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

[Malcolm Tent]

We contacted Wulf through Ellie, who had been watching his back during his investigation into Derran's death. Derran's death was definitely within the scope of our investigative direction, so we didn't exactly refocus, but we did have him expand his scope of inquiry a bit. Sadly, he didn't have anything on hand immediately, so I ended up going to sleep and trying to sleep off my cold, which worked pretty well.

When I woke up the next morning and stocked up on scrolls, I emerged from my cave feeling refreshed and excited. My soul damage had healed up pretty well during my rest and I was feeling almost bouncy after my forced downtime. So, of course, someone had to ruin it.

"We have a problem," Crell said as he dropped into the chair across from me. I met his eyes directly, staring him down as I shoveled a spoonful of oatmeal into my mouth, waiting for him to continue. Taking me silence as an invitation, he slammed down a familiar dark stone book, one of the ones I'd constructed for downloading the charter into. "Look at THIS!" He pointed to the nearest page.

I leaned forward, swallowing before reading aloud. "If the accused shall enter the presence of the tribunal on the fifth day of the seventh month, only then shall the material used for foot covering be transposed to natural fibers, forbidding all animal hides and disallowing manmade materials, save for the use of weaving or stitching."

He paused, turning the book around. "Ah, sorry, wrong page," he cleared his throat in embarrassment, flipping around a bit before turning it around to point at the page."

I refocused. "Should the accuser die under suspicious circumstances, or fear for their life from outside forces, the prosecution may invoke the rite of Signatum Judicium, or sealed judgement, at which time the accuser and accused will be sealed together with the witnesses in an unbreachable space until the final verdict is reached. Signatum Judicium may only be invoked on the final day of the trial, or in the event of the accuser's untimely death, at which time the burden of proof will fall to the first witness."

Frowning down at the book, I put my spoon down, picking it up to flip to the next page. I studied the subclauses related to the Signatum Judicium carefully, then looked back up at Crell. "Explain."

He growled in annoyance. "Basically, it's a clause to be invoked in the event of outside interference. Given the character witness phase, and the importance of the office of Wishmaster, there were concerns that outside forces might attempt to subvert the trial to install their own candidate. The Wishmaster, that is, the original Wishmaster, constructed a special room to ensure the sanctity of the verdict. The Quiet Room.

"The Quiet Room is a Divine Level defensive emplacement with wards out the ass," he continued. "Even a god couldn't breach it with any sort of expedience. It's been slowly improved over millennia by every subsequent Wishmaster, and is considered to be the safest place in the entire Wishworld, to the point that there are several backup plans in place to use it as a fallout shelter in case of a mass attack. And I don't mean a small one like the other day, I mean full on 'the sky is falling' type of shit."

I frowned at him, drumming my fingers. "So you think Devon is planning to invoke the Signatum Judicium?" I mused on the idea. "I mean…maybe? But to what end? Does he think I'm planning to tamper with the trial? Or is this a direct trap? Like is he going to try to kill me in there? Because I'll be honest, I am NOT scared of him. Especially not with Callie there." I focused on the potential dangers. "Who is the first witness?"

"We don't know," Crell snarled. "I've been looking into it, but after the attempt on his life Devon is invoking some obscure double blind jury statute in the charter. He says he's worried you'll kill his witness."

"WHAT?" I snapped, slamming my hands on the table. "That ungrateful little asshole! I SAVED HIS LIFE!"

He shrugged. "He doesn't see it that way. No fixing stupid."

"So, since the invocation can be done in the event of his death or an attack, I'm guessing this was the desired outcome. Which means whoever that witness is, they're almost definitely going to be some kind of assassin."

Sighing, I nodded. "Yeah. There's a limit though, right? No A-rankers or S-rankers were involved in the succession war, at least not anywhere near me. The witness isn't going to be some high ranking badass. It'll be someone closer to our level. B-ranker, I'd bet." Which made me feel a LITTLE better. Aside from Callie, I was going in there with Roland, who was notably the strongest B-ranker in the family as far as I knew.

Of course, that assumed they'd fight fair, which I seriously doubted. Some kind of consumable attack method like my stored attacks maybe? Or a powerful artifact. But it wasn't like they could bring a whole arsenal. And between Callie and I we had two defensive charges that could tank a blow from a god.

Apostate. That had to be involved. I wasn't sure WHY or how, but it would be part of this. The prophecy had involved lots of people too, but prophecies were notoriously vague. The people might have represented everyone watching the trial.

I needed some sort of countermeasure to Apostate. Something that could let me shrug off that horrible corrosion. I still wasn't sure what it WAS, exactly, but I'd been exposed, and I could use that exposure to create some kind of defense. Maybe study the field from the defensive charge the old man gave me. Whatever that was, it had purified all the danger effortlessly. That was probably a factor of power more than anything, but the old man's power was all about efficiency. Whatever the book had done, it had done it PERFECTLY, I was sure, and if I could mimic that, I could create a method of shutting down Apostate before it had a chance to get its hooks in me.

This would be my last pseudo-Domain. The last ingredient in…whatever I was building. Which meant I had a lot of work to do. Lots of research and experimenting. "Hey, are you listening to me?" demanded Crell. "Because I'm not going to be allowed into that room with you, you know? This is a big problem for us!"

"I know," I said mildly. "I was thinking, Crell. Don't worry. I've got some ideas. Thank you, by the way. For finding this. If we hadn't known…" I wasn't sure WHAT they wanted us in that room for, but it couldn't be anything good. Forewarned was forearmed, especially once I got a bit more info about exactly what Apostate was and how it worked. "Before I double down on counter strategies though, any chance we can get OUT of this? Some move we can make to head him off?"

He shook his head. "Nothing reliable. This isn't some tactic. This is a break glass in case of emergency kind of strategy. In order to be in this position, the person in question had to have willingly offered up their soul for complete annihilation if they're found guilty. The presumption is that no one in that situation WANTS an objective and fair trial unless they're actually in the right, and an attempt on their life implies that you, the defendant, has something to hide."

"Except I didn't MAKE an attempt on his fucking life!" I groaned. "I saved it. It's not my fault my cousin lacks the basic deductive skills to differentiate a rescue from attempted murder."

Crell frowned, leaning back and steepling his fingers. "Honestly…I think you're underestimating him. Based on what you've been telling me, Devon isn't stupid. He's not SMART, but he isn't an idiot. It's not that he's imagining things. Someone is making him see things that aren't there. Someone subtle, and very good."

I focused on him intently. Crell was a hell of a manipulator. I'd found him in a dungeon, running an insurgency from inside of the current ruling dynasty of the whole place, having essentially maneuvered the ruler into a position where he'd almost definitely known who Crell was and couldn't do anything about it, despite Crell himself being part of the man's ruling council. He knew how to talk people in circles.

Gesturing for him to continue, I listened. He nodded, continuing his train of thought. "You think this is about intelligence. It isn't. When you manipulate someone, you don't pit yourself against their intellect. That's not manipulation at all. It's just lying outright. The trick is to figure out the way a person sees the world, and shift their viewpoint JUST a bit. Not identifying their blind spot, but making them look just the right way so their blind spot lands EXACTLY where you want it."

"So, what?" I asked in annoyance. "You're saying my cousin is motivated to buy into this shit? I knew that, they're playing on his ego."

He shook his head. "You're not listening. Playing on his ego is part of it. But more than making someone right, if you want them to buy into a deception, you need to make them JUSTIFIED. Don't just tell them something and make them believe it, let them figure it out for themselves. Set the stage so they discover the plot, because then they're in the thick of it. They're invested. He's not just saving his family, he's saving them from a traitor only he discovered."

That made sense, but I still didn't see his point. "Ok…and?"

"And I just told you he's not stupid," he said in exasperation. "Which means the narrative has to have teeth. It has to be believable, and not just to him, it has to be something he thinks he can demonstrate to others, which means-"

"He has proof," I concluded with a frown. "Good proof. Concrete evidence. But there's no evidence THERE. I didn't do it. So what kind of proof does he have and where did he get it?"

He shrugged. "A few options. But if we're talking something damning, only two places. Us or them. Someone involved has to have something compelling. Either another candidate, or some Void being who convinced him that you were working with them the whole time. At that point it mostly becomes a shifting gradient of bullshit. What can they sell, how much will he buy? It's delicate. Like I said, if they feed it to him it won't set right. They'd have had to tease him into discovering it. And if it was a Void entity…"

"It must have happened on the Heirworld," I frowned thoughtfully. "But that's…we hadn't won yet. And I don't think anyone expected us to. Why would someone start laying groundwork for a loss like that when it was such a long shot?"

"Could just be someone careful," he said with a contemplative hum. "Hedging their bets? Or someone who put their thumb on the scale. Helped you win without it being obvious. But for him to believe it, it has to be someone who has some kind of connection to you. Someone you met at some point. Someone with a reason to know."

I sifted through faces. I'd interacted with a lot of people on the heirworld, and I couldn't remember all of them. If it was a Void entity that narrowed it down, not many had survived contact. It could be a candidate, I supposed, but anyone with access could have killed me ages ago and completely sidestepped this whole mess. If one of the other candidates didn't want me to be Wishmaster they could have just taken me out and claimed it was an accident. I shook my head with a sigh. I'd wait until Wulf's information package came in. Then I'd reevaluate. Until then…after breakfast I would start on my final pseudo-Domain. It needed to be a doozie.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I found myself alone. No connection to Callie, no friends around to bounce ideas off of, none of my normal distractions. This was, of course, by design. This was an important step. I felt like this was a tipping point, like I was being guided to do this by my Fatewalker Path. Like I had always been being guided. This was my destination, my final step, and also the very first step in a brand new way forward.

Which just left me with the unfortunate issue of not knowing what exactly I was supposed to DO here. I mean, I knew what I wanted for my last pseudo-Domain in the abstract, of course. But I also knew that this was going to be the foundation of something bigger. My final expression of a course I'd set all those years ago when I'd first embarked on this journey.

So it had to be big. Couldn't be something simple like an augmented Leviathan, that would be pointless. But I had covered MOST possible outcomes.

I needed to take the concept of rejecting Apostate and make it…more. Turn it into something valuable. Something new. I had combat, utility, creation, information gathering. Everything you could imagine. But it wasn't enough. I was missing something. Some key ingredient. Some final piece of the puzzle.

But I couldn't come up with anything. It was choice paralysis all the way down. What should I pick? Why not something else? What would be most useful? I was double and triple guessing. My fate sense was just letting me down. It was so vague. I just wished I could talk to it directly, then maybe…and then I stopped. Why DIDN'T I just do that? Why didn't I ask my fate sense. Why not manifest the power of the Fatewalker directly. I'd done it with so many of my other abilities.

I closed my eyes, focusing my energy inward. I thought about Apostate. About the trial, about my future. I searched for that spark of insight, that understanding. And I felt it. That slight tug, that brief flare of instinct. I triggered Dantalion, pouring my senses into myself, and when I couldn't catch it, I triggered Limbo, selecting the future I needed, eliminating the possibilities of me missing the trail and then-

Then I wasn't alone. I was sitting at a table, inside the library, and across the table was…me.

"Really?" I asked myself acidically. "A goatee?"

The other me, who indeed had a small black goatee and red horns barely visible under his hairline, shrugged. "It seemed thematically appropriate. After all, this is your deal with the devil, isn't it?"

I frowned. "In what sense?" I asked suspiciously.

He tisked at me. "Come now, don't play dumb. It's embarrassing. We both know you aren't stupid. You had a lot of different directions you could have taken this. You could have combined Beelzebub with Asmodeus and created your own Imperial Guard. They would have been powerful, too. Or you could have doubled down on soul defense, taken the safe route. But you didn't do that. Because you want something more than just another bandage on a gaping wound. You don't want to put another card on the table. You want to flip the damned thing over."

"I need more," I said bluntly. "Need to understand, to learn how to access your foresight. I need…clarity."

"Knowledge is power," the other me nodded. "And power comes at a price. You know that. And you know what the price for this will be. Don't you? What it will cost you to manifest me completely in this form. This isn't a committed pseudo-Domain yet. You could consider this…an exit interview. Or an entrance interview, depending on your perspective. You can choose to back out."

I sighed. "I know. If I use you as the final piece of my pseudo-Domain, I'll break the last remnant of my Doom Sovereign Skill. You're the foundation of that whole ability. My Path won't break, of course, but the Skill will change. Will become something else."

"Change is inevitable," he said gently. "You know THAT too. It's coming for us whether we want it or not. The question is, can you keep up with the changes forced upon you? Are you willing to make the hard choices? The answer seems to be uncertain, or we wouldn't be having this meeting."

Shrugging, I just grinned at him. "What can I say, I wanted a second opinion, and you're kind of the only game in town. Should I call you something, by the way?"

"You already know my name," he said enigmatically. "But there's no need to rush. You haven't finished working up to it. This is a big decision, and you wouldn't be here if you didn't need to talk it out. So…talk."

I glared at him. "Please tell me I'm not normally this much of a smug asshole. You could be nicer about this."

"Nope," he said, raising a finger. "Wrong direction there, boss. I'm not you. I'm PART of you, but I'm a different entity. That's important. It's KEY to this whole thing, actually. Because if you decide to stick with me, that's not going away. Might even get worse. You're at a crossroads here, even moreso than you might be aware of. This choice is going to shape you whole future. You've been taking steps, ones you haven't even been aware of. Some were my influence, some not so much. But this is the last step. This is where you decide if you continue forward, veer off the road, or turn back altogether. Now. Tell me the downsides."

Grimacing, I nodded and collected my thoughts. "No more free upgrades. With the Skill disconnected and turned into something else, I won't rank it up automatically anymore."

"True," he acknowledged. "But since you hit your capstones that's less of a concern now. You don't really need it anymore at this point. It's convenient, but not necessary, and besides that, it comes with an obvious perk."

"No rank cap," I allowed. "All my subskills can continue growing beyond C-rank. I can hit Mythic with any of my forms or pseudo Domains. Even you."

He nodded approvingly. "It's a biggie. Of course, even that has downsides."

"It essentially erases the sole advantage of my current skillset," I sighed. "I'm only able to keep up my absurd levels of utility and skill diversity because it's all part of my build. It grows as I do. If I break that equilibrium I'll have to find a way to grind all my skills individually to keep up with them."

To my surprise, he waggled a hand. "Well…maybe not. I can't go into details, but that might not be as big of a problem as you expect. What's more important is how this will affect your Domain. Because you know that's coming."

I did. My fate sense had been warning me constantly something big was approaching, and my Domain was the next big step in my evolution. I wasn't B-rank, but I DID have a formed Chronicle, which would alleviate the downsides, and I needed to get stronger fast. The only issue was that I had absolutely NO idea what my Domain was going to be. I could feel it…forming. Preparing. That was why I'd needed this meeting. Because this was going to be the big next step that decided what form my Domain would take.

"You can't give me some kind of hint here?" I asked waspishly. "Tell me how this choice will affect the outcome? Hell, shouldn't I be forming it myself anyway? Why the autopilot bullshit?"

"The staff," he said bluntly. "The Ten Demons Tree has been learning from you. Internalizing your patterns, growing alongside you. Every time you use it, every time you create or reference an ability, it shaped the staff a little more. It's a fulcrum on which your Chronicle tilts. You knew when you accepted it that it was going to change things. That it would be an integral part of your Path. When the Ten Demons Tree bears fruit, your Domain will emerge. Not on autopilot, but watered with the choices you've made up to this point. Or did you think using it for all that calculating wasn't going to have an effect? You taught it that it should simulate skills and abilities to their natural conclusions. What do you call it? The Wisdom of Solomon?"

"Suddenly feeling a lot less wise," I said wryly.

He snorted. "Gosh, it's almost like you can see the future." His tone was a little mocking, but mostly just amused. "But in all seriousness it's not as predetermined as it seems. In fact, that's why you're here. This is your last chance to back out. I'm the last bit of nutrients the tree needs. Reforge me into this form, and the conditions are met."

"Or take a step back," I finished. "Take control and assert my dominance over the process…and never find out what this could have been."

He smiled gently. "The tyranny of choice. You can't escape it. You can go left. You can go right. Or you can turn around and go back. But even if you go nowhere, you're still deciding where to go."

"Just tell me one thing," I said after a brief silence. "If I take this path, if I risk everything I've built, invest it all in this…possibility. If it works. Will it change things? Will it make me stronger?"

His gentle smile became a wide, wolfish grin. "It'll be a revolution. And I'm not just saying that because it's the only way I get to exist. The Path you and the tree have set your feet on is truly unique. If you follow through, you have the potential to become something no one has ever seen before."

That brought me up short. That was…way more than I'd expected. What was this Domain that I'd unwittingly created? What had I made in my endless pursuit of constant experimentation? I was wracking my brain and I couldn't think of anything. Whatever the tree was doing, whatever it had learned from me, it had taken it so much further than I was able to.

It was a risk. But also, it really wasn't. I'd made the choices that led here. This wasn't some ineffable force contriving to give me a destiny. This was MY Domain. I'd made it myself. With my actions. With my heart. And looking back, those were things I would NEVER doubt. Every step of my journey, I'd walked forward with my head high. I'd had doubts, sure, and fears. But I didn't have regrets. Not anymore.

I trusted myself. Trusted the path I'd taken. Trusted my love for my friends to have pushed me in the right directions even when recursion might have pushed me another way. When it came down to it, this wasn't a matter of choice. It was a matter of faith. And if I couldn't have faith in the person I was, who could? How could I become a god when I didn't even believe?

"I'm ready," I told him calmly. "I appreciate the sit down, by the way. I know this could have gone a very different way for you. It means a lot that you were willing to break it down for me completely, given what you had to lose."

He shrugged. "What do I have to lose? I don't even exist yet. I'm just a possibility. Until you decide to manifest me, decide to take this Path, I'll only be a shadow, a flicker of potential. Besides, you know who I am, right? This is kind of my whole deal. Bearer of forbidden knowledge, 'to him ascribe all sin', any of that ring a bell?"

I knew what he wanted. He'd said it earlier. It wasn't time yet. Or it hadn't been. It was now. All I needed to do to finish this was make him real. Select this possibility, choose this Path. All I needed to do…was say his name. "I know," I chuckled. "I figured it out before I even got here. Thanks for the assist Azazel. Be seeing you soon." And then I opened my eyes, and the changes began.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first thing I felt when I opened my eyes was the sensation of falling. I was, of course, NOT falling. But that didn't stop me from FEELING like I was. The world spun around me like a vortex, and I pitched over as I stood up, smacking into the ground with a dull thud as my perception was consumed by the whirlwind of…whatever was happening.

I opened the bond, sent a quick cry for help to my wife, and then surrendered to my complete loss of equilibrium. I didn't puke, or moan, or show any outward sign of distress, because I had been through worse, but I had to admit, complete disorientation without the ability to stop yourself was definitely unsettling.

Callie pushed the door open, sticking her head in with concern. "Shane? You ok in here?"

"Get-" I ground out as I tried to keep my gorge (which was harder when talking) "Zeke." My Uncle would know SOMETHING about what was going on. She shot me a worried glance and then left, coming back with Zeke not two minutes later. He stepped into the room, strolled over to me, then knelt down and shoved me onto my back. Prying my mask off, he peered into my eyes, then my mouth and then for some reason checked my ears.

"Huh," he said with interest. "You appear to be condensing a Domain. Which is…really weird, honestly. Because you definitely shouldn't be awake during this. Domain condensation is a deeply personal experience that requires extremely delicate micromanaging. If your soul wasn't rock solid stable right now, I'd be concerned."

Closing my eyes to try to fight back the nausea, I ground out. "Why do I feel like I'm on a tilt-a-whirl?"

"If I had to guess, it's because pretty much every bit of Impact in your body is currently being used to build your Domain," he shrugged. "I don't know if you remember what your world was like before you hit a hundred points of Impact, but I can promise you that suddenly going BACK to that state is not pleasant. Not to worry, though. Once your condensation is finished, your body will regulate. Super curious though, how EXACTLY are you doing this?"

I groaned, trying to sit up. Unfortunately, Zeke was right. This wasn't just a visual thing. My hearing was…off. And my skin felt like it was being rubbed with sandpaper. And the air tasted like dust.

"The staff," I explained. "Apparently, it's been consistently analyzing and deducing everything I've done since…" I paused, because I wasn't actually sure. "Maybe since I got it? Anyway, apparently I've reached some sort of tipping point, and it's sublimating all that information into a new groundbreaking Domain."

I didn't mention my incoming Path change, or the possible loss of my Doom Sovereign Skill. I still didn't know how that would manifest. Something about the way Azazel had talked about it made me unsure I'd be LOSING too much. Something was changing, I could FEEL that already, but I wasn't sure what.

Zeke nodded slowly. "The staff IS B-rank. Which makes it more qualified to condense a Domain than you. Normally that wouldn't be possible, but it's your soul weapon, and that connection can be weird. Is it almost done? You should at least be able to tell."

Frowning, I focused internally. I tried to bring up my stat screen first, and I got a painful flare of purple flame behind my closed eyelids. That was annoying, but I was just going to wait and hope it went away. I had no idea where to even START fixing something like that. Still, once I focused, I WAS able to sense…something.

Something was changing in my soul. I couldn't sense the library, though I COULD still sense my Tome (and the old man's). And surrounding them was a sort of weird vortex of Impact and a bunch of other things I couldn't really process.

I shared this with Zeke, and he nodded. "It's condensing. Domain projection is…complicated. It has a lot in common with ranking up actually. When you rank up, energy pours into and elevates your soul and then it overflows out and into the rest of you. When your Domain condenses, all your Impact pours into your soul, sublimates, and then overflows. It carries out into the world around you, essentially expanding your personal reality to the nearby space."

Of course, he was simplifying things for me. I knew there were other factors, like the Void was involved somehow, or would be eventually.

"Anyway, once the sublimation is done, and it's finished condensing, then you can project it." He looked intrigued. "Normally you would KNOW what was going to happen at that point, because you'd have been the one doing the condensing and would know exactly what was coming out. This should be interesting for all of us though."

So we waited, and slowly, I got acclimated to my new condition. I knew it was temporary, but NOT feeling like I was on a high speed carnival ride that never ended was still nice.

Finally, I felt something at the core of my being shift. I let out a long breath as the Impact flooded back into my body, carrying something…new. It stopped at my skin, but I could feel it straining at the edges of me, like I was a water balloon straining just before it popped. "I think it's done," I said cautiously. "So what do I do now?"

Zeke hummed contemplatively. "You should feel it trying to project. The Domain is formed. It WANTS to manifest. All you have to do is let it out. That is, if you're ready."

I closed my eyes again, readying myself for whatever was about to happen. Then, I allowed my Domain to project out of me. The pressure building up under my skin dissipated, and something deep at the core of my soul expanded, pressing my conscious, my sense of self, out into the world. It was like I stopped being a single person in a single place and became a huge dome of space, miles across. The world shifted, and all around us, things changed.

We were standing in a black and blasted plain of basalt. Between the stones, magma bubbled and spat, heat rolling over the barren hellscape. I turned slowly, taking everything in, until finally, I stopped, staring at something…else.

An imperial palace. A huge edifice of grey marble the size of a small city. My Domain was weirdly large. Bethy's wasn't this big. But then again, she had been given a seed of her father's Domain to use, and his was also smaller. I turned to look at Zeke. "Is this…too big? Lark's is smaller. Should mine be small?"

He shook his head. "Not how it works. Different Domains do different things. Lark's is mainly for containment. Being small makes it easier to keep track of prisoners. This one though, I'm not sure what it's for. We should go check out that palace."

I nodded, and Callie stepped up next to me, hand lacing with mine. She wasn't worried anymore, just curious, and I couldn't blame her. I was curious too.

We headed through the scorched plains, eventually arriving at the palace. When we got there, I expected to have to push open the huge doors, but to my surprise, I didn't. The door opened on its own. As I stepped inside, I was greeted by a familiar face. Which was, well, my own. Technically. But with a goatee. "Azazel," I greeted my final pseudo-Domain. "Guess I really did see you soon."

He bowed at the waist. "I bid greetings to his majesty, Solomon the Demonbinder. Welcome, your grace."

"That's new," I said dryly. "You were a lot less formal last time."

"I was a lot less real last time," he said as he stood up. "We all were. But you've ameliorated that particular issue, so it behooves me to act in a manner befitting the shepherd of these wayward sinners. As your last manifestation, I am to be your guide to this, your infernal court. Welcome, your majesty, to Gehenna."

He turned and gestured us through the doors and into a wide amphitheater. It didn't look like an entry hall, so I suspected that the door didn't always lead directly here. But I was a bit distracted by what he'd said, and what I was seeing.

Because the entire amphitheater was filled to the brim with PEOPLE. Strange people. Some of them looked mostly human, with only an odd feature or two. Some of them had familiar strange and unearthly features like flaming hair and horns. Features I recognized.

Mephistopheles. And Agares, and Mornax. And Sammael. Some of them were forms, some pseudo-Domains, and some, I was fairly certain were just skills. Or techniques. But what struck me was the NUMBER. "Seventy two," I said softly. "Seventy two members of the Ars Goetia. This was why I needed just a few more."

"Members of the court of Gehenna," Azazel corrected me. "Due to its synchronization with the legend of your predecessor, the number seventy two was selected as the optimal configuration for the court, but you are not Solomon. At least, not the Solomon who came before. As your uncle has taken the mantle of Janus, so too have you stepped into the shoes of a legendary figure."

I barely even heard him. I was bust counting. Guitar, Piano, First Aid. All Skills I possessed but never used anymore. When I located them, sure enough, the beings representing them were…weak. They felt like G-rankers or something. I turned to raise an eyebrow at Azazel. "What's with them?"

He shrugged. "Unused potential. Demons in Gehenna aren't Skills or Techniques anymore. They're beings. Rather than having ranks, demons have tiers. Those are low tier mostly. One and two. Of course, they can get stronger, and will over time."

Zeke's head snapped up. "They can WHAT?" he said harshly.

"They can get stronger," Azazel said calmly. "We all can. As living beings, and ones with histories and personalities synthesized by the reincarnation tree, we can learn and grow, and the Skills and Techniques we represent grow alongside us."

That brought me up short. "Wait…my Skills improve THEMSELVES?" I asked in disbelief. "Like, even if I do nothing?" I followed that concept to its logical conclusion and the blood drained out of my face. "You said they're not confined by my rank anymore. You told me that during our meeting. That my Skills could continue to grow. That wasn't just about normal rank up mechanics for Skills. That was about TIers right? Like you're tier…what? Seven?" He nodded. "So you could break through to Legendary, or rather Tier Eight, and my own rank wouldn't mean anything."

He nodded, and Callie looked confused. "I don't get the big deal." She smiled apologetically at Azazel. "No offense, self training skills are great, I'm sure. It solves a lot of problems for Shane, but why is that so important."

"Because they aren't SKILLS," Zeke said quietly. "They're DEMONS. Physical creatures. Living breathing entities native to this Domain. Which is STUPIDLY rare on its own, but does happen. But entities have limits. They grow slowly, or with renown. It takes resources, time, fame. Skills just improve with repetition, with knowledge. These demons are embodiments of Skills and Techniques. Which means they grow the same way."

I swallowed hard as I said aloud the thought that had only just occurred to me. "And Skills don't have limits. Or requirements like Chronicles or Sagas. Skills can continue to grow without limits. Which means if all of my demons keep getting stronger…:

Callie's jaw dropped as the logical conclusion we'd all reached hit her like a train. "They could keep growing to S-rank. Or higher. If they keep growing with no bottlenecks, someday, you might have seventy two GODS inside of your soul." As she spoke, the words echoed in the huge chamber, bouncing off the walls and reverberating through the space like a divine edict. Azazel had been right. My Domain was something no one had ever seen before. And I wasn't sure if I was thrilled or terrified.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I needed to sit down. Luckily, I was standing inside of a massive marble palace with lots of seating. So I found a chair and flopped into it, trying not to wince at the clang of armor on marble. "Remind me to get you guys cushions," I told Azazel with a grimace. "These chairs can't possibly be comfortable."

He shrugged. "Haven't really used them yet. Things are still settling. I take it you're still trying to wrap your head around the changes?"

"You mean how my entire system of cultivation has fundamentally deviated from the norm?" I asked wryly. "Yeah, it's still sinking in. How am I going to progress? What even AM I at this point? Am I still an Ascendant?"

Zeke snorted. "Don't be so dramatic. You're a divergent. It happens. Not OFTEN, granted, but it does. In fact, almost every Demigod and higher is some sort of divergent. Normal cultivation doesn't have methods for gathering Impact. You kind of have to blaze your own trail. Like how the Unity created Heroic Cultivation."

"Yeah, why exactly does that count as its own separate method?" I asked bluntly. "I've always wondered about that. Like isn't it just…NOT having a Job?"

"Heroic cultivation is pretty intuitive," he allowed. "But it works because of the infrastructure that the Unity built. The Job system was created because just letting raw renown wear away at you was considered dangerous and reckless. The underlying bedrock of Heroic cultivation is the society of heroes and villains that the Unity created to manage and refine that renown. Rather than change the input, he changed the source. It counts.

"Of course, it IS rare for someone to diverge so early," he admitted. "Most only do it later into S-rank. But it DOES happen. Think about how Lark gets stronger by eating others. Reaching Demigod is doable without diverging, because S-rankers are pretty close, and there are other ways to get Impact, but past that point, there's no other way to become a god. Rather than freaking out about how different you are, it would be best to figure out what this means for you. Can you access your stat sheet yet?"

Wishmaster heir status. C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Wish- Nine times a day grant a Master wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Grandmaster Path of the Demonbinder- The budding Domain of a Great King.

Wishmaster candidate points-1000

Might-640,923

Impact-155

Fantasy-325,780

Vitality-331,257

Focus-529,835

Perception-361,873

Creation-312,871

Progress to next rank:2,502,694/10,000,000

Soul strength- Tanzanite Soul Body

Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:2- 1 Zagan, 1 Leviathan)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 9 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")

Stored: 10 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 7

2.Valtek- Tier 2

3.Cooking- Tier 7

4.Inventing- Tier 2

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Fire Manipulation- Tier 1

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 1

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 6

11.Dust Construction- Tier 5

12. Stone Limb- Tier 6

13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4

14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 6

15.Ripple Running- Tier 3

16.State of Grace- Tier 4

17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4

18.Afterburner- Tier 6

19.Pit of Despair- Tier 6

20.Mountain Stance- Tier 6

21.Heart over Body- Tier 6

22.Mercy Kill- Tier 5

23.Double Trouble- Tier 6

24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5

25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3

26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2

27.Marked for Death- Tier 4

28.False Fatality- Tier 3

29.Blood Curse- Tier 4

30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2

31.Final Strike- Tier 6

32.Overlay- Tier 4

33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3

34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2

35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6

36.Danger Sense- Tier 5

37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6

38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6

39.Belial- Tier 7

40.Abomination Engine- Tier 6

41.Mephistopheles- Tier 7

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6

44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6

45.Mornax- Tier 7

46.Zagan- Tier 7

47.Life Nova- Tier 6

48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6

49.Bael- Tier 7

50.Beelzebub- Tier 7

51.Agares- Tier 7

52.Dantalion- Tier 7

53.Sammael- Tier 7

54.Limbo- Tier 7

55.Gluttony- Tier 7

56.Wrath- Tier 7

57.Pride- Tier 7

58.Retribution- Tier 7

59.Murmur- Tier 7

60.Leviathan- Tier 7

61.Behemoth- Tier 7

62.Glory- Tier 7

63.Abaddon -Tier 7

64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 7

65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6

66.Fate Sense- Tier 6

67.Scent of Truth- Tier 5

68.Damnatio Memoraie- Tier 6

69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6

70. Asmodeaus- Tier 7

71. Astaroth- Tier 7

72. Azazel- Tier 7

It was different. Cleaner in some ways, though also more dense. But beyond that, it was also just…more. I could FEEL them. Each of them. Feel their intent, their emotions. As my eyes scanned the list, I got impressions of them. Zagan's energetic glee, Behemoth's slow regard, Leviathan's fiercely protective nature. Azazel's wisdom.

