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

[BJJPanda]

I realise what has always bothered me about the slice of life dialogue, it is too sitcom like. The winking when making a joke about someone, like you have to tell them it is a joke everytime, same when Shane mentions in his head that it is a joke. The slice of life reads more like a script describing a scene from a sitcom than real people talking. BTW this isn't meant to be offensive but something about the dialogue during those moments has been bothering me for a while, dk if you remember my other comments about it

 

[ShadeBorn]

It was explained that candidates with the Wish ability can't grant their own wishes, yes. However, they can still have other candidates grant wishes for them. There is a fair bit of Shane trying to figure out the rules and game the system.

Click to shrink...

Ah, I see
Thank you

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Just got it thanks
Quick question though, feel free to correct me in case I'm wrong but I'm confused about something
Why doesn't he make wishes for himself? Was it ever stated that the wishes have to be made for someone else? It just bugs me that he doesn't wish for things like knowledge or skills that could help him

Click to shrink...

He grants wishes for other people, he can't make them from his own power.

I realise what has always bothered me about the slice of life dialogue, it is too sitcom like. The winking when making a joke about someone, like you have to tell them it is a joke everytime, same when Shane mentions in his head that it is a joke. The slice of life reads more like a script describing a scene from a sitcom than real people talking. BTW this isn't meant to be offensive but something about the dialogue during those moments has been bothering me for a while, dk if you remember my other comments about it

Click to shrink...

Honestly, that's how me and most of my friends talked when we were that age (and still do). We picked up a lot of verbal tics from watching tv and we were all pretty intelligent and tended to think in those terms. Most of my conversations as a teenager sounded like they came from an episode of Buffy, because I binge watched it repeatedly and it had a serious impact on how I think and speak. I've heard similar complaints before, and it seems to be a case of YMMV. Some people just roll with it, and some people are like 'nobody talks like that', but the thing is, I talk like that, so its how I write lol. I'm sarcastic and I make quips and I jab at people because thats what I was exposed to growing up.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is bullshit!" Snapped Callie as she paced back and forth inside the tent. She'd felt my distress through bond and rushed back, though apparently Black Sorrow had somehow delayed the sensation until she left. "She can't just DECIDE you need to go on some suicidal mission to the war front or she'll kill us all."

"Actually, she can and definitely has done that." I said with a grimace. "I know it sucks, but honestly, the idea of being out from under her death sentence and free to be an actual family sounds AMAZING." I turned to my grandmother, who was sitting primly at the table sipping…tea, I think, though I had no clue where she'd gotten it. "Though I feel like she wasn't that committed to us dying. Like she knew I existed but wasn't really pushing for my execution?"

Drowning Shade, also known as Celia Anders, shrugged lightly. "My mother is a god. Her attention span is…odd. She can be both incredibly patient and incredibly impatient, depending on the circumstances. In any case, her lifespan means time passes differently to her. The idea of waiting a few years for you to die wouldn't bother her."

"Don't talk about my son's murder like it's a day at the fish market, mother!" Snapped my mom. "This situation is bad!"

"Less than you might think." Celia said with a shake of her head. "I wasn't at all certain my mother would listen to me. My attempts to use the war to pressure her were a long shot, at best. I expected her to extract HARSH concessions, perhaps separating me from our family for the rest of my life. This mission, while dangerous, is an opportunity." She glanced at me intently. "Your boy has a strong fate, Sasha. For things to move in such a way."

I wondered if my Path was helping. Fatewalker was a class and not the Path itself. Did it even matter anymore?

"So, what am I supposed to be doing." I said tiredly. "She said you'd have the details. She mostly just showed up, mocked me a bit, and then vanished. I was expecting her to be more…unstable, based on what I've heard."

She sighed. "You need to understand that gods are a PART of their Domain. To become a deity is to become one with a concept, to become part of a legend. All your stats, your soul, are dispersed into your Domain and become permanently fused. Becoming human again, or at least creating a physical form, is taxing and requires concentration anywhere OUTSIDE that Domain. Like being in two places at once, and doing the world's most complex puzzle in one of them."

I tried to imagine that kind of strain. It had to be tens or hundreds of times more exhausting than normal soul weight from a technique or Skill. I could see how someone might be erratic if they were under that kind of stress whenever they were physically present in the real world.

There was kind of an implication that divine worlds didn't really move. Like they seemed to be pretty stable in terms of real space. Or maybe I was making assumptions where it wasn't warranted, but I added it tentatively to the structure of cultivation I was building in my mind. "So…" I said sadly to Callie. "On a scale of one to ten how pissed are you I'm going to miss our honeymoon."

"One fucking MILLION!" She spat. "But not at you. If she wasn't a god…"

I laughed. "Yeah, but she is, and I'm too young to be a widower, so how about we don't shit talk the divine being who might still be nearby. I still have a week to finish the festival and say goodbye to everyone." I turned to Celia. "I assume you guys have a LEAD on the Lady of Lamentation's forces for me to follow, instead of just blindly showing up at a random event and hoping she decides to give me some responsibility."

"We do." She chuckled. "I consulted the Judgement Pope, hoping to get his support for this journey. He's given us a direction, and we were able to narrow down exactly where you need to go." She flicked her fingers, and a sphere of textured darkness appeared in front of her. "This is Rackham. A small planet at the edge of the Unity galaxy, near church territory. Unity is the youngest of the gods, and the least capable of policing his galaxy. We believe some sort of examination will be held there."

Chelsea, who had been unusually quiet since she arrived with Callie, looked drawn and upset. "This is bullshit." She echoed my wife, but her voice was weak. "Why would she send Shane. I could have done this, could have helped, and you could have enjoyed your honeymoon."

"Because I'm expendable." I shrugged. "She thinks you have potential, having her ability AND grandpa's is interesting to her. I'm just a candidate, and she won't lose anything if I die." Callie made a scared noise, and I smiled at her warmly. "Which I don't intend to do. She's underestimating me."

Probably. Or she genuinely didn't care. This little mission cost her nothing, and potentially gained her a lot of power. I honestly worried about giving her more power, but then I considered she was already a god and could kill me effortlessly. It would be like trying to lift a whale instead of an elephant as a mortal. It wasn't going anywhere either way.

"You really think so?" Asked Callie hesitantly. She could feel my relative certainty in my own abilities, mostly because I was projecting it at her so she wouldn't notice the crippling terror.

Oddly, under THAT I was kind of excited. Sure this was terrifying and kind of shitty, but it was also amazing. I was going to be going on a solo mission for pretty much the first time as an Ascendant. A solo mission as D-ranker. I would be able to keep in touch with Callie and my friends through the bond, but I'd be on my own. I could finally prove to myself what I was capable of.

Speaking of capabilities though, I turned my mind to my Path. Doom Sovereign had yielded new skills again on my rank up, and I'd been so busy I hadn't really had a chance to check them out. I figured that might distract my wife from her worrying, so I mentioned it to all the members of my family, and mom, Chelsea, and Callie seemed really excited to hear what I'd gotten.

First was a finishing blow. I got those every other rank, and I'd been quickly approaching one that I'd been waiting on for quite a while. Blood Curse. It was a nasty little Rogue trick that let me attach an attack to a sample of someone's blood and use it as a medium to attack them from a distance. It might not sound like a finisher, but it was particularly effective on sleeping targets, and nearly impossible to block (certain defensive abilities in the game could deflect it, and given how absurd Ascendant abilities could get real life was probably the same).

Next was a water based Monk ability called Dark Reflection, which bounced back spells at a certain level of power (usually weaker ones) and a very useful divination called Scent of Truth, which let me smell lies (it was exactly as weird as it sounded). Which really rounded out a lot of my skills. And of course, another poison skill called Creeping Darkness, which allowed me to use air as a medium for my corruption by literally poisoning parts of the sky.

DS Subskills. Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance, Dark Reflection

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality, Blood Curse, Creeping Darkness

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rhythm of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind, Scent of Truth

I noted with a wince I'd pretty much never used False Fatality, and that I now had a staff that did the same thing. It made sense the Monk and Rogue classes might overlap a bit, but it sucked knowing that I was letting abilities go to waste. I glance at my staff with interest. Maybe I could make a damage reflection form. It would be great mixed with Mornax, I put a pin in that for future consideration.

"So, as you can see, I have plenty of new tricks up my sleeves." I smirked. Then paused. "Speaking of, I need new sleeves. BS said I needed new gear for my 'new and improved' mask." I sneered, holding up the obsidian monstrosity that had become of my sleek and well crafted classic wooden mask.

"Oh hey." Callie said cheerfully. "It's the face in the mirror in all of my childhood nightmares. Dear gods, did she TRY to make it a waking nightmare?"

Celia snorted. "Knowing her, probably. And I wouldn't refer to my mother as 'BS' outside of current company. If it gets back to her she might turn you inside out in outrage. Or buy you a pony. You can never tell with her."

"Pass on both." I said bluntly. "I don't do horses. I don't trust any means of transportation that can think for itself."

My mother burst out laughing, and I raised a brow at her. She was gasping a little when she finally calmed down enough to talk. "I'm sorry. It's just most of the time you take after me or act like Ezekial, but now and then you do something so catastrophically ELI that it just sends me reeling. Your father used to say that exact thing, word for word."

I frowned, trying to remember when I'd started saying that and where I'd heard it. "Anyway." I said with a shake of my head. "I was going to ask. Since I'm going to be done, I was wondering if grandma could maybe help Callie out with training. If she wants I mean. If both of them want. I'd just feel a lot better knowing Callie was working with someone with a similar Path."

My grandmother chuckled. "An S-rank tutor for your new bride. You inherited your grandfather's flare for the dramatic. She's family, I would love to help. If she's interested. I was going to work with Chelsea a bit now anyway. Since she's no longer operating under restriction, I think it's time for her to learn how to wield the Enshrining Darkness."

Chelsea's head snapped up. "Wait…what? I thought that pass was just for this incident. I didn't even use my full powers anyway. We can still keep it secret."

"It's fine." Celia said with a laugh. "We've engaged directly with my mother. As long as we accomplish her request, her enmity will be dissolved. That won't be an easy task, but we're safe during the war in any case, so it's not like we're rushed. As for the new gear you need." She pursed her lips at me. "I can arrange that. This mission isn't related to the competition, so it shouldn't be a problem for me to pitch in. Plus I owe you twenty years of birthday presents."

It was odd, because this whole conversation had been so formal and she'd been so austere, but when she said that, it was like a dam broke. We all started laughing, and she smiled broadly, stepping forward to hug me, and then Chelsea, and then Callie.

Suddenly, this was a tent full of family for real, and it was amazing feeling so surrounded by warmth. I tried to savor the sensation, and would do the same throughout the festival. I had a feeling it would be kind of lonely on my own in enemy territory. I would make it though, and then I'd meet up with the others in time for the beginning of the candidate selection, whatever that may entail. If I had my way, this time next year I'd be the next wishmaster.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day we got back to the party. I decided to test out my newest and most consequential perk from my rank up and created wish scrolls, just like I'd been told I could at D-rank. I added eight scrolls to my ring, and was looking forward to finding new ways to trade for them. The mechanics were a bit vague to me, but I was assured they were extremely useful.

Not having to worry about getting those done within a time limit was a load off my mind, and if gave me ample time to hang out with friends on my last week with them. Thoughts like that made me spiral a bit, so I avoided them, and I tried to throw myself into the celebration.

"So tell me again how this works?" Asked Benny as he stared down the strip of park grass. "Because I don't think I get the concept."

I laughed and pointed at the trees above the Travis scarecrow. "It's simple. Throw the axe and chop a branch. If it lands on the dummy, you get ten points, if it lands in the circles, your points vary based on which one. But don't hit the dummy WITH the axe, or you're out. Jessie grew the trees just for this purpose, and they'll try to dodge, so be prepared."

He squinted at me suspiciously. "That seems like the kind of thing that your overlay would be great for."

"I would NEVER abuse my powers just to win a game." I said as I tracked the colored arrows of the overlay to try to find the optimal trajectory. "You have deep seated trust issues and need to learn to have more faith in people." I winged the axe (at our level throwing anything with little enough force not to clear the horizon to absurd levels of concentration on a planet like this) and it clipped through a branch, which plummeted and stabbed into the ground in the third ring.

