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

[Malcolm Tent]

After reincarnating Brad, we descended into the pit with no issue. The spikes had all vanished, and the whole place just felt…empty. Which was an odd thought to have about a hole in the ground, but even more than most holes, Brad's former pit felt like an absence of a thing more than the presence of an absence.

I summoned Brad himself, or rather, Pit of Despair, and gestured down to the empty hole. "Alright, so where exactly IS the arrowhead? Because I'm not sure where you hid it based on the limited space in the pit. I could find it, I'm sure, but I figured it'll be easier to ask."

Also, I was deeply wary of trying to examining a broken divine artifact with Dantalion. Especially one tainted by ANOTHER god. He snorted, then hopped down into the pit casually. Kneeling down, he drove his hand into the dirt, coming out with a large, ornate looking glass box with gilded edges. "Behold!" he cried, holding it up.

"You just buried it?" I asked him flatly.

He looked at me like I was an idiot. "I was a PIT. Where did you think I was going to put it?" I opened my mouth to retort…but had no response to that, so I just held out my hands. He tossed it up to me without hesitation, and as I caught it, I felt a low buzz of power roll over my skin.

Divinity. I'd felt divine artifacts before, the scythe back during the trials, but this felt different. More…raw. Like being broken was baring its edge for anyone to see. I went to drop it into my ring…and nothing happened. I frowned, looking over at Dayna. "I can't put it away," I said slowly. "Any ideas?"

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously you can't put it in a spatial ring," she explained condescendingly. "It's a divine artifact. And a broken one at that. You might be able to put a complete arrow into a ring, but that's because they're CONTAINED. Put it in your Domain." Which was a reasonable plan since I needed to let the prisoners out anyway. We weren't going to take them with us, after all. Sure enough, as soon as they were released they all took off in random directions, a few of them shooting us poisonous looks.

Sighing, I pushed the item into the back area in my throne room where I'd met with Azazel and the other ministers before my trial back at the Wish Curse Palace. Once it was gone, I turned to Brad. "Ok, now that we have that finished, we need an exit. I have a strange feeling that you might be the way to do that. Or at least know how. We need to open a hole to the Void Road, preferably somewhere in Verdyn's territory where Dayne might be able to give us a heading. Do you know of any weak spots we could use?"

He blinked at me. "You're asking me where to find…a hole?" He glanced down meaningfully. "Because I feel like you might not need much help there."

"That's not what I meant," I said with a groan. "I need…" then I paused. Because…WAS that what I meant? Could I use the former location of Brad's pit to connect to an area of the Void where Verdyn's power was ascendant? Because thinking about it, that actually sounded like it might work.

I summoned Dantalion. "What are the chances you would be able to see through the barrier between this space and the Void?" I asked urgently. "And if not, what would you need to make that possible?"

He hummed, staring down into the pit with fascination. "I believe I might manage with a rank up. I've been exposed to quite a bit of Void influence, and learned more than a few tricks."

Nodding, I triggered the Ten Demons Tree, elevating him to tier 8. He closed his eyes, letting his power spill out, and we sat and waited as he soaked the area in influence, drilling down into and through the core nature of the place to gather information. Luckily, he'd already mapped the area most of the way before we engaged, so he was able to start much further along than would normally have been possible.

It only took about an hour and a half for him to penetrate the barrier. "I can see the Void Roads. I don't know enough about them to hazard a guess as to our location, but the path seems to be ringed with trees, if that matters."

Dayna perked up. "Void Roads near powerful territories sometimes change to reflect them. If there are trees along the path we should be close to Lord Verdyn's world. How close is anyone's guess, but much closer from a relative perspective." Nodding, I reached for the stored Adherent Fire, and, with a quick sweep of the power, dragged us back into the Void through the gap where the pit had been.

It was surprisingly simple, actually. Once we had landed on the Void Road, I let Brad wander around nearby, enjoying the sensation of being physical. Dan went with him, both curious about the environment and hoping to keep our newest court member out of trouble.

Meanwhile, Dayna was looking around, clearly trying to map…something. When I asked about it, she pointed up at the twisting loops of Void Road crisscrossing the Void. "The Roadsky can be used as a map to navigate. The patterns of the crisscrossing paths and the distribution across the Void can be used to map certain vectors. Of course, it only works in places you recognize, so the location we ended up before was pretty much a mystery to me. THIS one though…"

I perked up at that. "Wait…are you saying you know where we ARE? Like you can get us to Mourne Kayze from here?"

"No," she said bluntly. "But I can get us to the lodge. And I can get us directions to Mourne Kayze from THERE. It's not THAT close, however. We'll need to pass through at least three Hanging Lands to get there. The closest of those isn't far though, I would estimate somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six hours, given the lack of suppression on the Roads."

I grinned. "Alright then, sounds like a plan. We just need to-" I froze, head whipping around as I whirled to look behind us. I'd just gotten a VERY bad feeling. The kind the prefaced a huge fight with a very strong enemy.

"What is it?" Dayna asked urgently. "Is something coming?"

I gestured behind us at the empty Road, where the entrance to the shallowing was. Or the exit, depending on your point of view. As we watched, the air began to warp. Not in a stable, subtle way like my flames caused. It looked like someone was digging a claw into the skin of the world and gouging out the space itself.

The line of damage tore itself across the air of the path, then another did the same from the opposite side, forming an X shape. A large, masked form stepped through the hole, staring at us coldly. "Return the object," said the incredibly menacing B-ranker. "And you may live."

I was just gaping at him. He looked…savage. A tall, muscular man without a shirt, long hair dragging his shoulders and his face covered by a thick iron mask with a pair of ragged eye holes punched in it. His eyes were steel grey, and sharp in a way that would have told me he was a swordmaster even if I couldn't see his clearly drawn blade dripping a substance that looked like molten glass.

