupid of me if I'd had any actual control over it happening. My sole saving grace here was that if I was beat up from that anyone else should have been just as crushed.

"You're awake," said a voice from the dark. Not like…inside the dark, FROM the dark. A literal shadow manifested from the unlit portions of the room…in the shape of my wife. Who did not look pleased with me. At all.

I chuckled weakly. "Hi honey, fancy seeing you here. Guess you really missed me, huh?"

"To clarify a point you apparently missed," she said as she glared at me. " 'Don't do this until D-rank, it'll definitely kill you, but even after that wait until you condense your Chronicle', does NOT mean 'once you hit D-rank it'll probably be fine'. And it definitely doesn't mean you should not only ignore the very considerate advice not to use your pseudo Domain, but MAKE ANOTHER ONE!" She was hissing like a snake by the end, her eyes narrowed in incandescent rage.

I swallowed hard. She didn't get this angry with me very often, especially not lately. I must have really scared her. "In my defense…it seemed ok the first time?"

"Shane!" she barked. "You could have DIED. Permanently. If your soul breaks before Mirror you're gone forever. No resurrection, no wishes, not even a GOD could bring you back!"

Her voice was choked, tears streaming down her face. I didn't even know the shadow clones could cry. "Do you really care that little about me? That it doesn't even bother you to nearly kill yourself less than a year after our wedding?"

That one hit me like a punch in the gut. "I…I honestly didn't think about it like that." I said softly. "I should've. It was selfish and stupid and I let my ego run away with me. I could say that I need the Gluttony domain to survive this…and honestly it might be true. But I didn't make a conscious decision to take the risk, and I won't pretend I did. I was just being an idiot. I thought since I got through it before that I'd be fine. What happened to me? Can you tell?"

"Your soul is cracked," she whispered. "And it's very weak right now. Life Nova will help. You're lucky your bullshit healing form works on soul damage. Your mom had an expert on hand teach me how to diagnose soul damage. She's furious by the way, and if straining the bond too much wasn't dangerous, she would be here right now yelling at you."

I winced. "Ok, so what do I need to do besides Life Nova. Beelzebub should let me use it on myself. I assume there's something else though. You don't just sound angry, you sound afraid."

"You can't use more than two forms at a time for the next week. Your healing will need to come first. I talked to that red metal woman, Elena, when she got you back here. We owe her a thank you, by the way." She hesitated. "But theres another trial in five days. Which means…"

"Which means," I finished. "That I'm going to have to tank the next torture trial with sheer willpower, without any cheating abilities beyond Mornax to keep my body intact."

Which wasn't as impossible as it sounded. The reason I had injured myself was that I'd been trying to WIN, not just survive. Speaking of winning, I reached into my ring, pulling out the egg that I'd gotten from the island.

"By the way, think you could ask Jessie if she has any clue what this is?" I asked hopefully/. "Seems like a long shot, honestly, and I'll ask Bernadette when I see her, but a little extra info couldn't hurt." She stared at me impassively for a second, and I felt the indecision through the bond. Callie was scared, and hurt, and angry…but she was also relieved. She was glad I was ok, and she didn't necessarily want to focus on our fight any more than I did.

That might have been a cop out on my part, really. I was on the other side of the galaxy on a suicide mission, of course she didn't want things to be awkward. Changing the subject was more for me than for her, but it was for her a little bit. Being in a fight was going to make her already hellish experience waiting for something bad to happen to me worse, and I didn't want that.

"I'll have her check," she finally said with a sigh. "It does seem like it could be something cool. You, meanwhile, need to go see your friends. Your apprentice was about to try to fight every person who was at that trial with you." She smirked. "I like her. She's gutsy. Hopelessly outclassed and unaware of her own limits, but then, I wonder where she got that from?"

This time, the jab was light hearted, with only a little sting. She walked over and sat on the bed, removing my mask to give me a soft kiss and then press her forehead to mine. "I was promised a long life together, Shane Wyndham. If you die and cheat me out of that, I will hunt you down in whatever afterlife you end up in and kick your incorporeal ass. Just…be safe? Safer than this at least."

"I'll figure something out," I promised. "I can't tell you I'll never use my domains again, but I'll talk to Zeke. There has to be some way to protect my soul until I finish my Chronicle. Maybe some equipment or something that can offset the strain."

I expected her to snap at me to just quit trying to use the ability. I might have done that, if it was her in the bed. Instead, she paused. "That's…an interesting idea. I don't know how viable it might be. But we do have the rings to transfer things to you. I'll talk to your mom. Even if Zeke can't help, maybe she can. In the meantime, your soul is on bedrest. If I feel you straining it beyond what we talked about, I will NEVER forgive you. You hear me Shane? No cute little quips about withholding sex or kicking your ass. If you ignore me and hurt yourself in a way that can't be fixed, you'll be breaking my heart. I don't know if we'll ever get past it." She was crying again, and I started to panic.

"Whoa!" I said as I wrapped my arms around her. "I'm not stupid or suicidal. I don't think things through, but I would never purposefully ignore you for no reason and hurt myself. No more than two forms at a time, Life Nova healing, no domains. I promise."

"And no more than one or two parallels," she added. "You know how Piece of Mind scales. If you desperately need more than that offload the strain to the bond. But even that should wait until your first Life Nova session. Which I expect to be tonight. As soon as you finish talking to whoever you need to speak to about winning. Now put your mask back on, remember it protects you from divination."

With a laugh, I scooped it off the bed and deposited it back on my face. "Well?" I asked her expectantly. "Don't I look pretty?"

"Yes," she deadpanned. "Pretty frustrating. I love you, Shane. I'm sorry I got so mad. I just…I should be there. We should be together, like always. I know you don't need me, that you can do things on your own-"

"Bullshit," I spat. "I'll always need you. And I'm never on my own. We're always in this together Callie, every day. Telling you what I went through, pulling on your strength when I need it. Feeling you there supporting me. You ARE here. We are together. And we always will be. And that's why I know I can do this, even if you aren't physically present."

Her eyes closed and she exhaled a shaky breath. "I hate her," she said quietly. "I hate her so much for doing this to us. Fow showing up at our wedding and taking you away and making you do this."

"Don't," I replied simply. "It's tempting, to rage and spit and despise. But don't. It's dangerous. She's not a person. Not a human being. She's a WORLD. And until we reach that point in our own right, we can't allow ourselves to focus on our anger. The toxic hope of maybe pulling off a miracle would be insidious. Treat her like a force of nature. If I fall and break my leg I don't hate gravity."

She snorted. "You can be so cold-blooded sometimes. I don't really control who I hate."

"Well you need to," I told her. " I won't lose you because you decided you thought you saw an opening that didn't exist and took a shot at a deity. Those kinds of emotions put you in danger. Just…don't. If you need to cool off, draw from my fear through the bond, that should put things in perspective."
"Why can't you be this introspective about trying to murder yourself?" she snapped.

I shrugged. "Well, I can't be right all the time, other people deserve a turn too. Besides, you should be glad I have introspective moments, otherwise you just married an idiot."

"Cute how you think those things are mutually exclusive," she snickered. "I'm glad you're safe." She leaned in and gave me a tight hug. "Now get out there and explain my existence to your competitors. Kind of a moot point getting you to commit to be careful if you get bounced for cheating or something."

"I don't think I CAN cheat," I said slowly. "But yeah, I get you." She was being careful not to use the word spy. None of our current conversation should be observable with the mask and all, but better safe than sorry. We hadn't exposed any big secrets, using vague terms like 'your mom' and Zeke's civilian name which could belong to anyone.

She melted back into the shadows, and I took a moment to compose myself and think of an explanation as I rose and stretched. I still felt like shit. Callie was right, I needed that Life Nova treatment asap. Another thing to add to the list.

Walking to the door, I got myself in order before opening it, stepping out into the hallway. I was immediately struck with a human shaped missile as my apprentice tackled me in a surprisingly bone crushing hug. "Master! You're ok! I was so worried. They said you had soul damage, are you going to be alright?"

I shouldn't be surprised that they noticed, but thinking about it critically it might have been a lucky break. My domain was kind of bullshit, and it would draw way less attention if they thought I had to kill myself to use it. Which, admittedly, I kind of did. For now.

"I'm fine, Bella," I laughed, ruffling her hair. She swatted at my hands, which made me laugh harder. "Is Bernadette here? Or Elena?" I was anxious to talk to literally anyone who know what was going on with the trials. At her nod, I sighed in relief, then gestured for her to go ahead. "Alright, well, take me to them. I have questions." I also had a feeling this would be a long night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bernadette and Elena were waiting downstairs. Just in case there was some kind of candidate specific information being kept secret, I sent Bella to wait in the dining room before entering the library to meet them. I was a little surprised Elena was even still here, and then I was surprised she came at all, because she must have been staying a ways away considering the whole large area selection thing. Still, their faces lit up when I entered, and Bernadette beamed proudly.

"Mephistopheles!" She chirped happily. "Truly an inspiring performance. The depths of your fortitude is staggering. I'm proud to have such a determined, inspiring initiate as a new brother. How are you feeling?"

"Like someone rabbit punched me in the consequences," I said sheepishly. "But at least I won. I got the prize. Which, by the way, is…what exactly?"

She clapped her hands together excitedly. "I am SO glad you asked. I prayed for guidance on that subject while we awaited your return to the land of the living. It appears that the mistress has planted an egg for Blackmirror Ghost Crow. It's an undead relative of the Three Legged Golden Crow, though obviously a much weaker bloodline."

"Ok, that explain the ghost part," I hedged. "But why is it called a Blackmirror Ghost Crow?"

She chuckled. "Simple, because it's a reflective companion. To awaken the crow you need to feed it with energy, and it absorbs that energy and adopts that is its element. It works for nearly any type of Ascendant. Far less powerful than its sun based relative, but much more versatile. And of course, your crow can rank up alongside you as bonded beasts often do."

"Will I need beast bonding?" I'd seen Jessie work with that skill, and I wasn't sure I had time to grind it.

She shook her head. "Unnecessary. Ghost Crows bond with their 'parent' naturally. The energy you impart forms a connection between yourself and your companion. This particular crow is a staggeringly rare opportunity. As you know, D-rank is a watershed, and many beasts never make the leap. This egg was D-rank at conception, laid by our Mistress's own animal companion, Sorrowsigh."

I tried to imagine a GOD (or at least S-rank) level version of the animal she had described and came up blank. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet some overpowered elemental bird made from the inherent abilities of a goddess of torment. The name was kind of ominous too.

Firmly changing my mental direction, I finally turned to Elena, bowing my head slightly. "Also, I wanted to thank you. Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, I owe you one."

"It's fine," she said with a smile. "We're comrades. I don't believe that just because this is competitive it means we need to try to cut each other down. No one ever said there could only be one winner."

Bernadette nodded smugly. "Well reasoned. Understanding those who have shared your pain is a key tenet of the order of mercy. We're not like those monsters in the order of abomination." She froze. "I mean, what? Nothing. That's not real. I was testing you. You pass! Bye!" Then she vanished from the spot she was standing.

I turned to Elena. "Obvious dissembling aside, did you know she was that fast? Like…I know she's D-rank, but it was hard for me to get a more specific read."

"It's the habit," she said with a nod. "I asked her about it. It's some kind of suppression artifact. Constant restriction and pain. Some of the things the order does seem…extreme, to me. But I do truly believe in their mission."

Walking over to the chair next to the fire place, I gestured for her to sit down. "Sorry, I never even asked why you were here. Seems a bit ungrateful."

"It's fine," she laughed. "You've got your own stuff going on. Like shadowy ghost girls following you around. I didn't mention her to Bernadette, by the way. It didn't seem like it was relevant to the trial."

My shoulders slumped in relief. "That's…that's awfully nice of you. Thanks. That's Callie. My wife. That's her ability. It lets her talk to me long distance." Which was a collection of totally truthful statements arranged in such a way as to give a very misleading impression. I felt a biot bad bullshitting someone who had just saved my life, but if people thought Callie had a long distance communication power, they'd never connect her with Nightstrike the godslayer.

I wasn't worried about giving her name. Callie wasn't exactly the most interesting or unique name in the world. Calliope was far more unique, so I just used her everyday nickname.

Technically, I could have just made up something totally false but elaborate lies were always harder to keep track of. Like Benny said whenever he caught me making shit up to mess with him, keep it simple, Shane.

"So, we were talking about your reasons for being here?" I prompted. "Assuming you want to share. I can drop it if that's a sensitive subject."

Flopping down into the overstuffed chair across from me, she shrugged. "Nothing too exciting. My son is sick. He has a chronic wasting disease. There's no cure that we've found, but it causes him immense pain. The order teaches methods of absorbing the pain of others to higher initiates. My husband wanted to be the one to come, but he was never quite as gifted as I was, and isn't suited for these trials. He's taking part in the Delthrys trials to hopefully lobby the god of secrets to help our boy."

I blinked at her. "That's…a lot." I said sympathetically. "Must be scary. How old is he?"

"Eleven," she said with a warm smile. "His name is Simon. He's one of the loudest, most energetic little boys you'll ever meet…" her smile dimmed. "Or he used to be. Since he got sick he's been so quiet. He's staying with my brother while we're away. I call and talk to him every night."

Another reminder that just because these people were trying to get in good with dark gods didn't mean they were all evil monsters. People had their reasons for being here, and plenty of them weren't so bad. Whether that was helping their family, like Elena and I, or just looking for opportunity like Ray and Vesper.

To my surprise, she didn't ask about my reasons for being here. To be fair, my terrifying demon mask was probably off putting enough to make it clear I wasn't looking to share.

After thanking Elena again, I told her goodnight, then left to find my wayward apprentice.

I found her in the kitchen, which was closed, sitting at the counter with a dozen empty mugs in front of her. "Master!" She shrieked. "You're back! I'm so glad, because I was worried about you and then I wasn't and then I was and then I was like wow, so drama, so I came down here and I was tired so I looked around and found this stuff my dad told me about when I was a kid but that I'm not supposed to drink-"

"Whoa!" I said, holding up my hands. "Slow down." I walked over to the counter, sniffing. "Are these mugs all coffee? You've never had coffee? Also why didn't you just refill the same mug?"

"Ahahaha," she said, literally speaking the syllables somehow faster than a normal laugh. "That's so silly, who would do that. Back home daddy buys new dishes whenever we finish using one, but yeah this is coffee and it's SOOOO good, well no its bad and tastes bad but it feels good and I put some sugar and stuff in it to make it sweet so then it was good and now I feel AMAZING!"

I counted the cups. "You drank…thirty seven cups of…" I peered into a mug. "D-rank coffee? Why do they even have this, and how much would this much of it even COST?"

"It doesn't matter!" she crowed. "It makes me invincible! Teach me a new technique, teach me a hundred techniques, teach me all the techniques at the same time and we can combine them to create a SUPER technique!"

"Nope," I said bluntly. "Not doing this. One Bethy is already too many." I looked around, making sure I wasn't being watched, and then, counting on my mask to hide me from divine sight, I triggered Zagan. I grabbed my apprentice by the head and flooded her with purifying fire, burning away the caffeine with a slight effort of will.

She staggered back, eyes wide as she tried to adjust. It shouldn't have been too rough, the flames had a stimulant effect of their own, and a healing effect, so she shouldn't crash. It took her a second to reorient. "You good?" I asked her casually. "Or do you need another blast?"

"I'm fine." She said, shaking her head. "Sorry. I was nervous, and making cups of coffee helped give me something to do." She winced at the counter, where an almost empty bag of beans sat. "I'll…pay for that."

"Yup," I agreed. "I'm sure as hell not going to. Also, your dad was right, you shouldn't have coffee. Ever again. That's an order." She slumped a bit and I laughed. "Anyway, I have to heal myself, and I'm going to use my forms to do it. You want to come watch?"

Bella…Bella had earned my trust. I'd been sort of half assing it with my apprentice, but given I'd taught her my main skillset, that was kind of silly. Minor Skill or not, she was my successor, and that meant that I'd need to start trusting her more if I wanted her to learn my skills properly and live up to my legacy.

I kept thinking about Ragam, Abel's martial art, and how he'd learned it from a book. The creator had established a powerful and enduring legacy that had given birth to one of the most dangerous people I knew. I wanted that. Wanted to know that the Goetia Staff Art would continue to be respected and known. Not to mention as the creator I could reap some serious renown if users became famous.

Her eyes lit up with excitement. "That sounds amazing! Where are you going to do it?"

"Outside, there's a clearing a few miles from here." I could use two forms safely, and I'd promised Callie to be safe. Luckily, those two forms were independent of the forms my clones could take.

Bella followed me out to the clearing, and I triggered the two I'd need. Beelzebub and Bael. Stealth seemed like a good precaution to take when using a bunch of power I wasn't supposed to have. Once the clones manifested I had them circle around me, triggering Zagan. "Wow," goggled my apprentice. "This is amazing, will I learn to do this?"

"Yes," I said as they started charging the Life Novas. "Eventually. This and more. I'll teach you about the others later. But you need to practice your martial arts. Stances are what let you tap into power like this."

She nodded excitedly, but I didn't have time to focus on that. Zagan couldn't be used on myself, but the clones were treated as discrete individuals. I'd noticed an inability to heal myself a few months ago and had been working on a fix, and adapting the Beelzebub form had taken a while but it was a decent solution.

After a few minutes, the twelve other me's detonated their Life Novas, consuming me in purifying green fire. I let the power wash through me, slowly mending the cracks in my soul. I sat there for an hour or two, and finally, once it was done, I relaxed. I wasn't fixed, or even close, D-rank souls were sturdier and more resistant to change, which made them harder to repair. But it was a start. Now I just had to take things one day at a time.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was feeling much better after my Life Nova bath. My muscles were pleasantly invigorated and rejuvenated, and I had plenty of energy to burn off, even though my soul was still fragile. The feeling of being energized and exhausted at the same time was admittedly a little strange, but I was just glad it seemed to be working.





After I finished, I'd explained the egg to Bella, who was practically bouncing out of her shoes with excitement. "That's AMAZING! What are you going to name it? What type of energy will you use? CAN I RIDE IT?"





"I don't know, I don't know, and almost definitely not," I responded in order. "Even if it's big enough to ride I don't want you climbing on my fucking bird. And I don't know if it will be. As for the energy…I'm torn. I have plenty of options, but pretty much it boils down to offense or healing, and it's a tough call."





She hummed in consideration. "I don't know. Both of them seem cool. Like you could have a kickass bird thing that blows shit up, or a cool healing phoenix thing. But you said the ghost crow is undead, can it even take on the purification fire? That's like…life and anti darkness right?"





"I think it should be fine," I shrugged. "It is MY ability. Plus it's technically demonic. You think I should go with purification?"





Shrugging, my apprentice mulled it over. "Probably? You said that form is one of your strongest right? Like it can heal SOUL DAMAGE. That's pretty rare. I mean sure, it has absolutely no defensive or even really offensive capabilities aside from against corruption based attacks, but still. Having a companion that can help speed up your healing would be a big deal, right?"





"That's not a bad point," I admitted. "I'm injured, and this could help. More than that though, like you said, even if my crow won't be offensively powerful, the overwhelming bonuses to its sheer effectiveness will probably help it advance faster. And while I can use Zagan myself as I grow, we've seen here that having one or even two points of healing isn't necessarily enough. What if one of my friends gets hurt and I'm not there?'