They weren't just skills anymore. They were actual living beings. They could grow and learn. And each of them was BUILT to be what they were. They knew how to improve, how to get stronger, because it was baked into their very being.

It was kind of scary. I was responsible for all of them now. They were my subjects, my people. But when I thought about it like that, the pressure kind of vanished. I already had subjects. I was going to be the Wishmaster. This was no different. They were my responsibility, sure, but I'd accepted responsibility for far more.

More than that though, I was still catching up to the fact that I had completely changed the game. I'd created something truly new. The Great Book Heavenly Library, the Ten Demons Tree, Doom Sovereign, none of them were dispensable from this new thing I'd created. My experiences had shaped it, my encounters had created it. Gehenna was…well, me. But also not. The staff had simulated real lives for them, all of them perfectly suited to their own progress. The growth potential of my demons was off the charts. No bottlenecks, no renown.

"So…are you all just going to be gods tomorrow?" I asked worriedly. "My soul and Chronicle definitely can't handle that. Maybe one or two of you becoming B-rankers, but nothing beyond that."

Azazel chuckled. "Hardly. Most of us are Tier 7, like you saw, which equates to Grandmaster. Essentially we're as strong as you. But only hypothetically. The forms and pseudo-Domains you made were limited by your own understanding. We're about equal to very low level C-rankers. And we'll grow fairly slowly. For the most part. Your Domain is tied to your Chronicle, and so are we. You've bound pages to Leviathan and Zagan so far, normally that would have been a slight power boost, but given all the changes, it's…more."

I considered it, and it felt like something just whispered the answer to me. "Talent. They'll grow faster. And not just them, the demons…under them?"

"Heirarchies are important in a court," he acknowledged. "Zagan is above Life Nova, for instance. So Life Nova will grow faster, though not to the same extent. Of course, it's a tradeoff. Binding pages to something like Doom Sovereign will dilute the effect. You'd need a lot more of them for it to matter spread across so many demons. Doom Sovereign is one of the core Ministers of the Court. Along with myself and Sammael."

I nodded in understanding. "How about Fate Sense?" I asked. "Isn't that just the same as you?"

He shook his head. "Fate Sense is a natural instinct that all Ascendants have. A factor of the stats affecting your relationship with reality. Your FateWALKER senses are something else. The two did occasionally get mixed up in each other, but they're fundamentally different forces. In fact, that's an example of how Gehenna has changed you. Fate sense is stat based, and is fundamentally impossible to improve without ranking up or gaining stats. The fact that yours can grow is…monumental."

"It's a lot," I admitted. "Almost too much. Like I'm bound to these skills forever now? I can't grow or learn new abilities? Can't invent new techniques?"

He rolled his eyes. "Of course not. The Domain is part of you. You can change your Chronicle, why wouldn't you be able to change your Domain? You can reincarnate demons into new forms, and even upgrade and refine them manually. Don't forget that we were created by a combined effort of yourself and the staff. I wouldn't recommend tinkering with our matrixes until you learn a bit more about them, but your talent for creating techniques is PART of this Domain."

That made me feel better. I'd been worried all the work I'd done had been pointless. But knowing I could improve the demons myself, that I could add or remove skills and techniques, it really put me at ease.

Azazel noticed that, and held up a warning hand. "The higher ranked a demon is the harder they are to alter. Reincarnating one into a new skill or technique is best done at VERY low ranks. As for alterations, small changes done in stages are your best bet, once you reach that point. For now, I would suggest you learn more about how to work with them as they are."

I nodded. I could still tap into those skills. The connection I felt when I looked at the Domain list told me in no uncertain terms these techniques were all part of me still. In fact, I was pretty sure I could combine my pseudo-Domains into even more powerful forms…eventually. That would inevitably involve reincarnation and not to mention the Domain was weighing heavily on my soul.

The Chronicle and the staff had offset the frankly absurd amount of soul strain I should be under constantly, but adding any more functionality to my Domain in the short term was off the table. I was coming to terms with most of it, but I still had another thing to check on. I stood, turning to glance up to the head of the hall, where a large ornate chair stood.

The chair was tall and dark, made of cracked glowing stone in the style of Agares. On either side of it sat pedestals, one with my Ten Demons Tome floating above it, and the second sporting a purple book of lightning and fire. Above the throne hung an illusory tree, representing my staff, while the weapon itself floated across the throne as if waiting for me to take it up and take my rightful seat.

Walking up the stone steps, I reached out, grasping the staff and bracing it on the floor as I turned to sit down. From this vantage, I could look out over my entire Domain, see the faces of every member of my court. Staring down at them solemnly, I nodded once to myself, this was my power now. This was who I was. And I couldn't wait to see what I could build with it going forward.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once I took my seat on my throne, I called for my cabinet. I had to admit, it was a cool feeling sitting up above the throne room, looking at at the rows of bench seating filled with my subjects. I had Archie fly out to get them, and once he was gone, I couldn't help but turn to Zeke. "So…how the hell does this work? I've been in Bethy's Domain before, and seen her use it, but like, how much space is this taking up in the real world?"

He waggled a hand. "Complicated. It's not…it's not like a portal, really, more like a whole bunch of space shoved into a very small area. Domain's are like shallowings, they extrude partway into the Void. Not far enough to run into issues on that side though. Domains don't fully enter the Void until you reach divinity. At which point you join with them and create a world. The process is more complicated than that, but that's the broad strokes."

"So this Domain, despite being HUGE, is only taking up the same amount of space as like…my room?" I asked slowly.

He nodded. "Around that. So once they walk inside, they'll be entering the Domain, at least when you have it projected like this. Of course, it's in your soul in either case, but now that it's been firmly established, you can let people inside directly, without having to take the back way like Callie does."

I nodded along, but wasn't really paying attention. My thoughts were on my next steps. Namely, on what information Wulf was bringing and what I could do with it. Then I blinked. Because I didn't need to do anything. I glanced up. "Dantalion," I called out into the crowd. "Come up here."

The man who emerged from the crowd wasn't what I expected. He looked old for one. Like very old. He was wearing a heavy brown robe, his back hunched with age. "Your grace," he said, his voice creaking as he bowed deeply. "How may I serve?"

I debated telling him to relax, but I knew that it wouldn't make a difference. The Domain was part of me, but the demons weren't ME. They were unique entities, and they would act as their life experience and personality dictated. "I have a subject coming here with news. I need you to analyze the data for me."

Gehenna had fundamentally changed several things about me and the way my abilities worked. The longer I stayed there, the deeper my understanding got. Firstly, there was the concept of incarnation. Though it sounded similar to REINCARNATION it was very different,.

All of my Skill and techniques were still Skills and techniques, but they were ALSO demons. Demons, because of the abilities of the staff, that had entire lifetimes simulated for them, in which their sole purpose was to improve and refine the Skill or technique they were a manifestation of.

I could still use those Skills easily, tapping into them directly as I always had, but I also had a new and more deadly application of my powers. Incarnation. By allowing a demon to possess me, I gained access to their memories and skillsets as they applied to their powers.

Essentially, incarnating allowed me to become a perfect master of my Skills up to the point they had progressed, and I could even do incarnate multiple demons at once. However, the tradeoff was that I had to bear the weight of their experiences in my mind as I did so. More incarnations meant more burden, and while I could use things like Piece of Mind to offset it somewhat, it still placed limitations on my ability to use my various demons.

Because of the Domain's existence though, there was another option. I could also just ASK the demons to do things for me. My demonic subjects were real beings, and while they weren't very well suited for the environment outside of my Domain (they could leave, but staying out long term without me acting as a host would cause them to become listless) they were masters of their own unique applications.

So asking Dantalion to personally search for the answers would be easier and more effective than doing it myself, barring a strenuous incarnation session that I really didn't need to bother with.

Dantalion's face lit up, and he nodded excitedly. "Of course, your grace. I am ever at your service."

"Good to know," I said cheerfully. "And now's your chance." I nodded to the door. "It seems our guests have arrived." Without any verbal reminder, Azazel stepped out of the crowd of demons, approaching the entryway. He flung the massive double doors open, admitting my cabinet and several of my other friends, all of whom looked awestruck. Or most of them did. One in particular looked a bit more…unhappy.

Bethy was pouting like there was no tomorrow. "Your Domain is so much bigger than mine," she complained. "And it comes with all these new friends!"

"Your Domain is full of cute animals though?" I pointed out calmly. "Isn't that better?"

"I brought them in myself though!," she grumped. "These guys were already here when you got the place."

I rolled my eyes, turning to my cabinet members. "Wulf," I called. "You got any information for me? Because I need SOMETHING." I needed to know what was going on, what Apostate was, who the hell the witnesses were going to be, how strong they were, and what they could do so I could devise countermeasures. I was operating at a huge dearth of information, and if I didn't FIX that before I was summoned to The Quiet Room, Callie and I were going to be in a lot of danger.

Wulf, who had been looking around the throne room in awe, shook off his stupefaction. "Huh? Right, information. I have quite a bit. You said find EVERYTHING, so I did." Holding out his hands, he retrieved a huge box from his ring, the whole thing stacked high with folders and paperwork.

I nodded to Dantalion, who hurried forward to take the box, then walking over to sit on one of the benches. He placed his hands on the box, closed his eyes, and the air began to crackle. As we watched, the letters on the pages flickered like sparks of purple lightning, and then they began to climb across the pages toward his hands.

My eyes widened. I hadn't know I could do that. I mean, yes, I realized there were more powerful applications for my forms, and Dantalion in particular, given the interaction it had with the computer back on the heirworld. But this was something totally different. This wasn't just processing information, it was CONSUMING it. I wondered exactly what difference the method of integration made in the process. I trusted it did something, but what exact effect it might have was anyone's guess.

"Well, that's…unsettling," Wulf said from where he was standing. "There's something weirdly intimidating about someone EATING information in front of me. I just hope it's not some kind of omen."

"It's not," Azazel chimed in from nearby. "Your impending horrible death has nothing at all to do with your career."

Wulf froze, staring at him in horror, and I rolled my eyes. "Don't listen to him. His powers don't work like that." I paused. "Probably. I think." I glanced over at where Dantalion was hunched over a box of papers doing things I hadn't considered possible until a moment ago. "You…were joking, right?"

My Minister snorted. "I was, yes. I have a dark sense of humor. Shall I see to your guests while we wait for the results? Not that I'll need to do much, they seem to be well taken care of."

I turned to find my cabinet members being approached by various demons. Marco was talking to Inventing, who was thrilled to pick the brain of a much more powerful inventor. Peter and Holly were talking to Eye of Revelation, Dante to Abaddon, and the various others were quickly being waylaid by various others. I raised an eyebrow at him. "And I'm supposed to believe that was an accident?"

"Doom Sovereign and Sammael WERE hoping for a word," he admitted. "The three of us represent the trinity of your power. Despite our interconnection, we are all independent aspects of your power, with myself representing the more abstruse mechanics of your abilities, Sammael the physical, and Doom Sovereign the breadth of your Skills. When you aren't active here, we'll be the ones keeping the peace and acting as commanders. It would behoove you to actually meet them before you move on with your business, vital though it might be."

"You're right," I sighed. "Where are they? I don't see them around here."

He pointed across the throne room, to where a small stone door glowed with green runes. "You've yet to explore the entire space, my lord. Perhaps you might take the time to do so once matters have come to a close regarding the trial."

When we reached the door, we stepped inside quietly, leaving the others to talk to the demons. Inside, I found a pair of figures. Doom Sovereign looked…regal. He was a tall, pale man with long blonde hair and a black iron crown. He actually looked a lot like the final boss of the DS campaign, though I hadn't played it in years. I nodded to him solemnly, before turning to look at Sammael.

The demon embodiment of my racial trait looked…kind of like me. Not like Azazel did, mind. Azazel was just me with horns and a goatee (for whatever reason), Sammael looked like what I would have been if I'd been born an angel. Callie's features had changed a LITTLE with her conversion, but not too much. I could see now that she must have wanted that to happen.

Despite being mainly human shaped, angels were NOT human. Everything about Sammael, from his cheekbones, to the shape of his eyebrows to his ears was just slightly wrong. Not that he looked bad. It was the opposite. His features were too perfect, too symmetrical. They were inhuman. He seemed to notice me noticing, because he grinned at me. "It's like looking in a mirror, huh?"

"Don't be a smartass," I told him dryly. "I'm still in charge of you." I turned to Doom Sovereign. "How about you, no mocking quips?"

He snorted. "Such behavior is beneath me. A true ruler is magnanimous."

"Yeah, he's not much fun," noted Sammael. "But he IS smarter than he looks. And he's uniquely suited to deploy our forces. I'm not really built for that. Doom Sovereign is your tricksy deck of trump cards side. I'm more the hit it til it breaks type. After all, when you designed me, it was with the intent of creating an angelic form that could stand up to enemies directly."

I rolled my eyes. "I know what I intended. I was the one who intended it. What's your point?"

"My point is that he's got experience and tactical acumen we don't," he said with a sigh. "And he has ideas for how we can handle The Quiet Room. We don't know who or what is coming, but there's ways we can mitigate that weakness. Create contingency plans based on potential outcomes."

I raised an eyebrow. "You can't create contingency plans based on 'anything can happen'. That's not a plan. It's a wild shot in the dark."

"It WOULD be a wild shot in the dark," he acknowledged. "IF we were shooting in the dark. But you seem to be forgetting. We happen to have a flashlight." He jerked his chin at the third member of our little quadret, and I froze, looking at Azazel with an intensity that I imagined was quite offputting.

He sighed. "I can't ensure any results will be certain," he hedged. "But I could probably narrow things down a bit." Walking over to the table at the center of the room, he sat down. "I can make a few predictions, and we can use the data from Dantalion's analysis to narrow them down. So I suppose we should hurry up. He'll be done soon. Come sit down then, let's gaze into the future."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The process of Azazel divining the future was…complicated. Mostly because it was almost completely new to me. It wasn't based on Doom Sovereign, or on normal Ascendant divination as I'd heard of it. It was more…abstruse. As Azazel explained it, his skills were entirely synthesized by the Ten Demons Tree. He had an entire lifetime of memories of slowly learning to predict the future through trial and error.

"Basically, my powers work on probability," he said as he slowly withdrew a series of small carved bone chips. Symbols were inscribed all over them, but rather than just rhowing them, he began scratching a complicated diagram on the surface of the table. "I can't tell you what's going to happen. I can tell you what MIGHT happen, and I can somewhat sense how likely that is, in the abstract."

"So you can find us the most likely outcomes," I clarified. "Predict the biggest potential dangers?"

He waggled a hand. "Not exactly. My predictions are based on available data, my own perceptions, and my involvement in the incident in question. Just because an outcome is the most likely one I see, doesn't mean it's the most likely in general. But I can somewhat refine things as I go. That's why I'm willing to do this. When Dantalion is finished deducing the data, we can add it to that prediction matrix during the session."

I nodded, not really understanding but pretty sure I wasn't going to get it completely. It made more sense to move on. "Alright, so how do we start?"

He set the bone chips on the table, carefully sorting them and selecting a few after careful scrutiny, then handed me five of them. There were, interestingly enough, seventy two chips. I suspected this little trick used my Domain as a basis, and it was a fascinating thought. My individual demons being able to derive more advanced powers through the Domain itself would be potentially game changing later.

When I mentioned it though, he just shook his head. "As the last demon to form, and also the first in some senses, my presence is intricately bound to the rest of the court, and to yourself. The chips represent you and the others, and I'm not included. It's possible you'll be able to derive more powerful functions from the others as you improve the Domain, but it won't be soon. You can think of this as a special level of access I'm due as your first Minister."

"Ah, so you're second in command around here, and you can use the Domain for a few of your own tricks because of the access level," I clarified as I took the chips. "Good to know. So what do I do here? What does any of this mean?"

He gestured at the formation on the table. "This is the wheel of chaos. It contains all things and transforms all things. The collisions of the variable forms and the curves of the shifting diagrams are an every expanding and rapidly changing tapestry of possibility." He pointed at the bone chips. "These are the lodestones of fate. They represent the journeys of those inscribed. I can't just predict any future, only OUR futures, and not my own. But using yourself and my seventy one brothers as anchor points, I can pivot the lens of the infinite potential outcomes to gaze upon the external mysteries, briefly glimpsing the truth beyond my sphere of influence."

"Huh," I said slowly. "That was extremely unhelpful. I understood exactly none of it."

He snorted. "Don't worry about it. Shake the tiles and throw them onto the formation. I'll do the heavy lifting."

"See, was that so hard?" I complained as I shook the handful of chips.

Tossing them out, a watched the formation crackle with purple electricity as they bounced once, twice, and then, with a snap, they were sucked down onto the table as if magnetically attracted, slamming down on the wood face up and then sliding along the formation until they reached a specific spot.

Azazel hummed with interest, then began carving strange formuli on the table next to the formation. Green flickers of toxic flame spat and hissed in the obsidian material, showing me that everything here was constructed by Agares, not that I was surprised. Finally, he finished.

"I have a few tidbits," he said slowly. "But things are murky. I don't have enough information for a proper reading. Sam, go get Dantalion."

Sammael nodded, rising and striding out of the door. Doom Sovereign watched carefully, trying to see something in the jumble of random information and clearly having as little success as I was. "Dom," snapped Azazel. "Throw these four tiles." He passed them to the regal looking blond, who nodded and did as he was told. Azazel stared down, calculating more, and resumed his carving.

Sammael came back, bringing Dantalion along with him. The hunched elder bowed deeply to me, and then to the ministers, before setting a hand on Azazel's shoulder. His eyes sparked purple, and a surge of electricity poured from one demon to the other. Azazel's eyes glowed the same shade, and he smiled wolfishly. "That's new," he commented.

Dantalion shrugged. "When I consume the information like that, I can redistribute it. Saves the trouble of transcription."

Azazel nodded absently, then picked up another handful of tiles and threw them. The same surge of electricity, the same snap of attracted bone. But this time I was able to see that he wasn't just clocking their final positions. He was studying the paths they took. His formulas were a sort of shorthand notation to track progress.

"First bit of information," he said slowly. "You were right, the Apostate is one of the witnesses. I don't have the data to figure out which, but he WILL be present during the final battle in The Quiet Room."

I nodded. "Ok, good to know. What about the identities of the witnesses? Anything on that?"

He shook his head. "Unclear. I can't get anything that specific. This whole situation is a mess. And I think The Quiet Room is blocking my divination attempts atemporally. Which is absurd, and would be way more shocking if it hadn't been made by a god to keep other gods out of his business. As it is, I'm only getting quick flickers of potential outcomes, and only because we're inside your Domain, and you'll also have it open when the incident is occurring."

That…actually made sense. If Domain's were partial Void shallows anchored to a soul that meant they existed partially outside realspace. Still, I didn't think it was as easy as he was making it sound. If a Domain was enough to bypass The Quiet Room it wouldn't be considered god proof.

Seeing my skepticism, he chuckled. "My abilities leverage advantages we all have. Having so many points of contact, both unique and cohesive, gives me an unusual amount of grip on the possibilities. Especially considering the connective tissue of the Domain itself is the Ten Demons Tree, and we've all been more or less created by the tree, which is connected to your soul. For all intents and purposes, you're asking me to look into my own future, for some values of selfhood. Of course, I can't look at what my fate is as an individual, but there's a layer of separation between yourself and us, even if it can get a little fuzzy."

Doom Sovereign grimaced. "Your esoteric babbling is unnecessary. We seek only results."

"You say that because YOU can't do this," Azazel said waspishly. "But our lord possesses all that I am, as well as access to your own considerable power. He can learn this method, and should he understand it, his safety will increase when he is out of reach of our assistance. Not that I expect that to happen, but better safe than sorry."

"I appreciate that," I told him kindly. "But Dom is right. At least in this instance. I'd love to learn more from you, and I might try incarnation soon to pick this up more easily, but you've explained the basics and now we need to focus. You had him throw, so what kind of feedback can you give?"

He sighed, but nodded. "Very well. I got some very vague responses. Firstly, you'll need to dispatch Dom to fight independently, mobilizing several of his subordinates. I can't get an exact number of enemies confirmed, but there's enough that the forces you're bringing won't match up."

Which meant there would be at least three witnesses on Devon's side. With Callie and Roland as my backup, I was confident in a three on three. For some reason, I'd envisioned Devon bringing two just like I was, but if he had something up his sleeve, it was good to know about it.

I was about to pry more into the possibilities, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. I raised an eyebrow, but nodded to Dantalion to open it.

Crell was waiting on the other side. "We just got word. Devon has invoked the charter. He's requested seclusion in The Quiet Room as the tribunal makes their final judgements. He's citing the recent unrest as motivation to seclude early. He says it's evidence that external forces are attempting to sway the course of the trial."

I frowned as I gestured him inside. "The tribunal aren't buying that, are they? Why would I have been involved in the attack AND helped fend it off. Not just saving Devon, I got heavily poisoned by Hatescream's corrupted land. I'd have to be a moron to let myself get nearly killed by a plan I had a hand in."

"They didn't," he said with a sigh. "But while external forces aren't welcome in the trial, the tribunal IS still part of the elder's council. They're receiving subtle pressure from the other branch leaders."

Left unsaid was that they probably weren't resisting too hard. Non-interference was a point of principle, but The Quiet Room was a backup plan created specifically to ensure that very thing. None of them would consider its use to be interfering, or at least not enough to put up more than a token resistance. They had no reason to distrust Devon or his intentions in this matter, and I couldn't really give them one.

Prophecy was notoriously unreliable, and based on Azazel's feedback, it wasn't supposed to even WORK in The Quiet Room. I grimaced. "They tell us who the witnesses are ahead of time by any chance?"

"Nope," he said tiredly. "We won't find out until you actually get there. And I won't find out at all. Like I said, no lawyers in the box. It's an anti-tampering measure, and for some reason everyone has a deep and fundamental distrust of giving us unsupervised access to the witnesses." He snickered wryly. "Can't really blame them there."

"Granted," I laughed. "But it doesn't make my job easier. You get in touch with Roland already? Make sure he's prepared?" I paused. "Wait, we can bring weapons in, right?" I hadn't even considered what to do if they tried to disarm us. Forget Roland being weakened, Callie and I had our weapons in our SOULS. I had no idea if it was even possible, but I definitely had no desire to find out the answer in either case.

Thankfully, he shook his head. "Nah, it's generally accepted that weapons are kind of superfluous. You're Ascendants. You won't have a problem killing each other one way or the other. However, there IS a time constraint. You've been requested immediately. You're to be locked up until the end of the trial, at which point you and Devon will receive the final judgement together."

I glanced at Azazel, who nodded back solemnly, and I sighed as I stood. "Alright. I'll retract the Domain. You take the others out of here, I doubt they'd react well to me trying to sneak you in." As for the demons…I'd cross that bridge if I came to it. Hopefully it wouldn't be an issue. I had enough problems.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It was a long walk to the council chamber. Or rather, it felt long. Callie was with me, but the others mostly stayed behind. They didn't want to see me marching off to get locked up for days on end with potential enemies. My parents came with us, and even my dad looked tense. I raised an eyebrow at him as we walked. "Why do you look so morose? We're the ones who are going to be locked up in a box for the next three days."

He frowned. "This feels off. Things aren't proceeding like they should. If you hadn't successfully condensed your Domain, I would have shut this farce down already. As it is, I suppose you can protect yourself, but…"

I nodded. "I get it. I don't like it either, especially not with Callie coming along, but at least we aren't going alone. Roland is one of the top combatants in B-rank in the whole family. Even having Ellie along wouldn't be as safe. He's a friend, and he owes me one besides. I saved his life, remember? He's not going to half ass protection detail."

My mother nodded unhappily. "We know. And no one above B-rank should be entering alongside you. Just don't take anything for granted. Watch out for each other."

Arriving at the council chamber, I was surprised to see Desmond waiting outside for us. At his side, Devon was standing with a pair of men I'd never seen before. When he saw me, he smirked triumphantly. "Ah, the traitor arrives. I see you brought your wife with you. Couldn't find anyone else willing to lie on your behalf?" He didn't mention Roland, but I assumed he was just too scared to talk shit about a powerful B-ranker to their face.

Callie glared at him. "My husband saved your LIFE you ungrateful little twit. I'm starting to think he shouldn't have bothered. Leaving you around to pollute our air with your stupidity is a disservice to the universe. And gods forbid if someone agrees to BREED with you."

I raised an eyebrow at my wife. That was unexpectedly vicious. I guess she was really upset that he was doubling down on this nonsense.

"Don't think I bought his little act," he sneered. "I've long since become aware of your tricks. Having your Void spawn minions try to kill me so you could 'save me' and incur my gratitude? Honestly, did you think I wouldn't figure that out?"

I frowned, because that actually wasn't a completely insane take on the situation, and it would be nearly impossible to disprove. Our arrival just in time to save him WAS incredibly coincidental, I'd even considered that myself. Callie stepped forward, looking about ready to attack him, but I put a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine, love. He's either crooked or stupid, and either way you won't make much headway. Zeke always says: 'never argue with idiots, they'll pull you down to their level and beat you with experience'."

She snorted at that, relaxing under my hand, and I turned to look at my cousin. "So, are you going to introduce the complete strangers you've asked to come here and testify against me? Because I know neither of these people."

The sneer came back, wiping away the outrage from my earlier comments. "Go ahead and pretend. Once we enter The Quiet Room you'll be helpless. We're beyond your ability to harm, and even if we weren't, killing the only witnesses to your crimes will only prove your guilt."

Devon sighed. "We don't have time for this nonsense, both of you save the bickering until you've entered. Opening The Quiet Room isn't something done easily or casually. If Devon hadn't made a legitimately compelling case for possible interference, we wouldn't have agreed to it." His eyes locked on my cousin. "You are aware that should this turn out to be the farce that he claims, your execution will go from a simple soul destruction to a fate of such agony and cruelty that hardened Ascendant warriors will weep in terror at its mere mention, yes?"

For probably the first time since we'd arrived, I saw a look of unease cross Devon's face. He glanced at us, looking at me, then Callie, then at Roland, presumably worried my friend would just kill him. I imagined that option was more tempting than it had been previously. He swallowed hard. "I do," he reaffirmed. "I will not allow his treachery to go unanswered. I will protect this family, whatever it costs me."

To my absolute shock, that actually smelled true. I glanced at the other witnesses. One of them had to be twisting things, whispering in his ear somehow. The question was why did he trust them so much? Why were they able to convince him they knew the truth? "You never answered my question, Devon," I reminded him. "The witnesses?"

He shrugged. "Very well, since you can hardly bully or threaten them at this point, or have your minions do it anyway, I suppose I can share. This is Franklin Delmand, and this is Callister Vex."

Roland snorted. "The PAPER king?" he blurted out. "Your witness is the PAPER king?"

One of the men, a copper haired, sallow faced youth with a curly mop partly covering his steel grey eyes, scowled. "That incident isn't relevant to my credibility! It was a slight crafting error, nothing more."

I cocked my head at my friend, who laughed. "Callister here tried to open a paper company, supplying the family with all its stationary needs. Contracts are big business here, you know? Unfortunately for him, there was a small issue with his crafting process. One that didn't become noticeable for several months after production, specifically after the paper had time to completely dry."

"It's paper," I said dryly. "What kind of issue could be that big of a scandal?"

"It had a tendency to…explode," the bronze haired man said begrudgingly. "But only a little! And only like…five percent of the time. Almost no one died!"

I snorted. "Ah yes, minimal casualties, the hallmark of good stationary."

Roland chuckled, then looked at the other man, an incredibly tall, gaunt behemoth with bulging muscles and a long curly beard. "You I only know by combat reputation. I heard you killed Craven Sever. I fought him once. Scary old man. Every single one of the pages of his chronicle was bound with the death of a rising star of the new generation, someone capable of fighting up a rank. He was getting close to A-rank, wasn't he?"

The big man nodded. "I would have been his hundredth."

I whistled. I'd heard of people like that. A lot of people didn't create their Domain at B-rank, but waited until A-rank or even higher. Theoretically, the more distinguished and impressive your pages, the more powerful your Chronicle, and the stronger the Domain it could bear. Domain strength had a large impact on the eventual power of a god, and on the strength of an Ascendant in general. I'd somewhat cheated by using the staff to share the burden, and the function of my Gehenna Domain was abnormal anyway, but if this Craven Sever guy had bound a Chronicle with pages like that, he'd have been incredibly strong at A-rank.

"Since the defense may not be aware," Desmond said after we finished speaking. "I will introduce the concept of The Quiet Room." We shut up to let him talk. "In situations where outside interference is suspected, the prosecution may invoke the use of The Quiet Room. This room is a place of absolute solitude that defies all means of observation, communication, or manipulation.

"Due to the suspicions from the prosecution, the defense was not notified of this change," despite the words, his tone was knowing, and he smiled slightly at me. They hadn't told us, of course, but we'd been advised to study the charter. Clearly my lack of surprise made it obvious we'd listened, and were prepared for this eventuality. "Of course, to preserve the safety of the two sides, you will be placed on opposite ends of The Quiet Room space. Should you choose to seek each other out to interact, we will be unable to intervene, but as mentioned, any deaths will negatively impact the case of the surviving participants. Do you have any questions?"

"Um, where is The Quiet Room?" I asked slowly, raising my hand subconsciously like a school kid. "This is the entrance to the council chamber, right?"

He nodded. "It is. And it isn't. The council chamber and The Quiet Room are both sealed spaces created by the ancestor. This door represents the entrance to several similar locations, each of them connected directly in the Void at hidden locations. Externally, only the ancestor is aware of their coordinates, and internally, only this one door can be used to access them. This is the most heavily guarded location in the palace, and once inside, your safety and solitude from outside forces will be assured."

It sounded like a reassuring answer, but I could see a slight emphasis in his eyes when he mentioned outside forces. He wanted me to be careful of the other witnesses. I contacted Callie directly as we approached the door. "Did you pick up anything about those two?" I asked through the bond. "Any Void energy?"

She sent me a feeling of denial. "Nothing obvious. But I could only sense them if they were actual Void spawn. Vessels can be unpredictable in terms of feedback. Some of them I can pick up, some of them are more deeply hidden. Even higher rankers might not notice, given the Void's ability to isolate and disguise."

I had been afraid of that. Even back during our legion training with Camden, we'd been told about the abilities of Void stealth. Stealth in general operated by confusing Perception, but the Void's ability to remove things from realspace made it unparalleled for disguise and deception. Wise had demonstrated that again on the Heirworld. I slipped my hand into hers, intertwining out fingers as Desmond pushed the doors open. "The defense will go first," he said solemnly. "After ten minutes, the prosecution will enter. Step off the path at any time to arrive at a random location inside The Quiet Room."

We nodded, stepping out onto a long, winding path of pure white light that led off into darkness. Callie, Roland and I stepped onto the path, setting off into the dark as the door closed behind us. We walked for two or three minutes, then stepped off the path as instructed, and…suddenly we were somewhere else. Standing on a plateau overlooking a great desert.

"Alright," I said with a sigh. "Let's set up camp here. I should get some warning before they find us." I contacted Azazel silently in my Domain, telling him to be on alert.

Roland nodded, flopping down on a rock. "Agreed," he groaned. "That was so tense. Being around high ranking members of the family like that always stresses me out. It's creepy not knowing how much they can tell about you. It's like talking to a person with X-ray vision. Who knows what they're looking at. Glad that's over."

"We appreciate the assist," I told him gratefully. "Without you to bear witness, who knows how this would have gone."

"It's nothing," he assured me. "I owe you. Not just for saving me, but for looking into what happened to Darren. He was my friend, you know? I still can't believe he's gone. Making him suffer to the point he destroyed his own soul…it's horrible."