It took me a second to piece together that the substance was some kind of…blood. Like he had INJURED reality and it was leaking fluid. I'd never seen it before, but I had also never seen someone cut their way into the Void with brute force. Sure, a shallowing would be the place to do that, but still, it was a scary level of combat power.

I let out a breath, reaching for my Domain and pushing it out into the world around us, covering the area nearby with the projection of Gehenna. The man looked around, clearly unimpressed, despite the literal horde of demons surrounding us. "Are you offering me your surrender, or are you resisting. I have no time for foolish games. Surrender the object or die. My followers were ignorant of its existence, but the course of events was clear from their reports."

I tapped my staff, calling for Mornax mentally as I pushed his rank up to B. The horned bruiser stepped forward, taking up a position between me and the masked man. "Where I'm from, we introduce ourselves before making demands. I'm Solomon, what should I call you."

"Clarent," he said shortly. "Baron of the Blade. Pleasantries are at an end, I will ask you only once more, do you intend to surrender the artifact or not?"

"Not," I admitted, snapping my fingers. A second horned form erupted from the crowd, slamming into Mornax as Asmodeus melded with the defensive colossus and imbued him with a frightening amount of power. Another form stepped up beside him, the towering bulk of Abaddon taking his place beside the defensive bulwark. Behind them Belial's eyes lit with an eerie green black light, and he reached out to touch their shadows surreptitiously, pushing his corruptive influence into the darkness and through it into their bodies.

Into my body I called Sammael, Azazel, and Glory, my staff extending into a sharp edged flame spear. I stepped up next to the line of demons, taking position next to them. "However you are expecting this to go, I can promise you it won't," I told him bluntly. "I don't know you, and have nothing against you, so I have no reason to want to hurt you. Turn around and walk away, and neither of us needs to do something we'll regret."

"I do not know regret," said the implacable man. "But your choice has been lost. Your blood will festoon the dirt beneath my boots."

I felt it coming. Azazel told me, Danger Sense told me, my FATE SENSE told me. His attack wasn't subtle, it wasn't measured, and it wasn't hesitant. Overwhelming force unleashed with pinpoint accuracy poured chrome his blade as it cleaved the Void itself, heading right for me.

And cut right through the illusionary double I left when triggering Double Trouble. My staff lashed out, the black flame blade aimed at the hollow at the base of his skull.

I couldn't afford to hold back against someone this strong. I would feel bad about killing him, but not nearly as bad as I'd feel about him killing me. Unfortunately that wasn't going to be an issue anyway, because my blow never landed. With a movement so graceful it almost looked liquid, Clarent shifted slightly to one side, turning his head, and the flames skittered off his dark metal mask, raising a cloud of sparks.

Cursing, I triggered Double Trouble again, preparing for a second attack, when a familiar voice boomed across the path. "Hey! Don't attack my boss, you jerk!"

There was a flicker of power, and Clarent just…vanished. Or rather, a hole appeared where he had been. I stared in shock. The Void Roads were powerful constructs that spanned the length and breadth of the Void itself. Damaging them was prohibitively difficult, and punching a HOLE in one should be almost impossible.

But there I was, staring at a big gap in the Road where Clarent had been standing. Brad ran over, glaring down at the hole venomously, before turning to me with a smug grin. "See?" he said happily. "I TOLD you I would be useful." We all just stared at him, then back at the hole where the swordmaster had been. Yeah. That WAS pretty damned useful.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The trek to the nearest Hanging Land was just as quick as expected, or even quicker, because we were definitely moving with purpose. Brad had managed something unctionally impossible by making a pit in the Void Road (which was durable enough that most S-rankers couldn't do much to them), but it was at its core, just a hole in a road. Clarent was gone, but definitely not dead.

"So how does this work?" I asked Dayne as we headed for the location of the entrance. "He fell into the Void, and that's not going to kill him?"

"No," she said bluntly. "The Void is everything. Everywhere. Space isn't really linear. He'll fall for a while, and then probably land on another Void Road, or a Hanging Land, or maybe on some random Void Creature, but he PROBABLY won't die. If he really doesn't run into an out, he could probably do that insane reality cutting thing again, but it would be VERY dangerous. Without a notable understanding of what's on the other side, he could end up anywhere."

I sighed in relief. While that wasn't exactly the BEST outcome, it meant he was far enough away that he likely wouldn't be a problem again anytime soon.

I glanced at Brad. "Speaking of insane reality cutting things…did you see what Brad DID back there?" I was still kind of reeling from that whole experience, but I was beginning to understand why Azazel had nudged me toward that shallowing. Brad was a uniquely effective deterrent out here on the Void Roads.

And that was just what we knew about. Who could say what abilities a demon created from the Domains of two gods might be capable of once he got stronger. The merger between the demon and the entity had created a tier 7 being. Who knew what he could do at tier 8. Or 9.

"So, we're almost to this Hanging Land," I said after a moment or two of quiet contemplation. "What should I expect?"

"Blood," she said simply. "Lots of blood. Everywhere. On Everything. Hanging Lands are fragments left behind by dead gods. This particular deity was an extremely unpleasant goddess who called herself the Blood Widow."

I snickered. "Gosh, she sounds friendly."

"Whatever you're imagining? She was worse. The Blood Widow made Hatescream look like a humanitarian," she shuddered. "She was notable for bathing in the blood of young children to maintain her beauty."

I blinked in disbelief. "But…she was a GOD?" I said in confusion. "She was eternally youthful."

Or not. The old man wasn't youthful, but I was sure he could change that if he wanted to. She just shrugged. "Apparently it was just kind of a habit by that point. The point is, the Blood Widow World is…unique. The whole place is covered in blood, and the blood is host to creatures called Vendels. Basically they're a type of undead made from the blood tainted spirits of murder victims. As you might expect, the ones in the Blood Widow World look like children, which presents a problem for many people."

"So…why are we going to this nightmare factory?" I asked slowly.

