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

[Malcolm Tent]

The Supernova Step was…complex. While it was technically a method of shaping fire, it required mobilizing Fantasy in a way I hadn't really done before. While Might was the stat that gave Skills form, Fantasy was the one that gave them shape. It was a complicated and advanced application of stats that I hadn't seen before, and it took me a few tries to get it.


While Cosmic Collapse operated on pretty simple principles that the fire could accomplish on its own, my mother told me that when creating your own Skills, it helped to give them a backstory. Utilizing recursion could help them stabilize without so much soul strain.


Fantasy, therefore, would be incredibly useful for my Skills going forward, and might even have a place in the ones I'd made already. Even without manually building Skills though, learning more about the stat would be helpful for my combat ability. My mom helped me learn a few visualization exercises to shape the Supernova Step, then had me practice them in order.


First step. Power. The supernova part of the name came from this. A star exploding and propelling you forward with great speed. Secondly the image of a shooting star, for propulsion, pushing me from spot to spot. And finally a constellation, providing a variety of possible landing points to choose from, in a stable and controlled fashion. I had to use Piece of Mind to shape the various parts of the Step.


That would have been impossible, even with parallels, if it wasn't for Callie. While my mother didn't want to teach me the Skill for Stellar Flame Fist, I did manage to learn Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery.


Callie's absurd Fantasy and experience with Shadow Manipulation helped me capture that feeling, and seeing the new application of Fantasy and her Manipulation Skill gave her a ton of ideas for ways to progress her own combat abilities, especially given how well hers synergized with her Path.


Pulling on my fiancee's Fantasy stat and her experience manipulating energy, I was able to accomplish the task my mother set me after about an hour.


Standing up, I held the images of what I wanted in my head, then pushed off. There was an explosion of flames under my feet, and I felt myself flash forward, nearly vanishing from the speed. Once I hit, I bounced off, and I could see in my head the constellation of nearby spaces that I could travel to and from easily.


As I sailed across the intervening space, it occurred to me what my mom was doing. She wasn't teaching me her style of techniques. She was teaching how to MAKE techniques. Maybe not forms like I usually did, but ways of utilizing them in unique ways that would make them more effective.


Learning to make Skills was a big deal, but learning to use those Skills was just as important. I stopped, panting and doubled over. My head was aching from learning that, but I knew that it was going to be a useful and powerful ability. Once I tweaked it.


"I don't think that shape is for me." I wheezed. "The star stuff isn't really… it doesn't fit." I trailed off, looking at her smile. "But you knew that. It's why you had me learn it."


She shrugged. "It'll be useful if you're ever in an emergency with no other way out, but I suspected something a bit more fine tuned would be needed. Cosmic Collapse shares a lot of themes with your current form. Destruction and annihilation and all that. Supernova Step is a mobility technique and not one suited to you."


I sat back down. "Hold off on the last technique." I said as I closed my eyes. "I'm going to try doing this myself."


Centering my mind, I considered the problem at hand. The Supernova Step was a technique, which was a way of shaping power output. Techniques weren't just moves, they were mobilizing the power of recursion to help stabilize a Skill and utilize the power in a more efficient way.


Cosmic Collapse had an aspect of it, but I hadn't even noticed because so much of the shape was built around the obvious destructive image I'd been given and that fit so well with Mephistopheles. That was what my mom meant about it being so well suited, and why she'd picked it for me.


This though…this wasn't a natural function of the form. I was trying to figure out a shape that would suit me for a movement technique and I couldn't quite get it.


Part of that was my desire to stack a bunch of imagery into it like my mom had, but that was wrong. My mom was an A-ranker with tons of experience. Mine should be more reasonable. I could always add to it later.


I considered what my form symbolized. Overwhelming force, power and destruction, or in another light…advancing. Moving forward without any obstacles. I stood, activating Piece of Mind, and then, I stepped. Black flame roared up under my feet as I nearly vanished, appearing in another spot, I pivoted, moving again.


Not just propulsion, I had to advance, I had to DESTROY the space between myself and my target. I moved and whirled and blurred and flashed, all of it to an imaginary score in my head, to the tune of my heart beat and crackling flames. A symphony of destruction. Mephisto's Waltz.


By the time I finished, I stood motionless, breath heaving, sweat pouring off me, but I was overjoyed. I'd felt that technique crystallize in my head. I knew I could use it again, and much more easily. I'd officially made my own movement technique, and I knew how to make more. I wondered if I could learn to use shaping when I made Skills, but even if not this training had been priceless.


My forms had been so…wasteful. Just explosive fountains of power that accomplished nothing but hurling energy at people. I hadn't been making a staff style, I'd been making a bunch of random transformations. This was what a real Martial Art was made of.


Across from me, my mother beamed, pride shining in her eyes. "That was…beautiful." She whispered happily. "I've never seen anyone learn to make a technique so quickly. More than just the soul, the mental requirements…your Focus isn't high enough for you to sidestep those difficulties so easily, yet you did." She blurred forward, wrapping me in a tight hug. "My baby is a genius!"


I laughed, exhausted, but I knew I wasn't. Piece of Mind allowed me to essentially stack my Focus in this particular category. It was insanely broken, because most people would have had difficulty sectioning off their brain to address different aspects of the process.


Still, it was really nice to have something I was uniquely suited to. Skill creation was cool, but I didn't have anyone to measure myself against. I didn't know how good or bad I was.


This though…even my mom thought I was talented. It was a heady thing. She ruffled my hair with a laugh, strolling away back to her spot about ten feet from me before resuming the lesson. "So, you got that easily enough. We have one last technique that you should have before the games. This one is going to be hard. I know you have a form for this, but there are a lot of stipulations on its use. I think it would be best if you created a defensive technique."


"I can't." I said immediately. "Mephistopheles is antithetical to defense. It's all overhwleming power and lethal force."


Callie, who was sitting off to the side watching, cleared her throat. "I might be able to help with that." She said with a wide smile. "I've been learning some of this stuff while you have, thank you so much by the way Sasha, I can't wait to test this out, but I think state of mind and point of view are key. You need to reframe your thinking. After all, the best defense is a good offense."


And at those words, my brain shifted and it clicked into place. My eyes went wide. "Nullification!" I said excitedly. "Instead of blocking, pouring out force to cancel force. Fighting fire with fire. That's perfect!"


I sat back down, closing my eyes as I tried to come up with a shape for the technique. I'd used two very basic shapes for the Waltz, though they had been incredibly well suited to the original intent of the Skill. I had no idea how much that mattered, but it seemed like it would be important, so it probably was.


So I thought about Mephistopheles. The demon, the dealmaker. This had been one of my first forms, and I tried not to consider how much that figure had in common with my old man or what it said about me that I'd picked him. Stories (despite their origins mostly being lost) about so many demons persisted. Why had I picked this one?


Mephistopheles had been bound in a circle. It was ostensibly for the protection of the man who sought to make a deal, but it had been its own form of assault, a pressure on the mind of the summoner. Was the circle perfect? Would it save him?


I focused on that imagery. One the circle and how its very presence as a deterrent was an oppression on its surroundings. "Attack me." I said, eyes still closed.


Callie, love of my life as she was, didn't even hesitate. A wave of shadows smashed down toward me. I released a pulse of energy, an oppressive circle of flame that smashed apart everything nearby, defending me with raw destruction.


"Circle of Damnation." I intoned as it washed away the threat. Saying it out loud made it feel more solid, though who could say if that was real or just imagined, or even if that mattered.


When I opened my eyes, I shrieked and fell over, ruining all my cool guy cred, because my mom was leaning over in my face, eyes bright and smile wide as she beamed at me. "Sweet Revenant!" I shrieked as I toppled onto my back. In the distance I heard Callie cackling, and chose to ignore her.


My mother looked sheepish. "Sorry about that." She winced, helping me up. "But you figured it out, huh?"


"I got it." I said with a nod. "I think I might rework Cosmic Collapse, too. Make something a bit more suited to my form. This is…this is really advanced stuff, isn't it?" I asked cautiously. "Am I even supposed to be learning this yet?"


She shrugged. "Shaping is pretty advanced, yes. It has a lot to do with how Domains form, actually. But don't worry. You're not forming an early one. Like I said that's not a good idea. This is just a way to practice. It's also a good way to learn to alter your Path, if you decide to do so. Especially after it solidifies it can be hard, but before you form your chronicle it's still possible."


That…I gaped at her. That information would be worth a king's ransom to a lot of other E-rankers. If this wasn't stuff I was supposed to be taught yet, did that make it like…trade secrets?


Whatever it was, it was priceless info to me. Especially the changing my Path part. I had a feeling that information would be damned useful soon. I'd considered possible ways to do that for a while now. My goetia staff art itself was a way of doing that in a sense. I stepped forward, wrapping my mom in a tight hug. "Thank you." I said quietly.


She squeezed me back, glowing with happiness, and then she let go. With a sigh of contentment, she turned to Callie. "Now, clearly Shane needs a bit of a rest from all this effort. How about I do some sparring with my future daughter-in-law." It was such a nice gesture, I couldn't help but be proud of her. I just wasn't sure why Callie was so terrified.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

While Callie sparred with my mom, I wandered off to find some wish targets. I decided since I was learning about techniques I would go ahead and ask around to get some Fantasy. Seventy more points put me at four thousand three hundred and twenty, which was nice, and by the time I got back from my search the two of them had finished their match.

My mom looked pleased with herself, and Callie mostly looked sulky, though she seemed to be hiding a small smile. Neither of them would tell me what happened, but I figured it must have been a productive training session, and I was glad they had time to do some bonding.

The next day was nominally a day off. I'd been planning to skip the C-ranked games, but I had a feeling we should see what Felicity could do. Not to mention some of the other factions, seeing what C-rankers from the various major influences had going for them definitely couldn't hurt, and I was pretty sure I could learn something. Which was why I found myself back at the inn with everyone meeting up before it was time to leave.

"Come on!" Shouted Bethy animatedly. "Why isn't everybody ready? Daddy says this might not be totally disappointing, which means it'll be awesome. He's such a grouch. He never compliments anything."

I snorted. "It occurs to me that any normal person who said that would have to worry about having their planet punched into the sun."

"Don't be silly." She giggled. "Daddy would never do that. It's totally off brand. He'd probably just drag it into a black hole. He would say 'Darkness and consumption are the only end for fools such as you'." She held her arm up in front of her face and squinted as she spoke in a morose and growling tone that actually did sound kind of like Lark.

I raised a brow. "He didn't seem all that formal and edgy yesterday though."

"Oh he doesn't usually bother when he's talking to cultists." She shrugged. "He says they don't even notice the effort because they default to morbid formality. He's not a fan. I think he was in a good mood about getting to talk down to one of Black Sorrows popes. They usually avoid him."

I supposed it had been a fairly private conversation. I'd been kind of overwhelmed by his presence and hadn't been paying much attention at the time.

Speaking of which, I turned to my mom. "Hey, what's the deal with gramps and Lark anyway? They both have no aura at all. I can't sense a single point of Impact from them. I get that S-rankers have high levels of control, but why would they use it all the time?"

"Because they pretty much have to." She said with a grimace. "Most Ascendants have…well I suppose you would call it generic Impact. Once you hit S-rank and your Chronicle becomes a Saga, Impact is more personalized. At least later on. The first half of S-rank is spent converting your Impact, and then using that momentum to become a Demigod."
That was another piece of fascinating information about S-rank. I know it involved Domains, too, so I could only guess that Impact conversion was part of the process for forming a proper Domain. Still, that didn't explain much. "Ok, but why does that mean they have to stay suppressed?"

"Saturated Impact can have unusual effects on lower level Ascendants." She shrugged. "It can cause damage to their Path with enough exposure. Any S-ranker who has reached Demigod especially can be a corrupting influence. They keep themselves buttoned up most of the time. It doesn't affect B-rankers, since the Chronicle insulates them, but anyone below that is at risk."

I whistled. If S-rankers caused that sort of problem, I wondered what face time with an actual god would be like. They probably had their own method of suppressing themselves though.

My thoughts were cut off as Callie came blurring into the room, Jessie and Benny behind her. Abel and Mel were already here, Chelsea was with Gabe, Callen, and grandpa, and shockingly Cark and Cass were here with us. Mom had promised it would be safe for Cass to come watch, and she was going to be babysitting, which was why she was still here. She was picking up the siblings.

Now that everyone was here, we filed out into a shuttle mom had brought. She took a separate one to meet up with Chelsea and grandpa, and we all headed back to the Central Location.

The outside was the exact same, but on entry, I immediately realized the place had been redone for the games. It was impressive that they'd completely revamped the interior without any disturbance to the external building.

What was even more impressive was that the interior was packed with bustling stalls for food, games, and any number of entertainment. It wasn't time for the actual contest yet, so we wandered around and took in the festivities. I stopped to get a funnel cake, Callie and I got our portrait painted, and we bought shirts with Felicity's picture on them, because they were cheap and we wanted to be supportive.

By the time we met up with everyone again to enter the arena style seating they'd set up, everyone was much more relaxed. I smirked at Gabe as he, my sister, and Bethy showed up with their faces painted. Bethy and Chelsea as cats and Gabe like a wolf.

"You guys look great!" Callie chirped, her whole mood transformed by all the alone time and relaxation. "Shane, we need to get our faces painted."

I didn't honestly care about the painting, but I didn't want to ditch my mask. Luckily it wasn't a problem because it was game time. "Maybe later, hon." I said with a smile. "For now we need to find our seats." I glanced at my sister. "I assume you have a box we can sit in?"

We'd avoided coming together so as not to make it too obvious we were related, but since we were known associates of Chelsea at this point we were fine to hang out.

She nodded excitedly, dragging us up to the top of the seating where we stepped into a huge box. The interior was plush and well appointed, and to my surprise, my grandfather was standing in front of a large grill, flipping burgers and hot dogs. He grinned as he saw us. "Welcome!" he said cheerfully. "Anyone want a burger?"

I laughed as I stepped up next to him. "They do smell good. Do we have time before the games actually kick off?" I gestured to the row of chairs looking out a window over the huge arena. I grinned, seeing the rest of our party. Zeke had gone ahead and was trying to sleep while Cass talked Cark's ear off and my mom listened happily, clearly enjoying her time with the adorable kid. Grandpa saw me looking and seemed to get that I was confused about the lack of hurry.

"It'll be a while." He laughed. "They have to get everyone checked in, and then there's a big announcement phase where they name all the champions. There are about twenty of them, so it won't be quick."

I blinked at that. "Wait, I thought it was just the five factions? How are there so many people?"

"The five faction and WCP contestants are the major draw, but as you saw, the ceremony is a huge event. Anyone can sign up and try their luck. That's why there's such a huge outpouring of support. The food and games and all are to boost the profile of the event. The factions didn't even pay for most of this, at least not leadership. Subfactions and independents do most of the actual work for the setup, it's sort of an unspoken quid pro quo."

Abel stepped up next to me, taking a long, deep sniff. "Damn, that's some quality meat in those sausages. Big game right? I'm thinking something reptilian, smells swampy." I raised an eyebrow in surprise, but then I remembered Abel's former career.

"Not bad." Said my grandfather approvingly. "Vardian Gator-Dragon. The meat has a sort of natural spice to it, and a deep full bodied flavor. My wife hates the smell so I can never eat it at home. I personally think its a lovely aroma." He offered my mentor the long metallic fork he was holding. "You want to try turning them? The grill is shielded so it's perfectly safe."

Lighting up with enthusiasm, Abel nodded quickly. "Hell yeah. What are the burgers by the way? I'm less familiar with beef."

"Dreelox Snow Cow." He said proudly. "They're not actual cows, but a rare mutation of a high ranked deer beast that lives on Dreelox Seven. They're carnivorous, so hunting them is a huge pain even when they're born. I have a private reserve of the stuff that I break out for special occasions. Stasis chamber, you know. Reuniting with my grandkids seemed like as good a time as any."

Chelsea stepped up next to him as he flipped the burgers. "It smells great grandpa. I wish we could have more cookouts like that at home."

"Me too, sweetheart." He said with a laugh. "But your grandmother prefers higher cuisine, and you know she always gets what she wants. I swear, it breaks my heart having to eat those tiny little fancy portions. What's the point of making servings that small if you're just going to eat ten courses?"

I laughed along with the others at his sulking, but he didn't seem to mind. I also grinned at Callie, who was drooling over the sausages. I knew how much she loved draconic animal meat, and she was clearly excited for the food.

It meant a lot to get this downtime with the family. Seeing Chelsea, Benny, Callie, and Jessie all talking animatedly and getting along as we relaxed was wonderful. More than that, I felt so…at ease. Even Zeke had roused himself to come grab a burger, though he ate it in a few bites and went back over to nap. I guessed we'd taken for granted how much effort it took to remain constantly on alert. He deserved this down time as much as we did, if not more.

With an S-ranker watching over us there was no worries about safety, we could just enjoy the peace. We had a nice time, listening to grandpa chatter as he cooked and seeing Abel enjoy learning to handle a new type of food prep. Sadly, all good things must end, at around the third plate full of burgers and sausages Mom called us over.

"I know you don't care about the ceremony, but they're introducing the five faction contestants." She yelled from her seat by the window. The rest of us snagged our food of choice and a beverage before hurrying over to take a seat.

The seats at the window were padded, had cupholders, and were able to easily recline, which was fantastic, and we all settled in as mom tapped some kind of remote and enabled sound.

Looking out over the arena, I was shocked to see the sheer number of people they'd packed in. Not just from space expansion, but from the staggering of the seat, they'd packed them in nearly vertical so they could put another layer of benches down at the bottom, and every single one of them was stuffed to bursting with excited civilians.

Tricorn was much more populous than I expected, or all the factions had brought more people than I'd thought. Probably a bit of both. As we watched, the actual floor at the center of the arena had shifted into a forested region, with large floating screens over it to show the details of the interior. "And now for our final six contestants!" Boomed the announcer. "And then, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be getting underway!"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

There were dozens of people out in the central clearing of the forest. We could see them on the giant screen. The screens had been hopping from one person to the next, and currently, the image was fixed on Felicity. I winced as her empty symmetrical face appeared in the image, eyes flare and placid.

Knowing what had been done to her made it worse, somehow, seeing what she was. I imagine what it would be like to have your personality sanded down by conflicting compulsions until there was nothing left for recursion to latch onto.

"From the Wish Curse Palace." Boomed the voice as she appeared in front of us. "We have the daughter of Craygen Norquill, a second generation member of the Wyndham family through clan adoption, and one of the most talented young members of the WCP's ruling clan….Felicity Norquill!"

The detached girl, didn't show a flicker of emotion, just reached down to tug at her dress in an awkward curtsy.

I grimaced, knowing how angry Zeke was likely to be. The others hadn't met felicity, so when I turned to look at them I expected to see similar reactions…I did not expect to find Bethy staring out at the screen in horror. Pink tears ran down her cheeks as her reddening eyes locked on the image of the broken girl my family was using to participate in the contest.

Chelsea stepped up and put a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Bethy? What is it?"

In a motion too quick to track, Bethy spun and glared at me. Her eyes were harder than I'd ever seen them. "Did you know about this?" She hissed. "What are you going to do about it?"

Callie stepped between us, holding up her hands. "Whoa, Bethy what the hell? Shane barely knows that girl. What's gotten into you?" She glanced at the screen. "What's wrong with her?" She was staring at Felicity's image like she was trying to mine it for information.

"They broke her soul." Whispered a furious Bethy. "Just…polished all the human off of it. They turned her into a machine. I can TASTE it. I didn't even know that was possible. It's like someone cracked her open and ate out all the person, then put the shell back together with tape and glue."

Callie shot me a horrified look, and I nodded sadly. "Zeke told me. Apparently it's some kind of anti-recursion training. People don't use it because it's too dangerous."

"So?" My fiancee demanded. "How do we fix it? That's monstrous. We can't just let someone do that to a living person. Especially not your own family. Can't Zeke intervene? Maybe a wish could fix her."

Zeke sighed heavily, opening his eyes as he abandoned the pretense of sleep, easily able to hear us across a room. "I can't." He said sadly. "If it was just Norquill, I could make a case of it. I'm reasonably certain I could kill him. But Harrison is S-rank, and Norquill is Aiden's right hand. Even if I was willing to start a branch war over a stranger, Aiden would never tolerate it during the conclave. Hell, the old man might get involved."

"Not to mention that a wish to cure her might be difficult to arrange." My mother cut in. "We'd need someone to pay for it, and it wouldn't be cheap. Plus once she was detached from the Norquill family she'd need to join another branch."

I was getting annoyed. "And why is that?" I snapped. "Why would she need to join another branch? Why couldn't she just leave?"

"Because she's useful." Said Zeke simply. "Because she's been in close proximity to the first lieutenant of the current Wishmaster. Because she's strong and vulnerable and any Ascendant force worth their salt would snatch her up the second she was alone and crack her skull open to pry out any detail of the things she might know."

My mom gave a sad sigh. "You don't understand what it's like, Shane. Not really. Being personally strong isn't enough. You need to have friends. Connections. That's why the candidacy race is the way that it is. Being powerful and alone is just asking to get snatched up by someone stronger."

In the background, the Empire's contestant, an Earl named Malkyr, was paraded out, but I didn't care. The red haired noble could wait. "I don't want to accept that." I said angrily. "I don't want to just…leave her there."

Because I hadn't let myself think about it before, when Zeke had told me what happened to her. They'd been there, when we met her originally, but hadn't known the extent of the damage. None of us had. Now that I was looking at her again though, seeing that mannequin expression on her face, I realized I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave someone like that, and I was ashamed I'd needed to be hit in the face with it like this to make that call.

"Maybe daddy could help." Said Bethy after a moment. "I know it's complicated, but daddy doesn't care about that stuff. He could make them give her up."

Mom shook her head. "Not without cause." She said firmly. "If he wanted her as a thrall, or even to give her to you, maybe he'd be able to bully Harrison into giving her up, but he'd have to pay in blood for it."

"Wait…" I said slowly. "Pay in blood. What if he did?" They all turned to look at me. "Not literally, I mean what if he turned her. I know only Larks can be Vampires, but that's because he said so. Worst case can he adopt her into the clan? She's an adopted Wyndham already."

Bethy bit her lip. "That's…daddy doesn't ever do things like that. He hasn't turned another Vampire in centuries. My siblings and I were all born with our racial trait."

I turned to my grandfather. "Gramps? What about the Church? Do you have some way to fix her if you can find a pretense to take custody?" I didn't want to just give up on this. There had to be some way to help.

"Well…maybe." He admitted. "The Church has plenty of top notch mind healers. We've been at war with the Black Sorrow cult for years, and their Heartrippers are infamous. We've spent millennia learning to reconstruct the shattered remnants of the people their inhumane methods leave behind, and even then it can only be done under very specific circumstances."

I grimaced at the reminder of the assassins I'd dealt with back at the beginning of my journey.

Zeke cut in. "At the end of the day, helping her is all about leverage." He admitted. "We don't have it right now, because there are plenty of people stronger than us. But there are different kinds of power."

My eyes widened in dismay. "You mean…"

"That's right." He said with a wry grin. "Politics. Aiden is the current Wishmaster, but he's in the process of stepping down. He might not care, but even if he does, the old man is the real power in the family. If you can prove yourself as a relevant up and comer you could petition to have her transferred to Malachai's branch. It's not like she's an actual Wyndham with the wish ability. She's an outer clan member. A promising candidate would have more than enough sway to affect things, especially if you pick your timing."

Callie grinned. "You mean bring it up during the interrogation so the decision is under the scrutiny of all the representatives?"

"Not exactly." Said my uncle with a shrug. "To get that leverage you need to provide that proof. Which means you need to make waves and possibly even pull out a victory in the E-rank games. That's a serious contribution to the family, and there's a reward. You could ask for Felicity to be transferred to you as a bodyguard. You don't have any C-rankers in your entourage yet. And the leverage you'd earn bringing home a win would be more than enough to pay for that kind of protection."

Bethy seemed to be cheered. "That would be amazing!" She said excitedly, switching from scary menacing Bethy to chirping cheerful Bethy so quickly I got whiplash. "We could totally save her and help her feel better! Then when I get stronger I can eat her dad!"

Strangely, I was pretty much fine with that logic. As was Callie, mostly because she probably saw Felicity as a cautionary tale of how she might have ended up if her dad had the option. I could see Paul Reynolds using a training method like that, and the concept of it infuriated me. Part of me wanted to challenge him to a fight as soon as we got back to Callus, but Callie didn't need me fighting her battles. She was tougher than I was at this point. She'd break Midknight in half.

Shockingly, despite sympathizing with Felicity, I didn't sense the same anger I'd felt for her that I usually did when her father came up. I gripped her hand, sending my curiosity along the bond. One of the best parts of the bond was the ability to have wordless conversations through emotion much faster than even telepathy could let us communicate.

There was a whirl of emotions as we traded back and forth, and I froze as I understood the reason she felt so…centered.

It was me. Not that I'd magically fixed her anger towards her dad, she still hated him. But more that she didn't feel so alone. We were getting married, and we were going to be a family. After running away Callie and her mom were never quite the same. They loved each other, but there was still a distance there.

Now she had me, and that put some distance between her and the pain. Hell, I felt the same way. I was still a bit angry at my dad for what he did, but I couldn't really be furious. Everything he'd done had turned out well for me. I'd still probably punch him the throat when I saw him, but that was all I really felt the need for. It was hard to resent someone for being responsible for all the happiness in your life, even if the lead up sucked.

I pulled her against me, feeling the love and warmth through our connection. More than that though, I felt her pride. The fact that I was so set on helping Felicity made her so happy, and I was proud to be with someone who pushed me to be better.

Sighing, we settled in to watch the C-rank games. Aside from learning more about Felicity before we traveled with her (hopefully) I also wanted to get a baseline for what the games entailed before participating. They had been doing intros as we talked, introducing a hooded figure with green clawed hands as Devnay of the Black Sorrow Cult, a tall red haired woman with golden eyes as Ellisara of the Church of the Red Revenant, and a silver haired male elf as Rorik of the Fairyland.

They were currently introducing the final C-ranker, a caped man named Aftershock with dark skin and long braided hair. Once they announced him, they filled everyone in on the rules. "Now, as some of you may know, this stage is called the forest of mystery. In various places throughout these woods, tokens are hidden. One must gather ten tokens to pass the stage, but there are only thirty tokens total."

The trees were colossal on the screen, metallic blue bark towering over the contestants. It was strange, because the arena wasn't that big, but it seemed like the contestants had shrunk relative to the rest of us when entering, or there was a spatial distortion around the woods. Everyone stared around the misty forest cautiously, waiting for the go signal.

After a minute or two of prep and a few more explanations, the announcer had everyone get in position. "Well, now that we all know what we need to do, it's time for the first round of the conclave games to begin. Contestants…start!"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

As soon as the announcer called the match to order, the various people on the screen blurred away from each other. No one had started with a token, so there was no point in attacking anyone else at this point. Any violence would just be slowing down the ones who were serious about scoring points.

Of course, common sense was far from common, and at least two people hadn't gone far, waiting beside some trees to attack stragglers.

What WAS surprising was that one of the two attacked was a faction representative. Rorik the elf was strolling amiably through the woods with a calm smile on his face when he encounter one of the first of the straggler hunters.

"Oh." he said in cheerful surprise. "Hello, new friends. What can I help you with today?"