I froze. Because I hadn't mentioned that to anyone. It was a tidbit that Wulf had uncovered during his research, and it had come from a guard who worked for Derran's parents. I'd only learned about it from Azazel's notebook while he was doing the calculations for his precognition. Roland stiffened, his eyes flicking to mine, meeting my gaze and clearly seeing the realization in them. His expression flattened, growing cold. "Oops." And then he attacked.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was already prepared for an attack as soon as Roland reacted. I didn't manifest my full Domain, not wanting to give too much away, but I did trigger the staff, and summon an upgraded Mornax in front of me.

The air blurred, and suddenly a colossal man with long black hair, slate grey skin, and a pair of large horns manifested in between me and the slash. Crossing his arms with a growl of challenge, Mornax took the blow easily, glaring at the swordsman with hostility. Roland smiled warmly, chuckling as he me easily resolve his attack.

"See, this is why I like you, Shane," he said conversationally. "You're so much more competent than you should be. I don't know what that is, but I can feel that it's B-rank. And judging by how easily it shrugged off that blow, it would be tough for me to get through it."

Despite the unfortunate words, he didn't seem particularly worried about the situation. My face was hard. A lot of things that hadn't made sense up until now had just clicked into place.

"Derran was the one who poisoned you," I said coldly. "We were all wondering how the attacker got past the defenses on his quarters. But you didn't have to get past them at all. He let you in. Because he trusted you."

He shrugged. "Yeah, that was a shame. But it was important to control the narrative on the trial. If you'd had your pick of witnesses, things might not have been so easy to set up. With Darren dead and me 'injured', it was obvious I'd be your first pick for a witness." He grimaced. "Didn't expect the little bastard to have such a nasty card to play at the end. I really do owe you for that. I don't think I would have survived."

"Wouldn't that be tragic," I said acidly. He was being too accommodating. I didn't trust it. His hand had drifted to his belt, and I sent a quick message to Callie through the bond. As he surreptitiously drew a small stone dagger from his waist, she began to prepare an exit strategy. "What I don't understand though is…why? What was the point?

"I get the how," I continued, pacing slightly to draw his attention away from my wife as blue rolled through her hair and wings. "Devon was so certain that I did it because you told him. He had a first hand account from someone who had no reason to turn on me. I'm guessing that's why he wouldn't look at you earlier."

He grinned. "Yeah, I was his first pick for witness, obviously. But I needed to make sure that things went smoothly. Of course, in the original plan he would have died in the attack, but you ruined that. Good thing too, because if you hadn't I wouldn't have learned about your little trump card. It would have been inconvenient for me to fail at the last step because you begged your grandaddy for a favor."

"As for why…" he shrugged. "It's nothing personal. You're just in the way. When I approached the vanished gods envoys about this plan, they weren't exactly sold. Hatescream and Stralthrem were only ones willing to entertain the idea, but they weren't sure about taking on the old man. After that mess at the Heirworld, Morwenna was certainly motivated, but she was also wary."

I frowned at that, why would Morwenna be…and then it clicked. "Callie," I said slowly, my blood running cold. "The trial wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed at Callie. You were the one who suggested I call her as a witness. And you arranged this whole thing so we'd end up in The Quiet Room where no one could interfere. You were worried she'd use Gossamer to call on Atlas. That was why Morwenna wouldn't come, she's afraid of him."

"Seems kind of sad to me," he nodded. "Being scared of a dead man. But without her, the whole assault was dead in the water. Even after she managed to break through to Void God, she's too scared of Atlas to act overtly. Wouldn't assist unless I could get rid of your wife." His smile dropped. "That…that's not my favorite part of this, kid. It really isn't. But don't worry. I'll make sure you don't survive her death. I can do that for you at least."

I felt Callie doing…something. The Adherent Fire was gathering, though what she was planning I had no idea. I also felt power gathering in that knife. It was crackling on the air, spitting and hissing in a way I didn't like at all. That weapon was A-rank, and I was assuming it was designed to trigger the defenses on our souls. I had to assume it had at least two shots.

But I trusted Callie. This was a race to the finish, and I would make sure she had the time she needed. I forced myself to engage with him again. "How could you do this?" I demanded. "This is your FAMILY! Your wife's family! What about Delia?"

"I'm DOING this for Delia," he snapped. "And for Penny. This family is SICK, Shane. Parents giving their own children away, not being allowed to see them for most of their lives? The way they treat the defectives? The old man just lets it happen, the council is complicit, the whole thing needs to fucking go! Burn the rot out!" He laughed bitterly. "It was shockingly easy to arrange. No one pays attention to the B-ranker. I'm no threat to any of them, right?"

"And me?" I snarled. "How did you get past me? I can SMELL lies. Do you have some kind of deception Skill?"

He chuckled. "Nothing that complicated, kid. I just never lied to you. It's a habit I developed as a double agent. Too many ways to detect dishonesty. No, the trick is to tell just ENOUGH of the truth to get people where you want them to go." He paused. "Well, I lied to Devon, but he's kind of a dunce, and I only did it when we were alone."

I was frozen, wracking my brain for conversations I'd had with Roland. 'Derran is dead?' Not a statement of ignorance, a question. 'Whoever did that must be a ruthless bastard', because he was. 'I will testify, and there's nothing you can say to talk me out of it', because this was the core of his plan, and he had no other choice. He smiled at me silence. "Just starting to get it, huh? Well, glad I could help put your mind at ease before the end. Which sadly, has now arrived." He raised the knife, and the shiny black stone of the black gleamed wickedly in the dim light of the evening desert. The air around it was shuddering and flickering like the space was glitching out, and a disgusting green yellow light, like a healing bruise, surrounded it like a halo.

As he finished speaking though, something else happened. Black flame flickered to life in his eyes, rolling down his cheeks like tears, and his body began to shift. His hair lengthened and darkened, turning into black thorned lengths of stony meat, horns grew from his head, and a pair of skeletal wings tore free from his back, ropes of diseased flesh snapping from one side to the other to connect them.

From the second I saw the flames, I knew what I was looking at. I recognized them perfectly. "Apostate," I said coldly.

"Yup," he chuckled. "A little gift from Morwenna, just to make sure I finished your girl off properly. Atlas is tricky, and she wasn't taking any chances. This is her own little homebrewed mix of the original Void fire she gave him and all the nastiest corruption abilities she could find. A counterpoint to his purification. She called it the Apostate Fire, because Heretics and Apostates have so much in common."

He held up the knife. "And this…well this is a little trinket she lent me after I got in touch about your defenses. It's called the Bone Demon's Tooth. Empowered A-rank artifact. Let's see if your monster can stop THIS." Before he even finished talking, his arm had blurred, and the world just…split. Mornax dissolved into nothingness, and I was left staring at a purple glowing book hanging in the air in front of me.

The blow was suspended before the attack, but as I watched, it dissolved harmlessly…taking the book with it.

While I was reacting, he'd already lashed out again, and as I watched, Callie's defensive technique dissolved under the onslaught of the Bone Demon's Tooth. It wasn't enough to even scratch the defensive charges…but it didn't need to be. It just needed to be enough to kill us. Enough to force us to either spend the charges or die.

He raised the knife again, his smile almost apologetic, a gruesome dissonance on his new demonic visage. I triggered double trouble, arriving next to Callie, wrapping my arms around her, she was focusing, and I could feel that whatever she was doing was almost done. She just needed another second. Just a little longer. Roland nodded sadly, sighing at the sight of me next to her. "At least you get to go together. I only have three shots with this thing. But I only need one more. Nice knowing you, kid."

His hand flickered as he swung, and the world slowed down. My eyes were wide, my Danger Sense screaming at me. I grabbed for power, for protection, for anything. My Domain exploded outward, interposing itself between us, stretching the distance, buying me precious milliseconds. The slash crossed the intervening space so fast I could barely track it, sweeping through the plains, and I felt a tearing inside me as my Domain was easily torn apart.

Mornax appeared again. He was part of my Domain, and couldn't be destroyed, not unless I was, though he was diminished after his brief death. Behind him Behemoth manifested, then Leviathan, Mountain Stance, Stone Limb. One by one, my demons interposed themselves between my wife and her attempted murdered.

I screamed, my soul feeling like someone was running it through a meat grinder, and nearly collapsed, barely managing to catch myself. My Domain was coming apart, being torn through like paper. It felt like it was taking hours, but it had been maybe one second since the attack began. One second of casual disregard for my power as the demons who made up my court threw themselves on their swords to buy us any time at all. One second was long enough.

Gossamer manifested as Callie raised her blade, wings flaring as I held on for dear life around them. With a scream of effort, she swung her blade, and space TORE. My Domain didn't stop it, didn't even try. She bypassed it entirely, tearing through the fabric of the world and into the void, dragging me through. The blast of horrifying energy struck even as we passed through the gap, and even the aftershock blasting through the hole in the world cracked my armor, sending us both pitching forward as the portal sealed up.

My Domain retracted, ignoring the Void entirely as it was sucked back into my soul. Which was horrifically damaged. Cracks spiderwebbed along the inside of my spirit, barely held together with willpower and habit.

Callie caught me as I pitched forward, and she was screaming something. Tears ran down her face as her mouth worked. I couldn't hear anything, just rushing in my ears as I tried to read her lips. It took me a moment to get it. My name, desperate pleas not to die, and hey, she said she loved me…that was nice. It was a pleasant final sight as my vision dissolved into blackness. As I lost consciousness, I briefly wondered if this would be the very last time. I hoped not, I'd have hated for my last sight of Callie to be her crying.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Shane!" called a voice from the distance. "Shane, PLEASE wake up! Please, baby I need you to open your eyes! Why the hell isn't this WORKING? You said this would fix him!" It took me a second to process the words, and before I could work through what they meant, I registered the voice. Callie. She sounded upset. Had something happened? My eyes shot open and I sat up with a guttural, throat tearing roar of agony as my brain caught up to the soulcrushing torment I was feeling from…basically everywhere. "Oh thank the gods!"

A pair of strong arms clamped around me, and I had to choke back an agonized howl. Every inch of my skin felt like it was wrapped around something jagged. My whole body was the next best thing to a bag of broken glass and lemon juice in terms of sensation. It hurt so badly I almost vomited from the pain.

Callie hissed in panic, jerking away from me, and my body slumped as I tried to get my brain working again. Forcing my absurdly heavy eyelids open, I raised my eyes to take in my wife's tearstained face. And her hair. Which was green and on fire. I frowned. "How…?"

She glanced down at herself, then laughed. "Oh, right. Zagan. I'm acting as a host so I could heal you. Genesis Burst too. And Life Nova. Azazel said we needed all three, apparently it's a fucking MESS in there." At my confusion, she grimaced. "That last attack from Roland came VERY close to shattering your soul. Apparently Asmodeus and Leviathan stepped in at Dom's orders. Azazel took charge of things after that and has been on damage control."

"How do you know all this?" I asked fuzzily. "You shouldn't have access to my Domain, especially not now."

"Angelic Bond," she explained wryly. "Turns out because of our connection he can directly access the church in my soul space. He's been ferrying demons across to supplement my reconstruction efforts. Honestly, I'm kind of glad that I can't see inside, because Azazel says it's BAD. If you didn't have a frankly absurd amount of regenerative abilities, all of which are unusually powerful, and if you weren't wearing the seal, you would probably be dead."

I grimaced. "Yeah. I SHOULD be dead. And would be, if it wasn't for you. How did you get us to the Void? I thought this place was sealed off?"

"I didn't," she clarified. "We never entered the Void. Not exactly. More of a…shadow of realspace. That was why it took so long. I've been working on that technique for a while now, but I hadn't tested it. I though we were done for. I can't believe your Domain was able to block that."

"It absolutely did NOT," I laughed bitterly. "I didn't BLOCK shit. Blocking implies that I stopped the attack. I threw pieces of my soul in front of it in succession to create drag, and even that wasn't enough in the end." I looked around. "Where are we, actually? We're still inside The Quiet Room, I take it?"

She nodded. "I couldn't really take us too far. But now that we're away, my Adherent Fire and my old Stealth Skills are more than up to snuff to hide us. Roland won't be able to track us down for a while." She bit her lip. "I'm just worried you won't recover in time."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about that. We knew this trip might be dangerous, so I made some preparations." Holding out my hand, a tightly wrapped, innocuous looking scroll appeared. "I had my dad make this for me. Payment is going to be annoying, but as far as trump cards go, an A-ranked wish scroll seemed like a safe bet."

While I'd tried my best to prep for this mess with Azazel and the others, I wasn't willing to trust my safety (or my wife's) to something as nebulous as luck. Unfortunately, I had absolutely ZERO chance of being able to successfully pay off an A-ranked wish, so using it directly was out of the question. Luckily, my dad's ability wasn't the same as the rest of the family. The Wish Devil, in exchange for the loss of his three times modifier, had obtained the ability to create incredibly one sided and even unwanted deals.

This particular scroll fell mostly into the first category. Or rather, it still had to be paid off, but the method of doing so was much less stringent. The scroll had been modified to absorb energy. With a two rank gap in power, the actual AMOUNT of the stuff that was needed was pretty staggering, but given a few hours of charge time, quantity could make up the quality.

I explained all of this to my wife, and she almost collapsed from relief. "Oh thank the gods. I take it Azazel didn't know?"

"No time," I shrugged. "He passed it to me right before we went inside. Or rather, he had Crell do it." I grimaced. "I wish I'd had time to charge the damned thing, we could have used it to tank that last hit from Roland. But things went wrong too fast. I can use it for my recovery though. Unlike the standard Wish power, my dad's ability has a much easier time interacting with souls, as you might have noticed when we saw him ripping them out of A-rankers."

She snorted. "Burying the lead there, hon, but yeah I get it." She reached down, gingerly taking the scroll, and the green faded from her hair, leaving her with the blue of the Adherent Archangel. Frowning, she started channeling energy into the scroll, her hands catching fire. "I'm surprised you're allowed to have this, actually."

"My dad isn't a member of the palace," I chuckled. "Nothing he does really counts as violating any mandates. Between his position as an outsider and the unique setup of his power, this was pretty much all he could do."

"Seems like it'll be enough," she smiled worriedly. "The main question is, though, what do we do AFTER? Like once you're fixed up we're still stuck in here with multiple B-rankers who want to kill us. Taking out Roland might be doable, but even if you can fight him head to head, that leaves me fighting three on one. Our plans with Azazel were all predicated on even odds. We were counting on Roland helping us."

I shook my head with a frown. "We were counting on that because of a prediction Azazel made. But I think we might have misinterpreted that. I mean, yes, we could have just been wrong, but I don't think so. We're in here with three enemies…but possibly not four."

She stared at me for a moment and then groaned. "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me. You want to try to flip Devon, don't you?"

"I mean, I don't think flip is the right term," I corrected. "More like inform. Devon isn't the asshole we thought he was. He's just an egotistical moron. Roland played right into his blind spot, but then, he did the same thing to us, so I can't really throw stones. Now that we know who was poisoning the well, though, we can correct his misunderstandings."

"I'm not sure trading a B-ranked sword genius in for your brat cousin is the strategic coup you think it is," she pointed out sourly.

I rolled my eyes. "Obviously this isn't an ideal situation. But he SHOULD be able hold his own. He was reasonably confident in his chances as a candidate, and even if we assume he was massively overestimating himself, lots of people were of the opinion that he could pull something off in the succession war. Also…" I hesitated. "I don't want him to die. I don't want my uncle to have to go through what my aunt did. Devon and Percy are assholes, but they don't deserve that."

She reached out with the hand that wasn't funneling power into the scroll, lacing her fingers in mine. "You think we can help him?" She asked sadly. "I mean, he knew the price for initiating the trial…"

"Except he didn't initiate it," I pointed out. "Roland did. He just used Devon as a cat's paw. He admitted as much to us directly. Sure, it's a technicality, but this is the Wish Curse Palace. We live for technical bullshit. Especially since given Roland's confession, we can directly dismiss the charges, and my position as heir will be secure. I have enough power to forcibly substitute one execution for another."

Callie looked at me worriedly. "You say that like you're going to carry out the sentence yourself. Despite what an asshole he is, you considered him a friend until not long ago. Can you really do that?" I glanced at her, and she held up her hands. "This isn't a judgement thing, I'm a hundred percent in your corner here. I'm asking you literally. CAN you do that? Are you capable of destroying the soul of someone you cared about not long ago."

My voice hardened, becoming cold. "Roland betrayed us. Tried to kill you. DID kill Derran. He confessed directly. With this trial under false pretenses, my position is secure. The rules about killing people in here are void, at least in this scenario." I held up a hand to cut her off. "And yes, I know that isn't what you meant. And the answer is…yes. Yes I can kill him. Really. Completely. I've killed before. Even destroyed a soul. I can do it again."

It made me sick to say it. Not because he didn't deserve it, but because it was a line I'd only crossed once. Killing Travis had been easy. I hadn't liked him. Hadn't cared about him. And honestly…he wasn't RIGHT. Because Roland was. At least somewhat. His anger at the system that had caused the death of his wife was understandable. The way he was handling it was obviously awful, but he didn't have that many options.

Despite knowing that though, despite having been his friend, I knew it wouldn't matter. Because he'd killed Derran. Because he's tried to kill me. But honestly either of those I could have probably forgiven. Or at least understood. No, his big mistake was targeting Callie. This had all been about her. Destroying her so that he could inflict Morwenna on my whole family.

Callie's hand squeezed mine, and I winced at the sensation of the bones in my hands grinding together. Everything still hurt. Not just in terms of soul damage, either. I'd tanked the aftershocks of that A-rank attack. The Seal had soaked a lot of it, but I still took the hit. Actually, I turned to check on the condition of my armor. I had to twist painfully to check the back, but what I saw made me sigh in relief.

It wasn't GOOD. Cracks spiderwebbed the back of my armor in a serious way. But they were mostly surface level. It had been a glancing blow, and apparently the A-ranked base material of my armor had survived the damage mostly intact. I'd have to get it repaired, but it should hold up for a few more engagements, which meant it would last until we got out of here, at least.

We sat like that for a while, just being together in silence. Callie funneled power into the scroll while I let Azazel and the others work on repairing my soul from the inside. It was slow going on both fronts, but eventually, the scroll reached capacity. There was a flash as the seal on holding it closed flashed, signifying the completion of the charge. I reached out and took it, cut the seal with my thumb nail, then unrolled it. A quick wish, and I settled into heal. Despite having such a convenient method to recover, I was still worried about recovering in time. I just hoped we could get to Devon before they realized he wasn't necessary anymore.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I groaned in relief as the last of the incredibly dense soul restoration energy was burned off. It felt familiar, like a much denser version of the belt of spiritual calming Benny had made all those years ago. Of course, even the wish wouldn't have been enough to quickly repair all the soul damage on its own. But luckily, it didn't need to.

My Ten Demons Tree had originally been a reincarnation tree, a special tree of the soul attribute. Combined with the abilities of Genesis Burst and Life Nova, it was able to quickly absorb and then distribute the power throughout my Domain. The phantom tree above my throne wasn't just an illusion, its roots were the connecting fibers that had helped my Domain condense, and they spread throughout its entirety.

"How are you feeling?" Callie asked worriedly as I stood and stretched. "Is there any permanent damage?"

I shook my head. "Nope. As expected of an A-rank wish. I have to thank you for charging it though. I hadn't expected to need it so soon, and given my condition I was absolutely not going to be able to do it myself." I looked at my back with a grimace. "I just wish it was able to fix my armor, too. I don't like walking around with it cracked like this. Makes me feel exposed."

She nodded, looking around worriedly. "I don't think that's just the armor. We should really go. Roland will be looking for us, and if he finds us before we run into Devon, he might delay us too long to save him."

"Agreed," I said as we set off in a seemingly random direction. Once the repairs were done, I'd consulted Azazel and had him do some divination. While he couldn't exactly divine Devon's whereabouts here, he COULD divine which direction was most likely to lead to us running into him. This kind of yes or no query was one of the most effective types of divining, so even in a place like The Quiet Room it wasn't hindered much.

The spot we'd landed was secluded and remote, but once we set off, we lost all semblance of cover. Within about ten minutes we'd shifted terrains, arriving in a series of flat plains dotted with strange purple flowers. The faces of the plans had strange evil smiles on them, and their eyes were sharp and mocking. It was really disconcerting. Especially since they started to whisper as we entered the area, releasing clouds of incredibly thin powder that made my head a little fuzzy.

A quick burst of Zagan and tapping into Leviathan erased the effects, and Callie's Heretic Fire had enough purification energy to wipe her clean, so we weren't in DANGER, the environment was just really creepy.

"Hoo!" came a menacing cry. I spun, jerking back with a yelp as an owl appeared right in my face, talons extended. I dodged easily, but as soon as I lost sight of it…it vanished. I stood back up, looking around suspiciously. Nothing. No birds, no animals at all, actually. The flowers were the most sentient thing we'd seen since we arrived in this place.

I squinted around, turning to look for the- "Oh fuck!" I shouted, stumbling back as the owl once again appeared from nowhere with a screech, razor sharp talons heading for my face.

"What is the deal with this OWL?" I snapped, spinning to look for it after it once again vanished. Then I paused. "Actually…what IS the deal with this owl?" I glanced at Callie. "Have you seen any other living creatures here? Not plants, but actually thinking animals? Because we've been walking for a while and I didn't notice any."

She frowned. "I…no, I haven't seen any. Why is there an owl here then?"

A shriek echoed over the plain, and I turned to see the owl flapping its wings lazily above the flowers. "Hoo!" it chanted mockingly.

I took a step forward, and it tilted gracefully, falling backwards and flapping once, coasting backwards away from us. "Oh come on!" I snapped. "That's not even how WINGS work! You can't glide on your back like that!"

"Hoo!" it repeated. I had no idea how it was managing to pack so much scorn into such a short, clipped syllable, but it was doing a great job.

"I think it wants us to follow it," Callie said, her eyes wide and excited as she stared at the animal. Callie liked birds, and while I was predisposed to MY bird, I knew enough about owls to know that this one was probably a huge dick. Still, she wasn't wrong, so I suppressed a sigh and trailed after it.

While it led us on a mostly parallel path at first, the owl turned and headed off in a slightly different direction several times, adjusting our course. I frowned as I followed it. Nothing was supposed to be able to get in here, especially not an animal, so what was this thing? It seemed to be leading us towards my cousin, but could we trust it?

The answer, apparently, was yes. Within thirty minutes we arrive at a cliff, looking down on a familiar trio of people. Devon was in bad shape. He'd been beaten mercilessly, carved up enough that there wasn't much clothing left unstained, and was currently trapped inside of some kind of shimmering glass bear trap.

"Why are you DOING this?" he asked desperately. "We're on the same side! You want to bring my cousin to justice as much as I do! I know it!"

Callisted burst out laughing. "Justice? You're talking to US about justice? Do you even know why my business went under? Do you really think a B-rank crafter was SO incompetent that he accidentally shipped out goods so defective they were DANGEROUS?"

Devon frowned. "I…assumed it was an experimental formulation. You said it took a few months for it to settle."

The sallow faced youth sneered. "Of course I did. After all, accusing a bloodline descendant of malfeasance without proof is a punishable offense. The palace is Wyndham territory. How dare any of us lowly hangers on aspire to better ourselves? I was politely informed that my business plan was interfering with the aspirations of one of the branch head's grandchildren. When I wouldn't back down, my product was sabotaged, and that same grandchild arranged to buy my company for pennies. I don't even remember his name. Little moron got bored and abandoned the business within a month."

My cousin flinched. "That's…I didn't know that. If you'd told me I'd have helped you seek restitution." His eyes flickered to Franklin, tone pleading. "And what about you? With your reputation I'm sure you don't have any grievance against the family? We've treated you well, yes? You even proved yourself against a legendary figure."

"Proved myself," the big man said bitterly. "I didn't prove anything. That old man took a dive. His employer didn't like the idea of one of his tools achieving success he hadn't achieved himself. He made Craven offer his life up as payment for his…sponsorship of me. Of course, he was kind enough to let me do the deed myself. Who doesn't want to kill their own grandfather, right?" His tone was cold and sarcastic, but I could see real anger in his eyes. And I didn't blame him.

Devon just looked…devestated. "That's not right," he said weakly. "There are so many opportunities for those outside the bloodline. Even some of the branch heads aren't relatives."

My stomach was churning. Roland. Callister. Franklin. It was easy to be angry at them for participating in this. To hate them for trying to hurt someone I loved. But it was also easy to understand why they were doing this. Roland had lost his wife, Callister had his life ruined, Franklin had to murder his own grandfather. And all of it was because of us. Because of my family.

Even if I assumed that it hadn't been family leadership behind those decisions, it still stemmed from the same general lack of responsibility and care that characterized the Wishmaster position. Aiden had no interest in the day to day running of the family, the elders were concerned with games and one upmanship over everything else, and the old man couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the life or death of his own descendants.

I'd always known what kind of place the WCP was. Always known it was cold, and brutal, but I also knew that it was a place where people could climb higher. Could find opportunity if they were willing to risk.

At its core, my impression of the family and our faction had been…fair. Not nice. But fair. The kind of brutal fairness of a hungry lion stalking a gazelle, maybe. But not this. Not casual cruelty and pointless spite. Not nepotism and incompetence and childish greed destroying people's lives.

And the worst part was that in the end…it didn't matter. I was going to stop them. Maybe kill them. Because what they were doing, no matter how justified, was wrong. Killing Derran, trying to kill Callie, trying to kill all of us really. They were in pain, but I couldn't let them inflict that same agony on the rest of us.

Callie took my hand, and I felt her voice in my mind. "It's not right," she agreed with my strong emotions, without even needing to ask. "But you knew that things weren't right. This doesn't change anything for you. Your responsibility was always to make things better. Now you know more about where to start."

I nodded solemnly. She was right. I sighed. "Get ready to intervene," I told her after a moment. "We need to hit Franklin hard. He's out of our weight class, at least without prep, but he's not expecting an attack. If we hit him hard enough we can scare him off. Priority is extracting Devon and healing him up."

When I got her ok, I turned to stare down at the bigger man. I reached for my Domain, extending it out over the pair as I called for my demons to dwell within my body. Sammael, Abaddon.

Wings expanded behind me as power flooded my body. Inside the palace off in the distance, Zagan, Mephistopheles, and several other high energy demons poured their strength into Abaddon, empowering my physical body. I triggered my staff, boosting the strength based demon to Tier 8, and used Double Trouble as I called my weapon to my hand.

I didn't do anything fancy. Didn't, twirl or wind up. I hauled back, my grip choked up on the staff, and swung it like a club at the back of Franklin's head with every ounce of power in my body.

Despite my perfect timing, the use of my Domain, and the overwhelming force in my body, Franklin somehow sensed it coming. He shifted slightly, tilting his head and bending a knee, turning the solid full force blow into a glancing shot, which he rolled with to escape my range.

Unfortunately for him, my staff was no club, no matter how I used it, and I had only been swinging from about half length. I loosened my grip, letting the haft of the weapon slide up to extend my reach as I swung again, my staff tearing the air as I let out a blurring combination of attacks.

Franklin dodged calmly, but his eyes widened and he tried to turn last second. Too slow. A black shimmering sword, filled with blue black flames, drove itself through his shoulder, and he roared with discomfort, swinging a fist and driving Callie back. She withdrew the blade as she retreated.

"Frankie!" Callister shouted in panic. His hands flew up and a torrent of paper cranes erupted from his sleeves. I stepped back, swatting them away, but they swirled around us, interrupting my sight line. By the time they cleared, the pair was gone, and I was scowling over at an injured Devon. With a sigh, I dismissed the incarnations, called up Zagan, and headed over to help him. I hoped he was at least grateful this time.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Devon was not grateful. Or rather, he was pretty unhappy to see us in general. "You," he hissed as we approached. "Here to silence me?"

"Oh, if only that were possible," I said dryly. "Sadly no, I'm here to save your life again. Which I did. What's with the tone? You can't possibly not have figured out what's going on yet? Roland planned this whole thing. You were played. Duped. Bamboozled. Hoodwinked-"

"Honey, he gets it, continuing is probably not productive at this point," Callie cut in.

I shrugged. "I'm not trying to be productive. I'm trying to be petty. I'm super pissed off. This moron almost got you killed because he was jealous I got the JOB he wanted."

He glared at me for a second from inside of the transparent bear trap…and then slumped. "You're right," he said weakly. "About everything. There were signs. I should have noticed. Looking back I can see how he manipulated me, how he twisted his words and my envy and used me as a weapon."

"Yeah, well he's good at that," I admitted. "He walked us right into this mess too."

"No," he said sharply. "That's not enough. I…I thought I was helping. Protecting the family." His fists clenched tightly. "I was just trying to do right by everyone. I wanted to be the Wishmaster because I wanted to HELP. Things are so broken. My parents, grandpa, and now Derran is dead. How did everything go so wrong?"

His tone was desolate, and I blinked as the bear trap faded, releasing him to fall to his knees. Cursing, I put a hand on his shoulder, pushing Zagan's energy into him as I held him steady.

"Look," I said as I helped him sit down properly, continuing to heal him. "This isn't on you. Not really. And that's my OFFICIAL declaration as the heir. The accuser dies, that's the rule, but you weren't the accuser. You were a patsy." He flinched at that, and I grimaced. "Ok, I could have said that nicer. But the point stands. I'm not saying none of this is your fault, I'm just saying your intentions were good and you aren't the one responsible for this."

He stared at me for a moment or two, his expression complicated. "It's not fair," he finally muttered. "I worked so hard for it. I spent years preparing, and then you just swept in and took it. I didn't even get a chance to fight."

"I've been a lot of places," I mused. "Seen a lot of things. Fought monsters I couldn't have imagined, fallen in love, made friends and been to war. Since I became an Ascendant, my life has been full of wonder and adventure." He raised an eyebrow at me, clearly curious where I was going with this. "No matter where I went, or who I talked to, there was one thing I never saw even once. I never saw a world where life was fair."

Which was cold to say, maybe. But not without reason. Not least because Devon himself benefited from the unfairness as much as I did.

He seemed to recognize that from my tone, and chuckled wryly. "No wonder they hate us so much," he sighed. "Just…" he looked off into the distance. "Try not to waste this? Even if they wanted to kill me, they're still in pain. I actually liked them, and I'd like to think they have some chance to live."

"It's on the table," I acknowledged. "Not for Roland. He needs to die for a lot of reasons, but those two are just tools. I won't hold back on them, but if they survive I won't push the issue. Anyway, you should be good enough to walk, come on." I pulled him to his feet. "We have to get out of here quick, we can just follow…" I paused, looking around for the familiar winged form. "Hey, where did it go?"

"Who?" my wife asked in a perfectly innocent tone. I turned to glare at her indignantly.

"Don't you start!" I said, trying not to laugh at her terrible joke. "But seriously, did you see which way the owl went?"

She shook her head. "It vanished when we spotted the others. I don't like that it just appears and disappears like that. I don't trust it."

"That's what I'M saying," I agreed enthusiastically. "Owls are suspicious as hell, you know they can rotate their heads all the way around? What is the biological purpose of an ability like that? Treachery!"

She stared at me flatly. "I mean that it shouldn't be here and it's weird we keep seeing it. I am not SUSPICIOUS of owls. That's nonsense."

I was about to respond, but a sudden chill ran down my spine. "Shit," I snapped, looking around to try to spot a threat. "Callie, we need to go. Can you pull your shadow world trick again? Because we're kind of sitting ducks down here, and I don't think we stand a chance at escaping Roland in a flat out sprint."

The biggest issue with this situation was that we had JUST driven off the other two. If we started a fight with Roland, chances were good they'd be drawn back, and not only was Devon not fully healed, he was injured enough that Callie would need to protect him. Even if I summoned one of the demons to do it, I'd be fighting them three to two while trying to keep my idiot cousin alive. It just wasn't the right time.

