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

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we finished up the last of the spears Callie took her half back to her own barracks. I passed mine to Gabe, but before I could meet up with Demia for instruction I got a message from Camden. Alister showed up in person to let me know that I was requested in the basement of the manor to begin work on my new armor.

The seneschal escorted me to the door down to the lower floor, opened it, and then stepped back. I raised a brow at him.
"You're not coming?"

He snorted. "Sonia and I don't get along. I don't enter her presence without the Baron present. It usually starts a fight. Just follow the stairs, she's waiting for you."

Shrugging I set off into the basement, my stomach fluttering slightly in nervousness. This felt…consequential. Important in a way I couldn't comment on. My first set of real custom gear. Important and unique to just me. As long as I'd been doing this, all my gear had been generic. Even the suits that Abel's brother Cicero commissioned for us weren't specifically tailored to our abilities. Though Callie's had been close.

When I arrived in the room, it was empty except for Sonia. The tall redheaded smith was standing beside the black cube she'd been smithing on. "Sit." She said bluntly when she saw me, pointing to the top of the cube. I walked over and climbed up onto it, taking a cross legged position and looking down at her in cautious curiosity.

"You're not going to like…turn me into a hat or something?" I asked in a faux casual tone.

She smirked at me. "Too tall. Stovepipes are so out of fashion." At my lack of response she snorted. "No, I'm no haberdasher. I told you these items would need to be exposed to your Skills to imprint the signature of your power onto them, and so I can analyze how they resonate. I take it you have a decent idea of exactly which Skills will work for which material?"

I nodded. "I think I have some idea. What material do you want to start with?" I was excited to see how this worked. I'd channeled Skills through gear before, but the way she described this made it seem different. This gear would allow me to tap into my forms and Skills without almost any strain. That might not sound amazing, but considering that my Piece of Mind skill let me do two things at once…I had ideas.

Turning around, she walked over to a table covered with a variety of materials, grumbling about overwork as she dug out a small pile of bones that I recognized from my last visit. "Bones from a Stareater thrall." She said with a grin. "One of the most effective materials I have on hand. Only barely E-rank because of all the damage."

I nodded, already sure what I needed to channel into the bones. She stepped up, laying them down in my lap with my hands wrapped around them like I was holding a bowl in my arms. "You sure this will be enough?" I asked. "I'm only barely touching some of them."

"It'll be fine." She said with a lazy wave. "Just do it. I'm excited to see exactly what makes you compatible with such a rare and difficult to work material. Not many have Skills that allow them to harmonize with such a destructive element."
Without responding, I closed my eyes and triggered Mephistopheles. The black flame washed through me, pouring into the bones. I expected them to burn, but whatever fire the Stareater Thrall had been consumed in was much more destructive than even my black flames.

Rather than burn, the bones began to glow. Well, that was the wrong word. Glowing things gave off light. This was the opposite of that. They started drinking in light, to the extent that the dark was radiating off them in a similar fashion to a glow. Sonia told me to sit still and hold it, so I did, not using too much effort since I wasn't attacking.

Mephistopheles wasn't easy, even with a Sapphire soul. I could hold it for a decent chunk of time I was pretty sure, but I wouldn't be able to do much else. That was what had me so excited about this set of armor. If it offset the difficulty of my forms, I could use other abilities in combination with them more easily, or even use more than one of them TOGETHER.
Runes lit up along the surface of the cube, visible in the variety of reflective metallic surfaces as Sonia circled me, muttering to herself and occasionally smacking me in the head and telling me to sit still when I hadn't moved a micron.

"Alright." She finally said. "You can move. That's…a complex working. Messy and oddly lacking in cohesion for all that it functions properly."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mentioned something like that before, studying the patterns. You're not using enchanting? Runes can be made to do almost anything with the right modifiers, why bother studying anything."

"I am using runes, they're just more…natural." She explained. "I'm sure you've seen items before with naturally occurring form runes. Gems or metals or wood where exposure to a certain type of energy or a reputation for a certain type of renown causes them to form specific energy patterns?"

That did sound familiar. I remembered a year or so ago, back on Callus, Callie had been talking to a fae who had offered her a sapphire with a naturally occurring water form rune. "I have. It's kind of like formations right?"

She waggled a hand as she took the bones one by one with the other, carrying them gingerly to the table. I noticed her glove lightly smoking and worried a bit, but she just ignored it. "Sort of. Higher level enchanters certainly prefer to use more efficient runes, and the naturally occurring ones are the most naturally suited to the environment and materials."

"So by studying them you can learn what kinds of runes and patterns are most effective for certain tasks rather than trying to brute force it?" I asked, catching on.

Grinning, she snapped her finger and tapped her nose. "Got it in one. Micromanaging your runes manually and forcing the energy is the hallmark of an enchanter with either no Skill or FAR too much. Experienced crafters can make things manually that can equal a naturally formed item and with far more flexibility. For people like me though, this little trick is far more reasonable."

"What about my Skill?" I asked curiously. "What did you mean about it lacking cohesion? I made it myself and it works fine."

That got a laugh. "No it WORKS. It doesn't work fine. You're holding it together during use with your unnaturally powerful soul. It's functional, but it's not well crafted. Skills aren't just random imagination smashed together into a ball. The warp and weft of stats and energy has patterns, and the more you understand them and apply them to your Skills the less your soul needs to be leveraged to effect them."

I hadn't even considered there might be better ways to construct stats, but thinking about it I'd already seen an example. My wish ability. Something about its construction was so absolutely flawless it tripled the efficiency of stats used. If I applied any changes or synergies too it, that modifier dissolved.

Not once in all my time with the power had I followed that bit of information to its logical conclusion. Skills could be badly or expertly made. Mine were apparently mishmashes of total nonsense held together with twine and packing tape.
"Does that mean that you're going to make a better version for my armor?" I asked slowly. "So that I can not only use them easier, but slowly refine them into better Skills?"

She shook her head. "I'm not a Skill specialist. I'm an Arcane Armorer. I can't teach you how to fix Skills. I can make armor that help you utilize yours to their fullest, and in that vein, take this." She passed me the Phantasmal Platinum.
I held it up, looking at it cautiously. This one I was less sure about. I had the sneaking suspicion it might resonate with my wish power at first but…how would that work? If this stuff boosted wishes everyone in the family would use it. No, it did something else.

Dreams weren't just wishes though, they were also visions of possibilities. I squinted at the thing for a second and then triggered Eye of Revelation. It began to shine, swirls of energy rising off it in strange patterns. Through the haze I could see faint visions, shadows and hazy figures projected across the walls.

She took it from me. "Sensory Skill? How fascinating. Something for the head. Maybe a crown?" I opened my mouth to respond and she waved me off. "Not your concern, silence."

Next she handed me the Amethyst. This one was simple, I channeled Belial through it, and the stone began to blaze and flicker with green lights among the facets of purple. Next she passed me the roll of hide, the Abyssal Wraithskin.
Holding it, I was able to identify that the material was much thinner and more tightly wrapped than expected. I was holding a much larger spool of it than I'd thought, and I was sure she'd have enough for my gear.

This one had been a hard pick. I could go defensive, or offensive, or any number of other potential utility options…but I was sure I knew what this stuff was resonating with. I channeled State of Grace. The skin of a wraith, Abyssal or not, was meant for freedom of movement. Combined with my danger sense that would be my best possible outcome.

As I watched, the material shimmered, becoming sort of semi invisible before returning to normal. I passed it to her and she snatched it up. "Perfect!" She cheered. "Now MOVE!"

I did, hopping clear as she dumped all the materials there. After a brief pause, she strode over and snatched up another bolt of cloth, a purple silk I hadn't interacted with before. Stalking back to the cube she slapped it, and then reached into her apron for a series of tools she laid out as it started to hum, the same energy and projection coalescing above her.

And then, she started to craft. Her hands moved in fits and starts, sometimes flowing, sometimes jerking frenetically scissors split the fabrics, a small handheld blowtorch blazed up, rendering the platinum molten, and she handled it with just one hand as the other worked the leather and then the silk.

As I stared, openmouthed, my armor began to take shape. The bones were ground up into a paste, mixed with some of the molten platinum to form a dark metal, the leather was stacked, reinforced, and then stitched with platinum threads drawn from the seemingly ever expanding molten ingot.

The armor was huge and imposing, covered with intricate spiderwebs of silvery scrollworn. The joints and vulnerabilities were lined with the dark metal made from the bones, and as she poured the last of the bone dust into half of the remaining platinum she started to twist them together.

Metals mixed with each other, forming a black and white damascus, which she shaped into a wide crown with jagged spiked sticking up intermittently around its circumference. Into the front of it she set the Venomblood Amethyst, and as soon as she did, I felt the whole thing sort of…shift. There was an inaudible click as the power in the set merged into one glorious whole.

As she finished the armor, the purple silk was sewn into the leather with the platinum wire, tying the whole thing together. It even went with my mask, the damascus of the crown and the winding patterns of the scrollwork somehow creating a harmonious image with the grain of the wood. Stepping back, the Arcane Armorer grinned over at me. "Well, here you go, Solomon. A raiment fit for a king." And damned if it wasn't. I'd expected the crown to be too much, but it called to me. I couldn't wait to try it on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Monday morning came just as fast as expected. Demia had gone over a rough outline of the formation we'd be learning, just to be sure I understood it enough to direct my recruits, and once we'd passed out all the spears, we were all ready to get started training. After a quick stop at Camdens for wish allocation (I granted an extra brining my stockpile to eleven) we all met the training field to get started.

I marveled at my new armor as I walked, how light and responsive it was, how secure I felt. Even the crown just felt RIGHT on me, in a way I definitely hadn't expected. The cape swished behind me gloriously as I walked, and I had to admit I felt pretty fucking awesome. The impression I was making was clearly the one I'd been aiming for because all of my recruits were staring in awe at my magnificence.

More than that, the ten lines of ten in front of me seemed much straighter and more orderly than before, and I smiled with pride at how well things had been going. We'd done a few more point exercises, and our next monthly tournament was coming up soon. The carrot and stick approach had really worked out.

"Alright." Said Demia "Anyone with a defensive Job up front. We're doing three rows of thirty with ten alternates standing by in case of injury. First thirty will be defenders. Crouch down in the front. Shields up if you have them, which you'd better if you're a defensive Job. Behind them I want Attackers. Have your spears pointed forward and be ready to thrust between the defenders. Underhand grip and coiled to strike. Last row is overhand strikers. Any ranged attackers will be there channeling their Skills through their spears."

Everyone nodded, taking up their positions. The first thirty recruits knelt down, though Demia adjusted their stance a few times. They needed to be able to stand and move if needed, but also be solid enough in stance to tank a hard push. Shields from the first row were interlocked slightly to share force among the others, with their spears ready to stab out between the gaps after an assault where they pulled back their shields.

The second rank was just regular standing spearman, using underhand grips to stab over the shoulders of their kneeling defenders. Last row was overhand spears, and anyone who could channel ranged attacks through a weapon was stationed there, both because they were the least defensible and to put them to best use.

"Now, to test out your defenses, we decided that we needed something a bit more…lifelike." I said with a devilish grin. "A good friend of mine let me borrow the services of her animal companion to serve as a sparring partner."
As if on cue, from behind the nearest building came a colossal earth shaking roar. A form stalked out, sized specifically to match the F-ranked stone lions we'd seen, but infinitely more terrifying.

Though also F-rank (albeit very close to E at this point) Randall was nothing if not intimidating. The huge bear was rippling with muscle courtesy of his heavy Might leaning, and the new outfit that Sonia had finished for him yesterday certainly didn't help.

Dark green plate armor ran the length of the massive animal, shoulders stacked with defensive pauldrons, midsection plated with flexible overlapping pieces of green metal, and arms covered with sturdy greaves that linked up to a set of flexible foot coverings with frankly unnecessarily long claw augments. His head was covered in a blank but bear shaped mask of green metal with lenses over the eyes that gleamed in the daylight like some kind of weakness sensor.

The material, according to Jessie, was something called 'Vital Vanadium' and was an allot of Might and VItality leaning metals that maximized both durability and forward momentum. Every plate was carefully and delicately carved with beautiful forest and plant scrollwork that worked to camouflage the enchantments imprinted into the metal.

I had no fucking clue what it DID since Jessie didn't want to share, but it did something. Who knew how animal Skills worked, but Randall just seemed so much stronger in the gear, though it being E-rank probably helped.

"You want us to fight THAT?" Squeaked Alanna. "He's a MONSTER. We'll all die if that thing hits us."

Shaking my head, I waved her off. "Nah, I told him to hold back. Plus it's safer. Nightstrike's century is training with a Hellhound. Trust me, this is way better. You can't hurt Randall in his armor, especially not with those spears, so he has no reason to try to hurt any of you. You're just going to practice holding charges. We'll start slow and then work up to his best. Once you can stop him you'll be well and truly ready for anything."

I didn't mention the stone lions directly, I wasn't sure what Camden was telling people, but this was his show.
Looking at he big metal clad bear I raised an eyebrow. "You ready Randall?" He chuffed, nodding in my direction, I swept an arm at the formation. "Then let em' have it!" With a savage roar, Randall bolted forward, his body blurring as the full weight of his massive form strwaked toward the defenders.

The front row panicked, standing up and trying to adjust to…something. Randall hit them head on and they went flying in every direction like bowling pins. Some of them went into the dirt, some into the air, and I saw one of the middle ranks get flung into the side of a building hard enough that the top half of him punched through it and only his legs were sticking out.

I waited until they got back up and resumed their formation stances. "Ok." I clapped my hands together to get everyone's attention. "I have some notes. All the stuff you just did? Do other stuff. Like almost anything else. You're in the stances you're in for a reason. Don't move before impact, that defeats the purpose." I glared at one of them. "Ichabod, if I see you trip Betty again you're going in the front row WITHOUT a shield. Or armor. Don't fuck up my day Ichabod, or I'll fuck yours up way worse."

The muscular dark skinned man averted his eyes, and I turned my attention back to the group as Alanna raised snapped.
"That's easy for you to say at E-rank. That thing is terrifying. He's fully armored in E-rank metal. Might as well be a giant wrecking ball."

I shrugged. "Impact affects durability and conceptual weight, that's true. But there's a HUNDRED of you. If you're in the right formation the armor vs. all of you. You should come out on top. Might is a factor too, but you're all mid to high F-rankers. Formations are made specifically for situations like this. It's a relatively small gap."

Part of my reason for this was to show them that the gap between F and E-rank was surmountable. On the off chance one of the E-rank lions took a shot my people should be able to stay calm. Low E-rank anyway. We'd take care of anything else. That's what the elite units and the commanders were for after all.

Eventually, I decided that their problem was less about power and more about appearances. I spun up my staff. "Alright then. How about this. I'll try to break your formation personally. I'll hold back enough not to punch through anyone's shield or armor. All you have to do is block my charge. That work for you?"

Despite making a complete lack of sense, they seemed to calm down a bit at that. I supposed it made some sense. I wasn't a bear the size of a bus (or more realistically a large car right now) and I was human and more capable of holding back in their eyes. Everyone shuffled, assuming their positions.

I set myself, getting ready to attack. I considered several strategies, several dangerous moves, and I almost wanted to battle test my armor, but any actual effort would tear them apart like wet tissue paper. In terms of raw Might I was probably lower than quite a few of them, but the pure multiplier of my Impact would mean anything I did would be exponentially more effective.

No poison, no black flame, and Pit of Despair would be a hard counter to a formation so it was useless for this. That left me with good old fashioned brute force. When I was sure they were ready for me, I set my staff across myself, holding it in both hands parallel to the ground so it would hit the largest surface area.

Then I charged. My body, under a consistent effect of State of Grace because of my armor, blurred forward, barely touching the ground with each bounding step.

With a primal shout, rather than retreating, the first row roared, shoving their shields forward to close any gaps and form the strongest defensive barrier. My staff hit length wise, the force spreading through all the shields more evenly because of the wide dispersal, and the phalanx grunted as they were forced back but not knocked over.

Hopping back lightly, I held up my hands. "See? You stopped me. I wasn't going all out or anything, but I'm an E-ranker, and quite honestly a tougher one than most in terms of pure Impact. Randall isn't E-ranked. He's just wearing some bulky armor. If you can stop me you can stop him."

That almost definitely wasn't true. Randall was Might specced, and with that armor in a head on contest of raw strength I wasn't sure I could even come close to beating him, but he was holding back quite a bit here, so it would be fine for them to think so.

I saw multiple faces firm with determination, and was glad I'd decided to show them that. Of course, I also made a note to show off my new functionality with Mephistopheles at some point. Wouldn't do to have them lose respect for my raw power. I had them reset again, and gestured to Randall.

He took up position as I walked over to Demia. "So, what do you think?" I asked my blue haired teacher.

"That was well done." She said with a nod. "It was clear you held back as well, but it built their confidence. At this rate, they'll be more than ready to grasp the proper formation when the real spears are finished."

I nodded. "Sonia worked up a design, but she has another specialist who works with weapons, so aside from the basic construction she won't be doing most of the work. She IS an Arcane Armorer. That means we'll be making good time with two crafters on the project. They should all be done in time."

Of course, there were the E-rank spears that would need to be made for the commanders and elites, but there were far fewer of us than the rank and file, so those would take a fraction of the time. We should be well and truly ready when those four months elapsed. Or as ready as we could be.

We watched as Randall hit the ranks of the defenders again, and they actually held this time…until he backhanded one of the weak links and smashed through the formation. I winced at that, but seeing their crumbling defense reminded me that I still had to upgrade my own. I smirked to myself as I realized this would be the perfect time to perfect my new stance.

Once training was over, I sent everyone away except Randall. The bear would be perfect for helping me perfect my new defensive form. I needed something that would soak damage. Something less dependent on stored attacks or stability. I had a hell of a lot of great defense skills to work into it, and some perfect ideas on how to make it work.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Defense. One of the biggest Issues I had facing me. My Impact was a little higher than most, but I was still substantially weaker than the majority without some kind of buff because my stats were so evenly distributed. I had quite a few defensive skills like Mountain Stance that would do the job, but I always ended up stacking a bunch of them together to stick out attacks.

As I'd seen with Belial and Mephistopheles, my forms presented an amazing chance to combine and refine my abilities. They created a method to tap into multiple powerful abilities without having to trigger them one at a time.

More than that, though, this particular session presented a method for me learn more about the concept of Skill creation, and to refine my own slightly. The better the job I did the less strain the Skill would place on me, and it might give me the insight to reconfigure some of my older ones to make them more efficient.

I doubted I'd ever reach the point my ancestor was at, where I created Skills so perfect they became more than the sum of their parts, but I was sure that refining the ones I had would make everything easier for me in the long run, and even in the short term it couldn't hurt.

The question then became, how was I supposed to see a Skill? The first step to making them more functional would be learning to observe the functions to begin with.

Before doing anything else, I sat down and crossed my legs, trying to think over all my experience with Skills. Randall grumbled, but I just waved him off. "Go nap or something, this is going to take a while." He snorted, but turned and laid down in a big pile of bear and metal, beginning to snore almost immediately.

Once the big baby was distracted, I closed my eyes to review all my Skill experiences. I'd altered Skills before many times, I'd now created a new Skill from repetition with my Dust Construction Mastery, I'd used other people's Skills, and I could store them. I'd probably had more experience with Skills than anyone I could name, but I'd never SEEN a Skill. Not in the way I needed to.

Frowning, I reached up and took my crown off my head. The metal and gem were both heavily enchanted with my own Skills, so if I could identify the enchantments, then use the Skills and compare the two, it would give me a much better idea of what I was looking for.

I started with the gem. I knew my forms better than anything. Comparing the naturally occurring rune Sonia used to my own experience with creating Belial should at least give me a place to start. Staring at the Venomblood Amethyst, I triggered Eye of Revelation, staring deep into the crystalline structure.

It took me a minute of scanning. I could see the runes here or there that had been added during creation, but I knew without even checking they weren't what I was looking for. It took me a minute to realize that I was looking too close, when I unfocused I could see the delicate construct made up of all the runes, a naturally occurring (seemingly) shape that was hard to track and even harder to puzzle out. As I stared, I triggered Belial, and used Piece of Mind so I could have one of my parallels study the rune while the other studied the Skill itself.

The gem began to glow in my hands, and I felt a harmonizing effect between the Skill and the crown. The runes all lit with an unnatural green glow, the shimmer making it easier to see the master rune from the Skill.

Staring into the blaze, I could see the curls and jagged cuts of the rune, and in spotting it, I was able to slowly identify each portion. Sharp teeth from Touch of Tears, solid lines from Stone Limb, and complex swirls from Consecration of Flames. Despite fitting together, it all looked kind of…unfinished. The flow of the rune was functional, but inefficient. These three skill just barely fit together, and I could see warping between the sections where the rune was bunched up like there were bad welding spots.

Putting the crown back on, I meditated on the runes I'd seen, on the subsections and how they fit together. As I sat, I started searching within myself, trying to find a way to see the rune fragments inside my head without having any external help.

It took me about an hour, but I finally figured out that if I tried to trigger a Skill, then caught it with my soul and wrapped it up to stop it from activating, I could preserve it in a way that let me observe. It took me a few tries before I perfected the process, and I needed Piece of Mind to do it, because it took all my concentration to hold the skill immobilized and I needed a second parallel to study it.

Once that was done, I went through all my skills one by one, draining myself with the consistent use of both Piece of Mind and extremely precise soul manipulation (that same cramp from using my soul delicately came back) after studying the runes and referencing the way they fit together as fragments in the combination skills I had I came to a few conclusions.

Conclusion one: most skills could fit together, but the more skills you combined the more difficult it was. Conclusion two: even if the skills DID work, the order in which you arranged them was still important. Conclusion three: my plan to use F-ranked stored attacks in my construction WAS possible, but it would require some serious delicacy.

Even my Sapphire soul was going to be hard pressed to complete the form I was thinking of doing, and I'd need at least two parallels of Piece of Mind on top of my normal brain to pull it off. Luckily, I hadn't pushed TOO hard with all my scrutinizing, the ache was more from fine manipulation than overwork.

I realized looking at it that I'd been using my soul in the least efficient way possible when I made Dust Construction. The Skill wasn't bad, but it was dinged up hard. Lots of welded points. I'd made the fragments from captured pieces of Pit of Despair without meaning to and smashed them together with my soul until they started working. It was disturbing to look at, but since it was so low level on construction I was able to smooth it out.

That was another thing I hadn't known. As Skills rank up, they change, much like the soul, they became firmer and more difficult to alter. Combination was still possible, but harder. The soul improved too, so it almost evened out, but there was a serious benefit to making your Skills at low levels and ranking them up, as the process smoothed out some of the rough edges.

Inhaling slowly, I focused on myself, on my soul, and began the complex process of attempting my first TRUE Skill construction. I started with Stone Limb. As I'd seen before, it had thick sturdy lines, and I was under the impression it would be a good base.

The central shape without any additions was basically a triangle, which seemed like a good start. Pulling off that, I expanded the rune, stone limb altering to cover more of my body, thick lines branching off each fact of the triangle. On each of those, I put one of the stored density shift attacks I had, stringing them together to create a shell of fractal patterns around the stable center, each instance reinforcing the rest of them to creat the solid enhancement I wanted.

Finally, I came to the last part. Where the first two Skills intertwined, the last one was its own separate segment onto which they had to be placed. A five sided rhombus burned itself into my sight from Mountain Stance, and with extreme delicacy, I set the fractal triangle inside it, shifting until it clicked into place in a way I couldn't explain.

The lines began to shift and move, thinning in some places and thickening in others as my extreme familiarity with the Skills in question allowed me to push form up to my current level of understanding. Intermediate, basically. Unlike my other forms, which were kind of just macros for using a bunch of skills at once, this one became a singular cohesive whole.
What that meant I had no idea aside from that looking at it I could tell it was demonstrably higher quality than the others. I'd have to rework them later to get them up to the same level.

I stood, stretching slowly as I worked out the kinks in my muscles. That had been rough. Three separate parallels working at once, juggling so many different concepts. It was absurd, and looking at my new Skill, I could see I had barely scratched the surface. My efficiency would have been improved quite a bit over other forms, but it wasn't perfect.

Confirming that was simple, all I had to do was isolate my wish ability and look on the masterpiece my ancestor had wrought. It was…beautiful. There were so many different elements, all woven together into a sprawling tapestry of complexity and perfection.

While ranking up would smooth out the edges of a Skill, they didn't automatically work. You needed to make something stable enough to actually create a Skill to begin with. I was still shocked I'd managed with my Dust Construction. I'd gotten absurdly lucky and only my freakishly strong soul had allowed it to work.

The wish power though…it contained dozens of skills. Maybe hundreds. I could see tiny fragments of so many types it made me dizzy. Imagining constructing a Skill like that made me want to vomit. Holding that many fragments together with my soul while slotting them in exactly the right places. It would require a mental fortitude I couldn't imagine to do it without Piece of Mind, and even with it that was far beyond me.

Strolling over, I took my place across from Randall, not wanting to think about it anymore. "Wake up you big lazy ox!" I called over to the bear. He opened an eye, grumbled a bit, then rose to his feet, shaking himself off to prepare. After we set ourselves, he charged.

Planting my staff for stability, I bent my knees, and then I activated my new form. "Goetia staff art third form." I intoned. "Mornax." The legend of the minotaur demon known for his invincibility had spoken to me for the defensive form, and as I felt myself shift, I knew it had been a perfect fit.

My body became stone, not just any stone, the densest stone possible. Mountain Stance multiplied my defense by three, and the triple stacked density shift combined with Stone Limb set the starting bar pretty high. I was probably ten times more durable than normal E-ranked stone with my Impact.

The charging bear, armor glowing green as he channeled his power into it to increase his momentum and strength, smashed head first into me as I stood, waiting to take the attack….and bounced right the fuck off. I didn't even feel it, though the stone cracked a bit from the armor.

Of course, Mountain Stance being part of Mornax meant I couldn't really move in this form. I could bully it into staying together for a slow step or two, but the soul weight multiplied dramatically. Either way, if I didn't move my feet, I barely felt any drain from this form. I'd accomplished my goal.

My soul was exhausted, but tomorrow I could start work on reforming my other stances, figuring out what to add or tweak to make them more stable and easier to use. By this time four months from now, I'd be going into battle a completely different person. Those stone lions better watch out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After training with Randall for a while, I went to bed. I was exhausted and needed to rest up a bit before formation training the next day. In the morning I met with Camden, granted seven wishes (he'd started having me give formation skills, albeit low level ones, to his elite units) and stockpiled another two, bringing my tally to fourteen.

I was planning to use a few of those for my own stats soon, I was falling behind, and a big jump was necessary to rollover some of that godslayer renown that should still be waiting to hit. Probably on the low end given how many points I'd already been getting and my recent rank up, but I couldn't stop growing just because I was at E-rank now.

Luckily, training today was much easier. Randall had a better grasp on how much to hold back, the unit was less afraid of him, and in general they improved a lot, learning to work together properly with their fellow formation members.

To my surprise, after things ended and they all left, before I could start on working through my Skills and tuning them up, I had a surprise visitor. My sister was waiting for me at the edge of the training ground, smiling at me nervously as she waited for me. "Hey…Shane, good to see you. Seems like its been ages doesn't it?"

"Nope, saw you two days ago." I said flatly. "What do you want?" I chuckled to let her know I was mostly kidding, even if I did suspect she was after a favor.

She flushed, looking guilty. "I know you're busy but…I was thinking of breaking through to E-rank. I know I should talk to my guards, but I was kind of hoping you would watch over me while I rank up." She swallowed, looking away. "Actually, nevermind, it's stupid I can go ask Callen to-"

"Chelsea." I said firmly, stopping her self-conscious babbling. "Why would that be stupid? We're twins. You helped keep an eye on me and Callie when we ranked up." Mostly because her purification flame would have been really useful if anything went wrong with the elixirs, but regardless of reasoning, my sister needed my help. I was happy to be there for her.

Holding out my hand, I smiled at her before realizing she couldn't see my face. I coughed in embarrassment. "Um, I can help. Keep you under cover while you rank up. I have a skill that makes an area impossible to see into."

Giggling slightly, she grabbed my hand. "I know, I've seen you use it, moron." As I activated Moonlit Night, I let the skill flow through my hand and tag her, making it easy for her to see through the fog, then I let go. "Thanks." She said with a smile. "You sure this will be enough to stop us from being spotted?"

Chances were good that Chelsea's rank up would be uneventful, but I knew part of her reason for coming to see me was to be watched over by someone who knew her secret. And to keep anyone else from finding out. "Definitely. Unless someone with a Perception focus walks right up and tries to penetrate it at point blank range we should be fine." Even then it would be tough to manage. I was going all out here, having created a parallel with Piece of Mind to tap my girlfriend's
Perception, and having another going specifically to study what was happening while my main parallel held up the fog. Even for my soul it was tough to manage, but the extra insurance was worth the price.

"So, what are your specialties stat wise?" I asked. "I know you have a lot of Might because of the physical nature of the flames, and a lot of Focus from all your research. Any other big stats? And are you using an elixir to make the jump like I did?"

She nodded, sitting down in a cross legged position and closing her eyes as she tried to center herself. "Those are the big ones. Purification isn't healing, so it's not a vitality thing. It also has enhancement properties for the use, but that's an advanced technique I haven't mastered yet. Once you can do that, Vitality starts coming into play more, since people associate you with being an unwavering bastion of physical power."

Once again, I felt jealous. My sister got these awesome powerful abilities she inherited from our grandparents, and I got a support power. Wish was an amazing power, but it didn't help ME nearly as much as it helped others. I loved buffing my friends, but part of me just wanted to blow shit up. That was what excited me so much about Path of the Doom Sovereign.

The further I went, the more I was able to offset the issues with my inherent gifts. In fact, I was expecting quite a few bumps in stats with my next milestone, I'd demonstrated some scary abilities back at the temple, and stories about that had to be disseminating, even if they weren't as widespread as the godslaying stuff.

She nodded as she finally opened her eyes, exhaling slowly.. "But yes, Might is one of my highest. I made some wishes with Nat to push me up over the threshold and I've been holding back my rank up the last few days while waiting for you to be free."

"Alright then." I said with a grin. GO ahead and do it. I was a bit distracted during Callie's, it'll be nice to get a better look at the transition to E-rank, especially from this side of the line and fully stabilized.

Instead of just watching normally though, I elected to try something different. I triggered Eye of Revelation, focusing on my sister the same way I had focused on the gem on my crown. I wanted to see what changes would happen during rank up. Despite having a basic idea of what I was looking for though, when I turned my eye on a full person in that headspace it became difficult to process anything.

Forcing myself to look deeper (pushing through overwhelming input was a natural trick that all Ascendants learned, and using Focus to offset the senses from Perception to keep from going insane was good practice here) I was able to see…something.

I'd never looked at Impact before, not like this. It was something you could sense normally, just by glancing at a person, but seeing it like this was different. It was almost like a weight on my eyes, like pressure in a visual spectrum. It was difficult to describe, but I could see it slowly begin to deepen.

And as I watched that, I realized something amazing. That deepening was something I recognized. Not just from having experienced it, but because I'd seen the inverse dozens of times. Zeke used it constantly. As I watched, something shifted within my sister's spirit, deep resonant colors bloomed through her soul (which I hadn't even realized I was looking at) the endless cerulean blue boiling up, turning into a shining sapphire as it spilled over from her spirit the overflow making her…more.

This was how Impact increased. The rank up process improved the soul, and the spillover weighted the connection between spirit and body, increasing the conceptual weight through the Impact stat.

It was like watching the sun rise over the ocean, I was blown away. And as I watched it I identified the exact process that it went through and…reversed it.

I pushed my soul down, hollowing it out and allowing my Impact to drain into it, letting my body lighten conceptually as my Impact dropped. Not for real, granted, just in the same way Zeke did his little hiding trick. But I'd been trying to figure out how to do this since I first realized what he WAS doing.

More than anything this underscored how much more Zeke knew about the soul and the working of Ascendant power than I did. I could have done this it at any time, but I didn't ever realize what was happening to me well enough to reproduce it.

I was sure my uncle knew all about Skills and proper application and construction of them too. I cursed my dad again, enraged that there was all this information I could have used that I wasn't allowed by his ridiculous geas.

Sadly, both my experiment and my thoughts screeched to a halt as I realized that either suppressing Impact weakened Skills or I hadn't been doing it right because the damned fog was starting to dim. I pushed with my soul, flooding myself with Impact as I restored all the possible Perception to this fog to obscure my sister.

She hadn't even noticed, and under my Eye of Revelation I could see the runes in her body, too complex and intricate for me to possible understand, but with an obvious plurality of colors, specifically black and white energy clashing into each other, neither one claiming dominance as they pushed her further into her upgrade.

I wondered how that worked, and if I looked like that on rank up. Were my two abilities clashing? Harmonizing? The one thing I was sure of was that whatever was evolving her soul and increasing her Impact was also changing her abilities.

Ranking up changed patterns, I knew this, but seeing it at Intermediate as the two abilities she already had (the ones far too complex for me to process) became even MORE abstruse was too much. I felt a snap in my head as the parallel I had studying her collapsed from the strain and I screamed, grabbing my skull as the feedback filled my brain with agony.
Luckily my main brain was the one keeping up the Fog, and the second parallel was still working on tapping into Callie's Perception to help hide my sister, so it wasn't a particularly hard task to keep up the concealment until she finished.

When she was done she seemed exhausted. "Wow, that was a biggie." She said breathlessly. "Almost more Impact there than I had in total. Percentage wise that's even more than Master rank. Though I know breaking a hundred is a big milestone and really takes it out of you, so the D-rank breakthrough is still a bit tougher."