A massive towering robed figure emerged from the shadow of a tree, or at least it looked like that for a second. After a brief pause the robes fluttered and two figures emerged, the robes somehow shrinking to accommodate the changing size of the remaining form. Had they been standing on each other's shoulders?

"You're the best the Fairieland can offer?" Sneered the figure on the right, a tall burly man with silver dog ears on top of his his head and long black hair. "Three of us was overkill."

The second unrobed figure was a silver haired girl with black dog ears. She was tiny and looked a little frail, but I could tell she was dangerous. She was an uncompromising warrior. Or she would have been, if she hadn't been staring at Rorik with a light blush on her cheeks.

"Sandy!" Snapped the taller man. "He's the enemy. We need to take him out. Now!"

At the word, the robed figure hurled its hands forward…and collapsed. Not like it fell on the ground, but like someone had diced it into pieces. Blood spurted, the hot liquid steaming the air briefly as the two combatants whirled to stare at their third in horror.

"Oh, bother." Rorik said sadly. "I do wish he hadn't done that. My friends can be ever so sensitive about threats." Holding out a hand, I saw a small silver arachnid float down to land on his outstretched palm. From behind it trailed a single strand of silk, and my eyes widened as I spotted a fucking forest of shimmering silken threads surrounding the dog eared people.

Focusing, I could especially see them around where the robed figure had been, the shimmering threads coated in wet blood making a much more eyecatching picture.

"Please don't hurt us!" Pleaded the big man. "We'll surrender. We're no threat to you. We're so sorry." His eyes were wide with panic as he stared at the remains of his friend…and I couldn't blame him. These were C-rankers. Variance in stats aside, being able to mince a C-ranker just from the force oh his own movements was terrifying."
Rorik gave a sad chuckle. "I'd like to help, but it isn't really up to me. My friends have already set the trap. You might survive, but that depends how long you can stand perfectly still. Good luck." He waved warmly, then turned and walked off in another direction, leaving the two figures frozen in abject terror.

Across the arena, Felicity had been one of the first to discover a token. She picked it up, studied it, and then slipped it into her spacial ring. Turning in another direction, I was pretty sure she was going to look for another one, but she stopped abruptly, skipping back gracefully to avoid a wall of white hot flames.

"Pretty fast for a puppet." Said a lazy voice from the mist as a familiar red haired man emerged. Malkyr the Earl had apparently been right on her heels. "Your creator must be proud."

Felicity gave a mechanical laugh that didn't disrupt her expression at all (which was creepy). "You are mistaken. I am no puppet. I am a human person. I find your absurdist humor most entertaining."

He winced. "Wow that's creepy. You're offputting as hell, you know that? You might have been born a human, but there's no person left in there. Not really. Hand over the token and I won't bother putting you out of your misery." His hands extended and a pair of living flame molded weapons appeared in his palms.

A rush of flames expanded, forming more than weapons, they condensed into full physical bodies. Human bodies.

"Cinder Centurion." Said Felicity blandly. "A powerful commander variant job involving dangerous fire Skills. That is very interesting. Please remove yourself from my way lest I be forced to do you harm. You may demonstrate your interesting Job for others in the area. Those you might actually defeat."

Malkyr clearly didn't think talking was worth the time though, because he blitzed forward, all his fire doubles spreading out to surround Felicity.

One of them got too close, and she gingerly reached out and flicked it. There was a crisp cracking, and a series of faults began to form in the fire. She flicked again and this time the air cracked, then tapped her toe and the ground did the same, reaching down the picked up a series of shards, mixing them together. Her hands flew, piecing together a stained glass window from the browns, blues (the air was light blue) and reds.

Once it was done, she held up a tiny handheld circle of glass shards. On the giant screen I could see it was a stained glass picture of a volcano. The window flashed and a torrent of lava burst out of it like a fire house, tearing through dozens of trees and forcing the fire bug and all his little flame clones back.

He glared at her over the field of lava. "I don't know what the fuck that was. But I can assure you it won't work next time." He glanced around with a curse. "That fucking holy roller is coming. Count yourself lucky."

Felicity waved goodbye as he turned to leave, renewing her trek through the forest. Above it all, we sat watching from our box, and I was blown away by some of the power on display. "Hey ma." I called to my mother from a few seats down. "Was that fire thing a technique or just a really specific ability or Skill."

"He's imperial, so probably the latter. The Job system tends to create lots of niche subskills more easily. Techniques are more common in heroic cultivation."

I nodded absently, returning my attention to the games as someone stumbled upon the dog eared siblings. "Well now." Hissed a sibilant voice from beneath Devnay's robe. The C-rank champion from the Black Sorrow cult sounded positively gleeful. "Look what someone has caught in their web."

His clawed green hands slithered out, and he flicked a few of the barely visible threads. The siblings groaned as the vibrations tightened the strings, the razor sharp strands digging into their flesh and drawing blood.

"Please." Pleaded the brother. "There's no need to do this. We don't have any problems with you."

Devnay chuckled. "I'll be sure to remember that as I'm enjoying your deaths." His hands blurrd out, plucking a dozen strings in a symphony of twangs that blended into a surprisingly melodic composition as the strands started to tighten. Before they could tighten too much though, Devnay's claws hit a pair of threads and rebounded explosively, fingers cracking and blood fountaining out.

He dashed back, and the caped form of Aftershock stepped from the shadows on the opposite side of the clearing. "There's no need for such cruelty." He said reproachfully. "These poor people are helpless. To kill them simply for enjoyment would be an abominable act."

"One of the attention seekers." Drawled the Cardinal of the Black Sorrow cult hypocritically. "Are you sure you want to stick your nose into my business?"

Aftershock just smiled, reaching out to flick one of the threads nearest to him. The spider silk began to hum loudly, somehow skipping the tied up siblings, increasing in volume consistently until there was a twang and a snap and the threads exploded towards Devnay.

Snorting, the green clawed man let out a roar and belched a torrent of flames at the explosion of energy. The fire hit the force and blew up, scattering the silk and flames in all directions. The siblings took the opportunity to run away, calling their thanks to the caped hero as they retreated into the distance.

I was personally just kind of blown away. That had been some sort of vibration manipulation, and he'd completely avoided hurting the innocents when he'd done it. I was guessing that was Perception and Focus. Impressive either way though.

Devnay was snarling at the other man, his robe torn away to reveal a heavily muscled man with green scales and a reptilian face. Behind his back a pair of large wings were folded around him protectively. My mom whistled. "Wyrmkin." She said appreciatively. "That's pretty impressive. Don't see a lot of Wyrms willing to take human form."

Wyrms were a lesser cousin of dragons, sort of like wyverns, but way more impressive. I'd heard recently about animals taking humanoid form, but this was the first time I'd seen one.

Their fight seemed to be just starting, but I decided to focus back on Felicity, since she would probably be traveling with us. I found her standing in front of Rorik, looking as blank as ever as he smiled pleasantly. "Ah, I don't suppose you would turn over those tokens to me?" He asked wryly. "I realize it's an inconvenience but it would be ever so helpful."

Felicity shook her head. "My apologies." She said tonelessly. "I'm afraid I require these to accomplish my goals. I see you've claimed one for yourself. Might I impose upon you to lend it to me?"

"I'm afraid not." The affable elf said, his face smoothing out into a cold mask of neutrality. "I'll have to relieve you of yours the hard way then."

Felicity held up a brightly colored disk (the volcano image she'd made earlier) and said bluntly. "That is a shame. Please try not to die. You are a very polite person, and I find speaking to you enjoyable." A volcanic eruption, roughly five times the size of the earlier one, consumed the air between them as it raced toward Rorik.

With a lazy flick of his fingers, Rorik called a dozen more of those silver spiders from the trees around them. The speedy arachnids flashed out so quickly they were barely visible and wrapped the eruption in glittering silver silk, cocooning the lava midair. As it approached Rorik, it came to a halt about a foot from him, restrained by ropes of silk from coming closer.

"That was mildly impressive." He admitted, his amiable mask back in place. "Some kind of image creation power?"

Felicity shook her head. "Not at all. I was simply practicing my Glazing, the creation of stained glass." Reaching out, she flicked one of the nearby strands. There was a cracking sound and the silk all collapsed, dissolving into an ocean of silvery glass shards which were propelled outward by the expanding heat of the lava.

Rorik cursed, dodging the rain of shards and molten rock and landing on a tree above the clearing. I could see the silvery spiders gathering on the tree he landed on, getting ready for whatever the next attack would be.

Seemingly uncaring, Felicity leaned down to pick up some of the white shards, breaking some of the lava and air to find more colored shards she began to assemble.

Her hands blurred through the assembly process, and when she was done, she held up a terrifying image of a massive silver armored lava golem with six arms. As it stepped from the glass and gained physical form, I had to chuckle at Rorik's expression. Yeah, I was pretty sure Felicity would be a useful friend to have.

 

[Verdthandi]

Malcolm: Yoink!

Callie: *facepalm*

Felicity: Truly, how do you tell what is human? I am human born, but am I any lesser for my recursion control? In this essay I will…

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Ok." I finally said with exasperation. "What the actual fuck is her power?" Looking at Zeke down the line of chairs, I briefly noticed my mom wince at the language, and admittedly had to hide a small chuckle.

She knew that despite us getting along better, I was an adult, and the time for things like calling me out on my language had passed. I wasn't a child so I wouldn't poke her about it, but I also wasn't planning to tone it down. I was who I was.

Zeke, who knew I'd been talking to him, hummed in contemplation. "Glazing is the art of constructing stained glass windows. It looks like she made a unique Skill that uses it as a base, possibly with some elemental manipulation Skills mixed in to enable her to use it on the fly. It's a novel approach, most crafting related unique Skills use Enchanting as a mechanism. It's not as devastating in real time, but it gives you way more flexibility. It was a particularly bad idea in this case, though I guess they assumed it wouldn't matter."

"Why was it such a bad idea?" I asked cautiously. "She seemed pretty effective in combat."

He opened his mouth, then grimaced in annoyance. After a second of rewording, he answered. "You remember." He said slowly. "What I told you about the difficulties of forming a Chronicle?"

He was bound by the geass, presumably because I was now making decent progress towards a Chronicle and that was my next step. I was still a ways off, though, I needed to fix all of my Ski- and then I got what he was saying. I wished I hadn't.

I'd thought I couldn't get any angrier about what had been done to someone who was, at least be adoption, probably some kind of cousin. I'd been wrong. Because her dad hadn't just destroyed her sense of self. He'd done it in such a way that he'd basically crippled her. At least as far as I could tell.

Felicity was doing what I was doing, holding together a lot of poorly made Skills with a powerful soul. In a normal person that might have made for some instability, but not too much. Like me though, Felicity had a complicated and many faceted unique Skill made by jamming a bunch of Skills together to make something special.

I had my book and my divination abilities to help guide me in fixing my Skills before forming my Chronicle, but based on what I knew of how it work, it was based on a Solid Path Skill, which you needed to reach C-rank. If Felicity's Solid Path was Glazing, and her skill was a broken barely functional mess, she wouldn't survive forming her Chronicle.

It wasn't an issue for me because I had warning, and I was sure Zeke would have found a way to tip me off even if I hadn't found out on my own, but it would be a problem for her. Which meant her dad had knowingly done this to her while being completely aware that he was essentially making a permanent C-ranker or a corpse, and he hadn't cared. I REALLY wanted to kick his ass.
My mom had been watching the exchange and nodded sadly. "There's a reason that people don't usually get far with Unique Skills. The way you do things isn't exactly repeatable by the masses. And even your way isn't sustainable. Pushing her into what she's done…I never liked Craygen, but I didn't expect even that little weasel to take things this far." She glanced at me and then at Chelsea. "As a parent, I wish I could put him down for this."

Apparently it wasn't just me. But the bastard was protected by his boss, so we needed to do this in a more roundabout fashion. I had to win the E-ranked games To that end, I focused back on the C-ranked competition to get a better idea of what I should expect.

Looking at it from the outside, one thing stuck out. The quality of their powers. Rorik's control of his spiders, Felicity's Glazing, and that crazy flame legion Malkyr had used. All of them were so much more complex than the things I did, not to mention weightier and more deadly in terms of Impact.

It just seemed like a whole other dimension of combat, one that I was just now starting to enter with my new techniques. Seeing them operate like this, it highlighted how amateurish me and all the other E-rankers were in comparison.

The only exception was probably Abel. Looking back, I realized he'd been using techniques for quite some time. The Cicada Stacking Step was one of his go-to's and it was his own creation. A way to apply his spatial lubrication in a unique way to massively increase his own ability in combat. I'd never even really considered how he'd achieved that before my lessons with mom.

Below us I watched with bated breath as Ellisara stumbled upon Malkyr after all, despite his attempt to avoid her. The tall, red haired warriors created a striking image, Malkyr in a set of dark leather legion armor with shining silver studs, while Ellisara stood in gleaming golden plate with onyx inlays. The church warrior had a huge gold and onyx mace propped up on her shoulder, and she smiled confidently at the Earl.

"Damn it." He snapped. "I really didn't want to do this. Wasn't it bad enough you left to go join the church Ellie? You had to hunt me down and knock me out of the running personally?"

She just shrugged. "Sorry little brother. Take it as a compliment. If I didn't respect your abilities I wouldn't have singled you out. Hells, you're half the reason I volunteered for this. If my kid brother is taking the world stage, I have to make sure he's ready. What's the matter, didn't you miss me?"

I blinked, looking over at my mom. "Did…did you know they were related?" I asked in astonishment. "Because I didn't even consider that. Sure they're both redheads, but what are the odds?"

"Pretty good." My mother said with a smile. "Like she said, she did it on purpose. But yes, I knew. Ellisara is one of my dad's subordinates, obviously."
My grandfather nodded. "Ellie is a very talented fire user. Her mother is a devout believer in the Revenant, and Ellie inherited that piety. She left the Empire to join one of our academies as a girl and quickly proved herself to be a skillful combatant. In point of fact, much like yourself, Ellie has participated in one on one training with your mother."

Mom beamed. "She's such a darling girl, and a wonderful student. She's much more suited to my Stellar Flame Fist than you are dear. Watch closely, maybe you can learn some things."

Malkyr, eyes blazing with rage, had called up his flame legion when we were talking. "I'm not scared of you!" He hissed at his sister. "Just because you were always dad's favorite doesn't mean you're stronger than I am. I've been training hard for this."

Grinning widely, Ellisara cheered for him. "That's the spirit little brother! You can do this!" Then she vanished in an explosion of flame.

I'd had to adapt that move, but I could see the shape of it easily enough. Supernova Step. She reappeared behind the Earl with a cry of triumph, bringing her massive mace smashing around at his ribs.

There was a blurring of heat as the flame forms of the legionnaires blurred, and all of them were absorbed into Malkyr in a dizzying warping of space. Malkyr, who had shifted into a full body fire form, became more solid and defined, the blazing shield he wielded coming up to interpose itself between mace and body.

Cosmic Collapse was channeled through the smash, and the was a blast of power that sent Malkyr skidding back, his feet carving melted trenched in the forest floor for twenty feet before he skidded to a stop.

"Well done!" Ellisara crowed cheerfully. "I was worried I'd have to hold back during this fight, but you've applied your talents superbly. I suppose if you're going to meet me in your strongest form, I should return the favor." Her smile was beatific as flames exploded around her, creating a sphere of starfire around her body so bright it nearly blocked her from view.

Malkyr stepped back, but she didn't come after him, she stayed where she was, unmoving for a moment, as she gathered herself, and then the flame coming off her (which I was pretty sure was just ambient fire energy and that she'd done a similar flame transformation to her brother, and then she started to gather it up.

Slowly, surely, she condensed her flames, packing them down and condensing them until they returned to her normal shape, leaving a glowing blue figure of living flame. She exploded out into another Supernova Step, but I barely caught this one. I only figured it out because Malkyr managed to shield smash her fist (the mace was gone, presumably too fragile to take the heat) and bleed off some of the energy.

Some, because he still went flying backwards smashing through about a dozen trees before hitting the ground. My mother beamed. "They don't call me the Star Queen for nothing." She bragged. " My Sunsmasher Body is my signature move. Not only does it grant incredible strength, it's designed to amplify all my techniques." She winked at me. "Like mother like son, I suppose. I told you I was uniquely suited to help you train your combat forms."

I smiled absently at her, but my eyes were mostly locked on the blazing blue form of Ellisara. "She made Stellar Flame Fist her Solid Path?" I said in surprise. "I can see why it's made you so feared."

My admiration of the powerful martial art my mom had made was interrupted by Malkyr staggering to his feet, face a rictus of fury. "It's not FAR!" He howled in outrage. "All I do is train! I study tactics, refine my fire manipulation Skills, and push myself to my limits." As he spoke, the space behind him caught fire, first dozens, then hundreds of flame legionnaires appeared, all of them condensing into his body.

The heat around him spiked, warping the vision of everyone in the audience as he fed his legionnaires into his body to strengthen himself.

Ellisara shook her head sadly. "You've come so far little brother, learned so much, but you haven't learned the most important lesson of all. Life can be a lot of things, brutal, beautiful, kind, or cruel. But regardless of good or ill-"

She stepped forward in another Supernova Step, this time blurring through a series of disparate locations along a constellation meant to confuse the senses. Appearing behind him, she brought her fist around into the back of his head with an explosion of cascading blue flame. "But it's never fair."

She watched him sadly as he toppled forward, flames fading as he landed on his face. My mom nodded in approval. "Constellation Cascade." She said in explanation. "Channels a bunch of Cosmic Collapse strikes into the Supernova Step to stack the power. Not my strongest technique, but it's a solid finisher, especially with the Sunsmasher Body active."

As I stared down at the Empire representative passed out on the ground, I stood up and looked to the others. "I've seen what most of the big leaguers have brought to the table. I get why it was important for me to be here. But not…I've got to go. I have training to do. If I'm going to beat people like this I can't afford to waste any more time."

My mom and grandpa smiled at me approvingly, and Zeke nodded. Callie followed me out, determined to help how she could, even if she wouldn't be involved. I was planning to skip the D-rank games, even if I'd ask Callie to go to support Callen with the others. I had to get up to speed before it was my turn. If I was going to win this I'd need as much training as I could get.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next two days were a blur of training. Aside from getting my wishes in (I'd gotten all one hundred forty points in Fantasy) , Callie and I spent the rest of the C-ranked games and all of the D-ranked preparing. I taught her what I could about techniques, and my mom came back and weighed in a few times when she was free, and she used it to push me harder to perfect my own.


It quickly became apparent that despite my talent for it, my grasp on techniques was rudimentary. I could only combine a few complimentary pieces of imagery with the Fantasy I had, but Callie had substantially more.


Over the course of the first day, she managed to create her own movement technique that she called the Shadowed Glide, which enabled her to take on shadow attributes to move without actually entering the shadows, enhancing her movement speed in normal combat by several times.


During the D-ranked games I trained for about half the day, though Callie made me take breaks to recover, reminding me that if I ran myself into the ground we'd lose anyway, and that recovery was part of training.


Finally, the day of the E-ranked games arrived, and I prepared myself to head over to the Central Location. Zeke was escorting me, and Chelsea would be going with mom, while my grandfather brought all my friends over to watch from the box. "So. You think you're ready?" Asked my uncle lazily.


"Who the hell knows." I laughed. "I did what I could, and if I can't hack it…well, I'll do my best. If I win this we can help Felicity right? You're making preparations or whatever?"


He nodded. "I called Malachai. He has the petition prepared. He says if you can take home the gold here he'll push it through. He has quite a few allies on the council, and even Aiden can't just overrule them. Not that he would bother."


"Nice to know grandpa is rooting for me." I chuckled. "What's he like, anyway? I'm sure you've met him plenty of times."


Zeke grimaced. "Malachai is…complicated. He's a charismatic and charming person, but under the jovial mannerisms he's one of the coldest people I've ever met. Eli gets flack for being ruthless, but he doesn't sugar coat it. Malachai…it's not exactly that he lies about who he is, more that he doesn't see any conflict being being genuinely friendly and doing terrible things. Long story short, he's a scary guy. You should steer clear."


I sighed. I'd figured it would be something like that. Given who my dad was and who had apparently been before rejoining his family… I wondered if my grandfather had pushed him toward that, or he became what he was to spite his dad. So many generations of family at odds.


We headed outside and climbed into a private shuttle. "Do you have any advice?" I asked hopefully. "I know you can't tell me anything too specific, but if you have any general tidbits of information to share…"


Zeke paused, thinking it over. "Don't get overwhelmed." He said bluntly. "This is no different from any other tournament or contest you've been in. It might feel that way, but it's an illusion. Ignore the audience and the stakes. Take one thing at a time. Make a plan and execute it, and you'll be fine."


That was good advice. I was already starting to spiral, this was a big deal, and not only did I not have backup, I'd have to fight my own sister.


We didn't speak any more on the way to the Central Location, and when we finally arrived Zeke passed me off to a couple of employees in dark suits who led me down into the belly of the arena. When I got there, I found a crowd of other people, and a teleporter opened a portal to the actual testing grounds, which we all filed through.


Once we reached the game zone, I froze, stopping to turn in circles and examine our new location. We stood on a mountain, or at least a giant rock spire. Below us stretched and endless blue sky, with fluffy clouds peppering the infinite cerulean expanse. The mountain was festooned with buildings, each with symbols and connected by a long winding road.


"Welcome competitors!" Said the familiar voice of the announcer. "To the path of excellence! While the outsiders are being given your names and affiliations, you will begin your journey with no idea of who might be a friend or ally."


As he spoke, a series of torches along the path began to light, leading up along the winding path to the top of the mountain. Oddly, the flames split off multiple times, showing several paths to the peak. "As you may have noted, this particular game will work differently to the two previous contests.


"Along this path are hundreds of temples. Each temple possesses a key. On the peak, there is a chest, and opening this chest requires twelve keys." I could hear excitement in the voice as it continued on. "Where this task differs is this. You will not only be competing with each other, you will be facing powerful guardian monsters who protect the keys."


The flames near one of the temples flared, revealing the silhouette of a hulking beast. "These guardians are of varying power, some will be weak, some will be unbearably strong. Some of the temples cannot be cleared by an individual, and so you'll need to select a teammate, but the chest can only be opened by one, and so whoever your teammates are, you will inevitably betray them.


"The task is simple. Select your teammates, gauge their trustworthiness, and work with them until the correct time to turn away. Alliances are necessary at time, but one must always remain alert for betrayal."


I fought not to roll my eyes. Subtle. They were clearly sowing discontent for once the war ended to prevent any of the alliances between factions from becoming too stable. Why that was I had no idea, but they were being really obvious about it. I shook off my annoyance and turned to look around, seeing if there was anyone besides Chelsea that I knew.


Several faces actually did stick out, some of my fellow Glade pact members were there, though none of the ones I knew very well. The Black Sorrow Cult representative girl that Chelsea warned me about was there, and Chelsea had a pair of girls I didn't recognize with her.


Strolling up to my sister, I gave her a cheerful wave. "Hey, are you looking for a teammate? Because I'm available, and I have many sterling qualities. I'm witty, urbane, and I'm very tall, so I can provide shade when it's too sunny and reach things on high shelves without needing to use a stool."


She rolled her eyes, then opened her mouth to say something back when a blonde girl with smouldering (literally, they soaked like banked coals were behind them) golden eyes glared up at me. "Wish Curse filth!" She snapped. "Stay away from our mistress." To my shock, a pair of downy white wings flared out behind her, and she reached down to draw a golden sword.


"Whoa!" Said Chelsea in a panic, stepping between me and the girl. "Holly, be cool. Shane is a friend of mine, he was just joking around. Shane this is Holly and Serah Hallah. They're representatives of the Seraphim Tower. They're a subordinate force of the Church."


I wondered why there hadn't been any C-rankers to help Ellisara or the others, but knowing Ascendant politics it was probably considered a sign of weakness to have someone lend aid outside of a team format. It would have made them look pathetic to try to fix the results.


Holding up both hands, I smiled disarmingly behind my mask (that kind of thing always comes out in the voice) "What she said. I was being sincere about wanting to cooperate, I was just being funny. I'm known to have a pretty great sense of humor. Also modesty, I'm very modest. Possibly the most modest man in existence."


The other angel (if there were devils I don't know why angels shocked me but they did) frowned at me suspiciously. "Tell us a joke." Her eyes and hair were both copper, and not as in red, as in the metal, her hair looked like really thin soft copper wire.


"I…what?" I stumbled. "That's not the kind of funny I mean, I meant like situationally funny."


Serah turned to Chelsea. "I do not like him. He does not know any jokes. He isn't amusing or modest at all, we should turn him away."

"Come on, you totally put me on the spot!" I protested. "What kind of person just has a repertoire of jokes lying around to toss out at a moment's notice. Real comedy is situational and topical, witty and biting observations made in the moment."


She stared back at me coldly. "False. Comedy is tested and refined. All amusing jokes should be at the fingertips of an amusing person in an instant. For instance, why did the chicken cross the road? Answer. To get to the other side. This is comedy." Despite her blank expression, I could sense a core of smugness in her words.


My sister pinched the bridge of her nose. "Serah, Shane was being ironic when he mentioned modesty, and hyperbolic about his comedic prowess. Serah is planning to become a comedian when she reaches D-rank."


"I am considered the funniest angel in the tower." She said sincerely. "I know many jokes. Perhaps, should you prove worthy, I may teach you."


Judging by the pained look on her sister's face, that wasn't any more accurate than it sounded, but I certainly wouldn't be the one to burst her bubble. Instead I just nodded meekly, and a small smile painted her face.


"So." I said leadingly. "Which direction do you want to go? I don't see any stable markers we can use for reference, but you can pick a direction and we'll head that way."


Holly, the golden haired and eyed angel (what I'd thought was blonde was a metallic burnished gold on closer study) pointed firmly to the left. "I believe this to be the best direction for us to make progress. I suspect we will meet might foes, even if SOME of us may not be able to pull our weight." Her jab was aimed at me.


That was fair, honestly. Your average candidate was useless in situations like this, because their retainers weren't around to help and we tended to have our stats very evenly distributed. In fact, I could see why they hadn't picked a Wyndham for the C-rank games at all, but an adopted clan member with a more combat oriented ability. Maybe that was why I'd gotten the position for E-rank.My second ability was a unique and powerful advantage against anything my own rank or lower.


Sighing at what would probably be a long trip, I followed Holly and the others up the mountain path, we took the left of the first fork, heading for an undisturbed temple.


As we walked, I slowly prepared myself. I knew Chelsea wouldn't turn on me, and if she was forced to later she'd at least tell me to my face before doing it. I didn't trust the feather duster sisters not to take a potshot at my back on their own, but Chelsea was there and in charge of them, and as my twin, I had faith in her.

 

[Lone-sith]

I love the trust he has in his sister, despite knowing each other for so little

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We approached the first temple slowly. It was a massive black marble edifice with veins of gold that glowed dimly in the sun. Staring closely, it became clear that the glow was pulsing slowly, like the beat of a single, colossal heart pumping energy through the building. "Well that's certainly ominous." I said as I pointed it out to my sister.

"Awesome, a living building." She said without enthusiasm. "Maybe it's the guardian. I wonder if it can turn into some kind of monster?"

Serah nodded solemnly. "Truly a fearsome beast. A residence that can become a foe. One might almost call it a…werehouse." Her expression didn't change as she stared at the building, but she flicked her eyes quickly toward us to see if her joke had landed.