She nodded, closing her eyes, then summoned Gossamer. Meanwhile, I extended my Domain over the three of us. It wasn't going to stop them from finding us, but it should hide us from detection while my wife charged up her big move.

Devon froze, staring around us in shock and amazement. "Y-you condensed a Domain? A Domain you can project over this big a space? How? When? Could you do this back on the heirworld?"

"Nope," I admitted without hesitation. "This is new. And Roland still has no idea. I hope to keep it that way too, so-"

"Done!" Callie called. "Drop it the Domain."

I did, and she swung her sword, the gem in the hilt flashing as it carved through the air, leaving a trail of burning fire. A second swing bisected the first, forming a cross, and a casual flick tore away the four sections, showing a black square of empty space. Callie jerked her head for us to follow and stepped inside. Once she was in, she snapped, her hand flashing with black flame, and swiped it across the slowly closing hole in reality.

Holding up her still burning sword, she gestured off into the distance. "Follow me," she said quickly. "And stay close. I spent most of the time you were out refining that technique, and it's a LOT cleaner than it was, but it's still pretty new."

Devon looked around the dark space in awe. "How did you do this? Are we in the Void?"

"Not really," Callie answered distractedly. "It's kind of a pseudo-Void. A shadow world cast by reality. Realspace is in constant contact with the Void, and there's…overlap. I can't explain it in a way that would make sense to you, but we're traveling at high speeds and there's no possible way they can find us in here."

He perked up. "So does that mean we can wait out the rest of the trial in here?"

"Sorry, no dice." She shook her head. "This isn't a real place. Just a kind of…trick I'm playing on realspace. It can only stay open for a few minutes. If I could connect to the ACTUAL Void it might be more stable, but given how isolated we are there's no chance."

Devon wilted slightly, and I actually felt bad for the guy. "It's fine," I assured him. "We've got you. Once we heal you up, we can work on some strategies. With my Domain to help deal with them, you won't be in much danger. Would be useful if you had a few scrolls on you though. Did you bring any with you?"

He flushed in shame. "Roland convinced me not to," he admitted. "He said he was worried about you stealing them. He told me a bunch of stories about how sneaky you are, and he made it sound very…"

"Convinving?" I asked dryly. "Yeah, like I said. He's good at that. Admittedly, coming here unarmed was extremely dumb, so you have reason to be embarrassed, but don't worry too much." I had scrolls on me I could give him, but given our intertwined interests here, there was no way he'd be able to use them. Nor would I be able to use any he could produce. I didn't have any scrolls from anyone else on me either. Even the ones I'd sourced from Nat were all gone at this point.

Finally, Callie stopped, and with a quick flick of her sword, carved open a hole in the air and gestured us through. Once we were out, she exhaled in relief as she waved her hand, black flame devouring the hole in the air. Heretic Fire had Void consuming properties, and apparently it worked on pseudo-Voids too.

I looked around, relieved to find we were in a MUCH different geography. A strange coral hall that appeared to be underwater. Through the arches between the columns outside the hall, I could see a deep ocean full of grasping seaweed and what appeared to be the vague outline of very large fish. "Welcome to my nightmares, shadowy megashark," I said dryly as I caught one of the shapes diving out of view. "I take it this is far away from the last spot we were at?"

The fish actually worried me slightly. We hadn't seen any living beings besides the owl, but then again I hadn't SEEN the fish either, just a vague silhouette. Callie slumped back onto a nearby bench. "Furthest I could get us. During my monitoring, Angelic Bond brought Dantalion and Pride over to my church to help keep track of you. I used Piece of Mind with the bond to split my attention and spent most of the time you were out refining the technique."

I'd forgotten Pride was one of the demons. That meant I still had access to my library, which was something to look into when I got a chance. Still, I was happy she'd been working on it. Speaking of which, being underwater might help shield us, but isolation would help more. Expanding my Domain again, I covered us all, minimizing our presence by essentially packing it into an expanded space to make it smaller.

Devon looked impressed, but less than before. I gestured, and a green haired form appeared, along with two others. Life Nova, Zagan, and Genesis Burst. "Patch him up for me guys," I told them casually as Callie and I walked by. "Devon, you can trust them. Once they're done healing you they'll bring you to meet up with me in the throne room."

He looked a little lost, but nodded and allowed himself to be led away. Meanwhile Callie and I entered to palace, heading for the throne room. Azazel met me at the door, and I nodded to him gratefully. No words were necessary, and my first minister returned the gesture with a smile. We retreated to the back room, where Sam and Dom were waiting for us, my other two ministers both uncharacteristically somber.

Looking them over as I sat down, I sighed. "You all saw what happened," I stated bluntly. They nodded. "Then you know we need a plan to take on Roland. We've seen him fight multiple times. We've seen the Apostate Flame in action up close and personal. We have some of the best C-rank predictive and deductive capabilities in the known universe at our disposal. I want Dantalion, Wisdom of Solomon, Fate Sense, and literally any other potentially useful demon in here to help. By the time I run into Roland, I want to have an exact counter for him." And then, we got to work.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Stepping out of the shadow passage, the three of us looked around carefully. Callie had Gossamer drawn, Devon had a pair of familiar demon horns, and I had my wings spread, my body currently inhabited by no less than four demons. Leviathan, Azazel, Sammael, and Mornax.

Sadly, Callie wasn't able to undergo incarnation easily. There was a recovery time from her last time playing host. According to Azazel, incarnation was a unique ability born of my connection to the Domain. Apart from Asmodeus, who was designed for it, the other demons couldn't inhabit the bodies of people who weren't me. Callie had cheated, using Angelic bond as a carrier to bypass the natural defenses on her soul, but it was still a soul strain she wasn't really suited for.

Asmodeus, therefore, had to be attached to Devon, which worked out because my cousin, despite his competence, wasn't playing on the same level as the rest of us.

Beyond the incarnation mechanic though, I'd ALSO released Dom to act as backup. My Doom Sovereign demon was one of my three ministers, and was able to tap into almost all of my various skills and techniques by virtue of being PART of most of them.

"You sure he'll notice this?" Devon asked worriedly. "I mean, he didn't find us before…"

"He didn't find us before because we were are the bottom of the ocean," I assured him. "And inside my Domain. Now we're neither of those things."

Callie nodded. "He's right, don't worry. This is the only reasonable chance he's going to get to finish me off. No way he'll leave it to chance. Plus he's got to assume that Shane is in bad shape. Healing from soul damage that severe would normally be impossible. Even with Wishes, paying for something like that would take far more value than anything Shane owns."

My dad had really saved my ass on this one, it was true. His contract based Wish power was designed to be inherently unbalanced, which meant despite having a lower peak output than a bloodline user his level, he had far fewer limitations. It was why he'd become a devil to begin with.

Of course, we didn't mention to him that we were more than strongly presuming. Azazel had managed a few divinations to help us narrow down the ideal spot and time for our encounter. The enemy was coming, and coming in force. We knew that. We were just waiting to find out when they'd arrive. In fact, we'd made several preparations in that vein, including having Dom hiding in Callie's shadow directly to wait for the inevitable assault.

We walked through the gravely dirt of the mountain slope slowly, small rocks crunching underfoot. We were on a small, innocuous dirt trail. We walked for about a half hour, never stopping, never slowing. I followed the trail as instructed, not deviating from the plan even slightly. I was beginning to doubt whether ths was going to work myself when I caught sight of a trio of dark forms ahead.

One of them towered above the others, long dark vines rolling from his head covered in thorns. Horns stood out from his skull and his eyes blazed with an unearthly blue light. Roland, still clad in the power of the Apostate Fire. Whatever he'd done to himself hadn't faded, if anything, it had gotten more extreme. It seemed like Morwenna had learned from Atlas, imbuing her servant with a powerful racial trait. The Apostate. The monster that I'd been dreading since I'd heard its name, and ironically one partially of my own making.

Callie and Devon split off in opposite directions, and I called out my staff, tapping into Glory as the condensed blade of black flame extended from the tip in a brutal makeshift spear. Roland's eyes tracked Callie, but he didn't even have time to pursue her before I appeared behind him, spear whirling as I aimed to take off his head.

Roland, of course, wasn't even remotely put off. His sword blurred as he spun, clashing violently against the black flames as his Apostate fire consumed my destruction flame.

I retreated calmly, calling for Callie's Heretic Fire as I reformed the spear, making sure the next clash wouldn't disperse it again. Roland sighed as he looked me over. "I really wish you'd just stayed down, Shane. I really don't want to have to kill you. But you aren't giving me much choice."

He stepped forward, his body nearly vanishing as his blade carved the air, seeming to split into multitudes as he attacked so quickly it was all but covering the sky in front of me.

I didn't panic. My eyes closed, my body loosening as I allowed all my muscles to relax, shedding their tension to the maximum. Mornax kept me from just falling over, but my body was completely serene, empty of all stress as I listened to the pulse of my heart. To the song of the wind. To my instincts.

I fell. Not clumsily or with lacking grace. I just sort of…changed my position. My wings angled slightly, twitching just a beat, and the momentum carried me slowly to one side.

But it wasn't slow. Not really. I drifted through the air, seemingly lazy as I slowly floated in between the attacks. Azazel foresaw, Sammael empowered. Beyond anything I'd felt before. I was diving into their lives, their hopes, their fears. I was becoming them, and only the radically opposing points of view stopped me from freezing up.

I saw techniques honed by Sammael over years on the battlefield, I saw formuli from Azazel for calculating the future in any situation. A warrior angel, a genius of combat unparalleled under the heavens, and a demonic diviner whose infernal eyes gazed up on the infinite scope of creation, intertwined in my head.

It should have been too much. Incarnation gave me ACCESS to their histories, but diving in like this should have been beyond me. Would have been if not for Leviathan. I very carefully ignored the two other entities residing in my skull in favor of the first two, despite knowing that I was leaving a lot of potential power on the table by not delving in. It was impossible for me to incarnate four demons properly at this point. Even a third would be too much.

The deeper I went, the more fluid I became. Sammael wasn't just a warrior, he was a savant. The petty bullshit I could do with my wings paled in comparison to the artistry my angelic form was capable of on the battlefield. And Azazel was severely limited by The Quiet Room, chained down by the restrictions here, but narrowing the scope of divination to such a short term value made it infinitely smoother to follow those instincts.

I flowed through the air, the song of whirling blades and beating wings blurring together into a symphonic explosion of violent melody that carried my consciousness through the blurry intertwining of being three people at the same time.

The song unfolded in front of me, lines of notes tracing themselves along the inside of my eyes like golden paths off into a distant, better future. Slowly, I opened them, having seen exactly where I was going, and my hands began to dance, my staff whirling like a conductor's baton as I orchestrated the battle just as I'd seen it in my mind.

Roland's face was hard and angry, and his blade was coated in black fire. The air was screaming under the flames, dying a little bit with every swing, but it didn't matter. I'd known this was coming. The wails of pain were just part of my performance.

His sword flashed up into a dizzying combo, chasing my traces as he tried to tear into me, but I just drifted in close. I lashed out with a strike of my staff, and he sidestepped. I planted my staff at an angle, and his foot caught as he stepped back, eyes widening as he unbalanced. A pivot with the staff slammed it into the back of his sword hilt, jarring his hold and forcing him to adjust.

"You're not going to beat me!" he snarled as he reengaged. "I can't lose. Not after all this. Not after everything I've done." To my shock, his eyes filled with tears. "I have to do this! It can't have all been for nothing!"

My heart clenched. Because I could almost see the story. See the bitterness as he lost his wife. See the hate fester. Like I had lived it. Because I honestly probably could have. If Callie died, real permanent death or even just the temporary kind, I would shatter. It would break me in a way no power or wish could ever fix. It would ruin me. And that was what happened here. Roland was ruined.

I yanked my staff away, disarming him, and then hammered a stomping kick into his knee. Sammael was much stronger than a normal C-ranker, and Mornax had solidified me into pretty much a statue. Combined with the angle, Roland just crumpled, his eyes blazing with hate. He tried to stand, fumbling for his sword, but I kicked it away, stepping back calmly as he struggled to get to his feet.

This had to end. I couldn't let him go, couldn't let him continue. I had to destroy him. Utterly. End him forever. But it felt…wrong. Evil. Besides which I didn't have a way to do it. I didn't have a soul destroying ability. I had a soul HEALING ability but…

He was in so much pain. Hurting so badly. He'd do anything to make it stop. Anything to wear away at the sorrow until it didn't hurt anymore. I dismissed Sammael. Dismissed Mornax and Azazel. Even dismissed Leviathan.

I called for Genesis Burst. For the power to heal a soul, and I triggered my upgrade ability, boosting it to B-rank. He snarled at me, surging forward, hands curled into claws and covered in Apostate Fire, but I was inhabited by a Tier 8 demon right now, so it wasn't an issue. I was essentially a B-ranker.

Moving aside, I tripped him, then tackled him, bearing him to the ground and wrapping my arm around his neck. I locked him in a sleeper hold, and then pressed a hand to his skull…and I started to heal.

I purified his sorrow, his hate, his rage. He was an Apostate, an unnatural thing, and he was broken. Genesis Burst was made to fix broken souls. So I did. I fixed him. And I kept fixing him, choking him and purifying him as he twitched in my grip, until it was done. He didn't scream. Didn't make a sound. Until the very end, when he choked out a weak, broken, 'thank you'. I just kept going. Until he was gone, and I dropped his soulless body to the ground, standing and stumbling away.

Jerking my mask off, I vomited into the dirt, heart pounding, blood rushing in my ears. I'd felt him at the end, felt his soul finding peace for just a second before it dissolved, scrubbed so clean and scoured so deeply it couldn't even maintain its shape.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I spun, staff coming up. Callie didn't move, and I stopped before knocking her back. She smiled sadly, then knelt down, putting her arms around me and holding me as I shook. "I…I didn't know what else to do," I rasped as I buried my head in her shoulder.

"I know," she murmured as she ran her fingers through my hair. "I know. He didn't give you a choice." I looked over her shoulder, finding Dom and Devon restraining the other two. I didn't care. Couldn't.

I'd been lying to myself. Telling myself that killing someone and ending them was the same. That I could destroy a soul as casually as I'd learned to take a life. But as I stared at the still breathing corpse of my former friend, I couldn't help but wonder. Whose soul had I just destroyed? His or mine?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"You ok?" Callie asked, sitting down beside me and snuggling up to my side. "We restrained the lackeys. And we…we made a makeshift coffin for his body." She swallowed loudly. "I'm sorry you had to do that."

"I FELT him die," I said blankly. "I can't…I don't know how to describe it. It's like I was holding his soul, and it came apart in my hands like sand. We were…connected. And I could feel him. He felt so happy. So relieved. He was trapped. Stuck in a bad situation, and I killed him. No, worse, I DESTROYED him."

She took my hand. "Shane. Honey. Do you think he would have stopped? Say we captured him. Say we managed to lock him up. What then? Would this be over? Do you really believe that they would have been kind to him once they had him in custody?"

"No," I admitted. "But that wasn't why I did it. Not really. I just didn't want Devon to die. And isn't that wrong? Like just because he's my cousin, I put his life above Roland's?"

"Sometimes," my wife said fondly. "You are a giant moron. I love you more than life itself, but it would be nice if you'd occasionally use your head as something other than a place to hang your mask. Roland was a traitor and a murderer. The way you had to kill him sounds horrible, and I'm so sorry you went through it, but the end result would have been the same either way. If anything it sounds like you gave him a more peaceful death than he deserved."

I laughed at that. "Well it's nice that you don't feel the need to hold back on me," I said dryly. "And thanks. Now, why don't we go and interrogate those two. I want to make sure we took care of all the possible plots aimed at us before I find a way to contact the council about letting us get out of here early."

It was hard to put down the grief. Not just for Roland as a person, but for the part of myself I felt I'd lost. Genesis Burst was a healing ability. I'd made it to help people. Using it like this made me sick.

Shaking that off, I focused on the here and now. Walking over to where Devon was slumped, I nudged him with my foot. "You still alive?"

His eye cracked open. "No, I'm dead. Leave me. Save yourselves."

"Works for me," I shrugged, turning to leave. He squawked with outrage and I couldn't help but smile. Turning back, I grinned at him, offering my hand to help him up. He staggered a bit, clearly still torn up from whatever had happened during his fight. "So…do you know how we can leave early?"

Because this whole room was designed not to be accessible, and I really didn't want to wait in here for days. I turned and strode over to where Franklin and Callister. Callie had locked them up using some kind of forged flame manacles. I hadn't seen the technique before but it was fascinating to look at. It seemed like my wife hadn't been resting on her laurels while I'd been working on my Domain and preparing for the trial. The way the flames condensed the space around them to completely eliminate leverage was genius, and I made a mental note to try to use the configuration in some fashion somewhere down the line.

A quick effort unfolded my Domain around us, and with a second effort space warped as Dantalion appeared beside me. Within my Domain, things like space were more like suggestions. Of course, this was functionally useless for travel because the Domain itself was condensed into a much small area that it would normally take up, so even I teleported from one end to the other, once I stepped out I would have only travelled about a step.

Dantalion bowed deep, his sharp eyes turning up in happiness that I'd chosen to call him out. I pointed to the two bound men. "They have information I want. I trust you can GET that information?"

"Of course, my lord," he beamed. "I would be honored."

He turned to look at Callister, the closest and most obviously distressed of the two. Callie snapped her fingers and the band of expanding blue fire keeping his mouth wedged open dissolved. His eyes flared. "You can't do this!" he hissed. "We're CITIZENS of the WCP! We have rights!"

"Yes, but unfortunately for you, you have substantially more wrongs," I said coldly. "Of course, I'm not unreasonable. I want to know more about your plans. Your compatriots, anything you can tell me. I assume you have some kind of support structure here. You give me all of those people and I'll let you go. If not…" my face was stone. "I've done plenty of things today I'm not proud of. I don't mind adding a few entries to the list."

He spat at me. "I'll never talk. Your family is a cancer. I'm just sad I won't get to see you get excised like you deserve."

I sighed. "See, I was hoping you weren't going to say that. This whole situation makes me deeply uncomfortable. It just feels so familiar. It's just like my dad questioning a couple of A-rankers back on the Heirworld. I try my best not to be like my dad. We've moved past our issues, but he's hardly a role model. Still, it seems like today I don't have any other choice."

His gaze was wary. "What are you going to do? You going to torture me?"

"Of course not," I assured him. "Torture doesn't work. You'll just tell me whatever you think I want to hear to make me stop. No. I'm not planning to inflict and senseless pain." I paused. "You'll be IN copious amounts of agony, to be clear. But it won't be senseless. This, in case you were wondering, is Dantalion.

"Dantalion is a demon of information. He can deduce facts by scanning and reconstructing data from a variety of sources." I gestured at Callister himself. "Sources like you. People, though you may not know this, are made of information. The brain remembers, muscle remembers, even DNA is made from code. We're all big collections of data. Now, scanning and reconstructing yours would be prohibitively time consuming. But if we're looking for something specific, we can be a bit more…forceful."

Much like Dantalion had been able to siphon information directly from the books in order to prepare to redistribute it, he could use that same function to extract it from other sources. Sources like people.

I flicked my fingers, and my staff appeared, infusing B-ranked power into Dantalion, elevating him to Tier 8. He approached the bound man. "Now as I said, this will be excruciatingly painful." I said coldly. "So if you'd like to skip it and just tell me what I want to know, I think we'd both be much happier."

I wasn't bluffing, of course. I couldn't be. If I failed to obtain all the relevant information, I would be putting my people in danger. I needed to know about all the followups they were aware of. If I'd been thinking clearly I might have interrogated Roland, but that wasn't an option now.

Honestly, I wasn't even too broken up about this. A little pain wasn't going to cause too much issue. I'd been through worse more times than I could count.

More than that though, I felt almost COMPELLED to do it. After what I'd done to Roland, not extracting every last bit of information was unacceptable. It would be like I was failing to live up to his sacrifice. Maybe a warped way of seeing things, but I was sure as hell not going to let something like become pointless.

He locked his teeth together, glaring at me. I nodded to Dantalion. "Do it."

He knelt down, hands snapping to the other man's face and levering open his jaw. He stared into the eyes of 'the paper king' and opened his own mouth. Then, he inhaled. Callister locked up, all his muscles going taught, and I saw purple symbols begin to flash across his eyes. His face turned red, his body shook, and he let out an animal wail that chilled me to my bones.

With a primal roar, he arched his back, and a small torrent of purple information tore itself from between his lips. Dantalion inhaled it all, his own eyes flashing with the same purple symbols. After a few minutes of this, he dropped the other man, and Callister lay shaking on the ground.

I raised an eyebrow at Dan, who closed his eyes. I waited as he processed, and after a few minutes, he opened them again. "I've got a list," he said slowly.

"Write it down," I told him in a clinical monotone. I turned to Franklin, who was lying on the ground, staring at his friend in horror. Callie snapped her fingers, and the gag vanished from his mouth. "Are we going to have to do the same thing to you?" I asked gently.

"No," he rasped. "I just…help him. I you help him I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Just don't leave him that way."

I raised an eyebrow. Callister was fine, and would recover after he shook off the pain, but if that was his price, I was more than happy to skip the agony. I snapped my fingers and a familiar green haired figure appeared. I nodded to the shaking man. "We need a patch up job. Get him on his feet again?"

Despite it being uncomfortable and invasive, information extraction of the type Dan had just done wasn't soul damage. Zagan could fix it pretty easily with a little elbow grease.

Zagan knelt, putting a hand on the side of Callister's face, and he poured fire into the other man. As he did, the paper king calmed, his shaking receding as his face cleared. Franklin, who had been watching him shudder, slumped in relief. I sighed. "I can't tell what'll happen to you," I admitted. "But Devon pleaded on your behalf. So if it's up to me, I'll make sure you end up together, hopefully safe. You telling us what we need to know would be a BIG help making that happen."

He swallowed, then nodded. "Of course. I don't have too many names. And he had most of them." I tensed, and he hurried to assure me. "Not all! I know a few. Members of the local resistance. Most of them are too small time to be noticed, some have Void instruments that can suppress signs of dishonesty or cloak them from sensory powers."

I sat, and waited. After he arranged his thoughts, he started listing people. Some I didn't know. Most even. But a few I recognized the names of. I frowned as he listed one of the tea ceremony participants, then one of the players from Kingdom Siege. At first I thought it was a weird coincidence, but he assured me we'd been under surveillance. It made sense, given Roland's plan.

Finally, he finished talking, then lay back, staring up at the sky. I sat down next to him. "So, do you regret it?" I asked curiously. "Knowing what happened?"

He smiled at Callister, eyes soft. "Not a second of it. Sure, I was angry, and stupid, and some of it was ill advised. But I don't regret where it led me." He snorted. "That probably sounds ridiculous to you." His voice was sad, but firm, and I was sure he thought he was going to die.

I looked over my shoulder, at the way the light sparked off my wife's glowing blue hair. At those bottomless eyes, and snorted, shaking my head. "No," I told him bluntly. "No, that part I totally get." Then we lapsed into silence, and just for a moment, I almost forgot where I was and why. Almost.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It was time to leave. Devon had done a lot of research on this place, and while he had no method of escaping, he did know there was an emergency signal in place. Aside from sequestering trial participants, The Quiet Room had been designed as a fallback shelter in case of a catastrophic attack on the Wishworld. In the event of long term habitation, having a secure channel to signal for aid from inside was integral to proper functionality.

Of course, it wasn't compulsory or anything. If it was used, there was a chance they might ignore it, but with my parents and grandparents watching over things like a gaggle of hawks, I was doubting they could get away with that.

The downside was that it was a SECRET emergency signal, otherwise any of the refugees would have access to signaling capabilities, and since the place was designed to be absolutely secure, that was counterproductive. Devon likened it to a hardwire broadcast line out of a signal proof bunker.

Which was why we were currently climbing the side of a massive sky high volcano. "This place is ridiculous," I complained. "It's supposed to be a bunker, right? What's the point of making it so big?"

"It's self sustaining," Devon huffed as he climbed. We'd tried to fly up, but there was a haze of heat distortion around the volcano's body. Someone had engraved formations on the body of the mountain to keep them off…mostly, but it was still a hell of a climb, especially carrying a pair of B-rankers on our backs.

I was carrying Franklin, given my higher stats, though I was beginning to feel like I'd been tricked, because I explicitly forgot my wife had modifiers from her racial trait. I had something similar from Sammael, but to a much lesser extent. I groaned as I adjusted the weight of the bigger man. His actual physical weight wasn't much, but the big bastard was B-rank, and his Impact was interacting with the strain in an unfortunate way.

I groaned a bit as my foot slipped, rocks skittering down the black stone slope as I scrambled to right myself. I stumbled around a few steps and then froze, trying desperately to balance myself. Finally, I spread my wings to act as a ballast, at least best I could with someone on my back.

My head wasn't doing well. Being several people at once without the benefit of Piece of Mind had been…well at the time fairly intoxicating. But my brain was tired and sluggish from overexertion, and I had no way to restore it. It wasn't physical, exactly, it was mental strain. Even my soul restoration couldn't do anything here, because the exhaustion was LITERALLY all in my head.

"Why did they put this thing at the top of a volcano again?" I asked Devon with a scowl.

"They didn't," he grimaced. "They put it at the bottom. We just have to climb it to get IN. They made the slope as inconvenient as possible to prevent anyone from casually stumbling on the place."

I sighed. "Of course they did. Because why make anything easy."

Groaning, I resumed my trek, pushing through the discomfort with mild difficulty. My pain tolerance had taken another level from this nonsense, which I supposed was a good thing, even if I wished I hadn't needed it to. When we finally reached the top, we began our descent. We climbed in silence, all of us wrapped up in our own thoughts, and when we finally descended into the lowest chamber of the volcano and crossed the platform in the lava, we were left staring at a red sphere sitting in a jagged black cradle.

I reached out and tapped it…and nothing happened. I groaned, waving a hand, and an old man in a robe appeared beside me. "I need to know how this thing works," I told Dantalion with a tired sigh. "I assume you can extract some kind of…directions?"

He nodded slowly. "I can. This is only B-rank. If you can upgrade me directly with the staff it would be a lot faster, but if not, I can brute force it. It'll just take a while."

"Can't upgrade anything for a while," I sighed. "Did it twice in a row basically, and I'm pretty much tapped for the moment. We can wait." I reached up, pushing the bound Franklin off my back. After we healed him and Callister we'd rebound them in Callie's spatial flames. They couldn't speak, or move, or even see. I turned to Callie. "Alright, so once Dan is finished getting the directions sorted out, we can call for help. And then…we're done. We're all finished. I can't believe it's over."

"Over?" Callie giggled. "This was just the background mess. Don't forget, we're coming out just in time for your coronation, maybe a little earlier if they can get us out. You still have to get up in front of the entire WCP and all those witnesses and accept your position as the Wishmaster."

I raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Why do I sense a whole bunch of shadenfreude in that statement? Shouldn't you be sympathizing with me?" Honestly, the idea of going through the coronation right now, while I was this raw, was kind of agonizing. I just wanted to sleep for eleven and a half weeks.

"Should I? Mr. This is my wife and she's the daughter of a god?" She smirked at me. "I love you to pieces, babe, but you've definitely got the attention coming. Besides, after this whole mess, don't you think having a bunch of people focusing on you too much is a champagne problem?"

Despite her teasing tone, I could feel her concern through the bond. She was worried. And I think she knew me well enough to know that I would FORCE myself to keep it together for the coronation. I wanted to play along, to tease her back, but I was just…tired. I sat down, slumping to the ground, ignoring the clank of my armor. "I'm fine, Cal," I assured her.

Her devilish smile wilted, and I saw real worry in her eyes. "You don't feel fine."

"Ok, then I'm NOT fine," I admitted. "But I've been through worse, and I'll get through this too. And you're right. I need to be on the top of my game for the coronation. I can keep it together. You don't need to be afraid."

She stepped forward, folding her arms around me as she rested her head on my chest. "I'm not afraid you won't be able to do the coronation. Fuck the coronation. I don't care if you spend the rest of your life repairing toilets. I just hate feeling this…sick guilt from you. I just want to fix it. What can I do?"

"Sorry love," I said tiredly. "Don't think a heart to heart is gonna fix this one. I just need time. But when I do need to talk, I know you're there. And it means more to me than I can say."

She buried her head deeper against my chest. "Fine. But if you try to shut me out when I can help you, I'm going to kick your ass. I don't care if you stats are higher than mine, I can do it. And if I can't, I'll tell your mom on you."

"You monster!" I gasped in faux horror. "How could you?"

"You better be afraid," she grinned smugly. "I'm your worst nightmare, pal. There's nothing scarier than an archangel with nothing to lose. That's where the saying comes from."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "What saying?"

"That…there's nothing scarier than an archangel with nothing to lose," she trailed off and then finished lamely. "It's common folk wisdom where I'm from."

"You mean the city we both grew up in where no one even knows what an archangel is?" I asked dryly. "Common folk wisdom there?" I felt a bubbling current of warmth in heart, and couldn't help but smile. Despite knowing she was trying to cheer me up, I was touched. She'd accepted I didn't want to have a serious talk, and banter always relaxed me.

A loud throat clearing came from behind us. I turned to find Dan bowing deeply. "Apologies my lord, my lady. But I seem to have discovered the on switch."

"That was much quicker than expected," I observed.

He shrugged. "They were less concerned with security than expected. There was no password required. I assume they thought leaving it at the bottom of an active volcano would be sufficient protection. Combined with being in this world to begin with." He paused. "Well, there's also a blood lock on it, but that's hardly a concern given your presence as well as your cousin's."

That made sense. The difficulty of reaching here combined with the bloodline requirement was pretty secure. I walked over to the sphere. "Alright, so how do we do this? You mentioned an on switch?"

He nodded solemnly. "It's right there." He pointed at a large engraved circle of black metal with the skull and lamp logo of the Wishmaster on it.

"I take it back," I said wryly. "That took you way TOO long to find. You didn't try the LITERAL on button first? It's not exactly subtle." I tried to hold back my chuckle, but not very hard, I knew Dan wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"I…may have overcomplicated things," he said with a wince. "One of the downsides of dredging up the tiniest details is that sometimes you miss the big stuff. Combined with the fact that no one has ever actually USED it and that it's too high ranked for me" He cleared his throat in embarrassment. "Sorry about that."

I just laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "I did it too, man. No big deal. You can head back, I appreciate the assist, necessary or not."

I snapped my fingers, and he faded out of existence, dragged back into the Domain where he would wait with the others. Looking at the other two (not counting the prisoners) I blew out a breath. "So. We need to send a message out, and I assume we need to include pretty much everything that's happened."

As expected of an encrypted emergency channel though, when I pressed the button, we realized this wouldn't be as easy as we'd hoped. "There's a CHARACTER limit?" Devon sputtered as it activated. "What POSSIBLE function could that serve?"

"Might be some way to limit the rank?" I speculated. "I know limitations can help stretch effectiveness in items. Doesn't really matter though. We need to put together a debrief that can fit in…two hundred forty characters? What a weirdly specific number. Whatever, we need to condense things down as much as possible."

Which turned out to be more difficult than I'd expected. Brevity might be the soul of wit, but it was the death of clarity. It took us about twenty minutes to pack everything we needed into such a small message. When we were sure we'd gotten it all, we hit the button again, and the sphere flashed red. The letters floating inside dissolved, swirling into a vortex of fiery sparkling light points.

Finally, after about two more hours, a message came back. It was…" Numbers?" I asked in confusion.

"Coordinates!" exclaimed Devon. "That's the WCP's five band structural location formula. It's based on present location. So let's see. Fifty miles away or so, northwest? Direction, angle, distance, elevation, terrain. All five bands. This is the exit. It has to be."