Cursing, I passed Benny the next axe. "Seven points. You're up."

"I want to go next." Announced Bethy. "I bet I could totally win. I could throw the axe way further than that. I could throw it to the moon."

"That is not the object of the game." I explained with a laugh. "But I kind of want to see it. WEe'd need a really nice axe so it didn't break up on reaching escape velocity. Plus someone would need to go get it."

Callie cleared her throat. "NO." She said bluntly. "If you throw it too hard you might damage the moon, or maybe even move it out of orbit. We are not drowning a continent because you two want to see if you can hit a lunar body with a throwing axe."

"You see." I complained to Bethy. "She used to be fun. We get married and now I can't do anything interesting."

"Keep it up." Smiled my wife sweetly. "And you can have all the fun you want on the couch for the rest of the week." She winked at me, and I laughed, even though both of us felt the ache from the other knowing we'd be separated so soon. We'd hardly had any time together since we got married, and I was already off to parts unknown to do crazy god shit for my psycho great grandma.

Benny frowned at me. "Why do you seem weird about that. Not worried or amused, but like…sad." He glanced at Bethy and the others. "He seems sad, right? It's not just me?"

"Pay up." I told my wife with a sad laugh. She cursed and handed me a D-rank chit. "I told her you would notice. You ARE my best friend." I paused at Bethy's glare. "ONE of my best friends." I said with a laugh.

I looked around with a sigh. "Let's go get some funnel cake and sit down. I can explain to everyone at once. Someone get the others. Cark and Cass too."

Heading over to the funnel cake cart, I bought like…five pounds of the stuff, loaded it onto a huge tray, coated it in a snowfall's worth of powdered sugar and then dropped it at a table set up in the shade of trees that DIDN'T move.

Everyone else came to join us, and Cass seemed especially excited about the funnel cake, snatching it up triumphantly and digging into the still hot dessert. It took her about two seconds to joke, and her brother patter her back with a sigh. "I don't know why you aren't more careful about that. You ALWAYS inhale the powdered sugar and choke."

"Worth it!" Wheezed the younger girl with a thumbs up. We all laughed, but the amusement was soon gone as everyone quieted down to hear my news.

"So, I'm going to be going away for a while." I said after a minute. "Probably five or sixth months. We'll meet up before the candidacy competition, but you'll be on your own for a while. Callie is going to be training with my grandma, and I made some arrangements for the rest of you if you want them. Or you can hang around with one of the others, that's all on you."

Bethy looked crestfallen. "What? But we all have so much fun together. We should be coming with you. We're your backup!"

"She's right." Said Benny unhappily. "Why do you need to do it on your own. We always stick together. That's like…the whole point of the candidacy to begin with. To see how you build a faction."

"Which is why I need you to keep doing that." I said bluntly. "I HAVE to do this. I don't have a choice, but once its done, things will be a lot easier. For one thing, I'll have my mom's support. Overtly. I'm betting I could sway a few big factions with that before the candidacy competition starts, assuming I get this other thing done in time."

My mother's blood, and my grandfathers, would open up possible alliances that I hadn't even considered before. Glancing at my sister, I took in her nod. That was a possibility. Interesting.

Honestly, the idea of a stop on the way to…whatever the competition was going to be, didn't exactly lack appeal. Looking at her though, my attention was brought to a different problem. Chelsea looked…angry. Not just a little angry either, she'd been seething since we'd talked to grandma.

Weirdly, I was conflicted about her reaction. I think some part of her was bitter I got chosen, and I think some part of ME was gloating about that bitterness. It wasn't nice, but she'd literally gotten everything good in our lives, knowing she was jealous kind of made me a little cheery. Of course, then I felt like shit for gloating while my twin sister worried about my possible death, which brought my attention back to the danger, and the cycle started over.

"So what are these 'arrangements'?" Benny finally asked, seemingly trying to distract everyone from the downer mood. He also tried to grab some funnel cake, though Bethy snatched the piece he was going for last second.

"Well, like I said, Callie will be working with my grandmother." I said, smiling at my wife. "She actually suggested Bethy might benefit from working with her as well. If anyone understands being born as something unique and powerful it's Celia. She might be able to help with your control. I'll leave you with some wish scrolls so you can keep up the seals, but we thought that might be helpful. Any of you are free to turn us down."

Bethy looked uncharacteristically serious for a second, but nodded. "That…that's really sweet. Thank you guys." She stepped up to hug both of us, and I nodded warmly. Bethy had my back during this mess, I was going to have hers too, and I knew Callie was grateful for her support when she couldn't be around to help me, too.

"Benny, you're with Zeke. The ability to weaponize crafted items that are a part of you is right up his alley. I can't imagine a better teacher for you." He blinked, but thanked me, not noticing the pitying glance from Cark.

I glanced at my sister. "You know grandma is training you, but I figured maybe you guys could stick with mom. Mel is perfectly suited to train under her, Cark could learn a lot, and Gabe could train with Andrew." I tried to make it sound like I was asking a favor, because I wanted her around Bethy and Gabe, who would keep her from spiraling if she got too worried. I didn't like the look in her eye.

The suggestion seemed to snap her out of her funk a bit though, and she smiled. "Of course. You know I love having…" She glanced at Bethy quickly. "Everyone around."

"Jessie and Celine will be working with mom's friend, the Princess from the conclave." I said with a smile at our healer. "I'm sure she has a ton to teach you both about plant and animal magic, at least based on what mom said."

Finally, I turned to Bethy. "As for Abel…I was thinking about it. We need someone uniquely powerful, with a connection to blood and a staggering amount of combat potential. Is there anyway you could ask your dad to take over his training while I'm gone."

She squealed and clapped. "Oh that sounds wonderful! I don't know who this Abel person is, but daddy needs a new project. He hasn't taken an apprentice since the last one…actually it's probably better if I don't tell you what happened. The position is open, though."

Abel looked concerned. "Wait…what happened to the last one. Don't ignore me Bethany, you can't just say something like that and not explain!"

"Abel's gruesome horrible death aside." I said cheerfully. "Does anyone else have any issues with the arrangements I made? Like I said, anyone can turn down the chance and go with anyone else."

Contrary to his outraged expression, Abel went silent. I knew he wouldn't ever turn down an opportunity to become stronger, and being trained by the most terrifying S-ranker in the universe was an opportunity it would be stupid to pass up. I had faith Bethy would tell her dad not to ACTUALLY kill him, and honestly, given his own training methods, I was enjoying the uncertainty a bit.

"Whatever." Said Benny with a sigh. "I'm going to hit D-rank before you get back for sure. I want some of those damned wish scrolls too."

"I talked to grandma about that." I said with a grin. "She gave me a late wedding present." I held up my hand. "His and hers spatial rings. Shared pocket dimension that Callie and I can both access from anywhere. Mom looked SUPER jealous, so I think they're really expensive, but I can use them to store the scrolls for you guys. It'll be like I never left."

Use of the scrolls still worked through my power, so the payments would reach me directly in the case of stats, and Callie could use the rings to store more physical pay. It was exhausting making them, since I had to preload them with enough stats to accomplish most wishes, but the extra flexibility was worth it.

After that, the conversation drifted to the task itself, and I filled them in. They all seemed worried as hell, but eventually Callie put her foot down, saying we only had a week left and that we'd better make the most of it. She forced us all back to the festival to play Travis mocking games and listen to a contest where everyone tried to make up the most humiliating backstory for the dead translocator.

All in all, it was a great night, and I felt so much better about leaving knowing my friends were taken care of. I could strike out on my own without worrying about anything happening to them. I just hoped I'd be able to make them proud when we reunited.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the week just flew by. My stockpile of wishes grew, and I marveled at how convenient the whole thing was. Using the rings would help maximize the power, since the scrolls wouldn't need to transport any physical items for payment, and automating part of the process was ridiculously useful.


I had fifty six scrolls total for the week, and I passed them all to Callie for distribution, though I gave six to Abel, since he'd be leaving the group to train with Lark. He didn't want them on hand, but I insisted he have at least some just in case.


One of them we tried out, passing it to Celine so she could pay out of pocket (25 E-ranked chits), just to see what it did. It was extremely jarring to see the purple flames of my ability roll across my vision unprompted, but it was a nice tidy note in the same style as usual, with an added commentary on what the wish was about.


Whoever created this process was a genius, it was so convenient. I suspected it was probably the original Wishmaster, given what I knew about him.


And then…it was time to say goodbye. Callie, Chelsea, Benny, all my friends came with me to meet up with Celia, who would be taking me to a staging point to explain the plan. My wife wrapped her arms around me, clinging to me tightly as if I was a life raft on a stormy sea. I held her back just as tight.


I WAS excited about this, going out on my own as a D-ranker…but I was also going to miss my friends. My family. I was so used to them having my back, Callie most of all.


She leaned up to press a hard kiss to my mouth (I'd taken to not wearing my mask when I didn't have to, ever since Black Sorrow changed it I didn't feel right in the thing). We stayed like that for a minute, then she pulled back and glared at me. "If you get yourself killed, Shane Wyndham, I'm going to shift my path to some kind of ghost conjuration just so I can call you back from wherever you end up and kick your ass."


"I love you too, Cal." I said with a laugh, pressing my forehead to hers. "Take care of our family, ok? I'll be back annoying you before you know it."


I pulled away, hugging Benny, Bethy, Chelsea, and everyone else one by one. Finally, I turned to Celia. "Alright, I figure we do the gear thing on the ship. What's my mode of transportation?"


She smiled warmly. "You'll be taking my personal transport." She snapped her fingers, and a ship appeared behind her, floating in the air. It was hard to look at. A strange dark shape that seemed to eat light. It was like I was looking at a black hole, but Eye of Revelation showed me the form of a sleek, edgy metal vessel about the size of a bus.


"This is the Acheron." She said proudly. She put a hand on my shoulder, and we were suddenly consumed by shadows. The darkness that carried us was thicker than Callie's, but also deeper and more peaceful than the Enshrining Darkness of Black Sorrow. Drowning Shade had changed her ability, which didn't surprise me, she was S-rank and that was when the Path became part of you and bloodlines were created.


As we came out of the dark, we were standing in a large, metallic hallway. There were branches in three directions, and the ground was subtly humming under my feet. The ship was obviously much bigger on the inside, but it was still much smaller than the Necromedes. "What rank is this?" I asked as she led me down one of the halls.


"S." She said simply. "The Acheron is made from Stygian Starsteel, death infused metal forged by the dying gutters of an undead sun. It's understandably difficult to source, hence its conservative size. Most S-rank ships are much smaller by necessity. Proper S-ranked materials are a challenge to acquire. It is, of course, much faster than any A-rank ship, and will provide you will all necessary amenities for your journey, such as it is."


She led me to an open chamber where a small crew of people were waiting. The first one to see us was a woman in silvery armor with a white cloak. She bowed deeply to my grandmother. "Madam. Welcome back. The arrangements have been made to your specifications."


"Well done." She beamed. "Now, why don't you show us the new outfit I got for my grandson."


The woman nodded. She turned and clapped her hands, and a wardrobe materialzed in the air beside her. Reaching up, she unlatched the thing, then pulled it open.


"Out of necessity we needed to change your style." My grandmother explained as I took in the new gear. "The samples of your pseudo Domain, your dark flames, your corrosion, and the combination thereof were all given to our finest smiths. As a Master, you're capable of withstanding C-ranked artifacts, and this armor should last you quite a while."


The new suit was…big. I was a big guy, but my previous armor was specced for mobility and finesse. My large form came across more lithe in most of my gear, and I actually kind of preferred that.


That was no longer the case. My new gear was a massive thick suit of heavy plate armor. The black metal was shot through with veins of green, giving it a sinister and terrifying look, and I knew that on my six foot four frame, I would look like a fucking colossus wearing this suit. Combined with the creepy new mask, it cut a VERY different picture than my current regal attire.


"The plate is Nightiron." My grandmother announced. "We sourced it from a particularly corrupted demonic volcano, so the compatibility with your attributes is off the charts. This suit will massively boost your raw destructive power, as well as resisting any form of corruption or corrosion. Less versatile than your previous accouterments, I admit, but what it loses in versatility it makes up for in raw force. For your assumed identity, it will be perfect."