Holly groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Please stop. We already had a discussion about puns."

"Ah." Said the stoic commedienne. "But that was when my puns were still maturing. Now they're full groan." I snorted a little at that, I admit. Holly spun and glared at me murderously for encouraging her sister, and Chelsea tried to suffocate a smile while her retainer wasn't looking.

Despite being a little stiff, I actually found Serah kind of funny. Her deadpan delivery was charming in a way, and she had a lot of confidence in her jokes even if other people didn't find them amusing. I had a weakness for that sort of comedy, and I had to admit the stoic angel was already growing on me.

"Can we just get this over with?" Demanded Holly in annoyance. "Maybe if we're lucky whatever is in there will kill us all so we don't have to listen to my sister's puns anymore."

I chuckled, and we all prepared to enter the temple. The door was large and imposing, made of some kind of black volcanic rock that looked heavy and immovable. Closing my eyes, I shifted into my combat form. Mephistopheles came easier than ever, something about my new techniques making me feel more in tune with the form.

My hair blazed up into black flame, and I drew my staff, prepared for anything as we all moved forward. Holly took the lead, reaching up to shove the door open with a grinding screech as the rest of us prepared for an attack.

When nothing happened, I triggered Eye of Revelation, using it to scan the inside of the temple (as much as I could see anyway), but nothing was in view. With a confirming glance, we all moved silently through the door into the temple, and I continued my search for- I froze, something had moved.

"There's something moving along the ceiling." I warned. "It was moving too fast for me to track, so I didn't get a good look."

Holly nodded confidently. "I'll take care of the darkness so we can get a better look." She reached down and drew her golden sword, then held it above her head like a torch. A shimmering golden flame (like Mel's but more metallic somehow) erupted down the length of the blade as she spread her downy wings wide.

Golden hair and eyes erupted with the same shining blaze, and luminescence swallowed the temple, banishing the darkness and the shadows until there was nothing but pure revealing light. The radiance flooded the room, and within its scope I could see everything with crystal clarity…even if I wished I couldn't.

"No." I whispered in mounting dread. "It can't be." But as I stared up at the scaly, horned form of my deepest nightmares, I knew that it was. "It's a Wolfhornigator."

All three of them turned to stare at me. "What?" Asked my sister in a flat voice. "That can't possibly be the name of an actual creature." Thinking back, I realized Chelsea wasn't with us when we'd met the Wolfhornigators.

"I don't know their names." I snapped. "So I made one up, and it's extremely accurate. They're like a combination of wolves, alligators, and deer. Wolfhornigator. But I'm not sure how one got here, I thought they were extinct."

She blinked at me. "Really? Why?"

I…had no response. No one had mentioned it to me at any point, I'd just kind assumed based on where I met them. My bad. "Whatever, this is way bigger and scarier than the other ones I met anyway, probably because it's E-rank. It feels less insane though, I think the other ones were mutated by…actually I don't think I'm supposed to talk about that."

She nodded, knowing vaguely what I meant. "Doesn't matter. What can you tell us about them. Any special traits."

"Well they're highly venomous. That might have been a mutation, but I wouldn't bank on it." I said absently as I dug through my memories. Then I froze. "Oh. And also…" I turned around, realizing that though the entirety of the temple had been revealed, we'd been facing away from the front wall. Sure enough, a series of glaring monsters hung from the stonework. "They travel in packs."

Apparently that was the signal they'd been waiting for, because when we noticed them, the one behind us roared and the whole group pounded, heading right for us.

I didn't miss a beat. I executed Mephisto's Waltz, destroying the space between me and a spot out of their range, appearing in a blaze of black flame as I started to condense a sphere of dark fire for a Cosmic Collapse.

Holly and Serah took to the wing, streaking out of range of their attack as my sister disdainfully swung a fist at the one coming down on top of her. A colossal burst of white flame consumed the monster, and I had to blink to track it as it burst free from the combustion, screaming in pain and fear as it retreated back to the ceiling where it had come from.

The distraction was exactly what I needed as I finished readying my technique, and executed the Waltz again as I lashed out at the head of one of the nearest monsters, whose eyes were fixed on my twin.

It noticed me at the last second, its horned head jerking and mouth opening wide…just wide enough for the sphere at the end of my staff to slide easily inside before the butt of my weapon slammed into it and an eruption of concentrated black fire blew out the back of the monster's skull.

"Hah!" I shouted in exultation. "Whose chasing who now, you scaly fucks?" Which of course, drew the attention of all ten of the remaining monsters, and I swallowed hard as I realized that I should probably run.

I slipped back into the Waltz, flames licking my feet as I stepped along the constellation I'd kept from the original form of the technique. Each step took me somewhere new, and that was a good thing, because everywhere I landed there was a slavering monster hurling itself at me. Note to self: practice Cosmic Collapse more so I don't need so much prep time.

Luckily I wasn't here alone, and playing distraction enabled the others to get into position and start picking the damned things off. Holly had divebombed one of the ones I'd avoided, golden flaming sword singing through the air like a righteous battle hymn as she bisected the big bastard with a single swing, spinning off her landing to cleave another one in two as it tried to pounce on her.

Serah had produced a copper scythe from somewhere, and it too flickered with metallic flame of a color with her hair as she whirled it around, taking the arms and legs off a pair of the monsters that had leapt from the ceiling to try to bear her down to the ground.

I knew a lot of people sneered at the scythe as a weapon, but when you were dealing with Ascendants, even more than normal people, ANYTHING could be a weapon. I'd seen someone use a fucking mop as his main weapon, and it had been impressive. A giant long handled stick with a big sharp blade on the end was a cakewalk.

Serah had clearly trained extensively with her weapon, she used the staff portion as a prod to keep distance and hooked the blade around any exposed limbs, shearing through flesh and bone with casual indifference with both the inner and outer edges of her dual edged weapon.

Chelsea, meanwhile, had been mobbed by three of the monsters, and my sister had shifted from her normal jovial self to an arrogant combatant who casually batted aside strikes and smashed her enemies into burning chunks with her bare fists. I was almost positive she was using some kind of technique I didn't know, maybe one of moms or maybe her own, because her flames were behaving in an odd way I wouldn't have recognized before.

As I came to the end of my Waltz, I stopped on a chit, planting my feet and triggering Mornax. The leftover Wolfhornigators had been closing in on me at speed, and they didn't have time to slow down, smashing into my impervious form like falling stars.

I grinned widely as I heard cracks and screams from the shattering claws and bones of the monsters as they bounced harmlessly (harmless to me, they were harmed quite a bit) off my enhanced stone exterior. The distraction served its purpose, letting my teammates clean up their own opponents and turn their sights on mine.

My three were the last of the remaining ten, and with one foe each, they hardly stood a chance as they were all torn apart by angelic weapons and blinding white flame. I let Mornax drop after the last one was dead, with Chelsea finishing off the biggest and strongest, the one I assumed was some kind of alpha.

"Bite check." I called worriedly. "Anyone get bitten or scratched?" I'd been in my stone form so the claws hadn't penetrated, plus my armor didn't leave much skin exposed, so I was fine, but the others weren't nearly as impervious.

Chelsea grunted, a hand over the bend of her elbow. My sister was wearing a cuirass and and a pair of gauntlets maybe of dark leather with silver fittings that kind of matched her hair, but it wasn't full plate so it didn't cover her arms. Luckily, her purification flame was made for situations like this, even if it wasn't comfortable to use.

"I got nicked." She hissed through clenched teeth. "I'll be fine in a minute. This shit is NASTY. I feel like my blood is trying to eat through my veins and boiling at the same time."

Holly came strolling over excitedly. "We found the key!" She said, holding up a massive dark stone key with jagged looking teeth. "Are you alright, mistress?" Her deference to Chelsea still threw me, given what a prickly person she was when dealing with me, but I decided I was glad she had my twin's back.

"I'm fine." Said Chelsea in a much more even and less strained voice. Putting on an act for the troops I supposed. She glanced at the key. "Cheerful little piece of scrap, isn't it? Does everything have to look like it came out of a demon's nightmare? Just once, couldn't the thing we needed to get be a pretty baby blue color with a nice cloud motif?"

I cleared my throat, slightly defensive when I thought of my nightmarish armor and crown. "There's nothing wrong with ominous decor." I said stoically. "Maybe you just have bad taste. I think that key would be hideous with that color scheme."

"Because clearly you're an objective source." She sniped, eyes flickering over my outfit. She was grinning slightly, and I knew I'd helped take her mind off the pain for a bit.

I shrugged as we all turned and headed out, the bodies of the Wolfhornigators having dissolved into greasy green smoke. Some kind of summons probably. That was one down, we just needed to do this eleven more times. Joy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We were all in a fairly good mood as we exited the first temple. Holly and Serah both seemed impressed with my capabilities, which would make combat easier going forward, and I was pretty impressed with the power my twin had shown. I'd seen her fight before in the Ruined Soul Temple, but either she'd been holding back or she'd been training hard since then.

This resulted in a lot of patting each other on the back, and high spirits…until we got to the next temple in the chain. The first sign that something was wrong was that the massive doors were propped open, and we all slowed down, preparing for a fight.

Sure enough, when we stopped in front of the building, I froze. "Someone is here." I said bluntly. My Danger Sense was pinging hard. Usually I had to tune it out because it mostly went off in battle and wasn't very specific, but in peaceful situations like this, when it tipped me off, it was invaluable for knowing when I might be attacked.

"What pretty birdies." Cooed a high pitched, slightly manic voice. "They're so beautiful and majestic. I want to pluck out all their feathers and make a coat."

A bass laugh that nearly rumbled the ground came next. "You and your fashion trends. But I suppose we could find a use for them. Once you've ripped off their wings we can set them to clean the forest temple. It's gotten a bit overgrown."

Three figures emerged from behind the surrounding columns, and just looking at them gave me the creeps. Tall, rangy figures with too long limbs, they had shaggy moss green hair and stag horns jutting from their heads. Their faces were covered in wooden masks, and the grain and warp of the wood formed the features of screaming people.

Their bodies were covered in clothes made of bark and moss, and their fingers were wickedly curved talons on dinner plate sized hands almost as big as their heads.

"Primal Silence Forest." Spat Holly angrily. "One of the S-rank clans. Your founder is the Primeval Pain Druid. With only a single S-ranker, are you really willing to anger our Seraphim Tower, with our three most high? Not even mentioning what the Radiant Pope would do to you if you damaged his granddaughter."

One of the figures laughed musically. "We're at war, little girl. The great ones don't have time for personal grudges. And this is a game. Sometimes people lose. Don't worry, we won't kill you."

"Even if you ask!" Jeered the one on the other side, whose voice was like nails on a chalkboard. The middle one must be the one with the deep voice. "It's always funny when they beg for death. They start out so defiant, but the hungry roots of the forest drain their will as sure as they drain the marrow from their bones!"

The middle one shook his head. "Don't be so aggressive Slairy, you'll scare them off." His bass rumble sounded more stable than the others, but something about his tone made it clear he was enjoying this just as much.

"You're going to make this a battle to the death?" I asked. "We could just go our own ways."

I readied myself to attack. I was pretty sure of their answer, even if I had to make the offer. Besides, they'd just threatened me and my sister. I had no issues putting these animals down for having the nerve to aim their madness at my family.

"Ye-" The one on the left started, but she didn't get a chance to finish because I triggered Pit of Despair on the ground beneath them and they all dropped into a pool of super fine dust. Grinning, I stepped forward, falling in myself, Mephisto's Waltz, coming to my call as my Dust Construction showed me the details of the pit.

Black flame exploded under my feet, propelling me forward even as the Cosmic Collapse started to build at the end of my staff. The Dust moved around me, pushing me forward even faster and parting for my flames.

Appearing behind the left most one who had been talking, I brought my staff up through the dust, smashing the Cosmic Collapse into the twisted mask.

An explosion of black flame tore a gouge out of the pit, exposing us all to air, and the two remaining members of the team leapt free with hisses of outrage…not that they remained hissing for long, since both of them had to meet the diving strikes of Holly and Serah, taken to the wing to tear into them while they were weak.

To my shock, the middle one, the male with the deep voice, reached out and grabbed the other, pushing off them and using the force to get clear of the attack and land on the ground.

Slamming his clawed hands into the earth, a pair of colossal black trees burst from the ground, their twisted black branches twining into giant claws, and darting toward the sisters, trying to rip them apart as their weapons shredded his teammate.

I suddenly realized why that attack had been so successful. I'd turned all the ground around them to Dust, and clearly these assholes used earth based Skills. Probably mixed with some kind of darkness based on the roots. By turning the ground to Dust that I controlled I'd cut them off from their source of power.

My immediate response was to try Pit of Despair again, but I quickly realized that the power he'd extended into the ground. My sucker punch had been super effective, but it wasn't going to work again.

"You'll pay for that." He rumbled, and I saw the screaming face on his wooden mask shift, becoming hateful and enraged.

I shrugged as I floated back to the surface, buoyed by the Dust, which solidified under my feet as I rose to the top. "Trying to take the moral high ground when you attacked us for no reason is a tough sell." I said mercilessly. "Also, thanks for the key." I held up the dark stone shape I'd snatched from the one I'd killed, who had still been clutching it after presumably taking it off the temple guardian.

There was a pretty good chance they were planning to use it to entice us into fighting, based on those tree claws they were pretty strong, and fighting the three of them together might have been tough. We'd gotten lucky.

"You think you've beaten me, then?" He said mockingly. "We told you earlier. The trees of the Primal Silence Forest grow fat on blood and bone." He gestured, and the claws dove forward, one digging deep to reach the body of the one I'd killed and one smashing down into the area below Holly and Serah where the pieces of their opponent had fallen.

There was an eerie howl as the sky begin to darken, clouds filling the sky above us as a cold wind whipped the air. Bloody lines began to crawl up the dark trees, twisting into symbols I didn't recognize. The same lines traced their way up the hands and forearms of the horned man. We all faced him grimly.

The man began to chant, and as he did the symbols brightened, becoming almost painful to look at. "And in the darkest shadowed glade, wait all the wild's jagged blades, the hungry teeth and claws of beasts, poised for the forest's crimson feast. All living things become their food, now victims of the Wild Wood."

As he spoke, the trees began to warp and change, jagged thorns bursting forth from the black wood, each glowing with a bloody light. As we watched, they began to shift and move in disturbing patterns, almost like.

"Great." Said my sister in annoyance. "Giant haunted chainsaw tree hands. Because that seems fair."

With a cry of primal victory, the horned man sent the clawed hands shooting up at the two flying members of our party. Chelsea roared with outrage and smashed out at them with a wave of purifying flame, but the power wasn't dense enough to cut through what I was pretty sure was an S-ranked Bloodline ability.

The flames withered a few thorns, but there was far too much of the bloody power imbued into the plants for her to overcome, after all, these trees were powered by the blood sacrifice of two E-rankers.

But she wasn't the only one with that particular gift. Or even the strongest. I let Mephistopheles fade away, and called for my newest form. Zagan.

My hair blazed up in blinding green flame, and I raised my staff, concentrating the fire in the same way I would for Cosmic Collapse. Of course, I had to use Piece of Mind to fix the imagery on the fly, because Zagan had no combat capability, at least not directly. This wasn't going to be a harmful attack.

I packed all the green flame into an orb of pure life force and purifying power, the mental image of a green life giving sun burning in my mind as I prepared the attack. Then I triggered an ability I hadn't used in a very long time. Double Trouble.

Vanishing, I reappeared behind the horned man, leaving an illusory image of me standing in my place, and I thrust the staff forward, aiming not just at him but at the hands that the angels were even now warding off with flaming weapons. I thrust my staff forward into the bubble, piercing it and smashing into the other side to release a wave of verdant fire.

This wasn't cosmic collapse, it was a new technique, and it needed a new name. It came to my lips without prompting as I unleashed the strike. "Life Nova." I declared loudly.

A wedge shaped wave of green flame streaked with silvery white tongues of fire consumed the area in front of me, the horned man, my teammates, and even my sister. But I wasn't worried at all. Life Nova was the power of life and purification. I felt it burn away the bloody madness of the primeval wood from the trees and from the horned man, even as it repaired and rejuvenated my teammates.

The man himself, who had been so infused with terrible power, toppled over, motionless and unconscious from having his crimson energy stripped away.

I stood in my strongest form, smiling brilliantly at the others, thrilled with what I'd done. Using Zagan felt GOOD. It didn't hurt, it only healed. Most fights were won by attacking, but I'd chosen another way for this, and everyone in the audience would have seen it. I was proud of that. It wasn't something I could do every time I fought, but I could feel pride through my bond with Callie too.

My sister beamed at me. "That was something else." She said with a happy laugh. "I feel so…giddy. Like all my tiredness, even the mental stuff, was wiped away."

The sisters nodded. "It's…amazing." Said Holly with wonder. "I feel like I just got home from a month long vacation where all my worries drifted away. And I feel so strong. Like I could take on the world."

I was beginning to think my Life Nova might have been more effective than expected in terms of rejuvenation. I'd aimed that at my allies, so the horned man wouldn't benefit, but I was going to have to look into exactly what that ability did, because it seemed like it was a big deal. Letting Zagan fade, I let myself feel the tiredness the energy laden form had kept at bay. "Glad you guys liked it, but that kicked my ass. I'm going to need a few minutes."

They didn't argue, despite their obvious jittery demeanor after the power boost. I appreciated it, I was exhausted. After twenty minutes or so, we got back on the road, heading for the next temple up. We had two keys now, only ten to go. I wondered what the mountain would throw at us next.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Should we be leaving him alive?" Frowned Holly as we moved on from the temple, leaving the horned man (whose name I still hadn't bothered to learn) behind. "I mean, we killed all his friends, if he comes after us…"

Aside from not wanting to stain my victory with his blood after showing how easily I crushed someone at that level, I had my reasons for leaving him alive, though. "Nope. He's not getting up for quite some time. Stashing him in the empty temple will make it more likely he gets through this alright, and I want to demonstrate our power."

Chelsea nodded. "It's not a bad idea. Showing we're so much stronger than he is that we didn't even need to hurt him to beat him is a hell of a statement." She grimaced. "That wasn't a pun." She clarified. "Or not an intentional one."

"Coward." Sniffed Serah stoically. "Intend your puns."

"Right." My sister said blandly. "Anyway, by overpowering him and leaving him alive, we show dominance. Plus assuming he doesn't wake up in time to follow us, outside the games he can't do anything. We're surrounded by powerful people, and trying to bring factions into it would be even stupider."

Left unsaid was that he represented an S-rank bloodline, and it would be even stupider to piss off an S-ranker for no reason. Zeke couldn't protect me from the Primal Pain Druid, and while I was sure my maternal grandfather would step in if an S-ranker was going to murder me and turn me into a screaming tree, I was equally sure most other people didn't know that, so it probably wasn't as big of a deterrent as I might hope.

Regardless, leaving him alive was the smart call. There were no real downsides, given he wouldn't be able to catch up to us before this ended. Hell, leaving him alive was enough of a favor he might not even try. He didn't strike me as one of those crazy prideful young master types like Pietro had been.

As we approached the next temple up, all of us stopped a little ways out. We'd learned our lesson before, and we needed to be careful going into a situation like this. "Hold on." I said putting up a hand. "I have an idea."

Reaching into my mind, I triggered an ability I hadn't used in ages. Shadow Clone. Another version of me appeared right next to me, and I used Piece of Mind, dropping a version of my brain into it. I had it trigger Eye of Revelation, and grinned as I was able to perceive…some of what I wanted.

The clone was an old stored attack Callie had given me at either F or G-rank, and was therefore absurdly fragile. If Eye of Revelation had placed any burden on the body it would have collapsed.

It gave me a nod, then took off for the temple to do a lap around it, identifying any possible traps or ambushed, not to mention making sure we were alone.

Not for the first time I wished I could tap into Callie's actual ability through the bond, but while Skills worked fine, ability sharing didn't seem viable at the point we were at in our connection. I paid close attention to the clone, up until a squirrel noticed it creeping around and chucked an acorn at it.

An E-ranked squirrel, throwing an E-ranked acorn. The clone was pulverized, vanishing in a shower of dust. "Damn. It died." I said with a grimace. "But it managed to get a decent look around. Nothing nearby, I say we open the door and then send another one in to scope out the inside."

With a nod, we crept closer, and Holly moved in to lever the door open. I closed my eyes, repeating my clone process, and then sent my clone inside. "So…" Said Holly after we'd been waiting a minute. "That fight was pretty intense."

Serah shook her head. "We had that fight in a temple. Not in tents."

"Why are you so fixated on bad puns right now?" Snapped Holly. "I miss the damned knock knock jokes. Though admittedly, it wasn't as bad as your mime phase. I don't think mimes even count as comedy."

The copper haired angel shrugged. "They make people laugh." She said flatly.

"One, that's a wildly optimistic take on mimes." Said her sister. "And two, that's a really broad definition of comedy. What's next, puppetry?" Serah's face seemed to somehow convey contemplation without changing her expression, and Holly closed her eyes in pained regret. "Oh, please don't become a puppeteer."

I raised my hand. "Seconded. I find puppets creepy for…personal reasons." I shuddered at the memory of Saint Aiden and his creepy brainwashing operation. Heartrippers still creeped me out, even at E-rank. "Anyway, you were saying something about the fight Holly?"

"Oh, right." She said, shaking her head to clear it. "I was just going to say maybe you're not as weak as I expected. I'm sure you know candidates aren't exactly known for personal power. You guys have a rep as being a liability without your hangers on. So…sorry." She shrugged. "I may have had a small attitude when you first joined up, but we're cool now." She stuck out her hand.

I shook it, nodding my acceptance of the apology. "I get it. You didn't leave me hanging in battle, so I don't mind a little snapping at the start." I froze. "One second, clone got something finally, and…now it's dead."

"What was it?" Asked my sister in concern. "Did you get a good look?"
I chuckled. "Ironically, I almost didn't specifically because of the type of clone I used. I caught a slight flash though. Some kind of shadow creature. The temple looked empty to start, so we'll have to be careful. Even my Eye of Revelation didn't catch it, though admittedly it doesn't benefit from the crown when I'm not using it personally."

"I'd wondered why you were wearing that." Holly said with a laugh. "I kind of figured you just had a giant ego like the rest of the candidates."

I snorted. "Ridiculous. I'm extremely humble. Perhaps the most humble person in the entire universe." Serah gave a small snort, and I nodded at the comedian angel, happy to have my jokes appreciated. I'd try to laugh next time she told a bad pun.

"So how do we approach this?" I asked, gesturing to the temple. "Holly, your whole light thing might be able to weaken or even kill it. What are the limits on that?"

She shrugged. "I'm an angel of illumination. It's…kind of a job? It's complicated. Short answer, not many limitations under these circumstances. I can do more specific things that would drain me, but just shining really bright doesn't take much effort. Hurting a creature made of shadows might take more, but I should be able to do it."

"So to be clear." Said Serah. "We should go in guns blazing?" I chuckled a bit, and Holly glared at me for encouraging her.

Chelsea just rolled her eyes. "Yes. Holly crank the voltage, I'll hit the thing with purification flame. Shane, I don't suppose your green fire form would work here? The output was nuts, and that might come in handy."

"It would work on YOU." I clarified. "But shadows aren't corrupt or anything. Purification isn't going to do much. The light of the flames might, but your white flame is probably better for that anyway. Zagan is completely support oriented, that's why it's so powerful. Your fire is much more versatile."

She sighed. "Fine. Do your defense thing and cover Holly then. Serah's copper flame will probably work too. We can both attack."

I was dreadfully curious about exactly what Serah's power was, but I didn't bother to ask. We had a plan, I could question their abilities later. Chelsea obviously knew, and since she did I trusted her to decide if it would be helpful here.

With that in mind, I triggered Mornax, becoming a hyper durable stone edifice and stepped through the door first, taking slow steps to ensure my form didn't break. Once I entered, there was no reaction for a moment, and then an unearthly screech erupted from the darkness around us.

Before whatever it was could attack, Holly stepped in and erupted in golden illumination, flames climbing her golden sword and spitting from her eyes. The blinding light shoved back the darkness, revealing the monster to us all.

I grimaced at the sight of it. It looked like some kind of freakish ape monster with a bat face and porcupine quills. Its eyes were blood red, and it bared a mouth full of FAR too many needle sharp teeth at us as it came into view. Before it could move though, a wave of white flame rolled across the chamber, coming from my sister, and consumed it.

Serah flapped her wings once and shot straight up, then used the elevation to dive bomb the monster as Chelsea pulled back her fire wave.

The…thing. Monkbatpine? Screamed at Chelsea, its eyes alight with rage (though unfortunately not with actual fire, it seemed to have only gotten superficial burns). It was so furious it missed Serah bringing her scythed down from above, hooking its point into the thing's back and yanking forward, raking the edge through its flesh.

She backed off as it lashed out, slipping to the side and hooking its arm, pulling hard so the inner edge would lop off the limb before swiping at it to try to use the hook to disembowel the monster.

It was a bit too fast, but it was also very distracted, so it didn't notice my sister circle around and unload a blistering combination of punches into its back, explosions of flame wracking its body as it screamed in hate and rage. It tried to spin, but Serah had seen the action and interposed her scythe, hooking it around the neck of the monster.

As it turned, it opened its own throat on the razor sharp copper weapon, so deep I could see bone. It stumbled back, Serah moving aside but sticking out a foot to trip it as it stumbled to the floor, clutching its heavily bleeding throat.

Brackish blood pumped out onto the floor, a sickly dark green color. Looking down at it almost sadly, Serah stabbed the butt end of her scythe into its eye, killing it.

Stepping forward, my sister searched its body clinically before withdrawing the key. "I think we're getting the hang of this." She said with a low sigh. "We should be able to get through this if we take our time. I just hope we make it to the top fast enough." Glancing around, she shook her head. "Let's move on. We can't afford too many delays."

We all agreed, and we set off again towards the top of the mountain. With my clones and our various damage abilities I was confident we could make good progress as long as we planned things out.

This game had just started though. There were plenty of other people in this thing, some from the same factions who were grouped up like we were.

Whatever was coming up, we'd be ready for it. As we advanced, I let my eyes trail over the various paths and the other temples in the distance. They all looked so imposing and mysterious. I wondered if the guardians would be as challenging and dangerous as they had been so far, or if this was just the beginning.

In the distance, I spotted movement, but it quickly faded before I could actually put my Perception to use. I tightened my grip on my staff as we approached the next temple. Then I called up another clone and inserted a piece of my mind. Like my sister had said, take it slow. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. We had to be the first ones to the top, but I wasn't going to rush it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We continued on our trek, getting through seven more temples in record time. On the upside we'd sailed through the fights pretty easily, perfectly utilizing our abilities…and on the downside, I was now out of clones. I'd only had eight left (though two in reserve from Callie that I'd never ended up collecting since I had the full ten) and we'd had to use an extra on the sixth temple because one got eaten before I could see what the guardian was (it was a giant carnivorous plant).

Now we were at the eleventh temple, and we had no way of looking inside. I'd tried to use the bond to make a clone, but they were blocking it somehow, which made sense, because these games were at the universal faction level, so they were bound to have countermeasures for things like that.

My only real relief was that I could still feel Callie in my head. I knew if the emotional aspect of the bond got severed she'd have panicked, since neither of us had any warning.