Sighing, I hoisted Franklin back up over my shoulders. "Good work, guess we have our heading. I'm assuming they'll be waiting there. So let's not keep them waiting for long." Callie lifted Callister easily, and the three of us looked back up the volcano's inside with a sigh. "Well," I said as we started the climb. "At least it'll be downhill the whole way once we're out."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We emerged from the portal back out of the council chamber, into the same hallway we'd entered from. The council was waiting for us. As were my parents, my grandparents, and several other people, including the Moonlight Pope and Uncle Sam. As soon as we stepped out, my mother rushed out of the crowd and scooped Callie and I into bone crushing hugs, one arm each. "You're ok! Oh gods you scared me out of my wits. You couldn't have been more descriptive?"

I shrugged. "Sorry ma, character limit." I pulled back and withdrew a small booklet of black stone from my ring, engraved with a list, and tossed it over to the nearest S-ranker without even looking at who it was. "Might want to check up on everyone on there," I advised.

He nodded, and I turned to look at the others. "Look, I'm just…this was a lot. I know there are going to be questions, but can we keep it to the absolutely necessary stuff? I just want to sleep for ten and a half weeks." My head was still fuzzy, and the longer I went like this, the more exhausted I became.

"Good and bad news on that front," said Desmond. "We won't be needing to ask you anything. But someone will." He jerked a thumb at where Aiden was waiting nearby.

The blood drained from my face. Not because I was worried about talking to Aiden. Because I knew he wouldn't have wanted to question me. No, if he was here to get me, it was to take me to see someone else. "Twice in as many weeks," I croaked, my voice shaky. "Must be some kind of record."

"Don't you just feel like the luckiest kid in the world?" Aiden grinned ruefully.

I turned back to my parents. "Seems like I have some facetime to get to with the old man. Don't wait up, ok? I'm sure Aiden will get me back safe and sound. Just…" I glanced at Franklin and Callister. "Don't let them get killed before things are sorted? I made promises, and if I'm going to fail to keep them I'd at least like to be around for the fallout."

My mom nodded solemnly. "Anyone who wants to hurt them will go through me. By which I mean they'll have to go through your grandmother. And woe betide any lunatic stupid enough to pick that fight."

I barked out a laugh. "The old man himself would think twice. Thanks ma." I leaned in and gave her another hug, then turned to Callie, wrapping my arms around my wife. "Thank you," I murmured in her ear. "I'd have been dead without you."

She smiled softly, leaning her head on my shoulder. "I took a vow when we got married. To keep your dumb stunts from killing you. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but that was the spirit of the agreement." She winked at me, then stepped back, her face turning solemn. "Answer whatever questions you feel comfortable with. Nothing else. When you're done, just leave. I don't care what he's the god of, I won't have him pushing you further than you're ready for."

Her tone was iron, and I knew every person here understood the implicit threat. If the old man pushed me, we had gods in our corner too. I wasn't actually sure what Atlas could DO if push came to shove, but considering what my mother had been able to do to an S-ranker when channeling that gem, I had to wonder what kind of power my S-ranked grandfather could wield doing the same.

Aiden chuckled. "Wow, she's even scarier than my wife. Don't sweat it, kid. The old man doesn't take care of things like that by hand. If he wanted Shane dead, he's got dozens of ways to make it happen without anyone ever finding out. He just wants to talk. He has questions. If it makes you feel better, most of them don't have anything to do with this little kerfuffle."

I reached down and squeezed her hand reassuringly, then followed Aiden down the hall and into a maze of corridors, not bothering to remember the route as he led me to the library where we'd found the old man last time. The core of the Wishworld.

Pushing through the doors, we entered that same immense chamber of books, and walked to the same table we'd met the Wishmaster at last time. Sure enough, he was still there, surrounded by books. He was writing in a pair of empty bound titles, each hand moving independently as he told two different stories, but he stopped as we approached.

"You can go," he told Aiden bluntly. "I'll summon you if I need you."

There was no kindly old man or absent-minded scholar in that voice. Only power. Certainty. The assumption of obedience. Aiden nodded, then shot me an apologetic smile and left.

Once he was gone, the Wishmaster's gaze pinned me to the spot. "You killed one of mine. Spared another who my charter said should die. Took responsibility for a pair of traitors. What exactly do you have to say for yourself?"

I stared at him. At my ancestor, the original Wishmaster. At a god in human form. I expected to feel awe, fear, maybe gratitude, but all I felt was…anger. My hands shook with it, the hot roiling mass of it rose in my stomach, scraping the back of my throat as I spilled up my neck like bile before erupting from my mouth in a furious hiss of molten rage. "FUCK YOU!" I spat so hard I was afraid my teeth would crack.

"Interesting approach," he observed idly. "Show your work."

"Bite my ass you self righteous piece of shit," I hissed. "How DARE you? How dare you do…THIS, while we all fight and suffer for you. How dare you speak of Roland's death like you aren't complicit! Like it wasn't YOUR fucking fault I had to kill him! How dare you sit in here while we all scramble to react to problems you could solve with a snap of your fingers." I was crying. And shaking, and my hands were clenched so tight if I hadn't been wearing gauntlets they'd probably be bleeding. But I just couldn't care.

He'd just…sat here. The whole time. Watched it all happen. We were in HIS world. He could have stopped it. Could have intervened. But he did nothing.

I was so sick of it. So sick of apathetic gods who ignored their descendants and worshippers and left us to fend for ourselves. Of lofty immortals who treated us like errand boys and tools without caring about what we felt or thought. They weren't human, I knew that, but I was sick and tired of watching them act like we weren't either.

He stared at me for a long minute. I seethed. "What?" I demanded. "What do you WANT from me?" I was crying so hard I could barely speak. "What does anyone want from me? Why can't you all just leave me alone? Why do I have to deal with so much?" I fell to my knees, palms resting on the floor as tears blurred my eyes. "Just…make it quick," I said tiredly. "I don't care anymore."

"Hmm, you got there early," he observed lightly. "Usually takes another couple centuries. Admittedly, you've ended up under an outsized amount of pressure. Makes sense you'd fold quick."

I sniffed, glaring up at him. "If you're going to smite me or whatever at least have the courtesy not to make me listen to your fucking mockery."

He sighed wearily. "I'm not mocking you, Shane. I'm empathizing. Or trying to. I'm out of practice, I'm afraid." He leaned back, staring down at me. "Tell me," he said softly. "What makes you think I didn't intervene?"

I yanked my mask off, spitting on the floor as I angrily swiped at my tears. "Because you didn't!" I snapped. "Someone would have noticed, even if wasn't me!"

"Really?" he said idly. "Who?"

I froze. He hadn't put any special emphasis on the word, or stressed the sound in any notable way, but I could HEAR it. Under the comment. The sound of a familiar creature making a familiar sound.

"The OWL?" I sputtered. "That was you?"

"Well honestly," he scoffed. "Who else did you think it was?"

I frowned. "But I thought The Quiet Room was godproof. No one is supposed to be able to intervene or sense what happens in there. Not even you."

"Ah," he said sagely. "That was a lie. I don't build things that inhibit ME. I'm not an idiot, Shane." He leaned back, and to my utter shock, I saw him cringe, adjust his body to favor one side in his chair. He saw me noticed and gave me a wry smile. "Taking on two gods who have prepared so thoroughly is no easy task," he said with a sad smile. "Not even for me. I admit, I was a tad sedentary about my observations of the palace. But since the battle, I've been recovering." He leaned back, lifting his shirt a bit to reveal a patch of horrifically burned skin weeping a strange red pus. "They sucker punched me with that toxic muck. I don't know where they got divine souls, but there was a drop of divine energy in there. Must have found soul shards from some dead god or other."

I felt all the rage and scorn drain out of me as I looked as the festering wound. I wished it would come back. I felt small without it. Fragile. "But…but you're white Wishmaster. You're a god."

"So was Raxus," he said patiently. "So was Suvaya. That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even death may die." He said, with the air of someone quoting a favorite passage from a book. I didn't recognize it, but I understood the gist.

I wished I didn't. I'd been happier thinking he was apathetic. Knowing he could be hurt. Really hurt. Or even be killed. It made this all too real. There was no barrier keeping this away from me. The war was at the gate, and I could be swept into it at any time. Had been swept in. "If I arrange things with the Lady and Verdyn," I said slowly. "Will it hold up? Can I make an alliance? Will the rest of the six honor it?"

He nodded. "Once you take office, you speak with my voice. The youngest will do as they're told, and the Queen and Emperor won't gainsay me without compelling reason. Of course, their worlds must remain in the Void. They can't be anchored to realspace, otherwise this whole war has been for nothing. However, there ARE other options. There are places in the Void where a world can be anchored. You'll be visiting some on your journey. Keep an eye out for potential locations. I'm not against aiding a campaign to capture a few stable pockets of space."

That was…interesting. I wondered if that had always been an option, or something about the birth of the Void god had changed the game. Either way, I was just relieved. There was a chance this could all turn out ok. For some values of that word.

"Feeling a bit better about all this?" he asked me with a chuckle. "You certainly seem to have relaxed."

I nodded. "I am. Not GOOD. But better. I'm just…I'm tired. Can I go?"

His expression changed, going from somewhat kind to a wolfish grin. "Oh not yet," he said quickly. "You aren't going anywhere." He gestured for me to sit down, and I did, climbing slowly to my feet as I suspiciously pulled a chair out. Once I was done, he steepled his fingers, elbows on the table as he stared at me intently. "Now, with the big stuff out of the way, why don't you show me this Domain of yours."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Extending my Domain inside the core turned out to be effortless. I'd half expected to run into trouble, given the weird interactions between Domains and the Void. The old man told me I was a moron, because I'd been opening my Domain in the Wishworld since I developed it, and I was still IN the Wishworld.

When he saw how far it expanded, he let out a low whistle. "This is decent work for a C-ranker. The projection is unusually solid. That staff of yours is a treasure. Better hold into it tight."

"It's my soul weapon," I assured him. "No one is taking it from me. Not to mention it's very persnickety about who is allowed to wield it. Basically just me and sometimes Callie. But I'm well aware how amazing it is. It's easily one of the most important pillars of my Domain."

He glanced around casually, following me towards the hall. "I see you didn't use Wish in the construction. Smart boy."

"I would have rendered myself ineligible for the Wishmaster positions," I responded immediately. "Besides, the Wish power still has plenty of utility. Barring a big dramatic power play to break through a rank like my dad did, I wouldn't give up the modifier so easily."

He nodded approvingly. "The Wish power is the most effective support ability in the universe, and it isn't close. There's a reason I was able to build a whole clan around it, not to mention a world. The choice to alter it is not one to undertake lightly. For those in the family aiming for divinity, it's normally inescapable. They can never achieve godhood with the bloodline. But for those like yourself and Aiden, maintaining its optimal form and taking advantage of your unique advantages is the prudent choice."

We arrived at the palace. Without any action from me, the doors swung smoothly inward and we found Azazel standing inside, waiting with Sam and Dom on either side, my three ministers standing together to greet the Deity following me inside.

Which brought me up short. "Actually, how are you in here? You're a god, shouldn't I be like…exploding?"

He rolled his eyes. "First of all, only if I were astonishingly sloppy about it. Second of all, no, because I'm not really here. We're inside my Domain. This is a manifestation of my former body inside the borders of the Wishworld. I can manifest nearly anywhere in or around my world. But this isn't my true form. More like the version of yourself that interacted with the library when you entered your soulspace, back before you condensed your Domain."

I nodded in understanding. There was so much to know about cultivation, and any given random bit of information from a literal deity was bound to be worth its weight in some high rank equivalent to gold.

The old man, finished his explanation, glanced around at the others. "So. These are your demons. Fascinating. Living embodiments of Skills and techniques with the growth potential of Skills and the self determination of beings. One of the biggest problems with spreading ourselves so wide as talented Skillsmiths is a like of depth. This is a unique response to the problem, even in my experience."

"Really? You think they're unique?" I asked somewhat smugly. I'd known that, of course, but hearing it from Azazel wasn't the same as hearing it from the old man. With most of my anger at him retreated in the wake of finding out he'd actually HELPED (though he was vague on how much), I was back to being mostly in awe of him. I still wasn't really happy about how things happened, but the fact that he was a genius in matters of cultivation was indisputable, and his feedback here was valuable.

"Of course, I've seen other variations of the concept," he corrected. "Skills made manifest, sometimes as animals or companions. Summons could be considered an adjacent discipline, but it's not the same. These demons have their own discrete system of advancement and ranking. They're independent entities. Or will be. I assume they can't leave the Domain for long?"

I shook my head. "Not at the moment. They rely on the staff too much. The upside is they can't die, since they're part of the Domain, but no, they also can't leave." Except…maybe that wasn't true. I frowned, glancing at Azazel, who was hesitating. "Right?"

"Well, we recently became aware that two of us might not be quite so bound," he hedged. "Leviathan and Zagan."

It only took me a split second to understand. "The pages," I said with dawning realization. "Those are two Skills that I bound into pages in my tome. You think that gives them the ability to operate freely outside the Domain?"

"For a period of time," he cautioned. "We have no way of knowing how permanent that is. Besides which, they're both Tier 7. Based on my predictions, I suspect that were they to rank up they would require another page. The anchor point of the Ten Demons Tome allows them to operate outside the confines of the Domain, but it's not a perfect solution."

The old man nodded. "That sounds about right. Of course, it'll still be important information to have. Based on the construction here, you're playing fast and loose with soul strain. Temporary bumps to a higher rank are fine, but if too many of these demons surpass you in rank…well, I don't think it would go well for you. This entire Domain is balanced on your soul, basically. It's a testament to its freakish strength and resilience that you can withstand this, even with help from the staff, but there are limits."

"But you think the pages might be a way around that?" I asked eagerly. "Like if I bind some of them and let them leave the Domain it'll relieve the pressure?"

"I believe so," he acknowledged. "Rather than a foundation, I believe the pages serve as a tether. Once they've been tethered and left the confines of your Domain, the pressure they represent will lessen dramatically. It won't VANISH, to be clear, but as some of the stronger ones rank up, it may become necessary. Unfortunately, you're going to have a bigger problem than that soon enough."

I froze. "What do you mean? What problem?"

"Your body," he clarified. "Your soul is strong. Abnormally so. Between your soul physique, all the training, and your connection to the soul tree, you might have the most powerful soul of any C-ranker I've ever seen. But that'll only carry you so far. Specifically, when you reach S-rank, you'll need to merge your Saga with your physical body. And based on what I've seen, yours won't be able to hold up."

That…hadn't occurred to me. "So you're saying my body won't be able to contain my Saga? So I need to what? Pour everything into Might?"

"Not that kind of issue," he corrected. "Impact will help, you have more than most. But it's a factor of quality more than quantity. Your soul has been forged and polished in ways most people can't even dream of. Your opportunities are legion in the spiritual realm. You need to focus on the physical. There's two ways to do that. You could farm Impact, but we both know how difficult that is, especially at lower levels. Or you could forge your body another way."

"Like a racial trait?" I asked him with interest.

He waggled a hand. "To some extent. Racial traits are more…direct. Think of it as the difference between working out and having someone rewire your muscular system. There are ways to achieve similar effects at a more measured pace, and with more control. But they're prohibitively time consuming and difficult to make progress in. Body forging Skills are almost unheard of in the modern day for those exact reasons. Racial traits provide exponentially better results in a fraction of the time, so why bother?"

He gestured around us. "But that kind of thing is PERFECT for you. If you create a demon out of a Body Forging Skill, it can slowly increase proficiency with it while you go about your life. And make no mistake, Body Forging is MUCH more customizable. Racial Traits use special bloodlines or concepts to alter the self for dramatic effect, piggybacking on existing mythology to leverage renown into instant results. But barring something like your wife's case where both yourself and a literal god custom refines a racial trait for someone, it'll never be as compatible with the user as a forged body."

"I've never heard of anything like that," I said slowly. "I mean, it makes sense, I guess. Modification of the body through Skills is possible, even if short term. So Body Forging is something like a form, but permanent?"

"And slower," he cautioned. "It's a gradual process. But it affects the soul, so the Skills are extremely rare."

I frowned at that. "Can you make one for me? In exchange for the chance to study my Domain? You said it's unique, that must have value, right?" This had been an issue I'd been considering for a while. Namely, how to become something different. Racial Traits were great, but they were also kind of invasive. I'd have needed to give up my Wish power or merge whatever I picked with my Path of the Demonbinder. Neither felt like the right call. "Also, do I need to merge my Body Forging technique with my main ability like a racial trait would require?"

"No," he answered bluntly. "That's one of the biggest benefits. Like I said, it's customizable and highly suited to the user. A forged body gives options that quick and dirty solutions like a racial trait can't compete with. But there are downsides. Aside from the time it takes, Body Forging is also agonizingly painful. Even with your demon learning and improving the method, you'll still need to USE it. The changes are gradual but they're still changes, and they have to be applied to take effect."

That really was pretty much perfect for me. Pain and automation, two things I was uniquely suited for. "Are you going to custom make it? Or just give me one you already have?"

His lack of answer earlier had been its own answer. If this little visit hadn't been enough to warrant a Skill he'd have said so. He shrugged. "Either works. But personally, I'd suggest the latter. Given your own interest in tinkering, starting with something more standardized and altering it yourself as you go would produce better results. Wishes create technically perfect products, but technical perfection doesn't always give the best results. There are plenty of wildly unbalanced methods that can be compensated for, achieving results beyond what a Wish skill can manage."

"Alright," I said, blowing out a breath. "What do you suggest?"

"I suggest you find a low rank Skill with some commonalities with one of my body tempering methods," He snapped his fingers, and a bookshelf appeared next to us. I blinked at that, because I hadn't know he could make things appear in my Domain, though since this was his world I supposed it made sense. "I've collected a decent number of them. I assume you're planning to repurpose a demon for this?"

"Reincarnation," I agreed. "That's what it's called. But yes. So having some overlap might help." I didn't know exactly how reincarnating demons worked, having never done it before, but I couldn't see a situation where commonality would be a bad thing.

He nodded. "Well then, better get looking. I don't have all day." He gestured to the shelf.

Almost giddy with anticipation, I walked over to the shelf, beginning to browse through the books. The titles were wordy and complicated for the most part, but each one sent a shock ofg excitement down my spine. This had so much potential, and I couldn't wait to explore all of it. I had so much to learn.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Power. A recurring theme in my life for the last few years. More than any other, honestly. Love, family, choice, I'd grappled with some heavy things in my time as an Ascendant. But power was perhaps the heaviest. What it meant. What it required. How it changed you. Because all power changes a person. Or perhaps as Zeke said had said, power just revealed.

And now I was faced with a choice. With the option to obtain more power. And what did that reveal about me? What would this choice show the world, and myself, about what kind of person I was going to be.

The bookshelf was lined with manuals. Some thick and imposing, some so thin they were almost invisible shoved between the larger volumes. I took them out, scanned through them for answers, and all I found was more questions. There was a dizzying array of options, each of them with strong potential moving forward.

Some were elemental, some based on animals or mythological figures. Racial traits were the fast version of Body Forging, and I could definitely see the influence there. But it wasn't JUST that. Some of them were based on music, or gems, or stars, or emotions. Each of them was complex and profound, touching on concepts I barely understood.

Of course, I had needs of my own here. I needed a demon that would be easy to reincarnate, that could encompass the power of the art I chose. I glanced over to Azazel. "Alright, who do you suggest for this?"

He hummed consideringly. "Well you have a few tier one and two subjects. Those would be the best. Reincarnating them would be simple, and because of their low level no part of them should need to be destroyed in the remaking. Still, if you want to keep them as close to their current selves as possible, I have two suggestions. Your tier one skills are Piano, Guitar, Fire Manipulation, and First Aid. I would suggest one of the latter two."

I blinked. "Fire Manipulation. I don't even remember where I learned that one. From Mel maybe? I never bothered to train it, which seems stupid in retrospect. But fire DOES thread a lot of needles for me. First Aid…I could see the utility, but it just doesn't feel right. Fire Manipulation, that's the one."

"That was my pick as well," added the old man from the side where he was casually leaning against a wall. "The fire based Body Forging techniques are towards the bottom."

I nodded my thanks, then knelt down and started sifting through. Eternal Sun Body, Stareater Bone Physique, Infernal Torment Body Forging Scripture. I stopped at that one for a second, but it felt too on the nose. Stars and hellfire weren't right for this. I wanted to create something more meaningful to my journey so far. This was going to represent the continuation of my Path.

Demons were an option, and there was certainly enough demon related material on the shelf. But it felt…nondescript. Like a hat on a hat. This wasn't going to be just another part of my Domain. This was going to represent my personal physical advancement. My evolution into something greater.

I leafed through one book after another, discounting option after option…until I stopped. I reached down to pick up an old leatherbound book with a red cover. Complex gold symbols were etched into the leather, but it was so old and worn down that it had mostly become illegible. I flipped open the first page.

"Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art," I read aloud. Phoenixes. The phoenix was a powerful beast, one that was considered an equal to a dragon in a lot of stories. Dragons were scary enough that their corpses and descendants were already some of the scariest things around. Not to mention I had personal experience with them. Archie, my companion, was a Life Nova Phoenix. I held up the book. "How does this work?"

The old man chuckled, grabbing the book and leafing through it. "I forgot about this one," he said idly. "The concept is fascinating. You know how phoenixes can rise from their ashes nine times right?" I nodded. "Well, this is supposed to create a Ninefold Phoenix Physique. Essentially, each rank before Divine condenses one of the reincarnations. And the final level merges them into the flesh. Rather than having nine lives, your body has the strength of nine versions of yourself all at once."

I blinked in shock. "So it makes you into some kind of mega phoenix?"

He waggled a hand. "Not exactly. You don't become a phoenix, just a ninefold phoenix version of yourself. But supposedly, once it's achieved, the bonuses are equivalent to being a real phoenix. This is notable, because there IS no phoenix racial trait. Or dragon. You can become a hybrid or a rider or learn to channel their power. But a human can't become a beast so easily."

That was interesting, but not important right now. What WAS important was simply the fact that this would make my body nine times stronger. Or something. The exact mechanics I'd need to learn over time. But I had an advantage with Archie. I was guessing the reincarnation process was going to be a lot easier with him as a reference. I turned to Azazel. "Call Fire Manipulation over," I instructed him calmly. "We've made our decision." I looked at the old man. "I assume you want to stay and observe?"

"Or I can leave," he shrugged. "I'll see anyway, but if it makes you feel better we can pretend."

I rolled my eyes, ignoring him as Azazel returned with a person I hadn't ever really seen before. Fire Manipulation (I was going to call him Manny for ease of remembrance) was a short, red haired kid. He was young, with wide ears that stuck out to the sides and clever green eyes. He looked…excited? Wary? A bit of each. I smiled at him reassuringly.

"This isn't going to hurt you," I said gently. "We picked you because you're still early enough in your progression to change easily. Your essence will be the same, you won't lose any of who you are."

That had been a concern from the start, actually. I was worried about destroying one of my demons. Despite not knowing them all well yet, they were my subjects, part of who I was. I wasn't comfortable erasing someone who worked for me for a new Skill. But luckily, the less power they had, the more malleable they were, especially for something like Fire Manipulation, which could be considered a direct relative of something like the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art.

I looked at Azazel. "So…how do we do this? I don't exactly know how everything works yet, and this is my first demon reincarnation."

He jerked his head toward the throne room. "We need to consult the tree. In order to properly alter Manny's essence, we need to have the staff deduce an alternate growth trajectory. Luckily, elevating someone past tier 1 is simple, and we have a catalyst to use in the form of Archimedes." He frowned. "Actually, where IS Archimedes."

As if on cue, a loud trill echoed through the air. I grinned, pointing up and out the door. "That's him now. I called him after I picked the book. Luckily he's pretty fast." There was a gust of wind, and the double doors to the palace slammed open, a gale of wind crashing into us as a glowing green form streaked inside, wings spread and green flame burning as my companion announced his arrival.

"Are we sure you're a phoenix?" I asked him archly. "Because you're doing a pretty decent impression of a ham." He screeched at me reproachfully and I shrugged. "I call em' like I see em'." Holding out my arm, I let him land on it as he approached. "Let's head to the tree."

Azazel nodded, then put his hands on Manny's shoulders and steered him into the throneroom. The old man trailed behind, and we approached the throne, above which floated the illusory image representing the Ten Demons Tree. I glanced down at the throne. "Manny, come sit here," I said after a moment. He looked spooked, but after I reassured him, he cautiously walked over and sat in the chair.

I stared up at the tree, and I felt..something. A pulse. I nodded. This process was much easier to accomplish at low levels, and now I knew WHY. The easiest way to incorporate new information into a demon, much like into a Skill, was on rank up. Tier 1 demons could be forcibly elevated to the next rank easily (ranking up Minor Skills was absurdly simple), and then the new information could be included as they advanced.

Communicating with Archie, I felt my companion rise into the air, screeching in joyful abandon as he exploded with the flames of life. The tree, waiting for this phenomena, simply activated the Wisdom of Solomon and began the process of reincarnating Manny.

The young demon's head flew back, slamming against the throne with a resonant thump, and I winced at what must have been a deeply uncomfortable experience. The flames around Archie were ripped away, leaving my phoenix upset and screeching at the tree indignantly. Predictably it didn't respond. The green flames enveloped Manny, creating a cocoon, and the process began.

"So, how will this work?" I asked the old man. "It's not automatic right? So why is it so important that he learn it instead of me doing it directly."

"Think of Body Forging like working out," he said casually. "You need to exercise to get stronger, but there are right and wrong KINDS of exercise. Doing a perfectly designed professional workout tailored to your physical condition is tens of times more productive than just hammering out random exercises. With your incarnation ability, you'll be able to utilize the most effective forging methods. Not to mention because of the way your demons advance there won't be any bottlenecks."

Azazel, who was flipping through the book that had just dropped out of the air where it was being analyzed by the staff, nodded. "This is a fascinating technique. The hard part is normally creating the phoenix template, but you have that. After that, you have to use nine different kinds of flame to reforge your body into a phoenix incarnation. Archie himself can supply your flames, and then once you complete the first reincarnation, you can advance.

"Like he said, the upgrade capabilities mean that Manny can rank up and condense the next phoenix template before you reach completion of the first layer, meaning you won't be stuck at the peak of the first rank like almost anyone else." He shot the old man a concerned look. "Has anyone ever COMPLETED this?"

My ancestor snorted. "Of course not. It's completely implausible for any weaker Ascendant to master a technique like this, and a high ranked cultivator deciding to pick up a Body Forging technique and cultivate it from scratch would be insane. Not to mention you need nine types of flame to condense the nine phoenix templates, which NORMALLY have to be painstakingly designed rather than copied verbatim from a live subject by a soul based supercomputer. I have to say, I'm extremely intrigued to see what comes of this."

As he finished speaking, the cocoon dissolved, and the man on the throne opened his eyes. Manny, that is Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, the tier 2 demon, grinned at me, his bright green eyes several shades more vivid than they were previously, and an exact match to his glowing green feathered hair. "Hey boss,"

I laughed, offering a hand to help him up, and I was shocked to feel the power in his grip. I was fascinated by the idea of what I'd be capable of once I began working on my own Body Forging. I had a feeling the results would be something extraordinary.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After I finished talking to the old man, I went home and went to bed. I was…so exhausted. The kind of exhausted where you actually pass tired and loop back around to be being energetic, only with a brain that works hilariously badly for any complex tasks. Like you passed your sleep window and were now "post-sleep" and the entire experience made everything feel raw and painful like a jagged wound.

I dropped into bed and then slept. I don't know for how long, but judging by the reactions to me waking up, it was a while. I knocked out my scrolls for the day then went to meet my friends and family, who were all having dinner.

After filling them all in, I expected serious questions, legitimate discourse, and maybe a conversation about me rushing into things. Instead, Abel turned to my wife and handed her a chit.

She scoffed. "Easy money. The fact that you all thought Shane would stop getting new powers when he got his Domain is ridiculous."

"Hey!" I said, feeling offended for some reason. "That's-" But I didn't know what to say. She was kind of right. Albeit, I hadn't actually gained much from the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art Yet. But still. Nobody likes being pigeonholed. Phoenixholed? That sounded way worse. "Shut up!" I finally said lamely.

"Piping hot comeback babe," Callie giggled. "But seriously, it's not like we're saying it's bad. Your physical limitations have been pretty worrying. This is a good thing. I'm still not sure I get how the whole thing works though. You're going to condense nine phoenix templates, but like…what do they do, exactly? Like the Life Nova Phoenix I can guess, it heals you. You'll get enhanced regeneration, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, the phoenix templates give me a baseline level of enhanced physique when completed. Namely, a multiplier to a stat like you have from your racial trait. They also give me a unique ability specific to them. So, yeah, Life Nova gives me a powerful regeneration factor. I still haven't picked out the next template though. I need to pick another kind of flame to condense it from, because it'll take me a while to actually complete the first rank of my Ninefold Phoenix Physique."

Life Nova was actually the gentlest flame I could have picked. That had upsides and downsides though. It would make the process easier, but the passive effect was less powerful because of that. I already had decent healing, and regeneration was less useful than something more directly applicable to combat.

Which was why my second choice was Mephistopheles black fire. With that, I would get a modifier to Might, and while I didn't know exactly what unique ability I would end up with, but it would probably be something related to damage or armor penetration.

Each new layer would be a building block for my final Ninefold Phoenix Physique. The tenth level would be forging them all together into a single phoenix to temper my body. I'd officially BECOME a nine colored phoenix when I finished. I had a long way to go before that, of course. I needed to choose nine flames and condense nine different templates. I hadn't even properly formed my first yet.

Speaking of which, I finished my last bite of waffle and stood up. "I'm going to go start on my Body Forging," I told Callie. "Want to watch? It shouldn't be too painful given the flame I'm using."

She perked up. "I AM kind of curious." She stood up and stretched, then winked at the others. "Let's do it. Bye all, I'm gonna go watch my husband set himself on fire."

That got a laugh, and the two of us headed to the nearest training room, ready to start. "Alright, so a racial trait is similar to a bloodline, but backwards. With a bloodline you take your power and imprint it on your body, and with a racial trait you kind take your body and imprint it on your power. Since Body Forging is that but slower, the process involves bodily transformation."

She nodded, strolling over to take a seat against a nearby wall. I stripped off my mask and armor, leaving me in only my pants, and Callie whistled dramatically. "Whoo! Take it off!"

I gave her a flat look. "You're enjoying this way too much."

"Beefcakes and pretty colored fire, what's not to like," she grinned back smugly. "You think you could do a little dance for me while you're forging?"

I sniffed loftily. "Hey, I'm not a piece of meat you know. Now keep it down while I slowly grill myself to an even temperature. A quick thought summoned Beelzebub. The tall, grey haired man was unnaturally thin and really pale, and his eyes flicked back and forth as if expecting an attack. I flicked my fingers again and Zagan appeared. Beelzebub bowed, and at my gesture, split into thirteen copies of Zagan.

Then I gestured to them to begin. The thirteen copies of the green haired man all raised their hands, channeling their green flame into spheres in the manner of Life Nova's use. As they built it up, I prepared, summoning Manny and incarnating him, and then, finally, I told them to begin.

There was an eruption of vital power, waves of green flame exploding from every angle to converge on my body. I'd expected at least SOME pain, but it didn't come like I'd expected. As the flames struck me, the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art revolved. It took the fire, swept it up into a sort of vortex, and then spun it through my body in a complicated pattern I wasn't sure I could have memorized normally.

Fire surged through me, whirling and singing through every inch of my body, coating every cell in a shifting pattern that outlined a transformation unlike anything I'd seen before. Each time it finished a circulation, the excess life energy poured into me, and it seemed to be collecting in my blood. Power began to fill my veins, just a bit at first, then more, then more. I closed my eyes, letting it wash over me. This was the easiest one. It was the first and most direct temper. I had to do this nine times to complete the first layer, and as my body acclimated to each one it would get harder and harder.