I was looking forward to that one actually. I already had my Solid Path as an ability, which meant I was good through C-rank and almost all the way up to B. I still didn't know what breakthrough to B INVOLVED mind you, just that I'd managed to get partway there with my second ability. Yay me.

Standing up, I let the fog fade. Glancing around I checked no one powerful enough to see through my fog was nearby. Nobody was close enough to have brute forced it, and with my Impact being a few points higher than normal, not to mention the Perception Callie and I had combined, it should have been more than enough to put off anyone below D-rank who wasn't standing five feet away.

Offering Chelsea my hand, I pulled her up and patted her on the back, helping her keep her feet as she wobbled. "Yeah, takes a bit of getting used to. Feels great though doesn't it? Not being smashed under the weight of super gravity?"

She laughed, leaning way back and cracking her spine and then her neck. "Understatement. This is amazing. Should have done it ages ago. I'll tell Callen he should break through. He's been nurturing that sword long enough at F-rank. Gabe should be pretty close too. He got as much of that godslayer renown as you did.

That was true, and I was excited to see my friends make it to the next rank. Speaking of which, Jessie and Benny needed help getting there over the next few months, just like Abel and Mel. Nat was going to be busy. I'd help where I could too, but for the moment, we had to get my sister back to her barracks so she could rest. These next four months were going to fly by.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day, post training, I went ahead and cashed in some of my banked wishes so I could use my powers to pick up some actual stat gains. I was anxious to see how much rollover renown I was still getting, and not progressing for so long was really bugging me. I granted four wishes for Camden as per the contract terms, and then had him find another three of his people interested in stat reallocation.

I was up to ten points per wish now, and he had several interested parties once we got the proper contracts and geasa signed. In the end I went with Might since I was only twenty five points from another big milestone (three thousand points). As soon as I wished for the stats after such a long break, I felt the power roll into me from all that backed up renown.

Another two hundred Might on top of what I got from the wishes, three hundred Perception, four hundred Focus, and a hundred Fantasy. I could guess about most of that (the Perception and Focus for discovering the BMP's plan, the Might probably remainders from godslaying as it continued to circulate) but in the end it didn't matter, it was a sizable gain and I was grateful for the increase.

In total I got about another thousand points, leaving me at eleven thousand and sixty. Despite the sizable bounty, I was blown away by exactly how LITTLE that was. D-rank was going to be a hundred thousand total, and I was a long way off. Sure, this war would help spread my rep quite a bit (once we won I was going to leak my identity as a candidate to drum up renown) but I was going to need to pick up the pace if I wanted to become a master anytime soon.

Speaking of pace though, I didn't want to fall behind in my combat training either. After training today I'd requested that Camden send me a sparring partner so I could test out both my new armor's capabilities and my new form.

While Randall was great, he was a bear, and F-rank besides. I wanted someone at my own level, if not stronger, to compete against (who wasn't Callie, because we knew each other FAR too well). Camden was all for it, and he sent Demia to spar with me a bit. Which is how I ended up in the training ground with my whole unit watching so I could show off a bit of what I could do for the lowbies.

Bowing to me, the tiny blue haired woman kept her eyes fixed on my mask as she swept low and then resumed her standing position, arms relaxed and at her side. "Demia Aqueous, Deep Sea Duellist. It is an honor to face you in combat."

"Solomon." I responded with a slow nod. "Not using the Job system. Same to you. What are the rules here?"

Her face was stoic as she began reciting a strict code of duelling ethics. When to stop, when to start, how hard to go, the usual stuff. Finally, she finished her recitation and I nodded, taking up my stance as I waited for the referee (Callie) to announce the start.

Since I didn't know exactly what her powers were, other than the strong assumption that they were water based, I went ahead and started things off by using my Mornax stance. It was my newest, sure, but it was a solid place to begin the fight, pun intended. As Callie made the call, I shifted, and Demia blurred forward.

As she moved, a thin rapier appeared from somewhere (probably her ring), and she lunged forward off her left foot, driving the blue metal blade right at my face.

Because of my mask and my stance, I didn't bother to dodge, just letting the blade's tip slip to the side as I faintly turned my head, carrying her past me. I expected to be able to smash her against my braced staff as she came in close, but as I looked down, I was shocked to see gently lapping waves of blue liquid energy under her feet.

Continuing the momentum of the charge, she leaned over so close to the ground I was shocked she didn't fall and rotated around me using her feet as an axis, swinging along the ground almost parallel to the dirt, swinging her blur blade out a few times to let slashes of compressed water slam against my back.

I expected damage, or at least a blow, but to my immense shock, the blades dissolved against the flowing silk of my cape. The energy washed over the purple silk, up through the metal tracery connecting it to my shoulders and then along the length of the armor through the platinum scrollwork, discharging into my STAFF of all things. I felt the energy boost the necromantic power stored in the staff and was almost too shocked to react. Almost.

Deciding to finally put some of my new tricks to work, I focused on Piece of Mind, creating a second parallel, then triggered Mephistopheles, offloading the strain onto the armor. My hair blazed up as black flame, my body still unyielding stone, and I slammed my staff backwards into the ground, creating a massive explosion of dark fire.

The blast chewed up the ground behind me, and I followed it up, spinning at the waist to push my staff further forward to try to follow Demia as she slipped away on those gliding waves.

When she got out of range, I really wanted to go after her, but Mornax required feet on the ground. I stayed where I was, tracking her as she circled me. She was grinning now, blue eyes wide with excitement as she slid over the dirt on her magical waves, gliding like a figure skater.

"Quite a powerful assault." She commended me. "And your defense is impeccable. I can see Sonia's good work wasn't wasted. Let's see exactly how much good it does you."

Pushing off, she began to increase the speed of her skating, circling me at a faster and faster pace. Her body became a blur, and as it did, clouds of that same, mystical wave energy began to roll off her. One, two, three times around, and the entire training field was blocked out by a massive vortex of blue watery energy.

From among the shifting currents blasts of cutting water burst out, a flurry of liquid edges shattering against my body, breaking like real waves on the rocks at the base of a cliff. Unfortunately, much like ACTUAL cliff rocks, my defensive skill wasn't unbreakable. It was sturdy, but the pitter patter of razor sharp water cutters was starting to breach my defense.

The water was hitting me from every angle, and I felt a tiny cut open up along the side of my neck and decided enough was enough.

I triggered Pit of Despair around us, marveling at how simple it was to let myself slide into the frictionless dust. I could feel the dust around me with Song of the Soil which I used on instinct. Dust Construction made it child's play to manipulate it, pushing me forward even as Mornax dissolved without ground beneath my feet.

Demia had been close enough that the Skill had caught her up in its radius (probably helped I'd pushed it to double to area, sacrificing a bit of the height) and she was trying desperately to move under the dust, finding it nearly impossible to do with her wave treading skill.

I smoothly glided forward through the dust, locating her easily. Planting my feet on the ground at the bottom of the dust pool, I brought my staff up, Mephistopheles still active, and drove it forward into her flailing back, an explosion of black flame blasting her clear out of the pit and up into the air.

Using Dust Construction, I grabbed hold of the dust and flung myself up after her, the cushion of fine material tossing me up into the air after her, State of Grace allowing me to hang in the air as I soared gently after the panicking duellist.
Activating Ripple Running, I slammed my feet down, pushing off with the explosive bursts of black flame as I blurred from one spot to the next, building up momentum for an attack. My blood was singing in my veins as I brought my staff around at her shoulder, an explosion of black flame ready to shatter her arm and put her out of commission.

To my surprise, when it made contact though, the image of her shattered, dissolving into rainbow arcs of light through refracted water. My Danger Sense triggered, and I used Double Trouble on instinct, vanishing and appearing behind the blue haired woman who had just been appearing behind me. I saw her flinch and start to spin around, her feet treading the air on glowing waves.

I smashed my staff into her ribs without much momentum, but the blast of black flame sent her crashing back into the ground, and I kept my guard up as I drifted down after her.

She'd almost had me there. Letting me push her up into the air and playing along by pretending she couldn't use her movement Skill anymore had been smart. I touched down, taking up a defensive stance again as I reactivated Mornax. The constant Skill use and the active parallel were draining, but not so much that I was anywhere close to done.

The armor was a huge help actually, offsetting a lot of the strain. "That was impressive." I said with a nod of respect. "I thought taking away your leverage would do the job." I watched her like a hawk, waiting for another attack.

She laughed tightly, one arm cradling her ribs. "It was a good move. How did you see through my Mirror Mirage?"

"I didn't." I admitted. "I sensed you popping up behind me." I should have probably used Eye of Revelation during the fight so far, that would have definitely shown me the illusion, but the crown boosted that Skill by a lot and I was still getting used to it. I wasn't sure I'd be able to react properly to stimuli in a fight with that much going on. Not until I had a better grasp on it.

She shifted her stance, ready to attack again, but winced as she tried to get in position. "Nope. That broke a few ribs." She chuckled and shook her head, dismissing her rapier. "I'm going to call it. This one was my loss. You're a tricky bastard." She gave me a nod of respect, then turned and started limping away.

I was pretty sure she had a lot more in her, and that a few broken ribs weren't much of an impediment, but I recognized that she wanted me to make a good impression on my recruits and probably didn't feel like revealing any more of her abilities for just a spar. I was pretty happy with how things had gone. I had plenty more ideas, but for now I'd successfully showed off and tested some new strategies.

Callie slammed into me from behind, arms wrapping around me as she squealed. "That was AMAZING! You demolished her! I was worried when she started doing that water vortex thing, but you sucked her unground and then BOOM just slapped her up into the air like a giant feather pillow."

I'd used Dust Construction to cushion the blast that had shot her up out of the pit, so I didn't blow any limbs off or anything. Her armor would need repairing, but otherwise things had been pretty relaxed since it was a spar. I laughed and turned to pull Callie into my arms.

Looking over to my unit, I saw Gabe grinning at me, offering me a thumbs up. I returned the gesture as I saw Alanna sitting next to him, gushing about the fight, along with Ichabod and Betty and a few of my other recognizable recruits. Mission accomplished then, I was definitely getting the proper amount of respect from my century. That would make all the upcoming training so much easier.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was walking on air after my duel. Not literally, though I COULD do that, but emotionally. I was finally getting to the point where I could be considered a real contender at my rank. All the training, all the Skills, all the adventures, it was all finally paying off. Pound for pound, I was able to fight it out with real powerhouses at E-rank despite my stats being markedly lower.

And it felt good. Not just being strong, but the way I was doing it. Not unlike Callie, I'd always felt sort of…overshadowed, by my dad. Elijah Wyndham, a man they apparently called 'The Wish Devil', someone even other members of the family were wary of.

The comparison wasn't a pleasant one, but between the contracts and my powers, I felt like I'd been aping him for a while. Following the path he laid out of me, even if I took some small detours wasn't something that made me happy, especially after finding out more about the mess that was my childhood.

Now though, I WASN'T like him. I was like Aiden. The current Wishmaster had two abilities just like me, and he was considered such a monster that even my dad looked bad in comparison.

No, more than Aiden, I had a SOLID Path for my second ability. I wasn't completely certain where Aiden had been at when he was my age, but I somehow doubted he was that far ahead. I might not be the strongest person in the younger generation of the five factions, but I was only coming up on my nineteenth birthday. For my age I was definitely a real powerhouse.

But that wasn't what this was about. We were meeting with Camden today, because in four months we were going to be ass deep in alligators. Even as we spoke, the next member of my team was getting new armor, but that wouldn't be enough.

The main issue was that we had a whole bunch of people we needed to boost fast and only two people who could grant wishes. I'd been saving mine up, doing an extra two a day for Camden and keeping the rollover for out of contract stuff, but that wasn't going to fly anymore. Those twenty points a day might not be much, but over four months they would help.

After explaining this to Camden, and informing him of my goals of getting all my people up to E-rank before the big fight, he agreed to meet with Callie, Celine, Nat, and I to help. I laid out the dilemma after getting my cousin's permission to tell him about her identity, and he nodded along.

"Interesting." He said. "I'd normally say what you're going for isn't possible, but there's some glimmers of hope here. How far off are they?"

We'd been planning for Nat to help Abel and Mel, but Benny and Jessie were a ways off too, and between the four of them we needed over fifteen thousand points. Even if Nat got up to the point where she could do ten per wish she wouldn't reach half of that, we MIGHT be able to scrape ten with my contribution, and with another thousand each from elixirs we'd be CLOSE, but still not quite there, assuming we could even get them.

Abel and Jessie still had rollover from the godslaying incident, but Mel didn't, not to mention Nat as she was probably topped out closer to seven points per wish instead of ten. And that wasn't even taking payment into account.

Most of the rest of our party were pretty much peak of their rank, having come from larger forces, except Celine, who while working with Nat nonstop was still only about halfway there. Our elven friend would be getting plenty of renown once she registered as the owner of the new territory, so she wasn't as much of a current priority since we couldn't risk her in battle anyway.

The numbers were making my head spin, and Camden gave me a sympathetic chuckle as he listened. "I think your best bet is to leave your mentors to Natalie. One of them will be gaining points still from past exploits, and between that and her wishes she should be capable of squawking by. If she can't manage, there are still other options. You should focus on your teammates."

I nodded along. "What other options? And that's fair. Jessie has some Might and Vitality coming, both from her bond with Randall and from reputation. Just over five thousand remaining, and between elixirs and two wishes a day I'll be at forty four hundredish. Should be able to squeak by." Luckily I didn't have to supply points to Randall. I had no clue how he broke through but Jessie seemed sure he was right on the cusp, and when he did it would help speed her up even more.

"Tournaments." Camden said bluntly. "Renown allocation is strict in the empire up to the point of everyone getting their due. Past then, as you've seen, nobles can get a bit more…creative. Tournaments with stat based prizes are an excellent way to draw in new talent and increase the renown generated by ones own territory, which has a direct impact on expected payout."

I blinked at that. "Can outsiders participate in those? I'd have figured you would need to be on the empire's roles."

"Like I said, it's good for drawing in new talent." He said with a shrug. "Because of that, there are loopholes for citizenship. Entering an imperially sanctioned tournament temporarily gives you a 'Gladiator' Job, allowing you to count as a member of that noble's territory for the length of the tournament. They have to be registered with the imperial council, and they're taxed, but they're fairly common. Most of the larger cities have them monthly."

I grinned. "So we have Mel and Abel clean up in the tournaments to boost their stat gain, making up any shortfalls in Nat's wishes. Between that, Abel's godslayer income and the elixirs that should be enough. The only major issue there is payment. Abel and Mel will need some way to compensate her."

"I'll take care of it." He said with a wave. "I can dip into my coffers. You're all staying to help me, and funding a bit of advancement is the least I can do."

I nodded, sighing. "Alright, did you manage to acquire the land near the well? I assume you'll want to work on building up the defenses in that area? I was planning to actually start putting up some structures by hand. It's good practice, and my actions outside wishing aren't as limited. Though a lack of stockpiling means less wishes for me to build up my own territory faster after the battle."

Not that I was sure that would even work. I was pretty invested in that plan, and it might not be possible to compensate me fairly without my power deciding I was double dipping.

"I can help with it after this is all done." Nat said with a shrug. "I can't do wishes for you directly without raising a fuss, but since Celine will own the territory on paper there's some wiggle room. I do plenty of business with her already. This will just help her grow indirectly." She raised an eyebrow at the elf. "Sound good to you?"

Nodding slowly, Celine smiled. "I believe that works for me. Freeing up Shane to help Benny advance is going to be worth it anyway."

"Alright. So I keep up my training with Demia, focus on helping my recruits improve, and work with Jessie and Benny to rank them up. Camden can use his wishes for whatever, including territory reinforcement, since I don't own any of this personally and the contract already took care of payment. Any plans for that?"

He pulled out a scroll, unfurling it and then pinning it to the table with a few throwing knives he apparently pulled from secreted away sheaths. Alister winced at the damage to the wood, muttering something about carpenters, but Camden ignored him.

"So as you know, the well is going to be the exit point for the lions when they come up. There are so many of them some will undoubtedly take other paths, but most will focus on the path of least resistance." He drew a big square around the well entrance. "Now what we need is a durable palisade that will not only provide cover, but deal actual damage to the lions."

I nodded. "I can do that. I'll need a lot of supplies, preferably E-ranked stone. How are the specialized spears coming along?" i had some ideas for possible enhancements to the defenses, since I had so many wishes from Benny coming up I could pour a ton of density shifted attacks into the project improving on my already powerful stone constructs. Being as I had more Impact than any E-rank stone working them should be more than possible, even if I hadn't tested it. I had a feeling things would be harder if I tried to mess around with anything higher.

"I'll have the stone brought to you." He nodded. "Raw stone isn't particularly valuable, even at higher ranks, so we should be able to meet your demand. As for the spears…I see your idea there, but sadly we won't have the materials. Outfitting the whole force with them is going to be prohibitively expensive, and I'm going to have to leverage resources I don't even have yet to do it."

That was unfortunate, I'd been hoping to use them as spikes on the palisade, arranging it so the walls themselves could destroy the stone…I froze.

"Do you think Sonia could help me with a project?" I asked slowly. "Or assign someone to? I have an idea." If she could imbue Belial into my armor, whose to say she couldn't imbue it into the walls I was making. Or Mephistopheles? I had no idea what that would require, but even if it was too much, even just finding a way to enchant the spikes with Touch of Tears would help a bit.

We'd presumably need compatible material, but she might be able to help me find rocks that I could condense that resonated with the skill. The actual enchantment cost could be handled by a group of low level enchanters I bet. Poison walls would be a huge asset, especially ones I could presumably control at will with my Dust Construction if I got it high enough.

I had to push down amazing visions of a huge sentient wall with spikes set like jaws in the base, chewing up thousands of stone lions as I stood atop it laughing like a maniac. I blinked…that was a new impulse. Destruction in a small scale was common for me to daydream about, but that mental image had been…kind of maniacal.

Pushing away the worry that recursion was turning me into a demon lord or something, I gave a barebones concept of the idea to Camden, who had Alister head down to question his blacksmith, much to the seneschals distaste. I doubted she'd have time to do it herself given her workload, but I was hopeful within a week or two I might have some enchanters at my disposal.

For the moment, Camden agreed to send out the stone to the areas he's already acquired, and I could start condensing it as much as possible to build up my skill before we started the real work. I grinned excitedly as I thought about how much work I had ahead of me.

While most people disliked hard work (and I was no exception in a lot of cases) I'd always loved building things. Creation in general was a lot of fun, and hell, maybe I could score some points in that particular stat when I demonstrated my Skill. Creation was always a hard one to raise, so I'd be killing to birds by making one stone. Time to get to work though, I had so much to do.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next week went by in a blur. Seven days, fourteen wishes. The promised five per day had been put to good use by Camden. With the other two free, I'd put most of my time and points into working with Benny to start. Twenty points per day, traded for density shifted attacks. Since I was higher rank than he was now, I could hold more of them, netting me twenty of them per day instead of ten.

A hundred and forty points into Might left him at over three thousand in that stat (three thousand forty five specifically) and the wishes provided me with a constant supply of density shifting attacks to use for practicing my Dust Construction.

Today I was supposed to meet up with that enchanter Sonia recommended, and had twenty charges of density shifting on hand for my forest time experimenting with E-rank stone. I'd officially reached Lesser Dust Construction Mastery, which massively reduced the amount of strain that even multiple parallels of Dust crafting put on my soul.

I'd asked Sonia about the odd dichotomy, where I had so much soul power but small delicate usage made me cramp up. She'd informed me that aside from quality, souls also had another aspect called polish. Not strength so much as utility, polishing a soul was difficult and time consuming, and was something only crafters ever really did.

So, aside from training my people and working with Benny, all I did all week was play with rocks. Polishing my control and working on minute alterations and delicate applications of my extremely versatile crafting discipline. I spent every waking moment learning more about construction in a general sense, studying castle wall designs, learning more about stonework, and studying whatever I could find about material density.

With the F-ranked stones I had my unit gather as 'training' every day, I worked on the best way to make bricks, put them together, structure the dust inside so they'd be more durable, and experiment with density shifting to try to make better stone. I put my all into the experiments, and had even designed a scale for the force I used so I could map exactly how durable each attempt was.

When I arrived at the area near the well, the building that had been there (a bakery I was pretty sure) was gone, and where it had stood was a pile of E-ranked stones about the same size as a house.

"Oh, you're here!" Said the small blonde boy with the delicate features who was waiting for me. He was sitting on the rocks, and hopped up, smoothing down his green velvet cloak and straightening the brown vest he wore over his white button up shirt. He shot me a nervous grin, green eyes glinting with enthusiasm. "I'm glad you could make it, my name is Adam. Pleased to meet you." He stuck out a hand for me to shake, and I did, feeling the need to hold back in case I broke this delicate looking person.

I gestured to the rocks. "So I figure I'll make some bricks, try to get the hang of this, and once I have the process down we can get started trying to adapt the enchantments. Can you do the same thing Sonia can? See the patterns of my skill as it affects the stone and then enchant them directly?"

He waggled a hand. "That's complicated. If I can learn how the Skill interacts with the material I can enchant a brick. But the less synergy there is the more effort it'll take, and more than that, weaving the enchantments in such a way that it can connect between multiple stones will be difficult. I might need you to alter the makeup of the stone a few times."

"How much difference will resonance make in terms of effort?" I asked cautiously. "Do you have that tuning fork thing?"

He laughed. "No, that's for gear. Buildings are more…organic. We have to go by feel, and there'll be plenty of variance between different stones. Weaving them together will be difficult. Make your bricks, then we can figure out the differences. Although there's one thing I was curious about, are you going to use mortar to hold the bricks together? A buffer might cause inconsistencies in the flow of energy."

"Nope. I'm shaping them so they fit seamlessly together." I cracked my neck as I prepared to work. "I know in a lot of castles the extra large blocks were set like that. Held together by weight. More than that since I'm making them I can join the blocks after they've been laid, making the wall one giant structure. If you think that'd work."

He seemed excited by the idea. "I think that would be perfect, if we can prep the enchantments to graft properly. Quite a challenge. Once I've designed the enchantments we'll bring in a few dozen enchanters for cheap labor. I'm sure you know enchanting takes Impact?"

I did, and I was fine with outsourcing. With that clarified, I walked over to the pile. I picked up a few stones, turned them to dust with Pit of Despair, and used my Dust Construction to catch the dust midair, molding it together into a brick shape. With Lesser Dust Construction I could maneuver the dust much more finely. I couldn't wait to test it underground like I had during my last fight.

I had to add a few more stones until I reached the limits of the dust I could hold like this, and then I started to PRESS. Slow and steady, because I'd found that I had more control over cohesion this way. While just slamming it into a cube might be possible, it tended to leave small bubbles or weak spots.

Consistent pressure continued to pour into the brick until I couldn't press anymore. Once that was done I let it drop, and the brick fell to the dirt with a crash as it slammed about two feet into the earth, leaving a big ass hole.

Leaning down, I reached into the hole and grabbed it, having to wiggle my fingers to get a grip, and then PULLED.

My current strength sat at over fifteen TONS of lifting power, and since I was higher Impact than the brick there was no additional pressure. Just raw weight that I had to try to offset, and I barely managed. Of course lifting with my fingertips didn't help, but as I dragged the thing out of the ground and adjusted my grip, I found myself staggering a bit.

Ten tons, give or take. The extremely condensed size didn't help, I glanced down at the hole in the ground and grimaced. "Ok…I think I might need to consult an architect. I wanted the most durable bricks possible, but I didn't consider the foundations necessary."

These bricks were absurdly heavy, and I wasn't sure what would be able to support a wall made of them. Not to mention I hadn't even used any density shifting. The F-ranked bricks I'd been making were somewhat offset by the native Impact of the planet itself, which bore up under the lower Impact easier. It was why despite the insane pressure F-rankers didn't get shoved through the ground.

E-rank though, was enough to ignore the offset. Crafting was great, but I wasn't a builder. After a second though I shook off the worry. I didn't need an architect. I needed help. I was pretty sure Camden could use some of his wishes to make me a solid foundation to work off of, but we still needed to figure out how well the bricks worked before I took the problem to him. For one I needed a weight to give him as a base, and we hadn't tried enchanting any yet.

Rather than just jump to that, i did what I'd said I would. I tested the bricks. I kept making them, different shapes, sizes, densities. I struck them with my staff, with my armored fists, or with attacks like my Steam Arrow, seeing what did the most damage to each shape and size of block and taking meticulous notes.

When I finally found the best specifications for durability, I carried it over to a watching Adam, who was staring wide eyed at the multitude of holes in the ground and partially buried bricks. Several of them had cracks and dents, with some of them being shattered from the sheer damage. The one I offered him though, only had a few scuff marks.

"This is the one I want to test it on. You need to study it before I use the techniques I have in mind?" He shook his head numbly, and I grinned, deciding to try out the most useful technique for a wall I could think of. I triggered Mornax, my defensive form, focusing it into the stone…and got nothing.

Mornax was built on Mountain Stance, and apparently rocks didn't count as standing on the ground. Shame. My next attempt was aided by my armor as I triggered Belial, and I was pleased to see it work flawlessly as the already dark surface of the brick turned pitch black as fractures opened up across the faces, emitting the toxic green glow of poison fire.

Adam swallowed loudly before reaching out to touch the stone, hissing and pulling back a burned finger. I raised a brow and he shrugged ruefully, shaking out his hand as he focused hard on the rock like he was trying to stare his way through the surface.

Which, I suppose, was exactly what he was trying to do. After a few minutes of focus he finally exhaled loudly. "This is…a complex technique. It isn't particularly stable though. Unbalanced Skills can't be used for enchantments because without a soul to stabilize them they'll just fall apart."

I cursed. "I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. What about my gear? Sonia was able to make that stuff work."

"Not the same." He said with a shake of his head. "Extremely compatible materials can act as a brace to hold a Skill together. It's part of why she tested the resonance on your armor before creating it. This, though, this is just rocks. Durable rocks to be sure, but they have no special resonance with the Skill that can hold it together."

Waving him off, I shook my head. "It's fine. I've been meaning to rework my other two Goetia forms anyway. I'll need a while to work on it. Do you want to wait, or should we just meet up here again tomorrow?"

He shrugged. "Tomorrow will be fine. I understand reworking Skills can be a complex and time consuming endeavor." I thanked him with a handshake and sent him on his way before heading back to my barracks. I needed to fix my first two forms anyway, and this was good incentive. I wondered how easily I'd be able to access them once I did the restructuring.

I'd already experienced Mornax and Mephistopheles, and I'd been blown away by the power. Near invincibility combined with overwhelming firepower. If I fixed the other two though, I'd be able to use Belial and Mephistopheles at once offloading both of them onto the armor, perhaps even all three at the same time.

Imagining the black flame of Mephistopheles mixed with Belial's deflection and erosion was so exciting I could hardly contain myself.

When I got back to my room I hurried over to my bed, sitting down with my legs crossed and closing my eyes as I tried to slip back into the same state where I was using Eye of Revelation to find the patterns of my Skills and identify what was wrong with Belial and Mephistopheles. It was easiest to do it the second time, thankfully, and I was able to get right to work.

As I started the process of repairing two of my forms, I wondered what would happen when I finally completed them all. I was roughly thinking about making nine different forms, but what would the staff art be when that happened? Would it become its own Skill? Would my path change? Whatever it was I had a feeling it would be a big change, now I just had to reach that point.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I sat down to study my Goetia forms, excited to get them all fixed up, but as I got into it I made an unfortunate discovery.. Unlike the last time I'd made a form, I wasn't working with partial Skill forms low level enough to be glued together. This time though, my Goetia staff art already existed (albeit folded into my DS Mastery) which meant I had to BREAK those patterns and remake them properly.

Now normally I suspect this wouldn't have been a problem. Skills were easy come easy go, and I'd combined multiple Skills with DS subskills in the past without any lasting effects. Breaking them shouldn't have been much different.

Except for the fact that my Goetia Staff Art was technically part of my Path of the Doom Sovereign, meant to act as a bridge between my legend and the Doom Sovereign Skill. A Skill that was now part of my fucking SOUL. My soul physique had been created by winding my soul through that Skill to make it part of me, the same way my original ability was.

Because of that inextricable link, DS Mastery and therefore my Staff Art were part of me in a fundamental way, and breaking my forms was HARD. Using the amplified version of Eye of Revelation granted by my crown, I'd been able to find the runes that represented my two current forms easily enough, and I winced at how terrible they looked.

Where Dust Construction had been a little dinged up and ugly from being mashed together with my soul, these two looked like someone had put a tumbleweed made of barbed wire in a trash compactor. Jagged edges, crushed spots, and the whole thing was barely holding together.

In fact, looking closely, I could see that both Skills were putting a small but consistent amount of strain on my soul just by existing. Not enough to cause damage or tire it out, but diminishing my capacity just a bit. So, with a plan of attack in place, I reached down and began the process, grabbing hold of Belial, the first of my forms.

It wasn't the less complicated form by far, with the pieces being made of subskills I was intimately familiar with and used constantly. Now, I could and sometimes did use them together without the staff art, but it was more powerful, versatile, and useful when I used the form. I recognized the warped runes that represented Touch of Tears, Consecration of Flame, and Stone Limb, having worked with the last when making Mornax.

The process of Skill building was hard, kind of like making a pair of hands out my soul and using them to perform surgery, except the hands in question are formed from a quarter inch of skin on the back of your hand that you have almost no control over.

Focus and effort let me work with my soul in the delicate way necessary, and all the practice lately had relieved some of the cramping in my "hands". And I reached out and started to slowly untangle the ball of twisted patterns. As I did it, they cut deeply into my hands, the soul damage insignificant on a larger scale but agonizing because of how much of my will was shoved into the appendages.
One of the big questions I'd had from my last time doing this had been what exactly I was doing it WITH. What made up these fragments of energy I was welding together. As I sifted through the form I was working on though, it became clearer. Stats were the building blocks of Skills. They made up the entirety of my self that wasn't soul, filling in the rest of me to balance out the soul growth so my physical and mental self didn't get left behind.

That was what smoothed the rough edges off Ascendants, making them less human and more story. Pouring in stats diluted our core personality with legend. I hadn't realized that when people said stats were the building blocks of Skills they were being LITERAL.

All of these runes were made of of Stat points. I didn't know what else they would have been now that I thought it through, but it was a shock to discover what I was working with.

It also made me cognizant of the face that Skill creation was more than just jamming together runes. I mean, it had to be, or else where did THOSE runes come from, they had to be made up of something, but what I was doing was entry level. If I wanted to make really perfect Skills I'd have to start constructing the patterns from the ground up using stats.

That was a problem for future Shane though, current Shane was just stalling because this next part was going to suck. I'd managed to unwind the barbed wire construct of Belial, but the wires were still connected at the weld points. I took a deep breath, steeled myself, and then exerted my will on the Skill.

Snap, snap, snap. Once by one I tore apart the fragments of Skills, separating them into component parts, and I was barely bale to bite back a scream. My SOUL. Cracks were spiderwebbing through it as I snapped the intricately interwoven pattern. It was…horrifying. My soul was past the Master threshold, which meant that while it was much more durable, real damage was harder to recover from.

Strain was fine, but CRACKS were dangerous. I'd heal from them, but it would take a bit of time. It didn't matter, I'd already started, and if I didn't finish the damage would be worse. Patching up the Skills themselves should help.

Focusing hard, I began to pull apart the shattered remnants of the pattern, identifying what I knew. Stone Limb had been on the outside, slapped over top of the others, and that wasn't ideal. Consecration of Flame was the interior, also not what I wanted. After I identified the right fragments, I started to mold them.

Stone Limb was the base. Obviously. It was stable, reliable, tough. It made a perfect foundation for the form to sit upon. Ignoring the feeling of internal bleeding of the soul (ten out of ten, would not recommend) I pressed the fragments of that Skill that had been smashed throughout the ball of barbed wire and gently pressed them together.

Using my soul to weld them like last time, now I understood more about the process. Wearing this crown instead of studying it and then basically ignoring what it could do had been the right call. When I welded the Skill, I needed to use stats to smooth out the bumps. I couldn't rework a whole Skill yet, but deciding which kind of soul solder I needed was easy, and I poured Might into the pattern to join the Stone Limb fragments.

Once that was done, I started adding the fragments of Consecration of Flames. Unlike Stone Limb though, I didn't rejoin them completely. I welded them into place along the outside of Stone limb as a framework before stringing the fragments of Touch of Tears along them and pulling it tight. There was a SNAP as the Skill recombined, and I felt the pain in my soul decrease exponentially.

There was still a light throb in my head from the damage, but it was offset by the lack of the almost unnoticeable strain from maintaining Belial all this time. I wanted to do Mephistopheles too, but after that experience I was pretty sure I'd need at least a week to recover enough to fix the second form.

Releasing a breath, I opened my eyes, and screamed in surprise, falling over backwards as I came face to face with Callie, glaring at me menacingly from where she was crouch RIGHT in front of my face.

"Oh…" I said with a weak laugh. "Hey honey. Fancy seeing you here. If you're looking for the bakery that used to be here I'm afraid they demolished it."

I literally heard her counting ten under her breath before she pasted on a bright smile. "Shane. Darling. Light of my life. How has your day been? Do anything noteworthy? I'm sure you didn't for instance, CRACK your soul casually during meditation for no apparent reason without warning me or asking me to watch over you."

"I had a reason." I shot back indignantly. Then I winced. "Ah, probably should have had someone keeping an eye out for me." I looked around the rock filled clearing pock marked with holes and partially buried super dense bricks. "I guess I got distracted. In my defense, I DO have Danger Sense."