"So…" My sister said lamely as we watched the temple. "You have no way to look inside? Because that's been working really well for us."

I shrugged. "Nope. I mean, Callie made those clones with Shadow Manipulation, it's not like I have…" I trailed off, my eyes widening. "One second, let me try something." I looked around for a nearby patch of ground, then triggered Pit of Despair. Focusing hard, I employed Dust Construction, condensing a version of my own body out of dust.

The process only took a second…and then there was a statue of me sitting in a hole. I cursed, trying it again. I went through about five variation before I figured out I needed a Piece of Mind parallel active and constantly using Dust Construction to prevent it from setting, on top of creating one to actually direct the clone.

I grinned triumphantly as the other me hopped energetically out of the hole, shooting the rest of us a thumbs up before he loped off towards the temple. In fact, this was much better, because this clone could actually open the door himself. As he approached, the others turned to glare at me.

"What?" I said innocently. "I didn't realize I could do that. My power is complicated, ok? It does a lot of stuff."

In fact, learning I could make dust clones was actually very interesting. It was exhausting to do, but there were ways to mitigate that. Specifically, if I made a form for Dust Construction and clone creation. The idea of an army of statues running around was VERY intriguing, especially given my Mornax form's resemblance to the clone I'd just made.

Along with a possible stealth form, that was two new form ideas I'd have to look into when I had some free time.

As I watched, from both up close and afar (it was a weird sensation, no matter how many times I did it) the clone approached and levered open the door. I noted how easy it was to keep the Dust Construction up, despite the widening distance, with a smile. The parallel inside the clone was operating the Skill, and since it was ME and had access to my Skills, there was no delay or strain from the gap.

The clone was able to get the large doors open easily enough, it was made from E-ranked materials, but I knew I couldn't count on that being the case every time. Something to consider for the future.

Because the clone was so much better, my Perception was able to shine, and the combination with my Eye of Revelation worked much more effectively. As I poked my stone head in, I practically felt like I was there in person, and I scanned the temple carefully looking for any sign of an opponent.

I found one, though not in the way I expected. "There's a cat in there." I said bluntly, staring through stone eyes at the seemingly perfectly normal feline.

Well, normal for a given definition of that word. Cats are sadistic and bloodthirsty beasts, even if occasionally cute ones. This one was grooming itself lazily, sitting on top of a glass box with the key in it.

Its fur was a burnished gold, and it had tufted ears and a surprisingly long tail with a little ball of fuzz on the end. I described the scene to my twin and the two angel sisters, and discovered that Chelsea and Serah were glaring at me dangerously. I cocked my head, showing I was confused about what they wanted.

"We're not going to murder a kitty cat." My sister said acidly. "We'll go to a different temple."

I rolled my eyes. "We can't, we're too far up the mountain. It's a miracle this one isn't crawling with other contestants. I don't want to hurt the cat either, but it's a guardian. There's no way it's just a normal cat. Here, watch, I'll show you." I focused on my clone as the parallel controlling it moved it closer to the cat.

It made no attempt to be stealthy, just strolled up to it nonchalantly. "Hey there bud." The other me said cheerfully. "That's a neat looking box you've got there." The stone hand reached for it. "Mind if I take a lo-" And then my clone died.

Or rather, my clone was smashed into dust, because you can't kill a statue, mobile or otherwise. In fact, I could even still see, since Eye of Revelation was present before the statue was destroyed. Which turned out to be a suboptimal situation, because the cat casually hopped down and strolled over to the pile of dust that used to be me. I dismissed the parallel before I had to suffer the indignity of being used as a litter box.

"Fucking cats." I spat spitefully. "It killed the clone. I think it's bigger than it looks, in the split second before it got me I saw the paw enlarge. So yes, it's dangerous, and it wants to hurt us. And I'm not letting myself get disemboweled because you think cats are cute." I glared at her. "You've been spending too much time with Bethy."

She huffed. "Well I'm not attacking a kitty. Even if I hadn't been spending time with Bethy, that just feels wrong. Would you want to attack a puppy if it was guarding that key? I know you aren't a cat person, but it's the same thing."

Holly shrugged. "I'm not one for cats either. So I'm good either way. But Serah loves them, and if you try to hurt it you might have to fight HER. She even has a pair of fake cat ears that she wears around the ho-" Her voice was cut off by the formerly stoic copper haired angel's hand as she blushingly glared at her sister.

"That's personal!" She hissed dangerously. "And yes, if you try to hurt that kitty I won't just stand idly by. So you'd better think of another way to deal with it." Her face closed off again, going back to her normal stoic demeanor. "I am sure you will manage flawlessly. You've proven yourself quite capable up to this point."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "I saw that little tone shift. But fine, I just so happen to have another plan. What is that cats hate more than anything?" I activated Moonlit Night in a small area around us, since I couldn't use Stealth without the bond.

"The happiness of others?" Holly asked dryly.

I didn't bother to hide my snicker at that as Serah turned to glare at her sister. "Close, but no, I was talking about something a bit less abstract."

"Oh!" Chelsea said excitedly. "Baths! Cats hate baths!" Holly turned to look at her, and she shrugged helplessly. "It's a Bethy thing. You start coming up with weird answers to questions more easily when you're around her long enough. You'll get it when you meet her."

Nodding, I acknowledged the point. "Accurate, and also what I was thinking. Yes, cats hate baths. So what if I used Pit of Despair to turn the entire floor of that temple into dust. The cat would be so panicked by the change it wouldn't notice me manually using the dust to push the box with the key out the door."

"That's a great idea!" She said excitedly. "But…can you even DO that?" She glanced toward the temple. "That's a lot of floor. And isn't doing a ton of work with that stuff really hard for you?"

It actually was. I grimaced, referencing the distances I'd been seeing from the clone before it died. "Maybe not." I admitted. "But it doesn't need to be the whole floor. I can just do a big area around the cat and then a canal leading to the door. The distraction should still work. I can even use the dust to harry and restrain the cat while I work."

Admittedly that would be much more feasible. I could use Piece of Mind to micromanage a bunch of smaller patches of dust. Overpowering Pit of Despair would be tough, but I had a really solid amount of Might now, so it should be doable.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly made my way toward the temple, gesturing for the others to stay back. Holly shook her head, following me, and when I hissed at her to get back, she shook it again. "Once this is done you'll be exhausted." She whispered. "I'll need to get you out of there."

That was a good point, so I let her follow. When I reached the door, I planted a hand on the stone of the temple, and then triggered Pit of Despair and Piece of Mind both multiple times. The strain hit me like a runaway shuttle, but I ignored it, focusing on the cat and the key.

Beneath the lazy feline, the ground suddenly shifted to dust. It let out an alarmed yowl as it dropped into the dust, and I saw the substance shift as something much bigger took its place. But I'd planned for that, and there was still plenty of room. Three of my parallels operated Dust Construction, using the massive dust pool to try to restrain the beast, as a fourth carefully pulled the box along a subtle current of dust toward us.

As I'd hoped, the cat was FAR too distracted and pissed off to bother keeping track of the box. It felt like an hour keeping everything going, but eventually, the box with the key pushed up out of the dust. I shoved hard with my parallels, pushing the cats head above the dust before I let it all drop and the ground hardened again.

The massive head of a terrifying feline beast erupted, whipping around until it saw me, but it didn't matter. As soon as I grabbed the box, Holly grabbed ME under the arms and beat her wings. I heard the explosion of stone as the cat ripped free, but I was already gone when its oversized paw darted out of the opening to slap down where I'd been standing like it would have caught the tail of a mouse.

I laughed uproariously as it yowled and swatted, but it didn't seem to be able to actually leave the temple (probably to prevent the monsters from getting out and butchering all the contestants.

When we landed, I tossed the box to my sister before sitting down to catch my breath, letting the extreme soul strain fade. Still, I was pretty damned proud of myself. Only one more key to go and then we'd be at the peak. I was just worried someone might beat us there. Then again, maybe I had other problems, after all, I needed to win and only one person could. I knew Chelsea would let me use the keys, but what about the angels? Only time would tell.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I grimaced as we approached the final temple. "Shit." I said succinctly. "Should have guessed." We stopped at a small copse of what looked like olive trees a few hundred feet down the mountain. To my Eye of Revelation, the forms of about a dozen other contestants were clearly outline against the grass and shrubs between us and the temple. "There's twelve of them up there. Doesn't seem like they're all together, they're in a few groups."

"Think this is everyone left?" My sister asked with a grimace, trying to spot them herself. I saw a quick flare of light in her eyes and blinked in shock when I realized she was purifying her vision to sharpen it. I hadn't known she could do that. It was an interesting technique I'd need to remember.

I shrugged in response to her question. "I don't know, but probably not. There were a lot of paths, makes sense the final ring of temples would be set up to cause a big collision"

"Perhaps we could attempt to fly over the peak." Said Serah consideringly. "Study the temples and see how many ended up at each? I'm not sure if we'll meet resistance at the top, but it would be best to be prepared."

I shook my head emphatically. "No way. This is a race based on hitting checkpoints. There's no chance they don't have countermeasures against people just flying up to the top. I'd be shocked if you even made it halfway. We just need to hurry. If this is supposed to be a big free for all, chances are good all the players aren't even here yet, best chance of winning is to get in and out before they arrive."

"Any chance you have a plan?" Chelsea asked me hopefully.

Snorting, I gestured up the mountain at the various subforces. "Based on what? The shapes of their ear lobes? Which I can't even see at this distance because they've all got head gear on and are facing away from us? No, I have no plan."

Serah, who had been looking seriously up the mountain, made a small hum of curiosity. "Maybe you could use your earth power again. Make a slide that drops them into the ground and carries them down the mountain."

"Sure." I said reasonably. "Or maybe I could jump up the slope in slow motion and punch the ground so hard they're vaporized by the shockwaves. Because that would be way easier than what you just suggested. It's not like we're on a snowy peak, we can't just start an ava-" I trailed off. "You know…I might have a plan."

Grinning, my sister glanced up the mountain. "Can you do that?" She asked after she puzzled out what I was thinking from my dropped sentence. "That's a lot of dirt."

"Not as much as you'd think." I disagreed. "I mean, it won't be as tough as what I did in the temple. I'm not going to be controlling the dust. Just making like…a slide. The stuff is super fine, nearly no friction. I only need to do a small layer along the top of the ground. The trick will be doing a large enough section of the surface all at once, but I can push through that. The question becomes can you all take advantage of the distraction. Remember, we learned from the cat temple we don't need to defeat them, just beat them to the key."

Chelsea looked excited. "I can blanket the area in flame as a distraction while Holly and Serah fly right in and get the key. If Holly blinds the guardian with light, assuming it's not immune or something, Serah can dart in and capture the key."

"Perfect." I said with a laugh. "I just need a few minutes before we start." My head was still banging away. I was preparing to push through the pain, when I felt something odd. It drained out of me.

I blinked, looking up toward where I knew the audience was. My soul strain…it was gone. Or rather, I still felt it, but not in me. It was in Callie now. I knew she could help offset the strain of doing things, but I hadn't been aware she could just TAKE it from me like that. Whatever they did to block the bond hadn't stopped it either, though that wasn't a shock. Skills had trouble with soul stuff most of the time.

With the newly unburdened state of my head, I was able to gather myself to prepare for the attack. But before I did, I had to bring up the elephant in the room. "I need to win this." I said quietly. "Are you guys going to let me?"

Holly and Serah turned to look at me. One inscrutable and one coldly interested. They seemed to be waiting, because they said nothing as my sister turned around. "What?" She said in surprise. "I thought that was the plan all along." She turned to the angels. "Were you two planning to win?"

Laughing, Holly shook her head. "We're under orders to help you." She said bluntly. "A favor from the Radiant Pope is worth more than a bit of renown, even on the universal stage. "We were under the impression you were going to win, but if you think he should, that's fine."

"See." Said my sister loftily. "It's fine. Have you been worried about that the whole time? You're kind of dumb sometimes, Shane."

I rolled my eyes. "Noted. But that was all I needed to know. I have an idea of how I can minimize the strain for this and maybe produce a better effect. Nobody talk for a minute." I shook my head, trying to strangle the fond smile I had on my face before I closed my eyes.

Mapping out the distance, I'd realized that it was going to be a rough time, even if I was just doing a thin layer. I was essentially going to be dissolving several tons of earth. Pit of Despair was made for decently large areas, but not THAT large. After a minute of thinking though, I realized what I was really doing.

I was DESTROYING a bunch of dirt and rocks and grass. I was grinding them all to dust. Converting and then deconverting them was useful most of the time because it let me make traps and restrain people, but I didn't need to go through all that trouble this time. I wanted to break them and let them stay broken.

And I just so happened to have a form that was excellent at breaking things. I triggered Mephistopheles, then focused on the area I wanted affected. It was large still, but having changed my perspective, it was less daunting. I didn't need to work a massive amount of dirt with dust construction, I just needed to carpet bomb the slope with my destructive energy.

Belial actually might have been better, but that wouldn't work fast enough. Belial's corrosion was a slow creeping thing, and someone would notice.

By shifting into my Mephistopheles form though, I changed the game. Because I wasn't using a move, I was using a TECHNIQUE. Techniques, unlike normal abilities, mobilized the power of a Path, and mine was downright ridiculous in its scope of application.

This would have been easier if I'd had a form for Dust Construction like I'd been toying with earlier, but destruction would work fine.

In my head, I started creating the images. I told the story I needed, and how it related to Mephistopheles. How the demon came to rain destruction on the world, and the ground itself ran like water and swept away his enemies in an earthly flood. Pit of Despair even fit the narrative theme wise.

Reaching out over the slope, I focused on what I wanted, on how my Path could bring it into being, and then I cast my newest technique. The name just came to me, and I didn't have time to really consider the meaning other than intoning it aloud. "Damnatio Memoriae."

I struck the ground in front of us with my staff, and a wave of black flames roared out, rolling along the ground for about a square mile in the shape I'd envisioned before sinking into the mountain. The ground around us began to rumble, and in the blink of an eye, the huge section I'd covered turned to ultra fine dust, and it all began to slide down the slope.

Not being an idiot, I'd shaped my technique to leave a wedge of solid rock in front of us, starting where I struck the ground, and so all the dust flowed around us to either side. The enemies probably would have reacted, but before they could, a fucking FIRESTORM of pure white flame consumed everything above the dust flows.

I staggered, catching myself on my staff, drained more than I'd expected, but still grinning fiercely. The angels took wing, ascending with two massive flaps to gain air and then gliding toward the temple.

"That was nuts." Gritted out my sister. "I can't believe you're strong enough to do something like that."

I shook my head. "I cheated." I said breathlessly. "Pit of Despair only does one thing. I just supercharged it with destruction flames. I'm probably never going to be able to use that technique for anything ever again. It literally ONLY functions in this exact situation."

Being able to create giant swathes of slippery mountain wasn't exactly an impressive move in most situations. I was almost skeptical it was worth the trouble it had taken to create that technique, but Chelsea just chuckled, shaking her head. "You think any of THEM know that?" She asked rhetorically, chucking her chin up at the invisible audience. "They just saw you smack the ground and wash away a dozen powerful Ascendants."

"Takes one to know one, my one mile firestorm." I said with a laugh. "That one isn't going to fade from memory anytime soon.. Though speaking of memory, here comes the angels with the thing we were here for." I nodded up to the sky, where a pair of shining forms swept toward us.

Laughing, my sister held out a hand, and a jagged black shape dropped from above, spinning down to slap into her palm. She tossed it to me and I grinned as I stashed it in my ring. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" I crowed. "That's number twelve. Let's get to the top."

Chelsea nodded slowly. "Well yeah, but like…how?" She gestured up the still flowing slope, the very tops of which was showing big empty spaces where the dust had fled.

Laughing, I gestured up at the angels. "Have them each grab an arm. They should be able to carry you wherever. Meanwhile, I'll go ahead and take the keys up to the peak myself. Remember not to go up toward the summit, there's probably defenses anywhere past the temple." Flying low to the ground before the temple had been a calculated risk, but it had worked out, no point in tempting fate.

"You're going on alone?" She asked worriedly. "That makes sense, but…what if someone is up there?"

I shrugged. "Then I fight. But I think I can beat them. This little trap would have stopped anyone else dead. It would take hours to fight through a crowd or negotiate a passage. As long as I hurry, I should be the first."

And with that, after making sure I had all twelve keys, I triggered Ripple Running and took off, bounding from one platform to the next, keeping close to the ground as I let State of Grace carry me in long, low arcs. Once I passed the still failing slope, I hit the ground at a run, State of Grace pushing me onward.

I bolted up the mountain at my fastest speed, blood thundering in my ears and cape flowing behind me, and I couldn't help but grin. I was going to win, I was going to be the first. I reached the chest in record time, sliding to my knees in front of it and fumbling with the keys. I was so enthused I barely noticed my Danger Sense going off. Barely, but I still did, triggering Mornax in time to tank the massive black iron hammer head that smashed down on my skull.

Apparently I wasn't the first one up here. Standing up, I put away the keys and cracked my neck as I turned to face the huge hammer wielding man. "That." I said evenly. "Was unwise."One more obstacle to get through. I'd better make it quick.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The big man with the hammer smirked down at me. "Not bad." He said in a rumbling voice. "I don't think I've ever seen someone just shrug off that blow before, especially not to the skull. That's a hell of a defensive Skill." He glanced at the ground behind me. "Don't bother." He said lazily. "If I couldn't crack it, your strike won't do the job either."

I looked at the spot he'd glanced at, and sure enough a green haired girl materialized from nothing behind me, or rather, from thin air, as she coalesced from the wind. She scowled at the man. "That's not how it works you lummox. My wind spirit pierce can punch through armor, and is much more concentrated. Just because your ridiculous mallet couldn't do the job, doesn't mean my attack wouldn't have finished him."

"You would have attacked while he was dazed if you thought it would work." He said unapologetically. Then he turned back to me. "You're pretty tough for Wyndham. I thought you were all supposed to be weaklings who hid behind meat shields."

The green haired girl smacked her own forehead. "You aren't supposed to SAY things like that. Have some tact."

With a shrug, the man dismissed her concerns. "Whatever. You earned my name before I crack that eggshell you've got going. I'm Albert Brody, from the Iron Pumping Temple, and the gnat is one of those sneaks from the Spirit Breeze Convocation."

"My NAME." She spat. "Is Gwendolyn, you walking bucket of flop sweat. I refuse to be condescended to by one of you pea brained hammer jockeys."

He just rolled his eyes. "Brains are overrated. People think too much. Anything makes sense if you whack it hard enough. That's why our Iron Body Sage is considered one of the most powerful physical combatants in S-rank. Now, since we've got the introductions out of the way, we should get back to the fight. More people will show up soon, and if I have to crush too many of you at once I might slip up."

Without waiting for a response, he whirled his giant hammer above his head and began to rain blows down on me. It was…impressive. When I'd commented on his size, I hadn't mean in comparison to me. I'd meant in general.

Albert Brody was about nine feet tall and probably ten across. His muscles had muscles, and the colossal hammer, whose head was about the size of coffee table, blurred and warped the air, creating explosions of concussive force as it made contact with my reinforced body.

He unleashed a torrent of hammer strikes, hitting me so quickly and brutally that my stone form actually started heating up from the friction, but regardless of how brutally he wailed on me, nothing was able to even budge me.

Mornax didn't do anything in terms of offense. It had zero use for utility. It was, however, nearly an unbreakable defense at the E-rank. Between my enhanced Impact, Mountain Stance's blanket increase, and the additional density of the stone form, it would pretty much take a D-ranker to break it, regardless of the sheer amount of Might you were using.

After a few minutes, Albert stumbled back, wheezing, and let the hammer fall to the ground with a thump, glaring at me. "That's cheating." He panted. "You're not even attacking me, you're just standing there."

Which was…actually a great point. Turning away from him, I bent over the chest, and ignored his outrage as I started to fit keys into locks.

Sadly, it was bound to be harder than that. "Stop hitting him from above you dunce." Sniped the acidic assassin. "Notice when he turned he kept one of his feet in contact with the ground at all times? He's got some sort of earth bond Skill going. His durability is beyond your strength to break, but I bet if you knock him off his feet the Skill will break."

My eyes widened as I felt my formerly dormant Danger Sense scream at me, signifying he'd taken her advice. I spun, letting Mornax break, and used Double Trouble as I switched to Mephistopheles, appearing behind the assassin.

My staff flashed out, an explosion of black flame consuming the spot she'd just been standing in, but she'd returned to the wind. I heard a tinkling laugh along the breeze. "Sorry, but I don't want to give up the win either. Why don't you two focus on each other. I'm sure I'll be far too scared to try to stab one of you in the back."

Snarling, I triggered Mephisto's Waltz, moving myself out of position just as a hammer swept through the spot my ribs had just occupied. I ate the distance, appearing behind Albert, and unleashed a blast at his back.

Which did nothing. At all. The flames just washed over him harmlessly. I cursed, dodging the next attack. I tried to plant my feet for Mornax again, but he'd learned his lesson, and wouldn't let up, raining down hammer blows again.

"You think fire can harm an initiate of the Iron Pumping Temple?" He guffawed. "Fire forges iron. We have our muscles beaten into shape with the most extreme heat. I felt a bit of a sting, so that must be special flame, but it's far from enough to hurt me. Now stand still and let me smash you, little man."

His teeth were bared in a bloodthirsty grin, his red eyes surrounded by rings of white as he stared fixedly around. His hair was pitch black and untamed, wild sideburns leading down to a thick beard. The whole picture presented a terrifying pressure, like some legendary berserker of old.

I ignored it, focusing on my staff as I waltzed. Specifically, on the slowly growing ball of flames. Cosmic Collapse was my next move. I needed to hit him with something that could penetrate his apparently fire tempered muscles. If the normal flame wouldn't work, I'd have to use my technique.

Unfortunately, I could tell it would take a LOT. Not a normal Cosmic Collapse, but a supercharged version of my finisher, and extra charge meant extra time. I kept an eye out for Gwendolyn too. The second I struck she would jump on me, so I had to make sure not to overcommit.

The problem was, Albert's Might was MUCH higher than mine. His strikes were firing off at absurd speeds, and I suspected if that hammer wasn't heavier than most BUILDINGS I'd lived in, I'd already be a fly on a windshield.

Mephisto's Waltz was barely letting me keep ahead, and only because I was cheating terribly. The waltz was more like teleportation than a movement skill, and having a Solid Path made my techniques exponentially more effective and flexible than someone at my rank should be capable of. Everything had limits though, and I was approaching mine.

Albert's smile became annoyed. "This is getting boring." I watched in fear as an image of a titanic peak appeared behind him, condensing down around him. Then another, and another. I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be able to see what he was doing, but my Eye of Revelation made it visible. Combined with the terrified shriek of my Danger Sense, I realized that I needed to MOVE. Now.

As the images of the mountains flashed faster, he raised his weapon and bellowed. "HUNDRED MOUNTAIN HAMMER!" And then brought it down like a headsman's axe on the mountain top where we stood.

I was already off the ground, my waltz carrying me up an ascending staircase of Ripple Running platforms. I pushed the technique as hard as I could, trying to get high enough to avoid the impact that was definitely coming. I managed to get a few hundred feet up, and I let State of Grace take me as the hammer impacted the ground, and a cacophonous boom shook the whole mountain as the big man's strike SPLIT the fucking mountain in HALF.

Or it seemed like that. In reality he'd just cracked off a big chunk that fell down the side, tearing a huge furrow down the slope as it slid towards the bottom. Still, it had been a building sized chunk of an E-rank mountain. I was suitably terrified.

Gwendolyn, however. was not. She appeared behind the swaying giant and drove a pair of green steel daggers into the base of his spine, near his kidneys. Albert roared and lashed out at her, but she dissolved and flashed out of reach. The giant of a man toppled forward, into the massive wake left by his boulder attack, and just slid down the furrow after it, sucked along in the stream of still collapsing dirt.

Looking at her handiwork, Gwendolyn grinned in satisfaction… until I triggered Double Trouble again and appeared right behind her, executing the still condensing Cosmic Collapse I'd been building up since this started.

I saw her body shift partially to air before it detonated, but it wasn't fast enough, she screamed, blasted off the peak and hitting the ground in the same furrow she'd just pushed Albert into, her semi corporeal form swept into the dirt wake MUCH faster than his has been. Using Eye of Revelation, I checked for any stragglers, then, with a grin, strolled over to the chest.

The circular chunk of mountain under the chest was sticking out of the cliff formed by Alberts attack. I had to whistle at its effectiveness. It had been a technique, not a Skill, based on those images I'd seen. It made sense a peak E-ranker from an S-rank faction would have a path, even if it seemed to be an Illusionary one.

I inserted the keys, still wary of backstabs, but none came. I was pretty sure I'd seriously injured Gwendolyn, but she would be fine. It was tough to kill an E-ranker if you didn't end them in one shot, and worst case I would offer to use Zagan to fix her up and collect a favor from her faction.

Finishing my insertion of the last key, I twisted it sharply, and the lid of the box sprung open. There was a massive shudder in the ground, and a booming voice echoed out over the mountain, calling the end of the games. I reached into the chest, lifting out a tiny, stuffed version of me in full costume, and rolled my eyes at the game masters as I put it away. I was sure Callie would love it.

Turning, I found a doorway hanging in the air next to me, and I shrugged, stepping through it and out of the arena. To my surprise, I came out into the box where my family waited, most likely interference on my grandfather's part, and I was mobbed by excited shouts and congratulations.

I laughed and accepted the kudos, even Benny seemed thrilled for me, though he'd been a bit distant since my ultimatum.

"Well." Said my mother with a brilliant smile. "That was exciting. You made quite an impression down there. I'd expect some serious gains in terms of stats over the next few months. Well done, Shane."

My grandfather hooted with laughter. "I wish I could've seen the look on Iron Body's face when his brat got shivved in the back. And that pompous twit Mariana from the convocation never shuts up about her grandaughter's Wind Spirit Transformation. I'm glad none of ours were up there with you."

My mother glared at him half-heartedly, but I saw a small smile on her lips. I just laughed hugging my fiancee as the others started babbling on about all the moves I'd used. I was exhausted, even after Callie took that first soul strain away. My head hurt, my body hurt, my Path hurt somehow. I'd pushed myself further in this fight than I ever had before. But still, looking down into the arena at the towering mountain we'd been placed on, I couldn't be anything but proud. I'd stood with the most powerful E-rankers in some of the most elite factions in the universe. Slowly but surely, I was finding my way to the top.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After the celebration, it was time for me to meet with the representatives of the factions. There was a prize for the winner, usually something like chits, Skill crystals, or personalized enchanted items. Of course, we'd done all this for one reason, and I was going to use the opportunity to get face time with the various faction reps to have Felicity transferred to our branch.

"This is a good thing you're doing, Shane." Said Callie as she stepped up beside me. It was the last day of the games, so all three of the winners would be meeting with the higher ups at the same time. I had to wait for my name to be called, which would be after they reset the arena so we had a place to hold the ceremony. "I'm proud of you."

"It's the right thing." I said firmly. "You could have ended up like she did." I gritted my teeth. "The thought of it makes me want to scream."

She chuckled. "I know. I can feel it. You're almost as worried about that as you are about Benny." At my surprised glance, she rolled her eyes. "How are you still not getting how this works. Yes I can tell you're still upset. But I don't think you need to be."