For now though, it was simple. As my body built up power, my blood began to boil. Not in a painful way, not with this flame. It felt…glorious. Like I was slowly ascending to a higher plane. The boiling energy started to converge, driven by the whirling fire, condensing and collecting. I closed my eyes and I could see it within me. Energy racing inward, slowly aggregating inside my heart.

Blood and fire coalescing together in a cacophony of rioting life energy. In my mind, I watched the process complete. The results of the first attempt. A single point where all the fiery green blood energy collected. A single drop of blood.

This wasn't human blood. After being tempered with the power of the Life Nova and the mysterious pattern of the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, it had transformed, changed. This was a single drop of Life Nova phoenix blood. It collected more and more power, growing and changing, until finally, with a dramatic pause, the energy inside BURST, pouring through my body, changing the blood in my veins, altering it until it was the same consistency as the drop.

The drop itself remained, floating inside one of the chambers of my heart. The flames faded, the noise receding. I opened my eyes, staring down the the glowing green force permeating my veins, and I let out a long, slow breath. The exhalation turned to green steam as it came out of my body.

Callie clapped enthusiastically. "That was VERY pretty," she said teasingly. "What exactly did you do?"

I chuckled. "Basically, the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art harnesses the fire and my blood energy to condense a drop of phoenix blood, which produces a qualitative shift in my bloodline. Once I've condensed nine drops, those qualitative changes will be complete and my body will fully adapt to the first template."

"And you did this in what, ten minutes?" she said skeptically. "Won't take long to finish."

I laughed. "This was the first tempering. My blood is just normal human blood at the moment. The amount of fire I need to saturate it is pretty low. The NEXT drop will take roughly ten times more flame energy. Which means ten times as long. I ALSO cheated, because without Manny to operate the Reincarnation Art, it would have taken me like twenty years to learn a pattern that complicated and be able to use it dynamically during forging."

"Still, pretty cool," she commented. "You seem…more vital. Energetic. You think you're already seeing some results from that blood change?"

I flexed my hand. "A little," I admitted. "I do feel a bit wired. Unfortunately, this is the gentlest possible flame, and is already heavily skewed towards human optimization. That felt really good actually, like a massive energy surge, but my NEXT few flames…" I trailed off. "Well, the old man said the pain would be beyond what most people could endure."

Still, I was more than human now. It hadn't actually changed me fully yet, but I was growing and changing. I dismissed Manny, Zagan, and Beelzebub. I considered calling Sammael. My new changes combined with his qualitative boost would probably produce amazing results, but I'd have to look into that later. For now, I just walked over to plop down next to my wife. "So, what do you think of all this?"

Her face softened, her smile becoming something warm and intimate. "I think you're distracting yourself," she said gently. "I think you don't want to dwell on what happened with Roland, or on the coronation, which by the way is tomorrow."

My expression fell. "Is it that obvious?"

"Only to me, love," she said quietly, resting her head on my shoulder. "This is certainly an interesting new ability. I'm excited for you. Also kind of curious what the hell our kids are going to be when we have them. Like your mom jokes about it, but half archangel nine color phoenix babies sound KIND of terrifying."

I burst out laughing. "Oh gods, I didn't even think about that. Those poor kids. You don't mind me changing myself like that?"

"Be kind of hypocritical of me if I did," she giggled. "Just don't get stuck as a bird and I'm fine. Do you think you'll get natural wings? Like consistent ones? Or will you still need Sammael to fly in human form?"

"Probably the latter," I mused. "I think I'll get an ACTUAL phoenix form, but not anytime soon. The changes are to the bloodline until the Art is complete. Until I finished the tenth level I'm closer to a phoenix blooded human than an actual phoenix. It's part of the process. But hey, I can turn into a giant flaming bird eventually I bet. That's pretty cool."

She eyes me speculatively. "I want a blanket stuffed with your feathers," she decided. "Not pinions either. Down. The soft stuff."

I gaped at her. "What? I'm not even a bird yet and you're already stripping me for parts? Why don't you try to get down for a blanket from Archie? I bet his feathers are pretty soft, and probably great for getting a good night's sleep. Maybe as a pillow."

She paused. "That…isn't a bad idea. I'll consider it. For a pillow. But he's too small to make a proper comforter. You're going to be a GIANT bird. You'll barely miss it, I'm sure." Her tone was smug and teasing, and I let myself fall into the banter, enjoying the back and forth with my wife about something meaningless. Because she was right. Tomorrow was coming fast, and once it got here, moments like these would be few and far between. Best to savor them while I could.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning came with a surprising lack of pomp OR circumstance. I woke up, rolled out of bed, and then just kind of…sat there. Today was the day. My coronation. My ascension to Wishmaster.

Despite having known it was coming, having worked for it for years, having fought and bled and almost died to achieve it, it felt bewildering. I was somehow blindsided. All the panic I thought I'd worked through, the fear I had faced and set down, came flooding back into me like a thundering stampede of wild horses tearing through my mind. Until…

A pair of soft arms draped around me, a chin on my shoulder, and three sets of blue black wings encircled me.

All the panic. All the fear. It vanished. Like ice under warm sunshine, all my hesitation just melted away, replaced by the blazing warmth of the love I had for my wife, and the love she had for me. My shoulders relaxed, head falling forward, and I smiled softly. "Morning," I told her with a chuckle. "Sorry to wake you."

"Not at all," she said wryly. "Your existential crisis was very quiet. I just needed a glass of water."

"Suffer in silence," I said solemnly. "That's my motto. Also showers are better than baths. Speaking of which…"

She giggled at that. "There's no way we'll be on time for your coronation if I get in with you."

I shrugged. "I'm going to be their boss anyway. What are they gonna do? It's not like I could be worse than Aiden." She raised an eyebrow at me archly and I rolled my eyes with a sigh. "But I guess we have guests and all that. Fine. Rain check." I sighed, leaning my head against hers. "Remind me again why I need to do this?"

"Because it's your dream," she said gently. "Because you feel like you owe it to your family. Because you want to affect real change."

I sighed, standing reluctantly to start putting on my armor. I slipped into my greaves, then boots, the motions almost ritual after so long wearing the stuff. I traced my fingers over the metal, relieved at the lack of cracks. Donovan hadn't been SUPER pleased to be summoned back. He'd been mixing with some of the smiths who were visiting for the coronation, and had been spending most his time at the sword dance symposium.

Fade's blacksmith elder had come with us because he was powerful enough to be relevant, but we hadn't really needed any smithing, so he'd been doing his own thing. As the smith who forged my armor, Donovan Redfellow was less than impressed with the condition it was in, though he did calm down slightly when I told him about the horrible attack it helped me survive. Professional pride was a beautiful thing.

I stopped to do my morning ritual, condensing my wishes for the day, and then, when I finished I turned to face my wife. "So, before we go, we have those makeup wedding pictures for my grandparents. I'm ALMOST positive they were joking about bringing a crown."

She laughed at that, and offered me her hands. I spun her lightly, like we were dancing, and then pulled her against me, resting my forehead against hers. "Thank you," I said quietly.

I didn't say for what. I didn't need to. And I couldn't. Not really. Not ever. There was too much, too many emotions, too much love, too much that we'd shared. But she knew. She always knew what I was feeling, even without the bond. She kissed me softly, and we stood like that, alone together, letting the world pass us by.

Then the spell broke, and we headed out of our room to meet up with the others. Abel, Mel, Chelsea, Gabe, Bethy, Fade, Ellie, my entire cabinet. The room was packed. To my surprise, one of my cabinet members approached with a wry smile, holding up a small glass cylinder. He handed it to me.

I raised a brow at Wulf. "What's this?"

"My mission," he shrugged. "You asked me to find that guy, Tim. Well, I found him." He gestured to the bottle, which upon closer inspection had what appeared to be a very small chunk of rock floating in it. I squinted, able to make out more with my enhanced Perception. Not a chunk of rock. A continent.

"He's in HERE?" I asked dumbly. "Why? How? How do you even know?"

He rolled his eyes. "Because I ASKED him. I've been inside that thing. I wanted to ask him to come out but-"

"Let me guess," my dad sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He refused. Because he's-"

"Tim in a bottle," agreed Wulf. "Yeah, he was really emphatic about that. He's got a whole country of citizens in there, and he seems to be doing an ok job. It's a weird place. Very colorful, lots of strange art."

My mom laughed at that. "Sounds like him. Here, pass it to me. Eli and can keep an eye on it, maybe slip in for a visit. It would be nice to see an old friend. Before that though, we need to get these pictures done so we can leave." She glanced at my grandmother. "Do you really need the props and outfits?"

Celia puffed out an annoyed breath. "I suppose not. With Shane's armor recently repaired, it looks good as new, and Calliope is always fashionable."

My wife preened, and I rolled my eyes, because my mask made it impossible for anyone but her to tell. I muttered "teacher's pet" in her head to make sure she got the joke. She stuck her tongue out at me lightning fast when no one was looking, and I had to choke down a laugh.

We spent the next hour taking photos. We got some of me and Callie, me and Chelsea, Chelsea Bethy and Gabe (despite what my grandparents had said about focusing on the happy couple, which I was glad to see), my parents, my grandparents, and even a few of all of us as a group. It was a big day, and they were clearly trying to get the most out of the photographer they had hired.

The photographer was actually really impressive. He was B-rank, but he had this incredibly complex camera made of interlocking gears that took images into like a three dimensional crystal prism. When you channeled light into it the crystal could even project the image as a hologram. It was all very interesting, and my grandparents had to make us all get into position for pictures because we all got distracted questioning him about it.

Sadly, good times always had to end. Eventually we finished the last of the photos, and it was time for us to leave. I headed for the door, but my mom, dad, and Zeke stopped me on the way. "Calliope, darling, can I have a moment with my son?" My mom asked kindly. "I promise to return him posthaste."

Callie nodded, smiling warmly at my mother. "Of course, Sasha. I'll wait outside."

"Please dear, call me mom," my mother chirped brightly. "You mean so much to this family, there's no need to stand on ceremony."

My wife blushed a bit, but didn't say no, hurrying out of the room with a look of conflicted confusion. I could understand her feelings. Unlike her father, who she hated (hence being so willing to accept Atlas as a parental figure), Callie adored her mother. But I know she'd also grown close to my mom and grandmother, and she did consider herself part of the family. I doubted Amelia would care, personally, but I also wasn't going to push her on it, not would my mother, judging by her expression.

She watched Callie go with a fond smile. "That girl is the best thing that's ever happened to you."

"Agreed," I said without hesitation. "But I doubt that's what you wanted to talk to me about. What's up, guys? I'm fine, if you were worried about it. I know this is a lot, but I've been through worse. And don't worry, I won't embarrass you up there. I CAN be civilized when I put my mind to it, you know?"

Zeke snorted. "I'll believe it when I see it," he said dryly. "But that's not what this is about. If you're going to humiliate yourself up there, there's nothing we can do to stop it. Besides, you're a grown man, it's not going to reflect on me anymore, so go nuts."

"What Ezekial is TRYING to say," my mother said tightly. "Is that we trust and love you, and we have no doubt you'll acquit yourself admirably up there. We aren't concerned about the coronation, it's mainly a formality in any case. No, we're hoping to speak with you about your trip to the Void. Are you still planning to go?"

"I think I kind of have to," I said grimly. "Morwenna has shown an interest in working with Hatescream. I mean, sure, she refused originally because of Callie, but who knows how long that will last. I don't believe her fear of Atlas can outweigh her goals for much longer. We need to shut down some of the war fronts. Making an alliance would be even better, and my inroads at Mourne Kayze are our best shot. The Lady of Lamentation favors me personally, and if anyone can reach out and convince her it's me."

I'd met the vanished goddess once, after all, and as the Wishmaster I would nominally be her equal politically. Given the gods themselves would be unable to enter the Void space occupied by her god world, I was the next best option. Someone with a connection to the Vanished Gods and a high enough position that my words would be taken seriously, but who was expendable enough not to be a vulnerability.

"Ok," my mom said slowly. "If you're sure, we won't stop you. But do you know what the Void is like? How it works?"

"I know the Void roads are a thing," I shrugged. "Paths through the space that connect to…whatever is out there. Different areas where Void children live, I assume. I'm guessing there aren't too many real people there, given how much the Void hates us."

My mom chuckled. "You'd think so. But that's not the case. There are plenty of people in the Void. In fact, the Void children PREFER them being there. God worlds provide better insulation from the Void, and they contain more noise. While most gods are dead, their worlds don't cease to exist. They simply remain in the Void, broken but still accessible. The Void roads connect this shattered domains, and they're referred to collectively as 'The Hanging Lands'."

"There are many cities and forces in the hanging lands," my dad warned. "And they don't fear the five factions at ALL. Any attempts to cleanse them fails, any attempt to bring them under control results in years of attrition. It's not so easy for a god to claim another god's world, dead or not. In order to reach this…Mourne Kayze, you'll need to pass through the hanging lands."

My mom looked worried. "The hanging lands are…strange. Their relationship with the Void is complicated. You need to be very careful out there. Don't announce your identity as the Wishmaster. Their information channels aren't exactly top notch, so using your name should be fine, but be sure to be careful and rely on your disguise form if needed. Ezekiel says it's quite impressive."

"It's a pseudo-Domain," I began, then trailed off. "Actually, I guess it's a demon now. That'll take some getting used to. But warning taken, guys. I'll be safe. I have to complete this mission to end the war. I have no desire to be in charge during wartime for any longer than necessary." I winked. "Plus, accomplishing something like this will give me tons of leverage with the council. I might actually be able to push through some reforms." My mom laughed at that, pulling me into a tight hug, and then we all headed out. It was time for my coronation.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We headed to the terminal to make our way to the back palace. Instead of heading to the same place as the sword dance symposium though, we made our way through the hallways until we got to an unassuming looking stairway. "You'll be going up there," my mom said gently. "There's a staging area, and then you'll emerge for the coronation when they call you. Aiden should be up there waiting for you."

I gave her a hug. "Alright, wish me luck," I said in a determined voice. "Though I guess the hard part is over."

My dad nodded. "Probably, there have only been like, three assassinations during coronations in WCP history." My mom glared at him, slapping him on the shoulder, and he coughed in embarrassment. "I mean…none. There have been no assassinations during coronations. Nothing like that has ever happened before and definitely won't happen now."

My mother rolled her eyes. "Uncle Moon is here, as is my dad, and the entire council. No one is going to try anything. It would be suicide."

I chuckled, rolling my eyes at my dad. "I know he's just trying to help. Callie is coming up with me, by the way. If anyone has a problem with that…they can shut up about it." I sort of lost steam as I went on that one, but neither of them seemed bothered. My mom just nodded, and Callie walked gracefully over to loop her arm in mine.

She looked…breathtaking. She'd traded her normal gown for a fancier long sleeved velvet dress of dark blue with silver accents. Black patterns flowed across the surface, taking the shape of feathers that sort of blended the dress with her wings and hair to create a harmonious whole that amplified her presence as an archangel. She smirked as she saw me looking her over. "You like?" she flipped her hair dramatically. "Bethy made it for me herself."

"Looking good," I complimented her as we ascended the stairs. "Better than me anyway."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't bother responding. When we reached the top, I knocked on the door, and it was flung open quickly. A harried looking woman with long silver hair pulled up in a bun jerked us inside. "You're here! Thank the gods, it's almost time, get into position. Aiden, are you finished getting dressed yet?" Her dark violet skin set off her swirling silver eyes, flecks of purple dancing within the irises. Silver horns glinted nearly under her hairline.

"So…you're Davina?" I asked as she dragged my predecessor over to stand with us.

"Hmm?" she said, glancing up distractedly. "Oh, yes, that's me. Nice to meet you dear. I apologize for my husband." She glared up at Aiden, who actually wilted a bit. "I've heard he's been an abysmal guide for your situation. I swear, I love the man but he's the most irresponsible being I've ever met. It's no wonder he and my father get on."

I tried to remember her dad's name, and after I did…I swallowed. Azazel. I'd subconsciously associated the name with the demonic because of its history, but I had forgotten the princes of the devil race were ACTUAL demons. In the same way Zeke was Janus, Azazel had inherited the reputation and mantle of the being on which I'd based my final demon. I was really hoping he didn't mind a little homage.

She smiled down at my arm wrapped in Callie's. "Well, that's one way you're similar. Aiden refused to let them exclude me either. We'd just been married at his coronation, and he marched me up in front of the whole faction and told them they'd better treat me with respect or he'd light them on fire and roast marshmallows for us on the flames." She shot him a fond look. "I didn't need him fighting my battles for me, of course. But it was cute that he tried."

"Damn it woman," he complained as he adjusted his tunic. "Can you avoid humanizing me in front of the children. I'm trying to maintain an image. Oh, speaking of which, you'll need this." He turned and walked over to a polished wood cabinet. The room we were in was old and cramped, full of natural wood furniture and lots of boxes. One of them, which he flipped open, was a hat box. And inside it was…

"Oh gods, there's an ACTUAL crown?" I moaned, burying my masked face in my hands.

He snickered. "That was my reaction too. It's ceremonial, and only needed for the coronation. Unfortunately, that's the only good news. It's EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Like…abnormally so. I can't describe it, really. It's like an itch mixed with a burn mixed with a throb. Combined with a seething headache."

"Why?" I asked in disbelief.

"No idea," he shrugged. "Maybe it's symbolic. Not my monkeys, not my circus. At least not anymore." There was a rap at the door behind us, and he sighed. "Damn. I don't want to do this part." He snapped the box closed, and I shot him a look. He shrugged. "Not time yet, just wanted to get in your head a little."

I stared at him in annoyance. "Some day, not too far in the future. We will be the same rank. And on that day, I will find you, and I will punch you in the throat."

He burst out laughing. "Did you hear Davi? That was so CUTE. He thinks he's threats."

His wife sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Honestly Aiden, I can't take you anywhere." Despite her tone, I saw a warm smile on her lips, and her gaze was soft and happy. It was nice to see that being Wishmaster didn't have to be hard on a marriage, even when someone like Aiden was one of the parties involved.

We walked to the door, and threw it open. Below it, stretching out for a hundred feet at least, a large palatial staircase led down into a ballroom. The stairs were carpeted in deep purple, and the ballroom itself was made of black and white marble, with purple gold patterns hammered into the floor in dizzying swirls and designs. "Announcing!" boomed a voice from beside me. "His excellency, our chosen representative, the current incarnation of the unquestionable rule of our esteemed ancestor. Shane Wyndham. Also known as SOLOMON!"

I didn't move, just leaning out to look at the herald and then my wife. He picked up my implication quickly, continuing his announcement to let everyone know who Callie was. Only then did I step out, Aiden and Davina beside me, and descend the stairs in my group of four.

When we reached the landing at the bottom, I realized that while we WERE in a ballroom, the height of the stairs had created a bit of an optical illusion. The ballroom itself wasn't at the bottom of the steps, instead, there was a large marble platform, like a stage, and then below that the dance floor sat. The purple gold inlays were only on the stage, not the ballroom floor, so once I was on the level it made it easier to tell.

We took up positions center stage, and I looked out at the crowd around us. S-rankers, A-rankers, B-rankers, it was a diverse mix. I could see old friends, family, complete strangers, and even a few enemies. I ignored them. My eyes were drawn inexorably to an area near the back, where all my closest allies were standing. My mom and dad, eyes shining with pride, Zeke, his arm around Stella and his face softer than I'd ever seen it before. My sister, beaming proudly with tears in her eyes, her arm around a bawling Bethy and surprisingly teary eyed Gabe.

I could see crystals floating above the crowd too,. Blue diamond shaped stones surrounded by rings of shifting white power. I recognized them as a variation of the same technology used by Wilkie, my grandparents photographer, during our picture session.

Swallowing, I turned my eyes to the immediate space in front of the stage. The council stood solemnly, staring up at me with regal authority. Desmond nodded lightly, and I turned to Aiden. The former Wishmaster was as serious and authoritative as I'd ever seen him. Apparently even he wasn't willing to be an asshole during this.

"Shane Wyndham," he intoned, voice carrying through the room as if echoing from a fathomless canyon. "You have been chosen. Measured. Tested. You have been selected, and surveyed. By the family, by myself, by the council, by the Ancestor. You have been found adequate. You have been accepted. And today, in front of our allies, and the universe itself, I stand ready to lay down my burden, so you might take up my mantle. How do you respond?"

This was ceremonial. I was supposed to say I accepted and move on. But…I didn't want to. I didn't want to leave it at that. I looked out over the crowd. "I have been tested," I agreed. "I have been surveyed. And in that time, I have tested right back. I have weighed and measured. I have learned."

I expected Aiden to interrupt or get impatient, but he just looked pensive. "And what, exactly, have you learned?"

"We are mighty," I said firmly. "We are a behemoth. A titan among the stars. The family is and remains strong." I saw pride and smugness on the more familiar faces. Unfortunately for them, I had to squash that. "But we are stagnant. We have grown complacent, and our enemies scratch at the gates, reveling in our decay. We need to change. Need to adapt. And I will bring that adaptation.

"You asked how I responded," I continued, my eyes raking the hall. "I accept. And so to should you. Accept that I will bring change. That I will challenge the existing status quo. That I will make things different. Because only through transformation is growth possible." My gaze locked on the council. "And only through growth can we survive."

Aiden nodded sharply. "Your response is approved," he said, his voice crushing down on the hall like a hammer of authority. "May the change you bring be as bold as your words today." He lifted the box next, flipping it open.

Inside, a pitch black metal circle sat. Along the edges, the skull and lamp motif of the WCP, and on its brow, a single black metal skull, eyes set with the most vivid violet gems I had ever seen in my life. Lifting the crown free, Aiden let the box drop, ignoring the echo of clacking wood as he lifted the crown to my head. "With the passing of this totem," he said quietly (though I somehow knew everyone in the room could hear him), I grant you my office. My authority. And my right to rule."

He laid the crown on my skull, and I felt a surge of…heat? Cold? Electricity maybe. I also felt a shift in the air. The crown began to heat up, and the air around me began to swirl, slowly at first, then faster. I could feel the focus and attention, the mythology and renown being pulled in, siphoned from the crowd, from the air, from my own waiting reserves. Power unlike anything I had felt before, carried on the winds of royal authority, poured into me, filling me with strength and purpose.

For just that second, I could feel them. My people. My family. I could feel their hopes, their dreams, their wishes. Because that was part of this. Part of me. The Wishmaster was the MASTER of Wishes. Not just granting them, but understanding them. It was no wonder the old man had retired. I knew somehow that if I lifted the crown off, I would lose this connection, would lose the pressure of all these dreams and wishes. But without us here to provide a buffer, I didn't think he ever would.

Finally, the power surge ended, and I quickly took off the crown, realizing my hands were shaking and my head was killing me. Aiden had been right. That HAD hurt, i just hadn't noticed at first. As I opened my eyes, a familiar wave of violet flame consumed my vision, and I bore witness for the first time to what my power looked like after ascending to my office.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Changes. That was the first thing I noticed. Not just the recent ones, but all the changes I'd gone through. It had been years now, since I started this journey, and in those years, I'd changed so much. Rank-ups, abilities, my Domain, and now my new office. I was a completely different person now, and despite that building for so long, putting on the crown felt like some kind of trigger. Like the spark that lit the fuse that burned away everything I used to be in a sea of violet fire.

Wishmaster status. C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Wish- Nine times a day grant a Grandmaster wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Grandmaster Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Wishmaster candidate points-1000

Might-940,923

Impact-155

Fantasy-825,780

Vitality-831,467

Focus-929,835

Perception-761,873

Creation-712,871

Progress to next rank:5,002,904/10,000,000

Soul strength- Tanzanite Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 1/81 drops- First Layer 1/9

Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:2- 1 Zagan, 1 Leviathan)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 27 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")

Stored: 10 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 7

2.Valtek- Tier 2

3.Cooking- Tier 7

4.Inventing- Tier 2

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 2

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 1

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 6

11.Dust Construction- Tier 5

12. Stone Limb- Tier 6

13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4

14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 6

15.Ripple Running- Tier 3

16.State of Grace- Tier 4

17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4

18.Afterburner- Tier 6

19.Pit of Despair- Tier 6

20.Mountain Stance- Tier 6

21.Heart over Body- Tier 6

22.Mercy Kill- Tier 5

23.Double Trouble- Tier 6

24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5

25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3

26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2

27.Marked for Death- Tier 4

28.False Fatality- Tier 3

29.Blood Curse- Tier 4

30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2

31.Final Strike- Tier 6

32.Overlay- Tier 4

33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3

34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2

35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6

36.Danger Sense- Tier 5

37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6

38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6

39.Belial- Tier 7

40.Abomination Engine- Tier 6

41.Mephistopheles- Tier 7

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6

44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6

45.Mornax- Tier 7

46.Zagan- Tier 7

47.Life Nova- Tier 6

48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6

49.Bael- Tier 7

50.Beelzebub- Tier 7

51.Agares- Tier 7

52.Dantalion- Tier 7

53.Sammael- Tier 7

54.Limbo- Tier 7

55.Gluttony- Tier 7

56.Wrath

57.Pride- Tier 7

58.Retribution- Tier 7

59.Murmur- Tier 7

60.Leviathan- Tier 7

61.Behemoth- Tier 7

62.Glory- Tier 7

63.Abaddon -Tier 7

64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 7

65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6

66.Fate Sense- Tier 6

67.Scent of Truth- Tier 5

68.Damnatio Memoraie- Tier 6

69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6

70. Asmodeaus- Tier 7

71. Astaroth- Tier 7

72. Azazel- Tier 7

I must have been gaping. We'd stepped back on the stage, behind a privacy curtain I hadn't even noticed, and Aiden was grinning at me. "It's pretty wild, right? Feeling those connections? Even for a few minutes. But it's necessary. The crown isn't just a totem, it's a focus. Those bonds to the wishes of the family let you absorb the mythology and renown of the Wishmaster more efficiently."

That made sense. I'd taken in my entire weight in power this time, and while it had felt WEIRD, it didn't hurt the way it usually did. I'd chalked that up to my strong soul or Domain, but come to think of it, handling those volumes should have been way more uncomfortable. I suspected the main point had been to show me the bonds though, let me know what the old man would have to deal with if he was more involved.

As for the renown of the Wishmaster, I could definitely see it. My Fantasy and Creation stats had SKYROCKETED. I'd gotten pretty solid boosts across the board, but Fantasy and Creation had been the lowest, and the swing had been most noticeable there. My Might had jumped decently, but nothing too impressive, and my Focus had spiked. The Wishmaster had a reputation for being shrewdly intelligent and a brilliant researcher.

It felt…strange. Like I wasn't in control of my body almost. The crown seemed to have almost purified the income of stats, like I was receiving them through a wish. Looking at the sheer amount of power, if I'd taken that in as normal renown the recursion would have been brutal. The old man had known what he was doing when he made that headpiece. I shot an assessing look at it.

Aiden laughed again. "I know how you feel. It's kind of surreal, right? That's one of the old man's objects of power. Trust him to build something like that instead of a weapon or armor. I guess that's why he's a god. Never does things the normal way."

I blinked, staring down at the dark metal yet again. Knowing that it was an object of power made a LOT more sense. Items that did this kind of thing were unheard of. I hadn't known it was possible to purify stats like the Wish power did, or to siphon renown directly and skip the waiting period as the legend spread. Or to help acclimate the power. But thinking about it, the Wish power itself did most of those things. The crown was just a physical manifestation of a power the old man already had.

Still, I was blown away, and I knew I'd need a few days at least to acclimate to the changes. Being so much stronger so quickly wasn't EXACTLY new, I'd had huge bumps before, and even doubled my stats at one point I was pretty sure, but the sensation of that post D-rank and with stats as high as mine already were…I was fairly close to breaking a MILLION with some of my INDIVIDUAL stats.

Callie took my hand and squeezed it. "You ok, baby?" she asked worriedly. "Your head is a big jumble. I can't tell if you're upset or happy."

"Yeah," I said, shaking my head. "I'm good. Just kind of overwhelmed. I knew the coronation would be a big bump, but feeling all that at once was a lot." I looked around at the curtain. "I'm guessing that's not an unusual reaction. How long do I have to get my head right before I have to get back?"

Aiden snorted. "Have to get back? You're the Wishmaster, kid. You could just go fuck off to sleep and no one would say a word."

Davina smacked him upside the head. "Do NOT do that," she clarified. "That's terrible advice, and is not even remotely applicable to you. Aiden got away with far too much because of his secondary combat ability and his father's help. As someone who plans to make real changes, bullying the council and swanning around like you can't be bothered with anyone else is the WORST possible path for you to take."

I laughed at Aiden's sulky pout, but he didn't contradict her. "Noted, so what do you suggest I do?"

"Take twenty or thirty minutes," she said kindly. "Process the new stats, get your head on straight, then go out and greet your subjects. Make people feel seen. You just announced your intention to massively upset the applecart, and a lot of people will be concerned. Smooth things over, let them meet you. Change is scary, and the unknown is scarier. If you're going to hit them with the former, make sure to have as little of the latter as possible."

I turned shot her a wry smile. "Aiden was right, you are MUCH better at this than he is."

She shot him a warm smile. "My husband has the soul of a warrior. He was…misinformed about the nature of his former position. I'm dreading having him on the council. He's quickly approaching S-rank, of course. That's why the succession war was so much faster than usual this time. Once he breaks through he'll be expected to create a branch of his own and join the elders."

"Which I'm absolutely not doing," he said quickly. "I hate council meetings. I'm just going to go bust skulls on the front lines." He glared at me. "Don't end this war too quickly. I know you told the old man you plan to find allies among the Vanished gods. If you peace us out before I get a chance to cut loose and cement my push to S-rank I'm going to be PISSED."

Davina rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to him. End the war as quickly as possible, he's not going to have trouble with his breakthrough. Very few people have Chronicles as solid as his. The sublimation into a Saga will pose no difficulty to him. He's just trying to avoid work." She raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Come along, dear. We need to let the children settle before they go out to mingle. And you and I need to have a discussion about the responsibilities of being a good role model."

Something about the way she said that made me think that such a discussion might be relevant to them in the near future. Azazel tossing me a tidbit of information, maybe. Aiden didn't have any kids, but now that he wasn't the Wishmaster anymore, I got the sudden feeling that there might be a baby in his future.

Neither of them noticed my insight as she took his hand and dragged him off. I turned to find Callie grinning at me, and just to amuse her I shared my prediction. She giggled at that. "I'm glad. Davina will be a good mom, based on what I saw of her. As for Aiden…hard to say. I wish them both well, though. So, how big was that boost, anyway?"

"A quarter," I admitted. "I'm halfway to B-rank now." Her eyes widened, jaw dropping with shock.

"HALF?" she said in disbelief. "That's…dear gods, Shane, how are you standing after an influx that large. Wait, no, I know how, he explained it. But still." Aiden had taken the crown with him when he left, but she stared after it in a daze. "Aiden was right though. Trust the Wishmaster to have an item like that." Her face firmed in determination. "That settles it. I've been wondering what to do once you leave on your trip. Now I know. Aiden's space flame is similar to my Adherent fire. I need to learn, and I need to make a name for myself if I don't want to get left behind. I'm going to ask him to take me with him to the front lines of god war."

I knew there were Void spawn there, mixed in with the forces of the vanished gods, but I still felt my blood run cold at the idea of my wife running off to a war zone. I clamped down on that sensation though. She deserved the chance to get stronger. To learn and grow. She was right, if she didn't, she'd get left behind, and that scared me almost as much as the idea of losing her.

The next thirty minutes went by fast, and then it was time to go out and mingle. The rest of the night went by in a blur after the news of Callie's plans. I spent them concentrating on ways to make sure she stayed as safe as possible once she left, and the next day, I put those plans into action.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It was a long night, and by the time I dragged myself off to bed, my head was ringing with the endless waves of congratulations, ass kissing, and doubletalk. But I still found time (with the help of Piece of Mind) to consider exactly what I could do to keep Callie safe. I wracked my brain, considered multiple options, and eventually came to one inescapable conclusion: there was nothing I could do.