"Shortcut," she said grimly. "The same way we entered that shallowing in one spot and left in another. We're entering the Blood Widow World and exiting at one of the prearranged exits stably operated inside Blood Widow City."

I raised an eyebrow. "Prearranged exits?" I asked in confusion.

She walked another twenty feet or so and stopped. "Yes," she said with a smile. "Like this one." She reached up and sort of knocked on nothing, and as her hand made contact, there was a loud rapping that echoed through the Road. As her fingers struck the air, the clear space was stained dark brown. The color spread, bleeding out into the shape of a large ancient looking door in a thick wooden frame.

The door was made of long flat boards banded together with reddish iron, and it glistened with a worn in polish in the center, as if it had been knocked on so often it had been sanded smooth by the force of knuckles.

On one side, about halfway down, a single red iron ring hung dully, looking solid and intimidating enough that I was worried it couldn't be pulled at all. Dayna, however, just reached down and yanked it open. "As you saw, breaching the Void directly is incredibly difficult without special abilities or overwhelming force. Locations like shallowings are another shortcut that make it simpler, but outside of those, there are often stable portals set up in specific locations. We enter into Blood Widow City through this door-" she rapped on the frame. "And then exit through another portal set to drop us at a different point on the Roads."

I raised an eyebrow at the process. "How come we haven't seen any of these in realspace? I assume if it works from the shallowing or from the Hanging Lands it would work there too."

"The man who makes them, Doormaker Dave, is a rogue member of the Empire," she explained. "He's been hiding in the Void for centuries and doesn't enter realspace. Aside from that one caveat, he'll make a door for anyone, so everyone pretty much leaves him alone. He's useful to all factions so he gets a pass."

It was strange to think that there were really three communities in the Void. The vanished gods lived in sealed off and mostly complete god worlds. They weren't anchored to realspace like the six, but their worlds were still functional enough for them to easily regain control after resurrection. The Hanging Lands were a huge network of criminal and outcast factions sloppily stitched together with Void Roads, and the actual Void forces, the infiltrators and Void spawn, dispersed among the others when they weren't in the territory actively controlled by the Void Children. No wonder the old man was willing to consider peace. This whole place was an unmitigated disaster, and I wouldn't want to try besieging it either.

Explanation over with, she hauled on the ring, pulling the door with a grunt. The portal, which looked for all the world like a normal door, groaned and swung open slowly. I blinked, realizing that it was an A-rank door, and one without any bindings on it that would suppress the physical effects of that Impact. I wondered if that was done on purpose.

It still didn't take long for it to open, and then we all stepped inside and she hauled the door shut. It didn't vanish on this side, but I assumed it had on the other, and I looked around to see where we'd ended up.

We were standing in a small stone room. The stones making up the walls were large and ominous, and to a one they were stained a deep, unsettling crimson. The surfaces were craggy and uneven, with the torches set on the walls flickering and dancing in the most ominous way possible, creating pockets of moving shadows across the rocks.

Within the tiny pools of darkness, I could occasionally see a lot glimmer of dark red light, and after staring for quite a while I was able to make out small runes jaggedly cut into the faces, guttering with their own dull illumination to the beat of some ethereal heart.

"Well, that's not creepy at all," I said uneasily. "Dan, you getting any useful information here?" My information demon and Brad were both still out here with us, having tagged along after Brad's spontaneous burst of usefulness. Brad was mostly busy chatting with his new 'mentor' (Dan had NOT agreed to this, but Brad wouldn't be dissuaded), but Dan seemed relieved to have an excuse to disengage.

He closed his eyes, focusing on his extrasensory abilities. "I sense…blood. That's not helpful. But it's all I can perceive. It's overpowering. The aura of death and suffering is baked into the stones so deeply it's more part of them than the matter that makes them up."

"True," Dayna said solemnly. "It's a notable feature of stones from this realm. When you build with them, the spiritual impressions of the material develops a sort of presence. If the matter is destroyed, the spiritual imprint lingers. The result is architecture that can functionally survive its own destruction. Or, in other words-"

"Ghost buildings," I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. "What are the runes, then?"

She shrugged. "I've heard many explanations. Some say they are binding runes that affix the spirituality to the stone. Some say they keep the resentment suppressed. And some say they're wardings to keep away the Vendels. Perhaps they're a bit of all three, but I couldn't tell you. Crafting is not my gift, nor is curiosity one of my defining traits."

Stepping away from the door, she approached ANOTHER door, set back into the wall of the stone room. This one wasn't wood, but instead the same red iron as the banding on the other and the handle we'd used to open it. She reached up and banged on the door roughly several times, and a riveted iron window was thrown back open. A pair of beady yellow eyes glared through it, slit pupils focusing on none and all of us. "Watchu want?"

"Out of this room, obviously," Dayna said in annoyance. "Put it on my tab. Candlebrook."

The beady eyes narrowed, then the harsh, guttural voice grunted. "One moment." The window slammed shut and we stood there for another ten or fifteen minutes before it reopened. "What's the password?"

"Lavender," she grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose.

It slammed shut again, and the door opened, letting us out into an equally cramped hallway. Behind the door, a gigantic man with birdlike features, so tall he had to stoop even in the fifteen foot hallway, glared down at us. "Welcome to the palace of doors," he said coldly. "Don't crowd the 'allway. Proceed immediately to your next destination or leave the premises until such time as you are ready to vacate the city."

Dayne nodded. "We'll vacate, we have some shopping to do."

He acknowledged her, then began lumbering down the hallway on a random direction, presumably listening for more knocks. I glanced at my elven friend. "Why aren't we leaving right away?"

"Information," she said as she led me down the hall and towards an exit. I had no clue how she knew WHERE to go, but she seemed to. "Void Roads aren't always safe. Your Ancestor mentioned special locations where strange things happened, but I'm not sure if he mentioned Void Storms. They're rare, but it's smart to at least check. Not to mention sometimes new Hanging Lands bump into the Roads and connect. If that happens, formerly safe routes can become unusable, and recalibration would be needed."