"I was scared and I lashed out at him." I admitted. "I was kind of a dick. I wouldn't forgive me if I was him."

She nodded. "You were, and you did. But I think you're underestimating the impact that watching that little show had on him. You showed him what having a Path MEANS. Hell, you showed all of us. That big guy with the hammer…that was a technique right? The thing he did to the mountain?"

"It was." I acknowledged. "Though it was mostly just a really straightforward layering of Might from what I could tell. His Path is weaker than mine, but his stats are way stronger, I'm guessing he has a pretty high Fantasy on top of his Might."

Waving me off, she shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Benny was angry because he felt like you were being unfair, but seeing firsthand the kind of shit you'll be up against…it's hard to call that unfair. I can't read him like I can read you, but I know him well enough by now to see how thoughtful he was about what he saw. Plus Celine will talk some sense into him."

"I just hope it helps." I said with a sigh. "He really does need a Path. Speaking of, how is yours coming along? Any ideas on solidifying it?"

Callie's Path of the Abyss wasn't Solid, obviously, but I had no clue how mine had become Solid, so I couldn't really advise her. However, some of my experiments with Skill creation and making techniques had given her some ideas, and she'd been consulting my mom when possible too.

"Yeah." She said with a nod. "A couple. But I need to learn more about it. I spent some time going over that book. It's a bit dense, but I think I can splice my Path into a Skill manually. I just need to get a better grip on the Path, and maybe get some practice with Skill crafting."

I was going to offer to help, but my mom called me over. Callie smiled encouragingly, pushing my mask aside to peck me on the cheek. "Go do your thing, you'll do great."

Nodding, I headed over to meet up with my mother. My grandfather was already down there with the other representatives, and I had to admit I was pretty impressed, as looking down into the arena, I could see the setting had completely changed. The whole mountain we'd been on earlier was gone, replaced with a stately throne room with seven thrones.

"The Vampire is sitting in too?" I asked in surprise. "Are the independents counted as one of the organizers?"

My mom nodded. "Special circumstances. We tried to involve them more, given the severity of the situation. We need them to side with us, and luckily Lark's reputation made giving him some leeway easier. Are you ready?"

At my nod, she waved a hand, and a bridge of stars coalesced at the edge of the box. We stepped onto it and it carried us down into the arena. I landed next to a pair of people, one of them familiar. Felicity stood primly beside a small, tanned woman with bright blue hair shaved on one side. When they saw me, they both offered a casual greeting, and we turned as one to face the thrones.

My grandfather, Harrison, Captain Cataclysm, Morgan Lark, Princess Levinia Darksparrow, and the Deathwish Pope each sat in one of the chairs. There was a seventh member of the S-rank contingent, who I assumed must be the Imperial representative. He hadn't been at the banquet.

I'd asked my mom about him after our training following the event, and apparently King Nod was considered extremely antisocial. His powers had something to do with dreams (though he was notoriously cagey about what, exactly) and he spent most of his time dozing. The King was lazy and rarely did anything unless forced, and sure enough, the small, pale man with the pencil mustache was snoring away on his throne.

Harrison was the first to speak, his eyes on Felicity and I and practically glowing with pleasure. Two of the three champions were from the WCP, and I knew that would give them leverage during negotiations. I was glad he was in a good mood. It might make this easier.

"Champions." He said officiously. "You have worked hard to be here. Shown yourselves to be powerful and skilled combatants. Wisdom, power, courage. These qualities you have demonstrated and more besides, and as victors, you come before us, the strongest of your factions, and are offered a boon."

His eyes flicked to Felicity. "Felicity Norquill, of the Wish Curse Palace. What gift would you receive for your victory?"

Felicity smiled. It was…disquieting. It was one of the first expressions I'd seen from her, and it looked wrong. When people smile, their eyes light up and crinkle at the edges, even smirks or bloodthirsty grins engage more than just the lower face muscles.

When Felicity smiled, she looked like someone was pulling her mouth up at the corners by hand. If you covered the bottom half of her face her eyes would have made it impossible to tell she had any expression at all. More than that though, there was no spark of happiness or emotion in the expression. It was just a tensing of muscles in a way that imitated joy.

"I thank you for the opportunity, your excellency." She said in her usual flat tone. "But I am simply grateful to serve the Palace. If there must be a reward, please grant it to my father, for without him, I wouldn't be here at all."

My eyes shot to Craygen, who was standing behind Harrison's throne with a smug expression. Harrison nodded amiably, letting her know that he accepted her request and that Craygen would be granted additional resources in his position as aide de camp. Princess Levinia was the next to speak.

"Deena Saffron." Said the fairie princess, in a voice like the singing of joyful birds. "Of the Water Force Temple. What do you request as your reward." The princess was staggeringly beautiful, and up close it was hard not to stare.

It wasn't even a matter of any romantic appreciation, looking at Levinia Darksparrow was like watching the sun rise over a verdant valley, or seeing an aurora the light the sky with colors. She'd surpassed what one could categorize as attractiveness, and attained the sort of beauty reserved for wonders of the world.

The blue haired girl, who seemed just as poleaxed as I was, shook off her distraction. "Pardoning your majesty." She said, giving an awkward attempt to curtsy (I didn't blame her, Levinia just made that seem like the right kind of move) which was thwarted by the fact that she was wearing pants and a vest instead of any sort of gown. "I would like to apply for a single instance of aid for the Temple, in a situation where it is needed."

The Princess smiled. "A worthy request. And one I will grant. Should your Temple fall into danger in the future, one of our number will be dispatched to your aid."

That was…a big fucking deal. There was a WAR coming, and a promise of one time aid from the six was staggeringly valuable.

Deena seemed to think so too, as her face lit up with joy and she bowed deeply, offering profuse thanks. Finally, all eyes turned to me. Harrison, once again, was the one to address me. "Shane Wyndham." He intoned. "You have brought great pride to your family and your faction, and are due a reward. State your request."

I met his eyes. "I request Felicity Norquil be removed from her father's custody and remanded to my branch of the WCP to act as a personal bodyguard. Given my victory, I do not believe accepting such a reward would violate the terms of my candidacy."

Craygen, who had been looking pleased, froze. "What?" He hissed. "This is…this is lunacy! He can't ask for that. Harrison! Tell him he can't ask for that."

The S-ranker turned a cold eye over his shoulder at his subordinate. "You will be SILENT." He commanded. Craygen went pale. "The rewarding of the champion involves the honor of the entire faction. We will not renege on our responsibilities." I started to relax, but he continued. "However, as Felicity too is a champion, her own honor is a factor as well. We will beseech the Wishmaster for a ruling. Amaya."

A small woman with white hair and dark skin hurried forward, her eyes kind as she shot me a reassuring smile. She waved a hand, and a rainbow arced down from the empty sky, slamming into the air in front of him and warping the space. The ripples in the air warped and changed the skin of the world until a mirror coalesced from the disturbed area.

On the other side of it, a relaxed looking man with familiar sandy hair and green eyes sat reading a book on a couch. At the appearance of the mirror, he paused, sighing, and then closed his book with an annoyed expression.

"Father." Said Aiden Wyndham, current Wishmaster of the Wish Curse Palace perfunctorily to Harrison. "I trust you have a reason for disturbing my leisure?"

Harrison nodded. "Of course. We've had a bit of a situation." He described the events of the reward ceremony, and my request. Craygen looked like he was ready to vibrate through the floor with his desire to address his friend, but the order from earlier still hung over his head.

Aiden's gaze turned to me. "How interesting." He said with a wolfish grin. "Hello little cousin. I've heard positively amusing things about you. Trust Eli and Sasha's brat to cause a ruckus." His eyes scanned the assembled S-rankers. "Well played. Fine, take her. But you'll be expected to abide by certain limits. The standard of a C-rank champion from the WCP is far above what you might find elsewhere, and there will be commensurate restrictions."

I nodded, not really caring. The point of bringing her along was to help her, not to get an extra pair of fists. Not that I would turn down her help, but it was mostly just a bonus. "Thanks." I said casually. "Keep my seat warm for me, will you?"

He burst out laughing, throwing his head back to let out a booming guffaw. It was staggering how…big, he was. Not physically, but just the sheer force of personality. He had a hint of wildness in his green eyes, a commanding madness I hadn't seen before. "I'll do that." He said jovially. "Try not to get yourself killed. You're a fun one." And then the mirror dissolved into a watery mist, and I was left facing all the S-rankers. This had gone better than expected.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"I can't believe that worked." I told Zeke after we got back to the inn. We'd gotten Felicity a room, and the list of regulations she had to follow would be passed down tomorrow at the first day of the actual conclave, which would begin following the end of the games. "I expected him to fight it. Craygen is like his Benny, right?"

Zeke shrugged. "I told you, the WCP isn't made up of good people. Aiden is just as big of a bastard as anyone else in power. More, honestly, how do you think he beat Eli out for the job."

"I guess I just expected…" I trailed off. "Not that."

My uncle chuckled. "You expected someone like Eli. Someone cold and ruthless and necessary. But Aiden wasn't ever that type of person. Oh don't get me wrong, he can BE ruthless, but Aiden is more…"

"Wild?" I offered, thinking about what I'd seen in the mans eyes.

He nodded thoughtfully. "That's one way to describe it. Aiden Wyndham is like a force of nature. He's charismatic and vicious and cheerful and…unstoppable. He's like a storm that sucks up everyone who crosses his path and flings them out into the open sky. Sometimes you have wings, and you could consider it a boost. Sometimes you hit the ground. And sometimes a fucking house lands on top of you."

"That last scenario would be for his enemies?" I asked cautiously.

Laughing, he shook his head. "Those would be his friends.He's indiscriminate. He just…does adventure at things and it works out. For him. And often for no one else. Not that being his enemy is safer, he goes through things more often than around them. Eli scares people, and in a world where Aiden didn't exist he would've been Wishmaster. But Aiden TERRIFIES people."

"What is his second ability?" I asked in cautious amazement. "Nobody has ever told me what it is."

He shrugged. "Hell if I know. It's hard to tell, what with stored attacks being possible, plus we're pretty sure everyone who's seen him use it is dead. One of the major benefits of being a candidate is being able to play things closer to the chest since you don't need the renown. I imagine most people find your powers incredibly confusing."

"That's…actually a fair point." I admitted. "Anyway, I'm just glad everything worked out. Having an extra C-ranker during this conclave will be nice. I might be crazy but-"

"Nope." He cut me off. "You're not. Storm's brewing. Everyone can feel it. The bigwigs are just convinced it won't be enough to shake their tree. I'm less convinced. Everyone has been in a relatively peaceful universe too long. They've forgotten what its like to have rivals and counters. New gods are here to level the playing field, and I'm worried."
I shot him a concerned look. "Should we bail? Try to do the questioning remotely and leave?"

"Won't work." He said with a sigh. "Besides, there are no gods here, but Lark is still around. Him and Arble are enough to deter most sane people. Arble is fucking OLD. He's got a lot of reputation, and he's supposed to be strong. I can't tell you how strong, he hasn't been active in ages, but I suspect the list of the top ten S-rankers universe-wide doesn't take into account people like Arble."

I thought back to the Hallow. I still couldn't see the point. Burning people up? Maybe turning them into monsters? It wouldn't do anything at a meeting with nearly ten S-rankers, at least two of whom were demigods.

Shaking off the thought, I sighed. "So…what do we do about Felicity? Can we fix her? I have some ideas for how to attempt it, but I'm not sure they'll lead anywhere. Do you know how to reverse…what is it called, actually?"

"Grinding." He said with a grimace. "Willpower grinding. And there are ways, but none you would have access to. If it was reversible everyone would do it. That spiritual calming belt Benny has might help. Or it might not. Grinding doesn't damage the soul the same way use does. It's more like scarification."

I winced. "That really does sound horrible. But if it leaves damage instead of taking chunks I might have an idea of how to handle it." Zagan could purify a lot of stuff. If she had soul scars or whatever it might help. It seemed to repair at least come soul damage when I used Life Nova, though that might have just been a temporary euphoria from energy rejuvenation.

"Be careful of the conclave, by the way." He said after a moment. "The Deathwish Pope is a cagey fucker. He's Black Sorrow's favorite disciple, which should tell you what a deeply unpleasant person he is."

I paused. "Speaking of which, we've been spending a lot of time with Chelsea. If Black Sorrow finds out-"

"It'll be handled." He said bluntly. "First off, we're in the middle of a war and you two are related to HALF of the current six reigning gods. The old man and the Revenant aside, The Emperor and The Queen won't tolerate internal dissent during such a crucial time."

That made me feel a bit better but, "What about when the war ends?"

"What about it?" He laughed. "These are gods, Shane. They don't do anything on a rapid timescale. I wouldn't be surprised if the war goes on another fifty years. By that time, at this current rate, you might make S-rank, or have become the Wishmaster. You think she's going to be able to touch the reigning Wishmaster?"

I laughed. "So…it's future Shane's problem? That's why you guys have stopped being careful about it?"

"Oh we haven't." He said bluntly. "If she finds out, it won't be an immediate problem, but we've still been keeping it under wraps. I've been with you constantly since we've gotten here. Have you forgotten what my Path is?"

Pausing, I thought about it. "I don't KNOW what your Path is. But I know it's something about…wait, can you MASK secrets with your Path?"

"I can do a lot of things with my Path." He said with a chuckle. "So can you, as you seem to have started realizing after your training with your mother. But yes, I've been masking yours and Chelsea's identities. There are S-rankers who could easily penetrate that mask, but luckily none of them are here, and my Path is unusually strong because of all the time I spent in B-rank."

He winced, and a slight flash on his forehead revealed that the information he'd given me had tripped the geas, which meant it was probably important.

I filed it away like I had a thousand comments that still didn't make complete sense, another piece of the puzzle I was sure would click later. Enough drops of water would fill an ocean, albeit VERY slowly.

"My parents spent so much effort keeping our secret." I said tiredly. "Fucked up our lives so badly. If Black Sorrow finds out, wasn't it all for nothing?"

Shaking his head, he shot me a sad smile. "You're thinking of this the wrong way. You had almost twenty years to grow up and learn what you needed to learn. To get strong and build connections. You're not unique or anything, but you've grown into a promising candidate, and that's its own form of protection. No secret stays secret forever."

"I guess I hadn't considered that." I admitted. "But is it wrong to want to be safe? To want to hold onto what I have now?"

He shrugged. "I don't really do right or wrong, as I mentioned. But if I thought it was a bad idea, I wouldn't be helping. I'm not saying you send Black Sorrow a family holiday card, I'm saying that eventually the truth will out. Our job isn't to make sure it never happens, it's to make sure you're as valuable and powerful as possible when it does, especially with the additional lead the war gives us."

"Did you always know it was going to come to this?" I asked quietly. "Did my parents?"

That got a bark of bitter laughter. "Kid, your journey has been far from normal, even for a candidate. None of us knew how fast or far you'd fly. Your girl killed a god, you helped uncover a plot to start a divine war. We passed any definition of normal ages ago. But opportunity and danger are often bedfellows. Being so noteworthy, and the war itself, have given you a chance you might not have had before. Take advantage of it."

"But no pressure, right?" I said dryly.

He rolled his eyes. "What are you, stupid? ALL the pressure. Pressure is how you grow. And you have. I wouldn't say you're the strongest E-ranker I've ever seen, but you're definitely not weak. Even at less than halfway in and with your stats distributed evenly, you're a threat to an upper level combatant like that Albert kid. There are better Ascendants, but he wasn't bad."

"Yeah, who is the Iron Body Sage anyway?" I asked in exasperation.

"S-ranker." He said shortly. "Follows the Path of Might. And yes, its possible to base a Path off a stat, but it's rarely done because it requires ABSURD specialization."

I blinked at that. "You mean like Jessie has? Because if she has an easy Path, that might be a good idea to mention to her." It wouldn't help with Benny's Path, but sadly, barring this new and fairly intriguing concept, Paths weren't something you could give advice on.

"Possibly." He shrugged. "Mention it to her, it can't hurt. But anyway, Iron Body is a physical monster. His Path is mostly about punching out anything, even things that can't be punched. He's not the most powerful S-ranker, but he's probably the strongest in terms of raw physical might. You saw earlier that muscle isn't everything though."

I nodded, happy with myself about that. Mornax hard countered Albert's physical power, at least until he figured out the trick. The fight would have been easier if I had more ranged options, and I added that to my list of possible forms, but still, I was pretty damned satisfied with what I'd done.

Standing up, I shot my uncle a grateful smile. "Thanks, Zeke. For everything. Keeping our secret, staying with us, you've been there for me when no one else has. I'm still hoping Benny will be my best man, but would you want to be one of the groomsmen at my wedding? It wouldn't feel right without you standing up there."

He swallowed heavily, looking away as he cleared his throat. "Sure kid. I'd like that."

"Plus Stella is going to be a bridesmaid." I continued with a smirk. "And Callie wants to make sure she has someone to dance with."

He rolled his eyes. "You're not funny. I know you think you are, but you're wrong."

"Wonder where I got that from." I said snarkily.

He nodded sagely. "I think that's obvious." After a pause he said. "It was your mother." We both snorted, chuckling at the absurdity. I pulled my uncle into a hug, saying goodnight and heading down to check on Felicity, who was being settled in by Callie and Bethy. Chelsea, Celine, Cark, Abel, Mel, and Jessie were all discussing how to help her, and I didn't see Benny.

I had nothing to add right now. I was tired and sore and I had a big meeting tomorrow where I got to be interrogated by eight of the most powerful people in the universe. I needed some sleep. I stripped off my armor and collapsed into bed, exhausted

This whole ordeal had been crazy, but I was sure it would pay dividends. I'd be one step closer to D-rank after all this, one step closer to reaching the gates of real power, and I couldn't tell if I was excited or terrified. Closing my eyes, I drifted off to sleep to visions of winning the competition, and wondering what kind of Wishmaster I'd be.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, and when we woke up the next morning it was time for us to make the trip back to the Central Location, this time for the unenviable task of being questioned about everything we'd seen and done in the Temple and Aetherbright Academy. I used up my wishes (Fantasy, to improve my technique foundation) and after getting those seventy points, we just headed out.

"Are you ready for the questioning?" My mother asked nervously. "Did you do as I suggested and go back over the events in your head? Any missing detail might raise anger them. Your grandfather will try to make things easier on you, ostensibly as a friend of Chelsea's, but by the very virtue of that assistance some of the others will act counter to your interests. You can expect Deathwish to be as obnoxious as possible."

Callie gave her a bright smile from beside me. "Don't worry Sasha. We always have each other. It'll take more than some edgelord in a stupid robe to throw us off our game." We were all seated in a lift headed for the Central Location, and we were going over the details one last time so we were as prepared as possible/

"I'm surprised they didn't ask for everyone." I said bluntly, scanning the few people who had been requested. Bethy, Gabe, Callie, and myself. "Is this some kind of credibility thing? Like only people from factions are worth talking to?"

"Yes." Said my mother bluntly. "This interrogation will set the stage for the negotiations to come. The representatives will want to use your actions to paint your factions in a negative light, and use that leverage to further their own interests. The worst part is that everyone except your grandfather will probably be targeting you specifically."

I blinked in surprise. "Wait…what?" Then I closed my mouth. "Shit. Zeke mentioned this. Wishes are an indispensable strategic resource. Aiden sent Harrison because he's a ruthless bastard and will negotiate the most valuable repayment for the wishes they sell. The worse they make me look the more damage they do to the WCP's leverage."

"Exactly." She said with a sigh. "Which means analyzing your every movement and questioning your every mistake."

Bethy rolled her eyes. "Daddy says no one likes a back seat adventurer. Annoying old busybodies who poke holes are the worst." She gave us all a bright smile, showing off her fangs. "Don't worry, daddy will be on your side too. I already told him that if he's mean to my friends, I'm going to find a way to turn myself into a werewolf next time I rank up."

My mother burst out laughing, covering her mouth when we all turned to look at her. "Sorry, it's just hilarious to know that even Morgan Lark has problems controlling his children."

I wanted to keep up the banter, since it was helping me relax, but sadly we came to a stop. With a grimace, mom gestured for us to go. I turned to shoot her a reassuring smile, then realized I was wearing a mask and she couldn't see it. "We'll be fine." I said emphatically. "We're bringing Felicity along, since we need to get her assignment parameters anyway. She's the toughest C-ranker around, and anyone higher up can't mess with us without invoking the wrath of Zeke. Or grandpa. Or both."

Giving us a fretful look, she dove forward, giving me a tight hug, then Callie. "You both be careful." She shot my fiancee a stern look. "If you're going to be marrying into this family you have to learn to stop him from doing stupid things. That's half the reason his father is still alive."

"Sure." Said Callie with a wry smile. "Ask me to do the impossible."

I frowned. "I don't enjoy this. This is a suboptimal dynamic. I didn't think this whole 'mom liking my girlfriend' thing through."

Everyone chuckled as the four of us climbed out and headed into the building. We followed the same path as the last time, only when we arrived at the chamber we'd last been to there was no arena, just the throne room from before, minus any seating.

We were stopped at the door, and the massive armored black knight towered over us menacingly. Andrew, who was guarding the door with him, stepped in front of him. "Welcome." He said cheerfully, ignoring the dreadful knight. "They're expecting you. I'm sure no one would want you to be later meeting the representatives. Would they?"

I got the impression the knight had been planning to menace and fluster us so we came off worse inside, and Andrew had saved us. I shot him a grateful nod, which he returned, and we entered the room. Felicity, however, was stopped outside, Craygen appeared to hand over her guidelines, and we only left once Zeke stepped from the shadows to escort her to hear the verdict. He nodded solemnly to me, and I nodded back. He wouldn't have been able to help against S-rankers in any case.

We headed to the center, where a table had been erected for us to sit at while questioned. After we took our seats, a herald called the meeting to order, and a stenographer confirmed they were keeping the minutes. Finally, the first of the representatives spoke. "Welcome." Said Princess Liliana kindly. "We're glad you could join us. You know why you were called?"

"Of course." i said with a nod. "You're hoping to question us about the circumstances of the god war. We were deeply involved in multiple aspects of its beginning, and have insight that might prove helpful. Would you like us to start with our actions in the Moonsong Glade, and continue from there?"

She beamed at me. "That would be lovely, Mr. Wyndham, thank you. Proceed with your recounting."

And so I did. I told her about the Glade, about the ritual, about the mountain and the battle and the dew and everything. She stopped me occasionally to ask questions, with the others butting in to interject their own questions about the events. Once I finished I continued on, telling them about the Ruined Soul Temple, Travis, the experimental substance that they'd been aiming at, and everything else that had happened on that absurdly long trip.

As I reached the point of entering the Academy, the Deathwish Pope spoke up snidely. "Are you a traitor, boy, or just stupid? You admit to turning your back on a downed opponent like a fool and allowing him to slip past you and trigger a mass teleportation."

"In my defense, at that point in my cultivation journey, I hadn't seen nearly as many scary people." I said bluntly. "Prior to that point, when someone got a hole the size of a bowling ball punched through their chest, they usually didn't get back up right after. Or ever. On account of being dead."

Deathwish glared hatefully. "Don't speak to me as if I'm your equal boy. Show some respect."

"For what, your ability to dress like you live in some kid's closet?" I smirked at him, knowing he could hear it in my voice. "I'm like…nineteen. I don't have all the answers, or much experience at all. Did I make a mistake? Sure. I'm positive you made mistakes at my age, and I'm not going to sit here and let you try to make me sound like a moron because I screwed up once."

He snarled, eyes blazing as his hand shot forward, but I wasn't worried. The wave of darkness that erupted from his hand was consumed by white flame almost before it left his hand.

Now, at first blush, antagonizing the S-ranker who represented the goddess who would want me dead just for existing was probably a bad idea. But this was all about appearances. He was trying to make me look like a moron, and there's nothing more embarrassing than being tricked by a moron.

Deathwish had lost it, and that weakened his position in the negotiations. Harrison would rake him over the coals for that, and the Black Sorrow Cult would pay dearly for that little slip of temper.

"It would be useful." Said Harrison in annoyance. "If you did not BAIT beings who might snuff out your life in an instant, Shane." Then his gaze turned to Deathwish. "As for you, an attempt on the life of a candidate, much less a champion of the games, in full view of half a dozen representatives of major factions is an insult to the prestige of the Wish Curse Palace. Reparations WILL be extracted."

Deathwish glared at him, but said nothing, just leaned back imperiously.

As I'd seen in the banquet, the Deathwish Pope had a nasty temper and a sadistic streak. One of his big problems was that being an S-ranker, he'd long since forgotten what consequences were like. Aside from his goddess and maybe a fellow disciple or two, he was at the top of the heap, and the Cult let people like that get away with anything.

I'd seen that in his behavior when Lark shut him down. He did look afraid, but he also seemed angry. It wasn't that he had no self control, but more that he never had to use it and was out of practice.

His attack on me had been impulsive and reactionary, but in his mind, it was also warranted. I was an E-ranker talking shit to a Pope. Killing me would be a matter of course in the Cult, and whoever was in charge of me would have waved it off as being a matter of self defense. The Black Sorrow Cult was that kind of place.

Even a few months ago if he'd managed to kill me he could probably have just paid a fine or something to sweep it under the rug, but now he NEEDED the WCP, and things were different.

"Continue your story please, Shane." Said Lilliana warmly. "Apologies for the interruption."

Partly because she was being the nicest and partly because I wanted to rub it in Deathwish's face, I did. I took them through the rest of the journey, into the academy, into the room with the chalice and down to the portal chamber where Travis had betrayed us and escaped.

That one didn't seem to get blamed on me, they just treated it like the cost of doing business. I suppose they'd mostly been betrayed before on their way to the top.

When I finished, Harrison turned to the others. "I think we can all agree that without Shane's heroism, we'd never have learned about this impending threat. His involvement may have been a bit haphazard, but his ignorance can't be blamed on him. He stood against our enemies to the best of his abilities and brought back invaluable intelligence."

"Gabriel." My grandfather said. "Tell us your story next. Shane said that you were separated for a quite a while."

Gabe nodded, then proceeded to recount the events of his own journey. I was interested to hear more about what he'd run into. Mostly Wolfhornigators and some other nasty creatures and a few of the cultists.

After him it was Callie's turn. To my surprise, Captain Cataclysm lead her questioning, the big man gently coaxing the details of her own tale and asking questions about her impressions of things. Apparently the Unity highly valued their new godslayer, and I wondered if we'd see her receiving some more overt support from them in the future.

Finally, it was Bethy's turn, and she happily filled her dad in on everything she'd seen, stopping for commentary at multiple points. It was funny to watch the group of terrifying S-rank monsters sit quietly as Bethy excitedly narrated her adventures, like the harrowing tale of finding her squirrel army, or learning the secret of turning into winged cats.

Morgan seemed interested, and when she finished, he smiled and told her she did well, then turned and glared around the room, daring anyone to try to pick on her about the details. No one met his eyes, which was even more hilarious.

With that, we were excused, and our parts in the proceedings had ended. There were still two days of the meetings to go, and we obviously wouldn't be sitting in on those. We would find out from my grandpa how things were going, and then hear the final compromise at the banquet on the last day. Now, we just had to wait.

 

[Lone-sith]

I love Morgan lark

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After we got home from the interrogation, I immediately headed to see Benny. The whole bullshit game with Deathwish had made me think long and hard about power and how or why it should be used. Thinking back to my conversation with my best friend, I realized I'd fallen into the same trap I'd seen so many Ascendants fall into.