She raised an eyebrow. "And would you have NOTICED those danger senses going off in your prior state?"

"No. Sorry." I said with a sigh. "You're right, that was stupid and thoughtless. Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself because of the surprise or anything?

Rolling her eyes, she huffed. "See, this is why you infuriate me. You do something stupid and scary when we're under threat of death and then you ask about me like you weren't just in agony. I felt that pain and thought you were under attack. How are you both so sweet and so inconsiderate at the same time?"

"In my defense, when are we NOT under threat of death?" I joked. When she didn't crack a smile I decided to change tactics and just apologize. "Look, I really am sorry. This was my first time accruing real soul damage since the rank up. Strain didn't feel different, so I thought it was fine, by the time I experienced it I was already in the middle of resetting my Skill and any delays would have been worse.

She slumped, collapsing from her crouch and turning fluidly in the air to plop down in my arms. "That's…pretty reasonable." She winced. "Sorry. I overreacted. The new bond is intense, and the sensation of feeling your soul crack was super unpleasant. I shouldn't have bit your head off though. You don't deserve that."

I pulled her against me with a low chuckle. "Deserve to have you care about me so much it drives you crazy? Nah, I haven't done anything good enough in my life to warrant that kind of special treatment. Lucky for me we don't get what we deserve, or I'd never have met you."

She snorted, which I was pretty sure was to cover a sniff as she looked away. "You're such a sap. How do you get away with saying stuff like that without it sounding cheesy?"

"I have a great poker face." I said solemnly. I pointed to my featureless wooden mask. "See, no tells." She burst out laughing at that, snuggling up against me, and I laughed along with her. I could feel the throb in my soul ebb slightly, and I realized that Benny's belt might not be the only way to relax the spirit and improve recovery.

Standing up, I ignored Callie's squeak as I maneuvered her into a princess carry. "What are you doing you big thug?" She laughed, half annoyed and half amused. "I can walk you know, I wasn't the one injured."

"Ah, but you were." I said sagely as I strolled off towards the barracks. "My thoughtless actions wounded your gentle heart."

"I'm going to punch you gently in the throat if you keep treating me like a helpless bimbo." She said sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes. Through the bond I could feel it didn't bother her that much, she just liked keeping me on my toes.

I dropped her. She squawked, flailing in the dirt, and I ignored her, laughing as I strutted away. Over my shoulder I called. "Fair enough, you can walk."

"Shane!" She shouted through her own gales of laughter. "Get your oversized ass back here! I didn't say I didn't want to be carried! Shane! You got dirt all over my coat!" I might have been more worried if not for the reassuring pulse of adoration coming through the bond. I knew she wasn't really mad. Besides, it was hilarious. After all, I liked to keep her on her toes too.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Alright, are you ready?" I asked Adam. He, Callie, and Benny were out near the site of the old bakery with me. Camden had used up all five of his wishes setting the foundation for the wall when we got started building it, and we could now set the bricks without worrying about them sinking into the ground. Once he was done he'd headed back to the manor, though.

The small enchanter nodded. "Go ahead. If you've repaired the Skill it should be easy enough to grasp the pattern."

After a night of rest, the pain from Belial's reconstruction was mostly gone, and I was going to be using the crown to channel the Skill so it wouldn't be putting much strain on my soul in the tender spot that was my Skill pattern. Reaching down, I picked up the brick from yesterday, the one I'd made after all the practice, and focused hard, triggering Belial.

Once again, the smooth edges turned pitch black and green glowing cracks opened up along the surface. Adam stepped closer, staring down into the rock intensely. Finally he smiled. "I can work with this. It's stable, even if it's not perfect. I'll need some practice to interweave the Skill between multiple stones. Let me study the enchantment for a while, you can get started on the wall if you want."

I nodded and then headed over to the rock pile. With the enchantments being worked on, it was time for me to officially test out the full extent of my crafting.

Holding out my hands, I triggered Pit of Despair, floating the dust into the air with Dust Construction and condensing it. As I did so, I triggered a single triple stack density shift. As soon as I felt the density increase, I ended Pit of Despair, hardening the condensed dust into a full block and letting it slam into the ground with a resonating crash.

Whooping with joy, I ran up to it, grabbed it and HAULED with all my strength. I was able to lift it…barely. The weight hadn't tripled (that wasn't what triple strength meant) but it HAD more than doubled. Twenty five tons of dense stone strained my muscles as I dragged it over to the foundation that had been laid down by Camden's wish. There was a carefully cordoned off area where we were supposed to fill in the bricks.

I dropped it onto a layer of packed dirt surrounded by strange black rock partitions in vaguely a wall shape, and despite a loud noise and the ground shaking slightly, it held up fine. I wasn't sure what the hell this structure was made of, but whatever it was it was a LOT sturdier than most E-ranked materials.

"Alright folks." I announced. "I need someone with a lot of damage potential to try to put a mark on this thing before I add the next one." I was going to be doing the bottom layer first, so Adam could reach them all, but I wanted to make sure the bricks were a finished product first.

Callie, grinning, strolled over and cracked her neck. Drawing one of her daggers, she gave a shout of effort as she drove the point down right at the block…where it stuck.
Pulling it out, she knelt down to run her finger over the spot it had hit. "An inch deep, maybe two. With my Might that's nothing to sneeze at. A wall of these should hold up against most things below D-rank. Maybe over some stuff above it, at least for a bit."

Reaching down, I poured a handful of sand over the knick in the stone and condensed it down into a patch before allowing it to set. Knocking on the result I was satisfied with how it had come out. Then I got to work. Another brick, and another, I stacked them next to each other, having to adjust a few sizewide until I'd completed twenty density shifted bricks, creating a huge chunk of wall about fifty feet by ten filling in part of the foundations.

Turning to Benny, I gestured him forward. My friend whistled at the progress. "Not bad. That density shift is useful I take it? I thought it was just a temporary effect, how are you making them stick like that?"

I chuckled. "I'm cheating. It's a small flex of Pit of Despair. It converts ground to dust, then converts it back. By forcing the conversion to settle after the dust has been altered it freezes it in that state. Takes some extra effort to push the change, but I think it's worth it. I'm tapped on density shifts though, so if you'de be so kind."

He barked out a laugh. "Sure, as long as I'm not the one expected to do manual labor. I wish for twenty points of Focus, I'm paying with twenty charges of density shifted attacks."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed, grinning at the building charge on my skin. "You couldn't life these blocks with a full crane setup. In order to use you for manual labor you'd have to be USEFUL." I snickered at his outraged expression as I grabbed his shoulders, the flash of purple electricity running into him and then back to me.

Not that I felt much. Collecting F-ranked attacks at my level wasn't much more than the tingle of some strong toothpaste.

With the new charges in hand, I got back to work, creating and slamming down bricks on by one. With the foundation as a guide it was easy, and honestly kind of fun. I got lost in the work, enjoying the mild soul strain by the end. Without Piece of Mind active or using Belial directly I wasn't prodding the sore spot in my soul so I was fine on that front, and it was nice to just…work.

Finally, I used up all the new charges of density shift, and was left staring down at forty fairly large and very sturdy blocks. "Man, we need to get you to E-rank soon so you can do this for me. Twenty at a time isn't going to do it. Though I guess its good to have a starting point for the enchanters. Once Adam figures out how to tie multiple skill runes together they're going to need to practice."

If they fucked up I could replace the bricks, which was why I hadn't joined them all into one big stone amalgam yet. That would come at the end. I was hoping to get a few more ranks in Dust Construction before the battle too. Three months, three weeks left until showtime, and so much to do.

Adam strolled over, a glowing green brick floating next to him on a cloud of shadows as Callie held it up. I could see a bit of strain on her face, but she was trying to play it off like it wasn't an effort, so I just ignored it. "So, you get it done?"

He gestured proudly to the brick. "I did. Enchanted with a modified version of your 'Belial' Skill.I heard you mention a density enhancement, but that shouldn't have much effect on the enchanting. I just need you to examine it and make sure it's functional, then I'll attempt it on one of the new bricks, and then another and try to link them."

I studied it, triggering Eye of Revelation with my crown. I examined the weaves of power inside the block, and I was amazed to see a recreation of the very Skill I'd smashed and reworked just yesterday.

"It looks pretty good." I admired. "Looks like you've tweaked the makeup of a few of the fragments, specifically Touch of Tears. I can see they're different but not what you did?"

He looked pleased. "I did make some changes. The granular macro construction of the pattern was decent, but the more granular makeup was off. I switched some of the Might stats from the poison fragments for Vitality. It might seem counterproductive, but most dangerous poisons have a life component, it gives them more versatility and helps them persist in the face of healing."

"I hadn't considered that." I said with interest. "You're saying you can reword patterns down to the granular level? Like with particular stats assigned?"

He waggled a hand. "More that I see weak spots with certain analysis Skills and see how to patch them. It's not perfect, or particularly deep, but it helps now and then. So you think that's ready to be applied to the wall?"

Poking it again, I checked to see how much resistance I felt. It was hard to calculate freehand, but I was pretty sure it was tougher than it had originally been. Stone Limb reinforced structures but not so much actual rocks. It had a bit of a hardening effect though. Most important was the powerful heat and damage I could feel briefly when I touched it. That was why Callie was floating it instead of carrying it.

"Alright, looks good. Go ahead and try it on one of the blocks already set out." I pointed to the area where I'd packed in the bricks. He scurried over, kneeling down over one of the outer blocks, and placed a hand on it, beginning to murmur. "So this is one rune right? Does that mean you only need one Impact per enchantment?"

Unlike the style of enchanting they used in the conglomerate, the empire engraved theirs internally using a Skill. It lasted longer but was less immediately powerful. Despite his focus, he was still free to answer though. "Hardly. A natural pattern rune isn't the same as a form rune. It encompasses multiple aspects of Skill usage. This rune isn't taking one Impact. It's taking ten. Why do you think Sonia is only doing one set of that armor per day?"

I nodded in interest, but quieted down. I was using Eye of Revelation again to watch him work, and it was amazing seeing the pattern rune slowly form inside the stone. It looked almost natural there, which was the point, but watching him make it was amazing.

My own forays into enchanting had been lackluster and uninspired. Singular functions modified by specific runes that I had to create by hand, and not particularly powerful ones. I briefly wondered what my runes would look like under Eye of Revelation. It didn't matter now, I wasn't an enchanter anymore. By the time he finished, he looked winded, presumably because he'd just used twenty Impact of his sixty three total.

When he was done, the stone had shifted, no longer dark grey, it was now a glossy pitch black with the same lines of erosion. The stone around it was WAY too dense for corrosion to spread too fast, but we would need to take some of the bricks out to prevent them from being damaged between sessions.

"Next one." He said tiredly. "This is delicate. I know you said you'll merge the blocks, which means I need to tie the enchantments together so when the objects combine neither one overloads. Otherwise the one will either consume the other or explode."

Placing his hand on the next block, he began again. I watched once more, intrigued but also wary. When I combined the blocks with my Dust Construction (I'd been training using Pit of Despair more surgically by working on targeting specific rocks) I'd have to make sure not to mess up any of the internal engravings. Song of the Soil would help with that too.

Finally, he finished, slumping onto his side, nearly half his Impact depleted. No wonder he said they'd need help. Luckily enchanters were a dime a dozen here, and now that he'd created the enchantment he could just show it to them instead of relying on their own Skills. Sure, finding enough E-rankers would be tough, but for a job this specific even F-ranked enchanters should work.

I reached down, placing my hand on the bricks, and triggered Belial using the crown. I pushed on Dust construction, noticing how easily I could flex and move the enchanted stones with Belial as a carrier, like they were a part of me. Laughing, I plopped down on the ground next to him, staring in awe at the beginnings of what would become a true masterpiece. I'd need to improve Dust Construction up to hopefully Expert or at least Intermediate…but I could think of so many ways to use this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we got the enchantments down, Camden hired us a bunch of enchanters to start work. With a whole team we made serious progress day to day, but we started running into problems pretty much immediately. Twenty blocks of Darkstone (got sick of not having a name for it so I started calling it that and it caught on) wasn't going to get the walls done anywhere close to fast enough.

Because of that, Camden ended up having to let me front load some of my extra wishes. He wanted to give some of his to Benny, but since he'd already paid I wouldn't have been able to charge him the density shifted attacks I needed to complete construction.

In order to make it work, we had to calculate how many wishes he had left (we were about ten days in after that last week so we had a hundred and ten days left) and give me my two a day all up front. He had five hundred and fifty wishes and I had two hundred twenty, and he let me knock those out all at once.

Two hundred and twenty wishes at seven a day was basically a month straight at seventy points a day. The entire next week I was able to crank out seventy blocks daily, for a total of four hundred and ninety blocks, and four hundred and ninety stats for Benny (he put them all in Might) bringing him up to eight thousand one hundred twenty three total.

I had to do twenty blocks, then do more wishes, and repeat, because I couldn't hold a full seventy charges of even F-ranked density shifting, but we got it done, and it was more than enough for the enchanters to work with.

Now we were a hundred and three days out with five hundred blocks and counting. At about ten blocks wide that wasn't as much as we'd hoped, but once Benny hit E-rank he could spam the damned attacks FOR me and we could really start production. I stood in front of the massive black stone wall, whistling at what the current segment looked like.

Because of the cost of the foundation wishes, Camden had done them in segments. Both to maximize power and because his enchanters said it would help them set up the connections between the larger segments later.

We had more than a hundred extra blocks already on the next segment but the four hundred hundred we already had enchanted were officially ready to be joined together, once we finished one last bit of addition. We'd used four hundred for this section to keep things even though.

The first segment of wall would be proof of concept for my plan. Not only did it have the Belial enchantments, but Sonia and Adam had come up with some secondary linkage enchantments designed to let them connect more smoothly AND allow my Dust Construction to function better. I'd even gotten the Skill to Beginner from the week of non stop work.

Before I could join the blocks into one huge massively enchanted wall segment and test them out though, we had to add the spikes for the palisade. Those would stop the stone lions from trying to scale them before we could mount a proper offense (Camden was planning a wish that would limit the air maneuverability over the walls). Sonia had helped design some specially made anti lion spikes that we needed to slot into the base of the wall before I made it one solid piece.

We had a hundred of them, which was only possible because she'd stripped out a lot of materials needed for things like shafts and designed them just to be slotted into the walls.

"Ok, you know what to avoid, right?" Said Benny as he handed me the first spike. "Because if you accidentally dissolve any of the enchantments in the stone bad things will happen. Not that we'd be alive to worry about it after this four hundred brick pile of explosives goes up and vaporizes us down to the atomic level."

I glared at him. "Has anyone ever told you you should write children's books? You're so inspiring and hopeful."

"I'm just being realistic." He said indignantly. "There is a decent chance that you're going to fuck up and kill all of us by accident. Besides, silver lining, if we're all dead we don't need to worry about the invasion."

Snickering, I shook my head. "Well, I guess it helps knowing that if I screw up you won't be around to say you told me so. Now shut it so I can concentrate."

Eye of Revelation active, I used Piece of Mind twice, splitting a second parallel so I could trigger Song of the Soil, and a third so I could trigger Pit of Despair. I'd had a LOT of practice with Pit of Despair, and I needed every bit of that as I slowly and carefully dissolved a small section of wall between the loops of engraved enchantment where I could slot in the spike.

Once it was dissolved, I used Dust Construction to funnel out the stone dust before slotting in the spike at an angle and then packing the dust back in and hardening it again. Making sure the density shift didn't fade when I dissolved it was tough, but I managed by not completely shifting it to grains, keeping it in a semi-liquid state that I was still able to work with. Once it was done and set I shook the spike to confirm it wouldn't move.

Then I did the next one, then the next. I did two rows at the base of the wall, and then once I was done I stepped back to admire my work. "So?" I asked Benny. "What do you think?"

My best friend knelt down to try to wiggle the spikes, then nodded slowly. "That should do it. You ready for the big show? This is proof of concept, and it's going to be the hardest part. You remember what the enchanters said?"

I nodded, exhaling loudly. "I remember. I can't let the spells overbalance. If I merge two blocks, I need to merge the result with another two merged blocks. If I try to combine a large and a small amalgam the enchantment will overload the smaller one and blow the whole wall. Start with one and one, then two and two, then four and four. Keep scaling up until I finish." I was pretty terrified because I was going to have to use a BUNCH of parallels to keep track. They got exponentially harder to handle as I went on. Even with Beginner Dust Construction, this was going to be the first REAL strain on my soul in terms of raw strength since my rank up. The other strain had been mostly detail oriented and was more a lack of polishing.

To my surprise, I felt a hand slide into mine, and I turned to see Callie grinning at me. "I might not have a Sapphire Soul Body, but my soul is still blue. I can offset some of the load. Plus this'll be good for my own soul training. Who knows maybe I'll finish my sublimation and catch up to you." She winked at me and I laughed, nodding in relief.

With her to take up some of the slack I was way less worried. I triggered piece of mind, and then began the process.

First up Callie and I each did a pair of blocks, one and one into a single whole. With Eye of Revelation peeled I was able to see the pattern of Belial latch onto the second pattern and tie itself in, smoothing out into one larger enchantment. Callie did the same. Then we started using the parallels. To make sure we didn't overbalance we split our attention as much as possible, creating two-hundred two block amalgams one by one.

Two of us and multiple parallels of each made short work of that, then we started combining the pairs of blocks into chunks of four. One hundred. Then again into fifty, and then twenty five. That was when things got tricky, because we couldn't combine them evenly anymore, we had to speed up and smash them all together before the enchantments had time to overload.

More and more combos, faster and faster, merging the stones together as the enchantments chased us through the wall, merging and mutating and growing. My head was on fire, I could barely breathe, and all I could feel was POWER running through me as I forged the four hundred block wall into one huge piece of reinforced spellworked darkstone set with spikes at the bottom.

Callie dropped out about eighty percent of the way through, her blue soul unable to keep up, but despite the pain and disorientation I still managed to finish.

When I was done, I let the Eye of Revelation fade, looking on the huge solid chunk of stone directly. It was…amazing. Fifty feet long, ten feet wide, and twenty feet high. The first layer had been the same width and length, but we'd needed twenty layers of blocks the same size to get the kind of height we wanted.

I exhaled in relief. The massive block of stone was one huge chunk of E-ranked acidic danger rock. It was black and glossy, and I could feel the heat coming off it in waves as the toxic green poison crackled inside. I'd debated trying to incorporate the wolfhornigator venom I still hadn't used yet into the design, but I was worried it would melt the foundations.

This was also why we'd had to split the thing into segments. We had to merge equal sized sections to prevent overload, which meant when we eventually did combine the section with the next one it would need to be already complete, and then we'd need to combine two more to combine with THAT combined section and so on. Still, it was a monument to danger and violence and I couldn't help but grin up at it.

"Give me a minute before testing." I wheezed. "Need to let my head clear." We had plans beyond just burning for this wall, that was why we'd made it like this. This whole thing was basically one massive enchanted weapon.Even with the size it wouldn't be enough to take out a Master, not with my stats backing it up, but it would let me crowd control whole packs of the stone lions, or so we hoped.

Like Benny had said, proof of concept. Once my head stopped pounding, I got up and triggered Belial, using the amethyst to offset the strain as I jumped the full twenty feet onto the wall. Closing my eyes, I knelt down, resonating Belial with the wall.

It took a second to get used to, but I could FEEL the power. All that Impact. None of it higher than mine but spread so far across the stone. I could also feel the linking enchantments they'd designed, and the stone itself, so thoroughly steeped in the power of my soul. Made by my hand, imbued with my Skills, enhanced with attacks I'd traded for.

Standing up there, I WAS the wall, and it was me. All one big chunk of Belial. I focused on the stone, using Dust Construction and the linked spells to will it to change, to move. The wall dropped about two feet as the stone shifted, all the enchantments already locked in place just flexed instead of breaking, and all that extra stone jabbed out as a fucking FOREST of razor sharp block stone spikes bristled out of the front of the wall, stabbing out and then retracting as the stone rose back up to its full height.

I opened my eyes, woozy and falling over, and Callie caught me, hopping off the wall with me and laying me on the ground as I came out of Belial. I stared up at the stone wall with a shit eating grin. It worked. With this much soul strain I could only do one attack, but that was with Beginner level Dust Construction. With a sound soul and Intermediate or Expert in the Skill? I should be able to wield the entire palisade as a weapon against the hordes. My plan was going to work.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I wanted to celebrate that night by doing some crafting, but Callie told me in no uncertain terms that I wasn't allowed to do anything soul straining for at least the rest of the day. So, since training was done, crafting was over, and I'd already done all of today's wishes, I decided to relax and take my mind off things by spending some time with my sister.

Since I wanted to get to know her, I'd let her pick exactly what we did, and she'd excitedly dragged me to the library where Anna's friend hung out (albeit a totally different section) and plopped down in a big chair with a book, reading contentedly.

I tried to enjoy the downtime, really I did, but I'd never been super into sitting still. There was a reason my favorite pastime was a video game when I was mortal. I liked DOING things. I slammed my book shut, clearing my throat. "So…this is fun."

"Mm." Agreed Chelsea distractedly. Her eyes were glued to the pages of her book.

Sighing, I tried again. "So…I thought the reason you came on this trip was to get away from the solitude and loneliness. Do…like, non book stuff? Shouldn't we be out playing a game or fishing or racing cultists on the back of wild hyenas through an exploding gorge or something?"

"Why does that sound specific enough to have actually happened?" She said suspiciously. "And I'm NOT lonely. I do plenty of social things. Sometimes I just like to relax. Is that so bad?"

I held up both hands. "Not at all, I just…I'm not the sitting around type. I like to be up and doing things. Not just combat or training or whatever, but just something. I'm sure we could find something fun to do in the city."

"We could ask Bethy." She said with a slight blush. "She always has good ideas about how to have fun. I think she's probably the most fun person I know."

Despite her obvious crush, I couldn't really argue that. Bethy was a blast, though her brand of fun was often way too exhausting. I shrugged, hopping to my feet. "Sure, we can see if she's found any spots around town to hang out." Literally anything to get me out of this damned library, not that I would say that. I didn't want to hurt my twin's feelings.

I needn't have worried, the promise of possible Bethy time had her up and heading for the door with no hesitation. I still didn't know what the deal was with her, Bethy, and Gabe, and I was staying out of it, but I was happy to see Chelsea opening up and bonding with other people at the very least.

When we reached Jessie's healing workshop, we headed right in, and were immediately buried in an avalanche of small furry bodies. "Go my minions!" Cackled the tiny vampire in the black ball gown standing on a table in the center of the room. "Retrieve your spoils of war, bring them and lay them at my feet!"

"Bethy!" Shouted Jessie over the rustling and chittering. "This is NOT a valid way of cleaning up a mess! You don't need to control a horde of flying rodents to pick up the cotton balls one at a time! I just asked you to get a broom!"

Bethy looked scandalized. "A broom?" She said, putting a hand to her chest. "But I'm a Vampire. Witches use brooms. Vampires have hordes of bats that do their biddings." She paused. "Or thralls, but I didn't bring any of mine with me on this trip, so who else am I supposed to have clean up my messes?"

My friend closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, than gave a slow nod. "Please recall the squirrels. I'll clean up the cotton balls."

Looking dubious, Bethy shrugged. She snapped her fingers and a red sky blurred briefly into existence behind her as they all flew into her domain. I still wasn't sure how she did that, but it seemed useful. Glancing down at her feet, I saw a pile of misshapen and partially chewed cotton balls next to her shiny black platform boots.

"See!" She said excitedly. "That's like…three quarters of them. There's almost none of them anywhere else in the room."

Gesturing around, she pointed out the rest of the infirmary, which was indeed pretty much free of cotton balls. It was covered in glass, shredded pillows, and ripped up sheets, but there were basically no cotton balls that I could see.

Turning to give Chelsea and I a much to wide smile, Jessie clapped her hands together. "Oh look, guests. Wonderful. Bethy was just about to take her lunch break."

The vampire cast a shifty eye at one of the beds in the corner. "Well…that artillery engineer does seem like he's pretty out of it. I'm sure he wouldn't miss a pint or two. He smells B negative, but I'm in the mood for spicy."

"Not what I meant!" Snapped Jessie in exasperation. "Will you get her OUT of here please? I love her to pieces, but she isn't made to be trapped in a small building for weeks on end. She's getting antsy, and it keeps making her do crazier and crazier things!"

I smirked at her. "Fine, we were about to ask Bethy for some advice on party spots anyway. She can come with us." I glanced at my blushing sister. "You don't mind if she tags along, do you Chelsea?" When she didn't answer, I nodded. "See, everyone wins. Although Agria still needs a guard. Bethy, can you leave Luggage here to keep watch?"

The big hellhound didn't spend all his time in the real world, often retiring to Behty's domain like the squirrels. It didn't take much effort though, for her to snap her fingers and let the big black dog out of her personal world.

Once he was out, we said our goodbyes and left. As we walked out of the camp, I raised an eyebrow at Bethy. "So how much of that was you poking her until she broke?"

She shrugged. "Just a little. I was super bored, but Jessie has gotten so used to being the healer on call that she just does whatever people say. She needs to stick up for herself more. It's going to get pretty bad soon, and if she can't put her foot down they'll run her ragged."

"Is it really that bad?" I asked in concern. I'd been so wrapped up with my own training and hurrying to get things done I hadn't had time to check in.

The Vampire shook her head. "Nah, not yet. But she's been pushing back her downtime more and more to keep up with demand. That cotton ball thing was only my most recent attempt to push her over the edge." She shot me a fang filled grin. "Yesterday I wrapped Randall in the infirmary's entire supply of bandages. When he was full sized. She looked like she was about to pass out from trying not to yell."

"And it never occurred to you to just…talk to her?" I asked in amusement.

She just giggled. "Where's the fun in that?" Before I could continue that line of questioning, she perked up. "Oh! Speaking of fun, you and Chelsea wanted to know good hang out spots right?" She shot my sister an equally wide but much less menacing smile than the one she wore talking about her time in the infirmary. "What kind of places were you hoping to find?"

Chelsea gulped. "Oh, nothing crazy. Just…Shane thought I could use a day out. Says I shouldn't spend all my time reading in the library."

"He's totally right!" Bethy squealed. "I would love to help you pick out some new clothes! You're so pretty and your hair is super cute. I can think of a dozen outfits for you to try on. Oooh, I have the cutest parasol that would just look darling with your-"

I shut that shit down real quick. "No!" I snapped, drawing strange looks from both of them. "Chelsea and I wanted to hang out, is what I mean. You two can try on outfits another day when I'm busy. We're looking for things to do as a group. You can even come along like I said, but it has to be an activity we'll ALL enjoy."

"Boo." She pouted. "What a buzz kill." She pondered for a minute. "I haven't had much chance to get out during the day, what with guarding Jessie. I've been taking really enthusiastic night time walks though! The forest is super pretty. Oooh! How about we get Chelsea a pet! Pets are the best. I know this super cute bunny that would be perfect."

With nothing better to do, I just shrugged, agreeing to follow her out into the woods to look for a rabbit my sister could keep as a pet.

As we walked, Chelsea and Bethy chatted, seemingly pretty comfortable with each other barring Chelsea's initial shyness. I chimed in once in a while, but I didn't try too hard to intrude. I wanted to get to know my sister, and she and Bethy were discussing plenty about her life. Plus she looked so happy I couldn't bear to interrupt.

We walked for about an hour before we felt the first quake. I cocked my head, a little confused. "Interesting." I said casually. "I didn't know this planet had earthquakes. I guess it makes sense, even a huge place like this must have tectonic plates."

Bethy just giggled, turning to look at me. "What? That's not an earthquake silly." There was another shudder, and focusing harder I realized that it was the crash of something hitting the ground. I froze, turning in the direction the sound was coming from.

"Just to be clear." I said slowly. "You seem to know what that is, and that it is NOT an earthquake. Is it possible, then, that the shaking we're seeing is the…'bunny' you brought us here to find?" At her cheerful nod, I closed my eyes, sighing in frustration. "Bethy…how BIG is this bunny?"

Not bothering to respond, she just pointed happily behind me. As I turned, I saw a COLOSSAL white rabbit sail through the air, feet descending toward the ground like a falling meteor. It was E-rank for sure, and seemed strong, and as it struck the dirt, the ground quaked again, so intensely the three of us almost fell over.

We both turned to look at the Vampire in disbelief. "How exactly is she supposed to CATCH that thing, much less tame it? Did you even consider how dangerous this is?"

She rolled her eyes at me with a huff. "Of course I did. I'm not stupid. He's a big boy, so we definitely need some treats to calm him down." She snapped her fingers, a box appearing from her spatial ring. She held it out, flipping it open to reveal a small round cake covered in white frosting with a single orange carrot on top in icing. "Ta-dah! I brought carrot cake!"

I just stared at her. "Bethy, I don't think that carrot thing is even true! I'm pretty sure it's an urban legend. I doubt the giant rabbit is going to car one way or the other abou-" I froze as the rabbit perked up, ears twitching.

It gave a long, deep sniff, looking around suspiciously, before it's beady eyes turned slowly to fix on us. It stared unblinkingly at the box in Bethy's hands. "Oh look!" She said cheerfully. "I think he likes it!" She sounded happier about it than I was, considering the massive size of the rabbit in question.

"Bethy." I said quietly. "Put the box and the cake down on the ground, and then back away…very slowly."

She looked at me seriously for a minute and then shrugged and said. "Nah." Before holding the box up and bellowing. "LUNCHTIME BUNNY!" At the top of her lungs. The rabbit bolted for us as if fired from a cannon, and I groaned internally. Why had I agreed to consult Bethy about ANYTHING? I always seemed to forget that Bethy stories only seemed fun AFTER they happened. Oops.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

State of grace was pretty much always on in my current armor, and my Danger Sense had tipped me to the incoming rabbit attack before the thing had even moved. These two factors were the only reasons I managed to tackle my sister out of the way before the rabbit slammed into Bethy, who dissolved into a series of hissing cats on the spot.

"Hey." Snapped the reconstituting vampire from a tree branch overhead as the cats swarmed back together. "That was rude. You're a nasty bunny. I'm going to call you Chalk. Chalk is gross."

I gaped at her. "Ok, you're not supposed to name other people's pets, but also WHAT THE HELL? That thing almost took our heads off. Why would you possibly think this was safe?"

She pouted at me. "I'm really good with animals! I thought the cake would be enough. Poptarts and Donuts are such good kitties, and Luggage always listens. I can totally help her train him!" She frowned sulkily down at the rabbit, eyes flashing red. "Though I thought it would be easier than this."

"Bethy." I groaned in annoyance. "Poptarts and Donuts have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME! And we used a magic collar on Luggage. You're a terrifying apex predator, but you're STILL AT F-RANK! Of course you couldn't tame that monster!"

Once again, I reassessed my perception that Bethy was an evil genius playing at being a ditz. Apparently she was just actually somehow both of those things at once. Grabbing Chelsea, I kicked off the ground, landing on a branch seamlessly as the rabbit finally finished sniffling around for any more cake and started searching for us.

Bethy, who was on the nearest branch, sniffled sadly, and Chelsea looked heartbroken, hopping over with surprising dexterity to wrap the smaller girl in a hug. "You didn't have to be mean about it." She told me reproachfully.

I debated on just telling her she was being crazy, and that Bethy had put us both in danger, but…I did kind of feel bad. Bethy wasn't malicious, at least not in this case. My Danger Sense would have triggered earlier if she'd planned for us to be hurt. She was just completely divorced from normal human limitations.

"Sorry." I said with a sigh. "I get you didn't mean to almost get us hurt." I glanced down at the forest floor where the rabbit was stalking around. I actually wasn't sure why it hadn't attacked us yet, at least until I noticed the slight rustle of black grass below our feet. Which was weird since we were standing a hundred feet up on a branch. "Are we in your Domain?"

The vampire nodded pitifully. "I pulled you in once you got up here. We're only sort of skimming the top layer, but it's enough to keep the bunny from noticing us."

"Ok, we need to have a discussion about boundaries and what is and isn't dangerous after this." I sighed tiredly. "But for now we should figure out what to do about the giant rabbit. CAN you tame it? Actually you must be close to E-rank anyway. Any chance you could rank up?"

She shook her head. "I'm still finishing up my soul refinement." She looked genuinely guilty. "I really am sorry Shane. I just thought it would be fine to come get Chelsea a pet. I didn't think it would be dangerous. Since you guys are both E-rankers already it seemed fine."

I shrugged. "Probably would have been, but based on how large it is an how high it can jump. I suspect that thing is stupidly Might heavy." I paused. "Actually, that gives me an idea. You can do illusions right? I remember that being a thing. Some kind of trance you combine with your domain? What stat resists that?"

"Perception." She said. "It's one of my best stats. It takes a lot to process the world from a hundred different points of view. Strength and speed I have modifiers for from my racial trait, but leaning into Perception is one of the reasons I'm the best at illusions and hypnosis."

"Can you hypnotize the rabbit?" I asked excitedly. Maybe she really was a natural beast tamer. It would explain the squirrels. I was suddenly feeling bad about snapping.

She shook her head again. "I can't. I tried. Impact is too high." She looked miserable. "I didn't mean to put you guys in danger. I promise I just thought it would be a fun day out. My domination usually works."

"I get that." I said with a sigh. "But you seem to forget not all of us are as strong as you. The natural modifiers your Vampirism gives you are a huge advantage, not to mention all the apparent subskills like turning into bats and stuff. There's a reason your dad is the only S-ranker to have ever beaten a god in a fight."