Taking out the egg, I studied it. I had Abomination Engine, Cosmic Collapse, and a dozen subskills for attacking. Zagan was my only healing trick, and while one could say I didn't NEED more than one…





I focused on Zagan, beginning to dump power from my hands into the egg. Rather than just pour it in though, I decided to try something a little tricky. I condensed a Life Nova inside the egg. If this bird was going to be an embodiment of Zagan, I wanted it to be the BEST of Zagan. Soul Repair was what I needed from my new buddy, and Life Nova seemed to categorically improve every aspect of Zagan even beyond that.





I was surprised to see the egg do…nothing. It didn't glow, or shake, or crackle, or any of the shit you'd expect a magic egg to do when you did magic stuff to it.





Bella stared at me. "Are you gonna do it? Or are we like…studying the egg? Oooh, are you teaching me another lesson? Am I supposed to study the shell to try to find some kind of special pattern that will give me secret knowledge about the bird inside?" She was getting noticeably excited as she brainstormed ideas, and I was almost sad to shoot her down. Almost.





"No Bella," I said with a sigh. "I'm pushing power into it, it's just getting absorbed directly. It's an egg. There's no hidden pattern on the shell that reveals secret wisdom. Or, I mean…" I paused, triggering my Eye of Revelation and squinting at the eggshell. "Nope, definitely not, I'm watching for a sign that it's working, you don't need to watch at all."





I wasn't going to be doing this for too much longer, honestly. I'd dropped all of my forms except Zagan, and despite only using the one, keeping up a powerful technique like Life Nova was a consistent strain. It wasn't enough to tax my soul right away, more like lifting a slightly heavy barbell. It wasn't too tough, but the longer I held it, the more the strain built.





Normally I'd have pushed it much further, but sadly I was on good behavior for Callie. I cut the output after about twenty minutes, and watched the egg carefully for any sign of hatching. Nothing happened, so I stashed it in my ring. I could feel the energy inside, but it felt inert.





This was clearly going to be a slightly longer term task than expected, but it was fine. I had days to work on it. It was a shame I couldn't use Beelzebub, but more than one Life Nova bath per day would tax my soul too much. Slow and steady would win the race for the egg so I could keep up my healing.





"So, what should we do now?" Bella chirped. "Should we just head back to the inn. Does being unconscious count as sleep?"





"No, it doesn't," I said with far more experience than I'd have liked. "But being irradiated with life energy for a few hours does, so no, I'm not tired. My soul is a little sore, but I didn't push. Now we work on your staff forms a bit. I want you to try to make some progress past Minor." I triggered Mornax. "You don't need to hold back, between my armor and durability, you can't hurt me with a Minor Skill."





She pouted a bit at that, turning and stalking away into the trees, muttering about being underestimated. She returned a minute later, dressed in loose fitting workout clothes I assumed she had in her spatial ring, and her staff.





I bounced on my toes, enjoying the flex and stretch of my muscles. I was getting good enough with Mornax not to lose my form the second my feet left the ground. There was a sort of…holding period, like since I was still TECHNICALLY standing still, it didn't count. Regardless, I maintained my durability as I started to put my staff through its paces.


Passing it between hands, I whirled it around me, limbering up as I stretched and bend to reach full extension, making sure my reach was at its furthest. It felt nice, calming. One big thing teaching Bella was doing was helping me conceptualize my Staff Art as a martial art again. I'd gotten so used to treating it just like DS Mastery I'd been letting my physical technique slip.





After a second of hesitation, Bella charged with a war cry, and I strode forward to meet her with a grin. Mornax's stance opened the fight, a low, solid plant of my feet for defense, catching the first blow before transferring into Belial as I redirected it. A sharp thrust courtesy of Mephistopheles, a series of feints for Beelzebub, and some quick footwork to slip into the Blindspot for Bael.





It felt fantastic. Every form served a purpose. Part of an arsenal, a set of tools for any situation, and ones that could be rotated or swapped out as needed for multiple different situations. And just like I could mix and match them into combinations to make domains or techniques, I could do the same with combat stances to utilize their power more effectively.





Block to deflect to strike, evade then counter, I felt myself becoming more in tune with my staff as I worked through all my stances without using their forms. More than that, I felt Bella learning and testing as I was, figuring out which stances countered the ones I was using.





I grimaced as her staff grazed my throat as I tested a combo stance that didn't work as well as I'd hoped, Mornax shrugging off the damage but not quite the pain.





Bella's next attack came at me like a fastball, and an explosion (well, explosion might be a bit of an overstatement, but a puff at least) of black flame slapped me in the face, driving me be as my mask tanked the attack.





My black flame was armor piercing. She had no shot of getting me with a Skill at…whatever her level was, but in the future I'd have to watch that. I was more interested though, in the current advancement of the Skill. I pulled back, and Bella looked horrified, leaping away in dejection. "Oh no! Master! Did I hurt you? That went right in your eyes! Are you blind now? Did I blind you? But you're so YOUNG! I assume. I've never really seen your face but you sound young but you're an Ascendant, so you could be a thousand which I guess is young for an Ascendant bu-" I put a hand over her mouth.





She kept talking for a solid thirty seconds, muffled by my hand, before trailing off. "I told you, you can't hurt me." I said reassuringly. "At least not physically. Every time you do that babble thing it breaks my spirit a little, but I'm pretty sure that's just what it means to be a teacher."





My apprentice's pouting glare was obvious even with her face covered, and when I removed my hand she turned her face away in indignation. "See if I worry about you again, jerk."





"You shouldn't be," I informed her dryly. "You should be worrying about YOU. Now, did you just hit Lesser? Because I knew it would be fast but I didn't know it would be THAT fast." Me teaching her personally as the creator was clearly helping, because even as an Ascendant picking up a new and very complicated formerly unique Skill should take time.





"Beginner," she said smugly. "Don't forget I've been practicing on my own. I'm totally kicking ass at this whole apprentice thing. You were like 'pow Bella, I will easily defeat you' and I was like 'not today Master, I've surpassed your skill'." She sounded smug as she dramatically whipped her staff around, so I reached out and conked her on the head with mine. "Ow! That was mean!"





"I assumed you'd dodge," I said loftily. "After all, you've surpassed my skill."





She sulked. "You could let me have a LITTLE fun. I was just joking around. I know you're way tougher than me."





"A situation you will likely NEVER remedy," I agreed glibly. "But you're doing well. You seem to have a knack for this. Or I'm an amazing teacher. Who can say? I can. I can say. It's all me." I grinned behind my mask as I heckled her. Mockery built character. I'd learned that from Abel. Or I was just continuing the cycle of abuse, it was hard to tell at this point.





I felt a flash of soft amusement through the bond, and I sent a reproachful flash of teasing back, amused my wife was checking up. Then I turned back to my disciple. "Well, do you want to go for another round or two, or did the rank up make you eager to run off and do dumb, possibly dangerous experiments where no responsible adult is watching."





Her eyes gleamed. "Actually that's- OW!" I smacked her on the head with my staff again.





"Trick question," I scolded her. "That's my decision, reset, we're nowhere close to done. What kind of layabout quits training ten minutes in?





Rubbing her head, she stalked away, muttering uncomplimentary things I pretended not to hear. Another lesson I'd learned from Abel. Complaining about their crazy mentor is a student's gods given right. Everyone needs to vent.





We spent the rest of the evening sparring, and while she didn't reach Intermediate or anything, Bella made a lot of good progress with the Goetia Staff Art. When I got back to my room and dropped into my bed like a rock, it was almost sunup, and I was exhausted. Still, the day hadn't been as bad as I'd expected when I woke up from my blackout. Now I just had to stay amused for the next five days. What could be easier?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next five days were pretty mundane. Almost boring, to be honest. Physical combat practice with my apprentice, Life Nova baths with the clones, Life Nova infusion with the egg. Rinse. Repeat. If I had to hit something with a stick one more time I was going to start a riot in the middle of a crowded city just to break up the monotony.





The one singular upside was that my friends cleared out their stockpile of wish scrolls, and then cleared the new stockpile I built up over the intervening days (minus five for emergencies). Ninety four scrolls in total, and I'd apparently grown enough to get seventeen points per wish out of them, netting me more than fifteen hundred. On top of that, my showing in the trial had impressed my competitors, and a hundred plus D-rankers apparently gave some decent rep.





All in all I'd acquired a whopping forty eight hundred points from the trip and wishes both, and I was pretty blown away by the windfall. It would only get more impressive as we went too. Stories about my feats would grow and spread, snowballing as I gained in power.





I was really feeling the crunch now. It was easy to understand why people fought so hard for the Wishmaster position. Imagining the passive income of being THE Wishmaster was making me salivate. I forced myself to focus on the egg, pushing past that.





The egg was starting to react. The formerly ash grey shell was cracking, emerald flames flickering inside. Life Nova was taking root, and my crow was going to be born soon. Hopefully today, and even more hopefully, NOW, because I was about to leave for the next trial, and I would have liked to have it as backup.





In fact, I'd even skipped my healing bath today in order to infuse it for some extra time. I'd recovered enough not to be in real danger without it. In fact, I could recover the rest of the way without another Life Nova, it would just take MUCH too long. The crow might be able to shrink that time though.





I focused on the egg, pouring in the power as usual. It was pretty tedious, or at least, it had been every other time.





It took me a minute to realize that it was actively pulling on my power instead of just passively accepting it. The pull didn't overtake my input speed right away, slowly ramping up, but after a short wait, I finally caught a hold of the slight suction that was slowly overwhelming my own input.





"Well hello," I grinned down at the egg. "Waking up hungry, are you? Good thing I decided to skip my bath. Drink up." I pushed slightly, flooding the egg with more Life Nova flavored energy.





The heat of the flames inside the cracking egg exploded upward, the warping air beating at my skin. Not just metaphorically either. It was literally beating, like a pounding heart. I could feel the flex and surge of the flame inside as…something built around us. Impact, significance, fate. Who knew. I was currently experiencing the BIRTH of a D-rank entity. A hundred plus points of Impact coming into existence all at once.





I'd never considered how singular this experience was going to be, but now that I knew, I focused every ounce of my attention on the egg, Eye of Revelation cranked as I watched it slowly shift and change.





The changes weren't large or obvious. Just a little tweak here or there, in things I wouldn't have even be able to see before I hit D-rank. I had no idea how to describe the alterations occurring within the egg right now. Just that there were millions of them happening too quickly to track, changes in the metaphysical structure of the world around me.





I had to shut off Eye of Revelation because I wasn't able to process what was happening. My soul damage was interfering with my perception of metaphysical elements somehow, which was a whole OTHER can of worms I'd need to open later, but that was nothing compared to the flare of power on my skin.





Triggering Mornax, I thanked the gods that Callie had mandated two forms max, because in just Zagan I'd have been in trouble.





Finally, after about twenty minutes, I felt a sort of…shift, in the air. The Impact around me started to condense in a way I'd never felt before, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt what I needed to do next. I threw the egg straight up into the air like a fastball, staring in wonder as it exploded in a conflagration of green flame.





Even in Mornax, I had to step back, because the sheer intensity of that purifying fire was beyond anything I'd ever felt. It was actually healing me as it bathed me, but it was so fucking powerful that my physical body would have been a briquette if I hadn't been defending myself with my most durable form.





When the light faded, I stared down at my hands in awe. It was gone. The soul damage was gone. The birth of my new companion had washed away all of it. I kind of wished Felicity was here, because it probably could have cleansed her too.





Not that I suspected my new friend could do that at will. That was a one time occurrence. Still, I practically glowed with health and wellness as I stared up at the bright green flaming bird gliding down from above me. He was smaller than I'd expected, but he looked more like a small falcon made of green fire than a hatchling.





I raised an arm and he settled on it. His flames didn't even make me feel a little warm. He was controlling them now, or they couldn't hurt me with our bond, whichever.





"I know what you are," I told him with pride. "Life Nova Phoenix. A completely unique creature. And you are breathtaking." I could see him on my stat sheet now, details and all. Bonded companion: Life Nova Phoenix. "Welcome to the world…Archimedes."





My new friend chimed like a bell, a trilling, echoing noise that no normal bird would ever make, and just like Jessie could understand Randall, I understood Archimedes, or Archie as I was calling him in my head. A song of welcome and harmony and joy that scorched my soul in a much more pleasant way than terrible lake cauldrons of boiling misery.





Speaking of which, I checked my scan ring. "Shit, we gotta go buddy. We're going to be late." I checked the location on the map, cursing as I dropped Zagan and Mornax and triggered Mephistopheles, Waltzing forward for all I was worth. Archie let out a challenging trill and then…did the same.





"How the fuck is THAT fair?" I demanded as he started vanishing and reappearing in a series of flame bursts. "You have fucking WINGS and you can still somehow immediately use my techniques?" He trilled again. "Yes, I know I made you with a technique. Does that mean you can use any of the ones I have?"





The response this time was more of a long, warbling song. It took me a second to parse. He COULD use my techniques, but only their forms. His only energy type was Life Nova. Cosmic Collapse, my Waltz, and a few others, he could use Life Nova variations of those, and any new ones I created he would get too.





He could even, apparently, use a Life Nova version of Abomination Engine, which I couldn't even do, and couldn't figure out the mechanics of no matter how hard I tried.





It was a good distraction for our trip, which took about an hour even at top speed. The directions this time led us to a new place, a weird flat topped mountain temple complex kind of place with a circle of pillars surrounding an empty platform.





Elena was standing with Mnemosyne off to one side, so I met up with them, figuring whatever we were doing having someone to talk to couldn't hurt. Plus they might KNOW what we were doing, since I was pretty sure I missed the explanation. "Hey, sorry I'm late. They tell us what's going on?"





The older woman smiled at me warmly. "You're certainly looking better than last I saw you. My compliments to your healer." I was a bit embarrassed, given what I knew of her. I'd made the decision to try to pass her a scroll, claiming it wasn't mine, but I wanted to wait until she was out of the trials. I felt like a failed candidate was less likely to be watched.





"I heal fast," I shrugged. An annoyed trill filled my ears and I snorted. "This is Archie by the way. Short for Archimedes. He's my new bonded companion." The bond was actually weird. I didn't have a Skill for beast bonding. It was more…natural than that.


Elena laughed. "Hello Archimedes. It's nice to meet you. I'm Elena. Anyway, Mephistopheles, you asked about the trial. This one is a bit different than the last. It's more cooperative, at least at first. The Boot of Atlas. A flat descending surface is going to crush us all. Last person standing wins. No prize this time. Presumably to encourage us to band together."





Looking around, I saw that indeed, people were forming groups. Which seemed dumb because if it was a uniform surface everyone inside the platform was going to be helping whether they liked it or not.





Mnemosyne snorted. "Bullshit. They're just making cliques to study each other's abilities. Let's be real, this working together stuff is probably a one off. Knowing what everyone can do is a huge strategic advantage. I'm surprised there's not more of them over here hoping to get a look at what last trial's big winner can do."





"One win is a fluke," I corrected. "Admitting otherwise would mean admitting my superiority, and Ascendants don't do that unless there's no other choice. They'll be treating my like a lucky moron unless my results this time are similarly impressive, and even after that it might take another trial to really cement the idea."





She snickered. "You've got them pegged. Dipshits and their dipshit pride. Whatever, I'm standing behind your giant ass, I'll just take a nap and let you two deal with all the pressure." She winked, showing she was just teasing, and I laughed at the brazen shit talking. It felt nice to be around someone who just said whatever they felt like. It made me miss Benny.





Before I could actually respond though, we were cut off by a burst of noise. Everyone turned as an eruption of ghostly pale flames consumed the center of the platform. When it cleared, a man stood in its place, white clothes, white hair, dark skin, white animal ears on top of his head, and nine bushy white fox tails waving behind him.





"Hello Rackham!" crowed the enthusiastic…Kitsune? I mean he had to be. "I am Darian, and welcome to the BOOT OF ATLAS!" He threw his hands up in triumph, clearly expecting applause…that didn't come. His foxy ears drooped. "Every time," he muttered under his breath. "Well since you all INSIST on being downers about this, fine. Welcome to the Boot of Atlas. As was already explained you'll be crushed under a flat platform. Work together to survive and the last one standing gets bragging rights. Also points. There's a point system. But we don't tell you what it is or how many you have or what it's for. So…now you know."





"They're not supposed to know!" shouted someone from the crowd outside the platform. "That's why we don't tell them anything!"





Darian glared. "Well then maybe YOU should come up here and do the announcements CHAD!"





"I'm good!" came the same voice. "You're doing fine!"





Rolling his eyes Darian turned back to us. "Whatever, don't get crushed." Then he vanished in another burst of pale flame. Above us, something shifted, and I grinned as I took up a defensive stance and triggered Mornax. This one actually seemed like it might be fun.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The descending platform was invisible, naturally, but it was also powerful enough to warp the air, which kind of defeated the purpose of that first part. The final effect was a bit like I imagine you would get if you tried to crush someone under a wide, flat cylinder made of the heat distortions from a desert.

Smiling confidently, I set my feet as I willed Archie to fly out of the platform, then raised my hands about my head and locked my elbows and knees. The cylinder lowered slowly, inexorably towards me, but I was confident. Mornax was unbreakable at D-rank. Which, granted, this thing wasn't, but still, I wasn't alone. I had other people helping, and together, we would win this.

"So…" interrupted Mnemosyne. You have realized you're the tallest person currently braced to catch that thing, right?"

Frowning, I looked around. "Wait, wha-" and then the thing hit my hands. My eyes widened at the insane force, and I shoved back with all my power, revving my Abomination Engine. Without gluttony it was much less impressive defensively, but it was some extra physical power, even of only a bit.

My wrists broke. Like…immediately. Howling with pain I dropped to my knees. "Fuck!" I snapped. "I immediately regret that course of action. How are they ALL shorter than me?"

"Well, they aren't," amended Elena. "But they aren't standing up straight with their arms out. Like over there." She pointed out a small crowd of powerfully built men who had taken a knee, obviously planning to use the extra solidity to improve their times.

"Well that's just bullshit." I hissed as she assumed her metallic form, bracing her own hands up to catch the thing. She was much shorter than me, to she had more help, the slowly descending cylinder hitting a whole group of people all at once. I'd raised my hands, calling Archie down under the cylinder to treat them with a burst of Life Nova.

Despite not having his super soul repair properties after his initial birth, he WAS still a D-rank creature made of conceptual life and purification fire. It only took him a minute or two to repair the cracks in my arms.

Mornax was stone, and I'd braced myself perfectly to catch that thing, so the cracks had been brutal but pretty clean. I was back on my feet in just a minute or two, bracing my hands against the cylinder (not locking my elbows this time) and shoving with all my might, trying desperately to push it back up.