This was more complicated than I'd expected, but I got her point. "So what is this place?"

"Palace of Doors," she said as we reached and passed through a large open red stone entryway. "Doormaker Dave maintains his own locations in most major Hanging Lands. He's the only game in town for doors, which means he's left alone, but he also charges for using the big hubs like this. Standardizing it makes things easier, and makes him a decent amount of money, too."

Dan looked intrigued. "Fascinating. I have so many things to learn here. Speaking of which, can you tell us about the information source you're bringing us to consult?"

She snorted. "Only one place to get maps and routes on the Roads. If you need information on safe passage, you ask the Voidwalker Guild. They have regular jobs refreshing and updating their maps and they pay pretty well. I've done work for them before. They're pricey, but luckily I have a tab through a friend of mine. There are a few of us who use it, but she doesn't mind." Then she stopped talking. It was clear she didn't want to be asked about anything else from her demeanor, so we lapsed into silence as we followed her through red sand streets. I already didn't like this place.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Voidwalker's Guild was surprisingly jovial for a building tucked into a back alley corner of a city steeped in murder victim blood. As soon as we stepped inside, a few people took a look around, spotted Dayna, and cheered a greeting. The taciturn elf smiled slightly, nodding to them as we entered, and headed for the back of the hall where a big bearded man stood in front of a counter that seemed to double as a reception desk and bar.

He noticed her coming and shot her a grin, his deep set eyes and high cheekbones making him seem like a naturally friendly person even before he smiled. "Dayna-girl!" he crowed happily. "How's my favorite little stick flinger? You make the decision to upgrade to a real weapon yet?"

"That depends, Ian," she said sardonically. "Have you figured out a way to use melee weapons without parking your oversized ass RIGHT next to your enemy and flailing around in arm's reach for a few minutes?"

He grinned at her in a way that told me this was a familiar bit of banter, before turning to raise an eyebrow at me. "And who is your large intimidating friend? That's a nice suit of armor, lad, though your mask is a bit unsettling, all blank and wooden like that. Face is your advertisement to the world, boyo, man can't see that how's he supposed to trust you?"

"Says the man whose entire lower jaw is hidden inside of a bush," snorted Dayne. "This is…Sol. He's a friend of mine." I perked up at the terminology and saw her wilt as she realized what she'd said, but it was too late for her to take it back. I'd known I'd win her over.

He barked out a laugh. "Fair enough, lass. Fair enough. Now, what are you looking for here today? Hoping to take on a job? We've got a nice little stockpile in the back I've been keepin' warm for you. I know you love the exploration gigs, and you're one of our most thorough mapmakers."

She cleared her throat in embarrassment. "Yes, well, I do enjoy the chance to work on my shading, but sadly I'm already on a job. I came to check the routes and get the most recent news. I'd also hoped to check if you'd seen Anabelle lately."

"Fraid not," said the big man with a shrug. "With the realspace war heating up, us backline folks don't see near as much action. Most of the godbloods are cycling out to the warfront or hanging back in their bunkers for safety. Annie-belle and the rest of your little rag tag band been taking jobs in the edgeroads."

Anticipating my confusion, Dayna elaborated. "Plenty of Roads border realspace like we saw before, with the shallowing. The edgeroads are known weakspots like that, and the ones nearest the war front have been known to see accidental punch through."

Ian laughed at that. "Yeah, it's a bit like diving for trash at a junkyard. Never know what, if anything, is gonna come through. But it can be lucrative as hell if you get lucky. Anyone as can punch through the veil is going to be high B-rank at least. Or have a VERY effective attack ability. Anything they drop is most likely premium gear. And that's not even counting things like spare body parts or souls. Scavenging the edge roads while your people fight the realspacers is like playing the lottery." His smile, everpresent until now, dropped. "Course, we ain't the only ones noticed, either. The Void spawn swarm those edges themselves, and scavs need to be careful not to get sucked into a fight with a horde they can't handle."

Dayna looked troubled. "Can I leave a message for Anabelle here?" she asked slowly. "I don't like to hover, but she should know about some of the recent developments in realspace. In fact, I was hoping we might be able to trade some information for the routes we need? I can use my tab if needed, but this seemed cleaner."

His eyes brightened, narrowing in interest. "Information, you say? Since when do you have connections in realspace?" She just stared back at him mutely and he shuckled, putting both hands up defensively. "Alright, no need to pout, little one. Tell me what you know."

She glanced at me questioningly, and I nodded, trusting her to know what to tell him. "The realspacer gods have been skirmishing with our side," she said diplomatically. "But the vanished ones are split. Hatescream and Stralthrem staged an attack on the Wish god but got repelled. One of the Void Children reached divinity, but she's reticent to engage because the avatar of a lost god has appeared that directly counters the Void."

"The lost ones are always a mixed bag," he hummed. "What do you know about this avatar, are they one of ours?"

"No, she connected indirectly," she said with a headshake. "That lost one's fragment remains drifting, as far as I know. Based on how much antipathy the Void Children seem to feel toward him, I suspect it's buried DEEP."

My eyes widened. She was insinuating that Atlas had a Hanging Land. Which now that I thought about it, made perfect sense. Considering the requirements for resurrection for the vanished gods themselves, I suspected finding that would be one possible way for Callie to help resurrect her dad. I made a note to contact her later and bring it up. If we could mount an expedition into the Void and locate Atlas's world fragment (apparently that was the local term), we'd have a potential method to counter the Void God directly.

Of course, any expedition would require a foothold, which meant we needed to contact and win over as many of the vanished gods as we could and put their side of the war to rest as fast as possible. Our mission continued.

Ian, meanwhile, looked incredibly intrigued. "Well now," he said musingly. "What a complex and fascinating report." He reached under the counter, pulling out an envelope. "Platinum route report," he said decisively. "Covers everything local up to twenty four hours guaranteed accurate."