She waved that off. "Oh he's not really S-rank. He's a demigod. It's kind of the same thing but kind of different. Once you pass the five hundred mark in Impact you go through some big changes. That's the halfway point to becoming a god. Natural Impact gain stops short of that point, so not a lot of people make it."

"Wait…" I said, distracted from the matter at hand. "THAT'S how you become a god?" I didn't think I'd ever had someone confirm that for me. A thousand Impact. That was insane. "Also why didn't you ever mention this before?"

"You never asked." She said innocently. And I blinked because she was right. I'd never brought up Morgan Lark's fight with the Unity in front of Bethy that I could remember.

Forcing myself to push past the shock and excitement of finally learning more about my road ahead, I closed my eyes and took a breath. Later. I could talk to her more later. For now we needed to focus. "So, hypnosis is out." I mused. "But illusions work?"

"Illusions use Perception to affect the world around you. It's like painting a big fake picture." She explained. "Anyone with a reasonable amount of Perception can still punch through, but it's a way to slip around the Impact disadvantage."

It was always odd to see Bethy in combat mode. She wasn't super calm and focused like Jessie could get sometimes, almost the opposite. Bethy in battle was…predatory. Like a cat playing with a mouse. She knew all the best ways to make her opponent squirm, and she seemed to take an almost savage joy in the process.

Which brought to mind our conversation in the glade, about how badly she wanted to shed some of her bloodthirsty nature. That made even more sense after learning about her mother. For Bethy, bloodthirst wasn't just some primal drive to feed, it was FUN, and she didn't like that about herself most of the time.

This didn't seem to be one of those moments, luckily. Despite her clear entertainment she wasn't upset about anything aside from having been reckless with our lives.

Chelsea had stepped back from the smaller girl, and was looking worried. "I don't know… do we need to get the rabbit? Can't you use your Domain to sneak us away? We should probably just leave and let it get back to doing rabbit things."

I shook my head. "Bethy is right. A powerful pet like this will do a lot to help you survive. Her intentions and instincts were both good." I frowned at the Vampire. "Though NEXT time we should prepare better for any outings like this. Getting this thing for you is important now that we have a plan. It'll make you much more likely to survive the Stone Lion assault for one thing."

Having an on hand pet she could use to just hop away (Jessie's necklace would make transporting it a breeze outside battle) was a huge advantage. I'd seen that rabbit jump and it got some serious air.

"So, in order to make this plan work, I need to know exactly what our win condition is." I said bluntly. "What do we need to do to soften him up?"

Bethy bit her lip. "Pain should do it. Restraining him would help. Domination is kind of like hypnosis, but it works a little differently. It's more like posturing with my inner Vampire until the target cracks and then worming my way in."

Sighing, I cracked my neck. "Alright. That's fine. I can soften it up, I even have a way to handle the legs. Chelsea, can you take nonlethal shots at it from up here?"

She nodded firmly and I grinned. "Alright. Perfect. Then you two focus on taming it, and I'll soften it up." I glanced down at the ground, triggering Moonlit Night. Fog filled the area and the rabbit froze, ready to fight.
Of course, that was fine. The rabbit was huge. Massive and powerful and way stronger than me. But I wasn't planning on getting into a wrestling match. I wouldn't have suggested doing this if I hadn't been sure I could beat him. I triggered Pit of Despair under the thing's feet, and the ground turned to ultra fine dust under its paws.

I leveraged quite a bit of soul strength that I probably shouldn't have to push the width and depth up higher, but Dust Construction helped me dissolve things. I hadn't considered using it to empower Pit of Despair instead of the other way around, but it worked great.

The rabbit yelped as the ground dropped out from under it, trying to kick its massive legs off a surface that wasn't there as it fell into the pit.

I was on my down after it without a second of hesitation, arms out like a diver, staff leading the way. By the time I hit the dust I was already a solid humanoid figure of molten green and block, with dark flames billowing off my scalp as I activated Mephistopheles and Belial at the same time.

Hitting the dust, I propelled myself forward through the substance like a fish through water, Dust Construction pushing me along as it cleared the dust from my way. Eye of Revelation blazed through my crown, and with it and Song of the Soil active I could see everything in the dust, the rabbit's massive form basically a sitting duck for me.

Pushing off with Ripple Running for extra thrust, I blurred forward, my staff licking out with an explosion of black green flames. Where it hit, a trashcan lid sized patch of corruption burned out the fur, beginning to expand at a noticeable (but admittedly not fast) rate on the giant furry limb.

My Danger Sense picked up the return kick easily, and with Dust Construction moving me I flowed to the side, circling behind the rabbit for another blow, and then another.

Every hit was devastatingly powerful, but they were starting to put a strain on my soul again. I grunted, doing my best to offload some of the strain onto my armor, but I knew I couldn't keep this up for long.

An explosion of white light went off overhead, jarring the dust enough that I picked it up with my Song of the Soil. I was about to return to my attack when I realized there was no reason to do so. The rabbit had stopped moving. I watched in surprise as the dark patches of corruption were cleansed by my sister's flames of purification before the monster went limp.

Hopping out of the dust by expelling myself at an upward angle, I landed smoothly thanks to State of Grace, and let Pit of Despair fade, leaving the rabbit trapped in dust up to the waist.

Not that I'd needed to bother, when I turned around, Bethy was standing proudly next to Chelsea, who was nuzzling the face of a giant adorable bunny. The thing hadn't gone limp, it had leaned down to cuddle.
As I met up with them, the two girls excitedly filled me in on what had happened. Apparently cleansing the rabbit of the damage I was doing had caused it to let its guard down enough for Bethy to dominate it, and since Chelsea had cleansed it the beast had imprinted on her.

With a grumble, I started using Pit of Despair again at their urging to get the thing loose. Next time I wanted a day off, I would NOT be inviting Bethy. Good intention or not she was almost as much of a trouble magnet as me. In fact, I wanted this particular vacation to be over so badly I could taste it. I just wanted this to go home and go to sleep.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Two more weeks. Eighty nine days and counting, a bit over tthirteen of them applied directly to Benny, bringing him up over nine thousand and within range of the elixir bump that would get him to E-rank. From his original eight thousand one hundred twenty three, Benny only needed eight hundred seventy seven points. Rounding up, that was eighty eight of the ninety eight wishes I'd used dedicated to his growth.

Eight hundred eighty points put him at nine thousand and three total, with four hundred forty each to Focus and Might. Not to mention the soul strain of paying with attacks at that volume for that long had bumped him up to fifty percent of the way through green. He was damned close to E-rank now, only needing the thousand point bump from the elixirs.

Of course, we didn't HAVE those elixirs yet, but Benny was pretty much up to snuff, which had allowed me to switch focus to Jessie to get a better idea of where she was at with my last ten wishes of the two week period. Those extra hundred points had been put into Focus, her lowest stat, so we could track how much she was still gaining from her bond and from renown.

The first three wishes didn't seem to be enough to tip her over a milestone, but the seven the second day had officially set off the avalanche of points our healer had been accruing. One hundred to Focus from me was nothing, she'd gained another five hundred Vitality and three hundred Might from Randall.

She was now up to eight thousand three hundred and eight total, and between the four hundred ninety points I had left to give her over the next week before my allotment returned to Camden, and the native income from her Bond and renown, she was definitely going to make it in time. She'd even reached Intermediate in her Beast Bond, which seemed to be increasing the improvement, and she was certain she could rank up Randall alongside her when she reached E-rank.

Abel and Mel had been crushing it in the tournaments from what I'd heard, and working with Nat besides, and they were well on their way to ranking up as well. That put most of our friends on the path to E-rank when we needed them there, and had allowed me to slow down and breathe a little bit, at least aside from the constant construction projects.

Speaking of construction projects, eight hundred and eighty bricks had meant two more wall sections, and the enchanters were quickly catching up. We weren't making the time we would when Benny hit E-rank, but we were definitely putting a dent in the preparations, which was part of what I was currently meeting with Camden about.

"We need more enchanters." I said bluntly. "I don't care where you get them, but once you get Benny those elixirs we're going to outpace the ones we've got. Enchanting is supposed to be big business in the Empire right?"

He groaned, rubbing his temples. "I KNOW. Trust me, I know. But my finances are shot. Between paying them, the materials for all the spears, and the supplementary materials for all the armor your people have been receiving, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. Without any wishes I have no way to get the capital I need to crank production." Which was fair, his last few days of wishes before he'd let me frontload my extras were all resource based, and I could see how his stockpile could have dried up in the last few weeks.

That said, Jessie was getting close to next rank, so there was no way I was folding on my last free week.

We'd have to worry about it when we finished ranking up Benny. "Also, how goes work on those Might and Focus elixirs. We need Benny up and running on this as soon as possible." I was ready to push him a bit further on this if needed, because we were on such a time crunch, but I stopped myself when I saw the look on his face when I brought it up. "Hey…you ok man?"

He gave a strangled laugh. "I'm… I'm really not." He slumped back in his chair. This meeting was just us, and apparently I'd earned enough trust from him by staying that he didn't mind being seen as weak in front of me. I was kind of touched. "This is a mess. I didn't sign up for this. I just wanted to get away. Is that so wrong?"

I shrugged. "Can't tell you that. My family isn't exactly the picture of civility, but I get the impression that my dad shielded me from the worst of it, asshole though he may be." Having heard horror stories from Zeke and Nat about how many of my relatives got murdered in these things, I had a feeling I'd gotten VERY lucky.

Too lucky, in some ways. Nat just happening to stumble on my planet seemed a bit coincidental. I only had two cousins that I knew of (on my dad's side, I had no clue about mom's siblings) and meeting one of them right out the gate?

It made me wonder if the old man hadn't been putting his thumb on the scale a bit, in the most undetectable way. Not that it would make up for all the shit he'd pulled, but it was nice to think maybe BOTH of my parents were decent human beings, at least deep down. Of course, i couldn't ever voice that suspicion, because if I did, I'd be screwing myself and probably him, but just considering it made me feel pretty good.

"I hate my cousin so much." He said tiredly. "I've always hated him. He was just…awful, even as a kid. There's something wrong with him, I think. He doesn't see people as people. I know Celine mentioned that, and told you how some children of powerful people get like that because of how they're raised, but I think that was always Spencer."

I cocked my head. "What do you mean? Like he was evil from birth or something?"

"Maybe." He shrugged. "It always felt like it. He would pretend when the adults were around but…his eyes gave him away. So cold and detached. Do you know why he hates me so much?"

I shrugged. "Jealousy?" I guessed. "He wants to be in charge of your family and he's just taking out everyone in the line of succession, right?"

He waved me off. "Not remotely. I'm not IN the line of succession. I'm tangentially attached enough that with the right twist of fate I might BECOME a candidate for head of the family, but I left before that could happen. I didn't want to get caught up in the games, in the backstabbing. But he followed me out here anyway, or I guess herded me here."

"Why then?" I asked, curious as to what kind of grudge could push someone to go to these lengths.

"Because I made him look bad." He said simply. "It happened when we were children. His parents and mine were called to a family conclave with my grandfather, and all of us came to the main estate with them. The kids were all being watched by an older cousin, but the girl who was supposed to be keeping an eye out wasn't paying attention."

I had a distinctly bad feeling about where this was headed. "Please tell me you spilled tea on his coat or something?"

He gave a hollow laugh. "I wish. Spencer had come with his siblings, there were four of them. Three older, though not by much, and one younger. She was about four years old. We were walking through the grounds, and Spencer decided we should all race. We picked a spot on the other side of the hedge maze, and we were all supposed to go a different route. It was a big maze, but it wasn't too complicated."

His voice was distant, a little horrified, and the bad feeling in my gut got worse. "What happened?" I asked quietly.

"I went down the center path. It crossed through a few of the others, and it was longer, but I figured it would be the closest to a straight shot. I just wanted to win." He swallowed hard. "Spencer took one of the left hand paths, and Olivia went with him." He shuddered as he remembered something distressing. "I don't even know how they ended up in my way. I must have gotten turned around."

He closed his eyes, grimacing. "She was already dead when I stumbled on them. Face down in the water. A small pond along the path. Spencer was just standing there, staring at her body, smiling a little. When he heard me arrive, he ran for her, pretending to be upset. But I'll never forget that smug little smile."

"Is that…" I grimaced. "Is it always like that?" Maybe the way Wyndhams raised their kids wasn't so wrong after all. "In the big clans?"

"No." He said firmly. "And that's my point. We're a bloodthirsty bunch by outside standards, but kids killing each other? Killing their own siblings? Spencer isn't just driven, he's WRONG. Off in a way that I've never been able to quite describe. Even at a similar rank, Spencer scares me. Scares me because he's willing to do shit like THIS. He's not going to leave this to chance. He'll have a backup plan, something to make sure I die even if the lions fail."

Thinking about it, about Camden and how scared he was… it PISSED ME OFF. Camden was my friend. We'd been working together for over a month now, and he'd been nothing but supportive and helpful. Sure he was getting something out of it, but I liked the guy. He had style, panache, and was just a genuinely nice guy. Though I was curious about one thing."You said you made him look bad? How?"

"I told on him." He said simply. "Told my parents, my aunt and uncle, everyone I could think of. I told them what I saw and what I thought happened." He shrugged. "No one listened. Olivia didn't have any signs of injury or having put up a struggle. He wasn't near her anyway, standing about five feet away. I think he poisoned her somehow, he likes poison."

I frowned, thinking of what kind of person could do something like that to a fucking four year old. "Why does he hate you then? If no one listened?"

"Because I tried." He shrugged. "Spencer doesn't like being caught. It embarasses him. I avoided him after that, so he couldn't really get me as a kid, but the assassination attempts started around the time I turned twelve. Never obvious enough to pin on him, of course. He got sneakier as he got older, but I always knew. That day when his parents took him away, I caught a glimpse of him over his mothers shoulder as he pretended to cry over Olivia. He looked right at me." He went silent for a second. "I've been stared down by monsters before. I know when something wants to kill me. I always recognize it as feeling just like that."

My knuckles cracked as I clenched the table. "I'm not letting anything happen to you Camden. Aside from you being a friend, I owe you plenty of wishes still, and who's going to hand over that territory if you die. Don't worry, we can handle your nutjob cousin."

He gave a weak smile. "Maybe you can. Maybe I can. But I can't help but be afraid. Olivia never saw it coming. Will I? In the end, will he find some way to get me? He got to Sara, convinced her to sell me out. Who else could he turn? Alister? Sonia?" He didn't mention me, but I could tell when the thought crossed his mind, just like I could tell when he dismissed it."

"Whoever he tries to turn, however he tries to do it, I wouldn't worry." I said solemnly. "We already lost someone to a traitor on our last mission. I'll make damned sure it never happens again." And I meant it. I was going to need to talk to the others. Our battle plan needed tweaking. Camden needed a bodyguard. We weren't going to lose another friend, even a new one.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Camden seemed shaken after we talked, but I think it was something he'd needed to get off his chest. He'd been a rock since we met him, but running himself ragged trying to prepare had clearly caused some cracks to form. After unburdening himself about Spencer and how afraid he was I could see a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Thanks for listening." He said quietly. "I've never told anyone outside my family that story. After I tried and failed to make them all see what he was like…I just never bothered."

I was speechless for a minute. I didn't know what to say. I wasn't going to bug him about elixirs after THAT. "I'm going to talk to everyone. I want one of ours with you when everything goes down. Maybe Callen, he has experience." He ALSO had that monstrous sword, and while I knew he wouldn't draw it unless it was absolutely necessary, he should be able to drive off even a D-ranker with it, at least once he was E-ranked himself.

"And I'll get you your elixirs." He said after a pause. Seeing my surprise, he smiled. "Don't be too touched. This is all about priorities. You're right, the spears we can do later, but we need Benny to get the walls done in time. And we NEED those walls."

Though I was excited to hear that, I couldn't help but feel bad. "Look, this is your operation, man. I don't want you to feel pressured into caving. Benny can wait if needed."

"No." He said with a sigh. "You're right. I was too focused on offense. Thinking about what Spencer is capable of, a strong defense is the priority. We can rotate centuries for the defense points if needed, and keep working on the spears. But if we get overrun we're screwed either way. I'll cancel some of the material orders." He scribbled out a note. "As much as I'd like to fund our healer's early ascent now too, I can't spend THAT much. Take this to the same Alchemist you used last time."

I took the note gingerly, scanning it, and my jaw dropped. "This…Camden this is basically a blank check. Giving me this is ridiculous. What if I clean out the shop and take off?"

"If you were going to run you would have." He said with a shrug. "And without you here I'm as good as dead anyway. Holding back is just going to weaken us, and with the alternative being death…I'm not sure I'm taking as big a risk as you think."

But looking at his face, I saw this for what it was. An expression of trust. After finally telling me what he was afraid of, I think he'd decided to go all in. He'd realized that he had to trust somebody, and he was betting it all on us. Considering how terrified he'd sounded earlier about being betrayed and what had already happened…I couldn't imagine how much courage that must have taken.

"I won't let you down, man." I said solemnly. "We're in this together. All of us. Once you join our group we have your back no matter what. Count on it."

It seemed ridiculous, given the size of my crew, that I'd feel so strongly for them, but I did. Whether because fully half of them were my closest friends and family, or just because of all that we'd been through and all they'd gotten me out of, I'd have risked my life for anyone of them. Even the ones I didn't know very well, like Callen, were important parts of my life now.

That wasn't the kind of thing you can put into words though, and even if I could, it's not the sort of thing you believe when someone says it out loud. You showed loyalty and trust with actions, and I was pretty sure we'd made a good start from both sides here, if we hadn't already when we decided to stay.

I thanked Camden for his help, and told him to get some rest and let Alister handle some of the day to day for a bit, and not to run himself ragged. Camden was an E-ranker, and was bound to be needed in the field even if he was a noble. It wouldn't do to run himself ragged with busy work.

After that I went to go find Benny. When he heard what was going on he got so excited I thought he'd drag me to the Alchemist, and the two of us took off to go shopping for pills. As we walked, I chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Man, you're pumped about this upgrade, huh?" I asked.

"Of course." He said bluntly. "I hate being left behind, but more than that, my stats are INSANELY focused right now. I'm not as focused as Jessie, but you know as well as I do that having hyper focused my stats means my next rank up is likely to improve my ability somehow. I can get stronger. I WILL get stronger."

There was a fire in his voice that I respected, and I clapped him on the back. "Damn right. I'm pretty curious myself actually. Focus and Might? Could really go either way. Or maybe you'll just end up with a stronger variation of your current. Able to hold more items."

He shrugged. "No point in guessing, the number of variables is uncountable. All I can do is hope."

After that we went quiet as we entered the shop, giving the Alchemist Benny's exact requirements and getting a bag of pills in return. He even gave us seven single point pills, so Benny wouldn't need a wish to bridge the gap.

Once we had everything we made our way back to the officers barracks, figuring we could use my room for his rank up. It was a dangerous thing to go through, and I'd been stressed enough keeping Chelsea hidden. I didn't mind playing guard for him during rank up, but I'd prefer to do this one inside.

When we got to my room he took out all the pills, laying them on the floor carefully. Four hundred ninety nine points in Might, and four hundred Ninety eight in Focus. With his current soul strength, withstanding the pills would be easy, but even at green the upgrade to E-rank wasn't going to be easy. It couldn't be, since Impact was going to almost double.
I watched my best friend grit his teeth as he suffered the pain of his Ascension, and as much as I wished I could just wave it after seeing it once or twice, I couldn't. This was rough to watch, no matter how many times I saw someone go through it. He took the pills one by one, tossing them back without much reaction until he hit the last one.

His body locked up, muscles tensing as the Impact hit him. I watched with my Eye of Revelation, seeing that same burst of soul energy that overflowed and spilled over, improving the rest of him as he struggled not to scream.

Finally he toppled over, panting on the ground. I passed him a glass of water, helping him sit up to drink it. While Callie's soul was stronger, and presumably Chelsea's too, I was shocked by how bad this was for him. If he had this much trouble how much pain would the process cause someone with a normal soul?

When he was done, he checked his stats and grimaced. "Well, I got a bit of an upgrade. Guess for a bigger change I need a Skill to mix in there." I wondered if that was true, or if he'd just mixed his ability badly. Not that I was even remotely willing to try my Skill building bullshit on something like an ability. I was likely to fuck up and kill someone.

"Well." I said impatiently. "Why don't you show me then, you overdramatic bastard? What did you get?" He chuckled weakly, pulling out some paper from his ring and scrawling out the details before sliding it over to me.

Benicio Cortez- E-rank. Ability: Expert Body of Inspiration- Allows the integration of existing inventions into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them, two items per placement.

Might-4474
Impact-65
Fantasy-256
Vitality-141
Focus-4641
Perception-282
Creation-171

Progress to next rank: 10030/100000


soul strength: Blue 65%

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current integrated tech. 10/20. Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts. Right fist: triple punch. Left forearm: F-ranked energy barrier or variable shape. Left fist: minor slow acting tranquilizer effect. Right foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps. Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly. Head: slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time. Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage. Chest: Pair of golden G rank spider legs that arch up from the shoulders. Waist: Belt of spiritual calming. Heart: Illusionary double

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

I nodded with interest. "Not bad, double the chances to integrate is pretty solid. It's not a qualitative change, but like you said you might need a Skill to include. But hey, at least your soul got stronger during the process." Risk vs. reward, that was how Ascension worked. More pain meant more gain.

Looking at his stats though, I wondered about something else. Abilities. Abilities weren't usually phrased like Skills. Mastery wasn't part of the names most of the time, they were more freeform and unusual. I'd always written that off, but knowing what I did about how Skills worked and how Ascension itself worked…

Was it possible that keeping your ability made it easier to form a Path with it? I'd lucked into Path of the Doom Sovereign, but most people had trouble forming a Path, let alone a solid Path. Maybe there were more reasons than just fast growth that people preferred heroic cultivation.

I filed it away as yet another thing about cultivation that made no damned sense to me, and focused on my friend. Seeing his troubled expression, I rolled my eyes. "Stand up, idiot." I said almost gently. "I get you're bummed you didn't get too big a change to your ability, but you're ignoring the best part."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, he climbed to his feet and…nearly leapt into the ceiling. Touching down, he gaped at me before his face bloomed into a full on grin. "Ok…that's fantastic." He hopped from one foot to the other, and I grimaced.

"Damn it, your Might is way higher than mine." I groused. "You're going to be substantially stronger than I am now. I'll have to beat you with cleverness and tact."

He smirked at me. "I think you'll need to DEVELOP cleverness and tact first."

"I think you need to develop shutting the fuck up." I replied with a pleasant smile. "Though to be fair, that's been a long time coming so I don't know why it would happen now."

He rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was thrilled. Benny had been feeling a bit left behind recently. Sure he was helping by paying me with his density shifts, but it wasn't like he was doing the actual work. He'd been pushing himself to get to E-rank so he could help again, really be of use.
"You realize, of course, that both of our workloads just like…quadrupled?" I asked him bluntly. "Now that you can density shift those blocks, we'll need to work non stop to get done in time. Aside from wish time with Jessie we're going to be doing manual labor almost non stop."

He shrugged. "I don't mind, as long as I'm better at it than you." Despite the camaraderie of the moment though, I couldn't resist the urge to snicker. When he heard me he looked annoyed. "What's so funny?"

I dissolved into a gale of laughter, and it took me a second to choke out. "Sorry, it's just. Your mom tried so hard to push you into being like your dad." His eyes narrowed as I gasped out. "Now you're going to spend the next few months working with rocks." I knew it wouldn't really bother him, Benny had a good relationship with his father, but still, the look of horror on his face was totally worth the lamp he threw at my head. He missed anyway.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Jessie's next bout of wishes actually DID get her to nine thousand, even without additional boosts from renown. I'd actually had ten more days left of wishes to devote rather than a week (I'd had thirty one days total, which in my mind was a month, which I tended to think of as four weeks exactly). That was seven hundred points, added to her existing eight thousand three hundred and eight, bringing her up to nine thousand and eight total points.

Apparently there hadn't been enough time for her to gain more stats from renown, and as she closed in on E-rank her bond with Randall was giving less and less Might, but regardless, she was within elixir distance of the rank up, and that was all I needed.

We didn't push Camden to get her pills fast though. We still had seventy nine days left, and seeing Benny make the jump had made it clear that even if your soul didn't make it to the peak, the further you went the easier you could break through. Jessie's soul was the weakest of us all. Even after working on it during Benny's boosting it was only at thirty percent of green, and that wasn't going to cut it.

On the upside, Benny and I had been working our asses off making blocks, and between his new blue soul and the lack of twenty charge limit per day, we'd made some SERIOUS headway.

"Five sections." I groaned. "That's all they've finished? I know we have to wait for Camden to wish for more foundations, but still, we've done so much work."

Benny snorted. "Are you kidding?" He gestured at the huge stone monoliths I'd finished merging, all already enchanted and ready for war. "Two thousand blocks? I mean, I know we already had some of it done, but still, that's great time. Almost eighty days left, if the Enchanters can keep up we'll get it done."

"You're not wrong." I said with a shrug. "We need those other foundations up quickly. My Dust Construction is up to Intermediate as of today, which should help us speed up. I still have no clue where Camden pulled all those Enchanters from, not that I'm complaining. Speaking of random bursts of power, any ideas on what to do with all those new slots?"

He chuckled at my abrupt subject change. "Hardly. I think I'm going to try to find some passive stat amplifiers. The kind of things you see from racial traits. There are ways to do Enchantments like that." He grinned at me wolfishly, clearly excited about our new discovery in that area.

After reading over Benny's new ability a bit more carefully, we'd become aware that we'd both missed an important change in the description. The word 'inventions' had become 'artifacts'. Benny had never tried integrating an enchanted item before, but the change implied he couldn't have if he'd wanted to. It made sense given Inventing Mastery was part of his ability.

"You're charging Camden for all this building work aren't you?" I asked with a laugh. My own payment was coming in the form of elixirs for the others and payment for Abel and Mel's upgrade wishes, so Benny wouldn't need to shell out for his own pills and could focus his windfall on what he needed.
.
My best friend just grimaced. "I am, but the Enchantments I'm talking about are EXPENSIVE. Luckily armor works better for me than weapons, so Sonia can help. She's just REALLY persnickity about accepting jobs. After finishing up all our armor sets she's free though."

I gestured at his new armor. "Why not just integrate it as is?" My best friend wore a black leather suit of light armor with a woven cloak of burnished bronze. The suit was edged with angular bronze designs, with cog wheels set strategically at the knuckles and joints to serve as strike plates. Unlike my set, Benny had gone with a more traditional hero choice of having his sigil put on the chest, a half cog in the shape of a C.

"Because it wouldn't do anything." He said in annoyance. "The suit is designed to lighten the burden of using integrated tech to affect my whole body. It strains the soul over time. Not a ton when I'm only doing it once, but spamming attacks gets tiring. I wouldn't have been able to manage this last week without it, that's for damned sure."

I nodded in understanding. "But integrating that kind of defeats the purpose." I said with a wince. "Plus if its the whole suit enchanted that way you'd need to burn too many slots to get all of it. Not worth the price."

"Pretty much." He agreed. "Which means I need custom gear to integrate. I'm hoping to get amplifiers that let me effectively use double my Focus and Might at least. Optimally Perception and Vitality too. Non physical stats are tougher to find stuff like that for sadly, so I'll have six empty slots to fill even if I get all those."

I whistled at the idea. I knew about modifier effects. I had a few, stuff that let my hits land twice as hard for instance. But Benny was talking about something else. Persistent stat changes, basically creating his own racial trait. It was a fascinating idea.

"Let me know how that goes." I said with a laugh. "Anyway, you glad you didn't take a commander position when you ranked up?" I asked with a smirk. "You've been having a laugh at my expense this last week, Training my century has been rough."

Even with Randall simulating a Stone Lion in his armor, we'd run into diminishing returns after a while. We'd had our monthly tournament a few days ago though, and that had helped morale at least. Alanna had won, to no one's surprise, but Ichabod had done shockingly well. She might not be our next month's victor at this rate.

Benny had been vocal about his relief that he hadn't needed to bother with them, to the point where Abel had offered to train him since he had so much free time. Not being stupid, Benny had said no, and had mostly just spent all his time working on making blocks with me.

There was a spread out pile of them behind us that would need to be hefted up out of the dirt and carried to the new foundations when they got made, because we'd run out of room and if we wanted to keep up with demands we'd need to keep going as we had. They'd partially sunk into the ground, but one of the locals had rigged up an earthen platform that had mitigated the problem at least.

Benny was smiling at my misfortunes, but when he glanced at the wall sections his smile wilted. "You sure they're ready for this Shane?" He asked quietly. "You sure WE are? Like how are you even going to access all the sections with the gaps between them for the spear formations?"

I pointed down. "Foundations connect to each other." I said with a smile. "Each of them is a highly sophisticated piece of engineering. It's why Camden is burning an entire wish on them. You know how high my Might is right now, not to mention my Impact. Triple those values? You can make some scary stuff."

I'd been shocked at the results of that first foundation with. A solid block of dense, powerful stone shaped to withstand quite a bit of weight and containing natural formations that allowed the wall to operate more effectively.

My wish power was so versatile, sometimes even I forgot how much. It made me look forward to building up our own territory more than ever. Callie had been workshopping ideas with Camden and the others when they had free time, and making a list that she wouldn't show me. She was also pocketing quite a bit of cash saving up for the wishes.

"And this gets easier right?" He said gesturing the the massive stone blocks. "I've noticed you're merging them more quickly, especially the last one we did today. I assume ranking up your Skill helped?"

I nodded. "More than you can imagine. Once it's done we'll still need to improve our coordination, of course. I'll need to train with the centuries in their spots between the sections, learn how to avoid crushing or stabbing them by accident. But other than that…I think this can work. This is a huge undertaking Benny, but making something like this? It's basically an oversized siege engine made just for me."

"Trust me." He laughed. "I know. I AM an Inventor. I can see how useful this is. I'm guessing that was partly inspired by the tower we made during the scavenger hunt?"

"Partly." I admitted with a chuckle. "Why? Are you flattered? That building was damned useful. Shame we can't have you make more now. Unless we could?" I hadn't considered that, but it might turn things around.

He just shook his head. "Intermediate Inventing means Intermediate materials. F-rank stuff basically. Given how suppressed those kinds of things are here, the buildings are pointless."

I hadn't considered that, though it led me to another question. "Can you integrate a building?" I hadn't really considered that, but it might be pretty useful. Invented buildings could have amazing effects, as we'd already seen.
"Probably." He admitted. "But there would be a lot of caveats. I'd have to have enough strength to handle the weight of the materials, plus nothing with a high Impact could be used, because trying to push that into myself might crack my soul. I imagine once my stats are high enough it wouldn't be impossible, hell I could probably do a planet in the later ranks, though it would be pointless. Most of them don't have abilities?"

I raised a brow at that. "Most?" I asked with interest. "There are planets with abilities?"

He waggled a hand. "Sort of." He looked to be deciding how to phrase something. "Formations are naturally occurring enchantments, and they can vary in size. Gems can naturally form runes, and so can planets. That's what dungeons are, at the least the natural ones. Obviously stuff like the Glade isn't naturally occurring but its based on a formation the same way our armor is. Studying dungeons lets your recreate them."

"So there are man-made Enchanted planets out there?" I asked curiously. "Because that sounds amazing."

He shrugged. "I think so? I researched this kind of thing a bit after hearing what Sonia could do. I wanted to see if it could improve my own crafting abilities. It was interesting but I don't exactly have many sources on planet. I spent a couple days after block making over at the library though. Syl is a fountain of knowledge, when she bothers to speak to you."

I chuckled, remembering Anna's researcher friend. I could see how she might be able to help digging into that kind of thing.

"Anyway." I said, getting back on topic. "Buildings would be useful as hell, at least of you could rank up your Inventing Skill. Well, useful or deadly. Inventing IS still pretty random, isn't it?" I'd been wondering how that was going for a while now. I knew Benny was trying to learn to steer the Skill a bit more, but only the strongest mad scientists could really do that. If he could manage though it would be a huge coup, especially if he ranked it up soon.

Benny looked amused. "I've been working on it. Steering Inventing is a matter of soul strength, surprisingly. Guiding the mad inspiration of the Skill. Once I hit Sapphire I think I can at least get close."

That was fantastic news. It meant one more possible weapon in our arsenal, and not a minute too soon. Seventy nine days left, and we still had so much to do, but I knew we could pull it off. I wasn't letting a monster like Spencer Tolbert get away with hurting my friend. In fact, if I had my way, he wouldn't even be leaving Stratholme alive.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day, my allotment of wishes for the four months was up. I'd gotten my thirty one days, and Camden had the next seventy eight covered by the contract he'd paid off with our armor. So, after our training for the day, he wished for another seven sections of foundation, and Benny and I got back to work making more bricks as E-ranked carried them over from the pile to stack them up in their wall shape.

Once that was finished for the day, we decided to take some time off and go check in on Abel and Mel. Camden mentioned a small tournament they'd been taking part in. Abel was up to about eight thousand stats total including his godslaying rollover, and he'd been cleaning up for renown, letting Mel take more of the wishes than not, so she wasn't far behind at seventy five hundred.

When we got into town, it wasn't hard to find the tourney, we just followed the crowd, ending up in a large warehouse (larger on the inside) where we had to pay a small toll to get in. It was later in the day, so we'd only bothered coming for the final match, but that was all we really needed to see anyway.

Once we found the place, we took a seat, waiting for the fights to start, and I triggered Stealth through my bond with Callie to keep our conversation private. "So, been a while since I've seen Abel fight, this should be pretty fun right?"