It didn't give. But it DID stop. They'd slowed it down to a crawl and my effort was that last little bit of strength needed to hold it still. And then we just…sat there. It was hard, granted, and it hurt. And I knew this thing would crush me as soon as we all dropped. Anyone could give in and forfeit the round, but for the moment, we were at a deadlock…and for a trial it was surprisingly not very trying.
A thought I immediately cursed myself for as a loud voice filled the platform. "Ladies and GENTLEMEN!" Bellowed a familiar excitable tenor. "It is I, your favorite foxy announcer, Darian! We are all standing by, awestruck at your resolve in the face of adversity…and yet, this isn't a trial of the goddess of adversity. You may be asking yourself, where's the drama, where's the intrigue, where is the TORMENT? If you are, boy do we have a treat for you!"

"No one is asking that!" came a lazy voice from the crowd. "Stop mocking the contestants, it's tacky!"

"SHUT UP CHAD!" screamed the furious Kitsune. "You ALWAYS mock the candidates! Stop ruining my hosting gig because you're pissed you got passed over! That's what's tacky! You can't just taunt me like this, my therapist says that if I confront you, you'll back down like all bullies do!"

Chad scoffed. Loudly. "Passed over? You all stuck me with cleaning out the fucking BLOOD LAKE. Do you know what kind of shit grows down there?"

"Well then you should have been at the meeting when we-"

"Oh for the love of the GODS!" I roared. "WIll you both shut up? Honestly, I was actually a little worried about this horrible twist you're obviously building to, but now I just don't even care! I'd rather be…I don't know, eaten alive by fire ants than listen to this."

They both went silent. "Huh," said Darian. "It's funny you should say that…"

My eyes widened in terror. "Wait, no, I was wrong, I take it back! Please continue your important discussion!" I silently cursed my fucking bullshit fatewalker build. What were the chances that would be the ONE thing I would reliably predict.

"Sorry, too late," Darian said sympathetically. "Release the BEETLES!"

"Hey, I thought it was going to be an-" I yelped as Elena stomp kicked me in the knee, then sulked. That had been unnecessary. What were the chances they ALSO had ants lying around to inflict on us? That thought was washed away by agony as an endless horde of horrifying spiky black beetles flooded the platform, climbing us all like rock walls and slipping easily into the joints in my armor.

The monstrous bugs bit into my flesh, and I screamed as I felt some kind of nerve toxin flood my body from all over. To my shock, the toxin burned off in the cycling black flames of Abomination Engine, flooding me with strength even WITHOUT needing to use Gluttony. It also hurt. A lot. Like, more than the original bites and the venom times ten. It also faded nearly instantly, leaving me with just the pain and none of the extra juice, sadly. I should have figured Gluttony couldn't be so easily repeated by a random power interaction.

I locked my jaw, gritting my teeth to keep down the gutwrenching scream. I should have expected this bullshit. Having to hold up a giant invisible millstone or whatever wasn't a test from the goddess of torment. That wasn't pain. It wasn't pushing us to our limits. The slow agonizing crush might have eventually ground us down, but it was just the wrong vibe. This was much more on brand.

I'd let myself get distracted by how straightforward the second and third trials had been, and had forgotten the first one was getting fucking POISONED without my knowledge.

Honestly, I was faring way better than most. Mornax was incredibly durable. The fact that these beetles could bite through my reinforced hide was shocking in itself, this was enough bite force to chew through D-rank steel. Everyone else was getting chunks ripped out of their entire ass, and I saw several people go down within the first minute.

The weight on my shoulders (literally, it had dipped enough that I was bent over holding it still with my upper back) redoubled. Missing so many, the stragglers on the ground waiting for it to get low enough to use their kneeling forms to post up had to stand to help (though being eaten alive by rampaging beetles also made having that much contact with the ground a strategically poor decision), giving us enough power to stop it dead again.

The formerly slightly tedious effort was now VERY exciting. In a bad way. I gritted my teeth, turning my head in the direction of Darian's last comment. "I don't suppose-" I spat. "That there IS a prize, since the whole beginning part of this was a misdirect."

I caught sight of the cheerful Kitsune easily, and when he met my eyes, he just shrugged. "I mean, we're going to heal all the beetle damage when it's over?" he said uncertainly. "So…kind of?"

I squinted at him. "Wait, you're just going to fix us? That's a bit nicer than I was expecting."

"Oh, no, we'll heal the beetle DAMAGE," he corrected. "You'll still be poisoned." He paused. "Envenomed? Whatever, agonizing pain that will last for hours. Don't worry, you'll all survive. And pain is good for you, it builds character!"

"I'll build you a character!" jeered a familiar voice.

Darian spun and glared into the crowd. "SHUT UP CHAD, that doesn't even make any sense!"

"Gods, please kill me," I groaned in both physical and emotional agony. I wasn't even worried about tempting fate at this point, the beetle venom was building up, and while the brief surge of extra power from the initial ignition was gone, the steadily rising torture of it being burned away was still alive and well.

On the upside, my soul was fine. There was barely any strain with just Mornax and Mephistopheles active alongside Abomination Engine. Not that it would have mattered with full healing, but hey, I was keeping my promise to Callie, and that worth any amount of pain I could imagine. Until five seconds later. At that point my imagination experienced a rapid growth spurred by new heights of mind numbing torment, and I started regretting making that promise to start with.

It was absurdly lucky that this venom was reactive with my Abomination Engine, actually, even for that brief burst. Sadly I didn't have time to try to recreate that lucky split second outside of my domain fuckery, because I was still being eaten alive by beetles.

One by one, the others ticked away. First Mnemosyne, then Harper in the distance. Elena and I lasted the longest, but she gave just before I did, leaving me alone with two other huge brutes, one in a weird pigskin head covering and other dressed like a jester. Pigface went down first, then the jester, and as I hit the ground, I twitched in pain as the beetles redoubled their efforts.

The cylinder smashed into me, driving me into the stone of the platform, only failing to crack my bones because of my armor, though others weren't so lucky. When the thing finally stopped, most of us were half crushed, and we sat there twitching and dazed as the cylinder burst and showered us in some sort of healing rain.

I went limp with relief as the last of the wounds knitted in the water, and I released my Abomination Engine, letting the soaking spray soothe my aching muscles. Mornax had dropped when I had, and I was exhausted. Mornax could prevent damage from a lot things, but me tearing my own muscles on each other as I futilely resisted the descent of an unstoppable object wasn't one of them.

"You guys ok?" I asked weakly. My only response was high pitched whines from my companions. Right. Venom. "Hey, Archie!" I called my companion. "I'm too exhausted to purify these guys. Get Elena, Mnemosyne…and I guess Harper. He's the guy with the big gloves over there." I nodded vaguely in Harper's general direction.

Archie cawed, and I saw a flash of fire as he flew over my head. I let myself slump back in exhaustion. Just physical, at least this time. I was sure I'd have lasted much longer with Gluttony. Even the brief burst of power from the igniting venom had helped a ton. I sent my wife a wry victory pulse, and she responded with affection and gratitude, and then I sent her a request to talk my uncle about some kind of domain enabling device, and all I got was amusement.

Trusting she wouldn't just leave me hanging, I switched back to the present as Archie returned, landing on my breastplate. With another trill, he flooded me with Life Nova fire, and I sighed at the soothing burn. My muscles healed and filled with energy, though it didn't help the mental exhaustion.

Getting up was much easier, and I climbed to my feet, prying myself out of a Shane shaped hole in the ground and stumbling over to my cleansed allies. "Alright. Enough of this bullshit," I groaned. "We get directions to the next meetup and then we go the fuck home. I need to sleep for a week." Or at least a day. Their answering laughter sounded a lot like agreement to me, and so we set off.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day I got in touch with Zeke. As our resident master Enchanter (sort of) he was the first person I needed to talk to about my idea to offset the soul strain from my pseudo Domains. I hadn't considered it before really because it seemed easier to just not use them, but in reality I kind of needed at least Gluttony to survive this shit.

"What?" Zeke asked me in an overly dramatic shocked and appalled voice. "You're saying you completely ignored my instructions, did the opposite of what I told you to do, and almost died in the process because you thought you knew better? I am shocked. Shocked I tell you."

"Well, I guess I could have just done nothing, failed my trial, not completed my mission, and let Black Sorrow wear your ribcage like a hat." At Callie's glare, i winced. "Sorry, that's not my only option, I could have talked to you about this before I started using my domains, and maybe gotten some help managing things before I hurt myself." She nodded approvingly and I chuckled to myself. Still in the doghouse, it seemed.

Turning back to my uncle, I cocked my head. "So, as to our question, would it be possible to make something like that? Maybe not you specifically, since there's no way I could pay for it, but for anyone?"

"Why would you need to pay for it?" he asked lazily. I opened my mouth to respond, but froze. "You…you can enchant things for me now? Since you're not my guardian? I knew that your geas was broken, but I didn't think…"

He waggled a hand, "I can't go overboard. If I deck you out with a ring full of disposable weapons, it'd be considered breaking the rules. But making a gift for my nephew to celebrate him reaching D-rank? That should be permissible. When Callie came to talk to me I started thinking about your problem, actually, and I think I have the perfect solution." He reached out and plucked a mask from the air. It wasn't real, only a shadow copy, since he had the real one with him, but he grinned at me. "This is a false face, C-rank, and based on my own duplicates.

"Basically, what you're looking at is a fake soul connected to yours. You won't need to wear it, since I know that abomination Black Sorrow ruined is necessary for now, but when you use your pseudo Domains the mask will absorb the soul damage for you." He sounded pretty proud of himself, and I could understand why, it was a perfect solution…too perfect.

"Ok, but nothing in history has ever been that convenient," I pointed out. "So what's the catch?"

He shrugged. "Finite amount of use. I managed to pack a recovery ability into there, better you don't ask how, but it takes time to repair itself. I'd guess you get…five minutes of use per day. Maybe a little less. Past that point you'll start taking soul damage yourself again. You should be able to tell and cut it off if that happens, but I'd aim to keep things under five if you can."

"I can work with that," I said with relief. "It might not completely offset the trials, but it'll sure as hell help. I really appreciate this, Zeke."
He passed the mask to Callie, who slipped it into her ring, and I snagged it from mine, withdrawing it on my side. The paired rings were absurdly useful, allowing us to exchange items at any given time. Probably my second favorite wedding present after Callie's starpluck bangle.

When I pulled out the mask, the first thing I did was study it. It was Zeke's normal white porcelain, but with Eye of Revelation open, I could see something deeper to it. The soul stitching he used was an ability I had no real context for, but something about the process made the porcelain almost breathe. I'd never examined one of Zeke's masks like this before, and something about the vitality of the mask made it feel like I was holding very glassy bone.

I also couldn't see the runes carved into it. Running my fingers over it, I found the material completely smooth, perfectly slick and shaped flawlessly in a way that was almost mechanical in perfection. The curvature of the mask was completely symmetrical across the face, and unlike the last one Zeke had given me, this one had actual eye holes.

"So, how does this work?" I asked him excitedly. "I can't put it on because I'm wearing this one…" I squinted at it. "Wait, does it go over the other one? Or maybe under it?"

He rolled his eyes. "You can't stack powerful artifacts like that. Not masks at least. It has to do with their nature. Putting that on top of or underneath the one you're wearing would break it. Your current mask is…well it doesn't exactly have a rank. It's got the adjustments I added so it'll rank up with you, but those stopped at D-rank. After Black Sorrow messed with it, you could consider it a deferred S-rank item, almost. She did something to it that makes it wearable, but not in a way I've seen before.

"Honestly, once this mission ends I'd love to study that thing. I can replace it with something…well, not better, but more functional for you right now. Divine concealment won't be too useful for you anytime soon. Your call though." Despite his casual words, I could tell the thought of studying some mysterious god forged mask was exciting to him.

I just shrugged. "Sure, I don't want it. Once I'm out of here I'd prefer to get a mask more in my original style." I paused. "Although…I guess there's something to be said for updating my look based on my current gear. If I keep this once I'm back with everyone else. I'll have to figure it out when the time comes. Anyway, do you guys want to meet my new bonded companion?"

I'd been keeping Archie out of the room so I could surprise them. Callie already knew in broad strokes about my new buddy, but she hadn't seen him yet.

At their confused nods, I grinned, then called for my companion. "Hey, Archie, come on in here!"

There was a silvery trill and a green flaming blur exploded into the room. Doing a full circle of the ceiling, Archie pulled up with an exultant chime, wings spread out behind him as he flared his beautiful green flame feathers.

I snickered at the display. "Are you sure you're a phoenix? I'm beginning to suspect you might be part pig, because you're really hamming it up." He cawed angrily, wings sweeping forward to smack me in the face with a wave of flames. They were Life Nova flames, so I didn't feel anything but a rush of pleasant warmth, but I still rolled my eyes. "Mature," I said flatly.

"He's beautiful," said Callie in an awed tone. "He feels so…alive. He's a Life Nova phoenix right?"

I laughed, stepped over to hold out my arm, which Archie landed on quickly, having held his majestic wing spread pose a bit to long after puffing me with fire. He staggered a bit on the dismount, but I didn't call him on it. "He's definitely something special. Being there for his birth healed my soul damage. All of it. I kind of wish I'd been able to have Felicity here. How have her treatments been going, by the way?"

"Really well," said Callie with a grin. "She's been emoting a lot more. Cass has decided she's the coolest person around and follows her everywhere. Cark isn't thrilled, but he's suspiciously willing to spend time with her himself, I think he might have a crush."

Given Sage's dark aesthetic, the fact Felicity was Cark's type wasn't even remotely surprising to me. Still, I thought it was sweet, even if it never went anywhere. Cark came along for training with my mom, same as Mel, but I know he felt a bit rootless. He often got left behind the main team, and I was hoping either the training or the new friendship might help.

"So, why is he a Life Nova phoenix?" Asked Zeke, yanking my attention rudely away from my wife. "I thought Genesis Burst was the soul repairing technique?"

"It is," I admitted. "But it's too specialized. Genesis Burst heals souls because its a quantitatively huge amount of Life Nova, with just a little bit of tweaking. I decided the original technique was better suited to be the basis of a living being. More balanced. He can still repair souls, as you've seen, he just also has all the other abilities of Zagan just as strongly. Plus, he seems to be able to use my techniques, or at least Zagan versions of them. I'm pretty sure he can use Genesis Burst himself."

He nodded with interest. "It's certainly novel. Eggs like that aren't unheard of, but they're usually much lower rank. The birth of a D-rank beast compatible with your path is a huge stroke of luck, kid. I hope you did your best to make the most of it."

"More than that, my energy is…weird. My Path has grown into something unusual and pretty powerful after all the changes. Speaking of which, Callie told you about my disciple?" I asked cautiously.

"She did," he said casually. "Good for you. Teaching can be a good way to learn. We all take a disciple eventually. You reach a certain point where you need an outside point of view to go further along your Path. A disciple is a good way to get it. They're influenced by your own way of doing things but can have their own epiphanies. More importantly though…these trials. How are you doing?"

"Could be worse," I admitted. "I'm good at enduring pain. I've gotten used to it. I only have three more left, and I've placed pretty well in all of them. One of the hosts let slip there's "points" which is how I assume they pick who gets an invitation to pledge themselves. By any metric I should be doing well, so hopefully I'm almost in."

He grimaced. "Just be careful, kid. Even with that mask hiding you, this is dangerous as hell. Especially if you make it through the selection. You'll be swept off to this other world. Do you know what to do when you get there? Or how to tell?"

Callie cleared her throat. "Your grandmother actually gave me something for you. It's supposed to stay in the ring until you leave. She said I shouldn't even mention it to you unless you passed. It should help with that." She withdrew a black stone (though it was made of shadows and was just a representation so it honestly could have been fucking chartreuse for all I knew) and held it up. "She said this will detect what you need to find once you get there."

"Great," I groaned. "I assumed I'd just send up a signal flare or something. I have to FIND a place?"

She stepped forward, hugging me tight. "I know, I'm sorry. It'll be ok though. You're doing great, and with the new mask you can use your full power again so you'll do even better. Just…take your time. Slow and steady."

Her voice was light and casual, and she didn't mention how scared I'd made her…but she didn't have to. She was still terrified over the soul damage and even more scared I'd do something worse trying to get through this. I hugged her back, then pulled away, turning to my uncle.

"Alright, well now that we've gotten the mask out of the way, I suppose I need to know how to use it. If I don't wear it how does it work?" I held the thing up, trying to distract Callie from her worry with loot, the only thing she loves as much as me. I grinned as I saw her eyes focus intently on the mask, mission accomplished.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We had five days until the next trial, and I spent them practicing with my new mask. There was a whole binding ritual where I had to bleed on it, then dance around it, then sing it a song…I was pretty sure at least half of that was Zeke fucking with me to see how far I would go, but I'd been assured that cameras didn't work through shadow copies, so I wasn't too worried about it.


When it was done, the mask was…connected to me. Zeke said it was kind of a dummy version of my bond to Callie, though it didn't show up on my stat page. I COULD feel it though, and because of that I was able to dump all the soul strain from my pseudo Domain on it.


The mask was C-rank, so it was able to handle the strain better, but like Zeke had warned me, being an inanimate object made its ability endure soul damage much weaker, and I only had about five minutes with it per day. I had to get used to working with it, testing my domains, getting my moves down to the slimmest margins for the best effect.


I even reworked my domains a bit, adding the fog back into Limbo permanently and tweaking Gluttony to reinforce itself with some of the swallowed power. Not the physical form, since it already did that, but the actual pit, which should make consumption smoother and faster as it snowballed.


Of course, the five days were also a good opportunity to crank out some wishes, but given the coming trials I didn't stockpile this time. Forty wishes at seventeen points per wish was six hundred eighty points, not to mention a serious boost from my progress in the last trial. I DID get way more Might than anything else, which I was choosing to view as a positive reflection of my strength and NOT an assumption that I was a big dumb meathead who had taunted the trial examiners to torture us all more violently than they otherwise would have (not that I thought that was true anyway).


I dropped that six eighty into Vitality, which was lagging behind a bit, and the other thirty two hundred was all Might.


The next trial was later in the day, sadly, so I ended up with the morning to myself. Normally that would have been fine, but I always hated the wait before a big event. I tried to sleep until the last possible moment on days I had to do things, because waiting around all morning for an afternoon task made time feel like it was flowing in reverse.


So I did what I often did when bored or annoyed, I tormen-er, that is, trained my apprentice. I'd come up with a truly spectacular exercise to try to teach her better defensive instincts, and watching her attempt it was endlessly amusing.


"Ow, shit-" she cursed as a fist made of dust crashed into her face, spinning her into a backhand before another closed fist smashed into her gut.


Pit of despair had been layered only an inch deep, creating a large circle of fine silt that I was using dust construction to animate into long tentacles with fists on them, attacking seemingly at random. Seemingly because I was using my overlay to easily find her weaknesses, and she was so much slower than me that the simple ability was having zero trouble with the process.


"Almost dodged that one," I said brightly as she staggered to her feet, slipping in the nearly frictionless dust and glaring at me. "What's wrong? You're improving so much."


Honestly, she was. She might hate the process, but it was helping. Her instinctive use of the forms had been much smoother, and she'd unconsciously flexed Mornax to block a few of the hits, though she hadn't noticed she was doing it. If it had been actually pointless I'd have stopped, I wasn't Abel.


My apprentice, sadly, did not appreciate my care and consideration. "You're so MEAN to me!" She wailed, literally stomping her foot and slipping in the dust. "You're supposed to be teaching me, not beating me up!"