"Speaking of my assumed identity." I said cautiously. "What kind of name should I use? I'm guessing Solomon is out."


She nodded. "We assumed you might just like to call yourself by one of your form names. It will be your decision which to use, of course. Any of them should feed you stats more easily. Having multiple identities is a known phenomena, but in this case it's a temporary measure."


"Mephistopheles it is then." I said with a grim smile. "It suits this beast of a suit best I think. So I need to change my weapon?"


"Unlikely." She said with a shake of her head. "Your weapon is perfectly fine. It's relatively new, from what I understand, and not to be indelicate but…it's a stick." At my mutinous look she held up her hands. "A very nice stick, to be sure, but still a stick. People can't really tell one stick from another, especially not based on stories, so your staff won't be a danger."


I considered complaining, but in the end I just sighed. "Fine, at least I don't have to learn a new weapon. I'm pretty good at using…a stick." I said, putting a bit of acid into the last word.


She rolled her eyes, easily the most human thing I'd seen her do. "I swear. You and your grandfather get so out of sorts about the most inane things. He once sulked for over a decade because I told him his boots were too gaudy. He STILL brings it up when he's in a bad mood." She smiled sadly. "It heartens me to see you inherited so much from him, even if you were kepy away from us."


In the week I'd known my grandmother, we hadn't interacted all that much. When I heard her sad tone, it occurred to me that she had been staying away out of a misunderstanding. "I don't blame you." I said bluntly. "For the way my childhood turned out."


"You should." She responded in a tired tone. "It's my fault. I was a reckless and selfish girl who threw away the dreams of many people to be with the one I loved. I won't ever regret that, but I will always regret the damage it did to those who cared for me." At my surprised look, she chuckled. "Yes, even HER."


She shook her head. "I won't ask you to forgive or understand her. She's done more to you than can be easily overlooked. But to me she's just my mama. She gave me everything I ever wanted, loved me unconditionally, and I spat in her face. Honestly, I expected her to be angrier at me. But even in this, she couldn't bear to turn her anger on me. So if you have to hate someone for the way things went. Hate me."


"That's dumb." I said bluntly. "And you're dumb for saying it."


Her mouth dropped open, the shock of my words completely cutting through her pity party. So I kept talking. "I don't hate her. I don't LIKE her, but she's a god. It's like hating a hurricane for blowing your house down. Huge waste of energy. And I don't hate you either. We have a chance to fix our family here, and I'm going to take it. I'm not wasting my energy seething over shit I can't control that happened decades ago. Ain't nobody got time for that."


She stared at me for a minute, then burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she almost fell over, then pulled me into a tight hug. "By the gods, you really are just like my Nicky in so many ways. You're right. I'm feeling sorry for myself. We've got work to do." She snapped her fingers and that model of Rackham came up again.


"You'll be entering the planet on the Acheron, and it'll wait for you there. Chances are good you may be moved if you win the selection. I've placed a starpluck anchor on the ship, and there's another in your armor. In case of an emergency your wife can retrieve you and bring you back to Rackham to escape. I can't promise it'll work perfectly if you reach the world you're assigned to find, so do try not to require rescue."


"Plan B stands for barely feasible." I said with a grin. "Got it. Anything else I need to know?"


She shook her head. "Not as such. There are some geographical surveys of Rackham on the ship servers, feel free to peruse them at your leisure. Sadly there isn't much cultural or historical data, the place is very new as these things go. Other than that, i can only say that we aren't sure of the details of the selection. Judgement only noted that success will lead you toward the thing you seek. Karma is vague like that."


"Check and check." I hugged her again. "Thanks grandma. Take care of my wife for me will you? In a perfect world, I'd come back to find her with a Solid Path of her own."


"I'll see what I can do." She said with amusement. "Be safe, grandson. Or as safe as you can be in the ludicrously dangerous place we're sending you." She paused. "I think I might be a bad grandmother."


I shrugged. "If it helps." I said with a grin. "You're definitely the least terrible grandmother I've ever had. I've never met the other one, but she had a kid with a sociopath, so chances are good she's probably kind of an asshole. Although if that's my metric, I guess I'm kind of smack talking mom a little too. Forget I said anything." I winked and she started laughing again. Then she left, and I was alone with the crew and my suit. "Do you guys have a room for me?" I asked eventually. "I need to get changed."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Celia left not long after finishing our talk, and the journey was underway. This ship was apparently shockingly fast, and we were looking at a month to Rackham. Which meant a month of…not much. Just me sitting around and parsing the changes to myself from my rank up, sometimes talking to Callie and doing whatever else I could think of. Training probably, I'd have to see.

My first big event of the trip though, was the most obviously necessary. I needed to try on the new armor. It was trickier than expected to get into, but it still only took a few minutes, and once I was done, I stood in front of the full length mirror in my room and took it in.

I looked…terrifying. The plate made my shoulders seem like…twice as wide, my biceps looked like thighs, and the domineering design of the black plate made me look even taller than I already was. I'd added my mask, and it went with the plate perfectly, the obsidian giving my features a demonic visage that gave ME chills.

"Mephistopheles." I boomed into the empty silence of my room. "So nice to make your acquaintance. We're going to do terrifying things together."

The voice wasn't mine. And it didn't come from the mask. It came from somewhere…else. Somewhere dark and primal deep inside of me. Not in my soul, but more like I'd called it up from my Path. Like this was a technique, but much less…intentional. It felt as natural as breathing, and I couldn't say I didn't enjoy the effect.

A knock sounded on my door. "Young master?" Came the melodic voice of Sonara. "Dinner is served in the galley." I opened the door, and the woman's eyes widened as the climbed to the face of my towering visage. "My, you certainly cut a diabolical figure." She said with a smile. "The madam would be proud."

Sorana was apparently the captain of my grandmother's personal guard. Since she was a member of the Church and not the Cult, she was a saintess and tended more toward the divine and holy aesthetic. Still she seemed thrilled when my grandmother told her she'd be watching over me, especially when she disclosed my identity, and was taking every opportunity to show her support.

As a saintess, Sorana was an A-ranker. The warrior branch of the church had different Jobs, but only up to B-rank (Arch-Paladin), after which it converged with the clergy. Saint and Pope. Sadly, even an army of A-rankers wouldn't phase a god or an S-ranker, and we were heading into a hive of enemy Ascendants, so having her here didn't mean I was any better protected. Still, it felt reassuring to have an A-ranker after losing Zeke as my guardian.

We headed to the galley, where Kristoff (Sorana's second) and Keiko (a cheerful girl with blue highlights in her hair) were stationed outside, waiting for us to arrive. The entire crew couldn't eat with us, since someone had to actually pilot the ship, so it was just the four of us for dinner, not that I minded. I was interested in learning more about my family from people who worked for them.

Luckily my mask still had an eating mechanism. A flex of will and the terrifying fanged grin opened for me to insert a spoon or fork. I took a bite of the steaming lobster pot pie in front of me and groaned in enjoyment. "Wow, grams didn't skimp on the food prep." I said, still in my Mephistopheles voice. Clearing my throat, I chuckled awkwardly. "Oh, sorry."

Kristoff waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. We're not exactly easily spooked. Feel free to maintain the effect. You need to to have internalized this new personality by the time we arrive. Speaking of the new you, have you considered your new fighting style?"

"I was going to work on it later. I have a base for each of the forms I can use. I just need to train out some bad habits. I don't suppose you'd be open to some training?"

He grinned at me. "Keiko is the heavy combat fighter. I mostly just lean into speed and stealth. I'm sure she could give you some pointers." He jerked his head, covering his mouth with the back of his hand as he stage whispered. "She uses a hammer taller than me. She can't fit the thing through the door to this room."

"I CAN fit it through the door." She snapped. "I just have to turn it sideways…and tilt it at a forty five degree angle."

They chatted away as we ate, Sorana keeping mostly silent, though she smiled at their antics. It really helped put me at ease. Being on a ship to the ass end of this galaxy with a bunch of high rankers I didn't know wasn't exactly a comfortable experience. I wasn't scared or anything, mostly just kind of stiff and formal. Walking on eggshells, but more socially than anything else.

The fact that they tried so hard to make me welcome was pretty cool. Once we finished eating, they brought me to a huge metal chamber with padded floors. "Alright. This is our training room." Said Kristoff proudly. "Madam Celia informed us of some of your tricks, but you can't do anything to this place. So feel free to go nuts with it. I wouldn't use the Psuedo-Domain though." He cautioned quickly. "It isn't going to work properly on any of us."

Considering what Limbo DID, that was a good point. Manipulation of the body was unlikely to even make them twitch. Still, it was a good opportunity to see my new power in action.

I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial. I felt the power roll out of me and into the suit as Belial activated, resonating and feeding back into me like some kind of echo chamber. It made my blood and body SING. I loved it. I drew my staff, spinning it up to get a feel for this new power level.

To my surprise, having the two forms active was…nothing. Not only was the strain infinitesimal compared to before (I was positive I could keep three forms up for a while even under normal circumstances) but the armor's power boost seemed to feed into the exact part of me that was strained by those forms to begin with. What little stress it DID still cause was alleviated almost completely. I could literally keep this up all day. I bounced lightly on my toes, something that should have made tons of noise, but the Nightiron in the suit barely even clanked.

Focusing hard on myself, I decided to try out something new. I'd been considering my mother's martial art, and while I had many forms, I didn't really have much of a physical enhancement ability. Her flaming body technique was perfect for me, with some tweaks, and I'd been trying to adapt it for a while.

In the past though, something was missing. Maybe my soul wasn't strong enough, maybe I didn't have the Impact. Whatever it was, I found it much easier to work with techniques now. A quick Piece of Mind and I was able to set up a rough outline of what I needed.

I used Belial as a base, since the form was made of corrosive magma. I just funneled the dark flame of Mephistopheles into Belial's toxic flame, supercharging my muscles and bones as the hellfire pushed my physical body to a new level. I leaned into Jessie's method, creating a story in my head as I worked.

Mephistopheles granting his great power to Belial to help the demon lord ascend the throne of the first circle, a dark alliance of unparalleled might that created an unstoppable demonic prince. Infernal power supercharging the body to create a machine of pure demonic destruction. I called it the Abomination Engine.

I bounced again, but this time I felt…smoother. Like the air around me had gone from being gelatin to oil. When I touched down, I blasted forward in a Waltz, spinning staff coming around as I struck at Keiko, who WAS now holding a giant ass hammer with a rectangular head as big as my torso.

She smirked as she saw me coming, shifting her grip slightly. She was suppressing her Impact down to my level, but even so it was laughably easy for her to counter…my first blow.

Her eyes widened as I vanished, the Waltz carrying me forward. The next blow was stronger. The Abomination Engine was a machine, and it ramped up endlessly. Each explosive step from my Waltz pushed my body to greater heights.

Blink, behind her, blink, above her, blink, on her left. Explosions rocked the training area as my staff unleashed corrosive black destruction, the powerful mix of my two forms.

"Enough." Said a voice as I was jerked to a stop. I spun to attack, but Sorana caught it easily. "Stop." She said calmly. "Feel."

I did…and I was shocked. My body was fucking destroyed. Swathes of the magma was ripped apart. I was pretty sure if I'd been solid I'd have broken bones and torn muscles. I heaved out great bellowing breaths, toxi steam erupting from my mouth. Luckily they were all high rankers.

"Impressive." Said Keiko cheerfully. "That was one of the most effective augmentation techniques I've ever seen. Maybe a bit TOO effective."

I put my hands on my knees, storing my staff. "Yup. That was…wow. That one doesn't stop scaling up." In retrospect, a technique that used the power of destruction to supercharge the body was bound to be rough on the physical form. Belial alleviated some of it, but I was pretty sure I would need to add Mornax in to the rotation to keep that up long enough to be useful.

Sadly, I would ALSO need to add a cap. Still, it was exciting to see how many new techniques this rank up had opened up to me. I had so many options even using just the two (or maybe three with Mornax) forms I was planning to focus on.

"Sorry." I said as I straightened up. "That was a little embarrassing."

"Nah." Said Kristoff with a laugh. "Testing new moves is what training is for, kid. Better than trying them out in combat. You've got a month to work out the kinks, and we're here to help. I can see serious potential there. You'll be a menace by the time we're done with you."