"Hell yeah." Said Benny excitedly. "And not only that, I haven't seen his new armor in action yet. His or Mel's. Can you imagine if it lets him use his Ragam easier, or his spatial lubrication? Not to mention his stronger soul. After so much time training on their own I bet they're both monsters now. Even more than before."

Before I could respond, the lights went out, and the crowd went silent. From the darkness, a deep, resonant voice boomed. "Ladies and gentlemen!" It echoed through the warehouse. "Tonight's battle is one we've all been waiting for. For weeks now, a mysterious newcomer has been dominating the local tournament brackets. Low stakes, high stakes, he sweeps them all. In the right corner, weighing in at one hundred eighty five pounds of pure muscle… I'm having a little trouble here folks, what is his name?"

As one, nearly the entire crowd roared. "APOLLYON!" I felt the tension ratchet up, and I had to grin at the skill this guy was showing. He really knew how to whip up a crowd.

There was a blinding spotlight suddenly cutting the air, illuminating the form of my mentor one on side of a huge empty ring. I was impressed by the show he was putting on, the new armor making a hell of an impression as the bright light silhouetted him against the darkness.

Abel's armor was more…esoteric, than I'd expected. His normal silver half mask was present, but above it he wore a dark tri corn hat. His outfit was a crisp silver vest over a rough leather shirt, and over that a huge leather coat with a mantle over the shoulder, covered in pockets and fasteners. His pants were leather too, worn over heavy leather boots, and the whole outfit looked dangerous and mysterious.

I cheered with everyone else, but it wasn't long before the announcer started hyping the opponent. "Now our next contender needs no introduction. He's the undefeated champion of the Saltzberg fight scene, the city's favored son, the living shadow, the dark of knight. Ladies and gentlemen give it up for CHASM!"

The light came on again, this time aimed at the other side, and revealing a slight looking man wearing a pair of beat up looking leathers and a large hooded cloak. The inside of the cloak showed no face, not even a slight reflection of eyes. It reminded me of the cloak Nat was wearing when we met, just a see of unpierceable darkness.

Another few clicks and more lights came on, about six of them, just enough to show the whole ring without illuminating the stands at all, giving the illusion that there was nothing beyond the two finalists.

I could see my mentor's amused smile perfectly as he took in his enemy, and in the stillness of the warehouse, my advanced Perception made hearing them child's play. "So. I like the look. Most kids are afraid of the space under their bed, but apparently you were the only child brave enough to ask the question 'what if I asked it for fashion tips?' "

The opponent didn't respond. Abel waited for a minute before rolling his eyes. "I hate when they don't take the bait. Fine, edgelord, we'll do this the boring way."

Abel blurred forward, the sand kicking up around him as he wove in a serpentine pattern towards his opponent. Cicada stacking step left afterimages behind him as he approached and then started to circle the enemy. He threw out a few testing jabs, all easily avoided or deflected, but didn't commit overly much, just feeling Chasm out.

Suddenly, one of the testing blows became a full haymaker, aimed right at the hooded man's head. There was a subtle shift in the dark of the hood, and when Abel's fist punched through…it kept going. It was like he'd fallen into a hole, and his eyes went wide as Chasm's hands, wafting black smoke, scythed up, fingers hooked into claws, right for Abel's throat.

When they hit, they tore apart one of the after images, and Abel grinned viciously. With a snap like a rubber band recoiling the next closest afterimage was pulled backward, slamming into each image and building power and solidity as the strength of each image stacked on top.

At the end of the chain Abel rode the momentum, spinning up and whipping his leg around to smash into the side of Chasm's head.

The other fighter tried to dodge, but I saw him get stuck, and my eyes widened as I realized that Abel hadn't just used those afterimages to create a distraction. Each of them had warped the space they occupied. Not in the usual way, but into a sort of spatial quagmire that held Chasm like a mosquito trapped in amber.

We were all on the edge of our seats as Abel's kick, with enough power to smash an average E-ranker's defenses, plowed directly into the side of Chasm's fucking HEAD. I was half expecting it to kill the guy, and I watched in horrified fascination, waiting for someone to call the match.

But they didn't, and for good reason, his leg hit the cloak and it wrapped around him like a bat hitting a piece of hanging laundry. There was a flare of dark smoke, and patches of the spatial quagmire vanished.

I wasn't sure to be more shocked at Abel or at the opponent. Escaping that was nuts, but what Abel had done… it was insane. His spatial lubrication ability was a method of altering the viscosity of space, and he'd clearly taken that to the opposite extreme. It was a feat of absurd control and precision.

Inverting your ability might not seem like something that impressive, but it was the equivalent of Cark using his fine power to freeze things by sucking the heat out of them. It was possible, but it was fucking HARD.

On top of that, Abel's power was a spatial ability, and they were notoriously difficult to control and figure out. Even his current skillset was a truly staggering level of technique for someone at our level. To do THIS? Well, I wasn't sure who the hell Chasm was, but I was impressed he was still standing.

Abel, to my shock, didn't pursue him, he stepped back, foot landing on a trail of lubricated space I hadn't even seen as the distance between his current location and the spot he was retreating to just…dissolved.

"Void." He said in annoyance. "I hate void abilities. I assume you're some kind of duellist variation?"

The darkness coalesced, revealing a smiling guy probably the same age as me, with long dark hair and pale skin. "You took my hood off." He said reproachfully. "That wasn't nice. Chasm was a useful fiction for keeping my day to day free of distraction." He cracked his neck. "I can't say I'm not impressed though. Most don't manage to push me this far."

Abel laughed. "Kid, I'm going to push you a hell of a lot further than that." And then he VANISHED.

I'd seen my mentor move before, REALLY move. He was fast. But this was next level. He'd used his ability to lubricate the ground across the ring, creating a sort of winding path of slipstreams only he seemed to see and magnifying his already terrifying Might score with ability based propulsion.

He appeared periodically around the ring, fists flying, and I saw his old standby, massive fist manifestations, crash down around Chasm, whose eyes had gone wide.

But that wasn't all. The large scale strikes seemed to be herding the other fighter into a pattern, and Abel's physical body was appearing in the gaps, throwing more condensed close range punches, often at the same time as the larger ones, mixing afterimages with his insane speed and both ranged and close up combat.

When the fist manifestations hit, they exploded, creating still zones with that cloying, sticky spatial energy to slow down Chasm, and the void user was having to expel bursts of dark energy to eat through them. Abel's smaller images were hitting him after a burst, taking advantage of an apparent cooldown.

To his credit though, Chasm was no amateur. In the short range fight, he was doing better than expected. Shifting his body slightly to take the surprise blows in the least unpleasant places he could to prevent them from wearing him down, giving as good as he got, shattering images left and right.

In the end, as it so often was, the soul was what made the difference. Abel was two full ranks ahead of where a normal person would be. His powerful soul made the constant barrage of complicated techniques and tricks tenable for him, while Chasm was forced to overwork his with huge bursts of void energy at F-rank. Eventually, he couldn't hold on and slipped up, one punch missing by a hair.

Abel punished him for it, the local fighter having overextended himself and leaving his jaw open for a brutal uppercut.

The entire warehouse was quiet as a mouse as the man toppled over into the sand, slamming down on the ground and not moving. Abel watched cautiously, fists still raised in a guard, but finally, there was a bellow of triumph and every person in the place, Benny and I included, came to our feet and screamed in victory at the brilliant fight.

"Yup." said a voice behind us. "That was definitely a good one." We turned to see Mel sitting behind us, winking at us with one orange eye. "Glad you boys could make it. Sorry you missed my fight earlier though. What did you think?" Her voice was amused, and I rolled my eyes at the obvious jump scare.

I shrugged nonchalantly. "It wasn't bad." I said in a faux casual tone. Benny rolled his eyes. "Ignore him, he just wanted to mess with Abel after all the harsh training. That was amazing. I take it you won yours too?" He seemed so pumped he could barely sit still, and I smiled at the enthusiasm from my best friend.

"I did." She said with a laugh. "And I don't mind the lacking praise. He doesn't need a bigger head anyway. Good for you. Not that it would work, but thanks for trying." We laughed and started talking about what they had been up to, hearing more about the tournaments and the training they'd done for them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next seventy eight days flew by. Word of our godslaying must have still been spreading, because I got the occasional burst of stats when I hit a milestone, as did Callie and Abel. I got five hundred each in Might, Fantasy, Vitality, and Perception, bringing me up to thirteen thousand total or so. Callie got a thousand in Might and two thousand in Fantasy and Perception and made the jump to fifteen thousand total, managing to inch her soul up to ninety five percent of blue in the process.

During the downtime, most of our people had managed to make E-rank. Abel, Mel, Gabe, Bethy, and Callen had all ranked up, though Nat herself had been unable to make it, having been paid directly for all the points she gave Abel and Mel.

In the meantime, Benny and I had been working our asses off, and had FINALLY finished all the wall sections. I'd put in so much work over the past couple months I'd even managed to hit Expert with Dust Construction Mastery, allowing me full use of the monstrously large and powerful walls we'd set up.

"Forty sections." I said in awe, staring at the defensive lines we'd erected. "Ten per side, all heavily enchanted. Sixteen thousand blocks total. It seems so crazy, even though we ended up losing most of the enchanters early on."

Once we'd gotten a better idea of our timeline (Camden had used a wish to confirm the attack date) they'd been pulled for other projects, we'd only needed a little over two hundred blocks a day to stay on track, and they'd been required on other projects. I'd actually wanted to go bigger with the wall, but I knew that wasn't feasible.

Benny, who was aware of this, helpfully reminded me why we'd done it this way. "There are limits to what you can control, even with a Sapphire soul and Expert Dust Construction. Not to mention the majority of the centuries need to be committed to keeping Clairdon's men off us, not to mention preparing for whatever nasty surprise Spencer has waiting. Assuming we don't get hit with any of the big boys this will hold."

"He's right." Said Camden as he stepped up next to us. On his left, Abel stepped up, silently regarding the wall, with Mel on his other side. They'd been picked for guard duty, given how hard it was to surprise Abel. "We've done the best we can with this. We're ready."

I cocked my head at that. "Yeah, I've been wondering about that…why exactly are we ready? Like why do we know exactly when the attack will happen." It seemed stupid to be so obvious about it to me, but everyone just acted like knowing the exact date this was going down was totally reasonable.

"Why else?" Said the Baron with a chuckle. "Reputation. There have been studies done about the impact of surprise attacks vs. declarations of war. On the whole, that anticipation seems to generate greater results, and it's easier to spin a narrative justifying the attack ahead of time and then fit into it. Being forced to attack from the dark makes you look like the underdog, which is fine if you're taking a position from someone, but it's a bad look for a defender expected to hold the land in question long term."

That forced a laugh out of me. "Now imagine how bed they're going to look if Clairdon gets linked to the Stone Lion attack."

"Which is why I don't think he knows about it." Agreed Camden. "Or if he does he's being lied to about the scale. Sadly any attempt to reach out to him is being taken for mind games. My people have been positioned and trained for the attack, for both attacks, but he's going to take some serious damage."

Part of me had expected to feel pleased that our enemy was going to be taking the brunt of the Stone Lion invasion, or at least helping but… it just felt wrong. All those people dying at the whims of a psychopath like Spencer, and for what?

I hated him. Camden had opened up more about his life, about Sara, the information broker that betrayed him, about Spencer, about his home. It had added context and depth to the already profound loathing I felt for the other Tolbert. The only person I'd ever hated this much was Travis, and he'd LITERALLY stabbed me in the back.

"So the other centuries have been engaging in lots of mock battles right?" I'd been looking forward to those myself actually, but I knew my people would be needed at the walls, so they'd continued training with Randall, Gabe, and sometimes Abel. They'd gotten frighteningly competent at stopping a charge from a strong opponent, with my cover from the walls, they would be fine during the melee.

He waggled a hand. "I wouldn't say mock battles. More…codified engagements, but yes. Especially the elite unit, they've been crossing swords with Clairdon's people on and off for months." He grinned at me knowingly. "Of course, they haven't been showing off the extreme bump in power from all the wishes. Skills, gear, consumable items, we've outfitted my best people with quite a few toys to turn the tide."

"You're the expert." I shrugged. "I haven't had time to learn large scale tactics, between working, politics, and wishing, I've been booked solid. Callie's had to drag me away from work on the weekends to force me to decompress. Gods bless that girl."

Benny snickered. "I think that was half for your good and half for hers. You two are both miserable if you don't get a decent amount of time together. Not that she was the only one who benefited, you're even worse. A few days is fine, but I don't want to put up with a Shane that hasn't seen Callie in more than two months."

"Yeah, because you and Celine definitely don't spend every waking moment together." I said dryly. Turning to Camden, I held out a hand. "Oh, forgot to ask, did you finally get ahold of those elixirs for Jessie? Tomorrow is the big day, and we really don't want our healer unable to make a difference."

He nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bag. "Vitality." He said as he passed them over. "Given the coming battle those have become scarce. I had to overpay, so I hope you're grateful." Despite his words, I could see his excitement at the prospect of his hired healer ranking up. Jessie had done quite a bit for his forces, and she was likely to be key in our victory.

One of the things I'd noticed in my time as a cultivator was that healing wasn't nearly as common an ability as one might expect. People didn't like being left behind or coddled, especially not dramatic and bold people like high ranking Ascendants.

Most of the Ascendants that did heal tended to tweak their ability to make it versatile enough to be used in combat. People like Serenity and the Peace Lord, who were excellent healers but could be just as terrifying on the battle field, were the norm among healers.

Jessie was one of the few people I'd heard of who pushed for a more traditional healing discipline. Sure, she'd tweaked her ability same as most, but she'd altered to to allow overcharge and long term changes. It was still a potent and direct healing method, with beast taming being more of a side benefit.

As someone who was ostensibly a support myself, I was impressed how integral she'd managed to make herself. She had enough Vitality on hand to be an effective support for E-rankers literally as soon as she ranked up, and the further she got with her Vitality, the stronger her ability would become. Not to mention the dividends it would pay in terms of renown.

Thanking Camden, I left Benny talking with him to head to the healer's tent. Tomorrow was the big day, so I wanted to make sure the last holdout from my main team was ready.

Arriving at the tent, I came to a stop at the flap as I opened it to find a familiar face hanging in front of me upside down. I sighed at Bethy. "Why?" I asked simply, assuming I didn't need to explain my confusion.

"I'm guarding the door." She said solemnly. "I'm even wearing pants." She gestured to the armored leather outfit she had on to replace her usual ball gowns. "Sonia made it for me. Pretty cool, huh?" She seemed smug about the new outfit, and I smiled, rolling my eyes. "Not as cool as yours though. I wish I had a crown." She added, flipping down to land perfectly on her feet, arms up in a V like a gymnast.

I chuckled at the showmanship. "I'm sure. Now if you don't mind, your highness. I need to see Jessie. Is she here?"

"She's in the back." The Vampire said with a smile. "Chelsea brought Chalk over, and he's playing with Randall." I shuddered slightly, feeling sorry for the lower ranked bear. I wasn't sure what that rabbit considered playing, but I doubted I'd like it. I thanked her and headed for the back of the tent, where a sectioned off part of the space doubled as a break room.

When I entered, Jessie smiled at me, holding up a finger to her lips as she gestured to where my sister had fallen asleep against a wall. I nodded gesturing her out, and then handed her the bag Camden had given me. Looking inside, she nodded excitedly. "Five hundred." She said happily. "It's all I need at this point, I've been slowly gaining Vitality for the last few months. You mind watching me while I get this done?"

"Sure." I said with a smile. "Is your soul up to it? Benny said he's been helping you train it, I know his spiritual calming is WAY more effective because of the rank difference. What are you at?"

She grinned. "Sixty three percent." She said proudly. "Benny even got up to seventy five percent of blue working with his so often, though a lot of that was probably crafting those blocks. Anyway, I'm higher than he was on his last rank up, I should be fine."

"Alright." I said, blowing out a breath. "Let's do this." I gestured to a spot in the center of the tent clear of stuff. She nodded, sitting down as Bethy got closer, her expression serious as she stood guard, letting Donuts, Poptarts, and Luggage out to keep an eye on our friend as she pulled out series of small green pills.

Because of the shortage it looked like Camden had gotten five one hundred Vitality pills instead of one five hundred. One by one, Jessie slugged them back, unworried about the weight of them given how little they represented as a percentage of her highest stat.

She went through the process much more smoothly than Benny, as we'd hoped, and though there was some adjusting, she got past it quickly and was able to share her new status with me right away, though there was nothing too surprising. She'd gotten a few hundred points extra, dragging some of her low stats up, probably by virtue of being so behind in so many of them at such a high rank.

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

Might-1425
Impact-65
Fantasy-208
Vitality-8004
Focus-305
Perception-215
Creation-208
Progress to next rank: 10430/100000
Pet- Wolf named Lily and bear named Randall(Intermediate Beast Bonding with Jessie)

soul strength: Blue- 63%

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

I grinned as I took in the subtle changes, but that wasn't the end of it. I heard a small rumble as sparks began to come off her, green light leaping up and falling on the small form on her shoulder. The form hopped down, and we dragged a few objects clear as she returned Randall to a bigger if not full sized form. Jessie wasn't the only one ranking up. Randall was about to hit E-rank, and I for one was excited to see what that would be like.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We'd had contact with lots of beasts over the time we'd been travelling. Even back on Callus there were quite a few of them, animals like my wolf Jin and the other puppies, or even Randall himself, but we'd seen more powerful beasts since leaving our home planet as well. We were well and truly used to dealing with them at this point, but despite our extensive experience, none of us had ever seen a beast rank up.

Strolling over to the entrance, I called Bethy over and as she made her appearance, I leaned up against the tent wall. "So…what can you tell me about beast evolutions? You're good with animals right?"

The Vampire nodded. "Oh sure, I've seen plenty of animals evolve. My family interacts with them a lot. Animal companions are easier to bond with than thralls, since Thrall is a Job that needs to be adopted rather than a process you can do at any time."

"So how does it work? How do animals reach the next rank?" I asked as I stared at Randall. The bear had laid down, head on his paws, and I could see his soul changing with Eye of Revelation, but it was MUCH slower than it had been for any of the humans I'd seen.

Shrugging, she tilted her head thoughtfully before answering. "Age?" She finally said. "Or, I guess not. But kind of. You know how passive item and material cultivation works right?" When I nodded, she continued. "Well beasts are like that. Which means that longer lived animals tend to develop the kind of reputation that makes them grow. Actual rank ups for animals are a bit different though, since they don't have abilities it works more like a racial trait, changing what they are. When an animal ranks up they evolve into a NEW animal."

"That makes sense." I said slowly. "But how do we know what kind of new animal? I can use Eye of Revelation to see some details, but it's not like he can share his stat sheet with us."

She shrugged. "You can't. This isn't some game where you can identify things with a magic spell."

I laughed at that. Identification actually WAS a possible ability of Divination classes in Doom Sovereign, but it was an extremely high level ability. I might be able to develop it when I hit D-rank, but I couldn't say for sure. I had to admit though, I was excited to see what Randall would become.

"Is this safe though?" I asked as I stared at the tense looking bear. "Like is there any risk to him?"

Her smile was reassuring as she patted me on the shoulder. "Not at all. This is a totally natural process. Jessie helped with the bond, but it's still something his body was designed to handle. Plus Jessie is here to help." She nodded to my friend, who was kneeling on the other side of her bear with a patient and encouraging smile, hands on his side as she channeled life energy into him.

It was a fascinating thing to watch in real time. Unlike Jessie, Benny, and even myself, Randall's body wasn't full of Skill patterns. Rather, he seemed to be made up in a similar way to a Skill himself. It had taken a bit of tweaking the crown to get a better look, but her mention of a racial trait had helped me figure out what to look for.

Randall's body was built a lot like a Skill, in that he seemed to be made of stats constructed in certain ways. I saw lots of Might, which was expected, but also lots of Vitality, more of which seemed to be flowing in even as I watched. I could see the Vitality points trying to break up the Might chains, inserting themself into the patterns to try to alter the way the bear was made. It was sort of like what I imagined watching a virus infecting a person would look like in a microscope.

Thankfully, it didn't seem like it was causing any damage or harm, just altering the patterns in unusual ways that seemed to ripple out and change more and more. Despite his physical form not changing visibly yet, Randall was already a very different being than he had been to start.

His soul wasn't what I expected, being green after the upgrade, apparently some of Jessie's training had gotten through the bond, as the soul changed and overflowed, it rolled through the body, lubricating the stats so the changes could happen more easily, and I saw spiderwebs of faint patterns too small and quickly fading to understand.

I had to flinch back and let my brain process for a second, because I wasn't equipped to understand what was going on. Racial traits (if that's what this was) were WAY more complicated than Skills, taking up the whole body and beating out maybe even my wish ability for complexity, though it was hard to say since I couldn't really understand either of them. I heard Bethy gasp, and saw nothing, but I realized my Eye of Revelation was hiding the changes.

Allowing my skill to fade, I saw the changes she was seeing. Randall, who had always been a big brown bear, had started to change. The brown darkened to black, swirls of green rolling across the visible fur. His eyes blazed with green light, and he shrank in size, condensing to a more durable and stocky form.

The changes took a few minutes, and when he was finally done, he stood up on his back legs (still easily fifteen feet tall, lucky we were in a tent with a vaulted ceiling) and let out a bonerattling roar.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Demanded our healer as she glared up the bear. Randall stopped roaring, looking confused as she planted hands on her hips. "This is a sick tent. There are injured people resting, and we're in the middle of a camp. People could be sleeping, working, or who knows what else."

Randall hunched his shoulders, averting his eyes as he grumbled out a low growl. It didn't seem hostile, more sullen, and Jessie was having none of it.

"I don't CARE how Mighty you are." She snapped. "You use your inside voice when you're in the camp. How am I supposed to explain to all the scrambling soldiers that there isn't a beast attacking them? We're being invaded by lions tomorrow!"

That was…a really good point actually. I turned to see if anyone had shown up to check and saw Chelsea coming back inside. She was laughing at the sulking bear and waved us off, a smug rabbit sitting on her shoulder. "It's fine, I told the first person who showed up what happened and he promised to spread the word."

Jessie sighed in relief. "Well that's good at least. Tomorrow will be stressful enough without a bunch of people glaring at me all day."

"You're the healer." I said with a scoff. "Nobody gives the healer shit. That's like…the first rule of having powers."

Chelsea nodded. "He's right. I'm not exactly a healer, but my flames can do similar things when it comes to say, poisons, and even I get plenty of leeway from others." She paused. "Also my grandfather is the Pope, so that probably helps. But mostly the healer thing."

I snickered at her. "You undermined your point there a bit. Anyway did you see Randall's cool new color scheme?" I pointed at the bear, hoping to amuse him a bit so he would cheer up. As expected he preened, leaning back to show off the green and black pattern under his dark metal armor.

The combination, I had to admit, looked pretty sharp. I'd seen some intimidating beasts in my day, but Randall was up there, even moreso than before when he'd been a giant bear the size of a bus.

Chelsea made the appropriate oohs and aahs of amazement, and Randall's smugness ratcheted up a few notches, until Chalk got jealous and hurled himself across the room. One of those big thumping bunny feet slammed into Randall's helmeted head, rocking the big bear to the side and the rabbit cheered in victory, hopping up and down on his defeated foe.

"Chalk!" Said Chelsea with horror. "You can't just attack people…" She trailed off. "Or bears I guess. Bad rabbit, is my point."

Jessie walked over, zero fear in her as she snagged the rabbit by the scruff and tossed him at his owner. She knelt down with a wince, rubbing Randall's head. "Poor baby. Did the mean old bunny hurt you?" He cooing voice appeared to embarrass the bear, who hid his head under his paws with a whine. Jessie scoffed. "There's nothing wrong with me worrying about you. It's not humiliating at all."

I tried suppress my snicker, but must have failed because Jessie just glared at me and I put my hands up. "So…do you know what kind of bear he is?"

She nodded. "I can see specifically actually." She smirked at me. "He might not be able to show you his stat sheet, but he shows up on mine." She squinted into space. "Apparently he's an 'Undying Lifestorm Ursa'. Not sure what that is, but it sounds pretty impressive. I wonder how that happened?"

"You, obviously." I said bluntly. "That bond is two way, and he's been dumping Might into your stat sheet for months. I imagine you've been doing the same, not to mention your lifeweaving can improve animals over time with consistent application. You've been pouring high level mutation energy into him for as long as you've been bonded. No wonder he got a nice upgrade."

Jessie's class was a rare variant that had evolved from her earliest plant ability thanks to some mixed in Skills and what we assumed was a LOT of influence from stacking Vitality. It was normally impossible to weight yourself that heavily to a single stat, and it seemed to have worked out well for her, as shown by some of her amazing abilities.

Right now though, I was more curious about what an 'Undying Lifestorm Ursa' could do. "Hey Randall?" I asked the bear. "Why don't you try…doing something." I trailed off lamely,flushing as everyone gave me flat looks. "Sorry, I don't know what to suggest. He'd know better than I would."

The big bear snorted, looking away dramatically, and suddenly… there was light. Green flames erupted from his eyes and the green portions of his fur. I saw his muscles stretch, making him bigger without much skeletal change. He blurred forward, paws swiping out as he attacked Chalk, who effortlessly slipped aside from the attacks.

Jessie snapped at him, but at that point it didn't matter, the smug rabbit was MUCH higher in E-rank than Randall and was well accustomed to the power.

Still, Randall attacked with blistering speed, hundreds of blows so fast I could barely keep up, and didn't seem to tire out. It appeared that Jessie's buff had become a permanent part of him, as his 'Lifestorm' tag had implied.

While the bear snarled at the smug rabbit, my sister walked over and scooped her pet up, bopping him on the nose. The sheer horror and outrage on the face of the rabbit at her audacity was hilarious as she turned and walked out of the tent, holding the shocked and furious bunny.

"Well, seems like we did everything that needed doing." I said as I looked around. "I know you'll be needed her tomorrow, but can you take some time to come to dinner? I wanted to eat as a group on the last night before the big battle, considering we're all going to be split up."

She smiled, using her pendant to shrink Randall before snatching him up like a plushy. "Sure, sounds like fun." She said cheerfully. "Lead the way." And with a smile, I did just that. Bethy trailed behind us and I was glad to see her come along. It was important for us all to spend time together before everything got crazy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning saw me up on the wall, supervising the placement of mine and Callie's centuries along with a few spares as they took their places at the openings between the segments. Each of the front lines was equipped with gleaming black spears covered with obvious enchantments, weapons specifically made for killing the Stone Lions.

As predicted, a good chunk of our friends weren't here. Callie would be on the other side of the walls, tapping into my abilities through our bond to take some of the segments off my hands and lighten the load, Abel and Mel were with Camden, Chelsea, Nat, Valk, and Bethy were guarding Jessie, and Benny, Callen, and Gabe were among the centuries below as backup.

Watching everyone get in place, I let out a low whistle. "This…this is going to be a mess isn't it?" I asked my girlfriend, who was standing next to me watching the prep. My arm was around her shoulder and she was curled up against my side. I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.

"No more than most things we've done." She said with a reassuring smile. "At least there are no gods here this time."

I barked out a laugh at that. "And hey, if someone dies we can just bring them back."

Despite meaning it as a joke, I regretted it immediately. I knew she still blamed herself for Perit, and I'd stuck my foot in my mouth anyway. Before I could apologize though, she shook her head. "Not everyone." She said softly. "We got lucky with Perit and Alan, they died in pretty simple and direct ways. No soul damage. But I looked into it, talked to Nat, Zeke, and Anna… Shane, if your soul shatters, like it can sometimes when ranking up or overstraining…you're fucked. No second chances."

"That can't be right." I said with a frown. "We've seen people bring back gods from fragments before."

She shook her head. "A normal S-ranker who hasn't broken any shackles can reach the Obsidian Soul Body at best. That's the black souled version of the Sapphire Soul Body you have. The next step up, which you need to reach to become a demigod like Bethy told you about, is a Mercury Soul Body, and above that, which you have to reach to become a god without dying is a Mirrored Soul Body. Mirrored Souls are resilient and durable, they remain viable after shattering, but anything below that… wishes don't really affect souls, you know that."

"So we tell our people not to overstress their souls." I said firmly. "That's bad, but it's manageable. We can make sure everyone is safe about this."

Burying her face in my chest, she took a deep breath before pulling back, her face a mask of calm serenity. "Yeah, you're right. We'll be fine. I'm just a little worried about the others out there in the main battle. Ironically, I think we might be the safest out of everyone."

"Maybe so." I laughed. "Using his last few wishes to tilt the odds in favor of all the stronger lions emerging from the secondary entrance he made was a smart call on Camden's part. With Zeke there to take out anything above D-rank and Anna helping with the E-rank and above, we should be able to take care of the rest."

Part of that plan was to arrange for the lions to release into the formation Clairdon was bringing. It was just a shame we hadn't been able to sway any of the other Barons like we'd been hoping for. Aside from the suspicion that Spencer might have already paid them off, Camden couldn't give up the wishes.

Checking the time on my scan ring, I grimaced. "Alright, I think we should be getting close. Anna's people in Clairdon's estate said seven P/M on the dot, and Camden seems certain Spencer will time his attack in lockstep. The sooner we take these damned things out the sooner we can get over there and help Camden himself. Abel can handle most stuff, but I have a bad feeling about Spencer."

Callie nodded, leaning up to give me a quick kiss before heading off to the other side of the walls. She wouldn't be able to control a full half, but with my Expert Dust Construction at her disposal and access to Belial through me, she should be more than capable of mobilizing one whole side of the square palisade.

Once she was in place, I called down to my people to be ready, then looked down at the well in the center of the massive four sided fortification. We'd cleared a ton of space around it to be safe. Taking a deep breath, I reached out with Moonlit Night and blanketed the entire center in a thick fog.

I didn't go all the way to the edges, leaving enough space for the spear formations between the walls to see them emerge and prep to spear them, since I couldn't bring that many people into the Skill, not with everything else I had to do today.

Once that was done, I waited. And waited. More waiting. The wait continued. Just when I was about ready to scream in frustration, I felt a rumble. At first I thought it was the charge of the lions themselves, but a quick flex of Song of the Soil showed me that a portion of the cave system had collapsed. Luckily we were standing on conjured super firm foundation made to support literal tons of stone, so they were more than stable.

"Brace yourselves." I bellowed. "They're coming!" I could feel the lions, not perfectly, since they were only covered in rock and not made of it, but I could still feel them, and they were on the way.

I triggered Belial, then reached down into the wall with Dust Construction, and took control of three sides of the square. The walls dropped a few feet as I channeled the top few feet of stone into the base to increase the range of the stone tentacles and limbs, creating a deadly forest of toxic burning stone.
My soldiers, to their credit, didn't react much to the fog, and I made sure the noise from the eruption of Stone Lions would carry through the obscuring blanket of mist so they'd know what was happening. As I watched, large stone forms spilled out of the ground like ants from a hill, basically all F-rank as expected.

With a shove of my soul through the walls, the tendrils and spears shot out into the fog, tearing through the lions as they came out, ripping apart the stone hides with ease. I watched them die by the dozens and was starting to think this might be easier than expected, until a small wave of E-ranked monsters erupted from the dirt, tearing the ground around the well as they emerged, and allowing some of the others to slip by me.

That was fine, we'd expected that. It was why we had outfitted the centuries with the spears. Sure enough, it didn't take more than a second for the escaped F-rank lions to hit the wall of spear wielding defenders. They were all outfitted with sturdy but mobile shields, and like they'd been trained, they locked them together, bouncing back the charge of the lions as the next row rammed their own spears into the beasts.

When the charge broke, and the lions retreated, the shields retracted, and the front line jabbed dark metal spikes into the rear of the escaping monsters, felling quite a few with the parting shots.

I couldn't pay to much attention to that though, I was bust using my walls to corral and contain the E-rank Lions. They had quite a bit more Might than I did, obviously, but it did them shockingly little good. My overlay was in full bloom, and I laughed as my toxic tentacles, spear tipped and otherwise, herded to the monsters together.

"NOW!" I bellowed, as soon as they were in a tight grouping. I dropped a section of wall as Gabe came streaking from behind it on his starlight steed, silver spear glowing and a mad grin plastered across his face.

He slammed into a lion, his spear penetrating through the damned thing and out the other side snagging another one on it like a kebab, and not even slowing down as I dropped a section of wall opposite the first to let him vanish out the other side. With the fog active the damned cats couldn't even see what had happened, and I reapplied pressure with the walls to start herding them back together.

I was stabbing them as often as I could, but these were high E-rank. Apparently the wish had only been able to steer circumstances so much, which wasn't a shock, Camden had asked for things to tilt in our favor, which was much more affordable than some kind of invisible wall that didn't let E-rankers through.

Callie was doing the same with her wall, though I could feel the strain on her soul from using my abilities, she was almost out of juice. This entire thing was only possible because I had the gear to offset the strain and because this was MY Skill they had used. I knew it better than anyone, and Dust Construction mitigated even that level of strain.

The sound of screams and roars echoed along the walls and through the fog, and I saw some of my people die. Ichabod dropped his shield too quickly and a cat got under his guard, it grabbed his arm and shook him like a rag doll, throwing him over its shoulder as a series of spears perforated it, but it was already too late. Ranks reformed around the gap in time to prevent anyone else from that spot being lost, but he was hardly the only one to go down.

My smile dropped. This was suddenly much less fun, and my head was starting to hurt. Despite all the preparations this was a LOT of power to be handling. The only upside was that the toxic fire had seeped into the ground from all the dead lions, and it was corroding the new ones as they came out, softening them up for the spears, just like we'd hoped.

Despite the losses though, we were doing it, we were holding the damned walls and we were winning. There had been a lot of the things down there, and I was sure we had plenty to go, but if we kept this up we might actually get out of this alive in time to help the others.