"Check your Skill," I told her lazily.


"What? Why would I need to check my Sk-" She froze, eyes wide. "In-Intermediate already? How? And how did you KNOW?"


I shrugged. "You started tapping into the forms more smoothly a few minutes ago. I'm surprised you didn't notice, although I suppose you WERE distracted. Am I still me-" I was cut off by a furious tackle hug as my apprentice slammed into my torso, her arms failing to encircle my armored body but squeezing me tightly anyway.


"You're the best master EVER!" she squealed, completely changing her tune. "Now that I'm Intermediate I can start making the technique my own, right? Tweaking it to be more personalized?"


"Sure, and you could paint a big smiley face on top of the next expensive piece of art you buy," I said disdainfully. "Doesn't mean you should. No, don't mess with the Skill yourself. I'll adapt it for you, customize it to mesh a little better with your Path. Or, alternatively, you could leave it as is and customize your Path to mesh a little better with the Skill. I'm good at this, and put a lot of work and time into making those forms. Messing with them isn't going to be an improvement."


I kind of felt like I was my ancestor, creating a perfect fine tuned machine that any tinkering would unbalance. Of course, my staff art was so far removed from the perfection of the Wish ability it might as well be in another dimension, but the comparison was a nice fantasy while it lasted.


Still, I wasn't lying. Minor tweaks to the Skill, such as deciding on a manifestation or something, would be far more beneficial than any crazy involved tinkering she could do. My own Intermediate tinkering had massively fucked up my DS Mastery in ways I had only recognized and been able to repair later. I hope to help my apprentice skip that particular minefield, and hopefully take advantage of my experience for a better start to her journey.


I think she could tell I had good intentions, because she nodded slowly. "Then what should I do?"


"Manifestation," I answered bluntly. "It's a common tweak to weapon masteries, which the Goetia Staff Art technically is, and one I missed out on. I could probably force one as a technique, but I have other tools now. But for you, who is so tied up in the martial side of the forms, it's a good choice."


The more I considered it, the more I wondered WHY the tweaks at Intermediate were so commonplace. I mean, I did understand why, novelty was how Ascendants made their mark, but knowing what I knew now, I suspected part of the reason established factions like the Spear Legion that Lament and Wren had been part of back in the Moonglade Vale Tournament defaulted to manifestation.


Someone clearly knew that crazy ridiculous alterations done blind would hamstring you later without the proper skillset to fix it. I just kind of wish they'd told ME that. With Zeke bound by his geas to minimize interference, I'd been left to flounder, and only my exceptional luck had prevented me from fucking myself over in the long run. I was determined to make sure Bella had better support than that.


I'd expected at least some argument, knowing that as a less experienced warrior Bella would probably want to try more new things and blaze her own path (pun intended), but to my surprise, after a moment of silent introspection, she just nodded. "Alright." At my slight start, she smiled. "I know I can be a pain, but I really appreciate you teaching me. I've never even heard of a Skill this complicated or versatile. You built it and you know what I need to do with it. It would be pretty silly to try to reinvent the wheel before I even learned how to drive on the normal ones."


I burst out laughing at that. "I guess it would." I waved a hand, and the dust beneath her feet pushed her up slightly, raising her to a level surface before re-solidifying. "So, are you too tired from training or do you want to try to get manifestation down before I head out?"


Bouncing excitedly she skipped backwards about twenty feet, getting into position. "Alright, I'm ready. How do I do a manifestation."


"Oh, I have no idea," I admitted. She froze, staring at me. "What?" I asked with a shrug. "I told you I never bothered, I did my own alterations, though they ended up being a mistake in the long run. More on the fly changes I tend to use techniques for, but doing that won't work here. Luckily, I have a decent idea where to start. You know how to brute force a Skill change, right?"


Back on Callus, when I'd been learning how to alter Skills in the Scavenger Hunt, I'd needed to use the brute force method. Essentially using my stats to bully my Skills into doing extremely niche things and then repeating it until the Skill essentially learned what I was doing and changed to reflect it.


She nodded slowly. "I can do that. You said you were going to do the changes yourself though."


"Not literally," I said with a shake of my head. "Through you. Just…do your thing." I opened up my Eye of Revelation, then, with a quick flex, triggered Afterburner making sure to burn several of my boosts on the vision skill. Staring hard, I looked…through, my apprentice. Our connection through the Skill only we had was enough for me to at least see the makeup of it the way I could my own.


I doubted I could study the Skill construction of ALL her Skills, but I didn't need to. "Begin," I told her firmly.


So she did. I watched as she wielded her staff. She tried to do a full manifestation right out the gate, but I stopped her. "Don't rush," I said in a calming tone. "Start small." So she did. A same size copy of her staff, an image that was basically just a reflection. She worked with that a few times, and I corrected her image a bit, slightly changing her impressions of what she was doing and seeing how that affected the stat distribution.


This was HARD, like trying to do surgery blindfold by describing where the other person should cut. But it was a VERY simple alteration, which was why we'd settled on it, and soon enough she was working with a mostly perfect manifestation. It only took another hour or so of repetition for it to click into place, and the Skill altered itself to fit her. When she finished, she slumped to the ground, mentally exhausted.


I called Archie down, letting him flood me with Life Nova to offset the sequelae to Afterburner, then smiled at my apprentice. "That's enough alteration to count as making it your own, which means you're free to train for Expert. I wouldn't expect it to be fast, just take your time. Work on incorporating the manifestation into your combat style."


I was looking forward to how effective she would be with that trick. Without the ability to trigger forms she was at a disadvantage, but the range improvement should help a lot. Abel was devastating with that trick. Maybe I could have him give her some pointers after we left.


That brought up the question of whether Bella was coming back with me, which brought up the question of whether I would make it back at all. Luckily, Archie's flames had me in a good enough mood to banish that thought as I waved goodbye and headed for the next trial. I figured a nice leisurely walk would clear my head.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I arrived at the trial relatively early. Even strolling, I'd given myself plenty of time, and this one wasn't too far away. When I got there, I was pleased to see Harper, Elena, and Mnemosyne had already arrived, and were standing talking to two strangers. That said, the number of actual contestants seemed to have dropped, from a hundred to about seventy five, not counting the small crowd of emissaries like Bernadette and Chad.


"We had drop-outs, huh?" I asked as I arrived. I interrupted their conversation, but it had just been Mnemosyne sniping at Elena again, so I didn't feel too bad. "Sorry, just wanted to get caught up. And hello new friends, I'm Mephistopheles, nice to meet you."


The taller of the two, an olive skinned guy with curly black hair and kind brown eyes, nodded cheerfully. "Yeah, you too. I'm Jacob, this is Hector." He jerked a thumb at his companion, a short, pale guy with broad shoulders and red hair. "That name is a bit of a mouthful, huh? Though you certainly fit the image."


"You can call me Fist if you want," I said with a shrug. "Most people here do."


"Hector and Jacob were actually just telling us about the drop-outs." Elena chimed in. "Apparently some of the contestants were shaken by the surprise introduction of the beetles. It was a bit of a tone shift."


I chuckled. "Not if you had the same first trial as I did, but then, who knows if they all did? So, what is this one supposed to be?"


I turned to glance up the tall mountain behind us, lined from bottom to top with a single large and very shiny golden staircase. It was engraved top to bottom with enchantments, and was very obviously D-rank. I had some ideas of what it probably did, but it didn't hurt to ask.


"Don't know yet," said Mnemosyne. "You got here not long after we did. They haven't announced the rules yet."


As if waiting for this exact sentence (which he might have been) Darian the Kitsune erupted into the center of the group with his white fire, appearing in a flash of magical flame looking excited. "Hello, everyone!" he crowed excitedly. "It is I, Darian, your favorite announcer, back for the next round of our exciting competition. How are you all feeling today?" There was a muffled smattering of grumbled responses, which he treated like a rousing cheer of response.


"Glad to hear it! I see the numbers have thinned out, which is a shame, but it was bound to happen." He shook his head sadly. "Some people just can't take a joke. But fear not! I know that all of you remaining have a healthy sense of humor and whole heartedly approve of our little surprise twist last round!" Every one of us fixed him with iciest possible glare, but he just pushed on. "Now, with the understanding that your silence will be considered enthusiasm and support for my methods, let's move on!"


Turning to stare at the steps, he raised both arms dramatically. "Now, as you all may have noticed, we stand before a beautiful and finely crafted golden staircase!"


"The staircase of shocking people!" jeered Chad from the crowd.


Darian spun and glared in his direction. "You know we aren't supposed to call it that in front of the fodd-er, in front of the candidates. Its new name is 'the staircase of determination'." He paused, looking back at us with a grimace. "But…yeah, that's what it does."


Removing a small copper coin from his pocket, he tossed it onto the first step, seemingly delighted as it exploded in a flash of electrical discharge. "As you can see, these steps are flowing the vibrant power of determination. Also lightning. So much lightning. It's honestly unsafe how much lightning is being pumped through the steps. Luckily for you, it is also contained. Each step is limited by a cap, the cap raising slowly step by step."


He pointed up the mountain. "There are a thousand steps here. Each step is a one percent increase, with each of the ten platforms being the hundredth step and counting as a full doubling of the voltage." He paused. "Or amperage? Which one hurts you?


"In any case, you can give up at any time and you'll be shunted off the steps to safety. BUT, if you reach the top, our lady has generously donated another luxurious reward! A Torment Token, imbued with her own power to categorically block a single fatal blow when activated. It can be manually set to trigger when requested, or automatically when anyone over a certain rank attacks."


My head snapped up. That was…really good. Having something like that during the candidate selection for the WCP would be a HUGE game changer. Especially depending on how they defined 'one attack'. Could it block one army? One blow? One battle?


Whatever the answer, I was all fired up, motivated to really test myself here. This one seemed straightforward too. The lightning was obvious and painful, no hidden twist necessary. Of course, it could kill one of us, but we could give up whenever we wanted. I was more concerned with how to ration my Gluttony time. I was probably going to try to make it halfway before starting, then use a minute on each of the last five platforms. That should help keep me going and offset some of the damage, with Mornax doing the rest.


"Now! Everyone get ready! We'll be mounting the stairs in only minutes!" With that last proclamation he vanished, appearing next to the crowd of emissaries in another flash of ghostly flame.


"Well, this is going to suck," I said bluntly. I was pretty sure my armor was insulated, but even if it wasn't Mornax would help. Still, I knew from experience that pain and even some damage could get through me defenses. Hell, electricity might be the best possible attack to use on my in that form.


Hector and Jacob followed us to the steps, taking up positions next to us as everyone else lined up. Not everyone appeared to be ready to go immediately. Some of the candidates hung back, clearly planning to scope out the damage as the rest of us blazed the path forward.


Of course, none of them had a shot at that prize token, so it was kind of a trade off. I glanced at the two newcomers to our little group. "You're not planning to backstab us at the first platform or something, are you?" I asked casually. "Because aside from pissing me off I doubt that would accomplish much."


Jacob laughed, clearly being the more talkative of the two. "Hardly. But we never had much of a group, and sticking with all of you makes it look like we have backup. Sorry not sorry, but I'd rather not get tossed off the steps so some asshole can pass me to try to get that token."


"Are YOU going to try?" I asked with amusement.


"Hell no," he answered emphatically. "I don't have a deathwish. I saw what you went through getting that first prize, I don't have time for that nonsense. I'll just do the REGULAR impossible trials thanks. If I don't make it, so be it, at least I won't be dead or traumatized."


Mnemosyne snorted. "That sounds like quitter talk. Not going to impress and goddesses with that. Must be relaxin' to be a coward."


He grinned sweetly at her. "If I need some advice on how to fail at shaving my head all the way I'll ask you. Otherwise I think I'll decide my own priorities, thanks. Cowardice is just a bitter name for self preservation. SOME of us are proud of having that."


Hector rolled his green eyes. "Ignore him. He's far from a coward. He likes to play at being pragmatic and cut throat, but he has twenty cats at home he adopted despite barely being able to feed himself. He's a big softy and he's here because of me. You couldn't ask for a more loyal friend."


Jacob glared at him. "Can you NOT ruin my reputation with your inconvenient need to be truthful to random strangers? I'm trying to get us an edge here. They were just about to let their guard down so we could pass them."


"We weren't going to do that," I told him with amusement. "But it's amusing that you tried."


"Oh, my gods can this START already?" Demanded Mnemosyne. "If I have to listen to you all banter for much longer I'm going to stuff my ears with wax."


I was about to agree with her when a loud bell tolled across the area. We all turned to find a tall, gangly looking guy with dark skin and blonde hair pulling a rope. Darian stood a few feet away looking apoplectic with rage, but when we all turned to stare at him he froze, then with a final dirty look spun to look at us.


"Apologies for the confusion. CHAD decided to ring the bell of determination. Which is supposed to be my job." Everyone just stared at him, and his shoulders slumped. "Fine!" he spat. "Go ahead and start or whatever, gods."


Grinning, I turned back to the steps, triggering Mornax, and took my first step forward. To my surprise, the first step of stage one wasn't too bad. Mild static maybe, through Mornax. Smiling, I took a step, and then another. There was a slight build but it was only mild discomfort. I heard a bunch of people curse and set off after me, obviously trying to catch up, but I ignored them.


Step, step, step, it was easy at first, but about halfway up the first staircase, i started feeling a bit uncomfortable. Three quarters of the way up I started to actually hurt, and when I hit the first platform, the pain was starting to really dig in.


It wasn't so bad I couldn't push through, but it was definitely not fun. I saw Elena catching up though, so I realized my processing time wasn't going to last.


Crossing the platform, I immediately mounted the stairs to the next one. The first step up was a one percent bump of the doubled power of the platform…meaning it was two percent on the original amount. That was going to get old fast.


Looking back down, I saw that it was more than just Elena catching up. A dozen or so others were managing to push through about as fast as I was, almost at the first platform, and as I watched, a tall man made of gleaming copper with absurdly defined muscles stepped past me onto the second step of the second staircase.


Another man with beetle chitin and a woman with crystalline skin had caught up as well, and they were pushing forward fast enough that I had to completely focus on moving ahead. I didn't have time to second guess myself.


The pain built, agony growing inside me, but this wasn't as bad as the other ones. The constant build of slowly growing burning pain was actually helping me clear my head. The pain dealt no damage, at least so far, so I was using it to fuel me rather than letting it hold me back.


It took me about a half hour to make it to the fifth platform. By this point, I was smoking and aching, my teeth gritted so hard I was worried they might've cracked, but I ignored it. What I couldn't ignore was the fatigue. The constant muscle spasms from the electricity, regardless of durability, were starting to take their toll.


When I hit the fifth platform, I reached for the mask with my mind, triggering Gluttony as I offset the drain to the object. I felt the electricity swirl into my gut, swallowed by the dark flame pit inside my stomach. I knew I was just getting started, but for now it helped. Time to get started on the second half. I had a token to win.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The activation of Gluttony changed the game. Aside from torn muscles from the electrocution, I hadn't realized how much fucking FATIGUE had build up on my climb. Every step drove me deeper into pain and exhaustion, and I'd been staggering up the stairs the last for staircases. But all that changed as I fired up the Abomination Engine and let the electricity pour in.


It hurt, as usual, but this was a refreshing kind of pain. In the face of the wobbling stagger and shuddering exhaustion of before, the new pain was like a breath of fresh air, cleansing and propelling me forward.


Sadly, looking up, I found that the brief respite (for some value of that word) hadn't done me any favors. More people had caught up. To my complete surprise, I recognized one of them.


Jacob grinned at me cheekily. "I told you you'd let your guard down so I could pass you."


"Well, you've certainly surprised me," I gritted out through the pain. "Mostly by being…that. What actually are you, exactly?"


He was…jelly. Translucent gold jelly. Or something like it, the consistency was a little weird maybe. "I'm a honey slime." He announced proudly, and I nodded. Slime was pretty much exactly where my head had gone, and honey sounded right. I hadn't even know that was a thing.


"So why aren't you…you know, in pain?" I gestured at his apparent casual demeanor.


"Oh, I am," he admitted. "Excruciating pain. It's just easier to keep it off my face when I don't have any muscles to contract. Plus my slime conducts electricity more than holds it. Here, look." He casually reached out to his other side, where the bronze guy was passing, and poked him with a finger.


There was an explosion of lightning much like the coin earlier, and the bronze guy screamed as he was flung bodily off the stairs. I moved away from Jacob.


"Anyway, nice seeing you, I've got to get going." With a final wave he turned and moved on.


I noted that he stuck to the opposite side of the incredibly wide steps, letting me feel more comfortable, and I appreciated the effort as I remounted the stairs myself, letting Gluttony fade while keeping Abomination Engine going.


Sadly, contrary to the plot of of every movie, video game, comic, and book in history, pumping pure electricity into your body does not actually make you stronger, even with something like Abomination Engine. That might have been my fault for designing it this way, but in my defense, I hadn't expected this exact situation to happen.


Still, the electricity sapped the power from Gluttony, forcing me to expend it on empowering exhausted and damaged muscles. It gave me enough strength to get through the next staircase, though barely, and when I got to the top I triggered Gluttony again immediately, letting the new and much stronger energy flood my Abomination Engine and empower me.


I was able to keep up with the output because of the constantly climbing voltage, with each platform being a full double of the one before. Despite the ability though, this was wearing on even my mental state, because nearly a half hour (each staircase now took at least as long as the first five together) of unending torment followed by MORE torment that happened to be good for me…wasn't actually good for me.


What had started out as more bearable was slowly becoming WORSE than all the other trials. I wasn't just taking the damage. I was making the damage. This was my fault and every step was doing more to myself in a way that was becoming increasingly hard to justify regardless of the endgame prize.


I was breaking down. There was a limit to the amount of pure agony I could actually take, and I was approaching it. Which was unfortunate, but not shocking. Everyone has limits, and a can do attitude can only take you so far.


Luckily, I wasn't alone. I was never alone. A surge of belief and strength came through the bond as my wife flooded me with love and support, not needing to speak and knowing it wouldn't help, but being there for me all the same. Callie's willpower bolstered my own in a way I could never describe to someone else, but was as familiar to me as my own face in the mirror.


People like to say 'a burden shared is a burden halved', but that isn't true. Because support and faith isn't additive, it's multiplicative. Knowing my wife was here with me, knowing she could shoulder this at my side, made this whole thing INFINITELY more palatable. My resolve firmed as I pulled from a well of my own strength I hadn't even known was there, pushing forward until I set foot on the seventh platform.


Gluttony activated, and I let myself…well, not relax, but meditate a bit as the energy poured into my Abomination Engine. Jacob stepped up next to me, and I was surprised he'd kept up. His expression was strained now, and I could see flickers of electricity in the golden jelly of his translucent form.


Deciding to channel my inner Bethy, I cocked my head as I looked at him. "You ok? You look like you've had a terrible shock."


He snorted. "How long have you been waiting to use that one?"


I shrugged tightly. "Not too long. Few platforms. Thinking of jokes makes it easier to ignore the feeling of my eyeballs boiling. Well, at least it did until I brought it up. Now I'm kind of focused on it. At least they haven't exploded."