I laughed, but it felt good to hear it. I'd been worried about what to do with myself on the trip without my friends here, and now I had the answer. Training I was more than up to. I was going to need it too. I needed to pass this selection and get pulled into the camp of the Lady of Lamentation, and I needed to be strong to do it.

My stats should climb pretty fast from the wishes I'd left behind, I should be able to do thirteen or fourteen per wish now, having passed D-rank. A month would be a big bump, and I'd have Callie tell the others to focus on Might. I had a feeling this particular alter ego would be Might heavy to the extreme, and both corrosion and raw force would benefit.

After a bit of a rest up, I settled back in to spar with Keiko again. Kristoff was right, I could learn a lot from them. My first big solo adventure would start not too long from now, and I needed to be as prepared as possible. I squeezed my massive gauntleted fists in anticipation of the power to come, and I felt a rush of pure adrenaline at what I could become.

Shane had so many things to worry about, I'd almost forgotten what it was like to just lose myself in training. Mephistopheles though, he didn't have to care about god wars or planetary invasions. Just how to be a bigger badass. And I was going to make sure to be the biggest of all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My staff came struck out with the force of an exploding sun, smashing against the armored form of the C-ranker I'd been sparring with and sending them back a step. I tried to follow up, but Abomination Engine had capped out with that last blow. It was about as much as I could take, even using Mornax to reinforce my body.

"I'm kicked." I called as I dropped onto my ass, the heavy plate thumping down on the mat as I slumped back, sprawling out in an exhausted pancake of pure relief.

Keiko happily strolled over to look down at me. "That was pretty good." She jerked a thumb at my opponent. "Vandal is one of our most durable C-rankers. Even moving him back a step is way beyond your current Might stat. Which is what, actually, I forgot to ask? You got a bump recently, I can tell."

"Thirty one thousand two hundred." I groaned. "Five thousand points in that one, with my wishes and the last of the income from the siege combined. That's starting to taper off sadly. The renown from all those mortals was used up pretty fast. But hey, I got another thousand Fantasy at least."

She held out a hand, effortlessly pulling me to my feet. "Being able to make those scrolls and store them for your wife to pass out was definitely a good idea. But your techniques have come a long way. You've refined that Abomination Engine into a brutal fighting style. I still think you should consider a maul like mine for usage though. Or maybe an axe."

"Goetia is a staff art." I said firmly. "I can't deviate too far from the essence of my ability. I've just got to keep working. Do you think that attack was enough to keep up with the stronger D-rankers I might run into?"

Crossing the rank divide was tough, but possible from D to C-rank. That said, it would be way more likely when I was closer to the peak of my rank, and up against someone a little closer to the beginning of C. Which was why they'd picked Vandal as my sparring partner. He was tough enough for me to go all out without any real risk, but still had enough Impact at C-rank to be vaguely movable.

I'd been hoping that my new combat techniques would bridge the gap a bit more, but a part of me had known I wouldn't be actually beating him. This was realistically the best I could hope for.

"Hard to say." She mused. "There are so many kinds of abilities out there. Some of them are a hard counter for even your levels of power. That said, barring some kind of perfect defense or kinetic absorption that also has some kind of corrosion offset, I'm pretty sure you have the raw power to take on most early to mid D-rankers. As for the rest…"

"I need to grow." I sighed. "I know. I still have ninety percent of D-rank ahead of me, it's unrealistic to be invincible at the same rank. Hell, I wouldn't even say I was that at E-rank, even if I was pretty close."
She nodded sympathetically. "Your Path puts you pretty far ahead of most people at your stage of development, though. So you might not be invincible, but you're still punching far above your weight. At the end of the day though, you're not Might focused. Not really. You can't rely on brute force, which is part of what we've been doing here."

"Working some of my other tools into my combat techniques." I said with a sigh. "I know it. Are we almost there? We should be reaching orbit around Rackham soon, right?"

We'd spent the last month in transit on my grandmother's S-rank spaceship, heading for the planet Rackham at the opposite edge of Unity space from my home planet of Callus. I'd been separated from my wife of roughly six months soon after being reunited to do some crazy infiltration job for my lunatic great-grandmother so she would declare my family off limits to her fanatical cult of followers.

When a goddess gives you a job, there isn't much to say but yes, so I was en route to this backwater planet to enter some kind of selection tournament to get in good with one of the vanished gods, a member of a pantheon of rogue deities currently at war with the six gods of our current universal order, of which my great-grandmother, Black Sorrow, was one.

Her daughter, my grandmother Celia (formerly known as Drowning Shade), had defied her mother to run off with my grandfather, Nicholas Andres, the current Radiant Pope of the Church of the Red Revenant (another god and her husband and worst enemy, not to mention Celia's father, who Nicholas was the youngest disciple of), decades ago. The situation had been hidden from Black Sorrow until recently, but once she found out only the truce brought on by the god war had forestalled her attempts to have us all killed (except Celia, she was still attached).

To say my family situation was a hot mess was an understatement on the level of referring to your average exploding sun as 'warm'.

Still, my grandmother had left me with her guard captain Sorana, her assistant Kristoff, and Keiko, who was an expert in strength based combat, not to mention a bitchin' suit of extremely powerful C-rank armor aimed at boosting my combat abilities enough to make this task only ALMOST impossible, instead of just being a blatant suicide mission.

It helped that my grandfather's senior bother, another of the Popes of the Church, had given us a heading with his karmic abilities so we would be sure to maximize my chances of being accepted by the Lady of Lamentation so I could get my hands on the location of her father's world so that my great-grandmother could integrate it with her own for a big power boost.

Thinking of Callie made me reach out to my wife with our bond, the connection created by the Expert Paired Duelling Skill we shared. I felt a pulse of warmth and reassurance, but didn't bother to reach out. We had a call (for some value of that word) set up for night time before bed, just so we could keep in touch and be there for each other over longer distances.

"We're coming into orbit." She said as we made our way out of the training room. "You'll be descending tomorrow morning. Madam Celia wanted us to make sure you were well rested and fed before you go planetside." She smirked at me. "Apparently the incredibly broad shouldered armor was a hint. She thinks you're too skinny."

I made an outraged sound. "I am PERFECTLY proportioned. I have a swimmer's build. Also I'm an Ascendant, she does know she can't ACTUALLY put more meat on my bones right?"

"She might've been kidding." Admitted Keiko. "It's so hard to tell with her. She does NOT emote much. There's always at least a fifty percent chance that she's messing with us and we just don't notice."

That made me laugh. "That I can believe. No way she's married to grandpa Nick without a sense of humor."

My grandfather was one of the most laid back people I'd ever met, and loved to joke around. He liked to play up how strict his wife was, but I'd always gotten the impression he just liked putting people off balance. Celia had seemed pretty chill to me.

We entered the galley still chuckling, and Kristoff, Sorana's lieutenant, and my grandmother's captain of the guard herself, waved us over to the table. "Shane!' Boomed the big man who specialized in fast paced combat. "Heard you knocked Vandal on his ass in training!"

Laughing, I dropped onto the bench seat. "Not even close. I barely moved him. Nice to know people are making me look good though."

He clicked his tongue. "No, no, no. You're an Ascendant. Always take maximum credit. Hell, go further. Say you destroyed him so thoroughly he can't even look you in the eye anymore. You shattered his confidence and he can never be in a real fight again."

"Please don't corrupt the Madame's Grandson with your showboating nonsense." Said Sorana mildly. "He's a very powerful young man and will have no problem establishing his legend in the proper way. Shortcuts create weaknesses in your foundation. What if he starts getting a reputation for exaggerating and people stop believing the TRUE stories."

"That can happen?" I asked worriedly. "Because some of the shit I've done probably seems unbelievable."

She smiled reassuringly. "I wouldn't be concerned. Ascendant culture is built on stories, and we have our ways of verifying information." I nodded in relief. I was pretty sure that was what made secrets such a blindspot for the wish power, how hard it was to keep them. If something stayed buried, you knew for damned sure someone wanted it that way.

They waved over a server, who set down a silver tray in front of me and removed the domed cover to reveal a huge plate of prime rib with mashed potatoes and vegetables (some kind of squash and zucchini mix). "Man, you guys definitely went all out today. Decided to give me a last meal, huh?"

"Nah," said Kristoff cheerfully. "If you die it'll be weeks from now probably. You'll eat tons of stuff before then." There was a thump and he grunted, grimacing in pain at Keiko before clearing his throat. "I mean, you're definitely not going to die and will eat many more meals, some of them on this ship for sure."

"You will do fine, I'm sure." Said Sorana warmly. "You're a talented young man. I've never seen anyone take to technique modification like you. You've got an unbelievable talent for it. Your-" she grimaced. "Abomination Engine, despite its unpleasant name, is a wonderfully complex technique with endless potential."

I actually blushed a bit at the praise. Being told you're talented by an A-ranker is always a fun thing to hear, especially someone strong enough to be my grandmother's guard captain. "Thanks, that means a lot. I'm excited to see what I can do on my own, really."

"We've all been there." Said Keiko with a laugh. "You're in a good position. D-ranker with a bit of extra Impact and a Solid Path? Plus your pseudo Domain. You've got plenty of advantages. If I could give you any advice, it would be not to get in your own head. You don't magically become a different person without backup. The things you've done until now you can still do just as easily on your own."

That was really good advice. It was easy to think of this as almost the first step in my great journey, but it definitely wasn't. I'd been through a lot, and had proven myself time and time again. I could do this.

"Thanks." I smiled at her. "That helps a lot actually." I glanced at the other two. "How about you guys? Any notes?"

Sorana shook her head, but Kristoff responded. "You should change your demeanor a bit more to match your imposing presence in your new identity. You have the voice and the power, but you're sort of informal. Which is fine, but think about who you want to be seen as when you're being Mephistopheles."

"He's not wrong." Admitted Sorana. "Presentation is an important aspect of Ascendant culture."

We talked more about possible things I could do to improve my first impression, things I'd learned about Rackham, and exactly what Id do when I got down there, and the more we spoke the more relaxed I got. This wouldn't be easy by any means, but it would definitely be exciting. Now that I was out of my head a little, I could focus on the adventure, and I was pretty sure that was exactly what I needed.

 

[Heavenly Mark]

Interesting

 

[BJJPanda]

Holy Exposition Batman!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The descent to Rackham was uneventful. They put me on a shuttle, ferried me down to an out of the way forest, pointed me towards a town and then wished me luck. The Acheron was going to wait in orbit (its stealth capabilities were apparently pretty impressive) in case I needed a quick exit. Grandma might be willing to go along with her mother's plan, but she wasn't willing to leave me completely unprotected.

Once they were gone, I was on my own, and I just felt…peace. I'd broken my shackle at the temple in much lonelier conditions than this. I wasn't abandoned or forgotten. My friends were still with me, even if they weren't here. With that surety, I could really just let myself enjoy my own solo adventure.

Rackham, to my surprise, was a B-rank planet. I hadn't been aware there were any of those at the edge of galaxies. This one was on the border between Conglomerate and Imperial space, and from what I'd seen on our flyover, they had that anachronistic magi-medieval feel that Stratholme had. The weight of the planet wasn't too bad, nothing more than a C-ranked planet had been when I was still an E-ranker, and I had plenty of energy to head off into the unknown.

Even the fact that I was in a forest didn't bother me. I had some bad experiences in the woods, but here, now, I felt like the world was holding its breath. I could hear the little noises that came with the ecosystem, the chiming of insects, wind through the trees, little animals scurrying on branches, but there was no hum of humanity. No hustle and bustle.

I could have pushed my Perception until there WAS, but I didn't. I left it balanced with my Focus so I could enjoy the sensations around me.

The grass was cold, crunching under my metal boots as I walked, and I lost myself in the solitude for a bit. Sadly, all good things must end, and even with my senses limited to a normal range, I eventually reached the vicinity of the city I'd been aimed at.

I admit, I took a bit of dark amusement in the image I must have projected, walking calmly from the dark forest in my colossal dark armor with my terrifying obsidian mask. I noticed the attention on me nearly instantly as they noticed my approach, my Danger Sense pinging softly. I was pretty sure they had their weapons at the ready but weren't planning to attack. I was able to pick out five different guards on the walls surrounding the city with my Eye of Revelation, and two of them appeared above the old fashioned gate as I came within easy speaking range.