Of course, as if fate had been taunted by the thought, that's when shit hit the fan. A wave of plants erupted from the ground, driving into the walls and tearing them apart. They didn't come down, my efforts at condensing and merging them paying dividends, but the plants ripped into the stone, destroying the enchantments and causing a failure in the Belial Skill.

I looked around in a panic as a vortex of wind swept away my fucking fog, revealing the now suddenly much more vulnerable defenders to a wave of very pissed off Stone Lions.

"Are you fucking KIDDING ME?" I howled. "What fresh hell is this?" I scanned the walls and crowds. "Who did that?" Unfortunately my question died on my lips as I caught sight of a familiar figure in rich robes.

The Magister. Fuck. He hadn't actually intruded yet, presumably out of caution of the higher rankers I was backed by, but he'd essentially crushed months of defensive work in a pair of moves. I wanted to attack the rat bastard, but the longer that was put off the better, for now I needed to help my people.

Luckily for me, while the destruction of the Belial Skill definitely sucked, the walls were STILL made of my stone and I could still manipulate them. I took a long, deep breath and focused, redoubling my attacks. One thing at a time. I just hoped I would survive that strategy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The whole plan was falling apart. The walls were supposed to be pretty much impossible for the F-rank lions to pass. With the fog up I could see if any of them jumped and swat them back down. The massive difference in power made that trivial.

Now though, the fog was gone, the walls were crumbling, and with the breaking of the Skill I'd officially lost the corrosion effect that had been weakening the things for my troops.

The Magister, meanwhile, stood impassively on a corner of the walls away from myself and Callie, watching with interest as our whole operation fell apart.

A new form landed next to me, barely noticeable as I tried to corral the lions with the no longer enchanted but still highly durable stone. I'd let Belial drop, which had taken some of the burden off my soul, but it was still difficult and complicated. "Shane." Said a semi-familiar voice. Callen.

"Little busy." I grunted. "But good timing. Any ideas how we can take care of the Magister? Because while he might not be directly attacking us, there's no chance he isn't going to screw us over in the end. We've got to take him out." I wasn't sure the wall would be able to put a dent in him though, I was only barely E-rank.

Callen shook his head. "We can't." He said bluntly. "We've got no chance of injuring someone like that."

I was so shocked I almost froze, barely keeping up my onslaught as my people tried their best to group up into one of the backup formations we'd briefly drilled. I was suddenly glad I'd listened to Demia and insisted they learn that turtle formation, despite preferring to put my eggs all in one basket. "What do you MEAN, we can't?" I spat. "He's just one rank above us. I'm sure we could throw together an invocation that would hurt him."

"Do you know why D-rank is considered a watershed?" He asked me as his sword licked out and disembowled an E-rank lion that had managed to sneak up on me, before kicking its corpse into the face of another one trying to climb the wall. I suddenly realized why he was up here, and was grateful to both him and presumably my sister, who had definitely made these arrangements.

Drawing my own weapon, I smashed another in the face, using Piece of Mind to run the assault so I could protect myself and hear him out. "Yeah, you need to form a path before becoming a Master."

He grunted, sidestepping a leaping lion and separating its head from its shoulders as it flew by. "Yes, but do you know WHY that's the case?" I shook my head, and he paused for a moment to kill another pair of the E-ranked beasts. More of them had come up out of the ground, clearly herded by the Magister, but luckily they seemed intent on killing me to drop the walls.

I called for Mephistopheles, offloading the strain to my armor, and blasted a pair of cats away in a pair of black flame bursts. "Look, I really dig the whole learn it yourself thing you're doing here, but it MIGHT not be the time for a pop quiz. How about you just tell me the answer?"

Callen's sword flashed up to kill one of the lions, only to get caught in its jaws. His off hand drew a long knife and jammed it up into the stone, separating it like butter as he gutted the monster and kicked it off his blade. "Point taken." He said with a small laugh. "Master rank is important because it's a milestone. Specifically, it's when you pass a hundred points of Impact."

"Gods damn it." I swore. "Why the hell does everything happen in multiples of ten? It's some kind of qualitative change, I take it?"

The swordsman barked out a much louder laugh this time. "A question for the ages, but yes. Fighting up ranks is possible, but fighting E to D can only be done under VERY specific circumstances. Even a ranged controller like the Magister is going to be impossible for us to harm."

Grimacing, I reached out to Callie mentally. I had a whisper of a plan "Hey, you doing alright? I can't see you too well in all the chaos." I got a surge of affirmation over the bond, but no words. I supposed she was probably busy. With that in mind, I went ahead and told her the idea I'd just had. I got another feeling of agreement, and sighed in relief, turning to Callen. "I think we might be able to work something out, but we need to hold them off for a few minutes. Any ideas on how to turn this mess around?"

He grinned. "You need to make a hole. Luckily, we've got just the man for the job." Gesturing behind me, I glanced back to see a tall, regal form on a glimmering silver charger, massive lance propped up on a shoulder as he surveyed the battle.

Switching hands with my staff, I triggered my scan ring, firing off a quick message. I saw Gabe receive it and then nod as he skirted around the palisade to the spot I'd directed him.

"Alright." I said to Callen. "Get ready, because as soon as he hits them, we're going to be changing things up. I have a plan, but it's going to be a bit nuts." I fired off another group message from my scan ring as I prepared, because this was going to get crazy. The second Gabe was in position I signalled for him to charge.

I shifted the walls around me all into dust, keeping just enough tension that we could stand on them as my friend charged through the hole I made. The charge this time was different than the last. It wasn't meeting the sturdy bodies of a pair of E-ranked cats…no, Gabriel Brightlaw, Adamant of the Church of the Red Revenant, hit the horde of monstrous cats like a hot knife through butter,

"RUBRUM GLORIA!" He bellowed as he smashed into the morass of felines like the fist of an angry god. Instead of just using his lance though, I saw his Path itself manifest around him, an aura similar to what Abel did sometimes. Gabriel didn't spear the lions, he hit them like a glowing silver comet, smashing clean through them and leaving a five foot swathe of carnage behind him as he sped out the other side, having split the whole army in half….which was exactly what I'd needed.

I needed the cats out of the way so I could see the ground, and I was so ecstatic about the success, I didn't even subverbally trigger the Skill like usual. I threw back my head and howled. "PIT OF DESPAIR!"

The bottom dropped out of the world. The huge swathe of dirt and stone in the center of the square defensive encampment turned to dust under the force of my soul, and all of it plummeted right down into the massive tunnels beneath like waves of water being sucked down a drain.

Using Piece of Mind to spawn two more parallels, I set one to work shoving my own people out of the dust funnel as I collapsed the walls around the plants and POURED an ocean of dust into the tunnels after the lions as the were sucked in, triggering Moonlit Night to try to mix the stealth factors into the dust. I dove into the vortex, staff out in front of me, and sped off into the sinkhole after them, Song of the Soil telling me exactly where everything was.

Callie, having access to my Skills through the bond, dove in after me, and the two of us flowed through the sand like sharks through the sea. I didn't know where the Magister was, since he'd avoid being submerged, but with my Danger Sense and the massive sea of dust I could both sense and control, we handily dodged all the plants he seemed to be using to comb through the sinkhole.

I felt like a god as I blurred forward through the dust, my staff slamming into lions left and right, destroying them in blasts of black fire. Even the E-rankers couldn't see where I was coming from, and with all that power behind my attacks, not to mention the fog I'd mixed into the dust that gave me a boost to attack power when I landed an unseen hit.

Lion after lion died, heads bursting under my assault or stabbed to death with the spears Callie had picked up before she jumped in. I felt their numbers begin to deplete, and I was grinning under my mask.

Sadly, my easy victory (in the abstract, my brain felt like it was melting keeping all these fucking parallels going and using all the Skills) wasn't to be. I heard a colossal roar of "ENOUGH!" And a pulse of power slammed into the earth, sending me, Callie, and all the lions exploding up and out of the dust.

Whatever had been done severed my connection with the material, though not Pit of Despair itself luckily, and we slammed down into a pile of super fine dust, safe from and harm, if somewhat disoriented.

I climbed up and out of the dust and glanced over to see the Magister, in all his glory, glaring down at my from where he hovered in the sky. "Boy, you test my patience." Snarled the magic user. "You think I won't dare to kill you? Forces beyond your comprehension arranged for this event. Do you know the kind of enemies you're making?"

Standing up, I hardened the dust under my feet once I was able to reform the connection. All my parallels dropped. My head still hurt, but I could function now, and I stared impassively up at the magic user. He was standing on a whirling vortex of air, leaves whipped around in the current.

"Do you?" I asked disdainfully. "Because I feel like you're taking some big risks here, all for…what? Some pissant Tolbert scion? You think Spencer gives a fuck what happens to you and your Earl when his cousin is dead?"

I saw a slight flinch. He wasn't sure about that. Spencer must have promised them SOMETHING, but he wasn't exactly a trustworthy guy. He hadn't attacked me directly, because he clearly knew who I was at least in the abstract so he still had a chance to back out. But…he'd come too far. And the threat of Zeke was being revealed as more of a bluff by the second.

"You're nobody." He said arrogantly. "If the B-ranker you brought along was going to intervene he would have done so by now. And that D-ranked sneak thief who liberated those bandits won't stop me from putting you down." He raised a hand, and a massive fiery bird of prey manifested over his head. "Any last words?"

Callie, who had finally climbed out of the dust next to me, just grinned. "Oh, I do!" She said excitedly." He turned to her, sneering down dismissively but clearly waiting for her to speak her piece.

"Let it not be said that I can be merciful." He said coldly. "Speak."

Smirking defiantly, Callie said. "Gladly. In exchange for every chit I have, I wish that this asshole was as heavily suppressed as your power will allow, Shane." I saw his eyes widen at the same time as I felt the power well up within me, static building up as purple lightning flickered over my skin.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I grinned as my wish power built within me, every last ounce of power I had in me gathering as a storm of energy rose, crackling across my body. Like lightning building in the clouds to smash down on the unsuspecting earth. The Magister's expression was changing, clearly about to unleash his attack, but it almost seemed like everything was happening in slow motion as the requirements for the wish were listed out. I didn't waste time even reading them past checking if it was enough. I confirmed.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The explosion of purple lightning that erupted from me was unlike anything I'd seen from my power before. Specifically, it was VISIBLE to everyone. I could feel through the bond that Callie was witnessing the lightshow in a way she never had, and she was blown away by the dazzling display.

The lightning arced up into the air, smashing into Magister Weston, wrapping around him like a living thing as it bit into his flesh. Roaring in outrage, he began to struggle as the lightning condensed into purple shimmering chains. Even as I watched though, I could see some of the tiny flowing symbols shatter as he struggled.

Not that they looked likely to give immediately, but they were fading alarmingly fast. Callen cursed. "Damn. Those things are stacked with Might and Impact, but it's passive. It'll only last for a minute or two." Snapping his fingers, a bag appeared, and he tossed it to me. Opening it, I found ten E-ranked chits inside. "I wish the restraint was extended. Six times. I'll pay that same amount for each wish."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I sighed in relief as I confirmed. There was another burst of lightning, and he tossed me another five bags, each one extending the restraint slightly longer. I'd been studying the chains as we worked, and when the last wish finished, the first one was maybe ten percent gone. "Ok, we've got maybe five minutes." I said with a grimace. "Let's make them count."

Triggering Mephistopheles and Belial at the same time, I stacked Mercy Kill, Afterburner, Marked for Death, and every other possible enhancer I could think of on the attack, then triggered Ripple Running and stepped off the air, flashing up toward the Magister like an inverted comet.

My staff hit him right between the eyes, and I unleashed every ounce of death energy stored inside it as the but of the staff hit the bridge of his nose. His whole head was swallowed by a black explosion of flames shot through with toxic green, and I grinned as I watched him fly backwards, smashing into the dust below us.

I cheered at the solid hit, knowing he must at least be hurting from an attack that, even with relatively low Might, had been stacked so high with modifiers it HAD to do something.

To my shock, when he sat up from the dust…he was fine. His face was soot stained and scorched, but he looked more like he'd gotten a bad sunburn than taking any real damage. I just gaped at the lack of effect from what had probably been one of the strongest attacks I'd ever seen.

Callen stepped up next to me with a sigh. "I told you." He said sadly. "There's a qualitative difference. You can't hurt him."

"You…TRASH!" Howled the Magister as he staggered to his feet. "How dare you? How DARE you? Low ranked garbage attacking me, attacking a Master of magic on my own planet? I know what you are boy, and I know what it means. Your guardian can't protect you, not from me. I'll butcher you! I'll tear your limbs from your worthless corpses and beat your loved ones to death with them as you watch! I'll-"

A blob of shadow slammed into his face, wrapping around his head and muffling his words. "Sorry." Said Callie lazily. "So we can't hurt him at all? I can't believe with five minutes we won't be able to manage SOMETHING." She cursed. "I really wish one of us had a D-ranked weapon. Why are they so damned expensive?"

"Because of this." I said bluntly. "Like…this exact situation. But at least he can't-" My eyes went wide and I hurled myself at Callie, slamming her aside as a cone of fucking blue FIRE erupted from the face of the trapped Magister, burning away the shadow mask.

I blinked in horror as I noticed the chains flicker, one of them draining faster. Apparently physical struggle didn't drain them as quick as the magical stuff. "What the fuck" Yelped Callie as we scrambled up. "I wished for that asshole to be restrained! Why is he still attacking? Damn it, I should have just wished him dead."

"You can't." I responded automatically. "Death involves the soul. Wishes can't kill sentient beings. It's one of the big rules. But we need to hurry this shit up, because he-" Cursing again I jumped aside. Without his face blocked the Magister was starting to mount an offense. It looked weakened, like he was trying to fight underwater, but he was still doing it.

I conjured Moonlit Night, condensing the fog to a ten foot area around him, hopefully making it harder to aim.

Callie lashed out with a hand, a torrent of shadow blades erupting from the dust and smashing into the Magister, only to shatter on impact. The same purple flaming bird burst forth, rocketing toward us, and I cursed, getting ready to tank it with Mornax, but to my shock it was smashed aside by a silver comet, bursting apart as Gabe came to a stop, lance lowered.

"Well this isn't going great." He said casually. "You guys figure out how to kill him yet? Because out people could use a hand with all those lions." He pointed behind us, to where the lions had encircled the massive turtle formation all the remaining soldiers (we're lost a LOT of them so far, like maybe half) were clustered up tanking the hits.

I could see a few E-ranked beasts smashing into the solid dome, and the shields were protecting them, but the constant need to overlap them for the formation meant no one was getting attacks OUT of the dome.

"Cal." i said, glancing at her knowingly. She sighed and nodded, reaching out a hand. A bunch of shadows dove into the dust, coming out with the spears of dead soldiers. She turned and glared at Gabe and Callen. "If you two idiots get him killed, your boss won't have time to butcher you for it, I'll kill you both myself. I've slain a god before, and a pair of jumped up holy rollers won't pose a problem. You get me?"

They both nodded slowly, and Gabe waited until she left to ask. "When exactly did she get so…scary?"

"Probably the godslayer thing." I said with a shrug. "But you heard her. Don't get me killed. We've got like four more minutes. Gabe, do you think your charge can do better than the all out attack I used?" I hesitated to ask, not knowing if failing that one strike would be enough to break his Path.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you looked at it) that didn't seem to be the case. "I don't believe so. He's a Master. Those of us still below the hundred point threshold just CAN'T defeat them. Or at least, I've never seen it done."

Callen sighed. "There's one way." He reached up behind him, hand gripping the massive wrapped blade on his back.

"No!" Said Gabe in horror. "If you draw it you'll waste all your progress. I'd rather break my Path than see you throw away decades of cultivation before even reaching Mastery. At the very least you should wait until D-rank, ideally you should save it until A to catapult yourself directly into the S-ranks."

I knew what they meant. Callen was a sword nurturer. His entire life he'd been pouring stats into that blade, a special linked sword that was considered a part of him. The longer he waited, the greater the effect of drawing it would be.

It was more than just a cultivation aid though, it was also a single use attack. The one draw he got would allow him to unleash a truly legendary blow, a single strike with the momentum of an entire life behind it. If he wasted it, he wouldn't be able to benefit from that attack the same way as if he'd saved it for a more impactful battle.

"I won't let you die here." He said to me with a soft smile. "Not just because the lady commanded it, but because of your mother, and your grandfather. They love you, even if it might not seem like it, and they've given me so much in my life. I'd be nothing without the Radiant Pope, nothing without the Star Queen and her kindness. I can and will do this for you, and for them. But I'll need help."

I was uneasy. "I don't want you to give up so much for me, but even if you do, how could I help. He's already heavily restrained. I can't do much more than that."

He shook his head. "My attack will partially sever the chains. There's a chance he'll break through them at the last second, and if he dodges my blow, I'll be too busy undergoing ascension to survive his retaliation. I need you to restrain him. Even with the chains he can still move, but with them on he's greatly diminished in all ways except for his Impact. I only need him held in place for a second. Can you do it?"

I glanced down at the sand, thinking, and then nodded. "I have an idea, but I'll need help." I turned to the side, bellowing towards where Callie was pincushioning lions. She was being aided by the turtle formation, who were dropping guard and stabbing every time the damned cats focused on her. "Callie!" I bellowed. "I need you to teleport Benny over here? Can you get in there?"

I FELT her eye roll as much as saw it, and she dropped into her shadow. Seconds later, there was a yelp as my best friend came flying out of a shadow, landing head first in a pile of dust, legs kicking the air as he scrambled out, glaring around like Callie was going to follow him.

"A little WARNING would have been nice!" He bellowed back towards the formation, but then just waved it off and turned back to me. "What?" I filled him in on the situation, told him we only had three more minutes, and then told him my plan. "Well." He said slowly. "It's nice to know your plans are still terrible. That's going to suck, but I can do it."

I winced. "Trust me. I know." My head was pounding and my mouth was dry. I'd been pushing my soul hard. No cracks yet, and Benny's involvement would help, but I didn't know if I could pull this off. No time for doubt though. I nodded to Gabe and Callen, then Benny and I circled around behind the Magister, whose attacks had stopped as he tried to disperse the mist from inside WITHOUT massively overpowering me.

When I stopped at his back, I took a long, deep breath. Then I called out to the dust. Pit of Despair had turned nearly everything inside the walls and most of the walls themselves into dust. I called it all to me. Benny stood at my back, putting his hands on my shoulders as he got ready.

All the dust poured in, and just as we had before, we CONDENSED it. Packing it in as tight as possible, all around us, in the form of a colossal stone effigy of me. So colossal in fact, that its feet were planted on the ground of the tunnel below. Benny was tripling the density of the statue as I formed it, and when we finished, we towered over the Magister.

I dismissed the fog, and he whirled, ready to attack. I didn't give him the change. The massive hands of the stone version of me grabbed an arm each, and, through my solid connection to the earth, I trigger my Mornax form.

Hyper dense powerful stone was further reinforced by even more density and by my Mountain Stance. The Magister's eyes went wide. "What is this?" He howled. "Release me, trash! I'll kill you when I get out…of…this." His eyes went wide as he finally noticed the immense surge of power behind him.

He turned slowly, looking over his shoulder as a giant sword swung down at his neck like an executioners axe. The chains ruptured, and he started to pull. I felt the hands crack and start to give as his full D-ranked Might came to bare, but he hadn't gotten it back fast enough. The sword met his neck and scythed through the flesh, his head rolling from his shoulders…and then Callen all but exploded with power.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once the Magister died we were able to clear out the rest of the lions pretty easily. Even without Callen, a concentrated effort from the rest of us was more than enough to take them out, and we mopped the monsters up quickly with help from Gabe and the formation holding them all in place. Once we were done, we waited for Callen to finish his Ascension.

I'd seen rank ups before, but this one seemed different…weightier. Whether because he was reaching D-rank or because he was moving PAST D-rank by virtue of all that accumulation, it was still impressive to watch.

I was distracted though, as I felt a smaller form slam into my side, and felt Callie clamp her around me like a steel vise. "You idiot." She mumbled into my chest. "I'm so glad you're ok. I thought he was going to kill you. Even with the wishes I just felt like there was nothing we could do to stop him."

"Yeah." I said slowly. "I get that. That was…I felt like death itself was coming for me. I can't believe we survived."

Gabe rode up next to us, hopping down from his charger as it dissolved into sparkles of starlight. His lance vanished into his ring as he laughed. "We shouldn't have. D-rank is a sublimation of life state. Not just defensively but offensively. I don't even know how your wishes were able to do that."

"Triple'd Impact." I said with a laugh. "Honestly I expected it to work better. I think the main issue was that the constructs were stable binding manifestations, and made to be temporary. He didn't have the Impact to break free all at once, but his hundred Impact attacks did erode the bindings, and he was cranking them out as hard and fast as he could. We'd have been dead if he broke out. Even that slight window at the end wasn't a full break, the bindings fractured from the strike but they weren't compromised entirely, just fading."

It was spine tingling to think about him getting loose. Not only would his stats be higher than ours, AND more effective because of his Impact, but the suppression wouldn't have been affecting him either, so he'd most likely have been getting the thousand pounds per point maximum. Even as a magic user he could have swatted us all to death like flies with his bare hands.

"So do we know what's up with Callen?" I gestured to the other man, kneeling with his sword driven into the ground, light radiated from the blade in strange, shimmering patterns, shifting and warping like it was being shone through moving seawater. It drained into the big warrior, and aside from Impact, I could feel something else, presumably stats, pouring into him.

Gabe nodded. "His blade had more than enough to rank up. There's diminishing returns past the next rank, but the power is still there. He'll probably hit halfway or even three quarters of the way through D before it stops."

I sighed. I was happy for the big guy, but we sort of needed him. I was in bad shape, and Callie wasn't much better. Gabe was pretty fresh, but Benny was sprawled out behind me wheezing from the effort of density shifting that huge stone giant. We needed to go help the others, but Callen was our best chance at doing that properly, especially considering the powerful lions that were probably over in that direction.

We'd killed a LOT of them, and while I doubted these were the full complement of even the F-ranked lions, it was most of them. The stronger centuries of the elite division would be able to handle the others, especially with the enemy to redirect the aggression onto, but I had a feeling whoever Spencer got to help him kill Camden wasn't going to be a pushover. If he could mobilize the Earl and the Magister, D-rank assassins were on the table for sure.

"Looks like we can ask him ourselves." Said Callie, gesturing to where he knelt. "The light is dimming." And it was. Even as we watched the sense of pressure around Calleb dropped to a manageable level and he opened his eyes.

I looked at him guiltily. "So…you ranked up huh? Congrats."

He grinned. "Don't sound so unhappy. Killing a D-ranker at E-rank is a hell of an accomplishment. That's going to get my story out there for plenty of people to hear. Combined with how far into D-rank I started I got a serious head start. Now, I believe there was some mention of rescue?"

I laughed, turning toward the direction the main battle was going to be. Before I left though, I wanted to check on my century. "Alanna!" I bellowed. "Front and center." The fire user had been disengaging from the turtle shell formation and appeared in front of me post haste.

"Reporting for duty sir!" She snapped off a crisp salute, and I had to fight not to grin at the total shift in demeanor after she'd seen me fight. "What are our casualties like?" I asked quietly.

She grimaced. "About fifty percent." She admitted. "We did what we could, but with the walls collapsing like that and the Magister distracting you. Commander Nightstrike probably prevented us from breaking and losing the rest. Will we be joining the main battle, sir?"

"No." I said firmly. "Get to the med tent. Agria will take care of you all. You've done more than enough." I glanced down at where my friend was laying. "Benny, you go with them. The soul strain you just went through is no joke. You need time for your spiritual calming to take effect."

Groaning, he sat up. "You're right. But I think that was the last push I needed. I can feel my soul stirring, it's going to sublimate when it recovers. After tonight I'll officially hit Sapphire."

I grinned at him. "Lucky bastard.That spiritual calming belt is pretty convenient huh?"

He chuckled at my obvious jealousy. "Yeah…" He trailed off in worry. "I'm…just be careful, ok Shane? This little sortie might be over, but the bigger mess is still going. That Spencer guy is a vicious bastard, and he doesn't strike me as the type to leave things half done."

"I know." I said firmly. "I'll be careful. And even if I wasn't Callie is with me. You know she has better sense than either of us unless something shiny is in front of he-ow!" I feigned a yelp as she elbowed me in to ribs from where she was standing next to me, glaring up at me challengingly.

We said our goodbyes to Benny and the others, then took off headed for the manor. Camden had told me ages ago that the final showdown between nobles was usually at their personal estates. It was a big mess that needed a lot of manpower, but for a last push it was doable, especially with the Magister around to help (well…formerly around).

We took off at a dead sprint, and given our respective power we made it to the estate pretty damned quickly. When we arrived…we all came to a stop, staring in horror.

'The manor was on fire. MULTIPLE TYPES of fire. I saw blue flames, green, the telltale gold of Mel's attacks in some places. There were ragged units outfitted in full gear posted up at the entrances, and I could see bodies, both from our own people and from soldiers dressed in Clairdon's livery strewn about.

Clairdon's people were gone, the assault clearly having been driven off, and I could see why, because as Camden had hoped, the centuries acting as a strike plate had held the enemy still for the lions to hit from behind, tearing into them like so much meat.

Of course, that was hardly the extent of it. Some of the units had been wiped out completely, and I saw blasted and destroyed sections of manor that revealed stone forms prowling inside.

"Camden will be inside." I said with a grimace. "He played defense this time, and once the external guard collapsed he would have moved deeper in. My guess will be the basement, down where Sonia does her thing. It's heavily fortified and likely to have some dangerous weapons lying around." Glancing at the lions, I turned to look at Callen. "You mind taking point?"

He just smirked. Turning to walk in through one of the blown out entrances on the side of the manor, we went slow just in case we ran into someone really dangerous. Lucky for us, the manor seemed pretty empty, hallways littered with rubble and the occasional body.

On second glance, MOST of the bodies were decked out in Clairdon's house colors. I guessed they'd dragged the others off to Jessie and succeeded in getting them patched up. It was nice to know that had worked out for them. The Magister's presence had made that something of a moot point for us, and I gritted my teeth, knowing the Earl had been part of this and wouldn't receive an ounce of trouble for it.

I wished he'd been here, ready to attack me. I'd have loved to watch Zeke crush him for what he'd allowed to happen. I wasn't too worried about it though. I ranked up fast, and with my Solid Path already part of my soul, I'd have no bottlenecks until I hit B-rank. The Earl was immortal, I'd have plenty of time to pay him a visit myself.

When we came to the stairs where Sonia's basement was, I grimaced to see that the door that would normally have kept us out was just…gone. The whole thing was ripped clean off, jagged metal edges all that remained.

Callen held up a hand, wanting to go ahead, and began to inch down the steps nice and slowly. It was staggering to see such a big man move so quietly, and the giant sword that had been on his back was held up in front of him, dark metal almost eating the light as he moved toward the bottom.

There was a roar and a form dropped from above us, and I barely had to to process the lion before a line of pure cutting force bisected both the lion and the ceiling above us as Called put the sword that his whole reputation had been based on to use.

We all stared at him in shock and he grinned. "My blade has been nurtured with Impact and stats just like I have. I'm not the only one who hit D-rank."

I whistled as I stared at the huge sword, noting how terrifyingly sharp it looked even in the low light. When we reached the bottom of the steps we came upon a new scene. And I froze in place as I observer what we were up against.

Camden was in the center of the room with Sonia, Alister, and a few of his most trusted guards and commanders. Around them a giant spectral anvil of blue light glowed, the surface littered with symbols and patterns. Around it, stood what looked like three different D-rankers and about ten E-rankers, all deferring to one man.

Spencer Tolbert (I assumed) looked…normal. He had delicate features and soft eyes, the kind that looked like he was always concerned about everyone and was always there to listen when you had a problem. He wasn't very tall, and was kind of skinny, but his warm blue eyes and shaggy blonde hair made him look like someone's kid brother.

It was almost paradoxical how eyes that seemed so naturally open and compassionate could sit over such a sadistic smirk. I was betting this was the smile he'd worn that day in the maze, when he watched his little sister drown.

Of course, everyone in the room was an Ascendant, so when we arrived they all turned to regard us warily. I sighed internally. Callie and I were tired but we'd been resting a bit. I'd have taken the two of us and Gabe against ten E-ranked mooks, but those D-rankers outgunned Callen three to one. Or at least, they would have. Over their shoulders, I saw a shift in the dark and Anna stepped silently out of the shadows, invisible to the enemy who were looking at us. She shot me a wink and put a finger over her lips before melting away again. Ok…that, I could work with.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Well." Said Spencer in a surprisingly mild voice. "This has been a fucking mess. I assume I have you to thank for that. My information said you were going to be dealing with the lion outbreak." He glanced at one of the D-rankers. "I could have sworn we sent Weston to make sure that worked out." Callen had suppressed his aura, still looking to be an E-ranker at first glance.

I smirked. "Oh you did. We already ran into him." I was pretty proud of what we'd pulled off. "Quite a temper on that one. He just couldn't keep his head." I paused, waiting for a reaction. "Sorry, it's funny because we-"

"Decapitated him." He cut in. "No, I got that. I'm just not sure why I'm supposed to care. This is why I use disposable minions." He paused briefly and looked around at the distinctly unamused D-rankers. "What? You thought we were best friends? Please. You'd kill me the second the payment hit your account if I wasn't a Tolbert."

I was waiting for the attack, but he hadn't ordered it yet. "There a reason I'm not dead yet?" I asked, as if I didn't have a hope of surviving.

"As I said, this has been a mess." He said frankly. "It SHOULD have been impossible for my cousin to survive this. I didn't expect to NEED to get involved directly. Something has been tipping things in his favor, and in retrospect it isn't hard to figure out what. Resources appearing from thin air, powerful fortifications, tunnels, strange turns of luck. I can only think of one ability with that kind of versatility."

"Poetry." I said seriously. "You've found me out. I write limericks so bad the universe itself has to give in. Tremble before me."

He didn't even have the decency to chuckle. Dick. "You're a Wyndham." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small compact mirror, which he flipped open. His eyes scanned over it and he nodded. "As I suspected. A wishmaster candidate." He sneered at Camden. "Some people really do have all the luck."

"Maybe it's karma." I pointed out helpfully. "I mean last I checked Camden isn't a child murdering sociopath."

That got an amused smirk. "Trust me, if karma existed, the world would be a very different place." He paused. "Well, there's that lunatic over in the Holy Dominion, but that's just an ability. And nothing S-rankers do counts anyway. Barring the intervention of the Judgement Pope, the world doesn't really see fit to punish those who do 'evil'." He made air quotes around the word.

I groaned. "This isn't going to be one of those 'there is no good or bad there is only power' speeches again is it? Because those get SO old. Can't you just own the fact that you're a scumbag murderer and delight in the suffering of others?"

"If you'd prefer." He said with a shrug. "But it's not really about that. I DO think it's amusing when my lessers have to struggle, like watching a bird with a broken wing drown in a birdbath, but I don't do anything just for my own enjoyment. I never take action unless it benefits me."

I held up a finger. "Ok, first, no one empathizes with your amusement at watching birds drown, you psychotic lunatic, second 'I'm just a dick because I'm selfish, not because I enjoy it' isn't as reasonable an argument as you seem to think. Now can we get to the part where you offer to team up with me and I tell you to go fuck yourself? Because breathing the same air as someone as rancidly evil as you is genuinely making me feel sick. And my mask has a filter."

He just sighed. "I'd hoped a member of such a prestigious family would be a bit more willing to look at the big picture, but no matter. Your guardian can't intervene when your opponents are only Masters." He smiled. "Did you know that more Wyndhams die at E-rank than any other rank? Being RIGHT on the edge of that watershed is quite dangerous."

"Maybe." I said sweetly. "But then again, your advantage is dropping fast. Or did you not notice that you only have two D-rankers left?"

His head snapped around, searching his people…and we attacked. Camden's sword flashed out at Spencer, but it was effortlessly deflected by the huge man in the black skull helmet standing behind him. The massive spiked club he wielded was surprisingly fast, and sparks flew up as it slammed into the incoming sword.

It didn't, however, stop the stomp that Callen planted in the man's gut, sending him hurtling across the room and into a rack of smithing tools with a crash. My sister's bodyguard was already bringing his weapon down on the smaller, dark haired, dark skinned form of the woman standing on the other side of Spencer as the big man landed.

Step by step, the most talented crusader under the aegis of the Red Revenant Church began to herd the slim, dangerous woman towards the other man.

I stepped off the air, channeling both Mephistopheles and Belial through my armor as my staff blurred forward toward the back of Spencer's skull.

A man appeared between us, shock on his face as my blow slammed into his open mouth and an explosion of black flame erupted from his eyes seconds before the corrosion of my Belial weakened his skull a bit more and the leftover burst of Mephistopheles black flame blew his head apart.

I grimaced, but wasn't too bothered. He was a mercenary working for Spencer, after all. The small blonde man was smirking at me. "I AM a noble, Mr. Wyndham. My people are honor bound to see to my safety."

"He's an Oathbinder!" Shouted Camden from inside the construct. "He makes contracts that change the mental state of those he ensnares. It's like a geas!"

I glared at my friend. "That would have been useful information to have BEFORE!" I bellowed. "You didn't think it might be nice to share?"

He shook his head. "I didn't know, but I saw the Tolbert crest flash in that man's eyes. That's why he looked so surprised. The contract broke when he was in position to take the blow. Be careful, that's a dangerous power."