It wasn't that I prioritized power, that was an obvious conclusion. I loved Benny like a brother and didn't want to see him die. No, it was that I'd abandoned him to find his Path all by himself.

Of course, common knowledge told us that Paths are deeply personal and need to be discovered on your own, but I was aiming to be a god. I'd already made the decision to toss aside anything that regular Ascendants believed to find my own path to divinity.

Benny had been there for me since day one, and fear or not, if he needed help I'd help him, just like he'd helped set me straight the other day. I knocked on his door and waited patiently for him to get up and answer. When he opened it, his expression was cold. "What can I help you with, oh glorious leader?" He asked stonily. "More edicts to pass down?"

"I've decided I'm being stupid." I said bluntly.

His blank expression cracked a bit, his lips twitching. "I mean, you're awake, so there's pretty good odds. What specific bit of stupidity are you thinking of in this instance?"

"Ass." I said with an eye roll. "Come for a walk with me. I want to talk to you about your Path." His face started closing down again, but I held up a hand. "It was shitty of me to just throw you under the bus because most people can't help someone form a Path. We've been friends for most of our lives, if anyone can help you form your Path it's me. So I want to do that."

He stared at me hard for a minute or two, then sighed. "Alright, I've been wracking my brain for how to manage it, so I suppose we can give it a try. Lead on then, oh stunning genius." He gestured sarcastically and I rolled my eyes again, leading him out into the courtyard of the inn.

"Alright, so tell me what you know about Paths and what you've tried." I attempted to sound confident, but honestly I was kind of worried. I'd formed my Path by accident, and me giving lessons was ridiculous. The only saving grace to this plan was that learning how techniques worked had given me some more insight into what Paths really were and how they functioned.

He shrugged. "A Path is…I don't know, like a special power you use to make yourself stronger. It's a way to exert power in a different way to be more impressive."

I blinked at him. "Wow. I can't even begin to tell you how wrong that is. That's like, impressively wrong. You should try to find some sort of universal record society to submit that definition to, maybe you can win a prize for being more wrong than any person in history."

"I'm sorry, is this supposed to be helpful?" He demanded. "Because I think this is literally the opposite of help."

I shrugged. "Well your answer was really dumb. A Path, you unbelievable dipshit, is the connection between the soul and stats. It joins together two completely separate elements of your being in preparation to truly combine them. You Path isn't some mystical expression of power, it's the way you can exert your full strength more directly than with a Skill or ability. In a word, your Path makes your will a reality, albeit on a small scale."

Techniques were the most direct application of that I'd seen. Fantasy helped you conceptualize and shape your will in a way that allowed you to properly apply a Path. I suspected it wouldn't be necessary inside a Domain, but forming one of those was a last step once you had long since hit S-rank.

Benny paused. "That's…then why are people's Paths so different from their abilities?"

"You're born with an ability." I said bluntly. "You can alter it to suit you better, but only so much depending on what Skills and stats you have. Paths are more personal. But it's not like you can only find a perfect Path. There are people who never manage to crack C-rank because they never find a suitable Path. If you pick the wrong one you can fail to integrate it into a Skill and never condense a Solid Path."

He chuckled bitterly. "So no pressure, right? I just have to pick the perfect Path the first time."

"Nah." I said with a shake of my head. "You can change them, plus you have tons of brilliant people around to work with you. You just need to take the step to form one. Everything else can come later. You don't need a Solid Path to be strong. With techniques you can use an Illusionary Path to be a real threat."

He nodded, letting out a long breath. "Alright. I can work with that. So I just need to figure out what the best way is for me to exert my will on the world. Any idea, since you know me better than anyone?" His tone was dry as he threw my words back in my face.

"A few." I said slowly. "But ultimately it'll work better if it comes from you. Callie got hers after seeing the Abyss of space and being enlightened, but that's rare. Still, I have to assume that being profoundly influenced by a thing would make it more likely for you to form a Path, and a strong one at that. So what influenced you most on our journey?"

He mulled it over. "You know, coming on this trip, I expected to be left behind. When you told me to form a Path I was angry, but not surprised. I thought early on that my power would be enough to keep up, it's got a ton of potential, and I know it can be strong with the right resources. But even on Callus, back when we were at the Academy, I was already feeling how weak and helpless I was compared to you.

"It was tearing me apart, though I tried to hide it, but I think the thing that really turned me around, the one thing that showed me I had a shot, was the Bone Wyvern." He laughed as I cocked my head in confusion. "It's weird, right? Why that? But something about it was just…beautiful. A collection of bones merged together into a single, terrifying, colossal whole."

I nodded slowly. "So you saw it as kind of like a perfect Invention. The most flawless use of resources to create something more than the sum of its parts?"

"Exactly." His face lit up. "Exactly that. That's what I strive for, to be more than the sum of my parts, literally. I can do that in so many ways, I know, but in the end that image sticks with me, that one being exemplifies what I'm striving for."

Closing his eyes, he stopped talking, letting his memory bring him to wherever he felt he needed to go. He let himself drift and I could practically see him tapping into the Focus that was such a big part of him. With that much of the mental stat, he could undoubtedly remember the monster perfectly. Then he started to move.

He punched. Then punched again. Shaking his head in frustration he took out a sword, the weapon he'd been working with.

I activated my Eye of Revelation, letting my crown do its work Behind him, I saw a weird, twisty blob of white trying to form. He swung his sword again, and again. One side of the blob started to sharpen, but it didn't stick, dissolving again and again.

He pulled out a second sword, using one in each hand. He tried to swing them, stumbling over his rhythm when he switched to dual weapons, since he had no training. It was hard for normal people to use two weapons, the brain is designed to focus on one thing at a time, you have to combine the movements from both into a single line of action.

Benny's Focus was pretty damned high though, and he learned fast. One strike, then two. His clumsy swings started to become more fluid after ten minutes, then twenty.

I knew what he was doing. It was smart. Using the physical movements anchor his Path like I did with my forms. Creating a sword art that would let him attach those ideas he had to the physical world.

Behind him, the blob sharpened and took shape. It was a colossal form of gleaming white bones with terrible eyes of cold flame. Benny's was a ghastly pale green. The creature reared and snapped as he moved, and looking at it from further away, I could almost see the swords wings as he moved slowly, figuring out the martial art that would let him take that first important step.

His hands flickered, swords whipping, both at once as he tried to balance it, sometimes tripping up and overdoing it on one side.

Slowly though, the form of the great bone creature changed, became more refined. Not just the shape, but little details that made it seem to be a different creature altogether. I knew what they were, too. The creature had started out the same as the one we'd faced before, a bone wyvern, but it was growing less like a wyvern and more like something much scarier.

We'd both done research into dragons. They were really cool and powerful and we just genuinely wanted to know more about them. Benny in particular had always been a fan, not that it was some novel thing, everyone loved dragons.

The creature behind Benny changed as he moved, Becoming more draconic, more terrifying. An aura of palpable dread surrounded it, of consumption, and I could see that this beast wasn't any mere bone golem in the shape of a lizard. This was a true undead dragon. A monster returned from the grave that forced its soul back into its desecrated remains with magic. A Dracolich.

And why not. Paths could be anything, could represent our hopes and dreams and nightmares. Benny saw himself as this thing, in his wildest dreams. This uncontrollable monster that could devour its enemies and grow from their strength. It was fantastic.

Being sort of macabre didn't make it or even Benny evil. Just kind of edgy, and it wasn't like I could throw stones, what with the whole demon motif. I grinned at him as I saw the creature…solidify, in a way I somehow knew had made it something more than what it had been. "Nice sword style. What's it called?"

He stopped, snapped out of his reverie, and lowered his blades. "I'm calling it the Dance of the Dracolich. My Path is the Path of the Dracolich. I have a few ideas of where to take that."

"Advantages of being late to the party." I said with a laugh. "Callie and I formed our Paths before we knew what they were. We're having to feel them out as we go. Having a potential road to advancement is a good idea."

Slumping down onto his ass, he chuckled woozily. "That was…rough. Does it usually affect your soul this much? I have a headache."

"No idea." I shrugged. "Like I said, wasn't something we did on purpose, so we don't know the normal procedure. Callie might have been a bit shaky after she had her epiphany, you'd have to ask her." I helped him, walking him over to a bench and then dropping down beside him. "So…Path of the Dracolich, huh? Sounds neat. Can't wait to see what you do with it." Because I had a feeling Benny had great things in mind, and I'd make damn sure to help him achieve them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Benny was understandably excited about creating a Path. This had been gnawing at him for a while, based on how relieved he seemed to be. My best friend had his own pride and liked to play things close to the vest at the oddest times. He hadn't wanted me to know that he was just as worried about things as I was, even when he was pissed at me.

I wanted to help him study some techniques for his new Path, but unfortunately, we ran into a problem pretty quickly. Or rather, a few problems. Firstly, Benny's Fantasy was five hundred and fifty six. Amusingly, his new Path should actually help with that once he could use it properly, that had been part of the calculation of making a more fantastical Path rather than something tech based, but for now, he was VERY low on the important stat.

Fantasy, from what I can tell, substituted for a Domain when it came to using a path, allowing you to create molds for techniques without your own world to use them through. This was entirely based on my own conjecture, not something I was told, but it seemed to fit.

The second big problem was that while I seemed to be a natural genius at technique formation, and Callie was able to piggy back off that through the bond (not to mention she had a pretty high Fantasy stat), Benny didn't have any such advantage. We had no supernatural connection I could use to beam him thoughts and impressions, and without it I had zero clue how to teach him.

He ended up going to find my mom to ask for her help, and once he left, I decided I should start work on helping Felicity.

My first attempt to help her came in the obvious form. I called Jessie over, and I asked my incredibly overpowered healer friend to try to repair some of the damage with her ability. I was ninety percent sure it would fail, this wasn't a bodily injury, but it wasn't like it could hurt anything to try.

When she arrived, we headed over to see Felicity. She was sitting in the library at the inn, reading a book in front of the fire. Her face, as usual, was completely empty, and her eyes were blank as they scanned the words, like she was a computer processing the text.

"Felicity." I said as we entered. "I was wondering if we could talk?"

She smiled her mechanical smile. "Of course, Shane. I am your guardian now, you can speak to me about anything. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually, I think there's something I can help you with." I responded bluntly. "I believe you've been injured, and I want to help fix you. Would you mind if Jessie takes a look at you? Her ability is very powerful, and if you're injured she may be able to help."

She cocked her head in confusion. "But I do not feel injured. I suppose I sometimes overlook things like that. My father says I am very clumsy, because I often do not notice when I am in pain." The fact that Craygen blamed his daughter for being a broken shell of a person after he sandpapered her fucking soul was both unsurprising and infuriating, but I just pushed that down.

"I understand." I said reassuringly. "It might be nothing, but as my guardian I need to make sure you're at the top of your game. Otherwise I'm putting myself in danger, right?"

She nodded in understanding. "Of course. If my performance is suboptimal it must be corrected. I apologize, I was unaware I had failed you in such a short time. My transgressions were unacceptable and will not happen again."

I wanted to tell her that was stupid and she hadn't done anything, but if she was going to let us treat her, I figured that particular conversation could wait until she had the emotional depth to understand it. I gestured to Jessie, who nodded stiffly, stepping forward to place her hands on Felicity's shoulders.

Jessie was moving jerkily and her jaw was tight. It was easy to see she was furious, clearly as outraged by what had been done to Felicity as I was. I saw her hands glow as she started funneling her energy into the other girl, looking for something to heal.

She didn't have a scanning ability, but her power was partly based on first aid, which was partly diagnostic. She'd also gotten a lot of practice back on Stratholme, treating different injuries and learning more about how healing worked. Jessie had been slowly increasing her Skills for quite a while now, and she used them to their fullest extent to try to fix the C-ranker.

Sadly, when she removed her hands, her expression was downcast. "I'm sorry." She told me sadly. "I tried. I thought I might be able to do something, maybe there could have been brain damage or something, but I can't find anything wrong with her."

I nodded. "I get it. Not your fault. We figured that would be the case. This was a long shot to begin with. I'll take it from here. I have an idea that might work."

Nodding sadly, she stepped back, letting me take her place. "Felicity, you haven't taken any physical damage, but I think I might be able to treat you with another method. Do you mind if I try accessing your soul?"

"I do not mind." She said blankly. "If I am damaged, I must be repaired. I cannot be of use otherwise."

I was DEEPLY disturbed listening to her talk like that. It was creepy to the extent that my skin was almost physically crawling. The fact that one person could do this to another was an abomination, and that wasn't even taking into account that he was her fucking father. I briefly entertained the idea of trying to have him killed, but that wasn't my place. Felicity was the one who had been hurt. Once she was fixed, she could decide how to handle her father.

Putting my hands up in front of her face, I triggered Zagan. My hair blazed up into green flame, and I closed my eyes, focusing on the space between my palms as I started to condense a Life Nova.

Much like Cosmic Collapse, Life Nova was a scaling attack (if one could call it that). I could slowly build up the power, packing it tighter and tighter. Which I did. I focused, shifting the image in my head as I tweaked the technique on the fly.

I built myself a new narrative, a story about a life giving sun that shone its healing light on a broken world. The sun let the power of rejuvenation fall upon the cracked and broken planet, and it slowly began to heal. Not just the plants or animals, but the world itself, the society. At high enough concentrations, anything could be healed.

Unfortunately, I hit a wall about twenty minutes in. I didn't have enough Fantasy to structure something this complex, and even my Solid Path couldn't support it solo. Without even having to ask, I felt a flood of Fantasy as Callie opened the bond to let me tap into her power, and then let her own Path support mine, giving it strength.

Paradoxically, I almost lost control of the technique when that happened. It had changed too much, shifted too far from the form I was trying to use. I had to backstop it, coming up with a story about Zagan, the life giving demon prince that traded in the fates of others to gain influence.

My head was on fire, I'd had to use about six different parallels with Piece of Mind to balance all the conflicting concepts and stories and influences. This was going to knock me flat on my ass when I finished, but I powered through.

Denser and denser, I layered the Life Nova, staring deeply into the roiling verdant shine, watching the flickers of silver fire in its depths. Felicity sat unperturbed, watching the soothing green light, and then when I couldn't hold on another second. When I couldn't take any more power, I opened my Eye of Revelation and flicked the Life Nova gently with my middle fingers.

Felicity let out an oh of surprise, and as she opened her mouth, the green light exploded towards her, driving through her mouth, eyes, and nose as it burrowed inside and her whole body was lit up by the energy.

Zagan's flame was a mixture of Jessie's power, Chelsea's purification, and my own Afterburner, mixed with Consecration of Flame. It did a lot of things. Purify, heal, and strengthen (Consecration of Flame not only strengthened on its own but its holy undertones synergized well with the purification flame).

The Life Nova did all that times a hundred, and I'd done my best to aim it at exactly the issue we were dealing with, not that I was sure it would work. My eyes were fixed on Felicity as the flames exploded within her, the Life Nova detonating inside the soul in a way that vindicated my theory about soul repair, even if it was at a VERY low level.

Felicity's eyes, formerly blank and empty, flickered slightly with green and silver. She blinked a few times, brow wrinkling slightly before smoothing out. "That was an unusual feeling." She said dully. "I don't believe I've experienced such a thing before. Did you manage to repair the damage?"

I clutched my head, feeling Callie try her best to pull the pain away as she absorbed some of the damage. My parallels had collapsed as soon as I detonated the Life Nova, and the backlash was excruciating. My soul wasn't damaged too badly, since Callie had been helping, but it had been a close thing.

Felicity didn't seem to mind my distracted state, and she simply sat and waited as I recovered. "No." I ground out. "Not completely. But I did improve your condition. We'll need to keep at this. I'll get better at it as we go, but we're on the right track."

Despite the pain, I was triumphant. Like I told her, I couldn't fix her right away. In fact, I was BARELY able to help. Felicity was a C-ranker with both shackles broken. Her soul and Impact were both beyond mine. My Life Nova had, at best, scratched the surface of the repairs she needed.

But they HAD scratched the surface. Even a tiny chip at the damage was something, because it meant that I could keep chipping away and eventually fix it. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it meant there was hope, and that was a huge relief.

Felicity smiled, and it might have been my imagination, but it seemed just a little less stiff and forced than usual. Still unsettling, but more human than most of her expressions. "That is good to hear. I am hopeful that I will be back to proper fighting form before a threat presents itself."

I smiled at her wanly, standing and nearly falling over as I lost my balance. Jessie caught me, flooding my body with life energy that only barely helped. She escorted me to the door, and when it opened, my fiancee's worried face was the first thing I saw. She thanked Jessie, then put one of my arms over her shoulders and escorted me away.

"You're not going to yell at me?" I rasped. "That must have hurt you a lot."

She leaned up to peck me on the cheek. "Some things are worth a little pain. I'm not mad. I'm proud of you. And I'll help however I can until the job is done." We lapsed into silence after that. We didn't need words. She could feel how much that meant to me. She helped me to our room and into bed, and then climbed in after me, and we passed out, drifting into a healing sleep.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We woke the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. It too me a second of sensing to realize Benny had sat himself outside the door and allowed his spiritual cleansing field to wash over us. Since I hit Sapphire it hadn't really been useful, but it had definitely helped in this case. I shook Callie awake, checking to make sure she was feeling better too.

"G'way." She grumbled, smacking at my hand and face. "Sleeping."

I laughed at that. "Yeah, we both slept, for like…eighteen hours. It was the middle of the day yesterday when we went to sleep."

"Damn." She said in a shocked tone. "That new technique had some serious kick to it. I don't know if you should use it again. I could feel how much damage it was causing, and how much pain."

I shook my head. "Most of the damage was from using six simultaneous parallels with Piece of Mind. If I repeat it it'll be easier. Still absurdly difficult and draining, but not as hard on my soul. I created an actual technique I can trigger, after all."

"What did you end up naming it?" She said, propping her chin up on her palm as she watched me change into some civilian clothes for what felt like the first time in months. I briefly considered going out like that, but in the end I felt too naked without my mask, so I slipped that on.

I cracked my neck, stretching widely and enjoying the feeling of not having anything to do for the day. "Genesis Burst." I said with a chuckle. "It just seemed to fit." With the games finished and the final banquet still one day away, there was no pressure on me to do anything. I'd need to recover before I could use that technique again. I just had the day off.

Holding out my hand to her, I grinned. "Milady, might I interest you in some relaxation?"

She pouted at me. "I don't want to get up. Make me breakfast in bed." She flopped onto her back bonelessly, letting her head turn dramatically away from me.

"A grim vision of my future." I said dryly. "But fine. I suppose I can do that. What do you want for breakfast?" Her head snapped back around, eyes fixing on me like a cat spotting a canary. She clearly hadn't expected that to work.

Honestly, I normally would have badgered her into coming down with me, but she'd been supporting me from behind for the last few days without even mentioning it. During the games, during the treatment, she'd been there without flinching and hadn't expected a thing in return. I absolutely didn't mind making her breakfast.

She felt my gratitude and adoration and her expression softened from exaggerated greediness to a soft smile. "Whatever you want." She said quietly. "I'm happy with anything." Then she paused. "But nothing egg based. That's the wrong texture."

I let out a booming laugh. "I'm in the mood for blintzes. You can borrow my soul book while I cook if you want."

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. "That's not how you take a day off. I'm going to watch something on the scan box I think. They have them in the rooms and I never checked out the selection. We're in another galaxy, so there's no way the same shows are on. I want to see what people watch here."

"Daytime programming is like death and taxes." I said solemnly. "It never changes and it's inevitable."

She snorted at that. "Go cook our breakfast. If you have time to make ominous proclamations about mundane subjects you have time to cook." She winked to let me know she was kidding and blew me a kiss. Literally, a kiss mark made of shadow floated across the room to thwack loudly against the cheek of my mask.

I just laughed and headed downstairs, making us some food relatively quickly before returning to our room and hopping into bed, passing her a plate. We both ate, then watched the scan box for a couple of hours…but we got bored.

"Lets go visit you mom." Callie said after we'd been lying around for a while. "I bet she'd be happy to see us."

I actually had to do my wishes for today anyway, but I decided to leave it for later. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. Should we invite my sister?" Benny was probably already over there doing some training.

In the end we did invite Chelsea, and she decided to tag along for a family outing of sorts. We arrived at my mom's building to find her sitting at her table beside the lake, pouring some sweet tea from a pitcher. She smiled as we approached. "Shane, Calliope, how good to see you both." She pecked Chelsea on the cheek too, but since my sister basically lived here a special greeting wasn't necessary.

"Hey ma." I said, dropping into a chair casually. "Figured we'd come see how you were. Benny was planning to visit at some point for training."

She gave me a radiant smile. "He already did, dear. He's in the lake."

I glanced over at the body of water. I'd thought it was a pond, but given the expanded interiors of Ascendant buildings a lake would fit too. Looking at it though, I didn't see Benny out there anywhere. "Wait…do you mean like…INSIDE the lake? Like he's underwater?"

"Of course." She said cheerfully. "He's at the bottom. Holding his breath is no problem, but he needed a dark and oppressive environment to help with his image training. That Path of his is interesting. I've seen Draconic Paths before, of course, but most of them are more supremacy themed than based on evolution."

Nodding, I scanned the water for my friend's form. "Yeah. He wanted something more fantastical to balance out his more scientific powerset. Maximizing the advantages of both types of strength. Especially given the role Fantasy plays with technique formation."

"It isn't a bad choice." She said with a shrug. "There isn't really a bad choice to make. Paths are personal things, and making them work depends on the individual. I'm sure you realized that based on your own. Though I suppose in your case it wasn't exactly your own choice, it's certainly working out for you."

I hadn't even realized how lucky I'd gotten with my Path until recently. Advancing to a Solid Path is HARD for most people. They have to combine their chosen Path with their ability, or with a Skill that they combine with their ability later, which can make it even more complicated. My Path just coalescing by itself when I got DS Mastery to a certain point was absurdly good luck, and getting a second ability was even better.

Seeing Callie (and presumably Benny in the future) struggle to get past that step just illustrated how suitable my Path was for me and how fortunate I was that I'd obtained it the way I had.

"So, underwater training, huh?" I said as I glanced toward the lake. "How long has he been down there?" I had no clue how long I could hold my breath now, other than probably a very long time.

She shrugged, glancing at an hourglass on the table. An hour glass that had already been run down by the time we'd arrived a little while ago. "More than an hour." She said after a brief pause. I tried not to laugh at the nonchalance, though Callie didn't even bother with that level of nicety, giggling at my best friend's misfortune.

"So, grandpa still stuck in today's meeting?" I asked with a laugh. "He must be bored out of his mind."

Now it was mom's turn to giggle at the misfortune of others. "He's climbing the walls, not that you can tell from looking at him. He's been sending me messages all day, brainstorming increasingly elaborate plans to get him out of there. He won't actually do it, he's not going to derail negotiations at this level, but he's tearing out his hair in boredom."

"I'd have thought he'd need to stay on his toes when negotiating." I said slowly. "Especially with the Cult there?"

She grinned viciously. "Normally, yes. But you humiliated Deathwish, and everyone else was smelling blood in the water. Harrison has been using that little slip up of his as an excuse to eviscerate them at the negotiating table. There's a few planets on the line, and I think he might be able to get an entire system if he plays things right."

"That's a big deal, right?" I asked with interest. "The factions avoid letting the WCP have their own territory as compensation for allowing them to spread around past borders right?"

"Exactly." She agreed. "But as you know, we're in an unprecedented situation. With the god war looming wishes at the A and S-rank level are invaluable. It could be the difference between losing a planet, a system, or even a whole army. Not all systems are created equal, and there's no way the cult will give up anything central, but then, the WCP doesn't need it."

I nodded thoughtfully. "If anything, border territories are better because they can possibly combine them, and any geographic or power based conditions can be adjusted with wishes." The freedom and flexibility of owning a territory with access to a wish power was something I'd grown familiar with, at least tangentially, on Stratholme. At the higher ranks, I imagined planets and systems could reap similar benefits.

We chatted about that for a while, but eventually got off the subject, because I really wanted to spend time with my family on my day off doing something other than talking politics. Instead, Callie started asking my mother about her life, and my sisters life. We'd already learned some of that stuff from previous discussions, but my sister was almost twenty, same as I was. There was always more to learn.

Mom had plenty of stories about Chelsea growing up, and I found that hearing about her life bothered me less and less as time went on. My engagement especially had eased a lot of the resentment I hadn't wanted to feel but that had been bubbling under the surface.

It was easier to smile and laugh at a story about my eight year old sister getting bored and falling asleep in one of the drawers of grandpa's desk and accidentally kicking off a galactic manhunt because someone decided she'd been kidnapped. I told some stories of my own childhood with Zeke too, and my mom was practically glowing at the conversation.

We had just finished hearing about the time Chelsea accidentally sold one of grandpa's S-rank artifacts (not an active one obviously) for a life size statue of herself made a chocolate (she wandered into a chocolate shop in town and offered the enchanted scales to the owner) when Benny climbed up out of the water noisily, dripping as he slogged up the shore and toward the table.

My mother held up a hand. "Towel." She said, pointing to the ground in front of him where a large beach towel appeared. "And you'll sit in the grass. I don't want you dripping all over my chairs."

They were nice chairs, so I couldn't blame her, though I don't think that stopped Benny, who picked up the towel, dried himself as best he could, and then started taking his clothes off and wringing them out onto the grass like sponges. He maintained eye contact with us, especially my mom, as he tipped his boots over and dumped enough water out of them to resemble a pitcher.

Finally he stalked over and sat down in the grass sulkily, and all of us pretended we weren't trying not to laugh. Eventually, he started smiling about it too, and he joined in telling some stories about me as a kid. It was one of the best days I'd had in years.
https://www.patreon.com/malcolmtent/posts?filters[tag]=WUTS

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Ugh." I moaned in annoyance. "Why are there so many of these?" I was getting ready for ANOTHER banquet (hopefully the last of this annoying conclave) and I couldn't help but think back to the plethora of banquets and ball's and various other formal events we'd had to go to since our journey started.

Callie giggled at my annoyance, adjusting my cape. "Because they give people a chance to show off, mingle, and eat good food. Everyone loves a fancy dinner. Banquets are a microcosm of the Ascendant culture. Lots of showing off to make an impression while you try to meet people."

"I suppose." I said with a sigh. Turning to look at my mother, I cocked my head. "This is really the end though? Once we're done with this we can leave?"

We'd contacted Killian through my mom, and he'd volunteered (or so we were told, I remained suspicious) to take us back to Callus as a group. Once we were finished here, we'd be headed home for the first time in over a year, back to visit everyone and officially prepare for my wedding.

And yet, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. This felt…unfinished. Like there was more to come. It had all gone down too easy, I didn't trust it. Something was going to happen at this banquet, something big.

My mother seemed to pick up the undertone of worry. "This is the end." She confirmed. "And we're not letting our guard down. We've arranged for backup teams to remain in place from each of the factions. They won't be attending the banquet formally, but will be on standby in case of emergency." She smiled wryly at me. "You aren't the only person to worry that gathering top leadership from all six of the most powerful forces in the universe in one place might present a tempting target."

"Fair enough." I said with a wry chuckle. "I guess I forget that I'm not the only person who expects things to go catastrophically wrong at the drop of a hat."