"Halt!" Boomed the one on the left. "Who seeks entry to Drakensburg?"

The other one rolled his eyes. "Come on Jerry, do you have to do the super formal gate guard thing every time someone new shows up? You sound ridiculous."

Jerry the gate guard growled and stomped his foot lightly. "Damn it Carl! Don't undermine my authority in front of the new visitors! We need to assert our authority! All these weirdos have been showing up lately and if we don't project a strong image they'll like…burn down the tavern or run off with all the pretty girls."

"And the truth comes out!" Crowed Carl. "You're still sore because that handsome guy with the gold eyes and the wolf ears asked Lisa out."

"I told you not to bring that up!" Shouted Jerry furiously.

Carl shrugged. "Then you should have asked her out ages ago. It's your own fault. I mean she might have said no, but you can't expect her to wait around, especially since she didn't know you existed beyond the occasional hello when you went into the general store."

"We had a connection!" Spat Jerry. "She always gave me an extra few stalks of corn when I-"

"SILENCE!" I finally boomed. The ground trembled as my Path infused my voice with an edge of destruction, giving the sound waves a bit of a bump. Nothing like an actual attack, but something beyond mere words. They froze, eyes wide as they turned to look down at me. I could see fear flickering across the expression, and I toned it down a bit, point made. "I seek entry to your city." I boomed in a flat voice.

Jerry cleared his throat. "Right. Well…yes. We can let you in. It's considered polite to offer some compensation to the brave men and women who risk their lives to keep the city saf-" I snagged an E-rank chit from my ring and flicked it at him in a blurring fast motion. The coin smacked into his forehead and he squeaked in dismay as he stumbled backwards and off the wall.

The small flash of black flame on impact went unnoticed by the others, but the D-rank guard was blown back in a gesture that was both impressive and a clear statement. "Was that enough?" I asked glibly. "Or should I pay some more." I called out a few more coins, rolling them dextrously over the knuckles of my gauntlet in a very visible way.

"No need." Said Carl hurriedly. "That was more than enough. Please, come inside!"

He tapped his toe against the stone of the wall twice and the gate began to open. I stashed my coins again and strolled unhurriedly through the opening once it was large enough. As I passed Jerry, who was lying in the mud on the other side, I glance down at him dispassionately. He stared back for a second, then slumped bonelessly, letting his head fall to one side and his tongue loll out in the least convincing approximation of unconsciousness I'd ever seen.

I kept my laugh internal, but it was pretty funny. Playing the big bad was kind of fun, if I was being honest. I felt the Danger Sense continue as I strode down the path into town, and if I stretched my senses I could catch the slight sounds of pursuit. I debated triggered Bael just to fuck with them, but blowing my cover on a joke seemed dumb.

Belial and Mephistopheles, with the occasional burst of Mornax. That was my skillset in this identity. I'd need to get used to that.

I had been walking for about five minutes when I realized something kind of embarrassing. I had no clue where I was GOING. I knew this planet was supposed to be where the selection took place, but that was as much as we'd been able to learn. Sure, I was aware of the major landmarks and some historical trivia about Rackham, but barring a planetwide scan for a giant sign that said 'vanished gods recruitment here' I was kind of on my own.

Which, of course, meant I needed to lean on my experience. So…I needed to go to a bar. Literally every piece of information I'd ever gotten that wasn't from a literal information broker had been found at a pub, tavern, bar, or some other liquor slinging establishment.

I wondered if all the stories about info being found in seedy bars had altered the universe to fit that narrative. It wouldn't be the first time widespread belief had changed things up. Regardless, it was the only lead I had, so I searched for the nearest tavern and made my way over, throwing both doors open dramatically as I entered.

There was a slight pause when I entered. Not the music in the background, but conversation came to a halt as everyone turned to stare at the giant armored beast that was Mephistopheles. It was kind of a confidence booster.

I took a deep breath, trying to think of what to say, and finally settled on. "I have come for the reckoning."

My booming demon voice carried through the tavern, and I saw a bunch of people avert their eyes. The term I'd used wasn't one I'd heard for the selection, but it sounded demonic and pretentious while still being easy to link to the selection. I was betting it was going to catch on. Maybe I could add trendsetting to my list of Skills.

At the back of the bar, a man grinned. He had dark skin and close cropped metallic gold hair. His eyes shone like golden coins, and they were calm and centered. Next to him, a massive pale man with aquamarine hair in a braid sat with a slim girl with literal seaweed growing from her scalp. Their eyes were a matching shade of blood red, and they shone with interest. I pointed at finger at her ominously. "You." I boomed. "You've come to be chosen."

The eyes reminded me of what Carl had said about recent visitors. Apparently having my limited brain space taken up by Jerry's babbling had accomplished SOMETHING. I stalked forward, footfalls shaking the glassware on the table (not stomping but just letting my body settle harder than it needed to with each step). I stopped in front of them, looming over their table.

"Well." Said golden eye. "Aren't you a menacing bastard? What do you two think? Is he the scariest one we've seen so far?: It's either him or that ogre with missing eye."

The big man shook his head. "Trying too hard." He said simply.

That got a laugh from the girl. "I think he's making it work." She framed me with her fingers like she was taking a picture. "The height is doing a lot of work, but that armor is fucking monstrous. It's C-rank, and definitely custom to fit someone that size. I get the chills just looking at it. Plus that mask is a horrifying work of art. That's a face even a mother couldn't love."

I wasn't exactly complaining about how scary the mask was. She was right, it was terribly disturbing. Black Sorrow might be capricious and sociopathic, but she had her aesthetic down pat.

"I can agree to that." Said golden eye. "Well, you going to sit down, tall dark and disturbing, or are you expecting to loom over us all night?" Looking at him for a moment, I grabbed a chair and pulled it out, settling down heavily and crossing my arms. He nodded cheerfully. "See now, that's better. What's your name friend? I'm Rayden Strent, and this is Cavallo and Desria Mek. We've come to this charming little hamlet to seek our fortunes."

"Mephistopheles." I rumbled. "I seek only greatness." It was a pretentious answer, but it was in character. I could let the formality drop over time, but I didn't know if I'd see these people again, so I wanted to maintain my mystique.

He whistled. "Hell of a name." He said with a wink. "But a bit of a mouthful. I think I'll call you Fist. You've certainly got two big ones. Tower menacingly if you don't mind. Perfect, it's settled then."

I sighed. "Address me as you wish. I care not. But when you speak of me to others, do so with the proper respect."

"Seems fair." He chirped. "So, Fist. I suspect you're here for the same event we are. How exactly did you hear about this little get together. I was told invitations were awfully tough to come by."

I opened my mouth to give some vague answer, but I was cut off by an explosion that rocked the floor beneath us. Rayden and friends snapped to their feet, staring out the door, tension in their formerly relaxed bodies. I almost had to smile at the turn. This kind of shit happened to me all the time, I was used to it.

For the first time I wondered if maybe Black Sorrow wasn't just fucking with me. Maybe she was also fucking with THEM. Sending someone as heavily drenched in fate as I was into an event like this was basically a guarantee it would go off the rails. The thought put a smile on my face. The suicide mission had been a depressing though, but this? I could have fun with this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

strode out the door fast enough to be noticeably hurrying but not fast enough to seem panicked. Mephistopheles was a methodical, implacable kind of guy, and I wanted to really cement that image.

Rayden caught up to me within seconds, jogging without any worries about image. Lucky bastard. "Hey, Fist-o! Wait up."

"I have changed my mind." I intoned. "I do care how you address me. You will refrain from using such a ridiculous moniker for my person." I didn't mind Fist that much, but Fist-o wasn't anything I wanted to go by.

"You got it Fisty." He said with a thumbs up. "I'll keep going through nicknames until we find the perfect one. It'll be Fisteriffic."

I almost groaned out loud. It was like dealing with Bethy. Actually it wasn't, Rayden wasn't half as endearing. I really missed my vampire bestie. And Benny, and Jessie. But I shook that off. If the act of talking to people made me homesick, I needed to socialize more than I thought. I sighed. "Fist-o is acceptable."

"No can do Fisterino." He chirped. "I refuse to call you something that you so clearly hate. I'll never use the name Fist-o again. We'll find you the perfect nickname Fistocles."

"Oh look." I drawled as we rounded a corner. "A distraction."

His head whipped around, his lips peeling back in delight as he watched what appeared to be a giant green ferret made of lightning jump on a towering figure with the head of a bull as it tried to smash the beast into the ground. It dissolved into a shower of verdant sparks as the bull man roared his anger.

"Puddles!" Shouted a green haired girl in a green leather jacket. "Tanner, what the actual fuck? It takes him hours to reform when he gets destroyed, what are you waiting for?"

A figure appeared behind bull man, climbing his back and reaching around with a dagger to try to hook back and slit his throat. The knife got caught in his fur and he reached back, grabbing the formerly invisible guy and hurling him at a nearby building. The armored sneak hit the shadows of the building and melted in, and I heard the green girl sigh.

"Fools!" Boomed the minotaur. "You speak to me as equals? I will crush you all!"

I knew Mephistopheles wouldn't do anything. He would probably just watch and enjoy the show…but I was still Shane in real life. I was a hero, or I tried to be, and I wasn't going to let this big asshole crush these people because they'd TALKED to him informally. My instincts were screaming at me to help, and I tried to listen to my gut. Withdrawing my staff, I stepped forward, and I reached for Limbo.
Despite the month of training, I hadn't gotten much of an opportunity to work with Limbo. It didn't work on people too far above my rank, and most of my sparring partners were. Still, I'd been workshopping the pseudo Domain. After a month of backstopping and tweaking the imagery, I'd managed to refine the ability into something both more useful, and more deadly.

As I stepped into the First Circle of Hell, I felt the world around me shift. Not overly much, not a full change. It was less like a real Domain and more like a film I'd laid over the world that lubricated my powers a bit.

My mind split. Piece of Mind creating parallels of me to parse the information from a combination of the Overlay and Eye of Revelation.

The last time I'd used this ability my mistake had been following the narrative in the heat of the moment. I hadn't done my due diligence, hadn't shaped the pseudo Domain to be what I needed, and so it shaped me. This time though, I'd done the work, come up with the legend I needed, and I had tied it intimately into who I was.

Moonlit Night to set the stage, Eye of Revelation and the Overlay to predict their actions, Piece of Mind to parse the multitudes of possibility, and the hyper corrosive black flame of Belial and Mephistopheles to destroy the other options.

Rather than manipulate him with the Domain like a puppetmaster, i identified the possible outcomes, and used the power of my destructive energy to eradicate the paths they had until they walked the one I wanted. I still controlled and deceived, but this was more in like not only with my destructive side, but with my Fatewalker nature.

The minotaur spun, roaring at me, and I saw a thousand reactions, blazing through my head like an infinite map. In a feat I wouldn't have been able to do without my pseudo Domain (I was just going to start thinking of it as a lowercase D domain for ease of consideration) I saw all the possible outcomes, parsed and analyzed them as a dozen people, and discarded the ones I didn't want.

My staff licked out, explosions of dark energy destroying possible outcomes as I boxed the minotaur in, getting rid of possibilities before they could be realized and slowly constraining the big bastard to dance on my string like a puppet. I felt that cold, sadistic joy well up in me again, but it was muted this time, balanced by the Fatewalker and by my own new and more powerful soul.

The bull man roared, diving forward…into my staff. An explosion knocked him back, and he fell right onto a strike as I Double Troubled behind him. Every step was like destiny, implacable, inevitable. I wasn't just beating him. I was making him beat himself, smashing into my staff at the exact right time.

It took only a few seconds for him to drop, flesh sizzling and burning from my powerful dark corruption. Everyone around us was just staring at me as I let the First Circle recede, the domain returning to where it came from. I felt a surge of weakness after it was gone, but not enough to seriously bother me. Much more manageable than before.

Rayden whistled. "Damn Fist, that was fucking brutal. Did you guys see that? That was some 'quit hitting yourself' type of shit."

I almost laughed, before I remembered I was playing tall dark and brooding, so I just loomed ominously. The one upside to the shock and awe approach I'd taken was it had been so overwhelming people had forgotten to ask WHY I'd done it. I probably just seemed like I wanted to kick the shit out of some huge powerful Ascendant.