I heard a clash of metal, and looked over to the other side of the anvil to see Anna locked in combat with a very harried and severely injured D-ranker. I hadn't been bluffing earlier, he had been missing, but apparently Anna hadn't managed to take him out, just get him out of the way. That was enough for now.

"You going to come help?" I said in annoyance as I triggered Mornax, tanking a spear thrust from one of the ten E-rankers protecting Spencer. It didn't even leave a scratch, but it didn't feel great either.

He pointed at Sonia, who shrugged. "Would if we could, but the emergency bunker is time released. It's the only way we could get it strong enough to tank D-ranked attacks. We had to strip out a lot of the functionality."

My staff flicked out, smashing aside an attack aimed at Callie's back as she faded into existence in front of one of the others and tried to eviscerate him. She vanished back into the shadows once she noticed the other attacker, and I felt a flash of frustration from her over the wasted attack.

She appeared behind me, using my stoney form for cover as I glared at Spencer. "You rethinking that whole 'join up or die angle'?" I asked. "Because I think you've really got us on the ropes here."

To my surprise, he didn't look even remotely worried. "Disappointing." He said again. "I'd have thought a Wyndham of all people would know not to judge a situation by first impressions. I assure you, I am quite safe as I am now."

I'd long since let Belial fade, unable to keep up three different forms at once, but Mephistopheles came to my call easily as I smashed my staff down and behind me, my Danger Sense and Callie's quick warning more than sufficient to catch the shadowy assassin who had appeared behind me by surprise.

His daggers slammed into my back where my kidneys would be if I was flesh, but they skittered off. The combination of my higher than normal Impact and my absurd defense made Mornax one of my most effective forms, and this guy wasn't rich enough to afford D-rank weapons…thankfully. He ALSO wasn't rich enough to afford D-rank armor as the staff jammed into the crevice above his knee and an explosion of black flame tore his fucking leg apart at the kneecap.

He howled in agony, stumbling back and so distracted he didn't see Callie step from the shadows and open his throat with both daggers, blood fountaining out and splattering across my stony back. Thankfully I don't think it stained my cape.

"Was that your trump card?" I asked Spencer, gesturing to the assassin choking to death on his own blood. "Because his stealth wasn't bad to have gotten that close to me with Nightstrike here. She's good at that stuff. Didn't seem to matter though, he's dead and soon you will be too."

He shrugged. "His death is immaterial. I paid for his service, and he gave it. Perhaps he could have been more useful had he lived, but I found his manner of execution highly amusing." His eyes raked over Callie. "What a bloodthirsty beauty. I may be in love."

My girlfriend shuddered, and I shoved my staff toward him, triggering a move I hadn't used in ages, Steam Arrow, and infusing it with Belial, letting Mephistopheles drop for a moment. Another startled mercenary appeared in its path, tanking the blow and dying with an agonizing scream as his face melted off.

"Don't talk to her." I said coldly. "Don't even look at her. If you keep your fucking mouth shut you're going to die tonight, and if you don't I'll make sure you don't die for YEARS. Even if you ask nicely."

I'd wanted Spencer dead since Camden told me what he'd done to his sister, but seeing that disgusting predatory gleam in his fake eyes made me want to tear him apart. I was fucking boiling with anger, and only a current of love and consolation from the bond kept me from losing it. Spencer was a…thing. A monster. He had no limits, not hesitation. Someone like that focused on Callie was the last thing I wanted. He'd haunted Camden for years, and I wasn't going to let that happen to her.

His gleaming eyes turned back to me slowly, and the light of interest intensified. It wasn't romantic. He wasn't suddenly interested in me, any more than I suspected he'd been interested in her. Spencer didn't want a significant other. He wanted a victim. And I'd suddenly become a more interesting toy to play with.

I didn't care. I was glad he'd focused on me. I knew Callie could handle herself, but thinking of him eyeing her like that made me sick. His smile was so wide it was almost unnatural, and his eyes finally shed the faux warmth, inhabited by a burning toxic glee. "That was positively barbaric." He crowed. "How terrifying. Oh, how I wish I could risk such a fate and engage in combat with you myself. Alas, it seems it's time for me to go."

"You're not going anywhere." I snarled. "You're never leaving this fucking basement. No one is going to stop me from killing you." I triggered Pit of despair, knowing Mornax would lose its foundation and would drop out and I would be left semi defenceless in the dust.

To my shock, the Pit didn't form. Something…smashed into the energy forming the Skill and just kind of washed it away. I was stunned. I'd never felt anything like it. As it happened, I heard a set of footsteps echoing down the steps, and a dark haired man with a goatee and cold amber eyes stepped into view. "Oh really?" He said mildly. And my blood went cold as I felt the weight of his Impact…a weight far above Callen or Annas.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Staring at the powerful C-ranker, I could immediately tell that if he wanted to kill us, we would be dead. I wasn't sure he'd even need to use a Skill, he might be able to just crush us to death with his sheer presence. "Vanden Nevius, I presume." I said in a faux bored tone. "Is there a reason you're sticking your nose into my business?"

I saw his eye twitch, and internally celebrated. I wanted him mad, in fact, I wanted him so mad he couldn't see straight, because him being here was a huge fucking problem for us and if he didn't attack me I couldn't solve it.

"The Wyndham. I was apprised of your presence. Unfortunately." He said distastefully. "I deplore your kind. Hucksters and charlatans, merchants with too high an opinion of yourselves, leeching off the success of your forebears."

I snorted. "Yeah, because nothing says 'I hate nepotism' like inherited wealth and noble titles. Admit it, you're just annoyed that your daddy was some backwater imperial noble and not someone from one of the big clans. Isn't that why you're sucking up to this waste of space?" I pointed at the smiling and very punchable face of Spencer.

"The noble houses of the Empire are a necessary and important part of the standing order." He sneered at me. "I wouldn't expect a lowlife pawnbroker from a dynasty of indolents and anarchists to understand. The Empire CARES for its people, it doesn't just leave them to die."

I gaped at him. "Are you fucking KIDDING me? You actively encouraged a rogue actor to incite an invasion of dangerous monsters that AT BEST would have wiped out an entire city in your territory."

He shrugged. "Eggs and omelettes. It was for the greater good. Once the Tolberts used their vote on the council of Kings to overturn my banishment the entire planet would have benefited from my strong leadership. I wouldn't expect a hedonistic layabout from a family of maniacs to understand the burdens of leadership."

"Well you can feel free to ponder that as you stew over your failure, now if you'll excuse me. I have a fucking monster to murder." I stepped forward, bringing my staff to bear, only to have a golden line carve itself in front of me. When I tried to step over it, I slammed into a wall of glowing force, bouncing off and falling on my ass in shock.

The sneer became more pronounced. "You wish to kill one under my protection in my presence. Laughable, I-" His eyes widened and he vanished as a wave of black chains ripped through the floor, snapping shut in the area he'd just been standing hard enough to tear the air itself. He reappeared ten feet away, turning to glare at the appearance of a familiar porcelain mask fading from the darkness.

"Oops." Said Zeke lazily. "My mistake. I suppose I should be more careful where I leave my things. Someone could get hurt. And if they did, I would of course be culpable for that injury. Don't you think, Nevius?"

"I know who you are. The brat's guardian. Cavendish. A former native of the empire." Hissed the formerly composed Earl. "Dog of the Wyndhams, you dare show your face here?"

Zeke just cocked his head, pointing at himself. "I'm wearing a mask you fucking idiot. Not that it matters. You know whose authority I'm here under, and you can't do shit about it. If I'd been trying to kill you you'd be dead. That was a warning, and one you should heed."

"I didn't attack your charge, traitor." Nevius growled. "He was attempting to kill one of my nobles. I was well within my rights to defend Baron Tolbert."

Spencer grinned. "Ah, then the purge went as planned? My territory is ready?"

Nevius nodded. "It is, your grace. Baron Carrey has been…relieved of his lands. A shame his family had missed one of their tax collections a few decades back, and when it came to light I was forced to repossess their territory."

Camden looked incensed. "You GAVE him a territory? After I had to work so hard? This is an outrage, you can't just-"

"I think you'll find." Answered Nevius with a smirk. "That I can do whatever I like. Were it not for your various backgrounds I'd have leveled this manor and slaughtered the lot of you. I'm quite irritated that so many months of planning have come to nothing, you see."

Zeke shook his head. "You never learn, do you Nevius? Swimming in waters too deep for you is what got you in trouble in the first place." At the man's surprise, he chuckled. "What? You think I didn't do my own research? You should know getting involved with the affairs of your betters rarely turns out well."

That seemed to offend the man on a deep, personal level. If Zeke hadn't been so obviously willing and able to kill him I think he might've attacked. "This coming from a spineless traitor like you?" The Earl sneered. "Defecting to that den of iniquity to become a dog for Elijah Wyndham."

"Ok this is all fascinating." Said Callie in annoyance. "But can you tell those of us who aren't natives what the fuck is going on?"

Camden answered. "Because he's a registered Baron of this planet Spencer is now part of the local hierarchy. The presence of outside forces enable Earl Nevius to step in as a protector. While your guardian could easily kill him, he's unable to do so as the Earl hasn't actually attacked you."

"Would that I could." Snapped the man. His eyes trailed to Callie. "Though perhaps not all of you are under such protections as the holy warrior and Tolbert castoff."

Zeke snorted. "She has a deep bond with my nephew. Like…soul sharing deep. Killing her would cause grave injury to him, which means an attack on the girl is an attack on my charge. So please, feel free to try something, I'd love an excuse to kill you."

That was…new information. Was that because we'd ranked up the bond? Nevius grimaced, but nodded. "Very well. It is, of course, immaterial. As neighboring Barons, the two Barons Tolbert are free to engage each other in the same way any of my nobles might war. I have it on good authority that Baron Tolbert the elder, our most recent addition, plans to make a hasty assault on his cousin's territory."

"So we let them settle it themselves then?" Zeke said with a sigh. " I suppose if you're going that route I can't really intervene."

Camden was sputtering. "I just withstood a siege from TWO separate invading forces. My elite unit is seizing the Highgrave and Clairdon estates as we speak. You can't expect me to weather another siege after everything that's happened!"

I hadn't seen any Highgrave soldiers, but they could have attacked from the opposite side of the manor, I knew there was an entrance back there. Knowing the elite division was mopping up the nobles was a load off my mind, I'd been wondering where the stronger members of the army were, and I didn't want to get screwed out of my territory.

Before Necius could respond, Zeke cut in. "He doesn't. Or rather, he can't. The lion invasion counts as a natural disaster. You can invoke domain protection. It only lasts a month, but it'll give you time to reinforce." At the Earl's glare, Zeke laughed. "What? Just because I 'defected' doesn't mean I forgot my upbringing."

Gritting his teeth, Nevius nodded. "Very well. You shall have a relief period of exactly a month beginning sundown tonight. At the end of that time, the domain protection will be revoked, come what may."

Camden nodded, slumping down in relief. A cold laugh split the air. "Don't assume this will stop me, cousin." Said Spencer in a coy voice. "A month is plenty of time for me to accomplish MANY things. Your new friends are powerful, but don't forget that not all of us recused ourselves from family politics. I have quite a few resources at my disposal, and nothing better to do with them than finish what I started here. Come, Nevius." He turned and stalked toward the steps, the Earl hot on his heels.

Before he left though, I couldn't resist getting in one last dig. "We'll settle this in a month Spencer." I called in my coldest tone. "Don't forget, we've got a new territory of our own. Because Highgrave's people were here, that protection applies to us too. I'm curious to see what I can do with my new land in that time."

He didn't even slow down, just waved over his shoulder and left. I slumped slightly once they were gone, knees weak. Callie was shaky too, and we held each other up, the sheer relief of not being under the pressure of the C-ranker anymore palpable through the bond.

"Well that went well." Said Zeke cheerfully. "Kind of wish I could have killed the bastard, but oh well."

I scowled. "This whole thing is bullshit. I hate the Empire. What the fuck are all these rules and politics even good for?" Him being allowed to protect Spencer because of some dumb ass loophole, and us being forced to wait for his attack were both the stupidest things I'd ever heard.

"Not much." Admitted my uncle with a sigh. "But it is what it is. Sneaky fuckers like that are always a pain to kill, but if you want my advice, stay and get it done. You could bail now if you wanted, but that kind of guy won't let this go. Better to take care of the problem before it gets to be a real pain."

I waved him off. "We aren't abandoning Camden." I said firmly. "That was never on the table." I turned to my friend. "So…the elite division took down Highgrave and Clairdon's estate?"

"They will." He said confidently. "As you remember, I stocked them up with a few…surprises, courtesy of your power. Not all of those were for the lions. Highgrave took the bait like we expected and his people took a serious pounding. I had ten of our units lying in wait on the road behind some of the camouflage artifacts you made me. They never saw it coming."

That explained the lack of bodies at least. "Alright, well, I guess we need to go get the others and strategize." I said with a sigh. "Nat might be able to help you with prep and repair, I assume you can pay her now?"

"Of course." He said with a grin. "Clairdon is plenty rich. I agreed to pay Anna a finders fee for helping me sniff out his remaining stockpiles of treasure. Not to mention all the decorations and defenses of his I can sell. I take it you're going to be taking control of your own territory as soon as possible? You erecting a new manor or taking Highgrave's to repair?"

Callie cut in. "A new one." She said firmly. "We don't have time to sift through wreckage looking for traps."

We said our goodbyes and headed up to find the others at the hospital tent. Celine was going to be taking over as an official representative, so we'd need her immediately if we wanted to get started. I'd used up today's wishes though, so I'd need to sleep all this off before we started work.

Lions aside, I was pretty sure this next attack would be…worse. We had our D-rankers to help out, but I was sure Spencer would hire more, and thinking of his fixation on Callie and I, there was no way we'd be left out of the attack, especially after what I said.

All that was bad but…still, I found my heart was surprisingly light. We'd deal with Spencer, but for now…we'd won. We'd lost some people, and that sucked, but we'd gotten through it. Camden was alive, my team was alive, and now it was time to start building something sturdy enough to weather the coming storm. I couldn't wait.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Reaching the healing tent was both a relief and a blow to our morale. I could see first hand my friends and family were alive and well, which was amazing…but I could also see the pain and injury on display in the tent. Jessie was frantic, hurrying around, laying hands on anyone she could reach. Thanks to her powerful ability and rank, all the F-ranked soldiers recovered nearly instantly, but I could see the E-rankers were a bigger problem.

I stared in shock at the pain and devastation on display. I saw my sister kneeling next to a bed, hand alight with white fire as she pressed it against the hissing green energy erupting from the wound of an E-ranker I didn't recognize.

In fact, there were dozens of them like that, acid or poison or what have you keeping them from healing, though some were just injured so badly by a similarly ranked opponent that their Vitality was having trouble mending the wounds. Several of their eyes glowed with green life force already, Jessie having dosed them with her power to begin the healing process, but I could see it was wearing on her.

Stepping up to where she was rushing to the next bed, I caught our healer by the arm. She glared up at me, looking ready to snap, but when she saw who it was, her face crumpled and she grabbed me in a bone crushing hug. "You're ok." She murmured, pulling back and latching onto Callie next, and then Benny. "You're all ok."

"We're fine." I said firmly. "And I'm glad to see you are too. But you need to take a break."

She scoffed. "What? That's crazy. Don't you see how many people are injured. They need my help, I can't just-"

"You very much CAN just." I stated forcefully. "Your Vitality is absurd for your rank, and your Impact helps make your healing more effective, but even you have limits. You'll recover quickly because of your stats, so take a minute and rest. I have ten charges of heal burst available, and I can help by taking your place for a bit. They won't go untreated."

I'd been worried about what this would do to her, and it had been smart to be. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles and her skin was waxy, I could see sweat beading on her forehead and her breathing was labored.

Callie stepped past me, grabbing her hand and pulling her over to sit on a nearby empty cot. "Let Shane do his thing. Those are your charges anyway, so you're still helping, but you're no good to anyone if you keep over dead. Where is Bethy, by the way? I thought she was guarding you with Nat and-"

The vampire stepped out from behind a tarp, wearing what seemed to be hospital scrubs with small flying cats on them. Despite her cheerful garb though, she looked as somber as I'd ever seen her. In fact…she looked extremely distressed. Her movements were jerky and ragged and her eyes were glowing. It occurred to me that being around this much blood was probably really hard for her.

"I stabilized the two bleeders back there long enough for your healing to reconstruct the arteries." She said clinically. "We're lucky Chelsea was here, because there's no way I would've been able to keep them alive through the acid eating away at their carotids." She noticed us all and gave a jerky nod. "Shane, Callie. It's good to see you. Where are the others?"

I nodded back, a little worried at the rawness and discomfort I was seeing from the normally cheerful vampire. "Abel and Mel are stuck in a defensive construct with Camden and Sonia for a while. They'll be here when they can but they're fine. Gabe should be here any minute." As if summoned by my words, the front flap of the healers tent was pulled aside and the big Crusader entered, looking exhausted."

"How's news from the front?" I asked him. Gabe's starlight charger made him the fastest of us in terms of mobility, it was designed to utilize his Might stat to achieve much greater speeds. Camden had dispatched him to deliver messages to the commanders of the elite division and to check on their progress.

He smiled tiredly. "About as good as expected. Without the majority of their forces and equipped with the artifacts they got from you, Clairdon's estate fell easily. They're sieging Highgrave right now, but the assault is going well." He noticed Bethy standing there and his smile widened. "Bethany, I like the outfit."

She forced a wan smile, but I saw the big Crusader's troubled expression as he took in her demeanor. "Thank's Gabe." She said with a faux cheerful tone. "They're my favorites. Perfect for helping out around the hospital tent."

"You need a break too." I decided. I glanced at my sister. "Seems like Chelsea hasn't been pushing as hard, so she can help me use my heal bursts to patch things up." I realized how ill equipped I was for healing. I depended far too much on Jessie and had no way to help her out. My next form would need to address that, but I'd need to figure out what combination of abilities I'd use to make it.

For now, I just ignored their protests as Benny led Jessie and Gabe led Bethy to the back of the tent to sit down and relax.

Callie followed me to the first cot and stood beside me silently, not able to do much to help, but clearly wanting to support me. I glanced down at the pale faced soldier on the bed, clutching a nasty looking wound in his side as he groaned weakly.

Putting a hand on his chest, I reached into myself and triggered Afterburner. Fire surged up through my consciousness, suffusing me with strength. I only had ten charges of healing, and Afterburner gave me ten boosts. It was perfect. I was soothed and bolstered by the flame, but I knew it wouldn't last. Once I used the attacks up the weakening would hit me like a ton of bricks.

Callie latched onto my arm as I reached for another skill, about to use Mercy Kill. "If you strain your soul more than you already have instead of letting me help, I'm going to choke you unconscious and stuff you in a broom closet." She said bluntly.

I gave her an adoring smile. "I love you too, Cal. Mercy Kill and then heal burst then, count of three." With my soul, or I suppose our souls, as strong as they were, making the combat specialized buff work on a healing skill was child's play. I triggered the skill and stored charge, offloading the strain onto Callie.

She didn't seem overly bothered by the strain, though she was plenty exhausted too. She was close to hitting Sapphire now, though not quite there, and I think that was helping. A wave of blazing green life force, even more powerful than Jessie's normal heals, slammed into the man, and his eyes exploded into green light. Not just the irises, but the sclera too, the whole eye became suffused with green.

The energy shone from the wound too, which began to close with visible speed. Sadly, as the wound slowly healed, the glow began to fade, burning off the whole healing charge as quickly as possible to repair the worst damage.

Satisfied with that, I moved on to the next injured soldier. Another heal, and another. One by one I healed up all the ones with the worst wounds, hoping to minimize casualties.

Vitality was amazing, but it couldn't save you from everything. Impact played an outsized role in combat, and attacks from people at your own rank were harder for your stats to heal. Bleeding out WAS more than possible for an E-ranker, provided the wounds were dealt by the right people or with the right weapons.

Each new soldier I fixed seemed to lighten atmosphere a bit. One good thing about Ascendants was that while there WERE nasty skills and abilities that could slow kill someone, provided they lived through the initial attack, as long as healers were on hand most people would survive. I'd healed up the only really critical cases, and Chelsea was chipping away at the acid and poison stuff, chances were good the people in the tent would all live to see tomorrow.

Once I finished the last one, I all but toppled over, Callie catching me and hauling me to the back where Bethy and Jessie were being fussed over by Gabe and Benny respectively. She shoved me into an unoccupied cot and towered over me, hands on hips, as I tried to get up.

"Lay back down." She snapped. "Now. You're at critical mass, Shane. Any further soul strain and you might cause irreparable damage. Not to mention your body has been put through the ringer. You were just telling these two to rest, and now I'm telling you."

Jessie nodded from where she was glaring at Benny. "She's right Shane. Look at you. Your hands are shaking, your breathing is uneven. You look like you're about to pass out, and I can't even see your face." Her concern was evident, and the others all turned to study me, suddenly aware of how hard I'd been pushing myself.

And…she was right. I was a mess. I'd been keeping myself going on sheer momentum. My head was in so much pain I could barely think, and the only reason I was functional was because it had been like that for so long now that I'd gotten used to it and had started tuning it out as background noise. I was at the end of my rope. Wishes, Dust Construction, multiple powerful attacks, overlapping my forms, parallel minds…I'd pushed myself to the limit.

"Fine." I said, slumping back onto the bed. "But if I'm resting so are you. And for more than a minute or two." I said firmly. "Chelsea is still working on the worst cases, and I patched up the ones in need of immediate triage. You can take a bit to recover, and if I have to sit here and relax so do you."

She looked appalled. "But there are so many-"

"Nope." I said lightly. "Don't want to hear it. No arguments. Lay down and let Benny get you some soup or something from the mess hall." I turned to Bethy, who had been trying to get up. "And you better plant yourself back in that bed missy. Don't think we don't all see how frayed your nerves are around all this blood."

Her expression became remote, but I could see a bit of hurt in her eyes. Callie noticed too, and immediately reassured her. "We don't think you would hurt anyone. We know you better than that. We just know that this must be agonizing for you. You need time away from the blood to calm down your bloodlust, and if possible maybe something to eat to help quell the hunger."

Gabe shoved his arm forward. "You can drink from me." He said without hesitation. "I've lost blood before. It won't be a-"

"No!" Bethy screamed, shoving him away. "Don't…you can't offer that! I can't drink from you. One of the cats will be fine. Familiars and thralls have native protections against having stats drained when I feed. You don't. If I bite you…it won't be an experience you want to repeat. Trust me." Her voice sounded broken and a little ashamed, and Gabe looked devastated.

I remembered hearing from Valk what it felt like to be drained back at the bazaar. How awful it was, and I knew that she didn't want to inflict that pain on someone she cared about. She must have been feeding on the cats for a while. To my surprise, looking back they seemed stronger rather than weaker, maybe she'd been giving them her blood in return?

Whatever the case, she didn't try to get up again, so I was satisfied. I allowed myself to relax, lying back and closing my eyes. I wouldn't stay down long. Only for a second. I'd just rest my lids for a moment or two so I could recover. That was all I needed though, to drift off into darkness.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up in the dark. That wasn't too strange, nor was Callie curled into my side, but the fact that I could hear multiple other people in the room threw me for a second. It was only after I let my brain rev up a little and was able to process that I remembered where I was.

Based on my last memory before sleep, I was guessing it was night now, and that they'd put all the lights out to give everyone a chance to sleep. I kind of wanted to leap out of bed and look around, but I couldn't bring myself to wake Callie, not given the absurd levels of strain she'd been through.

To my shock though, my soul wasn't in pain like I'd expected. I mean, it didn't feel GOOD, but my head wasn't pounding like a bass drum.

When she felt me shift, I heard Callie's voice in my head though, proving she was as awake as I was. "Don't make noise. We barely managed to convince Jessie to take a nap. After you fell asleep she 'rested' for an hour and then got up and went back to work. Camden managed to hire another healer though, and once relief showed up we dragged her back in here to sleep."

"How long was I out?" I sent to her nonverbally. "Because that sounds like…a lot. And my soul is really recovered. Did I sleep for twenty hours or something?"

I sensed a pang of amusement through the bond. "Nothing so dramatic. Can't you feel the soothing energy?" When she pointed that out, I realized I DID feel soothing energy, specifically the same kind I usually felt when Benny was restoring my soul with his spiritual calming. But that was touch based, and Benny wasn't touching me.

"Did reaching Sapphire give Benny the ability to use abilities at range?" I asked in amazement. "Because that'll be SO useful."

I felt her shift slightly, and her Stealth Skill fell over us, letting me get up without waking anyone. With her Perception, it wasn't hard for her to navigate a dark room, and with our bond leading me out was trivial. Once we left the room, she grinned at me. "Sorry, this is easier." The rest of the tent was clear, showing me that while I might not have slept for twenty hours, I'd taken a pretty decent nap.

"Ok, so…how long WAS I out?" I asked, looking around. "One healer was enough to do all this? I remember like thirty people in here."

She shrugged. "You were out for ten hours. Jessie had already worked on most of them. With your sister and Bethy helping they were all mostly just suffering from flesh wounds. The healer treated them and sent them on their way, while Vitality might not instantly fix every injury, once they were stable they were free to go." Her face fell. "Lots of them had friends to bury."

I flinched, then sighed. "Yeah, that makes sense. We lose anyone that we knew?" It was a cold thing to ask, but I was most worried about friends and then acquaintances. I was sad for our lost cohorts from other centuries, but it wasn't the same."

"Niles." She said sadly. "He was the one training me in formations while you were working with Demia. He was a nice guy."

I winced. "Damn." I glanced around. "Do you think we should let Camden know about resurrection being possible? Down the line I mean. He lost so many people, wouldn't it be great if he could bring them all back?"

"I love that your head went there, hon." She said sadly. "But no. Resurrection for a personal friend or loved one of a close team member is one thing, but if it was feasible on a large scale it would be much better known. Assuming you get to that point, chances are Camden wouldn't be able to afford a single resurrection in his entire life, never mind hundreds. It's kinder not to mention it. That's not even false hope, it's basically just mocking him."

Despite the harsh words, her tone was soft, and I nodded slowly. "Yeah…yeah I guess it is." Finally processing something I hadn't noticed earlier, I blinked at her in shock. "Wait…that feeling earlier. Are you at Sapphire?"

She beamed at me, throwing her arms open as if to show herself off. "Took you long enough! Yes, Benny's boost to recovery helped push me up the last few percent. And yeah,to answer your earlier question he was able to push the radius up after his soul sublimated."

I wasn't surprised in retrospect. Benny's abilities were localized to start, and with a stronger soul he learned to spread them over his whole body. The next logical step would be to push them out in a radius, though I wasn't sure how that would work with some of his other tricks. Either way, it had certainly been a lifesaver here.

"Did we hear about what happened with the Highgrave estate?" I asked, walking over to slump onto an empty cot. The others must all be napping in the back, but Callie had us covered in terms of noise so I didn't bother to whisper.

Joining me, Callie leaned against my side. I didn't mind. I could feel she was as shaken as I was, and feeling her weight against me helped soothe my nerves. I put and arm around her, pulling her closer, and she sighed contentedly before answering. "Yeah, we won. Pretty decisively. Some of those siege artifacts Camden wished for were WEIRDLY specific. Anna must have gotten him details on the security at both manors because they went down fast."

I sighed in relief. "Oh, good. Listen, about the buildup, I know you wanted to get started right away but-"

She put a finger on my lips. "We have a month, and a day or two off won't hurt anyone. I'm not pushing you to jump into anything after this mess. We could all use a day off. I know Spencer is a pressing threat, but all of us burning out is worse."

"Which is what I wanted to talk about." I said somberly. "I want to try to help Bethy. Like…today. I didn't realize how bad it could get until we saw her helping out. Seeing her break down like that with Gabe was…rough. She isn't the kind of person you expect to lose it, and seeing her of all people so torn up was awful."

She nodded. "Yeah, that wasn't easy. Are you sure you can help her right now though? I mean I agree we should try, but making changes at that level…are you strong enough?"

"I'm honestly not sure." I said with a shrug. "The Vampire is a terrifying guy, and his bloodline is demi-god level based on what Bethy said. Not to mention her mom, who is supposed to be strong in her own right. I imagine the mixing of those two natures resulted in some pretty volatile reactions. Granted, my power lets me apply triple the Impact to a problem, but I'm not sure if that's enough."

Callie sighed. "But we have to try." She finished. "Plus it's not an all or nothing issue. Even if she can't wish to be magically fixed there are probably items or enchantments that can suppress her bloodlust and help keep her balanced. We knew when we agreed to help her it probably wouldn't be easy."

"I know." I said guiltily. "I just feel bad it took so long. She seems so happy and carefree most of the time so in my head I didn't mind putting it off, but if she's been dealing with that kind of thing…why didn't she tell us?" It was just another thing I was oblivious to happening to my team under my nose. In my defense Bethy wasn't the most transparent people at the best of times, but still, I should have picked up on something.

"Because I didn't want you to know." Said the surprisingly serious voice of Bethy from the direction of our sleeping friends. She'd appeared out of nowhere, and I saw she'd changed out of her flying cat scrubs and into one of her more usual fancy ball gowns, though how she managed to move so silently in that I had no idea.

I just about jumped out of my skin, staring at her in shock. "Gods Bethy, warn a guy. We didn't see you there? How did you hear through Callie's Stealth Skill anyway." I glanced at my girlfriend. "You are keeping us muted to the others right?"

Bethy just smiled. "You forget my illusions are pretty Perception heavy, and I have my own means of piercing Stealth. Sorry to interrupt cuddle time, but I heard my name mentioned and I wanted to come weigh in." She strolled up to me and then reached down and flicked me in the forehead.

It thunked into my mask hard enough to snap my head back, and I yelped, hand going to my neck, which felt a bit tweaked now. "Hey, what the hell?"

"You will NOT feel guilty because the miracle cure you offered to give me that will solve all the problems in my life is TAKING a while." She said in possibly the steeliest tone I'd ever heard from her. "I won't allow it. We're E-rankers. We have plenty of time.You've been doing your best, and if you think I'm going to let you beat yourself up over making me wait a few months for you to magically solve the biggest problem I have in my whole life, you're even dumber than you are tall, and you are FAR too close to the ceiling."

"She's right." Said Callie matter of factly. "Anything over six feet is just excessive. You can jump over buildings, what does a few extra inches of leg even matter." At my glare she just smirked. "Oh, and also yes, feeling guilty is dumb."

I threw my hands up. "What the hell? I can't even feel bad in the privacy of my own head?"

"You don't have any privacy in your head." Said Callie mercilessly. "It's not even the bond. I just know you that well.I know everything you think the second you think it. Like right now, you're thinking about how lucky you are to have me in your life, aren't you?" Her tone was haughty and I could feel her slyness through the bond.

"Yes dear." I said blandly, playing along with her teasing. My eyes went back to Bethy. "But fine. I won't feel guilty IF you agree to make your wishes TODAY so we can try to help you." She opened her mouth and I held up a warning hand. "I can and WILL go into a protracted monologue about my culpability in your suffering and how I've failed as a leader if you say no."

Callie nodded somberly. "Don't push him." She said. "He'll do it. He LOVES to hear himself talk."

"Ye- hey!" I said in mock outrage. She just winked at me and I let out a quiet chuckle. Bethy thought it was funny too, because she giggled a bit at the exchange.

Finally, the tiny vampire agreed "Alright. Fine. I'll make my wishes today. I'm not sure what to pay with. Maybe stat points? I do have some other options. I'll think about it." She narrowed her eyes, looking me over. "I don't suppose I could pay you in a makeover?"

"You leave my new gear alone!" I snapped, scandalized. "I look fantastic." I whirled on Callie. "Tell her!"

Callie winced playfully. "Well, the crown is a bit much. But the cape is very dashing. Purple is definitely your color." I gripped my chest, playing up my devastation, and Bethy giggled again. It was nice to see her back to her old self. Hopefully the help we'd be giving her would let her stay like this more of the time.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After we finished talking we stepped out into the evening air and followed Bethy a ways away. We wanted to make sure we had some privacy for these wishes, so she sent the cats ahead to look around and found us a place. When we arrived, Bethy double checked our surroundings and then called for her Domain, surrounding us with blood red sky and black grass.

"This should be plenty secure." I said, looking around. "I can understand not wanting the truth about what's going on with your bloodlust to get out. So, before we begin, I need to know more about what happens to you. It might help with coming up with a proper method of controlling it."

Callie nodded. "Tell us about how it feels. I mean, from what I've seen, it looks like you lose contact with your humanity. You seem withdrawn and cold. Like you don't feel any emotions."

Bethy laughed, a ragged, broken sound I'd never heard from her before. "I wish. No. That's just the mindset I cultivated to keep myself under control. Bloodlust doesn't make me stop feeling. It makes me feel so much more. Blood is…it's amazing. And the way I feel when I give into the hunger. Like I want to dance, and sing, and laugh among the bodies of my enemies."

She shuddered, taking a long, deep breath. Callie stepped closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You alright? We can give you a bit."

The Vampire just shook her head, as if trying to dislodge the thoughts. "No. Thanks, but no. I just need to focus. I get my bloodlust from both sides, the mix of my parents blood makes me decidedly unstable when I'm hungry. But I can't… I don't want that to define me. To be all I am. I could just bury myself in misery and act all dead inside, but that's not the kind of person people want to be around. I want to have fun, to live my life, just…without murdering people for no reason."

Callie stepped back once Bethy responded, acknowledging that she probably needed some space, and I decided to focus on what we COULD fix rather than what we couldn't. I wasn't benefiting from this directly, so I had a bit more leeway with suggestions. "Well, why don't you identify exactly what happens when you're hungry and we can figure out how to help from there. Not just your feelings, what is the process?"