Dayna's jaw dropped open in disbelief. "That's…platinum? I can't afford a platinum route report. Those have faction specific intel and almost realtime engagement maps to avoid incidents. That's premium product."

"You can afford whatever I say you can afford," he laughed. "And I say your intel was worth at least this much. I'm not sure where you got it, but from what I can tell, it's a hundred percent accurate, at least to your knowledge." He held up his hand, palm out, to reveal a clunky black metal bracelet set with a bright orange faceted stone.

Apparently that stone was some kind of truth device because Dayna's face brightened with understanding. Still she gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

"Bah," he snorted. "If I can't be biased toward my favorites what's the point of being a guildmaster." His face smoothed over, eyes shadowing in trepidation. "But in all seriousness…be careful out there, Dayna-girl. When the cats are away, the mice will play, and even down here in the depths of the Void, the echoes of the war can be felt."

She nodded again, and we turned to leave. I frowned at her in confusion. "We're going already? I figured we would stop for a meal or something."

"We're being followed," she said quietly as we stepped out of the guild hall. "That last bit about cats was a code phrase. Ian was telling me he'd clocked someone setting an ambush. He has methods of knowing what is happening in his territory."

I frowned, then jerked my head to one side. "Follow me. I've got an idea."

She didn't even hesitate, following me into an alley with Brad and Dan in tow. We all walked in one end, and a short, plain looking man with grey eyes and black hair walked out the other side.

Astaroth had been designed for times like this, and I relaxed slightly as I watched the simulacrum of a man I'd seen in passing on the way to the guild hall stroll casually in front of me as I skulked in the recesses of space.

Dayna and the demons were stashed safely in my Domain, so where there had been four people, now there was only one, and he was no one special. I walked casually through the streets, my eyes peeled and searching for any evidence of the ambush she'd mentioned.

Sure enough, I spotted a few shady looking men taking up positions on the sides of the road and in recessed alleys, watching the road that lead from the guild

I let my legs carry me slowly and carefully towards the palace of doors, and then tapped into Piece of Mind, giving control of the simulacrum to a parallel as I slipped into my Domain mentally. Being an equivalent to my library soulspace, I could enter Gehenna without projecting the Domain itself, though I rarely did so.

When I arrived, I found my friends waiting for me. "You were right," I told Dayna. "We were being tracked. They were waiting for us down the street. How did they find us? They must have had someone waiting for me. I'm sorry, I should have been using Astaroth from day one. I just figured we wouldn't be too noticeable this far out. Between the armor and the mask, descriptions of me should be pretty general. I got cocky."

She shook her head. "No way of knowing. Don't forget that I have enemies as well. This is Verdyn's territory, or at least nearby. Chances are good using my tab tipped someone off and they were moving to grab me while I was vulnerable."

I chuckled lightly at that. "Look at us, making friends and influencing people, huh? I'll get us back into the palace and then out of the city. Did you check out the route report yet?"

"I did," she nodded. "Unfortunately the route I had planned to take back has been claimed by a particularly nasty group of Road bandits. We'll need to divert. There's an alternate safe route through the Dreamdark Forest fragment. Well…mostly safe. If we avoid going too deep. Most of the worst things in that fragment live deep in the woods. The rest of the predators there have been eaten by the big ones, and those tend to nap most of the year."

She hesitated. I noticed and sighed. "Alright, what is it?"

"If they were after me, they'll know where we're going," she pointed out. "Which means they'll know the approximate route we're going to use."

"You think if they can't ambush us here they'll set up another in this forest fragment?" I asked slowly. "What if we don't go through there, then? You said that's the safest route. Are there any LESS safe ones that are still manageable?"

She paused, her eyes going wide. "I mean…Bonesorrow Canyon maybe? It's incredibly dangerous for most people. It's been a forbidden zone on the local Roads for years. But the undead there have weak Perception. If we moved slow, your stealth field might be able to hide us."

"Bonesorrow Canyon?" I asked hesitantly. "What kind of place is that?"

"It's a fragment that belonged to an ancient undead bug deity called the Desolation Digger," she said with a grimace. "The god was a swarm type entity, and when its bugs latched on they would burrow into the heads of their victims and parasitize them into undead thralls. After it was destroyed, the thralls lost all connection to anything around them and the Canyon turned into a shambling wasteland. Almost no one goes there."

I grimaced at the disgusting imagery, but if that was where we needed to go, that was where I'd head. "Alright," I said with a sigh. "I take it there's a door that leads to somewhere near this place?" At her confirmation, I slipped back out to pilot my simulacrum directly and leave them to prepare for this trip. To an evil undead bug world. Why couldn't I ever be forced into going to a waterpark or on a cruise? Having a destiny sucked sometimes.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Emerging from the door back onto the Void Road, I felt a weight slough off my shoulders. I released Dayna to help with directions, and Archie to scout, but left the demons inside. To make sure we weren't spotted though, I incarnated Murmur, allowing my stealth demon to dwell within my body and infuse me with his skill and technique in hiding.

Once I had the others hidden, I stepped out of Astaroth, letting a parallel deal with Murmur's presence in my head and just enjoyed the walk. It was almost relaxing, being back on the Void Road after the Blood Widow City, where everyone was so densely packed.

It didn't take us long to arrive at the entrance to the Bonesorrow Canyon, but once we did, I couldn't help but question Dayna on how we were supposed to get in. "If this place is some forbidden zone why is there still a door? Assuming there IS a door. Like how are we supposed to get inside?"

"Remember how I told you earlier that fragments sometimes impact the Void Roads, causing new worlds to pop up out of nowhere?" she asked. "Well, when that happens, the impact causes the two phases of reality to overlap. It's similar to the process in geology of mountains forming. When two tectonic plates strike each other, one is pushed up over the top of the other, creating a spire of stone that we call a mountain. Well, then a fragment collides with a Road, a spur of space punched through the space inside, creating a Void Corridor. It's kind of like air lock leading into a realm."