"That really WAS awesome!" Chriped the green haired girl. "Thanks for the save, big guy. I'm Vesper, and that over there is Tanner. Puddles is my summon, though he's gone, and our friend Archimedes was setting up a big attack to take down the beefcake over there." She gestured at bull guy. "Still, it was really nice of you to lend a hand."

Shaking my head, I boomed. "I simply wished to test my strength against a worthy foe. Your fates were immaterial to me."

She chuckled. "Whatever you say, big guy. I can tell you're a big softie deep down."

"Right?" laughed Rayden. "He's definitely a nice guy. I can tell." He grinned charmingly, holding out a hand. Rayden Strent, at your service milady." He leaned down to kiss her knuckles and she rolled her eyes, though she smiled at a bit at the gesture. "I was just about to step in to help.

Desria snorted, her seaweed hair drifting oddly on the light breeze in a way that resembled actual underwater plants. "Can you not be a shameless flirt, for like…five minutes, Ray. These people are probably our competition. I'm guessing you guys are here for the selection like we are?"

Vesper shrugged nervously. "I mean…maybe? I'm not sure. My faction is kind of under a lot of pressure. I'm from a system near here, and when I heard about this…I don't know if I really have any other options, but a lot of these gods don't really sit right with me. I'm still deciding on whether we're going to enter."

"We are." Said another voice as a tall blonde man with broad shoulders stepped into view. Over one shoulder he was carrying a massive war maul, the head glowing with condensed power. Archimedes, I took it, and that would be his big hit. The fact that it was still teed up was a bit alarming, and I immediately went on guard.

Rayden seemed not to care, and Desria remained relaxed, but Cavallo, the big quiet aqua haired member of their trio, narrowed his blood red eyes at the other warrior, sizing him up.
Vesper glared at the blonde. "We decide that TOGETHER, Archie. And we haven't. Tanner and I are still on the fence, so unless you want to go it alone you'll wait for us to make a decision. I don't appreciate you trying to bully us into falling in line.

"Tell you what." Rayden said cheerfully. "Why don't we treat you all to a bit of food. We were just going to break bread and get to know our terrifying friend here before your fight caught us off guard." His tone was bright and inviting and I felt kind of…confused.

This wasn't going how I expected. I thought everyone who showed up here would be an edgy lunatic hell bent on crushing people under their boot. These people all seemed…nice. Just friendly Ascendants my own age. Sure the minotaur was a dick, but that still wasn't like…evil. These people were here for their own reasons, and they weren't all bloodthirsty monsters like I'd expected.

But that didn't matter, really. I was still going to have to get through them to win this. To beat them all so I could be free of my great grandmother and my family could be back together. Granted, my dad would still probably be off doing whatever until I kicked his ass and dragged him back, but being able to go visit my grandfather in the Holy Dominion, see where my sister grew up. It all sounded like a dream.

So I firmed my resolve and settled into my character, but I also promised myself I wouldn't ignore this feeling either. Callie was there with me, her love and support giving me the resolve to do what I could for these people. People like Vesper and Rayden might be decent despite their desperate situations, and if they were, I would help them.

I could have Sorana pick them up on the Acheron when I left if I felt they were worth saving. So I followed the group back to the tavern, and we all sat down and ordered. I got some shepherds pie and a mug of root beer, and everyone was suitably terrified when they saw my mask mouth open.

After we decompressed a bit and got to know each other, I turned my attention to something Vesper had said. After a brief pause, I finally asked. "Tell me about 'the selection' as you call it. Tell me what you know of those who are chosen."

Vesper chuckled. "Seems like its the least we owe you. We can do that. I don't know how much it'll help though. We just heard a rumor and came here on a whim. I THINK someone said something about the selection happening in Deltaverde, but the trip there is taking us a while." She coughed in embarrassment. "We're not used to B-rank planets."

I got that, though I couldn't say so. Rayden had no such compunction, however. "Yeah there's an adjustment period. Don't worry, you can stick with us. We can track down Deltaverde together. Once things kick off we might be rivals, but there's no reason not to work together until then." He grinned at me. "You're invited too, big guy." I thought for a second and then nodded. Having some help certainly couldn't hurt. I'd take what I could get.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So you're making new friends?" Asked Callie as I leaned back against the wall. She'd manifested a copy through my shadow, and it was curled up next to me. "Because I'll be honest honey, you can be an acquired taste at times." She winked at me. "I joke, but seriously, new friends are always good."

"Unless they're evil psychopaths who are going to end up being our enemies." I pointed out.

She shrugged. "Do they seem like psychopaths? I trust your divination Skills to keep you out of trouble, and as long as they don't try to stab you in the back, I don't see why you couldn't offer them a spot with one of your factions. You know your mom and Chelsea would be perfectly happy to scout some new talent."

"We'll see. I have to get to know them better." I was still in my armor, but with my mask off I felt more myself. It was strange how much that aspect of things had changed. I used to feel naked without it, but since Black Sorrow changed it, it didn't feel like mine anyway. I was going to have to ask Zeke to make me a better one when this was over. "Speaking of Chelsea, how is she doing?"

My wife snickered. "Not bad. She's learning to use both her abilities, and to try to slowly mix them in combat. Bethy keeps trying to 'help' and Chelsea gets flustered when she's around and accidentally blows herself up."

"That sounds like her." I snickered. "How about Abel? Anyone heard from him?"

Her snicker became a full on cackle. "He calls Mel to complain like every day. I'm sure they talk through their bond too, so I think he just wants to make sure we all hear about how pissed off he is. Apparently Morgan is not a gentle teacher."

My own grin matched hers in sadistic amusement. "Gosh." I drawled maliciously. "That's so sad. I can't imagine what it would be like to suffer at the hands of a cruel and capricious teacher. It certainly wasn't my INTENTION for him to suffer in such a way. I'll keep him in my thoughts."

She rolled her eyes, and was about to respond when a knock sounded at my door. I tensed, grabbing my mask and sliding it back on. I hadn't heard anyone coming, which meant Stealth, and my Danger Sense wasn't pinging so they weren't hostile. I came to my feet slowly, nodding to Callie as the clone melted back into shadow. She couldn't help me from where she was, those clones being far too fragile for a prolonged long distance fight.

After mentally preparing, I strolled to the door and pulled it open, glaring down at the person on the other side. "What?" I snapped.

The figure before me simply stared back, unaffected by my ire. "Mephistopheles." Came the voice from under the darkened hood like the rustle of dead leave over a cold gravestone. "You are requested in the dining room." The face beneath the cloak wasn't visible, but a mask was. A half face mask carved of black wood to resemble the top half of a skull, with bright red eyes that cast a dim glow over the unrelieved darkness inside the hood. It gave the impression the mask was floating in an empty abyss, and was deeply unsettling.

"And who are you," I intoned. "To command me in such a way?"

"Attend or do not." Rasped the figure. "But know that if you choose to defy the invitation, you will forfeit all rights to the divine selection. The eyes of the dark gods are on this world. Your trials have already begun, and they watch carefully. Be warned, for if you are not a willing vessel for their power, your only choice is to bow to their awful might by force, and for those who stand against their fury, only tragedy awaits."

There was a flutter in the air, and the figure dissolved into a few drifting black feathers, which vanished as they touched the ground. I rolled my eyes. "Melodramatic ass." I muttered as I turned to head for the stairs.

To my complete lack of surprise, Vesper, Archie, Rayden, Desria, Cavallo, and Tanner were all converging at the top of the steps. We'd all chosen to stay in the same inn, though obviously our rooms had some distance between them. Still, thinking back, I should have heard the hooded figure addressing any of the others, or even knocking on their door. Whatever the thing was, it had some interesting tricks.

Thinking about it, I suspected he might be some kind of servant of Delthrys, the god of secrets. It would certainly fit.

"Fist!" Called Rayden as I joined them. "Good to see you got the call too. Anyone know anything about creepy mcweirdmask back there? Because I tried a few of my analysis Skills and I got jack and shit."

Archie shook his head in annoyance. "Likewise." He grunted. "But they did give me a fun little ultimatum. I take it we're all heading downstairs to meet with our new friend now?"

"I chafe under their assumptions." I rumbled. "But I came for the selection. To throw away my chance for greatness to sate some fleeting sense of personal pride is pure foolishness. I will attend this conclave."

Vesper nodded. "Pretty much where we landed. We should stick together then. Just in case our new friend has impure intentions."

Nodding solemnly, we all got into a tight grouping, though not so tight as to limit range of movement. We were all experienced, and Archie, Cavallo, and I took the front, being the biggest. I triggered Mornax along with my two consistently active forms, just in case something attacked.

We reached the ground floor, and the whole place was shockingly empty. An almost blue moonlight flooded the area from the windows, leaving dark shadows pooling everywhere. We headed for the dining room, and when we arrived, the cloaked figure was standing among the tables, hands clasped behind their back.

"Well, we're here." Said Rayden. "It's late though, so if there's a version of this where you don't posture dramatically and waste a bunch of time, can we go with that one? Also what's your name, because I can't just keep calling you 'creepy mask guy' in my head. We already have one of those and it's getting confusing."

The figure paused menacingly. "You may address me as you wish, my name matters no-"

"Cool, you're Scott now." Interrupted Rayden. "Problem solved. Now, what are you doing here, Scott, and what do you want?"

The pause this time was less menacing and more confused. "I…yes. Well. I have come to extend your invitations to the selection, as well as give you your first task. To serve the dark gods is an honor that not just any may accept. You must prove your worthiness."

"Worthiness?" Rayden said skeptically. "How high can the bar be? I mean, you're worthy, and your name is Scott. That's a ridiculous name."

"You don't…please stop calling me that." The cloaked figure formerly known as Scott sounded frustrated. "Take this seriously. Your very lives hang in the balance."

Rayden snorted. "Yeah, because that's an unfamiliar set of circumstances."

"Look, what is the task?" I asked, figuring I'd better interrupt Ray before he got up a head of steam. I'd learned to handle unpredictable teammates when I'd been working with Bethy. Sometimes you just had to make them focus.

Not-Scott nodded, clearly pleased. "Very good. At least one of you is treating this situation with the gravitas it deserves." His tone was almost reproachful, and I smirked behind my mask, seeing that Rayden had done exactly what he'd probably intended to do, and taken the wind out of Not-Scott's creepy sails.

"Exactly." I boomed. "So tell us what we need to know, Not-Scott."

Rayden burst out laughing, and I could swear the masked figure glared at me. "My NAME," They hissed. "Is Echelon. I serve Delthrys, the god of secrets, and he is not amused by your antics!"

"Oh please." Snorted Desria. "There's no way an actual god is giving us enough attention to care about this conversation. So just tell us what the task is."
The figure glared for a moment, then sighed. With a snap of their fingers, a series of birds coalesced (ravens, of course, because what else would a creepy masked cloak person use) they flew to us, each dropping a small scroll. I snatched mine out of the air, and after opening and reading it, looked back up at Echelon. "Its a person." I said flatly.

"Of course." Echelon said with a nod. "A target. Delthys is one of the six whom you may serve. The first trial shall weed out those who might stand at his side. Every person in the trials is given a target. You have three days to find them. Should you fail, you will be barred forever from service to Delthrys, and all that he may grant you, though you will not be precluded from the other trials. Those who succeed most quickly will more on to Delthrys's next trial."

I blinked at her. "So this trial has no benefit for those who seek to serve a different deity?"

Echelon shook their head. "Not so. If you succeed in a trial, you may use that success to offset a failure for the first trial of another deity. The top scorer in any first trial may even beg intercession from that god for aid in another trial down the line, even if that trial is for a different god."

That sounded complicated as hell. That meant there would be, eventually, six different selections going on all over Rackham. I could blow some of them off, but if they were all thematic…having a free pass for the Lady of Lamentation's task might be a good idea. As a goddess of torment, there was a chance it would be incredibly unpleasant.

Having a free intercession from the god of secrets could certainly come in handy. I was just really hoping the Lady of Lamentations had some other domain than torturing people, or I wasn't going to make it through this.

I glanced down at my target. For now I just had to find this guy. Chester Baddington, professional thief and a D-ranker on the Path of Stealth. Fantastic. Echelon, seemingly ignorant or uncaring of my mental dilemma, turned their back to us. "And so your task has been passed. The first task of the next trial will commence in one week's time. Some of you will not bother to move on, and will serve at the hand of Delthrys. For the rest, this will be the last time we meet."