"I smell blood." She said simply. "If I'm full it just smells nice, soothing. I get sort of muddle headed in a happy way. But if I'm hungry…it's like my heart is made of explosives. The scent of it climbs through my nostrils and into my veins, and when it hits…it's like an explosion of joy. It sings to me, asking me to revel in the bloodshed, to engage."

Callie made a contemplative sound. "Ok…well how about a scent dampener? Maybe if you can't smell it you won't have as much trouble."

"Won't work." Said Bethy with a shake of her head. "It's been tried. The blood isn't…vampirism isn't physical. That's why we can siphon stats. It's a spiritual condition, just like all racial traits. The scent isn't a real smell, just a sort of spiritual radiation we pick up. Blocking your nose doesn't do anything to mitigate that."

"So…why don't you just wish for something that does?" Asked Callie bluntly. At our confused glances, she just shrugged. "I'm just saying, wishes aren't bound to traditional mechanics. You could wish for something that blocks soul scent or whatever."

I paused, thinking that through. "Well, maybe. Wishes don't work on souls too well, so we probably couldn't directly dampen the smell."

"We don't need to." She disagreed. "We just need to stop the radiation or whatever from getting to it. Something like a spiritual air freshener or some kind of scent shield would prevent that without actually needing to mess with the soul in question."

Bethy was starting to look excited. "That's…that'd be amazing! I mean, before that I want to try to affect the actual hunger itself, though based on what you said about wishes and souls it might be tough."

"Maybe." I said slowly. "But abilities are a grey area. They aren't really part of your soul, just kind of attached to it. That's what a Path is for, connecting the two. You should at least try."

She nodded. "Alright, I wish that my bloodlust was gone."

Wish detected. Gant wish?

I confirmed, but winced as I got the cost. "That's a no go. My ability says it's out of reach. I've seen that before trying to give master level Skills to someone when I was just starting out. I might be able to do that eventually, but it'll take a higher rank. Try something else."

Biting her lip, she thought for a second. "I wish that my bloodlust was muted enough that I could think through it more easily."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed, and then grinned at her. "Ok, the use of the term more easily apparently helped. I'm not sure how MUCH it'll mute the effect, but it'll do something. What can you pay for that?" I was hopeful that a few of these wishes would help, especially in conjunction with the possible sent defense artifact.

Bethy offered a few different things, eventually settling on a single D-ranked chit for all of her wishes, which was a pretty amazing deal considering the huge jump in relative value between E and D-rank for chits.

I accepted, and then granted the wish. I felt the electricity build until I finally unleashed the energy into her. Then she wishes again, and again. Five times, five attempts to mute her hunger. We weren't sure how effective it was, but she informed us that she didn't think it was going to have too big an impact. Just from her sense of herself she said she doubted the wishes dulled her hunger more than one percent each.

Strill, five percent wasn't nothing, and even if it got harder as it went like she thought, it meant once I was stronger I'd be able to do more. Until then, we still had two more wishes left, and we were all excited to check if the scent protection artifacts would work.

"Alright." Bethy said slowly. "I need to be precise here. I wish that I had a piece of equipment that would prevent the spiritual signature of fresh blood from reaching the perception of my soul, or at least suppress the effect partially."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

This one was really Impact heavy, which was the stat used to balance it out when I didn't have enough stats in other departments. That was actually a good sign because it pretty much confirmed this would be a powerful and effective item. I told Bethy and she watched, enraptured, as the purple electricity of my ability started to build.

And I confirmed with the others that they COULD see it. Apparently, much like the bindings on Weston, there were certain levels of power (i.e all of it) that would make my wishes visible at the current level, even to people who couldn't normally see it.

The buildup continued until finally, there was an explosion of purple energy that coalesced into a thick black manacle with a pulsing blood red ruby on it. I passed it to Bethy, who slapped it on her wrist, admiring the oddly shiny black metal like a fashion accessory.

Flexing her fist, she stared at it in awe. I saw her eyes glow slightly, and a fractal scrollwork of miniscule red sigils lit up. Within moments, her eyes had dimmed again, and she was grinning ear to ear. "That…helps. Given the battles and all the wounded there's been a pretty consistent undercurrent of blood around this place. It's almost gone now."

"Is that enough?" I asked cautiously. "Do you still need the other? You're paid up for it, but if you're good you can use the wish for something else."

She just shook her head. "No." She said firmly. "It's working, but the scent of blood leftover is…miniscule. It'll be way stronger when I'm around the stuff in person, and even moreso when I'm hungry. Donuts fed me earlier, so I'm not starving anymore but that will change eventually. I wish I could feed on Luggage, but his blood is toxic."

She'd left her thralls behind before she came on this trip, and it occurred to me that she must really want a life away from all the bloodshed if she was willing to go to those lengths. Granted, I had promised to help, but still.

She made her last wish, and within a minute, an identical black shackle appeared and she clamped it on. She took a deep, excited breathe and let it out with a giggle. Letting her head tip back she spread her arms, spinning happily.

"Seems like you're happy with the results?" Asked Callie with a grin.

Bethy squealed and hurled herself at me, clinging to my neck like a spider monkey, she reached out and grabbed Callie and pulled her into the hug, cackling with excitable giddiness. "I feel AMAZING!" She gushed. "Five percent weaker bloodlust and these two bracelets together means unless i'm in a bloodbath or a tent like before I should be fine!"

I let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad. I can try to do more tomorrow if-"

She bopped me on the mask like a bad cat. "No. Stop giving away wishes. You're got a territory to develop and only a month to do it. It would take ninety five more wishes to suppress my hunger IF it stays at one percent, which it definitely won't. I can feel my nature as a vampire shifting. It's unsettled. Much more and it would start pushing back."

Flinching, I nodded quickly. That sounded…horrible. If she had this much trouble with the bloodlust when it was just normal, what would her hunger be like if it was actively pushing her. I still didn't know how Bethy's nature even worked. Two supernatural Ascendants with racial traits having a kid clearly had some ramifications. How was that different than normal high rankers having children?

I knew that I'd been born with higher stats because of my parents, but my neither of my parents were fucking S-rank. God bloods or not, they were both firmly in the As, and Bethy's dad wasn't just an S-ranker, he was a demigod.

More shit I didn't understand, but I was more than pleased with the results. I'd done my part to help a friend, even if I'd taken a while.

"So about your feeding." I said slowly. Her smile wilted and she looked at me, guard up. "Have you considered…going elsewhere for that?"

She cocked her head. "I mean…I don't feed from anyone who hasn't volunteered. Or during official duels sometimes if I'm peckish. But I consider accepting a challenge to be implicit permission to shed blood."

"But is that something you need to do?" I asked. "Like could you feed on wild animals? Or for example…enemy soldiers?"
She bit her lip. "I don't know Shane. Feeding on anyone who isn't a thrall is incredibly painful. Even during duels I usually only take a sip, which isn't so bad. But a real feeding. That would be horrible."

Callie saw where I was going with this, but she frowned when she heard BEthy's response. "We won't push. But if you're willing, let us know. There's some tactical possibilities there."

Bethy's feeding WAS painful, and scary. And Bethy herself was terrifying for many other reasons. If she started picking off lone soldiers from Spencer's camp, chances were good word would spread. People would be too scared to sign up with him. It was an exciting plan, but I wouldn't push my friend if the idea made her uncomfortable.

"Anyway." I said, throwing an arm around Callie. "Bethy may not be hungry anymore, but my ass is starving. Let's hit the mess hall." Bethy giggled at that, her worry wiped away and we headed out of her domain. Tactics could wait, for now, I just wanted dinner.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day, we officially headed for our new territory. Well, Celine's new territory. She was the one officially marked to be the noble in charge of this place. Since she'd be getting the renown from the Empire for its operation, and since Callie would be making the wishes, I should be able to grant the wishes for upgrading the territory itself.

With that decided, we just had to figure out exactly where we were going to begin work. Highgrave's territory did contain a city, as well as a manor, but both belonged to Highgrave and the latter was not only probably full of traps, but also pretty damaged.

Besides that, since we were building from the ground up, we decided we needed to find a location with a lot of natural defenses, somewhere that would make our job easier.

Which brought us…here. As I stared out over the valley, I couldn't help but whistle at the sight before me. "Damn." I said quietly. "That's amazing." I put an arm around Callie as we stared down into the idyllic landscape of what was going to be our first real home since leaving Callus. Sure, we'd be off and heading for the conclave in a few months, but it would be waiting for us to come back.

"It IS amazon." She murmured. "I can't believe the cats found this place. Thanks for the assist Bethy."

The vampire giggled. "Um, duh. Of course I found somewhere awesome. I have the best taste ever, right Gabe?" She shot a slightly strained smile at the big blonde man, and he nodded solemnly. Ever since her outburst in the healing tent, she'd been acting incredibly guilty whenever she was around Gabe. For his part, he didn't seem to care about her shoving him away, but I could tell he was concerned about her new demeanor.

I forced myself to focus on the valley itself though, smiling at the beautiful scenery. Stretched our below us, a deep depression in the ground cut out a huge section of the forest. Inside was a large idyllic meadow filled with lush green grass and the occasional patch of wildflowers. A few trees dotted the landscape, but only in the singular, and they were all large sturdy fruit bearing behemoths.

At the far end of the valley was a huge clear lake. The lake was backed up against a sheer cliff face, and a waterfall tumbled from the rocks at the top. I could see a deep stone cave at the back of the waterfall, allowing the lake to drain out without overflowing its peaceful banks, and peaceful fish and frogs and turtles enjoyed both the shore and the glasslike water nearest to it.

Benny, who was escorting Celine, took a long deep breath, smiled pleasantly and said aloud what we were all thinking. "So…this is a trap right?"

"Oh, gods yes." I said immediately. "I'm surprised someone didn't build a candy house in the middle of that meadow. It's super pretty though. And unfortunately for whoever or whatever is expecting to ensnare us, we have other means of securing our territory." Kneeling down, I pressed a hand to the grass, and called on Song of the Soil.

Earth. For miles in every direction I felt myself spread through the earth. My Perception was miles ahead of where it had been last time I used this skill outside of a Pit of Despair I made myself, but I had an easy fix for that. I triggered Piece of Mind twice, letting each of my three selves take a portion of the information load to sift through.

"Ok, let's see." I said as I sorted through stimuli. "Small settlement of giant moles, but they're pretty deep and don't seem hostile. Den of river otters, judging by the piles of suspiciously human bones in their cave they ARE hostile, but there's only like ten of them and they're just F-rank. And, oh, that'd be the one. Ouch, that's nasty."

Benny cleared his throat. "We can't see what you're talking about, mind filling us in on what you're looking at?"

"Ambush predator." Said Callie in my stead. She could access my skills through our bond, and was looking at it right alongside me. "It's disguised as a one square mile section of meadow. Basically a giant mouth waiting to snap shut on anything that steps…there." She pointed to a particularly sunny and inviting stretch of grass, one with no trees or flowers but that looked lush and soft."

Benny hissed. "A square mile. Someone needs to cut back on carbs."

"No monster shaming." I said with a snicker. "It's tacky. Don't worry though, I've got this. Gabe, feel like hammering in a nail for me?"

He shrugged. "Not sure what you mean by that, but I can go with the flow. What did you have in mind." I headed down the hill opposite the cliff, the alternate and much more inviting entrance to the valley, and he followed me.

"Ok. I'm going to set up an attack, and I want you to use your Path to make sure it does the job. Can you get up there?" I pointed up to a spot maybe twenty feet above the ground.

In answer, he conjured his starlight charger and swung onto its back. To my surprise, it stepped on air as easily as the ground, charging up into the sky and then stopping where I'd pointed. I gave him a thumbs up, then took a deep breath, triggering Afterburner, Mercy Kill and Mephistopheles.

I was careful about it, because the ambush predator felt strong. It was E-rank, but HIGH E-rank, and if it decided to attack it could almost definitely kill us.

To make sure that didn't happen, I called up Moonlit Night, and empowered with Afterburner, the stealth aspect of the ability was even stronger. I made sure Gabe could see through the fog, then walked over to the VERY edge of the ambush predator's range, and knelt down, putting a hand on the grass. With the stealth covering me, I triggered Pit of Despair, and then I started letting black flame seep into the dust. I controlled both meticulously, using my two still active parallels to manipulate both the dust and the flame.

Once the flame had permeated the dust, I used Dust Construction to lift it all up. The ambush predator noticed, but it couldn't sense the cause and froze up. Hammering the Dust with my willpower, I slammed it together into a twenty foot long spike of black stone roiling with black flame energy. "Now!" I called to Gabe.

Being able to see the flat platform under him at the top, he dismissed his charger and landed on it just as I released the spike and it began to fall. I saw the world shift slightly as Gabe channeled his Path of the Adamant into the falling spike, and the rod of black stone plummeted into the still open and now exposed mouth of the ambush predator.

The spike slammed into flesh at high speeds, driven by Gabe's path alongside my black flame as an explosion of powerful damaging energy, enhanced by multiple effects and channeled along the length of the dense stone slammed into it and blasted the spike into the depths of the creature.

Gabe himself leapt off at the last second, backflipping up to land on his suddenly coalescing charger as the monster screamed its death throes, fountains of rancid blood shooting up from the hole we'd left as it died.

Swinging by, Gabe caught me with a high five as he went by, and I whooped with joy as I let the fog fade away. The others hurried over to us, and whistled as they saw the results. Callie looked particularly impressed. "That's amazing. Think of how much damage an attack like that could do from higher up."

"I call it the rod from the gods." I said proudly. "But realistically that's the best I can do. Lifting that much dust is a huge strain. The higher it goes the more stress it puts on my soul. Twenty feet is about my limit, and only because I was in the process of compacting it."

She grimaced. "Ah, yeah that might be a problem. Maybe I could teleport it? We'd need something up there casting a shadow. Good idea using Gabe's Path to charge up the momentum."

"Wouldn't have done much otherwise." I said with a shrug. I offered the Adamant a grin, not that he could see it. "Damned impressive job there man."

He hopped off his horse, letting it dissolve in silver shimmers. "Hell of a payload, I just delivered it." it felt good, knowing that despite being extremely weak amongst the throngs of E-rankers, we could still get shit done, especially working together. Our Paths really were an extreme advantage at this juncture, though I suspected we'd be meeting more and more people who had them already as we approached D-rank.

"Not to rain on anyone's parade." Said Benny as he looked at the huge corpse. "But what the hell are we supposed to do with this big bastard? Killing it means we can start work right? But like…don't we need to move the body?"

I glanced at Callie, who would be making the wishes for this place. "I'm going to say no." She said after some deliberation. "We can work around it. We'll figure out something to do with it when we have time, but it's not like it'll attack. Worst case after its gone we'll fill the hole with water and make a pond or something."

"Sure, because that's not weird at all." I said with a laugh. "I can just imagine including that in the tour for prospective citizens. 'And here we have Predator Pond, which used to be the grave of a giant super predator that called this valley its lair'. That'll bring in the investors."

She just shrugged, mostly ignoring me. "Now, to get started, I think we need to take the same steps you did with the walls. Namely, we need foundations. Seven buildings as a start. The question is what we need first." She turned to Celine. "This is going to be your territory, and you have more experience with this kind of thing. What's our first building?"

The elf looked thoughtful. "I think…we need an inn. We'll need city planners, workmen, and plenty of other dedicated craftsmen. Shipping them here every day isn't cost effective. An inn would let us keep our workers close."

"That's a good idea." Callie said cheerfully. "Actually, it makes a lot of sense to consult a professional about placement. In that case, how about we focus on getting the inn up today and we can save the other foundations for once the planner arrives?" Once Celine agreed, my girlfriend clapped her hands together and rubbed them vigorously. "Aright. Let's do this. Shane, I wish for the nicest and sturdiest inn foundation we can afford. Celine will be paying for all of today's wishes with a D-ranked chit."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

The elf smiled, tossing me a particularly dense looking coin, which I caught with a surprised grunt and slipped into my ring. Heavier than it looked. I felt the power start to build and grinned as it charged to absurd levels. 'Best we could afford' meant lots of Impact. With an explosion of purple sparks a sea of light covered the entire area…where the monster body was.

When it vanished, there was a big empty hole in the shape of a well structured basement, with beams and supports that looked suspiciously like bone.

I blinked, staring down in shock. Apparently the best she could afford meant using all resources. We had a giant hole filled with powerful monster parts, and apparently the wish decided to count them as assets. I stared down at the sturdy looking foundation and then turned to Callie who looked as shocked as I did. "Well." I said cheerfully. "That solves that problem. Next wish I guess."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Rather than jump straight to wish number two though, Callie decided to check out the basement first. The foundation was going to be important when we built the rest of the place, so it made sense to figure out the dimensions and stuff. I followed her down, curious to see what a basement made of monster would look like.

It was…surprisingly homey. The supports were made of bone, but the bone wasn't white and porous like human bones. I could still tell what it was, but the bones were black and glossy. The stairs down into the place were made of teeth, at least based on the shapes, but they were fitted together, joined into a solid series of platforms.

The floor was…leather? It had been made of some kind of hide tanned firm enough to be almost like tile. There was a slight give, but it didn't feel disturbing or anything. It reminded me of walking on rubber floors as a kid, back when Benny and I were in childcare together. Kind of springy but still hard.

Lastly was the walls, made of some sort of scales, overlapping in a surprisingly pretty shimmer of blue and green, melding into pretty images that seemed to shift and change based on where you were standing. The whole place was shockingly beautiful for a building (or part of one) made from a monster corpse.

"This is big." Said Callie with interest, pacing out the length and width of the basement. "Like…really big. Not exactly a mile like I expected though."

I pointed to the supports. "You asked for strong. It condensed the material to make sure it could hold up whatever building we end up with. Speaking of which, do you have any ideas how you're going to need to do this?"

She nodded. "Yup. First I'm using my next wish to wish for a blueprint. Having an exact layout is going to make things substantially easier." I waited, and she rolled her eyes. "Right. I wish I had a blueprint for the perfect inn for our needs." Nodding in approval, I waited until the familiar purple flame rolled across my vision.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed, and the familiar buildup of electricity rolled across my skin. It wasn't a strong buildup, a piece of paper with a design wasn't a stretch for my power and didn't require much effort, even customized to Callie's wishes.

There was a flash of purple electricity and the light coalesced into a rolled up tube of papers, which I passed to my girlfriend.

She popped the top, sliding them out, and then carried them over to a central patch of floor and laid them out on the ground, pinning them with a few conjured rocks of shadow to keep the pages from curling. I followed her over and leaned down to get a good look.
I whistled. "Those are…extensive. Thirteen rooms, expansive kitchen, of course, training area, basement meeting hall, secret exit, there's a lot here."

She nodded. "The design is even modular. It calls for very general materials, wood, nails, and so on. We can substitute out better materials if we want something sturdier and that will last, or just use the bare minimum."

"And which one are you going with?" I asked casually. I could grant the wishes for her, but I still didn't want to influence her calls too much. You never knew when a wish would fail because of unfair compensation. I had a good idea of what she'd choose though, knowing Callie as well as I did.

Sure enough, she rolled her eyes. "Obviously we're using top of the line E-ranked materials. Or at least the best materials possible with what I have. I'm going to use four of my remaining five wishes maximizing material conjuration, and then the last one to actually put the place together. With all the mats here and a proper blueprint the actual construction should be coverable in one wish."

I nodded thoughtfully. "That seems like it would work. So, four wishes for the materials, how are you going to divide them up?"

Picking up the blueprints, she turned and headed back up the stairs, out into the meadow outside the spacious basement. "Ok, I think I've got this sorted to get the best results. First wish we'll wish for external building materials, then internal, then the roof, and finally furnishings." She turned to the others, who had approached when we came out. "That sound alright to you guys?"

Benny looked thoughtful. "If you really wanted to maximize your material quality you'd wish for them one by one. Wish for the best wood, then the best nails, and so on. But that would take more than you've got wish-wise. I think your way will get you a solid build, and should cut down on unnecessary time wastage."

"We don't need to make it impregnable anyway." She said with a laugh. "It's an inn, not a fortress. The rooms will be usable while we're here though. The layout is ten normal rooms and three suites. Obviously as the local Lady Celine gets one, and I'm claiming another. As for the third…I suspect Chelsea will get it. Political reasons." Celine nodded at that and everyone else cursed.

Callie spun, fire in her eyes. "Alright. Time to get started. I wish we had the perfect mix of materials for the outside of this Inn, both in terms of fitting the design and our own preferences." She was careful with her wording, and I nodded as the message came.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I winced a bit at the details stat wise. The Might and Creation requirement was expected, but the real kicker was the Impact. It made sense since each of the items in question would be a fully functional real object. I confirmed, and the electricity started to build.

It started with a tingling sort of buzzing along my skin, like normal static that built and built. That was pretty normal, but something about this one felt…different. This was going to be the biggest conjuration I'd done. The wish power worked by creating custom ability templates to maximize my stat usage, which meant different wishes functioned differently, like those bindings we'd used on Weston.

This one felt strange, and I wasn't quite sure why for a moment. I felt the electricity build inside me, and I waited for it to explode from my hands or what have you, but instead it seemed to concentrate in my stomach. My eyes widened and I retracted the bottom part of my mask as my head fell back and I screamed, a beam of purple lightning streaking up into the sky.

The beam hit the clouds above us and they darkened, flickering ominously with purple light before erupting into a torrent of wrist thick bolts of lightning, all striking the spot directly in front of us. When it finally cleared, I was doubled over, hands on my knees, wheezing, and there was a huge pile of well cut black timber in front of us, shot through with odd grey crystals.

"What." I wheezed. "The actual fuck?" My voice was gravelly, like I'd just been smoking. Which I suppose I kind of had, if you considered the puff of black soot I'd just coughed up smoking.

Callie, who looked concerned, looked me over until she was sure I was ok, then she walked over to the wood. "These are fulgurites." She said as she pointed to the branching grey crystals. "The wood is probably some kind of lightning material." She leaned over, making an interested sound. "There are other materials, neatly stacked and seemingly way less dramatic to make."

I considered what I knew about my ability. "You asked for the best. I'm guessing a normal conjuration wasn't enough for that material. It gave me an ability that allowed me to mobilize natural resources to make the stats I used go further. Like with the basement. It seems weird this has only just started happening though."

"Not really." Said Benny. "If I had to guess it has to do with your soul. Remember abilities can do more dramatic things and stretch the bounds of possibility more with a stronger soul. Your wishes are getting more effective for the same reason. The ability templates can be flexed further with your current soul strength."

I considered his theory, and I had to admit he might be right. The bindings on Weston had been big and dramatic, and prior to that I hadn't really pushed myself wish wise for a while. We'd been sticking with basic stat trades and attack stockpiling.

"You still up for the next one?" Callie asked worriedly. "If you need a minute we can wait."

I put a hand to my chest. "I am shocked at how little you think of me. Shocked I say." Callie just rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh.

"If you can make bad puns you're fine." She said with a teasing smirk. "In that case, I wish for the best material possible for the interior of the Inn within the confines of the budget and my preferences, one of which is that my boyfriend doesn't have to vomit lightning bolts again." She winked at me, and I laughed as the message came.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed. Luckily her deciding not to fry my lungs didn't seem to count as compensation of any sort for me, which was fair. Not electrocuting me wasn't my idea of a bribe either. This time the electricity grounded out of my feet, and the earth churned as the materials pushed up from out of the dirt.

She wished again, this time for the roof, and then the furnishings, and by the time she finished with those we were standing in the middle of a very odd pile of random stuff including lumber, fasteners, light fixtures, and a surprising number of expensive looking filigreed doorknobs. I was panting, these creation abilities were taxing in a way I wasn't used to.

After giving me a second to catch my breath, with Benny doing his spiritual calming thing just in case it helped (it did a bit) we moved on to the last wish. "Alright." Said Callie excitedly. "Time to put it all together. I wish the materials we have her would be assembled in the manner indicated in the blueprint I wished for earlier, adjusted in any way necessary for optimal material application."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

This time I took a second before confirming and then once I did, it began. The electricity built as usual, but instead of coming out as a blast it started to radiate from my palms as a pulse. Purple lightning flowed out in circular waves, and as it hit the materials, they started to glow.

Like a magnetic draw, they started to lift into the air and move toward the foundation, gently rotating around it at first, then picking up speed as it started to draw in more and more parts. Before I knew it there was a tornado of stuff surrounding the basement, with the tip of the funnel seeming to be a zone of construction laying the materials in place.

Timber shoved itself into place, nails flew at top speed into wood with perfect accuracy, and as we watched, the Inn built itself from the ground up, visible at first, but within minutes it had sealed itself off, and everything, fixtures, furnishings and all, was gone, leaving the meadow looking perfect and pristine.

Walking up the to the new building, I knocked solidly on the door. When it held, I opened it up, stepping inside, and whistled loudly at the sheer elegance of the decor. The furnishings had looked much less impressive when they were in a pile outside. Now it was kind of a quiet understated opulence that made me glad we'd gone with this particular design. I loved it. Turning to the others, I shot them a grin. "Good news. It worked."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This place is fantastic!" I said in awe as I toured the halls of our new inn. We'd named it The Hearthflame Inn (my suggestion of Inn Cognito had been dismissed as stupid) and we were exploring the completed building. We'd all be sleeping here tonight, and tomorrow most of the group would had back to the Imperial Fork when the City Planner and Workmen we'd hired through Camden showed up.

Callie, who was beaming at the flawlessly constructed building, nodded sharply. "It's perfect. I love everything about it." She froze, turning to look at Celine. "I mean…I hope you like it, since this is your territory."

Smiling, the elf girl shook her head. "I'm grateful for your help developing the territory, and the Starlight Pavilion is always welcome in my borders. I know I can't actually give you the territory because of your cultivation method, but as the Lady of this territory I am always willing to shield you and yours."

That was why we were able to make wishes about this place to begin with. There was no mechanism to turn over Imperial territory to anyone but a noble. If we'd had Jobs we might have been able to switch to being nobles ourselves, but as it was that wasn't on the table.

Still, having a home was…nice. This was our place, where we belonged, and being here gave me the strength to do something I'd been thinking of doing for a long time. I'd already made my plan, but it would need to wait until later. I wanted to make sure everything went perfectly, so for now I'd just enjoy the tour, knowing the layout could only help.

I'd developed enough soul control to prevent my nervous excitement from leaking down the bond, but it was still hard to focus on what was going on, despite my interest. Still, when we reached the kitchen, even anticipation couldn't keep me from being entranced.

Black metal appliances of every size and shape lined the counters, pots and pans stacked in cupboards, knives of every shape and size, and every object you could think of to peel, press, dice, puree, blend, or otherwise destroy ingredients in cooking adjacent ways was packed into the drawers.

Turning to Callie, I smirked at her knowingly. "It occurs to me that with such an impressive kitchen at my disposal, I'll have more reason to cook."

She shrugged with faux nonchalance. "Oh, is that right? I hadn't really thought about it. Obviously an inn needs a kitchen, but this place was designed to be perfect for me, so obviously a food prep area would be a must."

"Yes, and I'm sure you pictured some nameless chef doing the preparing." I said dryly. "But if you wouldn't be too disappointed, why don't I test it out for you tonight. I can make us dinner."

Benny, who was standing behind me inspecting the fridge, turned sharply. "Oh shit, really? I haven't had your food in ages, I'd love to come over fo-ow!" He turned to Celine, who was glaring at him menacingly. "What? Why did you smack me? I was just telling him I wanted him to make some for us too."

"I thought I saw a fly." Said the elf in a deadpan voice. "In fact, it's still buzzing around. We should leave so I don't need to try to swat it again."

Sulkily, and muttering under his breath, Benny let her drag him out of the room. Celine may not know what I had planned, but it didn't take a genius to figure out it started with a romantic dinner. The others were all exploring the inn, but I suspected they'd be subtly tipped off as well, so I shouldn't have trouble getting some alone time with Callie.

Watching them go, she shot me a soft smile. "I think dinner would be wonderful." She said quietly. "We haven't had time to eat a nice home cooked meal just the two of us in a while." She reached out and took my hand. "But if you don't want to cook we can have Anna make something, I don't want you to feel obligated to feed me."

I barked out a laugh. "That ship sailed a long time ago, love. But don't you worry. I want to cook. I promise you'll love it. I do need to go out and get some things though. Can you set up a table in the basement? That should be empty enough for us to have a nice evening."

"Already done." She said with a chuckle. "Remember we're using it for meetings. Go get whatever you need, I can wait."

Pulling my mask up, I leaned down for a quick kiss before turning and heading out. The kitchen was stocked with general food stuff, but nothing specific, and aside from cooking I had something else I wanted to pick up.

I sprinted flat out to Saltzberg, so it didn't take me too long to arrive. My body being in a constant State of Grace helped. Stopping at the market I picked up the stuff for Chicken and Dumplings, one of the first dishes I ever made for Callie, and then made my second stop to grab the other essential I needed.

When I made it back, I started cooking immediately. We still had a few hours until dinner, but I wanted to do it right. It was relaxing, really. I'd forgotten how much cooking centered me. The repetition, the ritual. I could have done it faster, but that would have defeated the purpose of the whole thing. I wanted to take my time, put my all into it.

Using high end ingredients helped, but with my Lesser Cooking Mastery, I had to put a lot of time and concentration into not screwing up. I had the Impact and the stats to cook E-ranked stuff, but not nearly the Skill, so I'd made sure to get F-ranked ingredients. Even with the lower Skill level my stats should let me bluff my way past as long as I remained focused.

The Starplucker Chicken (no I don't know why it was called that but it sounded impressive as hell) was tough to cut in its uncooked form, and I admit to abusing my Eye of Revelation and my Overlay to properly cut it up, and once that was done, I had to boil it in a high ranking pot with the F-ranked stove and special Clear Mind Water that I'd bought specifically for that purpose (after searing it to seal in the flavor).

I went on like that for a while, enjoying myself as I got lost in my task. I'd been so focused on war and battle lately I'd forgotten the simple pleasures, and by the time I was done, it was already getting dark.

Leaving the food under a towel to keep it hot, I bolted for a bathroom, where I showered and got changed into clothes from my ring. Then, once I was sure I looked good without my mask (shaving, styling my hair, etcetera) I went back to the kitchen, collected the food, and took it down to the basement.

The meeting room was nice and spacious and I was able to spruce it up even more with some table cloths and candles I'd snagged while shopping. Once that was done I set the food out and plated it onto some nice chine before sending a pulse of notification through the bond to Callie.

When she came down the steps, I turned to smile at her and…froze. My jaw dropped almost to the floor as I saw her smiling up at me through her lashes. She'd gotten all dolled up, and it was clear that I was still every bit as blown away by her as the day we met. She was wearing a fancy looking black dress that draped down to her shiny black heels, a pair of black crystal earrings dangling from her lobes.

Her makeup was subtle, not that she needed any (which I'd told her a dozen times but she never listened about that kind of thing) and it drew the eye to her sparkling, intelligent blue eyes, one of the things I loved most about her.

"I…words." I blurted. Her eyebrow went up, and I coughed. "I mean. I wasn't expecting for you to get so dressed up."

She smiled shyly. "I don't know. We don't get as much time together like this as I'd like. I wanted to make it special>' She frowned. "Is it too much? I know you wanted this to be just a chill evening together. I can change."

"Don't you dare." I said with a laugh. "Now come sit down, the food will get cold." I pulled out her chair and she sat down, lighting up when she saw what I made. Her mom had used to make it for her when she was a kid, and it was one of her favorite dishes. She didn't thank me out loud, she didn't need to. I could feel the affection and adoration across the bond like a banked star. Steady and unceasing, but still powerful.

She took a bite, groaning in happiness at the taste, and snorted in confusion when she saw me staring. "What? Something on my face?"
I considered making a joke, but I decided to just start. "I wanted to talk to you about something. With all this mess with Camden and Spencer, I've been pushing pretty hard. I've been stretched to my breaking point time and again, and every single time, you're always there to pull me back. You're my rock, the center of my universe, and you make every day we have together better than the best day I ever had before you were in my life."

Her eyes widened, mouth full of her next bite of food, so I kept going, barreling on as best I could. "I know it's pretty soon. It's only been a bit over a year, and that's not too long, but…I love you. When I think about my life without you in it it's just dull and lifeless, and I can't imagine ever being happy in a world like that."

She swallowed her food, eyes stuck to me. "I love you too, Shane, you know that. But all this windup is making me nervous. Are you…" She swallowed. "Do you have something to ask me?" I wasn't surprised she'd noticed. She knew me better than anyone, and the bond made hiding the terrified pit in my stomach a pipe dream.

I got up from my chair at the table and walked over to hers, kneeling down next to her as I fished out the ring box I'd stopped to buy earlier in town. "I know it's a little early, but we've been through so much together. Life and death, happiness and sadness, and I for one can't wait to find out what tomorrow is going to bring us. I can't wait to start the rest of my life with you."

Opening the box, I showed off the bright silver band with the pitch black diamond I'd spent an entire D-ranked coin on (it was enchanted, obviously). "I love you more than anyone I've ever met. You're the other half of my soul, pretty much literally, and it would make me the happiest man alive if you'd do me the honor of being my wife." I stared into her eyes, amazed at their glow as they pulled me in like blue supernovas. "Calliope Reynolds, will you marry me?"

Her adoration and heartfelt acceptance hit me through the bond almost as hard as her tackle hit me as she threw herself at me and kissed me senseless. "Yes, you idiot." She laughed through ecstatic tears. "Why did it take you godsdamned long to ask?" She pulled me back in for another kiss, and I let the joy and peace overtake me completely. Needless to say, the food ended up getting cold.