She just smiled. "Fate moves more strongly around those with the blood of gods. That affects you more than most, but not you alone. We're all on edge. The conclave was necessary to outline the terms of cooperation, but it was also dangerous. Why do you think we invited Lark?"

That made sense actually. Being able to punch up to god rank, even against the weakest god, was damned impressive. It made him basically untouchable at S-rank. Together with the backup she mentioned, I did feel a bit better. We were also on a floating continent in the middle of space. Someone would notice approaching threats well ahead of time.

Despite it all, the creeping unease wouldn't go away, though. I took Callie's hand, squeezing it tightly. I turned to Zeke. "How about you, old man. You ready for this?"

He scoffed. "I'm young at heart. But yes, I've been working on my new masks, have to replace the ones destroyed in my fight with that Duke. Kind of hoping I get a chance to try them out." At my mother's fierce glare, he cleared his throat. "I mean, no. I definitely don't hope for that, that would be bad. I hope this banquet is boring and uneventful."

She nodded imperiously, and he rolled his eyes, sticking his tongue out at her briefly when she looked away, and then putting on an innocent expression when she looked back.

I rolled my own eyes at their antics, turning to check that everyone was arriving. Bethy, Cark, Gabe, Chelsea, Benny, Jessie, Celine, Abel, and Mel. One by one everyone showed up, and I greeted them all stoically as we filed out into the shuttle.

Once we took off, I addressed them all directly. "I've still got today's wishes. I'm a bit worried about what might happen. You guys willing to make them?"

"I'll opt out." Said my sister, Abel and Bethy nodding along. "I've got protection already, and I think the others could use it more."

Callie tried to protest, but I wouldn't hear about it. She, along with all the others aside from the two who abstained, each wished for a one time protective escape, paying with seven D-ranked chits that I suspected had come from Celine. I felt so much more reassured knowing they had that up their sleeves though.

We arrived shortly after we finished, and we all headed inside the Central Location, where the banquet would be held.

The atmosphere at the event was a bit more subdued than the first time, but I had kind of expected that. Going through the conclave had underlined some of what we might be facing, and everyone was currently dragged down by the enormity of what might be coming.

We met with Felicity when we arrived. She'd come separately, but took up her position as one of my guardians without a word. When we entered, we were all announced the same as before, and we made our way over to meet my grandfather where he was standing, talking to Princess Lilliana.

"Mr. Wyndham." Said the Princess with a warm smile. "It's lovely to see you again. My apologies for any discomfort during your questioning. I tried to make it as easy on you as possible."

She shot a glance at my mother, which told me all I needed to know. She knew who I was, and had tried to help me out loyalty to her friend. It meant a lot that she'd been willing to stick her neck out for me, even if that might have benefited her faction.

"I appreciated all your kindness." I said formally. "I owe you one."

My grandfather groaned. "Why are these things always so stuffy? Nobody here knows how to have a good time. At least the food is good." He tossed back a glass of champagne, picking at a plate of finger food. He frowned around at the waiters. "They used local staff though. Odd. I suppose it was cheaper than supplying their own."

"That's-" My mother looked like she was ready to dismiss what he said, but then stopped. "Wait. The staff are local contractors? Who okayed that? That's a security nightmare. Who was in charge of staffing?"

My grandpa shrugged. "That brat with Harrison handled it. We let the WCP run point on the event. It was a meaningless bit of lipservice to let them feel important. We still have our own security in place."

I frowned at him. "Brat? You mean Pret? Why would Pret be in charge of setting up an event like this?"

"Who knows." He shrugged. "He's Harrison's ward and he wanted to be involved. It wasn't worth kicking off an intergalactic incident over something like that. It's not like any of these people are a threat to us. They're just random E and D-rankers."

Something about that seemed off to me. He was right, it wasn't a big deal, but the fact that Pret had decided to push for that seemed…off.

"Speaking of Harrison." He said with a sigh. "We let him do the closing speech. So get ready to fall asleep standing up. That man loves hearing himself talk."

My mother shot him a wry look. "Imagine. A self-important blowhard who doesn't stop talking. I wonder what being around that is like." My grandfather glared, but she just ignored him, and the rest of us stifled our laughter.

Sure enough, within about twenty minutes there was an announcement from one of the heralds, and everyone was asked to quiet down so Harrison could make an announcement. He stepped out into the crowd, eyes blazing with excitement as he took us all in. "Greetings, friends and allies." He said pompously.

"I'm sure you all know by this point why we're here, so I see no need to repeat myself on that front." He had an easy, confident smile in place as he spoke. "I think it's quite a coup for us as powerful forces to be able to put down our pride and work so smoothly together when things are really on the line, and I'm proud to be here, and to be part of this process."

He gestured to the side, where Pret was patiently waiting next to Craygen. "Not only myself, but my adopted son, Pretseltsen, have been working hard for your benefit as well as our own. A rising tide lifts all ships, and the stronger our alliance is the safer we are. In fact, I think he has a few words he'd like to say, and I'd be happy to pass the floor to him. After all, his generation are the future of factions like ours."

It was heavy handed and a little annoying, but effective. He was reminding us all that the WCP was playing a huge part in the war. Claiming that they had 'put down their pride' to help when I was pretty sure he'd extorted every possible advantage was a bit shameless, but then, that was part for the course for the Palace.

Pret, smiling widely, accepted his pat on the shoulder and stepped forward. "Ladies and gentlemen." He said loudly, his voice carrying. "I stand here before you today, a part of a historic alliance. A treaty of such scale and importance that the universe may have never seen its like." His eyes scanned the room cooly, and his smile grew darker. I felt a tightening in my stomach, and I knew something was about to happen.

"Of course, we need to thank all our glorious leaders for deigning to have this little meeting. After all, they're doing all of this for us. This is their method of keeping us all safe, of making sure we're protected." His tone was sickly sweet, and I could tell he was enjoying what he was saying. Something was wrong with the way he was talking, and I wasn't the only one who thought so, I saw several people shift uncomfortably.

He strode away from Harrison, taking a place in the middle of the ballroom in a wide empty space. His movements were slow and graceful, like a prowling animal. "But of course, we aren't safe." He said gleefully. "We aren't protected. We're prey. Victims waiting to be torn apart by the wolves at the gate. Do any of you think this is going to be enough? That this pageantry will have any effect on what's coming?"

The waiters had been moving as he talked, gathering together. There were a lot of them. A shocking amount. I recognized one of them even, and when I did, I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. He was the bearded guy who had been buying Hallow.

I suddenly had a very bad feeling about what Pret might have done with those crates of the stuff he seized. I didn't think he'd been studying them at all.

Harrison stepped forward, face tight. "Pretseltsen, what is the meaning of this? This isn't the speech we discussed."

"Oops." Said the man cheerfully. "My mistake. I just thought a bit of candor might be nice for once. Just as a final bit of amusement before the main event begins. I suppose there's no point now though. It's already time." He gestured to the groups of waiters that had assembled across the room, small clusters of ten or twenty people.

The staff members had started to change, skin smoking and bodies beginning to break down as they burst into flames. Their placement was clearly deliberate, as I felt something shift in the air as they died. I used Eye of Revelation, but I couldn't see anything useful. This wasn't a technique, though it did feel familiar.

And that was when I got it. Sacrifice. This was sacrificial power, similar to the lamentation liquid Billy had used in the ruined soul temple. People screamed and backed away as E and D-rankers combusted, the flames a sickening blood red.

As we watched, the flames gathered together, coalescing into a series of six massive doors. "It was so kind of you to invite us all to your party." Said Pret with sadistic glee. "We were so touched we decided to invite even more people." Then the doors swung open, and figures began to emerge. This couldn't be good.
https://www.patreon.com/malcolmtent/posts?filters[tag]=WUTS

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was frozen in place, eyes locked on the doors as figures began to slowly exit. My grandfather was staring at them grimly, his face more severe than I'd ever seen it. "Sasha. Watch the kids." He stalked forward, and I saw the other seven S-rankers walk out to join him. They stood in the center of the empty dance floor, waiting for the group of outsiders.

Thirty of them. Five from each door. "Mom." I said quietly. She held up a finger, then glanced at Zeke. He reached into his coat, pulling out a glass mask, and then flicked it. The crystalline structure shattered, and the glass shards swirled around us, forming a series of runes.

"That should keep us from being noticed." He said grimly. "I custom made it for a situation like this." He shot me a grim smile. "Thanks for the idea shane. Came to me after our talk. It should work even better than my normal Path masking." He turned to my mother. "I can't say much, but you should fill them in."

She nodded. "They're S-rankers." She said to me bluntly. "All of them."

I flinched. "Wait…what?" I was horrified. "But there are thirty of them. That would mean almost a third of the S-rankers in the universe are here."

"No." She cut me off. "These aren't anyone we would recognize. They're from…elsewhere."

I just stared at her. "What else is there? The universe is pretty much everything, right? They can't just conjure people out of nothing."

She sighed heavily. "It's too early for this. But fine. Do you know why there are only six gods? Why the six hunted down and killed the others?" Her eyes were scanning the room worriedly, and I saw the thirty figures come to a stop across from our S-rankers and begin talking.

"Not really." I admitted. "In fact, it seems kind of shitty. What happened to Suvaya was messed up."

She nodded solemnly. "It was. But it was also necessary. See, just like I mentioned to you, forming a Domain is a late step in cultivation. In fact, it's properly done at the Demigod level. Once you reach five hundred Impact, you form your Domain, and using your Saga as a base you fill it with power. In order to reach the god ranks your Saga has to be a certain level of power."

The term Saga was new, but I assumed from context it was what came after a Chronicle. "Ok, but what does that have to do with any of this?"

She acted like she hadn't heard me. "Once your Domain has been fully actualized, it sublimates, and you become a god. Your domain becomes a world, and you become a deity within that space. But much like a normal planet, the universe has a rank. The more worlds connected to it the higher it climbs."
My eyes narrowed at the doors. "What happens when a god dies." I asked, getting a very bad feeling.

"Their world disconnects from the universe, floating in the void like a soap bubble." My mother said worriedly. "But it isn't destroyed. I believe that Hallow was a sort of divine sacrificial ashes. They used it to connect the worlds of the six vanished gods to this universe. I suspect these aren't the main connection points though, because they don't seem very stable."

I glanced at the doors and realized she was right. They were starting to warp, signs of instability and damage appearing on the glowing frames. But the damage was done, there were thirty S-rankers here.

"So this is bad, right?" I asked quickly. "Because the six wouldn't kill other gods if they didn't have a good reason. What's so bad about the universe being elevated?"

She grimaced. "If the universe we live in breaks through, it will break through the void into a higher dimension. That's where some of the gods go when they Ascend, it's one of the choices you can make, using your world to drag yourself up into a higher realm. If it happens to the universe though, everyone goes up. In the higher realms, godhood is just the beginning. People like the six are common, and safety is much harder to find."

"So do the vanished gods want to make that happen? Is that what the war is about?" I asked anxiously. What she was talking about might not sound bad on the face of it, but I knew enough about Ascendants that a whole universe worth of weak cultivators would be a big flashing target for some of the assholes out there. I understood why they were holding us back.

"We don't know." She admitted. "Possibly? Or they might just be planning to butcher the Six and cannibalize their worlds. You can do that, use another gods world to empower your own. These worlds they're connecting have clearly been growing and preparing during their deaths. Five S-rankers each…and that might not even be the end."

I threw my hands up angrily. "So what? We're fucked now? There's nothing we can do but die?"

"Hardly." She said with a hard smile. "They made a big mistake coming here. We invited Lark. None of the vanished gods were alive when the Vampire first came on the scene. I imagine they're assuming his reputation is hot air. But he's basically invincible below god rank. I don't know how many of them he can reasonably take on at once though, being able to overpower someone is fine, but S-rankers have quite a bit of range. Plus we have backup coming."

I glanced around. "Where are they anyway? Shouldn't they be here already? We need help."

"They're trying to recruit our people under threat of death." My mother said with a shake of her head. "The backup will be waiting for the doors to collapse. If they see more show up they might try to force through another few S-rankers. Better to let the entrances disperse." her eyes narrowed. "Ezekial, give us sound, I need to know what's happening, they're getting agitated."

Zeke snapped his fingers, and suddenly I could hear a room full of noise. Breathing, muttering, teeth grinding, all the sounds I would expect.

"You think you can just come here and demand we bow to you?" Snarled Harrison, looking as angry as I'd ever seen him. "We're not toys for you to play with. Just because you have a few S-rankers with you doesn't mean you're a match for us. We have Demigods among our number."

The man in the lead, a ghoulishly pale man with blood red eyes, hair, and armor, grinned nastily. "Do you think we would be making this offer if you didn't? But a Demigod is still an S-ranker. We have some of our own, and you have far fewer people. You can bend the knee to our masters or you can die, trash, it makes no difference to us."

The woman next to him, a dark eyed lady with bronze skin and pitch black hair, scowled at him. At closer inspection, I realized she didn't have hair at all, but a waterfall of feathers falling down her back. "We were instructed to extend a courteous invitation, Roald."

"I'm getting sick of their arrogance." he snorted. "To imagine themselves a threat under these conditions. Just because one or two of them seems impressive by the standards of this decadent modern age. Back during the era of the gods this band of rabble would have been nothing but a guard division."

She rolled her eyes. "You're twenty thousand, Roald. You weren't alive during the era of the gods. You weren't even alive during the Aetherbright Empire. You spend too much time listening to Lord Hatescream's stories. The consensus was that we would offer them a chance."

Sneering, he turned back to the S-ranker on our side. "Fine. I apologize for my rudeness. We offer you sanctuary and fair treatment. To reach the S-rank, your talent can't be complete garbage. We'll even allow you to select a few subordinates to live through this. We'll need to slaughter most of these rabble to send a message, but you can save some of your descendants and students."

"What!?" Snapped another familiar voice. Pret came stalking out of the crowd. "That wasn't the deal! You promised me I'd become a core disciple of one of the gods. How am I supposed to rest easy knowing one of the S-rankers I betrayed is right down the hall?"

Roalds red eyes shifted. I'd have said they pinned Pret down, but they had no iris, nor sclera. They were just oceans of blood. It was hard to see where he was looking from his eyeballs, but easy to tell where his attention was settled by the pressure in the room. "I'm sorry." He said, softly. "Do you think garbage like you is worthy to demand answers of us? Who was your deal with, trash?"
Pret swallowed, his face paling as he gestured to one of the thirty. "It was Master Demonvein, he said-"

Roald's arm flashed out lazily, moving so quick I couldn't process it properly, and the man Pret had indicated fucking EXPLODED. The crowd screamed as blood and viscera pelted the surrounding bystanders, even fifty feet or so away. "Seems like he won't be able to make good on his deal, he said slyly.

The woman snarled in frustration. "Damn it Roald! You're not supposed to kill anyone on the invasion force. You were warned."

"Oops." He said with a shrug. "I forgot. Besides, it was just Demonvein. Lady Claydria doesn't even like him. She only tolerated him because his brother is one of her guard captains. I did her a favor."

I noted that despite her annoyance, she wasn't actually upset. This guy had just wasted an S-ranker with a casual blow and nobody batted an eye.

Behind the S-rankers, other forms resolved. A-rankers. I recognized the feeling of their Impact, same as Zeke and mom. Roald, the leader, seemed to get bored defending himself and started ignoring the woman, turning to the representatives. "Time is up trash, make your choice, or die." When they didn't answer, he grinned again. "Death it is. I'll handle you then. Sarris, take the others and cleanse this continent. Make it messy."

She sighed sadly. "I suppose I'll have to. A shame. You should have accepted the offer." Roald stepped forward slowly, approaching them as the other S-rankers menacingly turned and started to leave. He took three steps faster than I could blink, but was stopped by a fist the smashed into his chest, the arm caving in as he was sent flying across the room.

As I watched, black grass sprouted under our feet, and a blood red moon lit the sky above us. Morgan Lark, the Vampire, stared impassively at the downed form of the red armored man. "Your arrogance is as pathetic as it is amusing." He said coldly. This would be the formal scary mode Bethy had mentioned.

Roald rose to his feet, eyes darkening as wisps of bloody smoke came off the armor on his hands. "What are you waiting for." He roared. "I said go."

"They can't." Said Lark calmly. "They're being suppressed." His gaze flicked to the other representatives. "I'll keep them pinned down, but it'll take me a bit of effort. I'll need help cleaning up the majority. I can only take about ten of them myself when I'm keeping them penned in."

My grandfather grinned, smashing his fists together as ivory flame blazed up around him. "I can deal with a few. Can the reinforcements get in?"
Lark snapped his fingers, and there was an explosion as the doorways shattered. Dozens of A-rankers still filing in were shredded by the shards, exploding into blood mist, but none of it touched us.

There was a flicker, and another seven S-rankers blurred into existence on our side. Roald was glaring at Morgan, lips peeled back in a snarl of pure hate. "You're dead." He flicked his hand out and a storm of blood colored lightning smashed into the Vampire's steady form.

"Daddy!" Screamed Bethy, trying to run forward. My mom caught her, holding her still. The smoke cleared and Morgan stood there, unharmed and unconcerned, but as I watched he reached up and licked a couple sparks of bloody lightning from his fingers. And then it was on. And all I saw was violence.

 

[Lone-sith]

lark is so cold

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Did he just eat that lightning?" I asked in shock as the battle began. None of the shockwaves were reaching us, all contained within Lark's Domain, but I saw some of the A-rankers spreading out, slipping through the edges. Apparently holding thirty S-rankers while fighting ten of them was tough even for the Vampire, because the small fries were slipping the net.

Bethy, who looked relieved he was ok, just giggled. "Of course not. That would be silly. Vampires don't eat lightning." I exhaled, nodding in relief. It was nice to know he had some kind of limit. Though maybe in the current situation not having any would be better. "That wasn't lightning at all. It was plasma."

I groaned but she didn't seem to be joking, and I rolled my eyes because the parent was as ridiculous as the child.

"Look, we need to go." I said bluntly, looking around. "I'd love to stay and make sure…his holiness is OK, but this isn't a place we can afford to stay, even with that domain active." I glanced at my mom. "Is there a fallback point?"

She nodded. "Not all of the reinforcements came. With an incursion this big they'd have left some of them outside to hold the line in case anyone escaped. If we can get past the blockade we should be fine." She paused. "Unless they break through. Then we're all going to die anyway. I don't see it happening though."

I could see in her face she had a lot of faith in Lark, but that didn't seem like enough to support this level of confidence. "Why do you say that?"

She grinned, pointing to a man next to my grandfather. He had dark skin and long hair braided into many thin plaits. He was holding a gleaming white sword, and his eyes were a featureless white. Like…the moon. "Wait, is that?"

"The Moonlight Pope." She said proudly. "The Red Revenant's first and strongest disciple. One of the three strongest S-rankers."

That was good. Still, I couldn't help but worry. We grouped up with mom, Zeke, and Andrew taking up a triangle formation around us, protecting the group from attackers and stray shots, and we headed for the exit. We were far from the only ones, but we had the most firepower, so we were able to push our way out of the crowd.

We reached a hallway and I was about to turn to head for the door, but mom stopped me. "This way." She said quietly. "There's an emergency exit tunnel deeper into the building. We'll go out through Flipside and hopefully avoid the majority of the fighting."

Heading into the building, we moved much slower than we had been before. Zeke took up the front position, and I could see him doing…something. A pulse of light that kind of hurt my eyes to look at was expelled from his hands, bouncing off the walls and floors until he came to an odd, semi invisible shape. Holding up a hand, he knelt and picked touched it in a few places, breaking down whatever the object was.

"How the hell did they have time set TRAPS?" Snapped Zeke as he stood up and stashed the device in his ring. "I swear, if I get my hands on that brat of Harrison's I'm going to make a mask out of a pig and trap him in it for eternity."

I blinked. "Can you actually do that?"

He shrugged. "Kid, I'm an A-ranker, I can do basically anything mask related I want to someone like him. I've never tried, but it shouldn't be too tough."

"Plot revenge later." Snarled my mother. "Survive now. People say the best revenge is living well, but even bad revenge is usually best enjoyed while still alive. Now let's go!" He nodded, then turned to leave…and froze.

A man stood in the way of our egress, tall and muscular with scars all over his pale, exposed chest. His head was wrapped entirely by an iron skull, his eyes blazing an unearthly green as they stared unblinking at us. I heard Andrew curse and turned around to find a smaller, frailer figure with a wide brimmed conical hat looking at us from beneath layers of wrapping bandages.

Beside her stood a lanky, bronze skinned man with a wide easy smile and red hair shaved across one side of his skull. Andrew and my mother took up positions between us and them as Zeke stepped in front of Skull guy. Snapping, my mother passed me a glowing gold orb.

"Wait until we're ten feet away and then break this." She commanded. She and Andrew stepped out to meet their enemy while Zeke did the same. Like she'd said, I smashed it when she was out of range, and a sphere of shimmering gold covered us, then sort of…rippled.

Space within changed, and Abel's head snapped up. "I don't know what that is." He said slowly. "But I don't think we're in the same dimension anymore."Skull mask lashed out at Zeke, who stepped easily aside and let the attack streak toward us.

I didn't flinch, I trusted my uncle implicity. The crackling green slash his palm had made passed right through us, and I knew Zeke had let him attack to prove there was no point in trying. The man snarled, turning his eerie focus back to my uncle. On the other side, the small figure in the hat spoke. "Five faction trash." It said in a screeching voice. "Your heads will please our masters."

"Gross." Said my mom. "Also irrelevant, because they please us too, and we're planning to keep them. Also possibly add yours to our collection, unless you turn around and beat it."

The person in the bandages giggled. "Oh really." They reached into their coat and withdrew a small shabby doll. Next it took out a small blonde hair and wrapped it around the doll's neck. I opened my Eye of Revelation and was barely able to stand as the complexity and power of the image knocked me for a loop. Still, I was able to stabilize myself enough to see a massive crouching demon holding a doll that looked like my mother in a stance that mirrored the figure.

They withdrew a nail from a pocket and punched it into their arm, coating it in thick blood, then drove it cruelly into the doll's arm.

The image did the same to the figure of my mother, and there was a bright flare of life as she snarled in annoyance. The demon howled and dropped her figure, its hands burning with white flame, and my mother just sneered. "You think I've never seen witchraft before?" She said lazily. "Thaumaturgical power like that doesn't work on someone like me. My Stellar Flame Fist is part of my soul. My whole body is sanctified with the flames of purification."

As she spoke, her eyes blazed with white fire, then they overflowed. Flames trailed down her cheeks like tears, spreading as the descended to coat her face and then the rest of her until her form was wreathed in flames. The red haired man beside the figure smiled unpleasantly, then vanished in a rumble of thunder, coming apart into a thousand lightning snakes.

My mother stepped forward, fist crushing the air as she shattered the snakes one at a time. Her punches weren't fast, or even slow, they just sort of ate the time and space between them and target, destroying the lag time with brute force as Cosmic Collapse gathered and then burst on each knuckle.

The figure in the hat vanished, appearing in front of Andrew, and held up another doll, this one a model of themselves. Andrew lashed out with his sword, and the figure made no move to dodge. The blade punched through their chest, but no blood came out. The doll split, stuffing flowing from the torso and the figure reached out and yanked out a piece of Andre's hair.

"Let's see if all of you are so immune to witchcraft." Cackled the figure, and it shoved the hair into the open wound on the doll. Behind it, the demon coalesced again, this time holding a copy of Andrew. With a malicious giggle, it grabbed the doll by both arms and pulled.

There was a horrendous tearing and a scream and Andrew's arms came at the shoulders. My mother's head snapped around in rage and I saw her scream as a lightning snake drilled through her achilles tendon, almost falling before she forced herself to focus. He fist lashed out in a backhand, crushing another snake before her elbow destroyed a followup serpent.

Andrew looked like he was about to die, but there was a burst of flame, and a hooded figure drilled a rapier through the hat wearing witchcraft user, spearing through the shoulder and driving them back. The doll seemed unable to keep up with the damage and burst into flames, tearing a scream from the person as the caught flame themself.

The figure engaged the snakes, and my mother hurried over to Andrew. She pushed one of the arms against his shoulder and punched, and there was a roar of white flame as she…destroyed the damage, reattaching the arm. I was shocked as she repeated the technique, helping him up before sending him to help Zeke's mask. She engaged the witchcrafter directly, but they did something. Reaching into their coat, they withdrew another doll, this one looking like the demon I'd seen. They tossed it into the air and the doll expanded, the figure shrinking to doll size as the demon took its place.

My mother snarled, blurring forward to meet the beast, and it bared razor sharp obsidian teeth as it began trading blows with her. The purification flames didn't seem to affect it too much, and her explosive punches only blew small holes that healed themselves over time.

"A fucking Tulpa?" She snapped. "Who uses those anymore? You know they kill their maker almost every time, right?"

The witch doll cackled. "Risk follows power, girl! If I were you I'd be more worried about yourself. Or rather, about your little friend." The doll gestured past my mother, who didn't bother looking reengaging the demon. I did though, and what I saw made my blood run cold.

I'd taken Zeke's badassery for granted, but sending that mask to help my mom had clearly cost him. Several masks lay shattered on the ground around him, hooded cloaks draped over them. Zeke himself was lashing out with blood colored flaming punches at the man he was fighting, but his mask was cracked in half, exposing a portion of a ruined burnt out face.

The skull masked man wasn't bragging, or taunting. He wasn't making a sound. He was simply oncoming. Inevitable. Implacable. Palm after palm lashed out with a sickening green light, and they crushed Zeke's attacks and avenues of escape.

My mother drove the demon back enough to see my uncle and screamed. "No!" She blurred through the golden space we occupied, fist lashing out at the skull masked man, who crushed her punch with one palm, even as the other acted independently to suppress Zeke. Andrew launched himself at the man from across the hall, sword spearing out at his throat, and leaving the other two to follow and try to attack from behind.

The skull masked man didn't flinch or slow, he fought all three of them at once. I felt my blood run cold at the ease with which he handled them. This was someone very scary. An A-ranker who would be considered an elite. Maybe not on the same level as Lark, but my mom wasn't even halfway through A-rank as far as I knew, and Zeke had just gotten there.

As the three A-rankers surrounded our protectors, my stomach twisted itself into knots. This wasn't going to be pretty, and it wasn't going to nice. I was just desperately hoping I didn't have to watch my mother and uncle die tonight. I didn't think I could take it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"You alright?" My mother asked Zeke as she briefly put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. My uncle looked ghastly, half his face a pristine porcelain white, half a burned and mangled mess. All three of the fighters from our side were watching the skull masked man, worriedly waiting for his next move.

Zeke nodded tightly. "M'fine." He mumbled. "Split my attention trying to help you. Rookie mistake. I've been getting cocky, just because I've never heard of this guy I assumed he wasn't anything special. Hey, you, the macabre bastard in the headgear, what's your name."

The witch doll cackled from where it sat between the demons horns. "You speak to the chosen of the Lady of Lamentation, his excellency Tartarus, youngest of the Unholy Eight."

"Are you two also members?" Zeke said snarkily. "Because that's a lot less impressive to me. I don't think I could be afraid of a group with members like you." Despite his casual words, I could tell he was keeping a close eye on Tartarus, worried he might attack again.