Boiling was actually the wrong word. Frying was better. Living stone didn't really boil, though I suppose it didn't fry either. And thinking about the exact type of electric torment being visited on my eyeballs at that moment wasn't helping. Once I finished my refuel, I nodded tightly, then remounted the steps, continuing my journey to the top.


I was so engrossed with my ascent that I almost didn't notice the scream of my Danger Sense. Weirdly, it hadn't been going off before this, apparently not counting self harm as danger? I guessed since I could leave whenever and was actively the one doing myself harm it just considered this a 'safe' situation.


Whatever the reason, when it triggered, I almost missed it, noticing it just in time to drop to a knee as a clawed hand slashed at the air above me. Turning, I saw a fairly dainty girl with long white hair and a pair of cat ears glaring at me.


Coming back to my feet, I cocked my head at her as I started to back up the stairs, talking as I went. "Do I know you?" I gritted through clenched teeth.


Her silvery nails crackled with power, and I noticed some stripes in her white hair, which seemed to be just really long fur. It took me a second to match her appearance with a possible source. I remembered reading about a white tiger beast that had an affinity for lightning. I don't think she was the same kind of beast, because that thing was supposed to be almost immune to electricity, and she looked she was having a tough time.


"You will not win this trial," she said coldly. "You have been allowed to progress too far. I will not lose to you again."


"Might help if I knew your name," I grunted as I continued my way up.


Sneering, she lashed out again with another attack. I didn't bother dodging now that I knew what it was attacking me. I held up an arm and the nails skittered off my plate, the metal creating sparks as it clanged off my suit. "I am Corinne Deveaux," she said venomously. "And I will be the one to serve the goddess."


I considered her for a second, then punched her in the mouth. She reeled backward in shock, holding her now bleeding nose. "Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna do this. Later"


I turned, resuming climb, and was slightly smug at the frustration in her voice as she screamed after me. My punch had shoved her back a few steps, and I pushed forward implacably, putting some distance between us as I took advantage of her brief lapse in concentration.


Reaching the eighth platform, I activated Gluttony again, refilling my tank as I looked around for any others who might be here. I'd passed almost everyone, Jacob and Corinne both left a bit behind. The platform was almost empty, the sole other occupant being a short man with shaggy brown hair and a relatively unassuming demeanor.


"Greetings," he said gently. I stared at him, trying to figure out his deal. Some kind of power was almost necessary to get up here, but the average looking man didn't seem to have one. He just looked like a normal guy.


"Nice to meet you," I said slowly. "I'm Mephistopheles."


He nodded in acknowledgement. "I am aware. You may call me Shrike." It became quickly noticeable that he had positioned himself between me and the steps. "I am afraid I will need to insist you stop here. You have already acquired the egg, allowing you to gain access to this token would be too big an advantage, I'm afraid."


I stared at him for a minute, deciding what to do. Then I did two things. I triggered Double Trouble, and I activated Bael.


Appearing behind him, I was shocked to realize the stairs didn't prevent the skill from working. Despite that, I was invisible and past my enemy, and I immediately began my climb. I had to leave Gluttony active the first few steps to hit my minute, but that was fine.


Behind me, I heard Shrike calmly speaking to the illusory double my skill left behind. By the time he noticed it fade I was already halfway to the ninth platform, and even through the pain I had to grin at his previously calm demeanor turning frustrated.


Reaching the ninth platform, I was relieved to not see anyone there. I'd pulled far enough ahead to finally outpace all the challengers, but when I activated Gluttony, I was quickly discouraged to find that this wasn't going to be enough. The damage had outpaced the power my domain was able to restore. I only had one more platform, so I decided to spend two minutes here, burning all my remaining time.


Once that was done, I gritted my teeth, and ascended the steps. My first step was like a blow directly to my mind. After so many doublings of the output, one percent of the final staircase was more than five times what the entire initial charge had been added with every step.


My teeth ground together, my muscles contracted and tore, I could smell burning and taste copper. My eyes actually WERE boiling now. Somehow. But I ignored it. One step, then another. One foot in front of the other. I'd dropped Bael and triggered Zagan. While I couldn't use my soul repairing techniques directly on myself, I'd made the form for its healing properties to begin with, and those worked on my just fine.


I flooded myself with green flame, healing my disintegrating form as I stepped, pushing myself further as my muscles contracted so hard my bones started to crack under the pressure. Even with Mornax active, I was barely functional, and only the healing kept me going. On the seventy fifth step I had to stop, forcing myself to return to pushing when I realized a 'break' would probably kill me if I let it go on.


At step eighty my eyes burst. It was agonizing, but honestly it almost helped, the lack of ocular nerves to fry seeming to relieve the pain somewhat. My teeth cracked at step ninety, and my eardrums burst somehow at ninety five. I pushed through, ignoring it all as I forced myself onwards.


When my feet hit the hundredth step, the final platform, I was rendered nearly insensate as the pain cut off. My body felt raw, off. Even as the green flames flooded me, the sheer rawness from the lack of agony was almost a new form of pain. I staggered across the platform, reaching a small black shrine that reminded me a bit of the one we'd found under that valet back on Stratholme.


Reaching out, I plucked the black token from the shrine and stored it in my ring before keeling over. Despite no longer being able to hear, I felt Archie approaching as I lay unresponsive on the ground, and I felt relief as my body shut down. I would most likely wake up healed. Thank the gods for my new companion.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up with a headache. Again. I grimaced, massaging my head. This was becoming a fucking habit again, and I wasn't excited about it. I sat up with a groan, looking around…and noticed I could see. Which was objectively better than before I'd passed out, when my eyeballs had exploded in my skull from electrocution. On second thought, maybe just this once I was ok with falling unconscious.


Under other circumstances I'd have worried about getting attacked, but with Bernadette watching from the sidelines, not to mention the other examiners, plus Archie overhead, I was safe as houses passed out on top of that mountain.


No, my main concern now was where the hell I WAS. I looked around, spotting my companion perched in the rafters, watching me calmly. He let out a trilling cry, and I frowned at him. "Don't be sarcastic. I won a huge competition. I'm entitled to a brief rest." Another trill. "You could NOT have done better. How would you even walk up a thousand step flight of stairs? You're a bird. What, are you going to hop up one step at a time?"


A muffled giggle caught my attention, and I turned to find Bella sitting next to the bed, covering her mouth. "Sorry master. Didn't mean to disturb you."


"It's fine," I sighed. "He's just being difficult to distract me. He could tell I was freaking out a bit."


Archie and I were bonded. Maybe not the same way as me and Callie, but bonded all the same. My phoenix could tell when I was upset, at the very least. It was impressive he knew me well enough to know how to take my mind off things, but I did appreciate it.


I didn't see anyone else around, so I reached into my ring and withdrew the token I hadn't previously been able to look at much. The Torment Token was made of a shiny black material that I had initially mistaken for obsidian. One closer inspection, it didn't feel heavy enough to be volcanic glass, being nearly weightless, and besides that, the shine was wrong.


In fact, I had never seen anything exactly like it. It felt kind of like liquid darkness, but as a solid. The longer I looked at it, the further my gaze was pulled in. Rather than reflections or glints of light, it seemed like I was looking at almost the opposite. The shine seemed to be slight glints of light managing to escape from the dark as it swallowed most of the light around it. It was a deeply unsettling thing to look at, but I couldn't avert my gaze, because I could see…something.


The closer I looked, the clearer it became. Engravings, stories told in the absence of light, negative space in a way I'd never seen before. The story of a girl, raised by a cruel and distant father, who only knew how to communicate with pain. A girl whose entire existence was suffering from the day she was born, and who used her suffering as a way to understand others, to find common ground.


Felicity, the Lady of Lamentations, because pain and sorrow were her only companions, and the lenses through which she viewed the world. I saw her grow in power, making friends by taking their pain, making enemies and inflicting hers upon them.


If it were any other medium, any other story, I'd suspect her of manipulating me. With this though…it was so clinical, so detached. This was like math, the recounting of a life in the cold and brutal terms of emotionless fact. There was no bias, no attempt to reach out…at first. But the deeper I looked, the more I saw.


Pain. This story was written in emotional pain, in the absence of hope. And I could feel it more and more as I watched. Despite the emotions beginning to seep in, I could still see the truth of it. This was how she related to others, there was no deception, she didn't do that.


Which made it worse. I felt the tears trailing down my cheeks as I resonated with her loneliness, with her solitude and despair.


Except she wasn't despairing. Felicity, so ironically named, because the same thing had happened to her that had happened to my distant adopted cousin. Her only means of communication was pain, giving or receiving it, and slowly, she became numb, became cold. She wore away at her humanity in the same way OUR Felicity had, except she did it to herself.


The story continued, the girl left home, abandoning her father. She didn't run from him, simply turned her back on him, and in the singular act of kindness he ever showed her, he didn't follow. She travelled and learned, she built her legend. Sometimes as a saint, sometimes as a monster, and eventually as a goddess. During this time, her father died, but she did not mourn him, simply accepted the pain of his passing as a gift, the one time she was able to truly connect.


When she herself died, she'd thought it would be peaceful. It wasn't. Nothingness was its own pain. The pain of non existence, and then- the connection ended. I stared down at my empty hands through tear blurred eyes, and looked up to find Callie smiling sadly down at me.


"What are we going to do with?" she asked in fond exasperation. "Just picking up random god artifacts and having emotional exchanges with them. The Domain of a god isn't something you're ready to interact with. Didn't you give me a whole speech about this?" She bopped me on the head with the token. "Especially using your Eye of Revelation."


I shook my head, and then realized the mask was warm against my face. I cursed, putting the token away. "Wasn't that. I think the connection to her dad made the mask…reactive. The two items formed a connection for a minute and I got swept up. Thanks for stepping in. I don't think that would have killed me or anything, but I doubt I'd have enjoyed going any deeper. I learned a lot that I'm…not sure what to do with. Like you said, I did give a speech. Humanizing gods gets you killed."


Seeing the Lady of Lamentation's tragic backstory HAD made me feel bad for her, but it had also scared me. I wasn't sure if the conclusions I'd drawn were right. The similarities to Felicity (my cousin) might have been my own imagination, but a goddess who was that kind of brutal, mechanical, person…that shouldn't even be possible Zeke said that kind of process precluded being able to go very far down a Path. So it might be something different.


Whatever the case, it had given me insight, for good or ill. I smiled up at Callie's shadowy form. "So you can just manifest on my side whenever huh?"


"Afraid of a visit from your wife?" she asked archly, though I could see a playful glint in her eyes. "Maybe I should knock first." At my eyeroll, she just chuckled and turned to look at my shocked apprentice. "It's nice to meet you Bella. My idiot husband has been too busy passing out all over the place to introduce us. Speaking of which, what the hell S-Mephistopheles? I thought you were past that phase."


"Don't get me started," I groaned. "I'm working on it, but in this case I don't think it was a bad thing. Archie had to regrow my eyes, an experience I'm happy to have skipped."


She grimaced. "I can understand that. Anyway, try not to fry your brain before I see you again. I've gotten surprisingly attached over the course of our short marriage. I'd hate to have to retrain you if you blast your mind apart and lose all your memories."


I put a hand to my chest, putting on a touched voice. "Oh, honey. You say the sweetest things. But don't worry, chances are good I'd just die." She laughed, leaned up and pecked me on the cheek, then vanished in a puff of shadows that I was almost positive was a purposeful dramatic effect because I'd never seen it before. I turned to Bella, who had been struck dumb by the interaction. "I thought you saw her before, why are you so shocked?"


Them having never met didn't sound right. I was pretty sure Elena wasn't the only one who had interacted with Callie. I might be misremembering though.


"I just thought she was a shadow," she said in wonder. "I didn't know she was your WIFE! Master, did you create a shadow wife? That's…kind of weird. But cool maybe? I mean she was really detailed."


I rolled my eyes at her nonsense. "My wife has shadow powers, and can communicate with them long distance. She's an actual person, not a construct. Now, what the hell happened after I passed out. Archie is very helpful for a lot of things, but birds don't have great attention spans and don't seem to care much about past events."


She laughed, holding up an arm, and my traitor bird trilled and swept down to land on her arm, where she started scritching him under his beak and then slipped him something that looked suspiciously like a hot coal. Since I was still waiting on an answer I didn't comment, though I filed it away for later.


"Well, after you won, Archie landed and started healing you. Sister Bernadette appeared next to you and stood watch, and once you were…not bleeding from the eyes anymore, she brought you back here. I wasn't there of course, but Elena told me. She came back with Bernadette this time too. Checking up on you I think, she's really nice."


"She is," I agreed absently. I was still considering how to get her a scroll for her son. I wanted to help without blowing my cover, but I was quickly racking up quite a debt to her. Maybe I could just use Bael to sneak in and leave it for her in secret. I'd talk it over with Callie, that seemed like the kind of plan that sounded really good to me until I did it and realized I'd gotten tunnel vision and done something really stupid.


Bella continued on, not noticing my inner turmoil. "Sister Bernadette said that you have a week before the next trial, so you should get some rest. You're in way better shape than last time, since your soul wasn't damaged, and your body is mostly healed. She said your head might hurt for a while, apparently regrowing optical nerves causes strain."


That made an unfortunate amount of sense, and explained my headache. At least it wasn't some soul damage bullshit. That was what my immediate assumption had been.


Holding up my own arm, I waited for Archie to fly over. When he didn't budge I cleared my throat loudly and he actually rolled his eyes at me before swooping over to land on my forearm with a slight clank. He flapped his wings and a corona of green flame surrounded me, soothing and rejuvenating me.


I laughed, thanking him for his effort, and then spent the rest of the night catching up with my apprentice. She'd been testing out her manifestation, and had lots to report that would be of use to me later.


All in all, it was far from the worst way I'd woken up from an involuntary nap. I';d been through five trials now, and only two were left. I was kind of excited to see what was coming. I hoped it wasn't worse than this one, but I knew I couldn't count on that. Still, I somehow doubted it would be pure physical again. This one had been about the limit of what a D-ranker could reasonably survive in terms of raw damage. Whatever it was though, I'd be ready. I had this, and nothing would stand in my way.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Rather than just grind wishes and relax, the next day I decided to check in with the others (though I did store my eight scrolls in the ring before I left) . Vesper, Ray, Desria, and all my friends from the first round had been busy with their own trials, some of which had started while I was doing my thing. I found them all the next morning, eating breakfast together, and when I approached everyone seemed pleased to see me.

"Fist!" chirped Ray happily. "Well, look what the bird dragged in. Speaking of which is that bird on fire? Because I feel like that's weird. I know we're Ascendants so weird is relative, but flaming bird seems like an oddity. I might just be drunk."

Desria rolled her eyes at him. "You haven't been drinking. How would you be drunk?"

"Maybe I drank so much I forgot I started drinking," he said triumphantly. "What do you think about that?"

Vesper sighed. "Please don't answer that Desi. I can already tell it's going to be unnecessarily harsh. Honestly you should take a day off. Go to a spa or something. If you spend another consecutive day watching him you're going to stab someone. Where is your brother, anyway?"

"Cavallo is on a frog watching expedition," she said with a shrug. "I told him I'd cover. Luckily our trial hasn't started yet, and the mystery trials seem to be too tough for Rayden to manage."

"So you started your trial?" I asked Vesper without paying attention to Desria's sniping. Her friends weren't around, so I figured they might be doing the trials separately. I was kind of curious exactly what theirs entailed.

She brightened. "Yeah! It's actually been really fun. I was expecting some survivalist nonsense, but it turns out that Verdyn tries to softball the early trials. We've been wiping out invasive species. Our next one is this weird type of wasp larva that burrows into the brains of creatures and hijacks their bodies."

"That's…horrifying," I said in an appalled voice. "How are you supposed to deal with that? Kill the hosts? Or is there some kind of nest or hive you can destroy?"

She grimaced. "Both. The larvae are psychically connected to the queen. We have to eliminate all of them before destroying the hive, otherwise one of them will mutate and spawn a new one. What's worse is once they hatch from their host, they take on characteristics of the animal they nested in. Some of them are the size of bears and armed with natural weapons that make normal wasps look like fuzzy puppies."

I glanced at Archie, who was looking surprisingly offended. I could feel his disdain for parasites like this, and his desire to purify them. I could feel that he had the power to wipe out the larvae with his purification flames.

Chuckling at the strong arrogance I was picking up from my phoenix companion, I turned to Vesper with a grin, "Apparently we're interested in helping out. I have some time to kill, if you're down for some help." While the trials were my main interest here, and training Bella was taking up plenty of time, but honestly, having nothing of consequence to do except essentially relax between torture sessions was kind of getting to me.

It had been nice at first, but at this point I was itching for something productive to do, and I was planning to make some offers to my new friends before leaving, hopefully recruiting some of the ones who didn't make it for my faction.

The ones who did…well, that might be trickier, I could only hope the other trials were as absurd as mine.

Vesper, for her part, seemed enthused at the offer of help. "Hey, I'll take any help I can get. Will it just be you?"

"My apprentice is around somewhere," I shrugged. "You guys met Bella. I've had her training pretty hard, and she could use some field work. These open freeform trials are fine to get help with right? My trial for Delthrys they allowed us to bring along helpers."

"As far as I know," she said with a smile. "I can't tell you what a relief that is. I was dreading doing this one on my own."

Archie trilled and I rolled my eyes, jerking my chin at the bird, "He says we should get going and stop talking about it." Vesper laughed, agreeing to get ready to go, and I went to go find my disciple, who was around the inn somewhere, to let her know we'd be doing practical field exercises.

While she was coming along well, I was going to send my phoenix with her just in case. Her Goetia Staff Art was still coming along, and it was kind of unreliable. She had enough techniques to get out of trouble, and her Escape Path made her unlikely to be pinned down, but having a healer slash bug purifier on hand would make me feel better about tossing her in the deep end so early.

To my complete lack of surprise, I found her out front, going through her stances. Slow and steady, she moved from one combat style to the next, and if I looked close I could see brief flares of power from the different forms.

Currently, she was working on suppressing those flares. While that might seen counterintuitive, if she could control the expression of the form's energy, she should be able to increase it as well as throttle it back, which seemed like a good next step. Control was never something you could have too much of.

That exercise had been one I'd been fairly smug about formulating, and I felt it made me sound like a real teacher, instead of an under qualified thug trying to show my apprentice how to beat people with a stick in a more complicated manner than usual.

When she saw me approaching, she didn't react right away, finished the rest of her rendition of her current stand before she snapped out of her concentration and turned to grin at me. "Breakfast over already? I expected you to be eating for the next hour or two. Also to possibly bring something for your favorite apprentice?"

"I only have one apprentice," I pointed out. "Which by definition also makes you my least favorite. Sadly for you that precludes breakfast." She slumped, looking sulky, but I just laughed and waved her to relax. "I actually cut things off. Vesper needs some help with her next trial, and I thought we could do some practical applications for your training."

The way her face lit up you'd think I told her I was buying her a small planet. "Wait, really? You're taking me with you out into the field? What are we doing? Fighting pirates? Another mystery? SKIING?"

"No, no, and why would you possibly ask that?" I said in exasperation. "How is that a practical application of anything?"

She pouted. "I could use the staff like one of those skiing guide poles."

Snorting, I filled her in on the trial. I expected her to be underwhelmed, but she actually seemed kind of pumped. "How big are the hosts? You mentioned bears? I want to fight a bear!"