Echelon vanished in a puff of raven feathers, and we all turned to each other. "So…" Said Rayden. "Did he say anything about us helping each other? I bet teaming up would make this way easier."

I considered the trial, and the god behind it. "I think not." I said slowly. "Not on this one. At least not yet. Perhaps if we run into difficulty on day one. Is anyone planning not to bother with the task?"

No one was. It made sense, it was a big opportunity for some free credit in case our task down the line was too hard or painful. That thought resonated oddly. Too painful. The Lady of Lamentation was a goddess of torment, though based on her liquid, probably also corruption. What if her task was to ENDURE those things. I felt my blood run cold at that. In some ways it would be easier, but in others…yeah, I definitely needed to make sure I had a free pass for the first trial for the goddess I was aiming at. I had a feeling it would be one of the hardest to endure. Before that though, I had to do some research, because if I was going to pass any of these trials, I needed to know more about the dark gods.

https://www.patreon.com/malcolmtent/posts?filters[tag]=WUTS

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, is anyone else hungry?" Asked Rayden. "Because I'm starving. Being menaced at makes me ravenous. Besides, you don't want to team up, but maybe we can share info. I'm the best at sharing info. I share everyone's info. Desria collects stuffed turtles, and Cavallo is obsessed with baking."

"Ray!" Snapped Desria in an annoyed voice. "That's a secret, it also does NOT make you seem more trustworthy. Literally the exact opposite of that." She sigh and gave me a small smile. "Sorry about him. He means well, but sometimes his brain and his mouth aren't speaking, even when his mouth definitely is."

I shrugged, not wanting to break character but unbothered. "His blathering has no effect on me." I intoned.

"Speaking of you." Ray brightened. "What's up with your ability? That was a Domain right? But it felt unfinished. Also kind of creepy. Like…a bit demonic, but something else? What the hell is your power?"

Shrugging, I brushed it aside with a half truth. "I'm from the Black Sorrow Cult, but I never wanted to touch Black Sorrow's disgusting darkness, so I followed in my father's footsteps. He was a devil." This wasn't much of a concession to admit, the Cult interacted with the devils a lot, and there were plenty of hybrids in their territory.

His eyes widened in delight. "Oh my gods." He whispered reverently. "You have devil powers even though you're not a devil? You're just like Devilghost!"

Vesper's head shot up and she squealed in excitement. "You're right! He's totally like Devilghost! I can't believe I didn't see it before. I mean he doesn't have a horse, but still, they're so similar!"

"What is a…Devilghost?" I asked warily.

They stared at me in horror. "Devilghost?" Asked Vesper in disbelief. "The Specter of Salvation?" She took a deep breath and belted out. "He rides upon a fiery steed, his powers helping those in need, his claws will make his enemies bleed, DEVILGHOST!" Rayden stood up as she did, throwing their hands into the air as they howled the last word of what had to be some kind of theme song in unison.

Desria sighed. "He's a cartoon character native to this cluster. A lot of the systems nearby have a shared broadcast network, this planet doesn't because it's more Imperial than Conglomerate."

"Ah." I said slowly. "I'm from Cult territory, as I said. And I do not know anything about…Devilghost. In fact, I'm ignorant of a great many things, including the identities of all the dark gods. I know of a few, but perhaps we might exchange information and you could share your own knowledge of our potential benefactors."

Rayden slumped, pouting petulantly. "You're boring. Devilghost is way more fun than you. Devilghost would totally team up with us. And he would use his flames of spectral revealing to burn away the obstruction in our path so we could all find our targets like…today."

"Nuh uh!" Snapped Vesper. "Devilghost would tell us it was too dangerous, he never puts the innocent at risk."

"I will literally pay you money if you stop talking about this." I groaned, belatedly realizing that had been WAY out of character, even if it had still been in my demonic voice. Everyone turned to stare at me in shock. I flinched. I'd just gotten so comfortable with their bullshitting, it was almost like being back with my friends. "I mean…your prattling becomes tiresome."

Desria snorted. "Oh no." She laughed. "Cats out of the bag big man. You don't get to go back to being the brooding mystery behemoth now. The whole tall dark and gloomy thing was getting old anyway."

"Fine." I snapped, throwing up my hands. "But don't tell anyone else. Not that the fact that I'm being pretentious on purpose would mean anything to anybody, but I want to keep up the role in public. Now can you PLEASE tell me more about the dark gods. I've got four of them down, how about you."

Rayden looked devastated. "Man, you're even less like Devilgho-" I cut him off, pointing at him angrily. "Whatever. Fine. We know about two of them."

"And so do we." Vesper said. "So assuming we don't have more than one overlap, maybe we can learn about them all. Which ones do you know about…what did Ray call you again? Fist?" I realized I hadn't been introduced with the others.

"Mephistopheles." I said flatly. "But Fist is fine, as long as you don't make any weird nicknames out of it. As for the gods I know of, as I said, there are four. One of them you know about already, Delthrys, God of Secrets. He's running this trial."

She nodded. "We hadn't heard of him before now. We came to try to work under Verdyn, the god of the Blood Forest. He's the patron deity anything that dies in the forest. It's a whole big 'man's darkest nature makes them no better than beasts' thing."

I filed that one away, since I hadn't heard of him. "I'm here to serve Felicity, the Lady of Lamentations. She's a deity of torment." I didn't elaborate, because I didn't KNOW much more. At their skeptical glances, I shrugged. "What?You guys didn't come here to pledge your service to the god of fluffy puppies either. They're dark deities, some edge is to be expected."

She shrugged. "Fine. Our other one is obvious. Hatescream is kind of a gimme, since he's the big boss around here."

I nodded solemnly. "Good to hear. Stralthrem is the Dread God of Fabrication. Some kind of mad scientist monster maker I think? I don't know the details."

"It's more than we know." Said Cavallo, who had been mostly silent this whole time. "Our last one is Raxus, god of deceit. We don't know much about him for obvious reasons. I'm not sure how deceit varies from secrets, however, they seem similar."

"They should." Said Ray. "They're twins. At least I think so. He's the one we're here for." He paused. "Also, sorry for the look earlier I guess, I don't think ours is any nicer than yours. But yeah, I heard Raxus had a twin, I just didn't know who it was. That makes the most sense."

I sighed. "It does. If I had to guess while this trial is about digging up secrets, Raxus's will probably be some kind of infiltration thing. Who knows. I'm just worried about what Felicity's trial might be. It's either going to be monstrous or VERY painful. I suspect the latter. It's easy to find murderous bastards, but people who can survive torture are harder to source. Seems like a more interesting quality for a goddess to search for."

My instincts were pushing me in that direction, and while that wasn't anywhere near proof, it at least helped me calm down a bit. Sure, undergoing horrible torment to pass sucked, but I had ways to mitigate that. I'd been through some awful shit, and my pain tolerance was solid. At least I wouldn't have to do anything really monstrous to another person. Hopefully.

With the details out of the way we finally had a chance to get some food. No one seemed to be in the inn except for us, or if they were we didn't detect them. So we raided the kitchen and Ray left some chits behind while I made steaks.

It soothed me to do some cooking, and carefully pan searing the steaks in butter made me feel like I was home with Callie. I reached through the bond and felt her answer me, glad to sense me and missing me as I missed her. With a wry grin, I opened the bond in a way I hadn't tried before, inhaling the scent of cooking meat, and I felt a slash of scolding faux outrage and sullen poutiness.

Not laughing at her reaction was a bit of a struggle, but I made sure to send some affection, and got grudging forgiveness along with a warning feeling that I was pretty sure was a promise of vengeance.

Her presence retreated back into the bond, always with me, but it was less…well, present. I finished the steaks and brought them to the dining room, dropping the plate piled high with meat onto the table. "I did what I could." I shrugged. "The meat here isn't amazing quality. It's a little lean for my taste and it's only F-rank."

Not that I was surprised. This was a small place, E and D-ranked meat was far too upscale for them to keep on hand in their stores. I took a bite and grimaced somewhat. It wasn't BAD, but it wasn't great.
To my surprise, everyone else froze when they bit into their food. "Holy shit, this amazing!" Shouted Ray. "Fist you're a culinary genius!"

I shrugged. "It's just pan seared in butter. If I'd had time I could have done a marinade. I was able to use a very light touch of corrosion to tenderize the meat. Don't worry though, the skill fades when I dismiss it." It was one of the possible uses for my Skills I'd picked up on the Acheron. I was surprised they liked it so much though.

Although…I'd been eating food from a master chef recently. For the last month I'd only been ingesting professional quality meals, so my own read on what was good might be off.

Vesper shook her head. "He's right. This is fantastic. I've never had food this good."

"I have." Said Cavallo. "But not often. This is an exceptionally well prepared meal." I nodded to him, and he returned to eating with a slow, methodical intensity that I was pretty sure meant he was trying to reverse engineer my exact steps when cooking the steak.

"Well, if we're already sharing a meal, why not share a bit about ourselves." Said Vesper cheerfully. "We know each other's names, but not much else. If we might work together in the future, even if it's once we all pass the selection, it might be a good idea to make some new friends."

Ray nodded slowly. "That's a good idea. Well, I'm local, as you might have guessed. Not to this planet, but to the cluster. Me and the twins are from Crayton Seven. And no, I don't know why they decided to name all eight of the planets in our system the same thing. It's super rare because of how confusing it gets, but hey, I didn't name them."

"You named one of them." Said Desria with a grin. "Or renamed it anyway. Your family had to have smuggled off world when the governor found out it was you who started it."

He shrugged. "In my defense, I had no idea Shitworld was going to catch on. Sure, it was accurate, but come on people, have some decorum. Anyway, I wasn't really the kind of person who would fit in with the Empire, and I find the Unity kind of pointless and childish. When I got wind of the selection I decided to give it a shot."

Desria chuckled. "We don't let him go anywhere alone, since he has zero filter and tends to get into trouble." I remembered Jerry the guard mentioning someone with eyes like Ray and knew what she meant.

"We're local too. We're from this system actually." Said Vesper. "We're looking for a chance to change our fortunes a bit. No powerful factions nearby, so we can't join anyone. When we heard about the selection we knew it was our big chance. But…well, with the whole dark gods thing we're still deciding if we'll actually take part or not." She bit her lip, looking a little worried.

I fed them some story about wanting to get away from the Cult which was technically true based on my wording, and then steered the conversation away from the subject and back to general getting to know you stuff.

By the end of the night, I was in a surprisingly good mood, and ready to take on tomorrow. My hunt for my target would begin, and it would be time to head off on my own. I couldn't wait to see what I was really capable of.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

As much as I wished I could just charge off to find my target I had to figure out who the hell he was. I only had a real name, and while Chester Baddington might not be the MOST common name, I was sure there was more than one around. Being a D-ranker should help narrow things down, but this WAS a B-ranked planet. Most of the people I'd met so far were D-rankers.

Which meant I needed local information, which meant I needed a source, and I needed some way to pay for it. I had some cash on hand, as well as another eight scrolls on hand just in case. But using those to pay for anything seemed premature. Instead, I decided to see if there was some sort of census or information database for the planet. I headed for the nearest library, which was sadly three towns over, but I made decent time with my Waltz.

It was about noon when I arrived, and the clerk at the library was, in a reaffirmation that people everywhere can be the same regardless of environment, a bored teenager reading a book and trying to ignore everyone who showed up.

"Child." I boomed, really leaning on the demonic voice. Sure, it might be a bit mean, but I didn't have time to deal with disaffected youth, I had shit to do. Luckily, I was fucking terrifying, so I was able to lean on my intimidating visage to pressure him to do his job a bit more quickly. I MIGHT have stifled a laugh when he squeaked and fell out of his chair, looking up at me with confused panic. "I seek knowledge."

I was back in character since I was away from my new friends. Plus it was way more ominous when I talked like this. He swallowed, scrambling to his feet. "Yeah, ok. I mean, sure. I can find…knowledge. What do you want to know?"

"I seek the Ascendant known as Chester Baddington." The guy himself was actually an Ascendant, an F-rank from the looks of it. I'd have assumed this planet would be too much for him, though the building seemed to offset the Impact slightly. He was wearing an odd bracelet that interested me, maybe some kind of offloading device for Impact. I'd have to look into it later.