The demon snickered, earning a hiss of disapproval from the doll. "Fool." The witch doll sneered in its high pitched voice. "We are no members of the Unholy Eight. Merely underlings accompanying Lord Tartarus on his journey. The Eight are comprised of the most dangerous champions of the six gods. To reach that step at merely A-rank, one can truly see how monstrous Lord Tartarus is."

Smirking, the redhead chimed in. "Our Lord follows the Path of Lamentation and has been given a Domain seed by the lady herself."

My stomach dropped out. That…that was bad. My mom had been teaching me more about cultivation. One of the biggest things was that Domains shouldn't be established early on except in VERY specific circumstances. The only time she'd mentioned it being anything less than a crippling problem was in the case of Bethy, whose legend was most likely going to be close enough to her father's to use a piece of his Domain to form her own.

Bethy was probably the scariest E-ranker I'd ever seen, and I was pretty sure that wasn't just because I was inexperienced. If this guy was like Bethy, we might be in serious trouble. Hell, he might be worse, because for all his terrifying strength, Lark wasn't a god. No wonder this person was admitted into a group of people that sounded like they were almost entirely comprised of S-rankers.

I was pretty sure I was right about how bad a situation this was, because my mom's face had gone ghastly pale. My mom, who had two abilities and was considered one of the strongest A-rankers in the entire Red Revenant Church, was afraid.

"Sasha." Zeke said stonily. "You and Andrew deal with the small fries. You can jump in to help when you're finished."

Her eyes widened in horror. "What? Ezekiel…Zeke. What are you going to do?"

I saw the cracked and burned skin of his face tear as he forced himself to smile. "Whatever I have to."

Reaching down, he withdrew a mask. Then another, then another. Five different masks, then he reached up and peeled the half destroyed one off his face. But he didn't stop there, he reached down and did something I'd seen him do one in battle, he grabbed his own burned face and peeled it off slowly, revealing a blank mask of white porcelain underneath.

He placed those two in the air in front of him with the others, all of them floating in a line, and then he snapped.

The first mask exploded, then the next. One by one they burst, and each time they did the pressure around him redoubled, stacking and condensing,slowly pushing him to a higher state of being.

Power beat the air like a maelstrom as the masks burst, until finally, the last one broke. The mask that looked like Zeke's face, and there was one final shift. No, not a shift, an ascension. Zeke grew, his Impact pushing him higher up until he stood just beneath the S-rank. He hadn't crossed that line, because I was pretty sure it would kill him, but he came infinitely close.

"What are you doing?" Snapped my mother in terror. "You can't break that mask. You could die. No, more than that, your soul could shatter. If he kills you in that state…"

And I closed my eyes in pain, because my worries were confirmed. Zeke could destroy his masks to overclock their powers, but destroying the mask that was his own face…what the hell was going to happen? Was he already dead? My mom seemed to think not, but how easy would it be for him to lose here?

"You talk too much." Zeke said, power beating on the air from his words. "Go deal with the minions." And then he vanished.

He reappeared behind Tartarus, fist lashing out like a shooting star and smashed into the still turning mask. The huge man staggered, the air cracking like the boom of a cannon with the impact, but didn't go down. He turned on a heel, palm smashing up at Zeke's chin from a low angle, but my uncle was gone.

The teleportation power was the same as the one I'd seen from the Duke, and black destructive energy wreathed his fists. He stomped his foot and dark twisted roots tore from the ground, ones I remembered well from the games.

His masks had been made from new souls, perhaps ones he had saved, I didn't know. I could see some duplicates of his old powers, as well as some new ones.
These weren't discrete abilities though. They were part of him. They'd blended together into one gestalt whole, amplified by the breaking of his self mask, and his mastery over those powers was instinctual and brutally efficient.

Tartarus was driven back, and my mom and Andrew attacked the other two, pushing them back in their shock as they watched their boss get pummeled. But sadly, it wasn't over yet. Tartarus pressed his palms together as if in prayer, and the crackling green energy on each hand harmonized, then expanded.

Before our eyes, a Domain took shape, a black jagged cliff made of blood stained iron overlooking an ocean of poison green light. Above the sea sat an unearthly stretched face, pale skin pulled up at the corners to reveal a gaping black abyss of a mouth ringed with jagged black iron teeth, black sclera'd eyes with glowing green irises beaming gleefully down at us all.

Zeke stumbled, the power on his body wavering, but it didn't falter, just sort of crushed inward as if restricted. His blank white mask reflected the unearthly light.

Tartarus flickered, a palm smashing down at Zeke as he appeared in front of my uncle, and Zeke's teleportation seemed to stall slightly under the Domain. He forced it through, but the palm grazed him as he blinked out, and as he reappeared, there was an explosion of blood as a palm print appeared from inside his back, blowing away muscle as if launched from within him.

He hissed in pain, and a golden light lit up the palm print, but it fizzled as it met crackling green energy, stalling out whatever that was supposed to do.

Tartarus came again, and Zeke teleported faster, having clearly figured out the trick, but while his teleportation was back to full speed, his body wasn't. He traded blows, tearing gouged from Tartarus even as more palm strikes landed on him, and the bloody exposed palm gouges on his back started to accumulate.

The more they fought, the weaker Zeke seemed to get. Tartarus was flagging too, the pseudo S-rank power my uncle was wielding too much even for his Domain, but it wasn't happening fast enough, and I was pretty sure the power was as tough on Zeke as it was on the enemy.

There was a pair of explosions, and my mother appeared, Andrew at her side, at the edge of the Domain. She snarled, body flaring with white light, and punched out. The edge of the green see was so close, but so infinitely far. There was a ripple in the Domain, but no more.

Her eyes widened in panic and she screamed, fists crashing into the bubble of otherworldly space like rain sheeting on rough stone. Implacable as the tide, she punched, a torrent of white flame exploding against the edges of a world, trying to get inside to help her friend, but no matter how hard she struck it wasn't enough.

Zeke was barely standing now. His pseudo S-rank body was all that was keeping him up, but something was happening. The mask on his face was cracking, and rivulets of warm mercury were oozing out.

I remembered what my mother said earlier about his soul shattering. Zeke's soul was mercury, one level off from mirror. If a mercury soul broke you couldn't bring that person back, even with a Wish from the Wishmaster himself. Only mirror souls would retain their selfhood when shattered. That was why you needed one to become a god.

My uncle was dying right in front of me, and nothing was going to be able to bring him back. I heard someone screaming, cursing and pleading and crying, and I realized it was me, and Bethy and Abel each had one of my arms, and they were holding me back because I was trying to charge out of our protective sphere to run to my uncle and help him.

Mom was openly weeping, pounding on the Domain until her fists cracked and bled shining burning blood, but she couldn't get in, and we watched in horror as Zeke collapsed to his knees, mercury soul leaking from that blank white mask.

Tartarus pulled back his palm and it blurred down towards the mask, towards Zeke's face and soul, to deliver the final execution blow that would shatter my uncle forever and wipe him from existence.

And then he stopped. His palm froze an inch from Zeke's head, unable to move forward another inch. I saw something twined into his fingers and up his arm, and followed it back to see his whole body was wrapped in liquid metal chains. No, not liquid metal, mercury. He was wrapped in souls.

Behind him were three figures, a pair of creatures of living mercury, kneeling down and pressing hands to the ground, extending their essence around him like restraints, and in the middle, a man with pitch black hair and blood red skin, with horns on his forehead and golden eyes that used to be the same green as mine.

He stood there placidly, hands folded on a dark cane with a mirror skull at the head, and his eyes fixed coldly on Tartarus. "Who exactly," Asked Elijah Wyndham, the wish devil. "Do you think you're putting your hands on?"

The dark wood of the cane tapped the black iron cliff, and the mirror skull flashed as it cracked, splitting in two, fragmenting the Domain itself in the process, and it dissolved like smoke, leaving them all standing in the hallway we'd first been in.

Mom blurred forward, catching Zeke as he collapsed forward. She examined him worriedly. "I can't fix this." she said in panic. "My purification isn't optimized for something like this, Eli, he needs-"

He reached into a pocket, pulling out a vial full of shimmering reflective elixir. "Soul Serum." He said, tossing it to her. "That should stabilize him until we get him to someone who can heal the damage. It'll stop his soul from shattering." She shot him an adoring smile that I recognized as being just like the ones Callie gave me, and I felt a confusing jumble of emotions as I saw them interact. Now wasn't the time for that though.

My father's eyes slid back to the restrained skull masked man. "In the meantime, I'll get this out of our way. Remind me to have a talk with the venue owners. It's poor manners to leave one's trash in the hallway." Tartarus heaved, tearing through the soul chains and blurring towards him, and my dad tapped his cane again, and the fight was on.

 

[Lone-sith]

Om omg omg we got both parents together athfdhhrhrhfjfrhhr

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My dad didn't seem even remotely worried about the fight. Tartarus struck out brutally with a palm, aiming for his head, but the two mercury demons (I could see now that they had horns and tails, though they looked pretty generic otherwise) appeared in front of him. The palm smashed into the head of one, splattering mercury everywhere, while the second had ducked down and pointed his horns at the skull masked man's stomach.

The momentum of the attack gored him, and he snarled, leaping back to get distance. The mercury head reformed, though crackling green scattered through the body. My dad frowned in irritation, then tapped his cane three more times.

Another three shapes rose from the ground, also made of mercury. Souls. He was using actual souls directly in combat.

"You're certainly a more irritating opponent than expected." He said blandly. "But I suppose you wouldn't have had such an easy time with Zeke if you weren't. Even freshly Ascended he isn't the type to be dealt with simply."

Tartarus, who up until this point had been silent, finally spoke. "Who" rumbled a deep and menacing voice from the depths of the mask. "Are you?"

"Depends who you ask." He said with a shrug. "A disappointment as a father. A failure as a son. An absent husband, an irritating best friend. A monster. A nightmare. I have many faces, though perhaps not quite as many as some." He shot a look at where mom was trying to patch up Zeke. "I think today I am just an obstacle. Or simply your death."

Tartarus snorted. "You think a few disembodied souls will be enough to kill me? I follow the Path of a god."

"Oh." My dad said conversationally. "Then you're an idiot."

We all looked at him blankly. Tartarus growled dangerously. "What did you say? You would cast aspersions on the power of my lady?'

"Not at all." His eyes flicked past me to my sister. "Chelsea." He said benevolently. "Pay attention to what I'm about to say, because it will be important for you to know. It is functionally impossible for two people on the same Path to become gods."

I gritted my teeth. I knew as a WCP representative he wasn't allowed to offer me advice, not to mention that tidbit had been more important to her as someone who was using grandpa's ability. But still, being ignored like that made me want to scream. Chelsea looked confused. "Why?" She asked quietly, clearly as torn over how to address dad as I was.

Dad waved a hand at Tartarus without looking, and the five souls surrounded him, standing at five points around him. "Imperial Demon Funeral." Said my father absently, and all five souls caught fire. Red black flames consumed them, driving Tartarus screaming to his knees, and my father continued to ignore him as he was crushed to the ground.

"Being a god means embodying the entirety of your Path." He told her as if nothing important was going on. Domain seeding someone on a similar Path isn't inherently bad, Paths can change, but trying to directly follow the Path of a divine being is a dead end. Hell, even following it to S-rank is nearly impossible, despite how powerful the wish ability is and how easy it makes things. Why do you think I threw away my complete wish ability?"

I'd wondered about that. The wish ability let us essentially make stats out of nothing. We all grew so absurdly fast, maybe not all as quick as me given my head start, but still, it would be maybe five years tops before I hit the peak of S-rank at this rate. Path stuff would be a problem, but if the Wishmaster had already created a proper path he should have been able to help.

Granted, mom's reveal about why there were so few gods meant I got why no one else reached that step. But dad was right, there should have been more S-rankers than just the thirteen we had.

I thought about the reason, then it clicked. "It's the renown. Anyone trying to follow the same Path to the finish line has to compete against someone with an absurd amount of renown."

I wanted to know more, but sadly he didn't have a chance to reply, Tartarus gave a wordless scream and stood, his Domain exploding out of him and banishing the red black flame and the souls it was consuming.

"What an absurd person." Said dad distastefully. "Those souls don't grow on trees, you know. I'll have to take yours as payment."

Slamming his cane down again, another thirteen mercury figures rose from the ground, coalescing into those some featureless demonic puppets. "Watch closely children." He said coldly. "This is my answer to a power that surpasses even the Wishmaster."

The mirror skull on his cane started to glow, and as I watched, the souls changed. They shifted into more substantial and unique shapes, all becoming actual people. With a snarl, they leapt forward, hands blazing with power, weapons drawn, and more than a dozen different fully formed A-rankers began to rain down attacks on Tartarus.

I doubted it would have been so effective if thirteen normal A-rank cultivators had attacked him, but then, this wasn't normal. They acted like one body, moving perfectly in sync, as if they all had the same kind of bond as Callie and I, thirteen hands moving under the will of one mind.

I was blown away. How had he done this? How was he using so much power without damaging himself? And then it clicked. The skull. That wasn't just a mirrored cane, it was a mirror SOUL. It was just like the mercury souls, except he'd condensed it into some kind of control device. He was casually using the souls of other people as weapons without straining himself at all.

This was what he'd meant, I realized. His new ability, the power of the wish devil. To trade for the souls of others and keep them at his beck and call.

"My soul?" Laughed Tartarus darkly. "How exactly do you plan to do that?"

My dad reached into his black velvet waistcoat and pulled out a golden scroll. Unfolding it he casually reached down, dipped two fingers in the blood from Tartarus's goring by the devil horns, and leisurely scrawled his name at the bottom of a crowded document.

The name flashed with a terrible red light, and then shifted from a messy blood scrawl to flowing penmanship. "A contract is a funny thing." My father said calmly. "It is a binding document that enforces a deal between two people. But not all contracts are willingly entered. This particular ability is called Punitive Contract."

Tartarus snarled and tried to rush him, but the souls had him locked down. Even trying to push them back with his Domain wasn't working, because there was so many that as soon as he stopped to try to push them, at least six of them hit him simultaneously from behind.

"Punitive contract is a very special skill." My father continued. "It only works if the person in question is aware of its use, and of the parameters for its execution. In this case, you activated the requirements by almost killing my best friend, and then subsequently being attacked by me and shedding blood."

With a wild howl, Tartarus managed to push through the crowd of souls, attacking my dad directly, but my father simply twirled his cane between his fingers, knocking aside the palm as he stepped casually aside.

The souls surrounded them, and suddenly he was a part of their terrible dance, becoming the focal point of the attacks, every movement in harmony with the assault of his mercury army. I watched Tartarus land a hit on his coat, and was shocked to see it rebound, because that wasn't black velvet, it was woven Obsidian. Even his outfit was made of souls.

"The final step to execute the Punitive Contract is to fulfill a condition you refuse to allow." My father said as his cane lashed out and smashed Tartarus's knee. The big man stumbled, the followup strike of the flashing mirrored skull slamming into his mask.

Metal collapsed, the helmet crumpling inward under the force, and Tartarus stumbled back into the waiting arms of the soul army.

"You can't do this." Mumbled Tartarus through broken teeth. The last blow had mostly crushed his lower jaw. "I am a champion of the Lady of Lamentation. I serve the will of a divine being. She won't let you take my soul."

My father just smiled vindictively. "Take it? My dear boy, you've just given it to me. Your defeat completes the contract. Perhaps she can save you, but then, Skills usually have so much trouble with souls. Let's find out." He unfurled the contract again, and snapped his fingers, leaving his cane to sit upright on its own.

Tartarus stiffened, screams trying to wring their way out of his throat, but something had them blocked. He choked and gagged, and as I watched, horrified, a pair of hands emerged from his broken mouth. Mercury hands that grabbed his mouth from either side and pulled.

I grimaced as Tartarus's soul tore its way out of his mouth, ripping him apart as it emerged, a quicksilver copy of the monstrous warrior. My dad grimaced, lifting his cane off the bloody ground and wiping it on the mercury pants of the copy. "Messy." He said distastefully.

The being formerly know as Tartarus stood silently at attention among the throngs of souls, waiting for orders. My dad stepped back out of the blood and tapped his cane again, and the thirteen souls disappeared, leaving only his newest acquisition. "Go pick up Zeke." He told it dispassionately. "You injured him, it's the least you can do."

Nodding jerkily, the now once again skull masked man headed over and lifted my uncle effortlessly.

My dad strode over, offering my mother his hand urbanely. "Honey." He said with a small smile. "I'm home." Her beaming smile was so bright it almost hurt to look at. Literally, she was still in her fire form. But if faded away as she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

After staring into each other's eyes for a moment, he turned to walk over to us. He tapped the golden barrier with the head of his cane and it shattered, coalescing back into the orb it had been, which he deftly caught. He nodded to Chelsea and me. We stared at each other for a few seconds.

Stepping forward, I reached up and gave him a tight hug…then stepped back and punched him full force in the throat. "Fuck." I snapped as I heard (and felt) a bunch of bones crack in my hand.

"Feel better?" He asked in a tone so bland it couldn't be anything but smug.

I glared at him. "No you asshole, my fucking hand is broken!" But I actually kind of did, in a weird way. Jessie stepped forward, taking my hand in hers, and started manually manipulating the small bones back into position with her thumbs (an experience I never wanted to go through again) and then flooded it with life energy.

Luckily it seemed that the injury didn't really count as being inflicted by an A-ranker, so it didn't take long to heal. My mother smiled in wry amusement. "I suppose I should have included a lesson on not punching things more than four ranks above your weight class."

"Wouldn't have helped." I said as I flexed my now repaired hand. "Some things need to be done, even if they're stupid. Now let's get out of here." Turning away from my dad, I stalked off down the corridor. Then I stopped as I got a mental message from Callie.

Sighing internally, I leaned down, picked up a random piece of debris from the fight, and stormed back down the way I'd come. I held up the rock. "I needed this." I snapped as I did my best not to meet anyone's eyes. Everyone kept quiet, pretending I hadn't just gone the wrong way. Small victories.

 

[Lone-sith]

Love it, hope he'll stay for at least 3-4 chaps

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We had been walking through the halls for about twenty minutes when everything changed. A wave of…something passed over us, and as it did, the ground changed, black grass sprouting below us as light from a crimson moon spilled over our forms.

"It's over." Sighed my mother in relief. We all turned, and sure enough, Tricorn was gone. The whole central location had vanished consumed by the colossal domain of the universe's most terrible monster.

In its place, a terrifying castle of black rusted iron loomed over us, backlit by the red moon.

On each of the parapets I saw a figure standing proud and tall. One was easily recognizable as my grandpa, one a tall man with dark skin and long hair in a series of braids, and the one at the front, the familiar form of Morgan Lark.

"Greetings." Said Lark in a sepulchral voice. He didn't yell, he didn't need to. Everyone in his Domain could hear him perfectly.

His crimson eyes blazed as they burned down at his dark kingdom. "As you may all be aware, we have suffered an attack. The enemy sent their monsters out among us to sow terror and hopelessness, to teach us our place under their boot."

He snapped his fingers and two dozen plus red torches lit up along the battlements of the castle, illuminating a terrifying scene.

Heads. Thirty heads of thirty S-rankers mounted on spikes around the perimeter of the castle walls. Morgan's ghoulish smile was visible from every inch of the Domain, somehow the central focus, pulling our eyes to his bared fangs. "They were wrong."

Reaching down, he lifted the headless body of Roald as if he was a child brandishing a toy. "These so called vanished gods are fools. Arrogant little toads frivolously spending the lives of their cherished soldiers by fruitlessly hurling them at us to break against our walls. Screaming impotently into the void of our power with their mewling little voices."

"As of this moment." Rang my grandfather's voice as the Vampire stopped talking. "The five faction alliance, the independent faction, and the Wish Curse Palace are jointly at war with the forces of Hatescream and his cohorts. They've fired a shot across our bow and failed spectacularly. They think that age and accumulation will cow us, that their stockpiled fodder can overcome us. They are mistaken."

Morgan's eyes glowed even brighter, seeming to spear all of us individually as he glared down from his lofty perch. "Those of you who are spies, bear witness. Look upon the fate of our enemies, and carry it back to your masters. And may your gods have mercy on your souls. Because ours certainly will not."

Then all three of them vanished, leaving the heads on spikes lit by red moonlight that had cast them only in shadows before, and the dancing bloody light of crimson flame.

"Show-off." Said my dad sourly. "Well, we'd better get back then. Clearly everything is over. I wonder if we lost anyone. I'm surprised my prince wasn't up there with them."

I raised a brow at him, saying in a flat tone. "Oh right, a devil I talked to said that you were a general for the Demon Prince Adramalech. He came with you?" I didn't know much about where he'd gone, but I was a bit torn on how to treat him. I mean, he'd just saved Zeke's soul, but he was also a huge dick.

"Of course." He said with a chuckle. "The devils are part of the hierarchy of the Fairieland. They answer to the Queen just like the Princes and Princesses of the fae. The Tricorn is partly owned by us, so we'd naturally come to support when they asked for backup."

I frowned. "Was this whole thing just one big trap?" I asked bluntly. "So many things about the conclave scream setup from the outside looking in. Were we just bait?"

"Above my paygrade." He said nonchalantly. "But I doubt it. Now let's get back. I suspect everyone will be congregating at the foot of that castle. Otherwise what would be the point of making it such an obvious central location."

I nodded, and we turned around, heading back. I wanted to try to find someone who could heal, because Zeke was seriously messed up. Even with the serum dad gave him, his condition wasn't good, even if it was stable. Maybe a Life Nova could help, but I'd see if there were any A or S-rankers present who might be able to patch him up better.

We made good time getting back, and sure enough, when we found everyone, they were crowded around the base of the castle.

"Well look what we have here." Sneered Craygen. "The golden boy candidate is getting help from his daddy. Maybe I should tell Aiden exactly how little you think of the Wish Curse Palace, you fucking traitor."

My dad glanced at him dully. "I'm sorry…who are you? I don't mean to offend, but I meet so many insignificant nobodies day to day that I lose track of names and faces. You're…I want to say Jeffrey? Is that right?" I remember you were one of the lickspittles my cousin used to tote around, but you all look the same to me."

"You arrogant scum!" Roared Craygen. "You and your spawn both, you think you can afford to ignore someone like me? Just wait until he reaches D-rank and loses that protection. I'll make sure his final screams are an apology for taking away my daughter!"

I expected a screaming or snarky retort, but my dad just stared at him for a moment. "You know…I believe you." He tapped his cane once, and a mercury flash shot out through the grass, it wound up Craygen's ankle too fast for us to even see, wrapped around his neck, and then tightened like a garotte, slicing through his throat.

Craygen's eyes were wide and shocked as they stared in confusion at my father, still locked onto his face as Craygen's head tumbled slowly off his shoulders, thumping onto the grass as the man's body dropped to his knees.

I watched in shock as the mercury snake down into the hole in Craygen's neck, dragging out long wisp of mercury and choking it down quickly. With a flash it retreated to my dad's side, darting up the cane to vanish into the eyehole of the mirrored skull.

Everyone went silent. That had been…not what he'd done to Tartarus. But I realized why as a massive weight of horrible pressure crashed down over us, driving me and everyone below A-rank to our knees. "Elijah." Boomed Harrison's enraged voice. "How dare you! Do you think nothing of the Palace?"

As soon as the pressure arrived, it vanished, and a gigantic man with purple swirled skin and horns emerged from behind my father, baring bright white teeth. "Calm down Harrison, no need to make a fuss."

"ADRAMALECH!" Howled the enraged representative. "Remove yourself from my business. Elijah killed one of my cohort. That debt must be paid."

My dad just sneered at him. "Oh stuff it Harrison. Everyone knows you're the weakest S-ranker in the Palace. The only thing you ever did right was have a freak for a son. He threatened my boy to my face. As far as I'm concerned, he committed suicide by stupidity. So keep your gaping face closed and go find someone else to pester."

The big Demon Prince laughed. "Well said Eli. Suicide by stupidity indeed. Of course, if you demand satisfaction I'd be happy to oblige Harrison. What do you say? Want to dance with the devil?"

"There will be no dancing here." Cut in a cold and familiar voice. "Mostly because I've seen you dance Dram, and nobody needs to witness that a second time." Morgan emerged from the crowd, looking amused. "What's all this about now. We just won a great victory. And with hardly any casualties."

At the term hardly any I glanced around, trying to find out who had died. I noticed to my surprise that the Deathwish Pope was gone. Glancing at my grandfather, I caught a slight look of smugness on his face that made me suspect it might not have been entirely in the line of fire.

"This…mongrel." Spat Harrison. "Murdered my lieutenant in cold blood."
My dad cleared his throat. "That is a lie, sir. I assure you the blood of everyone involved was quite warm. Ninety eight degrees or so. It should still be steaming on the grass a bit."

Morgan nodded solemnly. "It's true, that's what temperature blood is. Do you not know that?"

"He threatened Eli's son." Said Adramalech casually. "So he deserved what he got. I offered satisfaction. I can fight him if he wants revenge."

The Vampire nodded. "I'll allow it." He said after a minute.

"What?" Squawked Harrison. "This is an outrage. How dare you ignore this? My son will hear about-"

Morgan pinned him with a glare, eyes glowing red. "Because you ANNOY me." He said sharply. "Your lieutenant annoyed me. And your son annoys me. If you feel the need to seek vengeance on ME, you can go ahead and attempt to rouse your great grandfather from his retirement to come get it, but since I doubt he remembers your NAME, I wouldn't bother."

I had to choke down a laugh at that, but I forced myself not to make a noise. "Now." Continued Morgan. "If you're done taking a flamethrower to the thin ice you were already on, perhaps we might turn our attention to dealing with the traitor in our midst."

He snapped his fingers, and a pitch black coffin in the rough shape of a person erupted from the grass, falling open to expose the perforated but mostly intact body of Pretseltsen Birchus, who stared glassily around, whining slightly under his breath. Harrison's face grew stormy. "You!" He said, his anger at my dad momentarily forgotten.

"Caught the little bastard trying to slip out after he realized the people he betrayed us for might not be as nice as he expected." Morgan said with a nasty smile. "I thought maybe the WCP would be willing to pay for the privilege of…questioning him."

Harrison's face adopted that same grim, unforgiving smile. "You know. I do believe we may be able to work something out." Morgan snapped, and the coffin clanged shut, then he headed over to hoist it onto one shoulder and the two of them walked off in another direction, several other S-rankers following.

My grandfather checked in on us, but once he knew we were alright, he was whisked away by my mother to find a healer for Zeke, while my dad went with Adramalech to sit in on negotiations.

Once they were gone, I stared after them. Chelsea came up to stand next to me. "That was…a lot." She said numbly.

I nodded. "It really was. "I have no idea what the hell is going on, or what's GOING to go on after this. I guess the war is officially beginning." I couldn't think of many ways this could have gone better for us, and that made me pretty damned suspicious.

"Where does that leave the rest of us?" She said worriedly. "Are we supposed to go join in right away? We did train for it."

I snorted. "Fuck that." I said bluntly. "This nonsense is over, and my ass is getting on a ship back to Callus to have my damned wedding. You can come of course, but I understand if you would rather head to the front lines."

This time she snorted. "Ridiculous. I wouldn't miss your wedding for anything. Plus Callie already asked me to be a bridesmaid. You're not getting rid of me that easy."

I smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder, and stared off after the S-rankers. As we watched, the Domain closed, leaving us all standing in that same ballroom as before, looking that much the worse for wear. Guess the party wasn't over.