"You really don't," I said firmly, thinking of Randall. "But you might have to. I don't know the specifics, I assume Vesper has some way of tracking them, otherwise we'd be screwed. Finding a bunch of larvae in the brains of any of the undoubtedly massive number of creatures on this planet would be pretty much impossible in a short amount of time. Speaking of, her she comes, so we can ask her."

Vesper, it seemed, had gotten ready fast, and was coming out of the inn carrying a large pack she hadn't been wearing earlier. "Alright, I'm ready to go!"

"You sure?" I said wryly. " You might not have packed everything. Did you manage to stick a bed in there? Don't you have a spatial ring? Why do you need to carry that much on your back?"

She grimaced. "Once we wipe out the stragglers, we'll need to blow the nest. The explosives they gave us are spatially reactive, because much like pretty much everything Ascendants make, it's bigger on the inside. Unfortunately, that means they can't go in a spatial ring or it might set them off."

"Huh," I said with interest. "That's actually pretty cool. I've never heard of spatial explosives." I made a note to pick some up for Abel. My mentor might get a kick out of studying something like that.

"Anyway, I heard what you were saying earlier," she continued. "And yes, I do have a way to track them. Here, come see." Wasling over to a nearby tree, she unrolled a map, pinning it to the bark with a pair of knives. She then reached into her pouch and pulled out a long, silver chain with an amber stone on the end.

Taking out a match, she lit it, holding it up under the stone. Light sparked inside, revealing a small insectoid lump in the center, and then a series of small beams shot out, burning a few dark spots onto the map's surface.

"Is that witchcraft?" I asked with interest. I'd seen my mom fight someone who used witchcraft before, it tended to focus on sympathetic links. That was obviously one of the larva, though how she'd gotten one frozen in amber I had no clue.

She shrugged. "Maybe, they gave it to me for the task. My first trial was finding one of these things and retrieving it intact, then they made me this thing to track the rest. We'll probably have to use it again a few times, I have other maps. In any case, looks like we have one pretty close by we can check out, do you want to go together or split up to start."

As much as I trusted Archie and believed in Bella's ability to escape if needed, I decided some supervision wouldn't hurt to start. "Why don't we do the first one as a team so we know what to expect. Have you killed any yet?"

"One or two," she said with a grimace. "Looks like we have about ten more. Probably lucky it's only that."

And so we set off, following the map. When she said the larva was 'close', she'd been speaking relative to our travel speed. It was more like twenty miles out of town. Luckily even at a brisk walk that was nothing to an Ascendant. We took our time and still made it in about ten minutes.

As we approached, we slowed down to scope out the situation, and I triggered Eye of Revelation to scope things out.

I didn't see a larva, but I did see what was probably the host. A large shaggy bear with deer antlers and the face of an ant, which was objectively pretty unsettling. Pointing it out, I saw Vesper grimace. "It's a Shaunus. They've got tons of Might, that's not ideal. It's going to be much more physically powerful than almost anything else we could've run into."

Cracking my neck, I grinned. "Well, then I'll handle this one. If you don't mind." She nodded and I grinned, triggering Limbo.

I only had five minutes of my domain, but I was confident that would be enough. Rushing forward into the rapidly expanding mist, I lashed out with my staff, an explosion of black flame coming forth to destroy a potential timeline.

Because of its stupidity, straightforward nature, or possibly because of the larva, this particular enemy had a much more limited pool of potential options for combat, which meant this fight would be easier than expected. With Limbo active, I had access to both Belial and Mephistopheles, so I started my work, whittling away at its potential fates to entrap it into the corrosive destruction attacks as I dismantled the monster. It was nice to fight something I had a hefty advantage over again. In the end it didn't even take me five minutes. I got it done in three.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Well, that didn't take long," Vesper said casually as the fog cleared. I had two minutes left on my timer, but it occurred to me wasting it on random larvae MIGHT be a poor use of my resources. In my defense, I'd been bored and it had seemed fun. A trilling cry rang out as my phoenix swooped down, flapping his wings and blowing a wave of green flame at my face. My mask prevented it from even being a nuisance, but I still didn't love it.


Bella snickered as I rolled my eyes. "I didn't STEAL your prey. It was a fucking BEAR. Or something like one. It's way too big for you to prey on. You clearly have delusions of grandeur." He trilled again. "Yes, I know you're permanently on fire. I don't think that counts as LITERAL grandeur. Well I can't define it, but like…something to do with mountains or castles or something. Something bigger than a scraggly green bird."



I laughingly dodged the next burst of fire, and he swooped away, taking up a position on Bella's shoulder as he looked away from me haughtily.



Vesper chuckled. "I think you offended him."



"He could use it. Trust me if you could hear him talk you'd want to deflate his ego a bit too. He's a sweet bird, but he's very cocky." I smirked at my companion, who did the phoenix equivalent of snorting in derision, which was really impressive without a nose.



Bella scritched him on the neck, comforting him, the traitor. "So can we split up?" She asked hopefully. "I don't actually think I learned much about killing them, but you got an idea how strong the bugs are right? I can totally take one on." She tried to keep her tone even, but she was clearly excited to go out on her own.



I glanced at Archie. "Keep an eye on her?" I asked him bluntly. He trilled grudgingly, letting me know he would obviously keep her safe. I smiled at my companion, proud that even so young he had such a strong sense of loyalty. "Alright, be careful ok? Both of you. If something unexpected comes up you run. Between your flight and herEescape Path there shouldn't be anything that can catch up if you decide to leave."



He didn't seem happy about it, but he grudgingly chirped an acceptance. He didn't like the idea of running away, given how proud he already was, but he knew keeping my apprentice safe came first.



Bella scowled at me. "Hey, I can take care of myself."



"That is demonstrably false," I told her bluntly. "I kick your ass in training all the time. If Archie can agree to run if it gets out of hand so can you. He's literally less than a week old. Seriously, the bar for maturity here is so low it's almost impossible to miss. Just do as you're told and stay safe." I said with exasperation.



Sulkily, she nodded, and I sighed in relief. I understood wanting to prove herself but I needed to know I could trust her to take care of herself, even if it hurt her pride. Otherwise I wouldn't have been willing to let her go. I still might not have, if Scent of Truth hadn't confirmed she was being honest. That skill really was weirdly useful.



Once we'd made our decision, we checked the map again, each of us orienting on another host. After getting my assignment, I headed off to deal with the next monster. I absolutely wanted to kill my target before it birthed an insectoid brain baby that would be even worse.



As I walked, I decided to reach out to Callie, see how she was doing. "How goes the training?" I sent through the bond.



"Not bad," came the voice of my wife. "Your grandmother is very patient, but very demanding. I'm learning a lot from her though. You won't even recognize my combat style when you get back. You better be working hard if you want to keep up." She sounded as excited about that as I was, and I had to chuckle at the enthusiasm.



"What does she have you doing?" I asked. "Blind training in some kind of secret dungeon or an ancient city of the dead?"



I got a burst of amusement and mischievousness. "No hints. I'll just say it's helping me grow fast. That's the only way I can keep up with you. What about you, training right now? Or is this another day off to whip your apprentice into shape."




"Actually, neither. I needed a day off from being tortured by fanatical god followers and being tortured by my apprentice. I'm helping out one of my new friends, doing something productive and building some good will for when this is all over." I sent her a jumbled series of impressions along with a bit of info about the bugs, and I could feel the grimace from across the galaxy.



"Gross," she sent bluntly. "But probably good for you. Do you see your next target yet?"



Stopping, I hopped up into a tree, narrowing my eyes "Just did. It's… gods, that's hideous. What even is that?" I sent her an image of what I was seeing, trying to make sense of it myself as I beheld what might have been the ugliest creature I'd ever seen.



It looked kind of like a humanoid moose, shoulders hunched and back bent to make it seem only about seven feet tall. I could tell it was actually MUCH taller, and its misshapen arms dragged the ground behind it, loo long and lanky even for its tall, spindly frame. Matter hair hung off every inch of it, shrouding the monster in curtains of fur, and empty red eyes scanned the clearing around it, disgusting squashed snout snuffling horrendously.


"I…have no idea." Callie said uneasily. "It looks horrible though. What kind of animals does that planet have?"



Amused, I shook my head, showing her some of the things I'd seen here. "Some really fucked up ones. Luckily for me, I've been working on a new trick. A new form, actually, and a new combination. This one has been a long time coming."



I closed my eyes, focusing on my skills. Pit of Despair, Dust Construction, Afterburner for a little kick, Stone Limb, and trying something new, just because I was pretty sure I could make something better with this fifth pillar of the form to balance it, Shadow Manipulation, a charge pulled from Callie ages ago.




I merged them together, darkness and earth and stone, infused with infernal flames of amplification, crafting my new form slowly and carefully, perfecting it as best as I could with all the experience I have.



The result was something new. The earth flowed and shifted at my command, dissolving into darkened liquid that burned like tar when needed, or into burning ash, or hardening into abyssal black stone. I named the form for a demon who could cause earthquakes, shaking the very ground beneath his feet with a flex of his will. Agares.



The form clicked into place like it had always belonged, my most complex and oddly well balanced form so far. As I activated it, my skin hardened into dark stone, though not the impenetrable kind I had with Mornax. This stone was hot to the touch, and I had to step onto a pair of Ripple Running platforms to prevent the branch I'd been on from catching fire.



Without waiting for the thing to notice me, I activated Mephistopheles, waltzing forward to appear before the monster. It whirled on me, roaring indignantly…and I waved a hand.




The ground below it turned to ash, my black flame infusing this new Pit of Despair with the heat of infernal destruction. The creature was too stupid to avoid it and it dropped into the pit. Agares made not only using but holding Pit of Despair much easier, and expanding the normally ten foot pit into a veritable lake of burning ash was almost effortless, forming the technique to utilize the form instantly without much thought.




An infernal lake that consumed everything it touched. A new technique that used two of my strongest forms. It was so powerful I felt a new pseudo Domain forming without even meaning it. The technique shaped by the powerful imagery and the intense focus I'd put into every aspect of the form. The third circle of Hell. Wrath.



The monster screamed and flailed, desperately trying to escape as it was consumed by the burning dark ash. Once it ended I released the domain, letting both it and the two forms I was holding fade away.



"That got a bit more out of hand than you expected, huh?" said Callie in amusement. "Were you planning to use some of your domain time for that?"



"Not really," I admitted. "Something about those two forms just…clicked. Creation and destruction merging together. Maybe I should show that one to Chelsea. Might help with her Path."



Still, the new form AND the new domain had been worth using up another minute of today's allotment. I still had one left, and I kind of wanted to test it on the nest. I wasn't under the impression the lake could destroy ANYTHING, but it seemed pretty suited for mobs of weaker opponents. As for bigger monsters…well it could soften them up at least.



Heading back to meet Vesper, I got another assignment, and this time I just used Agares. I wanted to figure out a new stance for it to teach Bella. I worked through a few variations, eventually settling on low, solid movements utilizing the ground to lend me momentum. A bit like Mornax but less defensive. I figured my apprentice would pick it up pretty quickly with the other as reference.



Whips of boiling tar, clouds of burning ash, spears of super dense black stone. I learned quite a few uses for Agares, not to mention my excitement about possible construction projects. I'd successfully created a wide skillset based around this form, and I couldn't have been happier with the results.



Meeting back up with Vesper and Bella, I was pleased to see my apprentice none the worse for wear, and Archie seemed smug about his ability to keep her safe. I didn't correct my cocky little bird brain, he'd earned a little swagger.



With every straggler destroyed, it was time to move in on the nest.





"Alright, there will be a small army of them here," said Vesper sternly. "We need to make sure we get them all."





I grinned, stepping forward as the nest came into view. It was a huge twisted abomination, like a mix between wax and flesh molded into a grotesque imitation of some kind of home. "Just be ready to pick up the stragglers. Archie, might want to start charging up a purification nove, see if you can wipe out the Queen when she emerges."



The other two looked a bit confused, but I'd earned the benefit of the doubt, so they shrugged and let me do my thing.



Triggering Agares and Mephistopheles, I reached for my new domain. Wrath came quickly and without resistance, and with a wave of my hand, the entire clearing dissolved, the ground beneath the tree becoming a lake of burning ash.



The twisted abomination of a nest began to sink, slowly being consumed by superheated ash and the black flames of destruction Screams echoed from the nest, and I noted that Vesper was right, it WAS bigger on the inside. As a few of them emerged, a flex of my will sent whips of tar licking up to drag them into the lake, screams rose from the destruction as they were dragged under and burned to death…but sadly it didn't last.



My one minute was up, and I had to drop the domain lest I damage my own soul like I'd promised Callie I wouldn't. I staggered a bit, Bella catching me, and laughed as I realized how exhausting that had been, even without the soul weight. As the Queen burst out and Archie trilled his battle cry, flying out to meet her, I couldn't help but be smug. Today had been a good day.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Archie's fight with the Queen wasp was pretty spectacular. Lots of fire and screeching, though the purification didn't seem to hurt ALL of the wasp, just parts of it. Archie had other weapons, namely very sharp D-rank talons and very fast wings. His flames seemed to boost his own physical power constantly, making him a dangerous threat even without the techniques he'd learned from me.

Still, he was a baby, and while he managed to tear a big chunk out of the Queen, Vesper ended up needing to step in to take care of it, pushing the monster over the edge.

Once it was dead, we returned to the inn, and Vesper paid for everyone's meal so we could all celebrate the victory. Ray, Desria, and Cavallo all met us there, and to my surprise, one more familiar face was there.

I offered Chester Baddington my hand with a laugh, "Chess, where did you get off to? Haven't seen you since you helped me out with that second Delthrys trial."

The master thief laughed, dropping into his chair. "Family business to take care of. My dear old Auntie sold me out to you for a quick buck. Certain parties under her influence take umbrage with that kind of disloyalty. Honor among thieves is a bigger deal than you might expect. Overcharging you might have helped, if I'd died in the attempt. Since I didn't, I was able to rally support from some of her…less enthused constituents and push her into early retirement."

"You bailed on us to go foment an insurrection in your Aunt's criminal organization?" I laughed. "I take it from your enthusiastic demeanor that you took over when she decided to step down?"

"You led a coup against your Aunt?" asked Bella worriedly. "Bad Millie wasn't the BEST person but she-"

Chester shook his head. "She's fine. She's family. I was a little pissed about her selling me out, but I get her reasoning. I really did just force her into retirement. She has a compound in Plainhallow she's been preparing for a few decades. She moved out there with some of her closer supporters. It'll be comfortable and safe."

I'd forgotten that Millie had known Bella's dad, and possibly Bella herself if I remembered right. I was happy to hear Chess wasn't a complete bastard. Maybe the organization was in better hands.

I didn't care too much about the local business industry. The whole 'criminal enterprise' thing wasn't much of an indicator of morality. Ascendants loved their games and roles. Being an 'illicit organization' was probably just a way of gaining notoriety. None of it meant much to me, but knowing my friend (even if a recent one) was doing well was nice. In fact…I had an idea.

"Hey, I was hoping to test out a new power. If you're doing the local crime boss thing, maybe I can hook you up with some new digs. You have a place nearby I can flex one of my Skills?" It wasn't a Skill, but I didn't feel like explaining. With my mask in place I didn't worry about doing a little bit of work with Agares, and I'd come up with a combination I was interested in exploring.

"Wait, what kind of Skill?" asked Ray with interest. He and Cavallo had been having a drinking contest (that he appeared to be losing dramatically). "I want to see!"

Desria snorted. "You're drunk. You'd want to see paint dry."

"She's right," Cavallo intoned. "You're dunk. Drank. Skunk. You're wasted." He blinked. "I…might be a little buzzed myself."

Rolling her eyes at her brother, Desria just shook her head. "Embarrassing, aren't they? But I suppose seeing you do your tricks might keep them entertained enough not to wander off. The last time they had a drinking competition Ray stole the local mayor's house. They found it eventually, but it was in pretty bad shape and full of ducks."

I had a lot of questions, but for my own sanity I chose not to ask them. Knowing Bethy had made me wise. Instead, I just chuckled and gestured out the door. "Well after you all then. Chess, why don't you take us somewhere you could use a secret base."

He laughed, nodding and standing to lead us all out the door. We went on a bit of a hike, which considering our speed even on a B-rank planet was quite a trek, but we ended up somewhere…interesting. A little crevasse that was somehow, through a trick of the landscape, both open air and completely hidden from view unless you were inside it.

"Found this on one of my escape runs," he said fondly, smiling. "I'd just stolen an emerald necklace from some visiting Countess…or was it that crystal penguin? Either way, I was running from a bunch of guards, and one of them had this Stealth penetrating detection Skill. I decided to use my Path a little different, and formed my own detection technique to find some place I could hide that wouldn't involve my Path. Ended up finding this."

He gestured down to the clearing in the middle of the crevasse, open air but covered in a ring of trees whose canopies knit together into a roof, or some approximation of it.

"So this is where you want your hideout?" I asked with a grin. "Better be sure because I'm not doing this twice." I avoided using the term secret base. I'd felt a slight heat from the mask earlier when I said that phrase, and while it had faded, it occurred to me that some words were best avoided during specific activities.

He shrugged. "I only come here for vacations or to think anyway. If it's not any good I can just remove it, no offense."

I shrugged. "Your call. I have to do a bit of work on the land before I start. Need to set a foundation, even on a B-rank planet. Luckily, I have some idea of how to do that. It's pretty genius too."

At least, I did with a little help. Foundations were…weird. An entire discipline of construction with people dedicated to their study. Creating buildings could rely heavily on location, special places giving special abilities, and foundations could simulate those places. However, a deep forest, a hidden crevasse on a B-rank planet, there should be plenty of special here to go around.

Triggering Agares and Zagan, I activated Eye of Revelation and Song of the Soil. Combined with Zagan and the Eye, Song of the Soil showed me something different than usual. A life force. A heartbeat in the planet. Reaching out with Agares, I shifted the dirt and grass in the clearing, forcing it down, packing and condensing it. There was a lot of Impact here to work with, and I was able to get it pretty dense.

Once that was done, I constructed a technique, letting me harness and manipulate the flow of life in this area with Zagan, and Archie poured his power into the dirt from above, the cry of the Life Nova Phoenix echoing through the crevasse as he empowered the earth I worked with.

The refilling dirt shifted, squirming and writhing, but I controlled it, Song of the Soil showing me the flows of life force and Zagan letting me alter them.

It was like rerouting veins and arteries through a beating heart, shifting the arrangement of life in the soil to resemble something stable, something growing and alive. It reminded me of Formations, kind of, but it was more of a one off trick that let me recreate the same effect. I shaped the refilling life force until it made up a stable structure of power, one that could exist without me, and then I cut off my contact.

The black stone foundation beneath us was set a hundred feet down, in a deep hole made when I'd compacted the earth. As the energy cleared from my eyes, I saw it in the physical world and I was thrilled with the result.

My work wasn't done though. I'd just set the stage. Reaching out with Agares, I pulled on the dirt, melting away the straight edges of the hole, gathering material. Stone, dirt, roots, trees, it all dissolved into that tar like muck, flowing towards me as I condensed it into blocks of rough dark material.