I grimaced. "And I'm guessing these things don't CLOSE? Hence the reason this place hasn't been blocked off."

Nodding, she stepped forward, drawing an arrow. She started poking around in the air, searching for something, and once she found it, she twisted sharply and the space began to blur. "They don't," she agreed. "But they DO settle. It's been quite some time since anyone entered this one. We need to be careful going in. If we disturb the space too much it'll be obvious that someone entered."

Carefully, slowly, and ever so delicately, she dragged the arrow down through the air, creating a small slit in the fabric of space in front of us. It looked deeply unsettling and VERY cool, but that wasn't important right now.

Once she was at the ground, she gingerly reached up and, like plucking a hard string, grasped the edge of the tear with her thumb and middle finger and pulled it slowly aside. "Archie," I told my partner. "You're up, and stay high when you're in there. Remember the place is full of bug zombies."

He trilled, then swept inside. I waited a full five minutes, then he swept back through to land on my arm, reporting what he'd found. "Alright, we're clear," I told her. "Slip in there, I'll follow you through."

She raised an eyebrow in confusion, but shrugged, putting away her arrow and smoothly rolling through the tear. The slice began to fall shut, and the last thing I saw before it did was a quick glimpse of Dayna turning back to look at me…which was enough for me to trigger Double Trouble and appear directly behind her.

"Watcha lookin' at?' I asked casually, enjoying her terrified squeak far more than I should have, at least until I had to dodge the arrow she tried to shove into my eye socket. "Whoa!" I yelped, hands going up. "It's me! Calm down, damn."

She stopped, glaring up at me. "Are you insane? I could have killed you."

"I feel like sanity might be on the side of the guy who does NOT assume that the reaction to jump scared would be attempted murder," I retorted grumpily. I could see why that might have been a bad idea in hindsight.

So could she, apparently, because she snorted derisively. "And I think it's with the woman who reacted violently to a potential attack while stranded in a forbidden undead hellscape."

"Admittedly not my best plan," I allowed. "Anyway, what are we doing here? I assume we need to go somewhere to get to the exit. Is there another Void Corridor somewhere, or will I need to use the Adherent Fire to get us out?"

She shook her head. "There's an exit, I just have to find it. The Platinum Route Report has everything we need, including the last known map for this fragment. The problem is that the map in question is two thousand years old. I'm going to need a little help from your feathered friend for this next part. We'll have to map the route and compare it to the current force distribution of the corpses."

I nodded. "Archie," I called out for my companion. "Dayna needs some help, bud. Come here."

He flew over, landing on my arm, and I put a hand on him, closing my eyes. I reached for the connection I had to him through our shared flames, slipping a parallel in through the fire and the bloodline bond that had partly formed through the process of the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art when I condensed my first drop of blood.

Once the parallel was in, he triggered Murmur, coating my buddy in a sphere of occlusion that protected him from view. I let him swoop over to join up with Dayne and then walked a short distance to sit heavily on a stone outcropping.

Bonesorrow Canyon, as one might expect from the name, was…well, sorrowful. The whole place was a blasted plateau of bone white dust and endless nothingness and death for as far as the eye could see. Luckily, I wasn't trying to see it. I was just sitting down to close my eyes so I could reach for a very specific demon. Angelic Bond.

Angelic Bond was unique among all my demons because it represented my connection to my wife. Back when I'd been injured in the trial, Angelic Bond had been able to ferry demons through our connection and into Callie's soul space. Since it could do that for THEM, I was fairly sure it could do the same for me.

Sure enough, it only took a moment to connect, and when I opened my eyes, I was sitting in the pews in Callie's church, watching my wife swing her blade in a series of deadly, flowing movements at the altar.

It was lovely, really. The swish of her skits, the rippling of muscle, the way her hair flowed. She was practicing in here presumably because Gossamer was a big attention grabber and inside her soul was the best place to keep it concealed, but it felt like she'd known I was coming. Like she was waiting to show me how much stronger she was getting. I watched in awe, my heart boiling over with adoration and awe that this amazing woman was in my life.

She stopped, sighing without looking up. "Shane, darling, light of my life. I love you, want to spend the rest of my life with you, and adore how close we are. But it is NOT conducive to the learning process when you just pop into my soul to watch me practice and beam feelings of overwhelming affection at me."

I froze. "Ah…right," I said awkwardly. "I was…helping you with resistance training?"

There was a flash of wings, and she was sitting next to me, curled up at my side. "Think you're irresistible, do ya?"

"Well you're not with me for my abundance of caution and common sense," I pointed out with a smirk as I removed my mask. Hi, love." I leaned down to kiss her, reveling in the feel of having her with me again. That went on for probably longer than was productive, and I eventually pulled back, panting. "Well, I think it's clear SOMEONE missed their spouse."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Is it?"

"Yup, it was me," I admitted. "I've been going out of my mind missing you. Also worrying. Did you leave yet?"

"Davina has been getting things in order," she snickered. "Turns out Aiden did almost nothing to prepare for his exit, so she's taking the time to teach me how to be the wife of a wayward Wishmaster. So you better watch your ass bud, no slacking off or I'll have to use my badass Wishmistress mindgames on you."

I burst out laughing. "Oh gods, please tell me they're actually calling you that."

"Well, some of them," she admitted. "Some of them were calling me 'the wife', but they stopped that after Bethy ate one of them." I blinked at her in shocked horror. "Only a little bit," she assured me. "He's alive. Physically."

I put up both hands. "I don't want to know, it's not my problem," I said firmly. "Bethy can do whatever she wants until I get back. If she does something too out there consult the cabinet. They'll keep her in line." I ignored the fact that I still hadn't managed that myself and moved on. "So, I wanted to fill you in on what's happening. Because it's been a wild ride so far." I briefed her on our trip, the shallowing, Brad, the arrowhead, the Blood Widow City, the ambush I'd avoided, and our current location en route to the lodge.