At least, not personally. But if I was running off to the Void to get myself potentially killed, I would make damned sure my loved ones were alright, and so, I called in a favor. Or rather, I had my grandmother do it.

"So I'm expected to play babysitter to your wife for an indefinite period?" the Moonlight Pope asked waspishly. "I agreed to a few hours of training, and those were semi-fruitful, and now instead of gratitude you're trying to go over my head and have me assigned as a full time tutor and bodyguard?"

"Nope," I said casually as I leaned back in my chair. "I'm not trying anything. I have SUCCESSFULLY done that." He glared at me, and I rolled my eyes. "Look, my great-grandfather laid down the law. He's your boss, and you know it, but this doesn't need to be contentious. My wife is going to be a pivotal player in the war, and she'll be surrounded by lots of strong enemies. Taking her as a disciple will ensure you plenty of decent fights on the front lines."

He stared hard at me for a moment, then sighed. "I suppose you're not WRONG. But I get the feeling this little request cost you more than just a quick request from Celia. If she had that kind of pull, she'd have used it before now."

"Of course I'm paying a price," I shrugged. "But it was one I was already paying anyway. Once grandma told the Revenant about my mission to the Void, he agreed wholeheartedly with my plan. Dispatching one of his trusted popes to watch over an asset that has already been targeted by the Void in a way that nearly shifted the tide of the war is just common sense. The gods are aloof, not stupid."

That got a nod. "I admit, the fact that they were willing to go through so much trouble for her is…intriguing."

"Gee, thanks," I said dryly. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled you're so interested. But let's be real, we both know that you aren't going to take this seriously if you're forced into it. So, what do I need to do to convince you to ACTUALLY teach her sword work instead of just doing the bare minimum. Malicious compliance won't be good for anyone."

He snorted. "You're adjusting to your new office pretty well, aren't you kid?" I stared back at him stoically, and he chuckled. "Fine. I want a favor. Doesn't have to be immediate, might not even ever call it in, but I want you to OWE me one. I'll do the job either way, but if you want me to do it WELL I want some quid pro quo." His tone was casual, and I got the impression he wasn't taking this seriously. Which was obviously not something I could allow.

"Look, we both know I can't hurt you," I said pleasantly, smiling benignly. "You're S-rank, and a demigod at that. It would take me years to be capable of doing anything to you." He smiled back, seeming amused…right up until the smile dropped off my face. "But if anything happens to my wife because you weren't taking this seriously, you're going to die. Nevermind the fact that we have a soul bond and her death might kill me, I'll hunt you down personally, and die trying to kill you. And if I die, my parents will try, and if THEY die, my grandparents, and if THEY die, you'll have to deal with Black Sorrow and presumably your own boss so-"

"Whoa!" He said, flinching back and holding up his hands. "Pull it back, kid, damn. Look, I think you took some our interactions out of context. Yes, I tested you when we met and that was a shitty move, but I'm not your ENEMY. Wasn't before, and I'm definitely not now. My master told me to guard your wife, and I WILL do that to the absolute best of my ability. If I seem cavalier about her safety, I assure you it's not because I don't take this seriously. This is confidence, not complacency."

He snorted, shaking his head. "You know, your general demeanor is all Nicholas, but that crazy vengeful streak is from your grandmother's side. Celia doesn't play around when it comes to her loved ones. Wonder where she gets THAT?" He grinned sardonically.

I deflated a bit. "I…yeah, sorry. Maybe that got a little heated. I just…I can't lose her, you know? Like I physically can't. I wouldn't survive it, even if the bond doesn't kill me. Do you get that?"

"Yeah, kid," he said softly. "I get that. Like I said, I'm not going to screw around with her safety. As for the training…if you agree to that favor, I'll give it my all. She'll be a saintess of the sword by the time I'm done with her. Celia is a powerful fighter, but she's also a natural. Her ability to teach is severely limited by her experience and the ease with which she learns. Not that she wasn't helpful to Calliope's growth, I'm sure. Any S-ranker taking an interest in someone that early in their development is a boon, but at this point…someone like me, someone who built his power from the ground up, will be a better fit."

I nodded. I hadn't really considered that, but he wasn't wrong. As the daughter of two gods, my grandmother was born with a Mirror Soul Body. She'd literally come into this world with a divine level spirit to work with. I couldn't IMAGINE the ease with which she'd cultivated to S-rank.

"She's going to be working with Aiden too," I warned him. "Nothing too formal. She created her Adherent fire herself, and I doubt he's going to be able to do much more than give her a direction to develop in, given how unique it is, but I wanted to warn you in case you're one of those people who resents their students seeking outside instruction."

He shrugged. "Long as he isn't teaching her to swing a blade I don't really care. But…about your whole Void mission. You sure about this, kid? Like you said, if anything happens to you it knocks over a whole bunch of really nasty dominos. I'd prefer you not drag a third of our gods into a blood soaked revenge campaign because you didn't know your limits."

"Don't be absurd," I snorted. "Of course I'm not sure. Only a psychopath would be confident about something like this. But it's my job. I firmly believe part of the reason my ascension to the office was so smooth, for whatever value of that word applies after that annoying trial, was because they knew they needed me for this. Especially after the recent attack. We need backup in this war, and I'm the guy who can get it."

Staring at me heavily, he chuckled. "You've got guts, kid, I'll give you that. When do you leave? I'm guessing it won't be long."

"Tomorrow," I admitted. "I can't drag my heels with everything going on. The faster I get there the faster I can end this, or at least change the course of the war. Making sure Callie was safe was the last thing I had to do. Aside from say goodbye to my friends and family, of course." I smiled wryly. "I'm bumming a few scrolls off my cousin for goodbye messages to my other team members too, just in case."

"Smart," he nodded. "Always hedge your bets. But I have a feeling you'll be ok. Judgement keeps an eye on family, and if you had a death omen hanging over you, he'd have noticed. He's not infallible, but he IS the oldest."

"I thought YOU were the oldest," I said in confusion. I could have sworn someone said that.

He shook his head. "Judgement is older. He's been with the master longer than anyone, but he likes to keep a low profile. He's also the hardest to pin down. A lot of people think that's me, but Judgement has a tendency to vanish for long periods of time without telling anyone. People just don't notice because he's so low key. Anyway, you have at least a decent chance at surviving, I'm sure. Just don't take any stupid risks."

To my surprise, he sounded genuinely worried, and I had to cock my head slightly. "That almost sounds like you're concerned about me."

Rolling his eyes, he let out a sigh. "See, this is the problem with kids. You take things so damned personally. Politics and personal aren't the same thing, Shane. You're my junior brother's grandson, and the child of my favorite niece, not to mention the great grandson of my master. Just because I'm willing to push my limits during political discourse doesn't mean I don't CARE about you."

"It's hard to take that from the way we've interacted," I admitted. "You get that, right?"

"Politics is part of being an Ascendant." he said bluntly. "Perception and reality, the manipulation of opinion. It's our lifeblood. Our essence. It's easy for you Wyndhams to forget that, given your abilities. You especially have a kind of fated momentum from your bloodlines that I've rarely seen in anyone your age. But make no mistake, managing perception and constructing the narrative are key aspects of growth, even for people like me. But it's not real life. It's like a game. You make your character, roleplay them where people can see, and build the renown you need. It doesn't mean the other stuff doesn't matter, but it's something you need to think about. Especially when you're steering a faction this large."

That was…oddly similar to some of the things Zeke had told me over the years. I let out a sigh. "Fine, I guess. I won't hold a grudge, as long as you can keep Callie safe, we're good. Actually good, not just nominally okay. So, should I call you granduncle Moon?"

He grimaced. "Please don't. Uncle Moon is fine, just like your mother. The last thing I want is THAT catching on with the kids. I'll lose all respect from everyone in the Church."

"Somehow, I don't think it would be all that bad," I chuckled. "But I can do Uncle Moon."

His eyes were fixed on me, and the worried light had grown. "Can I give you some advice, kid?" I nodded, curious what he had to say. "Traveling abroad isn't the same being on one planet for an extended period, especially not in a place like the Void. One of the most important things you can remember when you're out there is not to react without thinking. If you run into trouble, take a beat, take a breath, and consider your options. It sounds simple, but it'll save your life."

I was about to just agree reflexively, but I considered the advice itself and took a moment, thinking it over, then nodded. "I can do that," I said after a pause. "And…thanks, Uncle Moon."

"Don't mention it," he said with a soft smile. "And when you get back, maybe try to stop by the Holy Dominion again. My master never said anything, but I know he was hoping you would visit. He's not as unapproachable as his wife."

That kind of stunned me. "I…I'll keep it in mind." I said slowly. Then I stood and offered him my hand. "Thank you. Really. For everything. It means more than you know." He clapped me on the shoulder, offering me a reassuring smile, and then I left, heading back to my suite. I needed to set up some meetings for tomorrow with my cabinet and friends so I could make sure to say goodbye to everyone, and after that…it would be time to go.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I stood among my people. That was really the only way to describe it. I wasn't feeling particularly noble or leaderly at the moment though, just…safe. I was with family. I was loved. And it was ending. It was time to go out on my own, to do my best for the family, and to try to prevent a war that would absolutely destroy everything I cared about if left unchecked.

Callie was pouting. Her eyes were wet, but also hard and a little angry. Not that I was leaving, but because I'd told her about Uncle Moon.

"I can't believe you arranged for me to have an S-RANK bodyguard without ASKING me about it!" she hissed acidly. "Especially when YOU are running off to the Void alone to get yourself killed with no backup!"

"He's not doing that," said Chelsea flatly as she stepped up next to us. "Firstly because I won't let him, and second because he needs a contact for more than just the Lady's followers." She jerked a chin to one side. "Dayna is going with him. Bethy's been training her since she joined up, and she's easily ten times more dangerous than before. She's much lower in C-rank than you, granted, actually just made it over the line, but her heritage will bridge the gap."

Dayne nodded at me solemnly. The Heaven Murder Elf was a former worshipper of Verdyn who had been subdued by Bethy a year or two ago in the Screeching Shoals Dungeon. Silvery hair, blood red eyes, sharklike teeth, and pointed ears made it more than obvious Dayna was more than human, but the unnatural stillness as she stood in front of me was what told me she was dangerous.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I hedged. "No offense, Dayna, but I don't even know you. You could betray me."

"An absurd scenario," she said coldly. I relaxed a bit, it was good she was so commit- "I would require loyalty to you to engage in betrayal. Your continued existence is meaningless to me. No act I took against you would qualify as betrayal under those conditions."

I sighed. "Gosh, that's a relief," I said sarcastically. "And here I thought you might be a danger."

"My lady's will, however, is my bond," she reassured me. "She is quite fond of you, and as such your death is counter to my purposes as her agent. I will defend your flank in her name, and will not fail you on this mission."

Callie nodded approvingly. "Good, at least you're not going alone."

"You're surprisingly sanguine for a woman who was just told her husband is going to be alone on the road with a gorgeous elf girl," Abel said in amusement. "You're not…worried about that?"

My wife sniffed derisively. "Don't be silly, I trust Shane. He loves me and doesn't have eyes for anyone else." I nodded in satisfaction at the very accurate response. "Also he's not going to close our bond for the entire duration of this trip, so I'll know every move he makes." I threw my hands up in bewildered outrage and she shrugged. "Trust but verify, hon." She winked to let me know she was kidding, and I chuckled a bit to myself.

She was worried, and the bond would reassure her. I sent a pulse of love and reassurance across the bond to her, and she smiled back adoringly. Of course, that wasn't the last of my companions either. "Well, I had no idea Dayna would be coming along, but I was always planning to bring backup. Namely, the fine and fancy free Phoenix that you all know so well, my boy Archimedes!"

I gestured up to the sky, and with a joyful screech, Archie erupted from cover, blazing with life nova flames and doing a wide victory lap. Of course, the flames just HAPPENED to rain down and cover everyone, the good mood mitigating the somber atmosphere somewhat, but that definitely hadn't been my PLAN.

"I don't like it," my mother was in annoyance. "A C-rank elfling and D-ranked bird isn't enough backup. Elijah, SAY something to him! This is a ridiculous plan. He should be bringing a small army with him!" Her voice was frantic and pleading, and it broke my heart to see how afraid she was for me. She'd known this was coming, but hadn't expected it quite so soon. My dad shot me a helpless look and I chuckled, stepped over for a hug.

"It's FINE, Ma," I said soothingly. "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself. And I'm more than prepared for almost any situation. Even ZEKE has trouble with Astaroth. I can blend in safely wherever I go. And in case of an emergency…" I held up an ominous looking black scroll.

This was another of my dad's devil wish scrolls. It was set up the same way as before, I only needed to fill it up and that would pay for any wish he was capable of making. It was a last resort, break glass in case of emergency, type of measure, in case I ran into something really scary, but my dad was no ordinary devil, and the scroll had been imbued with an Onyx Soul to make sure it could pull its weight on top of that.

When activated, it wouldn't just grant a wish, it would manifest a soul clone of my dad TO grant the wish, and he'd be able to learn my situation once it dispersed, in case I needed further help. With the wish itself to defend me, and my dad having access to multiple S-rankers who could help him get to me if things went wrong, it was probably the best possible insurance.

I turned to my cabinet members. "You all know what to do, right? If you have any concerns, you can approach Davina about them. She's volunteered herself as a guide if any of you need advice. Otherwise…just do what you do. I appointed you all for your skills. I trust them."

Looking over at Abel, I sighed. "Just…keep an eye on them too? When you can? Bethy's the Champion, but she can't be everywhere. I'd feel better if they had some level appropriate muscle to work with. Family rules do a lot less to protect people from enemies of their own rank, you know."

He nodded. "Of course, I'm around if anyone needs me. I'm looking into acquiring that theme park Wulf showed us, so I'm going to be pretty busy, but local at least." He frowned at Callie and my sister. "I…I kind of want to go to the front lines with them. But at the same time I don't think I have anything to contribute there. Callie is going to be working with Aiden and the Moonlight Pope, and Chelsea will be training with your grandparents. I'll be working on my combat skills, obviously, but I think I learned enough from Lark to last me quite a while. What I really need is some downtime to digest everything and really integrate it."

I recognized his expression, the focus, the determination. "You're going to try to form your Chronicle," I said bluntly.

He shrugged. "I'm about there, and I won't be able to function on the same level as you all until I do. Not to mention I'm at C-rank, and I won't be able to break through to B until I condense one, so I'm kind of on a clock anyway." He nodded to my Master of Substitution. "Dante has offered to hook me up with some decent fights to help me polish myself up again, and once I'm back at fighting weight…I'm going to go for it."

"I'm with him," Mel said with a wry smile. "My idiot would be helpless without me. He'd probably end up opening a food truck or something and forgetting to work on his Chronicle at all."

I laughed, clapping them both on the shoulder. "No pressure. Callie has her teachers watching her back and Chelsea has plenty of backup," I nodded to Gabe and Bethy, who were hovering just behind my sister like guardian angels. "You do what you need to do. Just be sure you're ready when I get back. No clue what we have in store, but I'm sure it'll be just as crazy as usual."

I said my goodbyes. To my parents, to my friends, to my retainers like Fade and Donovan. Then I turned and left the suite with Dayna, heading for the library. The old man had summoned me, apparently he was going to be taking me to the edge of the Void Roads personally.

When we arrived, I was surprised to find him waiting there for me, looking bored. "Well, it certainly took you long enough."

"Yeah, I had people to say goodbye to," I said with a shrug. "I didn't drag it out."

After my little flare up following The Quiet Room incident, all of my fear of the old man was pretty much gone. Not to mention I was the WIshmaster now, and ostensibly his next in line if not his equal. So I'd relaxed my manner of speech somewhat. He wasn't going to kill me, especially not before a big mission, so a little casual chitchat wasn't the end of the world. Dayna, meanwhile, looked horrified by nonchalance, though she didn't say anything about it.

Sure enough, he didn't seem to care about or even notice my shift in tone. "Well, come on then. I'll take you to the edge. There aren't a lot of spots that connect to the Void Roads in the Wishworld. I minimize contact to avoid dealing with pests trying to slip in, but it's impossible to completely block them from connecting. They span the entirety of the Void."

He showed me into the library, through the massive stacks and around the back. We reached a small turnoff, and stepped into an alcove. A door sat in the alcove, a single glowing sign above it marked "Exit".

"Seriously?" I asked dryly. "You just have an emergency exit into the Void lying around your core Domain?"

He blinked at me in confusion. "Where else would I have an emergency exit to?"

I had no response to that, so I just sighed. "Where does this let out? How long til we get to the Hanging Lands from there? Which direction? Not sure we have any real idea of where we're supposed to be going. Dayna knows some of the Void, but we have to GET somewhere for her to recognize it."

"You'll figure it out," he said with a chuckle. "The roads are both complicated and very simple. I can't give you too much of a heading. Just…follow the stars. The congregate above the Hanging Lands. Getting lost in the Void is easy, but you can always find SOMETHING."

He pushed the door open, and it led out into…nothingness. I would have said space, but there weren't really any stars, just darkness. Splitting through the middle was a long, winding dirt path with ridges of stone bracketing either side. It split off in the distance, winding out, and the path went up, down, and even upside down in some place as it diverged into dozens of different roads along its length.

The roads, interestingly, were all softly glowing. Not enough for it to be visible up close, but just a sort of omnipresent ambient illumination surrounding them. That alone acted as a source of light in the Void.

"Don't step off the road unless you find solid ground," my ancestor advised. "Because you can only see the paths when you're on them, barring specific entrances like this. They span the length and breadth of the Void, but are invisible to any inhabitants. Not that there's no danger on the roads, but they tend to be more manageable." He paused, then withdrew a small booklet. "Since you're undertaking this job for the family and therefore for me, I suppose I can give you something to help. No need to thank me." And with that, he grabbed both of us, shoved us through the door, and slammed it shut behind us. And so began my journey into the Void.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first thing I noticed about the Void was the power. Not like it gave me strength or anything like that. It just returned what so many places in realspace had taken. The Void wasn't a place, not really. Not was it exactly the absence of place. It was more of the idea of place, but backwards. As such, the Void lacked something crucial. Something fundamental to the way the real world worked. Impact.

Void spawn and Children seemed to have Impact, or something analogous to it, but the Void itself had no weight. No substance. And as such, the suppression that higher ranked places had on Ascendants like me was completely gone.

It was intoxicating. Every step was lighter, freer, and every breath filled my lungs more deeply. The sensation of the still air gliding across my skin as I walked, the feeling, of the ground pushing back against my feet as I stepped, my mind racing in a way I hadn't ever really experienced before.

Dayna walked beside me, her red eyes solemn and sharp as she watched for danger. She had a mission and wasn't planning to fail.

"So…are you excited to see anyone back at Verdyn's world?" I asked as we trudged along the endless road. "Family? Friends?" She glanced at me coldly, then averted her gaze, and I sighed. "Look, you're my bodyguard slash guide here, but we're going to be together for a while. Wouldn't it be less lonely and annoying if we became friends? Found some common ground?"

She snorted. "You are verbose. It is unnecessary."

"She speaks!" I cheered. "I was beginning to forget what other people sound like. Now we're talking. A few more stellar insights into the inner workings of your mind and we'll be best friends. I think Bethy would like that, don't you? Her minion and her 'bestie' getting along?" She ignored me, so I kept talking. "Speaking of which, I'm a bit curious about that. I wasn't around for a lot of your time together, so why are so attached to Bethy? She just beat you up and now you act like she hung the moon. What's up with that?"

She didn't pause exactly, because she didn't stop walking, but she did…still. Aside from her steps, her breath, facial expression, everything else about her paused for a moment. Finally, after a beat of stillness, she sighed.

"Imagine if you would, you were in an accident," she said slowly. "And were terribly burned. Not just your skin, but your lungs. The very air you breathed was like acid. Every inhalation was agony, unceasing pain and fear. For me, that was my existence. Verdyn kept me, but I wasn't powerful or important enough to warrant too much attention. It kept the others from overtly stealing me away to be put in some zoo or put to death, but it wasn't…freedom."

I grimaced. "Wow, it was that bad? I knew your people were special, but I didn't think it would make anyone THAT desperate. I can kind of understand the urge to kill you, no offense, but what's the point of having you in a zoo?"

She chuckled, in a way that had nothing at all to do with amusement. "It is apparent to me that you are a scion of a powerful bloodline. Abilities, bloodlines, racial traits. They're all types of power. Power, to those that do not have it, is the ultimate lure. There are methods to subdue a being and force it to your will, to capture a body and puppet it as you would drive a vehicle, or even to strip the identity from a member of a species and infuse it into yourself.

"Consider your wife, or your friend Jessie. They have harmed none, it is true, but that is by your virtue," she made a face that I was pretty sure was supposed to be a smile but didn't quite make the cut. "Do you know the easiest source of catalyst for a racial trait? Easier than complex rituals or brilliant skillsmiths? Potions. Potions made from material RELEVANT to the species in question."

"You're saying they…" I felt my gorge rise. "They want to cut you up for parts?"

The elf shrugged. "Of course. A single heaven murder elf, if used by a skilled alchemist, can provide the materials for dozens of potions. But more than that, if managed properly, we can be kept alive to provide a steady supply. As I said. A zoo."

"But Bethy saved you from that," I said in understanding. "Verdyn wasn't too involved in your life. You were a possible long term investment, but only to the point of declaring you his. If something had happened he wouldn't have cared at all. But Bethy had her dad declare you under his protection. REAL protection. And people don't screw with the Vampire."

Her smile turned softer and more genuine. "Of course. And suddenly, my days are free of pain and fear. My breath tastes sweet on my tongue and fills my lungs with respite. She didn't just give me a home. She gave me peace."

"Sounds like you really care about her," I said matter of factly. I very carefully did NOT acknowledge that the girl in question was dating my twin sister.

Dayna picked up on it anyway and chuckled. "Fear not, I have no romantic intentions toward my mistress, nor toward anyone else. Growing up a heaven murder elf, I was coveted for my bloodline, and theft of such things can occur in many ways. For those too squeamish for butchery, breeding was an easy alternative to steal my people's gifts.

"I never had any interest in such things, however," she shrugged. "I'm not looking for a partner. Just enjoying my time as my own person. It's a novel experience."

I could understand that. Actually, a lot of people in my circles tended to pair off. It wasn't too strange, we met lots of people so it made sense that we'd find someone who suited us if we were looking. Not to mention every Ascendant was pretty good looking, and our lives were stressful and dangerous, so having someone to count on could be hugely therapeutic.

But not everyone was looking for a relationship. Not that I'd been assuming, I had just been momentarily curious if my sister and Gabe had competition for Bethy's affection. "Well, fair enough," I nodded. "What do you like to do with your newfound freedom? Paint, read, write? I'm a big fan of cooking, and my wife loves it so it kind of works out for us. Do you have any hobbies?"

"Tattoos," she said frankly. I blinked at her, and she noticed my silence and explained. "I've been training to be a tattoo artist. I enjoy the permanence of art on the canvas of fellow living beings. It's a complicated and fascinating discipline. There are so many types of people in the universe, racial traits, human form beasts, even special bloodlines that affect the physique. Learning which needles to use, which inks work best with which people, and designing the artwork to ascend alongside the recipient. It requires real skill."

I hummed with interest. "That actually does sound awesome. Are they purely an artistic expression, or do they like…do things? I know some people seal special effects into stuff like that."

"An advanced technique," she admitted. "And a difficult one to master. For the moment, I am content simply learning the methods of applying my artwork. Engraving permanent images on those who choose to become my canvas. Once I've reached Master I'll begin learning to imbue the inks with special abilities. Of course, I'll need a harvesting medium. Otherwise I would only be able to inscribe abilities I myself possess."

"I might actually be able to help with that!" I said brightly. "I used to stockpile effects to pay for wishes. I still have a decent amount of them. They're mostly low level, but that sounds like exactly what you need. Maybe you could buy them off me and use them to practice. I should be able to transfer them over to scrolls."

My stored attacks, barring Callie's recently contributed Adherent Fire (which I couldn't access through the bond) were mostly unused these days. Between Dantalion and the library I didn't really need them on hand at this point. Helping a new friend with practicing her hobby was a perfectly fine use. I'd honestly have just given them to her, but I suspected she'd be more comfortable with an exchange than a favor.

She shot my a surprised glance. "That would be…very welcome. Thank you." She opened her mouth, clearly ready to continue, but stopped. "Do you feel that?" Her eyes darted around. "Something feels different. The shape of the Void has been altered."

At first, I didn't get what she meant, but after a moment, I COULD feel it. It was like…a faint smell that I hadn't noticed. But not smell. "What IS that?"

"I…I think it's a shallowing," she said slowly. "I've never felt one from this side. Despite the godworlds residing in Voidspace, we rarely venture out into the Void itself. We have methods of traversal and we utilize them, as well as treaties with certain Void Children to make such things easier, but the Void Roads are dangerous and unpredictable."

I nodded slowly. "Let's go in," I said after a moment. "Yes, the shallowing is probably unrelated to our route, but the Void is notoriously unstable. If we enter there and then leave, it could drop us somewhere completely different, and potentially closer to where we need to go."

It sounded like an insane plan, granted. But Azazel was in my head right now, urging me on towards the unknown. Something in that shallowing was useful. Whether it was the travel arrangements or some object we didn't even know about, there was some kind of reason to enter, and I trust my first minister.

To my surprise, Dayne didn't eve blink. "Very well," she said with a nod. When I cocked my head in surprise she shrugged. "As I said, your safety is my concern, but this is the Void. We are almost always in constant danger. Danger here or danger there makes no difference, my job is still the same."

"Huh," I said in surprise. "I think that's the most well adjusted approach to apathy I've ever heard."

"That aside," she observed. "How are we going to access it? Shallowings aren't IN the Void. Being able to sense this one means it's extremely stable and well developed, but it's still simply an impression from realspace. There isn't any dedicated entrances, or we'd be able to see it."

I laughed at that. "Normally that would be a problem, but like I said a minute ago, I make a habit of collecting interesting abilities, and I have one for this."

Adherent Fire was a spatial flame that could traverse the Void with ease in a short range. Callie's ability to attack from the Void out of realspace was just a short range rapid Void traversal ability. Which meant it could bring us BACK from the Void, and return us when we were done. I'd have to be careful to reconnect with the Void Roads and not just drop us into the emptiness, but I could use Azazel and Dantalion for that, and worst case we could just leave from the same spot and come back here.

Something inside that shallowing was calling to me, and I needed to find out what it was. After that…well, we'd figure it out from there. Nodding at Dayne, I reached for a charge of Adherent Fire, putting my hand on her shoulder as I triggered it.

We were consumed by blue flames, and as they blazed up, the Void Road melted away, revealing the inside of a huge bronze castle. Full of people. Who were surrounding us. Not like an ambush. More like we'd popped up in between two armies who were about to go to war. As soon as we appeared, they froze, their killing intent faltering as their momentum was thrown off. I looked around to both sides and cleared my throat in embarrassment. "Wait…this isn't where I parked my car."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

No one was amused by my banter, sadly. Their weapons all came up (spears mostly, but made of a weird hooked crystal with an energy sphere floating inside the hook) and they levelled them at me pointedly. "Silence!" screamed one of them. "State your purpose!" I looked at him uncertainly, and he gestured with his spear again. "I said state it!" He screamed, seemingly on the edge of hysteria.

One of the ones next to him sighed and leaned over, whispering to his friend. "You told him to be silent, Dan, so he's doing that."

"Fine," snapped Dan. "Unsilence and then state your intentions here!"

These people were deadly, serious, and generally not messing around…but I couldn't bring myself to care. They were C-rankers, same as we were, and not late in that rank. I just wasn't intimidated by people my own rank anymore, and my tendency for sarcasm got the better of me. "I'm Todd, from the accounting department. I'm here because you all forgot to sign the new timecards."

Dan, for his part, froze. "I…what?"

"The timecards, man!" I shouted emphatically. "We're changing insurance providers, and none of you resubmitted your worked hours. If you don't affirm your schedules before the new premiums go into effect they won't match your monthly payouts. It's leaving money on the table."

The Dao of Bethy. When in doubt, be confusing. Violence could solve a lot of problems, but judicious application of the unexpected could prevent things from becoming problems to begin with. One of the other men sneered at me. "Lies and trickery! You're simply trying to confuse us because we have you surrounded." Ok…so I wasn't as good at it as Bethy. Oh well.

"Do you?" I asked solemnly, dropping the pretense. "Or do I have YOU surrounded?"

I snapped my fingers, and the world warped, my Domain projecting over them, sweeping them all into the planes of Gehenna, where my backup plan was waiting. Because while my nonsense HAD been aimed at throwing them off their game, it had ALSO been to buy time so my demons could get in position where I told them to.

Seventy two demons of my court (admittedly only about a third of them were C-ranked) stood menacingly in a large circle around both sets of attackers, teeth, claws, and weapons bared as they stared down the enemies.

"Sabateour!" snarled one of the closest men. "Sneaking an army inside our borders inside a Domain. Do you work for Clarent? Versailles? We won't allow you to succeed!"

I blinked at him. "Ok, well, I don't know either of those people, so…no. Look, we didn't mean to come here, we were traveling through the Void Roads, and we stumbled into your shallowing by accident." That was a lie, but it seemed like it would calm them down at least. Sure enough, after I made that statement, their expressions went from hostile to suspicious. I held up both hands. "Really, I mean you no harm. My friends stay in my Domain for ease of travel, and you were all being a little menacing, so I decided to bring you in so we could talk like civilized people. I have no idea who you are, who your enemies are, or even where we ended up. Can you tell me a bit about what's happening here?"

I was here for…something. Something useful was in this place. In fact, I suspected, based on the situation, that the old man's exit door might not have been as stable as he'd implied. This had the feeling of tampering, and as a god, that was well within his ability.

The man closest to us, who I realized was wearing blue, frowned suspiciously, but eventually nodded after looking around at my court. "This is Debois," he said quietly.

On the other side, THEIR leader, who was wearing red, rolled his eyes. "This is NOT Debois. This is a pocket realm INSIDE Debois. A pocket realm that is technically unclaimed, despite how passionately Renier and his cronies claim otherwise."

"So, do you work for one of the people he mentioned? Versailles or Clarent?" I glanced at the red army. "Becuase you seem aggressive enough to be invaders."

Red leader cleared his throat. "We're not INVADERS. This place is unoccupied. It's not like it's their home or anything. They showed up not long before us. We're only here because this place is naturally occurring."

"Wait, it's what?" I asked quietly. "How is that possible? It's a shallowing. You have to make those."

Or at least, someone had made every shallowing I could remember being in. To my surprise, Dayna shook her head. "Not exactly. Naturally occurring shallowings exist. Or rather, the term naturally occurring is a misnomer." She glanced at the reds and blues. "Could we speak privately?"

I turned my head, glancing at the dark hooded form of Murmur. I gave a quick nod, and he erected a bubble around us to prevent eavesdropping. "Alright, we're good. What's up?"

She glanced around suspiciously. "It's this place. Shallowings are man made protrusions from realspace into the Void. There are ways to use Void taint to stabilize them and thin the connection, even creating access points if its done well, but barring that, they're the result of pressure on space itself from the realspace side.

"Pressure like that isn't easy to make, it requires time and effort, but there IS one circumstance where you don't need it." Her voice was fast and excited. "When certain items are extant in realspace, they can put undue pressure on the world around them. Items anchored to the Void, normally, and not just any items. There are a lot of requirements, but basically you need something of the Divine grade and it needs to be broken and leaking power."