Unlike before though, I didn't infuse the Agares form with harmful black flames. I infused them with the purifying, lifegiving flames of Zagan. The formerly sweltering and destructive heat was warm and life affirming, making the whole crevasse, which had expanded quite a bit from all the hollowing out, feel like a holy place.

Archie flew above in circles, a slow cyclone of green fire raining down to help me set the stage, and with my Piece of Mind skill helping by letting my split my attention, I slowly began to create.

First a floor, then the walls. Rooms separated by arched doorways and windows to the outside. I built the structure up over time, slowly condensing and firming the stone, going back to shore up places that seemed week as I did, and I connected each bit to the beating heart of that foundation, into which flowed the energy of the entire forest.

The veins of life force helped, showing me where I needed to expand or contract the stone, what spots were weakened, and finally, after probably an hour of work, I gasped in relief as I slumped back onto my ass, staring down at my finished work.

At first, I was underwhelmed. It looked…ugly. A misshapen lump of darkened rock that didn't deserve to be called a house. But as I watched, something changed. Catalyzed by the life fire in that stone, all the roots and seeds and trees that had been consumed by Agares sprouted anew. Vines and branches shot from the rock, encasing the place in wood and greenery. Flowers bloomed across the surface, and through the windows I saw carpets of thick green moss growing on the ground.

The heart of the forest beat through the building, pushing new life out of it as we watched, changing the malformed hovel I'd created into something beautiful and unique. I turned to the others, most of whom were gaping at my creation. "I meant to do that," I said confidently.

"I…don't think it matters what you meant to do," said Vesper in awe. "This is…holy shit Fist, this is crazy. Can you make another one of these?"

"Nope," I replied cheerfully. "Total fluke. I THINK this is some kind of natural energy center. This is the kind of thing you'd have gotten if you Invented a building in this spot. I cheated a bit to make that work, connected a few threads, crossed a few wires. But mostly this wanted to happen, I just gave it a push. Turned out great though."

Dropping down from the cliff I'd made, I landed on a lush carpet of grass that had sprung up outside the house. Approaching the front door, I was pleased to see a curtain of hanging flower vines that I could push aside to enter.

The moss inside was springy and soft under my boots, making for an easy and comfortable stroll. Bark lined the walls now, coating them like wallpaper, and luminescent flowers had grown out around the windows in sconce form.

I'd figured Zagan would make construction with the stone easier, but I hadn't considered THIS. It made me determined to learn more about my powers, to learn to do things like this on my own, without Archie or help from the environment. I'd forgotten how much I loved experimenting and building things, not to mention working with my Dust Construction.

Turning to Chess, I spread my arms, indicating the interior. "So…what do you think? Not bad for an hour's work, huh?" His answering cackle had an edge of hysteria, but it was the good kind, and we all burst out into gales of laughter. All in all, it was a pretty good night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is the coolest thing I've ever seen," said Ray bluntly as we pushed through the hanging flower vines, stepping into the house. I'd taken to calling it the Heart of the Forest, because it was what popped into my head when I made it, and when I'd told the others the name had stuck.

The craziest thing about it was the sheer life force radiating out from the place. When the plants finished growing, the intensity of the power hadn't diminished. If anything it had increased a bit. It was like standing in a low level burst of Zagan flames just being in here.

On the upside, it would enhance the rate of any healing that needed doing, not as much as a dedicated healer or burst of my flames, but it was a passive boost that would remain as long as the Heart did. On the downside (thought not for me, really), it was an aura of life force and purification, which meant Ray and Cavallo had sobered up nearly instantly upon entry.

"Master, this really is amazing," said Bella in awe. "Will I be able to do this?"

"Not a chance in hell," I told her bluntly. "At least not any time soon. Hypothetically if you turned the staff are into your main ability and focused your path on it maybe. Otherwise you might be able to make a small tar pit."

Though she could use the abilities of my forms, it was only during her stances. Even if that expanded, she'd have brief bursts of use for each of my powersets. Invaluable in battle, but it had taken me an hour and a total fluke to make this place. It was one of those weird coincidences that in retrospect I was pretty sure my fatewalker build had pushed me into. I'd been running on instinct when I made the choices that led to this.

The only question was why it had happened. Was it just a random confluence of luck leading to an interesting result? Would this place be important in the future?

Not for the first time I wished the divination aspect of my abilities was more potent. I'd been tinkering with a form for it, but I was missing something. The construction of divination skills was mostly Perception, but there was Fantasy in there too, from the fate sense side of things. Because of the way those two stats interacted, the construction of the form had to be extremely stable to avoid overbalancing.

Stat interactions were something I'd only just started getting into in the book, and more than that, they varied wildly based on purpose and distribution. Divination was WAY more Fantasy than Perception, and keeping it balanced was difficult in a way I couldn't really quantify. It didn't help that my overlay wasn't EXACTLY a Skill, in a confusing way I had trouble identifying, and I wanted to use that as a base.

I'd figure it out eventually, and even had some ideas, but for the moment it left me mostly in the dark and at the mercy of my instinctive responses to things.

Putting that out of my mind though, I followed the others as they toured the house, enjoying the awed responses and excitement to something I'd made, even if it wasn't exactly intentional. I'd forgotten how good it felt to make things.

"This place is going to make me rich," said Chess in wonder. "Even if I don't tell anyone but my most trusted subordinates about it, this passive invigoration effect is amazing. I feel like I'll never need to sleep again if I live here."

I waggled my hand. "Sort of? The mind needs sleep to reorganize itself. I mean, as Ascendants we don't NEED to do it nearly as often, Focus can help stave it off pretty much indefinitely, but my Uncle is pretty powerful, and he says that there are a lot of reasons that even high rank Ascendants usually sleep. I wouldn't recommend skipping it completely."

He grimaced, but nodded. "Still, I bet people will flock here. It feels great. Like I'm LIVING in a warm bath."

Bella nodded excitedly. "I love it here! Can you make me something like this, master? I know the house was an accident but maybe like a…lamp or something? I bet this makes sleep super restful."

"That…is a really good question," I said pensively. "I mean, without the local energy pumping through it I'd need to put in a power source, but theoretically…yes?" The thing I'd done with Song of the Soil, constructing those veins for the power to run through, I was pretty sure I could do it in a smaller context, at least if I put my mind to it. Maybe some kind of VItality gem?

It almost seemed like a new form of Enchanting or small scale Formation work…but it wasn't. It was more like armor and weapon smithing in a way. Just imparting my energy into an object to pump out in its normal way.

But was that so different? And hadn't I imbued the egg with a technique? Where did Inventing, Alchemy, Smithing, Enchanting, and all those other crafting disciplines overlap? Was in really that easy to make objects? Too early to tell, since I hadn't done it yet. But it made me wonder if I should look into picking up a crafting Skill again.

Sadly, now wasn't the time for that particular flight of fancy. I was on a short break from an important mission. I had far too much going on here to become a lampmaker in my spare time. Still, I made a mental note to speak to the Moravian about this little exercise. Maybe I could learn a bit more about how this fit with Formation making. That would be useful even outside of a crafting context.

For now, I'd just made something interesting. It wouldn't serve a purpose. I actually had the idea that this place might be able to amplify Archie's abilities, but I didn't have a use for that. It wasn't like I knew any sick pe-. I froze.

Elena. Her son was ill. A place like this would be a perfect environment for helping someone with a chronic illness, and if it really could amplify Archie's power, it might even be able to cure him. She'd helped me out so much that I'd been thinking of trying to slip her a scroll, even if it risked my cover. This though…this was better. This was a fucking BUILDING, and it wasn't something that matched my demonstrated powers at all. She'd never connect it to me.

"Chess," I said slowly. "Would you mind if I invited someone here? A friend? Her son is sick and I think this place might do him good."

He shrugged, laughing. "You built the place. Don't take out an ad in the local tavern or anything, but a visitor or two won't hurt anything. My house is your house. Literally. You made this house. That still blows my mind. I have a house. And it's fucking AWESOME. Seriously man, I owe you one."

"Let my friend visit and treat her son here and we'll call it even," I said with a chuckle. "I really owe her, and you could consider this you paying off that debt."

Shrugging again, he didn't seem to be bothered. Bella, however, looked excited. "Are you going to help Elena? She was so nice! I didn't know her son was sick though. That's so sad. I hope we can help."

I smiled at my effervescent apprentice. Bella might be a little weird at times and often annoying, but she had a good heart. Moments like this made me glad I'd chosen to make her my apprentice. I couldn't think of anyone on this planet who deserved it more.

Turning, I whistled for Archie, pulling a piece of paper from my ring along with a pen and pressing it to the bark walls so I could scrawl out a message. "Take this to Elena for me buddy?" I asked hopefully. "No eyes but hers."

He trilled solemnly, then snagged it in his beak and vanished in a burst of flame. He appeared outside the house, visible through a window, and I rolled my eyes. His version of the Supernova Step (or wing beat I guess) was way more dramatic than mine. Green flames were so eye catching. How gauche.

"Well, while we wait for her, why don't we continue the tour," I said brightly. "I left a basin in the lower floor. We need someone with a water ability to fill it, but there's a concentration of life fire down there that'll turn it into a perfect hot tub."

I was particularly proud of that one, and clearly they all thought it was as cool as I did, since they perked up and took off in the direction I'd pointed.

Once they were gone, I was surprised to find Ray waiting behind to talk to me. "Hey man," I said with a smile in my voice. "You need something? Sorry about your buzz earlier, I didn't mean to make an anti drunk building, though if it helps I'm pretty sure it's also anti hangover."
"It actually does," he admitted. "I was sloshed and tomorrow was going to be hell, so I actually appreciate it. But that's not why I stayed back. I wanted to talk to you about something."

That was an unexpectedly serious tone for Ray, so I waited…then realized I was wearing a mask and answered aloud. "I'm happy to listen, what can I do for you?" Ray might be kind of flippant, but he'd been a welcome respite from my own messiah complex when I first got here, and helped me realize I was overcompensating, at least after Callie had pointed it out to me first.

"I need your help," he admitted. He looked almost concerned, which was alarming. "You know I'm here for the trials, ours haven't started yet, but when they do…well, Raxus's trials probably aren't going to be a picnic. I don't mind failing, but Desria and Cavallo NEED to do well. My family is pretty well off, but theirs isn't nearly as comfortable. They came here to gain more influence to help their parents out of a jam."

I assumed he couldn't just wave his hand and fix it, otherwise he'd obviously do that. It was clear he really cared about them.

Honestly, I liked them too. They were good people. "I can't promise to be available at all times," I cautioned. "I have my own trials and they've been getting rough. But barring recovery and actual trials, I can do my best to help you out. When do Raxus's trials start?"

"Tomorrow," he said grimly. "Part of why we wanted to come out and celebrate with all of you. We have no clue what to expect. Most of them probably won't be something you can help with, but I know you did well for Delthrys's trial, and I have to assume there's some overlap, even if Echelon got weirdly offended when it came up."

I chuckled at that, but held out my hand. "Like I said, I'll do whatever I can." And I meant that too. Not just in terms of the trials. I was already planning to invite the three of them to the WCP if things didn't work out for them here.

Once again, I wondered if I'd need to reveal myself to someone early, because I got a seriously bad vibe about Raxus. Maybe I was wrong, but much more than Felicity, I had a sense of deep foreboding about the god of deceit. If need be, I'd contact the Acheron before leaving and have the A-rankers snatch Ray and friends up.

After I agreed, he grinned widely, then clapped me on the shoulder. "Well, now that we have that out of the way, lets go check out that hot tub. I want to see how big it is. Need to know how good a job you do as an architect, I'm thinking of hiring you to do my next summer home." With a wink, he blurred off, and I laughed, trailing behind him. Guess serious Ray didn't last long.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day was pretty quiet. I'd slept in the Heart, and upon waking, gotten my wishes stocked up in the ring. I'd considered using them, but honestly, given the million point end goal, if I forced myself to tick down the stats day by day I'd probably go insane. Letting them build up and getting four to five digit boosts ever few weeks was much more palatable.

To my joy, Elena and her son had arrived, along with the daughter she'd mentioned reminded her of Mnemosyne. Her name was Emma, and I actually kind of understood what she meant. The fiery haired girl was about the same age I had been when this whole mess had started, and I was pretty sure I was more scared of her than I was of Abel.

My first stop of the morning was to check in on them. "Elena," I said with a wide smile as I found them in the kitchen (furnishing the place had been a matter of minutes, one of the many joys of every Ascendant carrying all their worldly possession in a portable pocket dimension) "How's the place treating you so far. Simon, how about you, how you feeling buddy?"

The eleven year old looked…better. Better but still not good. His skin was pale and waxy, his eyes sunken and ringed in black so dark they looked bruised. But he seemed to be breathing easier now than when he got here. Even as I noted his condition, Archie let out a trilling cry and pulsed power into the house. A wash of green flame bounced off the walls, amplifying like some kind of echo chamber as it washed over the kid.

His eyes closed, shuddering a bit, but when they opened they seemed less tormented. Elena reached down, adjusting the bracelet on his wrist almost compulsively. Rackham was a B-rank planet, and small children who didn't even have abilities weren't made to withstand the Impact here. The bracelet was a thamaturgical device that offloaded the pressure onto his mother when he was outside of designated safe areas designed for children.

"I feel good," Simon said happily. "It doesn't hurt so bad anymore. I couldn't sleep for a long time, but I slept for four whole hours this morning!" The enthusiasm behind that comment kind of broke my heart.

I nodded up to the window sill where Archie was perched. "Well, if you're feeling better, you'll have to pull your weight around here. Can't have any freeloaders. Do me a favor and watch my friend up there? He's kind of an attention hog, and if he doesn't have people fawning over him he gets whiny."

Archie chirped in outrage, and I ignored him, causing Simon to giggle. The sound was sadly ruined by the coughing fit it devolved into, but another pulse of green fire settled him. My phoenix swept down, landing on the table next to the kid, then hopping close so his aura was helping more directly. I nodded to him subtly, and he returned the gesture knowingly. Archie knew what was up. Smart bird.

I jerked my head to the side, gesturing for Elena to follow me out of the room while Emma strode in with a plate of waffles I assumed she had made, since I didn't see anywhere else to have gotten them.

When we got outside, Elena threw her arms around me, squeezing tightly before letting go and giving me an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, I just really wanted to do that. I can't thank you enough for this. He's doing so much better, and this place…I know that revealing this kind of location isn't something someone would do lightly."

I just shrugged, a little uncomfortable about the credit for something that hadn't really been that much effort. "It's fine. I'm glad it's helping." I was relieved actually. If it hadn't I'd have either had to give her a scroll or felt like a monster for withholding it.

"More than you can imagine," she smiled warmly. "The breathing was only the least of it. The loss of energy, the aches and pains, I'd gotten so used to seeing him in discomfort I forgot how big the difference was. I'm not sure if this is TREATING his illness, but considering the symptoms are just constantly degrading health, it's at the very least counteracting it. At this rate he should be feeling healthy again in a few weeks. Hopefully since we won't have to worry about the wasting we can find a cure more easily."

"I can't make promises," I hedged. "But I HIGHLY suspect that consistent exposure to Archie will cure the underlying disease." Life Nova was a powerful curative, enough to restore even a soul if damaged enough.

Honestly I'd expected it to just fix him instantly. It was only after I mentioned the delay that Elena mentioned that the bracelet that kept him safe didn't just offset passive Impact from the world around him. It was actually resisting MOST of the healing effect. Too much life energy poured into a mortal would be harmful. He was only receiving a fraction of the full effect, moderated by the bracelet, but even with the suppression, it said a lot about how BAD his condition had been that he was going to take weeks to recover.

"Did you reach out to your husband with the directions?" I asked, deciding to change the subject. Thinking about how long it was taking made me feel bad for waiting after she'd told me the truth.

Her smile was blinding. "I did. He's still working on the trials. Joel's been enjoying the investigative work, and I think he might stick with Delthrys even if Simon is fine. He's going to come visit before his next trial, if that's still alright."

"By all means," I said with a laugh. "Chess doesn't mind the visitors. Just don't tell anyone where this place is and we're good. I owed you one anyway. More than one really. I, however, am going to be out for a while today. I promised my friend Ray I'd help him with the first Raxus trial. He's off meeting with his emissary now."

Her warm expression faltered. "I'd be careful," she warned. "We did our homework on the gods before we came here. The twins represent a duality. Delthrys is attractive to those who would uncover secrets, and Raxus to those who would bury them deep. That doesn't translate to good or evil, mind, they're both dark gods. But Raxus initiates tend to be…more outwardly focused in their malice."

"I got that impression, yeah," I admitted. "I'll keep an eye on Ray. I don't think he wants to do anything too bad." If he couldn't get it done, I'd tell him about the Acheron and send him to my grandmother's guards. "I'll watch out for him, gotta pay it forward and all that."

She just laughed, shaking her head. "I had no idea you would do something like this when I helped you, but I'm glad I did. We searched for such a long time to try to find a way to help him. Seeing how quickly things have been…well, if not resolved at least repaired. It's kind of crazy. What a world, right?"

She wasn't wrong. Ascendant life could be a bit nuts. Granted Zagan was cheating levels of effective, even for Ascendants. I was well aware my own ability to solve certain problems, even without wishes, was far beyond what the Average D-ranker could manage. Honestly it was still insane to have thoughts like that, thinking of it from the point of view of baby Solomon, who wasn't sure he'd ever get to E-rank back on Callus.

After a bit of small talk I said my goodbyes to Elena and made my way out. Archie stayed back with the kid, hoping to help, so it was just me. Bella had slept in alongwith all the others. While the life force aura of the Heart DID make sleep technically unnecessary, once you were actually unconscious it seemed to extend and enhance the rest. Good dreams and restful slumber were the standard in the Heart.

Once I got out of the crevasse, I made my way west, to where Ray had asked me to meet him. I ended up in a small town called Shadehorn, and stopped at the local tavern for a meal while I waited. I was just digging into my country fried steak when Ray dropped into the seat across from me. "Alright," he said in a determined voice. "I've got my assignment."

"That's nice," I said casually. "I've got FOOD. I'm gonna eat it." I cut off a piece, sticking it into my mouth through the opening I triggered in my mask.

He blinked. "Oh," his voice was a bit crestfallen. "Right. I mean, this just felt like a big dramatic moment. Like we should set off on our mission, ready to take on anything. Should we…not do that?"

"Is your mission to be hungry?" I asked mildly.

"Not…specifically?" he said in confusion. "It's an infiltration. We have to pose as members of a certain organization. We're supposed to steal an item and replace it with an exact copy."

I took another bite, chewing and swallowing before answering. "Doesn't seem time sensitive. I'm gonna finish my food. Some advice? Slow down. Rushing is never helpful. Sometimes it's NECESSARY, but it's never helpful, and in this case it doesn't seem to be needed. We take our time. Case the place. I've got about six days to help. So we take our time."

He slumped. "Yeah, that makes sense," he admitted. "I guess it just feels…urgent."

"Trust me," I told him with a laugh. "All the important stuff does. But impatience will kill you faster than a knife in the gut. That's the kind of wisdom you pick up from doing trials that are essentially torture. Procrastination is your friend." Intellectually, I knew that I had NOT been partly eaten alive by beetles because I had been impatient and mouthy…but it probably hadn't helped the situation. Apparently I could be taught. "Anyway, give me the details while I eat, what are we doing?"