She stared at me in horror. "It's been ONE DAY!" she all but screamed at me. "How did so many things happen to you? What the HELL Shane?"

I shrugged. "I live an exciting life. It's fine. We're all safe and sound."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear to the gods, you were created by the universe to drive me into an early grave through shock and terror. I love you more than life itself, but you have, as I heard some of the local kids saying 'no chill'. Just…don't die? I know asking you to be careful would be like asking a sword not to cut, but if you could put a concerted effort into not doing anything hilariously dangerous for at least twenty four hours, I would consider it a personal favor."

"Well I'm about to trek through a sand blasted wasteland full of corpses possessed by paracit god bugs. So…that seems like it might not be in the cards," I said sheepishly.

She glared at me. "Yes obviously, I mean AFTER that. At least wait until I'm on the front lines and can distract myself with imminent death." I just looked at her, face calm, eyebrow raised. She sighed, leaning forward to bury her face in my chest. "Why did I have to marry an idiot with deathwish?" she grumped.

"I've been told it's because I'm cute and lovable," I told her solemnly. "But I've always suspected you just like my ability to get things down for you off high shelves."

"Nobody likes a smartass," she pouted. She paused for a moment, staring off into the church at where Gossamer hung suspended on the altar. "I love you," she said, not looking at me. "Always. So much it hurts. Please be safe? If you can? I know that's a ridiculous thing to ask, but."

I reached down and took her hand in mine. Her eyes snapped to my own, and I stared into those bottomless blue black pools. "You are the best part of my life," I told her bluntly. "You are the reason I get out of bed. The reason I fall asleep. The reason my heart beats in my chest. If you need me to promise to come home to you I will.

"And I don't care if it's impossible for me to know." I said emphatically. "Ascendants do the impossible every day. We change the world with belief. With faith. And there's not a thing in this universe I have more faith in than us. So yes. I promise. I'll be ok. I'll come home to you. And I expect the same promise from you. Because there's nothing we can't do for each other."

She stared at me, eyes wide, breathing ragged, and then she threw herself into my arms and kissed me like I'd never been kissed before. And then there was no more words. Just us. Together. And everything was alright again.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I emerged from my mental conference with my wife refreshed and ready to take on the world. Which might have been a poor choice of words, because as I opened my eyes and looked at the surrounding wasteland, I noticed a distinctive uptick in the number of figures. As in thousands of them.

Turning to Dayna, I raised an eyebrow. "Ok…what the hell happened?"

She growled in irritation. "What HAPPENED is your damn bird spotted a small lizard and decided it needed a snack!"

"First of all," I said calmly. "Archie is a HE not an it. Second of all what do you mean he saw a small lizard? I thought this was some kind of death world? Why are there small animals running around here?"

"They're called corpsechewers," she explained with a sigh. "I'm sure you can puzzle out what they eat."

I grimaced. "Ah, that explains how they're still around. Surprised the bugs haven't killed them off. Also how many dead people are in this fragment that it's been a no man's land for decades and they haven't even made a dent?"

"A great many," she said bluntly. "Unfortunately, your bird's snatching of the corpsechewer roused some of the nearby corpses. They didn't see him, but one of them noticed the vanishing lizard. The thralls aren't really sentient, but they have a certain instinctive animal cunning that lets them function at a reasonably high level. It's going to make traveling through here…complicated."

"Just get me a route," I told her. "I'll take care of the rest. Murmur can get us through, assuming there aren't a bunch of A or S-rank corpses lying around here?"

She shook her head. "Thankfully not nearby. The stronger ones tend to lunk near the corpse of the god's main body. It's in the center of the fragment. Normally there wouldn't BE a corpse in a fragment like this, given the nature of gods, but this one was swarm type."

Which actually brought up the question of how this whole world thing worked? Gods were one with their worlds, but I knew the vanished gods had died without their worlds fracturing. These worlds were fragments though. How had the vanished ones managed to keep their worlds together after death.

After thinking about it for a minute though, I suspected I had the answer. Objects of power. Fragments of an object could create a shallowing, so maybe a whole object could anchor a world. Or maybe more than one. It was just a guess, but I had a feeling I was right.

Which meant that the vanished gods all had objects of power squirreled away in their worlds. Complete objects of power they could use for other things if needed. Things like war.

I shot a mental message to Callie over the bond, since she was still in the WCP. She could get the word to Aiden who would have some way to tell the old man. He probably already knew, but it didn't hurt to make sure my family was prepared in case the worst happened.

Dayna, meanwhile, looked skeptical. "This was your idea," I reminded her. "Poor Perception, remember?"

"I know," she sighed. "I'm just having second thoughts. And then third thoughts. And I'm currently thinking a fourth time. This is reckless and potentially dangerous. I wouldn't have proposed it if we had any other option."

"But we don't," I shrugged. "So we have to make do. Do you have a route?"

She hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded. "Yes," she finally said. "I found a small path through a nearby rock formation. It's on the map, though part of it was blocked off by a rock fall. I had to map an alternate path to go around the blockage. Archie got me the last of the information I needed before his ill advised snack attempt."

"Alright, then let's go." I stood, calling up my staff and channeling my power into Murmur, pushing him up to B-rank as I incarnated the demon. The stealth pseudo Domain poured out of me, covering myself and Dayna as I called for Archie. He flew back to me with a trill, landing on my arm. "I'm going to keep you out in case we need spot checks for recon, ok?" I asked my companion.

He trilled his agreement, and I turned to Dayna. "You're up. We need to move slow. The longer we stay in place the more protected we are. More importantly, the radius of the field is about a hundred feet at the moment, so the overlap means if we move slowly and wait a bit at the edge of the area we can ensure that each individual step we take is heavily concealed."