She gestured around us. "Natural shallowings are incredibly rare, because despite the number of gods that have existed, objects of power tend to just fall through the barrier into the Void and vanish into nothingness with enough time. But BROKEN objects, ones leaking power, they disperse the pressure, and they drag on the barrier instead of puncturing it. Humans learned to make shallowings from seeing this happen. If he's telling the truth about this place…"

"Then there's a broken object of power here," I said excitedly. "That must be why I felt drawn here. But why would I get pushed into this place now? And why would the old man drop us here? Whose object of power is it?"

"I have a theory," she said slowly, glancing around as if she could see out of my Domain. "After the vanished gods died, their objects of power scattered. Some were kept in the god worlds and some were retrieved, but some were just gone. This might be one of those, if you believe that we were sent here on purpose by your ancestor. He might want us to reassemble one of the lost objects to use as bartering power?"

I paused to think that through. "Yeah," I admitted. "That seems like his style. But what makes you think that? I mean just assuming this is a vanished god's object is a bit of a leap on its own."

"Because I recognize the castle we landed in when we arrived," she said grimly. "It took me a moment, because it's different in a lot of ways, but the architecture is a dead match for Verdyn's hunting lodge with some of Stralthrem's modifications done to it. The materials are completely different, but I grew up in that lodge. I can just TELL."

"Stralthrem?" I asked in confusion. "The god of Dread Fabrication? That mad scientist guy?"

She nodded. "Stralthrem and Verdyn have been rivals for millennia. The god of the blood wood disdains the encroachment of civilization. In fact, seeing his power infecting the lodge makes it pretty clear WHICH item is here. It's Verdyn's Arrow. He famously pierced Stralthrem's mechanical heart with the missile, staining it with his heart's blood."

"Ok, so we have an idea of where to go," I said with a sigh. "Do you know how to navigate this…lodge? I assume the shallowing took the form most familiar to the arrow, so you knowing the place might be an advantage." I glanced out of the dome Murmur had erected. "Unfortunately, it seems like we're going to need to figure things out on the fly, preferably once we can separate from these people."

She frowned. "We are inside your Domain, with the fullness of your forces against them. Could you not just slaughter them?"

"Ok, loving the enthusiasm," I said slowly. "Super happy you're so onboard, now I'm going to need you to take it down like…five thousand percent. My general method of operation is that I don't needlessly kill people. If they attacked us, we could put them down, but I don't want to just summarily execute people for the sole sin of being in my way. They DID threaten us, but they weren't too aggressive about it so we don't have a reason to end their lives."

She frowned at me, but eventually sighed and shook her head. "My lady was right. You ARE too soft for your own good."

"Wait, BETHY said that about me?" I said, flabbergasted and a little hurt.

"She did," said Dayne bluntly. "Though she phrased it as if it were a positive thing. Saying you have a "good heart" but that you would need me to help make sure that someone didn't rip it out of your chest."

I grimaced at the imagery. "Ok, gross, and also…that's good I guess? You're kind of a huge buzzkill you know?"

"I would much rather be responsible for the death of 'the buzz' than for yours," she said apathetically. "While I am not attached, you are proving to be slightly more interesting company than expected."

"Gee, don't I feel special," I said wryly as I gestured for Murmur to drop the shield. When we reappeared, I noticed that things had gotten extremely tense without us accessible, but that my first minister had stepped in to smooth things over. Azazel, flanked by Dom and Sam, the other two ministers of my Domain (Doom Sovereign and Sammael respectively), stood between the two conflicting parties now.

When he saw me, he bowed formally. "Your majesty," he said in a way that automatically made this all my problem. "We welcome your return."

"Wow, thanks Oz," I told him dryly. "I'm so glad you decided to hold off on solving this problem until I returned to take care of it for you. Anyway, sorry, I got a bit distracted. My name, since I never gave it, is Solomon. This is my Domain, called Gehenna, and it's where I hold court. I bid you welcome to my territory." I nodded regally.

Red leader looked unconvinced, but given our numbers, he held his tongue. The blue leader looked relieved, if anything. "Greetings, Lord Solomon. It is an honor to have you inside of our pocket realm."

"Yeah, about that," I said slowly. "We've decided to take a look around the place ourselves, and to that end, we could really use a guide of some sort. I don't suppose either of you would be willing to show us around? We're interested in finding out more about this fascinating natural shallowing you guys have here."

And stealing it. Or at least the thing that made it. But they didn't even know it was here, so it wasn't really stealing. Besides, I was sure between all of my demons I could come up with a way to leave this place intact when I took the arrow fragment.

The two of them seemed unenthused, but after a glance around at the menacing forms of my demons, sighed and nodded. "Lovely," I chirped. "Seems like we're all going to be great friends. Now, how about your people stay here and keep my friends company while you and I take our little walking tour." Oddly, that idea did not excite me. Honestly, I'd even asked nice. There was just no pleasing some people.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite the unhappiness, they DID leave most of their forces inside my Domain. Dayna and I stepped out with the two leaders (Renier and Edward, or blue and red respectively) into the castle proper. Renier, who had arrived first and was nominally in charge, led us to his temporary base camp, a series of tents set up in a magnificent ballroom.

Looking at the decor as we walked, I could kind of see what she meant about this place. It felt…hybridized. The skeleton was an old time castle, grey stone and accents of wood and sometimes bone that reminded me of a hunting lodge, but overtop of that was a sort of gilding of brass and knobs and gears.

The hallways had been stretched (it felt like that anyway) to accommodate the tracework of brass rails spiderwebbing across the walls, some of which seemed to do nothing and some of which appeared to have things like tiny robot servitors connected to them that whizzed along back and forth, attending to tasks out of sight. Seeing the results of what appeared to be a pair of broken Domain fragments mixing was absolutely fascinating.

I wondered if the Domain seeds that my great grandparents had used to establish their Domains early (without negative repercussions) had been something like this. Were Domain seeds fragments of objects of power?

"Welcome to basecamp," Renier said sourly. "It's a bit empty, for obvious reasons, but we have maps of the area laid out in the main tent, and you can use that to get around. I cannot do much in the way of guidance, as I am not familiar with the area. Our scouts would know better, but they're currently…enjoying your enthusiastic hospitality."

I sighed. I would have asked why he hadn't told me that before, but I knew why. He was essentially being held hostage, it would be weird if he WAS happy about it. We followed him inside and he led us to what looked like some kind of modified sand table. Knowing the two of them couldn't actually help us, and not wanting to watch what I said, I smiled warmly at them. "That'll be plenty of help, gentlemen, thanks. Say hi to your friends." I flexed my Domain and they vanished, dropped back inside with the others.

Turning to Dayna, I gestured at the table. "Alright, so we can speak freely now. Is this anything like the lodge? Like can you help us find the right path? Actually, where is the arrow going to BE, like relative to the normal lodge."

"The rumpus room," she said with certainty. "Lord Verdyn keeps his treasures there, and they're all items of immense personal value. Its very nature is to demonstrate his might, and as such, the shallowing will reflect that purpose. I don't see it on here, but I DO see a few rooms I recognize relatively close together. The archery range, the killing glade, the menagerie, and the trophy room are all here."

"Wait, I thought the rumpus room was where he kept the trophies?" I asked, confused by the change. "Why does he have a separate room from that?"

She shook her head. "Verdyn is a consummate hunter. He spends all his time hunting, and has killed many beings. However, not all of Verdyn's trophies are treasures. Only the rarest and most unique of his finds are qualified for the rumpus room. The trophy room is mostly just full of the heads of animals he's slain. Beyond just trophies, however, the rumpus room contains unusual items of interest he brought back from his travels."

I grimaced. "I don't suppose any of those is a sarcastic nickname for something totally innocuous and NOT the death trap that Ascendant's make out of almost everything?"

"The killing glade is a LITERAL death trap," she said bluntly. "It's a huge forest filled all sorts of traps and devices designed to ensnare and destroy prey. Verdyn believes that the only way for a hunter to learn their trade is to first be prey. When we reach D-rank we're sent into the outer forest to retrieve various items as a test of skill. In order to pass, we have to survive the traps."

"What happens if you don't?" I asked, appalled at the casual disregard for their own people.

She stared at me blankly. "If we don't…survive? We die. What else would happen?"

I rolled my eyes. "What happens if you don't take the TEST, wise ass?" She cleared her throat, obviously a little embarrassed at missing the obvious.

"Ah, yes," she said slowly. "We get kicked out. No one is forced to undertake the killing glade. The investment necessary to raise low level Ascendants is relatively paltry, so if a fresh D-ranker or below leaves, it's no great loss. Refusers are ejected onto the Void Roads and left to fend for themselves."

"Charming," I mused. "Anyway, with this map, can you figure out where the rumpus room is? The layout has changed right, is that going to make this impossible or something?"

She shook her head. "Not at all, the rumpus room should be right…there," she pointed at a corner of the table. "The issue is that this place has been heavily altered by the Stralthrem's blood. The machines running back and forth, the gears, I'm a little concerned as to what this might do to some of the rooms. The killing glen and menagerie specifically. The trophy room doesn't connect to the rumpus room itself, but sits caddy corner to the two others, so we can't go in through there."

"What do you think has changed about the menagerie?" I asked with interest. "I mean, I think given Dantalion and Azazel's presence, we can make it through a trap gauntlet, but I don't want to leave any options on the table."

"I would avoid the menagerie," she warned. "It's not a zoo so much as a nature preserve. Things wander around, and many of them are hostile."

Since we had a plan of action, we officially set off for the killing glade. I was going to need to do some serious recon, or rather, I had people to do that for me. A quick flex of my Domain brought Dantalion and Azazel out to meet me, and I explained the situation. They didn't need to be told twice, and before long, we had arrived at a large brass archway with a door made of shiny bronze gears.

The whole thing was a marvel of engineering. Turning one small gear near the bottom set all the gears spinning, and once they'd moved aside, it left a large gap between the gears that could be entered through. Stepping inside, I wasn't surprised when the door clanged shut, leaving the four of us alone in a strange clearing.

The killing glade had been changed by Stralthrem, just like everything else. As expected, it was a forest, but the changes had altered the core impression of the place. Nature had evolved to something decidedly UN-natural, and I had to whistle at the impression it gave.

Streams of bronze wove through the ground and into the trees, and gears floated on the edge of branches like leaves drifting in an invisible wind. "Well," I said dryly. "This is pretty. Shame it's almost definitely going to try to kill us." I eyed a gilded metal rose nearby, its petals made from what looked like hammered purple gold. "Do you think I could pick one of these? Callie would love this."

I still had the linked spatial rings connected to my wife, which worked perfectly fine in the Void and adjacent territories, so I could send and receive things when I needed them. Sending my bride a flower to let her know I was thinking of her only seemed right.

"I wouldn't," said Azazel cheerfully. "Mostly because that isn't a flower. Dan?"

Dantalion closed his eyes, power surging from him as he unleashed his information gathering abilities. "Gah," the old demon spat, flinching back. "That's horrifying." He waved a hand and a surge of purple electricity coalesced into a three dimensional image of…something. A colossal giant lantern fish, the stalk of which extended for much further than normal, slimming as it went until it reached the size of a normal flower.

I blinked and glanced at Dayna. "That…doesn't seem like it belongs in a trap maze."

She frowned at the image. "It doesn't. I think the menagerie animals have broken into the killing glade. The good news is that most of them are probably dead. The bad news is that the ones that are NOT dead have most likely been honed by the brutal training ground into a sort of unstoppable super predator."

"I think your optimism is my favorite thing about you as a person," I said flatly.

"That WAS optimistic," she said bluntly. "I don't think that many of them are actually dead. I was just trying to make you feel better."

I turned to the demons. "Dan, I need a map, preferably one with notations on where not to step if I don't want to fall into a spike trap or get lit on fire. Oz, do me a favor and make sure he doesn't get eaten when he's distracted. In the meantime, Dayna, we absolutely cannot leave this weird fish thing lurking below us while we sit here for hours letting Dantalion collect data, so we need to kill it."

"Of course," she said with a stoic monotone. "I believe I have a plan. If you can lure it out into the open, I can shoot it. I am an expert at identifying vital spots and targeting them directly." I nodded, then my eyes flicked to one side, and a demonic figure complete with horns and wings manifested. "Asmodeus," I said in introduction. "This is Dayna, you'll be backing her up on this. As for MY backup…" I closed my eyes, and my wings unfolded behind me seamlessly.

I didn't summon Sam, he had other things to do, I just manifested the form directly. Still, it felt…right. I hadn't had my wings for too long, and letting them spread was like taking a breath for the first time after holding it in for a few minutes. Something inside me relaxed as I called up my staff. "Alright, go get in position."

Asmodeus erupted into a blaze of flame, flowing into Dayna, and once it faded, she was standing before me, wings and horns prominent and looking like she could take on the world. She spread her wings, flapping off to land on a nearby tree, and drew her bow, giving me a solemn nod.

With that done, I approached the flower. I debated how to do this. I had a plan, but it was a bit simplistic. Still, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I stepped back, raising my staff into the air and gripping the very end to maximize the range. Then I tapped into and began channeling Extinction Event.

A sphere of powerful black flame manifested above my staff, first the size of a fist, then a melon, then eventually a wrecking ball. I kept expanding it, pouring the power in, and when I had reached the very edge of what I could control, I started to CRUSH it.

Inch by inch, I forced the absurd amount of power to contract, condensing and amplifying the force until I had a small, eyeball sized sphere at the tip of my weapon, so dark it was stealing the light from around it and smooth as black glass. It was heavy, legitimately hard to handle in terms of soul strain, because it was just so MUCH power.

Grunting at the effort, I began to lower the staff, happy I had chosen to choke up all the way because it kept that thing as far from my body as possible. Finally, the black marble of power touched down on the purple gold flower. There was a sort of ringing chime as it struck, and then a long (or what felt like a long) silence. My grinned as I felt the power began to fluctuate in preparation for the blast. "Boop." And then all hell broke loose.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"You know, you scare me," I said to Dayna conversationally as I stared up at the giant bronze lantern fish pinned to a large nearby tree. This was the third time I'd felt the need to mention that to her, but the pincushion she had made of the giant fish still made my skin crawl. Granted, Asmodeus had helped, but she was still MUCH scarier than I remembered her being at D-rank.

She shrugged. "As I said, I have a special gift for dealing with ambush predators."

"But these aren't ambush predators," I pointed out, struggling to keep a straight face. "These predators am flower."

She stopped, turned to stare at me, and glared right into my face for a solid minute. Well, into my mask. Finally, she eventually just threw up her hands in frustration and turned to stalk away. I pumped my fist, noting that Bethy might be onto something with this whole zany schtick, it was pretty fun.

I strolled over to Oz and Dan. "So, how we looking, boys?" Beelzebub had joined them, and Dantalion was using the clones as semi autonomous drones to map the forest. They'd been at it for about two hours now, and I was beginning to get a bit antsy.

Dan grimaced. "Apologies for the delay, my lord. The terrain is quite treacherous. Some of the traps appear to have become sentient after the invasion of the mechanical energy. We haven't identified a clear route, but we HAVE managed to find one with minimal trap presence. The only downside is the sentient pit trap that appears to have mutated at the end of it. We have a good enough idea of how to progress, however, it should be workable, especially with the Minister aiding your steps."

"Works for me," I shrugged. "Dan and Beelzebub, you're dismissed, Oz you're with me." A quick snap of my fingers sent them back into the Domain, and another summoned my favorite lime green bird of prey. Who promptly took one look at me, trilled, and flew off to the other side of the clearing to land on Dayna's shoulder. "Well that just seems unnecessary," I said waspishly. He scoffed and looked away. "Fine then, be that way," I scoffed, turning towards the exit to the clearing. "Oz, you ready?"

He nodded, and with a flex of my will…I incarnated him. There was a shift in the world, a sort of fundamental alteration in the balance of my thought process. It was hard to describe, really, because it didn't feel like anything CHANGED, but it did feel like I had changed my way of looking at things.

A series of memories flooded my brain, and I immersed myself in them. Memories, power usage strategies, there were so many tidbits of information pouring into my brain.

Striding forward, I reached the edge of the clearing, Dayna on my heels, and I called back to her. "Do exactly what I do." Then, I took off. My wings beat the air, pushing me off the ground with extra force as I danced into the sky. At the peak of my arc, I twisted gracefully, and a series of thunks sounded off to the side as an arrow trap that had been aimed at me missed and the arrows thudded into the trees nearby. I felt the whoosh as they split the air inches from my body and wings, but ignored them. I was in motion.

As gravity caught me at the peak of my jump, I tucked my wings, rolling forward into a spinning dive. I bounced off the ground, my feet barely touching the dirt, and continued into a series of cartwheels finished out by a twisting backflip, flicking my legs out to increase my spin and remove them from the path of a pair of scything axe blades.

Dayne, to her credit, didn't complain for a second about the fact that I was doing insane acrobatic dance moves with wings. She followed behind me pretty flawlessly, which made sense because we weren't under suppression and people above D-rank could fly.

We bounded through the traps, the bonds of gravity shattered behind us as we swept across the space in a dizzying ballet of acrobatic skill and dexterity. It was…honestly the most fun I'd had in ages. I'd forgotten exactly how much the suppression of the various planets and worlds we'd been on had held me back. It was like normal gravity. You walked around in it all the time, so it just felt like nothing, but step OUT of that weight and…

I was so intoxicated by the fun of being unleashed, I barely caught the danger warning from my Danger Sense in time. Or rather, Danger Sense warned Azazel, who predicted the attack and showed me how to dodge it at the last second.

My wings snapped like whips, jerking my body back, and rolled in midair to slam both heels into the soles of Dayna's boots, pushing her back and launching myself out of the way as a pair of monstrous orange forms tore through the spot we'd just been hanging with a speed so great I had to process what they were in retrospect.

Landing on a branch, I stared coldly at a crated on a nearby tree, seeing one of the animals that had attacked us in all its glory.

Well…not glory. Horror. Weirdness. The monster was huge, but deeply misshapen. It appeared to be some kind of orangutan, but its faced had been mutated or corrupted by some weird technorganic plague of bronze gears and smoothly melding metallic plates. One of its eyes was a red lens that glowed with an infernal rage, and the other was bloodshot and mad with pain and hatred. Its teeth were coated in bronze, and several of them appeared to be literal spinning drils, with motor oil drooling from the tips.

The tree it had landed on was shattered and bent, so damaged it was forming an actual platform for the creature to crouch, and its already oversized arms had been replaced with huge beefy bronze smashers, replete with giant grasping hands it used to balance its unusually squat body.

"Huh," I said dryly. "You don't see that every day." I dismissed Azazel, having already seen that this wasn't going to be a place where prediction was useful. Instead, I called Abaddon into my body. My physical strength surged, amplified by the converted energy of a dozen Zagans pushed even higher by Sammael. Abaddon's ability to convert energy into raw power was easily my most effective weapon here. With the power filling my body, I cracked my neck, lowering my stance slightly. "Come on then, beastie," I growled. "Let's see what you've got."

The techno-orangutan roared its outrage and hurled itself toward me. I waited until the last second, then stepped back, dropping off my branch and grabbing it as I fell. I swung my body up, slamming my feet into its back as it went by, sending it streaking into the distance. I swung through, popping back up and then launching myself after it, determined to hit the thing head on while it was down.

It was pulling itself out of the ground as I landed, and I surged forward, jumping onto its back and hooking my arms under its armpits, locking them behind its neck in a sort of modified hook hold that stole all the leverage from the huge monster.

Tucking my head, I arched my back, bringing the thing up and over in a back bridge and then slamming its head into the ground. And then I did it again. Over and over I battered its skull until I felt the struggling stop. Then I plopped down, hooking its legs with my own, and allowed it to roll as I locked the neck from behind in a move I had been told by Callie was called a "double grapevine".

I slumped after I got him locked down, panting with effort. "Hello?" I called. "Dayna? Archie? I need some help here." I paused. "Actually, wait, no I don't. Belial." I summoned my most corrosive demon. "Dose this thing up until it can't move. You can focus on a paralytic, right?"

He nodded casually. "Corruption without purpose is chaos. You know that my main ability is battlefield control. The toxins are simply a vector. Tranquility is a form of control in and of itself."

"Yeah, that's lovely," I grunted as the thing began to struggle. "But this big bastard is really strong, and even with my current enhanced power I'm struggling. Less talking and more knocking unconscious, please."

He chuckled, kneeling down and placing his hand against the organic side of the orangutans head. Green magmatic cracks flared out, climbing across the monster's body, and I felt it shudder and shake. Finally, it went limp, and I held it for another two minutes just in case, before releasing the thing and calling for Agares. Twisting it into the most awkward position possible, we created a set of tight chains to keep it at full extension twisted into a pretzel, all leverage stolen.

When we were done, I hoisted it up on my shoulder and carried it back to the where we'd been last, looking around for Dayne and Archie, who had been dealing with the OTHER one last I saw.

I spotted them nearby, Dayne sitting casually atop a batter and unconscious orangutan, the best still breathing despite the multitude of arrows lodged in its flesh. I dumped mine on the ground next to hers. I deincarnated Azazel, calling him out, and then summoned Dan again to examine the monsters.

After about five minutes, the old man winced. "It's the pit trap," he said with a grimace. "It appears to have parasitized some of the animals and is using them to heard living creatures toward it."

"That seems…complex," I said slowly. "Like maybe I'm crazy, but that doesn't seem like the behavior of a random barely sentient trap."

"Because it isn't," Dantalion grimaced. "It appears our presumptions about the location of the artifact were incorrect. Or rather, they were originally correct but things have changed. Based on the readings from these beasts, I believe a member of their social group stole the arrowhead and then was devoured by the pit trap. Exposure to the artifact appears to have mutated it into some sort of guardian being."

I cursed. That fit with what I knew. Integrating a Domain Seed into yourself could give you a Domain early without sacrificing potential, like my great grandparents had done. If this monster had done that, it made sense it would have absurd overpowered abilities.

The question was what KIND of absurd overpowered abilities. Domain Seeds didn't just give people copies of a god's Domain, it gave them a fragment they could integrate with their own understanding to derive their own unique Path. My great-grandmother's Enshrining Darkness was RELATED to Strakenthar's Domain (the Lady of Lamentation's father and the god whose fragment granny dearest used to become a goddess), but wasn't exactly the same.

Still, if the pit monster had even STARTED the process, it was going to be a nightmare to kill. Also how did you even kill a hole in the ground? I was already getting a headache just thinking about it.

"Alright, we'd better try to get closer," I said finally. "Not TOO close, mind, just enough for Dan to do his thing. We need more information before we go at this thing head on."

They all nodded, and we resumed our trek towards our final destination, the pit where the arrowhead was currently located. Hopefully, once we got it, we could find a spot to slip back into the Void on the Void Roads, and it would lead us to somewhere closer to our destination. After all, this shallowing was made with Verdyn's power, so there was a decent chance that the roads would lead to his territory. Fingers crossed, I supposed.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Arriving at the pit wasn't hard. The orangutans had, I suspected, been sent to bring us there directly after we'd spent hours mapping things out. The pit had become hungry, and was tired of waiting for its food to step into its salivating maw. So the recon we'd been planning, while still necessary, wasn't nearly as challenging as expected. Especially since when we arrived, the thing was WAITING for us. After a fashion.

"Evening," said the cheerful older man standing in the center of the clearing where the pit was supposed to be. "Nice to see some fellow humans."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? Humans? That's how you're going to play this?"

He shrugged. "What else would I be? In fact, if you're so sure I'm not human, why not come over here and check?"

"Because the clearing is a trap," I said dryly. "YOU are a trap, and are currently attempting to trap us."

He hummed in consideration. "Certainly doesn't sound like me. What say you come over here and we shake on it, put our differences aside and you can come over to my farm for a nice hearty meal. You look tired and hungry."

"See, in order for that to work, you would need to be a real person, with a real farm, and NOT a sumilacrum created by an evil pit trap to lure us into its waiting jaws." I said dryly.

He frowned in disappointment. "Boy, I oughta come over there and whoop your behind."

"You ought to," I agreed. "But you won't. In fact, you CAN'T. Because you can't MOVE from that spot. Because you are not real." I didn't budge, and I could tell its sad attempts to trick me were wearing thin, even for the pit itself. I suspected it was very NEW to consciousness, because this was an extremely simplistic attempt to snare us.

His expression flattened. "Ugh. Fine. You caught me. You're SO smart. But honestly, you couldn't play along for a few minutes? What would it hurt?"

"US!" I said in exasperation. "Because you were planning to EAT us!"

"Only a little bit," it protested. "Just your arms. And maybe your legs. And your heads. But only the soft parts. In fact, I was going to leave all your bones, and those are like…half your body weight or something. I think that's very generous."

I stared at it drolly. "And yet, we are not convinced."

"Well it's not like YOU came with good intentions," he complained loudly. "You're here to steal my treasure. I need that treasure. Without it, I'm just a normal hole in the ground. Do you know what it's LIKE to be a hole in the ground? It sucks. Well, only if you're quicksand, but even for more stable pit traps it's not much fun."

"I would be a lot more sympathetic if you weren't stalling to try to signal your minions to come drag is into you," I said with a shrug. "Which won't work, by the way. You can't contact them. Your messages aren't going through." Dan had identified that communication channels the pit used from studying the area, and we'd stationed Murmur nearby to block any contact. "Sorry, but you're not getting to eat us. Which I realize must be tough for a pit, but hey, we're at an impasse."

"Well that's rude," he whined childishly. "I put a lot of work into making this body, you know? I based it on the memories of several very nice people I've eaten. I even named it. So you can stop calling me 'pit, and call me by my REAL name. Brad."

"Your name is Brad the pit?" I asked doubtfully.

He frowned. "Yes? Why? Is there something WRONG with that?"

"No, of course not," I assured him. "It's your name. It's just…it's a little underwhelming. You're a pit. An unending maw of consumption. I would have expected something grandiose, like Kalgoth the Devourer or something."

The pit monster in disguise sneered. "Typical human, always telling people who they can and can't be. This is why I eat your kind, you know."

"No it isn't," I said bluntly. "You eat us because you're a pit."

"Well yes," he said in a wounded tone. "But you don't have to be so confrontational about it. I have feelings too, you know."

Dayne, who had been quietly standing to one side, lashed out with a fist, cratering the trunk of a nearby tree. "ENOUGH!" she snapped. "I've had enough! This whole conversation is NONSENSE! Just kill the damned thing so we can get the arrowhead and LEAVE this horrible place."

"Ok, but HOW?" I asked her bluntly. "Because I'm still not actually sure how we KILL a hole in the ground. It's a HOLE. How do you kill the absence of space? Void? Maybe? I don't even know. I was planning to try the Adherent Fire, but my instincts are telling me that won't work, and I have a limited number of charges, so we're kind of stuck for the moment." I frowned. "Or at least…we might be. I feel like there's a deal to be made."

Brad snorted. "A deal? If you succeed in your goals I cease to exist. I hardly think I'm motivated to help you do anything."

I considered what he was, and my own assets. And then…I had an idea. "What if you didn't?" I asked slowly. "What if I could help you become something else? Something better. Something that can leave here with us, and doesn't need to eat people."

He cocked his head in confusion. "I don't think that's possible. I can't leave this place, obviously."

"But what if you could," I said again. "What if I had a way to make it possible. Would you be willing to trade the arrowhead for a chance to leave here? To transcend your limits and walk the world as a living, thinking being. Because, let's be honest, even if we don't get that fragment, SOMEONE is going to come take it. Hell, if they don't that might be worse. Like what happens if you eat the current party of people in here? What if no one else ever comes? Can you starve?"

He opened his mouth to respond, then stopped. "I…I don't know. But how would you help me? You say I can leave, but without the fragment, I'm not a real being. If you take it away I vanish, what can you do about that?"

"Simple," I said with a manic grin. "I'm going to MAKE you a real being. See, your current personality could be considered a sort of pseudo Domain. And I have a special Domain that allows me to create living beings from pseudo Domains. In fact, I have a perfect vessel for you, assuming you don't mind sharing your body."

Brad, despite being a little obtuse, was a special being. Created from a fragment of a divine object infused with the power of a SECOND god. Getting the arrowhead was fine, but I had a sneaking suspicion Brad himself might have been the opportunity I was sent here to pursue.

But before I could do that, I had to make sure that the recipient I had in mind for this shared body experience was willing. I reached into my Domain, pulling gently, and within seconds, a new being faded into existence. A short, stout man with dark hair and dark eyes and a healthy tan. The demon known only as Pit of Despair.

"Pit," I said with a nod. "Sorry to call you out like this."

He bowed low. "Of course, my lord. I am happy to serve. What would you have of me?" His eyes contained a powerful intensity that had nothing to do with magic or even abilities. As one of my demons, he was created by me, or rather, by my staff, so he felt an ingrained sense of loyalty.

"I have a task you might be suited for," I admitted. "But I don't want to force it. You can say no, and in fact, if you feel uncertain, I ORDER you to say no." I wasn't sure if that would actually help, but it was the best I could do. Besides which, I was fairly certain that this little merger would come with substantial rewards, so I wasn't comfortable actually taking the chance away, I just wanted to make sure he had an out.

After I made that clear, I explained the situation to him, including the nature of the pit itself. This was ultimately a unique opportunity for both of us, so I was actually pretty sure he would be willing, and sure enough, once I explained, his face lit up with enthusiasm. "And by sharing my body in this way, I'll gain more power?"

I paused, listening to a voice inside my head. "Azazel says yes," I confirmed. "Not sure how MUCH, but there will be gains."

After a brief pause, he nodded solemnly. "Then I accept. I'm willing to share my body."

I turned back to the form of Brad standing atop the pit. The clearing had some kind of illusion or covering that kept it from LOOKING like a pit, but Dan had already showed us the truth before we approached. "You heard him. If you accept, we perform the process first thing. We can retrieve the arrowhead ourselves when it's done. Does that work for you?"

This was an exciting experiment. Reincarnation was a mechanism to add new skills to existing demons, and given Brad was a pseudo Domain, he would count as much as any of my others. Keeping them separate inside the body would take a little concentration, but I could FEEL that the Domain would allow it. In fact, it was the only way I COULD reincarnate Pit of Despair. He was a tier 6, a powerful demon far beyond my ability to completely alter.

The only reason it was possible to do it at all was because his nature and Brad's were so closely intertwined. Brad, for his part, looked pensive. He stared at me, then over at Pit, and then looked to Dayna, who had mostly tuned all this out.

Finally, he nodded. I grinned, then gestured to the ground and then to Pit. "Go ahead and peel back that facade, and then my buddy here will be coming over to meet you face to face."

He hesitated, but did so, removing the grass above the pit, exposing a large, gaping chasm filled with bloodstained bronze spikes. I glanced at Pit, who nodded again, and then…stepped out into midair. And just hung there. He WAS tier 6, so flight was a possibility, but I was pretty sure he just literally decided not to be pulled into the pit, some strange interaction between the two powers.

Walking slowly over to Brad, he held out a hand. "Are you ready?" he asked kindly. At Brad's affirmative, he signalled for me to begin. Closing my eyes, I called my staff, focusing on my Domain through our connection, and then through that on Pit. I triggered my reincarnation ability.

Reincarnation was difficult. It only really worked on low level demons. The more powerful a demon the more developed, and the harder it was to alter them. In this case though, we weren't overwriting anything, or even adding a Skill. We were combining Brad's relatively new consciousness with Pit. Sort of the inverse of what we'd done with the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art.

I felt a tug in my gut, and then a sort of suction as energy drained out of me. My soul was put under strain, but I ignored it, focused on making sure this went smoothly.

Within minutes, Brad was gone, subsumed into Pit. I cocked my head at the demon. "You still in there?" I was pretty sure he was, but if not, I wanted to know now. I'd feel pretty bad if this had gone wrong.

To my relief, though, he just grinned, eyes flashing a bright green. "That I am." He clenched his fists tightly, reveling in the sensation. "Now, why don't we get that arrowhead and get out of here? I have so much to see and do."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I snickered. "Gosh, she sounds friendly."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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