He pulled out a roll of paper, unrolling it and smoothing it out on the table. "This, is Angelina DeWinter. She's the daughter of a Count. Now, as you may have noticed around her neck, there is a rather large golden necklace. THAT is the Fox diamond. It's a stone with an exorbitant amount of Perception naturally occurring inside. It's got a natural rune, and the setting harnesses that Perception, making it a unique item that can be used to spy on other people from a distance."

"We're stealing a spying device?" I asked in surprise. "Do you know why?"

"Not exactly," he grimaced. "But I can guess. Despite my flippant demeanor, I'm not stupid. Based on some context clues, I think my emissary is double dipping. Using our trials to do local jobs for a payout. It kind of makes sense, given he worships a god of deceit."

I winced. "If it helps, he won't be able to do that for more than the first two. Trial three and on are shared competitions, at least they are for us."

"Good to know. Anyway, I was given a false necklace to swap out with the real one." He sounded tired already. "Probably a knock off that prevents people from seeing specific things. It's a C-ranked item, so it'll be guarded pretty closely."

Blowing out a breath, I finished my bite and pushed my plate away. "Alright, well, like I said we need to take this slow. Find out her schedule. Where she puts it at night, how closely guarded it is. We'll be doing recon to start, and then once we know everything, we'll make a plan from there. Now, I don't suppose you have a map of where this person lives?" He shook his head grimly and I sighed. Of course, nothing was ever easy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Turns out, he did NOT have a map. Which, given that it was private property and had been built a century or two ago, wasn't surprising. So we had to go and case the place ourselves. Finding it was pretty easy, but on arrival, we ran into the obvious problem of the extremely dense security.

I'd been expecting Bael to be our all access pass, since DeWinter was the daughter of a count. I was a count, technically speaking, or count adjacent, so he was just D-rank. It should have been a breeze getting past his defenses.

Of course, I'd been thinking small. DeWinter, it turned out, was an OLD count. He'd been at D-rank for a while (possibly stuck behind making his Path solid), and accrued a lot of money and power. He had C-rankers working for him, and not just a few. Bael could bypass some of them, but given his daughter had a magic Perception necklace, it would be stupid to assume that he didn't have some other methods of scanning his place.

So the first step was to try to identify what all the elements of security were. To that end, it was time to finish a project I'd been working on for a while. Namely, my divination form.

Which was why Ray and I were posted up across from the manor in question, inside the top floor of a building that was currently housing a fairly popular pub. We'd managed to easily bypass their defenses and sneak into the storage room that looked out the window we needed, and now I was collecting myself to make another new form.

The creation of this one was something I'd been working on for a while. The problem running round and round in my head. How to balance it all. How to include the overlay when it wasn't technically a Skill.

For a domain it would have been doable. Working it in was simple enough, because my Pseudo Domains were fundamentally different. The domains weren't constructed like a skill, them more…mixed them together. Different abilities and skills bleeding into each other in a complimentary way.

Forms needed to be more stable. More replicable. So I started with senses. Sight was easy. Eye of Revelation was my go to for sight. I could see the truth of things, look beyond the surface. Next up was sound. Song of the Soil was based on music, and it was perfect for that. Rhythm of the Wild worked for touch, oddly, but I didn't question it, Scent of Truth obviously being smell. For taste, I had to kind of improvise something, and I used Danger Sense. Which wasn't…wrong, exactly. Just not completely right.

It was close enough though, and that was all five. The next part was a bit tricky. The overlay wasn't a Skill, so adding it stably into the construction should have been impossible. But I'd had an idea, based at least partly on my creation of Beelzebub.

Carefully, and drawing on Callie to help me, I began to trigger Piece of Mind. Six parallels was a LOT, even for an Amethyst soul, but between us we managed it, even if only because we weren't doing anything to strenuous with them.

Sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. All five sense represented, each parallel completely devoted to them. Once that was done, I triggered the overlay with all of them, letting it congeal into one solid overwhelming mass of information, doing what it did best and molding that information into a single coherent form.

Reaching out with my soul, I harkened back to my early days as an Ascendant, when I hadn't known anything about Skill creation. I wrapped my intent around the power and SQUEEZED. It condensed, pressing inward inexorably, until finally, something clicked, and the skill formed.

Then of course, i had to pry the damned thing open and FIX it. Slowly, methodically, I adjusted the remains of my perfect skills, shoring up some that had broken too badly, leaving some alone. But more than that, I used my Eye of Revelation to map out exactly where the skills weren't. Made a mold of the skill as it was, then reverse engineered the shape of the overlay from that.

It took hours. Exhausting and painful hours. I had to keep the parallels active, and that was a huge strain on my soul. I ended up activating my mask to offload some of the strain. Luckily the parallels weren't anywhere near as dangerous as my domain fragments, so it handled the extra load perfectly.

Once I had a map of what kind of shape the overlay would take, I shattered the Skill, breaking it into component parts painfully, and then rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up.

Throughout the process, I expected to be barely cognizant, running on instinct, or to need more help from Callie…but I didn't. I was in pain, sure, but it wasn't enough to derail or deter me. I'd gotten so used to the unrelenting agony of the trials that the pain in my head seemed like a light twinge in comparison. I had apparently trained my pain tolerance to absurd levels just by surviving to this point.

Trying to construct a Skill using senses from that Skill was tougher than expected, but once I was able to drop the parallels it mostly became just annoying instead of agonizing, and the last hour of creating my new form was actually surprisingly peaceful.

Finally, I came to the end, and I added the one ingredient all my forms needed. Afterburner slotted in easily, given the familiarity with the Skills in question and with Afterburner itself after using it so many times. Supercharging all the senses was a good way to finish it off, and when that final stat clicked into place, I beheld my creation with awe.

My eighth form had, funnily enough, eight parts. More different components than anything I'd made up to this point. The overlay was actually the secret to combining them, it was, though not a skill, built to agglomerate multiple skills together without degrading or falling apart. It was a framework I could base this form off of, something that showed me the way to take my power to the next level.

Standing, I stretched, pulled out my staff, and held it up in a ready position. I'd been considering exactly what kind of martial stance this form would have as I made it. I'd decided it would be entirely reactive. An open stance focused entirely on perceiving the enemy and responding to their attacks in the optimal way.

"Goetia staff aft, eighth form," I murmured aloud. "Dantalion."

And time…stopped. Not literally, of course. But my brain was flooded with so many inputs it kind of stalled out. I could smell light and taste sound, I could feel color brushing across my skin and see the feel of the wind ruffling my hair. I could hear danger, not just its existence, but WHAT the danger was. A whisper of a possible stray arrow through the window, a rustle of someone finding us in this room.

It took me a minute to parse. My Focus wasn't massive, and only the six instances of Piece of Mind built into the form kept me from passing out from overload. The closest sensation I'd felt to this was becoming D-rank and gaining access to my full Impact based senses. But even that was orders of magnitudes less.

Then I opened my eyes. A hammer of pure data smashed into the frontal cortex of my brain, or the back, or the left? I wasn't sure I even had a brain anymore. Wasn't sure I was a person. It was swallowing me, consuming me whole. I'd always likened Focus to a computer, increasing the max capacity rather than the day to day usage. Hardware instead of software. But now the hardware was crashing, and I couldn't-

I felt something shift, and suddenly, Callie was with me, in my head. Her Focus was bolstering me, giving me the tools to process the new data, to sort and categorize. My brain unlocked, and I forced myself to focus on the overlay, on the way it sorted and managed the information it used to function.

The overlay boiled down a ton of very complicated info into…arrows. I didn't want arrows exactly, that was too vague. So I decided on something a bit more productive. Words. I condensed all of that excess data into visible descriptive words that would give me a synopsis of the data in the shortest possible form, drawing conclusions and using my brain to distill it all down to brass tacks.

"You ok?" asked Ray worriedly. "You just said something really dramatic and then started hyperventilating. I think, it's hard to tell with the mask, but your breathing got weird. You seem better now."

I swallowed, pushing all of my new senses back to the place where the word generator was in my head, making a new, seventh parallel and then holding up my hand, taking about a half hour to work it into the structure.

Once that was done, I blinked a few times, letting my mind get used to all that bullshit. Dantalion was heavy on the soul, even using the mask. Seven parallels would normally be pretty much impossible, given that they basically doubled in soul strain each time, but I'd used the overlay to condense them, and after adding the seventh, managed to push them all down to minimum usage, like a kind of subroutine.

I glanced at Ray. Paragraphs of information scrolled through my vision. Name, temperament, current emotions, information about his past that I had no way of knowing, but that my brain had somehow mined from past interactions and current observation through a variety of absurdly overpowered senses picking up things they shouldn't.

Averting my gaze, I cleared my throat. "I'm fine," I said lamely. "Just need a minute." This information overload felt weird, but also kind of familiar. It reminded me a bit of my fate sense. Not in specifics, but in the feel. Of course, this particular sense was actually USEFUL and told me things directly instead of just giving me vague insights.

So, with that in mind, I walked slowly to the window, focused my gaze, and stared at the house.

First I got the layout. Not just from the outside. I was getting the whole thing, a series of words describing exact dimensions, what rooms were for, and a dozen other things. I grabbed some paper and started sketching, drawing the details I was getting, going back and filling in random bits here or there.

It wasn't anything as cohesive or useful as directions. I'd start a room, then get a flash of insight on another and have to start that, then I'd jump back to the first to draw a mantlepiece and then have to start a third. I grabbed paper after paper, not just drawing a map but actual pictures of the inside of the house, lining them all up next to each other, sometimes stacking new pictures of older versions of the room, though I had no idea how I was getting those.

It took me about an hour, drawing out not just images, but writing descriptive essays on some of the security, on some of the PEOPLE, and on one notable occasion, on a particularly storied coatrack in one of the foyers.

Eventually I had to drop Dantalion, my brain burning from overuse, and I slumped over, panting, as my eyes started to tear up as if to try to self cool my mind. "Fist!" said Ray anxiously. "Are you alright? Seriously man you're scaring me."

I groaned, rubbing my temples as I sat up. I flared Zagan, which repaired my body, even if the soul was beyond what I could do myself. I looked down at the piles of paper littering the floor, some of the pictures overlapping several sheets. "I'm good. But I have a feeling this will take a while to sort. Not to mention we'll probably need more. Good thing I have another six days at this. I might need a little time to get the hang of things." Once I did though, I had the feeling this was going to be one of my most potent forms yet.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next four days passed in a blur. Dantalion, parse the info, then repeat. I actually had to start using Beelzebub to speed up my sorting, because after repeated usage, I'd realized Dantalion actually had one crippling weakness. It produced TOO MUCH data. I had reams and reams of paper stacked to the ceiling from the manor, and honestly, about eighty or ninety percent of it was useless.

I had lists of the types of timber used, the exact dimension of the beams, the variations of screws, bolts, and nails, the exact age of each piece of material in comparison to the house, and in some cases, the actual names of the fucking workmen who installed them. I wasn't sure where the hell Dantalion was getting some of this stuff. Some of it was craftsman marks and probably some documents lying around the house, but since the form was basically black boxed, I had to work with what I had.

Which was everything I could possibly want, and about ten times that amount in random bullshit I didn't need.

"Well this looks useful," Ray said excitedly. "It's a recording of the security watch rotation…" He slumped as he kept reading. "Nevermind, this is their order of performance in the staff talent show. Also, apparently their dental is REALLY good. Wow, DeWinter doesn't skimp. They even cover crowns."

I held up a page I was holding. "They also provide free childcare, and there's a staff retreat to a planet called Carcello once a year. Hold on a second, let me see that." He shrugged, handing it over, and I scanned both papers. "I think I have something else, one minute," I dug through a stack I had made an hour ago, finding a list of dependants, then I started cross referencing.

Grabbing another piece of paper, I started writing, checking all three of them and producing a master list. "Ok, this should be all the staff members. I eliminated the non recurring names, so we should have it narrowed down to current staff, there's reference to some recent health plan adjustments in the healthcare paperwork. Search for anything referencing these names. We've got dossiers on everyone buried in here somewhere." We'd stopped going through those when we wasted ten minutes assembling a complete set of documentation on a gardener who had been fired for embezzling eighty years ago.

While he did that, I checked my stats. I'd specifically funneled all my wishes into Focus in the last few days, which amounted to eight hundred points in that stat. I'd made it up to twenty per wish at this point, though I could feel it getting harder to increase as I went. I suspected I'd stall out for a while at twenty five.

I'd also gotten another five thousand points of VItality, and forty two hundred Might off that last trial, apparently having thoroughly impressed everyone. Though thinking about it I might have had two trials since I last checked. Regardless, I was left with eight scrolls on hand for myself and five with my friends for emergencies.

It was frustrating. I was gaining more points more regularly than I ever had, and it was still just a drop in the bucket. Hopefully coming out on top in these trials would help. But I needed to focus on pushing up Perception and Creation. My stats were starting to become wildly unbalanced.

"Alright, I think we've got what we need," announced Ray. "Check this out."

He handed me a few stacks of pages, and I rifled through them. "Height, weight, eye color, blood type, favorite song…hah! Here it is, work schedule. Hours, break times, hey, they have prime rib on wednesdays. I've got patrol routes, where's the map we made out of all those room diagrams?"

He pointed across the room. "I think it's over there. It was under the requisition forms for the pipes. Or the duct work. Wait, possibly the boiler schematics. Your powers terrify me."

'Yes, clearly I am mighty," I said dryly. "To wield the weapon known as paperwork. Realistically, this is a fantastic ability, I just kind of wish I could pare it down a bit. Also, don't forget this is the result of sitting around using my information gathering form for pretty much five entire days with only short breaks. Probably won't have time to deep dive into a location like this very often."

Dantalion was kind of weird. I was getting stuff off paperwork, impressions from Paths and techniques being picked up by the Eye of Revelation, material analysis from Song of the Soil, and some odd stuff I was pretty sure was the overlay. The longer I focused on this one building, the deeper I went, and the information got REALLY specific.

The result was almost a kind of psychometry, reading the past of places and people, though it was VERY hit or miss, and took a lot of time and focus. I was pretty sure without the mask to support it, I wouldn't have been able to keep up my deep dives for nearly this long.

Being on a B-ranked planet also helped. More Impact seemed to allow for deeper impressions. Though one thing I'd noticed was that all of my readings were for people who were C or D-ranked or below. I wasn't getting shit about B-rankers, and I suspected their impressions were just too high level for me to read.

Not that I thought there were any B-rankers inside. Comments on some of the other dossiers led me to believe there weren't any present, but they HAD visited on occasion, and I wasn't able to detect hide no hair of them in the house's history.

With the routes combined with the house blueprints, we were finally able to make a legitimate plan for entry. We had schematics for the formations and enchantments on the house and where their weak spots were too. With Bael at my disposal I was pretty sure I could get in and out without being detected at all.

We just needed to wait for the right time. Namely, about five hours from now, when Lady DeWinter went to sleep. She stashed her necklace in a warded jewelry box I had the specs for, and I had a plan on how to get the thing out and replace it without anyone noticing.

"So, at eleven PM, I'll enter through the eastern atrium. The third glass pane on the top left hand side has an overburdened containment rune and it flickers for a half second every two hours." I circled the pane on the diagram I'd drawn. "Once I'm in, I'll have twenty minutes until the guard patrol sweeps the storage room under the Lady's closet where I'll be using Dust Construction to lower the jewelry box out of the room. Did you get the specs to Chess like I asked?"

He nodded, reaching into his ring and withdrawing a small bronze device the size of a palm. "He says it's single use. Couldn't do anything more intricate in such a short time period. It'll open a small hole, and once you remove it there won't be a trace. Are you sure you can put the floor back?"

I blew out a breath. "I'm not SURE, but I'm fairly confident. I did some practicing on our downtime. Pit of Despair was made to return things to their natural state when it ends. I can mess with them, but with a detailed schematic of the flooring, which I have, I should be able to put it back exactly as is. Once i finish planting the decoy, I'll return with the real thing, pass it off to you, and we'll get the hell out of here."

We'd decided that I would be the one to go in. Bael was easily the perfect technique for this, and Raxus didn't require Ray to do the job himself. He just needed to get it done. We'd already outlined most of this days ago, we'd just needed the last few rotation details to slot into the plan, and now we had everything.

With all that confirmed, we were good to go, and I decided to rest for a few hours until it was time for my heist to begin.

Closing my eyes, the time flew by like it was barely passing, and before I knew it I was being shaken awake by Ray. "Thanks for this, Fist," he said solemnly. "Seriously, this means so much to me."

"Don't worry about it," I said firmly. "You took my mind off things, plus helped me figure out this cool new form. I say we're even."

Despite knowing that wasn't true, I didn't want Ray to feel like he owed me. I could have used that, leveraged him into working for me later, maybe joining my faction, but…I didn't want to be that guy. Contracts were something I was good at and enjoyed, but I didn't want every interaction to become transactional. I didn't want to be my dad.

I triggered Bael, and Ray blinked as I vanished, disappearing from his view as my stealth form covered me. It was kind of funny to watch, but I didn't have time to dwell on it.

Looking out the window, I spotted one of the guards outside the manor, and I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind him before I slipped into the shadow of a nearby wall. I counted off to twenty five, then slid effortlessly between a pair of circling detection wards.

My path through the estate was a bit winding, having to double and triple back to avoid some of the wards and formations this place was covered in. Bael did a lot of the heavy lifting, but to maximize my chances of going undetected I went out of my way to follow the path with the largest number of weaknesses and gaps in the enchantments.

When I reached the specific pane of glass a combination of Pit of Despair and Dust Construction turned it to sand and then held it in the air while I slipped through, reforming it perfectly as it was. The half second gap was more than enough time to slot it back into place with all the right runes where they needed to be. I'd actually needed some help on this part, sending the runes to Zeke via Callie for the feedback on where the weak spots were.

My own understanding of enchantment wasn't up to snuff here, but I had lots of resources at my disposal. Knowledge was power, and with this much of it…well, I was almost considering just becoming a master thief.

Slipping between the guards was child's play, and when I reached the storage room, a quick flash of Dantalion let me know the Lady was asleep. The floor of the closet was clean, and it was easy to dissolve it, catching the Dust with a parallel and Dust Construction, and using it to lower the jewelry box down.

This part had involved Zeke too, and I withdrew the bronze disc he'd had me commission from Chester and opened up a temporary hole in the box, swapping the two necklaces before replacing the box and floor both, my mission completed.

After that, I made my way to the nearest window, and once I caught sight of the next patrol, I used Double Trouble to teleport down behind the last guard and slip out through my planned route. Arriving back at the building, I dropped my invisibility and held out the necklace to Ray. "Alright, we should be good. They most likely won't notice the swap, at least presuming your copy was any good, but we should get out of here anyway. No use tempting fate."

He clapped me on the shoulder, grinning wildly. "I owe you for this, man. Whatever you have to say about it, I know that. You need anything. Ever. You ask. Here's hoping the next trial is a bit less involved. Now come on, let's go get something to eat. Dinner is on me." I laughed but followed him anyway. I never turned down a free meal.