"Come with me," she said, turning towards the edge of the rocky platform we were standing on. I followed behind her as she led me to a small cliff, hopping effortlessly down a series of descending rocks to land in a sandy crevasse. Once I arrived behind her, she held up a hand. Then we waited.

With my hundred foot coverage for Murmur (I'd condensed the pseudo Domain to increase effectiveness), the field was currently covering at least three different corpses. They weren't sensing us, but we also weren't exactly in their faces. So we waited.

Five minutes, just to be sure, and then we stepped out from the rocks and began to make our way slowly across the open space. We moved carefully, minimizing the noise and disturbance. The less trace we left the less I had to erase with Murmur. It was agonizingly slow, incredibly frustrating, and deeply unnerving. Coming within ten feet of the corpses, I could literally see the green glow of the insectoid passenger flickering in the back of their pupils. They felt…strong. And brutal. Hungry for something, anything, to kill. They were C-rank, but something told me they wouldn't be an easy fight, and I was damned sure I wouldn't get just one of them on my ass if I screwed up.

I'd be swarmed, and no matter how many tricks I had, it wouldn't be enough against these kinds of numbers. Seventy two demons might be a lot against a single B-ranker, but against an army of creepy hive mind demon corpses I was doubting my Domain was going to do much good.

We made it past the first round of corpses pretty quickly, and I was relieved to be through the gauntlet. Until we turned the corner and I saw the NEXT step in it.

Two hundred shambling undead, all dressed in various suits of cracked and rusting armor, ragged clothing, or ruined jewelry. It honestly looked like this dead god had rolled its army in a low quality flea market.

Of course, I could tell from the Impact that some of the gear was legitimately powerful, and I knew the degraded state was just time wearing it away. I wondered exactly how long some of these bodies had BEEN here for C and B-ranker armor and accessories to be coming apart like this. We waited at the edge of the pack for a few minutes, doing our best to remain still as Murmur deduced and perfected its concealment further.

Finally, we stepped forward, slowly stretching and climbing between the dense army of dead Ascendants, trying to avoid physical contact, which only served to make it harder to hide ourselves.

We'd made it about halfway across the crowded space when Dayna froze, eyes locked on the sky. I carefully tuned to look, and spotted a figure off in the distance. They were standing on a plateau, face covered with a heavy cloak and hood, and holding…a bow. My eyes widened. "Dayna," I said as quietly as possible, freezing in place to avoid alerting the zombies. "Please tell me that person can't see us right now."

"I really wish I could do that," she whispered tensely. "But I don't think it would be the truth. I suspect that person has some sort of observation based ability. I believe they're at B-rank as well. We need to move. Now. Before-"

My Danger Sense went INSANE. I cursed, reaching into my Domain and calling out Mornax, pushing the demon to tier 8 with my staff as I did. He materialized in front of us JUST in time to tank the arrow from the archer, and I sighed in relief. Apparently the shooter wasn't too powerful, so no one was hurt. It would take a lot for someone at the same rank to damage Mornax.

My relief lasted EXACTLY three seconds…and then faded into a creeping buzz of absolute horror as I looked around me. The arrow hadn't hurt Mornax at all. But it had hit him. Loudly. And with a bright flash of light. None of which I'd had time to compensate for with Murmur. The zombies all froze, heads turning slowly toward the source of the sound. They couldn't see us yet, but they were looking the right direction.

I dropped the stealth, banishing Murmur as I pulled Dayna, Mornax, and Archie into my Domain. Sammael rolled over me, pushing my strength up to the next level as I bent my knees and exploded off the ground, beating my wings to get as much air as possible. In the distance, the archer drew again, unleashing another shot.

The arrow missed, blurring past me as I vanished in a burst of black flame Mephisto's Waltz descended, incarnated into my body to give me the absolute peak speed possible. With so much sky to work with avoiding the arrows with the warning I had was doable, though not easy. I was getting pissed. Below me, the zombies began to bay and howl. To my annoyance, several of them lifted off the ground, carried by wings.

I was mostly just grateful the bugs were too stupid to know how to fly the normal way, because there was no suppression here. Still, I had bigger problems. A version of my manifested inside my Domain. "Dayna, where do I GO?" I snapped. "I need to move and I don't have a heading."

"West!" she said quickly. "Theres a small cave west of our current location, it's under a pair of crossed outcroppings that look like collapsed pillars. The Void Corridor is inside."

I nodded then shifted back to my main perspective. My wings beat the air so hard they cracked like whips and I exploded in a blaze of black flame as I pushed my waltz to its utmost limits. The archer calmly continued to draw and fire.

One of the arrows was a bit more well placed than the rest, and I reappeared in front of it, the tip plunging into the gap in my shoulder and slamming into my ball and socket joint like a wrecking ball. I was knocked off course, which actually saved my ass because it knocked me out of the way of two MORE arrows, and I pushed myself a bit further.

Mephisto's Waltz was only tier 6, but I had Sammael incarnated at the same time, and the synergy (and my wings) were keeping me ahead of the enemy for the moment. I had no clue how long that would last though, I needed to get the hell out of here.

Blasting through the space in a constant cascading stutter of black flames, I barrelled forward, searching desperately as I tried to remove the arrow. It tore and ripped at my joint, designed with some kind of barbs to hook and tear on their way out and maximize damage. I couldn't afford that right now so I just left it in.

I touched down outside the pillars Dayna had mentioned, turning to see the horde of zombies tearing after me, some by land and some by air. I ignored that, diving aside as an arrow smashed into the rock ahead of me, tearing it apart. I was lucky this archer seemed to be more sniper than bruiser, because a real powerhouse would have probably killed me with that shoulder hit.

Diving inside the cave, I stumbled forward, calling Dayna out as I turned to watch for intruders. We'd moved just fast enough, and she managed to slit open the exit with that weird spatial arrow she'd used to get us in. The last thing I saw as we escaped was a horde of zombies pouring into the cave. Definitely not going back there again anytime soon.