He snagged a mirror from under the counter, fingers flying over the glass. "Um…is he like…historical or something?"

"No. He yet lives." I said gravely.

He grimaced. "Hold on. Population records are sort of buried. He might not be on there. They haven't been enforcing the census as heavily lately. But maybe…huh. I found him. I think. There's three of them. How old is he? One is a baby, one is an old man, and one seems to be like…mid forties."

"The third, I believe." I said thoughtfully. "He is D-rank, if that helps your search."

He tapped the screen. "Ok. Got him." He glanced up at me nervously. "This is a census, man. It's not exhaustive. I only have his hometown, his eye and hair color, and his next of kin."

I reached into my ring, withdrawing a piece of paper, and handed it to him along with a pen. He copied down the details, and I returned the paper to my ring. I withdrew a single chit, E-rank, and pressed it down on the counter. "My presence, will you conceal it?"

His eyes widened and he snatched up the chit. "Hell yeah!" He said excitedly. "You were never here, man. Big scary demon mask who?"

Nodding, I turned and walked out. As I strolled, a cloaked, shadowy form coalesced beside me, keeping pace. It didn't speak, at least not out loud, but my wife's voice rang in my head. "You had far too much fun scaring that kid. This planet is a bad influence on you."

I smirked at her. "You could talk to me mentally without the shadow clone. Miss me that much? Because I'll be honest, I don't know much about hunting down a target, and I could use all the help I can get."

Her laugh tinkled in my head. "You're doing fine. If you really need help we can ask Cark, but I thought this was your big moment running solo?"

"Well sure." I laughed internally. "But you're my wife. We share everything, so asking you for help doesn't count. Your successes are my successes. Except in a literal sense, because I got none of that sweet, sweet, godslayer renown."

She snickered. "Poor Shane can't coast on his wife's success. The world is so unfair. Anyway, I was just on break in my training and I felt you were alone. I missed you. I love you and good luck." She popped up on her toes, pecking me on the cheek before the shadow construct dissolved.

No one had seen, she'd covered us in Stealth before she'd done it, and I smiled under my mask at my wife being thoughtful enough to try to preserve my fake reputation. I walked for a bit longer, then stopped and leaned against a tree, withdrawing the paper. The information was sparse. I'd hoped Chester had some kind of unique hair or eye color, as sometimes happened with Ascendants, but no. His hair was brown, his eyes were green.

His next of kin was listed as "Millicent Baddington" and his hometown was called Runkleton, Which was objectively the towniest name for a town I'd ever heard. Sighing, I pulled out the map I'd bought earlier today so I could reach Bentworth, where the library was situated. It was a pretty decent area, and it covered enough that I was able to find Runkleton easily enough, albeit barely, since it appeared to a literal blip up in the mountains.

Sighing, I turned and began my Waltz, blasting forward, though not bothering to go all out. My travel speed was staggering, and I was moving so quickly, I almost missed the ping from my Danger Sense. Almost. Instead, I pushed off the ground, my next burst of movement taking me up into the air.

As I vanished, a whistling sound broking out, and a dozen arrows from a dozen directions smashed into the ground where I'd just been. "Surrender or die!" Bellowed a voice as I dodged. I expected another volley, but instead I heard a voice howl. "No,no, no STOP. Lower your weapons. Who the hell told you all to fire?"

I landed, State of Grace letting me balance casually on the shaft of one arrow as I glanced around at the slowly revealed forms of those surrounding me. The leader was a short woman with close cropped red hair and bright blue eyes. Her pixielike nose was scrunched up in annoyance as she glared at the other figures, most of whom wore identical leather armor and cloaks.

One of the men in the back raised a hand. When she raised a brow at him, he cleared his throat. "Beggin' your pardon miss, but it was David."

"Fucking snitch!" Shouted one of the others. "I was just saying he looked scary. Letting him know we were there seemed dangerous. I thought we should shoot first and worry about decorum later is all."

"I SAID." The girl said, "That we would offer them a chance to surrender. I don't PAY you to think, David."

I glanced at them with a sigh. "You seem to be vagabonds and cutpurses by trade." I said stoically. "Might you know of a man named Chester Baddington?" My fate had caused weirder shit to happen, might as well see if they knew my target.

The girl whirled on me. "Excuse me." She snapped. "I am TRYING to discipline my employee, giant demon man. Can you please wait until we get back to robbing you?" She turned back to her people. "Honestly, rude."

I stepped off the arrow, my foot touching the ground as I unleashed Pit of Despair. I pulsed my corrosion through it, the dust turning black as green energy sparked through it, and they all shrieked as they fell into the pit. I heard shouts of pain and alarm as the toxic dust burned their skin and some of them even inhaled it.

Sadly, Dust Construction was a very noticeable and unique Skill, but Pit of Despair fit my destructive motif to a T. I cancelled it, leaving them all stuck in the dirt as they gasped for air. Immediately after, I reached for Belial's power, and I pushed, converting the still hot ground into hardened magmatic stone, pulsing with toxic heat. "My mistake." I drawled menacingly. "Please, resume your conversation. You can stay there for as long as you like."

The leader chuckled nervously. "Oh. Never mind. I was the one being rude. We'd be happy to help you kind stranger. Maybe you could…let us go first." She whimpered. "This really hurts."

I realized that I'd accidentally used my full corrosion, the combo with Mephistopheles, and I pulled back on it a bit. They all relaxed. "I'm looking for Chester Baddington. Do you know him?" They had never answered my question.

"No sir." The girl squeaked. "Never met him, why? Did he do something to you? We can help you find him."

I frowned, thinking about the other bit of info. "How about Millicent Baddington?" I asked.

"Millic-" She froze, eyes widening. "You're looking for BAD MILLIE? Listen big guy, you're really tough, and very scary, but Bad Millie runs half the thieves guilds on Rackham. Helping you find her would be suicide. She'd kill us."

I walked over, shoving my hand into the dirt and grabbing her arm. I released the stone hold on the ground and pulled, lifting her effortlessly into the air. "And what?" I growled as I leaned in close. "Do you think I'M going to do to you if you say no? You accosted me unprompted mid travel, confessed to be seeking to rob me, and are now standing in the way of my hunt. Where I'm from people have sold their homes to try to repay a tenth the insult you've given me this day."

I decided Mephitopheles was the kind of scary asshole who would demand tribute, and I thought it would play well here. I wasn't going to hurt a bunch of idiot thieves too badly, but she didn't know that.

Her eyes were wide, and I could literally see the reflection of my terrifying mask in her pupils as she quailed under my glare. She closed her eyes, puffed out her cheeks, and said. "Just me." I raised a brow and she demanded. "Promise you'll just take me with you. That you'll tell everyone I was the person who sent you. Let my friends go. If you don't I'll just fight to the death, I don't care."

I dropped her, letting her feet hit the ground. Honestly, I was impressed. She was clearly scared shitless, but she refused to back down. She wanted to take care of her subordinates more than she wanted to be safe. "Fine." I said shortly. "They may leave. As may you, after you escort me to her location. I won't have you running off after giving me a false lead."

She looked offended at that but snorted and turned to the others. "Get lost, you sorry sacks of pig puke." She said loftily. "You're cramping my style."

David, the one who had been arguing to kill me, stared at her in horror. "But boss…what if he kills you? You can't just go off with some scary monster guy. We can totally take him. He's just D-rank like we are."

She shook her head. "Not a chance. That attack had several more Impact than a D-ranker should have. He's probably here for that evil god contest or whatever. If we kill him we might piss them off. Better to play along." She squinted at me. "I'm Beladonna Darrow." She said, holding out her hand. "And I hope my instinct about you being an ok guy is right. Lets go."

I was impressed she'd picked up on the selection thing, and by her instincts. I shook her hand thoughtfully. "Mephistopheles." I said in a booming demonic bass. And you will come to no harm as long as you complete your task." Internally, I was excited. I already had another lead. This manhunter thing was super easy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bad Millie apparently made her home in a town called Sparsburg. It was actually fairly close to Runkleton, which convinced me I was on the right track. Her place was, nostalgically, a casino. It reminded me a bit of the one in Doomtown all that time ago, though less…flashy. It was still incredibly over the top, but in a more residential way. Like a super high end mansion rather than a crazy casino.

The door was guarded by a pair of D-rankers, and to my immense surprise, my Danger Sense started whispering in the back of my head as we approached them. I didn't know who they were, but they were at least partial threats to me. I'd gotten way too used to being invincible at the same rank.

"Well if it isn't little lady Darrow." Said the shorter one, a woman with dark skin and purple hair. "I didn't know you were coming to visit. Look Theo, the little princess is here. We'd better be kind of her daddy might scold us."

The taller guard, a man with a thick blonde beard and a scar over one blue eye, sighed. "Be nice Tessa." He nodded to Belladonna. "Miss Darrow. Who's your friend?"

Belladonna froze. "This is…Dan." She said, searching for a plausible lie. "He's my stylist."

I almost sighed. She should have just given my name, no one on this planet really knew me yet. But it didn't matter in the end. I nodded solemnly. "Fashion is my life." I intoned in a demonic baritone.

They both stared at me in stupefaction, and I had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. Tessa raised an eyebrow at me. "You don't seem like someone who takes fashion too seriously. You're dressed like something that lives under a kid's bed."

"It's called Grimpunk." I boomed snidely. "It's the next big thing."

They stared at me for a minute. "...right." Said Theo. "Well, if you're with Miss Darrow, I guess you're good. But don't start any trouble, demon man. You probably think you're hot shit, but we've got a dozen people your level."

He was bluffing, but it was confusing to hear, because I was so low in D-rank. I shouldn't have even registered as a threat with my level of development…and then I got it. People used Impact to detect how strong someone was within their rank. Even people at the same rank had differences, that had been what Abel had taught us way back at the fish punching lake.

But my Impact was three points above where it should be. I was literally on an entirely different spectrum. They couldn't sense where I was in relation to where I should be, because they hadn't interacted with any people with one hundred and five Impact that they could compare it to. All they could sense was that I was stronger than a normal D-ranker in terms of Impact. I could be at any spot in D-rank from their point of view, and it was clearly making them nervous. Cool.

They stepped out of the way, and we stepped into the casino. Deciding to risk using a form that wasn't one of my main three for this mission (if only because of the nature of the form itself) I triggered Bael, using its enhanced Stealth to cover us both as I turned to Belladonna. "Your stylist?"

Stomping her foot in frustration, she whined. "I'm not good at lying! I'm a very honest person!"

"You're a thief!" I said incredulously. "You were ROBBING me when I met you!"

"Yes, but I was very honest about it." She countered. "I always try to be up front with my targets. It's important for people to feel comfortable and well taken care of when you're stealing from them. Otherwise nonsense like that sneak attack happens. David's new, he doesn't really get how we do things yet."

I shook my head incredulously. "So, where exactly is this 'Bad Millie'. I have questions for her, and it would probably be smarter to try to ask them peacefully. I have a sneaking suspicion she's going to attack me, so you might want to leave before I meet up with her, but I'll at least give it a shot."

To my surprise, she shook her head. "I promised to bring you to Bad Millie, and that's what I'll do. You spared my friends, so I need to follow through on my end. Besides, I'll be fine. I, the unstoppable Belladonna Darrow, possess the unique ability of Escape." She struck a pose. "That's why they call me Belladonna the Blur."

"Does anyone actually call you that?" I asked curiously.

She slumped. "No, and I tried REALLY hard to get it started. I even paid some people to spread it around."

Weirdly, she reminded me a lot of Jessie, just in terms of her demeanor. Laughing lightly, I clapped her on the shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it. If things go bad, just get out of here. I can handle myself."

Between my pseudo Domain, my C-rank armor, my extra Impact, Abomination Engine, and Mornax, even a bunch of normal peak D-rankers would have trouble putting me down. With the speed of my Waltz, I could escape if needed, so unless they had a serious elite with a Solid Path here, I was pretty confident in my odds.

She nodded, and I added her to the list of pretty decent people I might extend an invitation to after this mess was over. She wasn't sticking around out of loyalty to me, she didn't know me, but the fact that she took her word so seriously spoke well of her.
I dropped Bael, switching back to Mornax as my third, just in case anything went down, and I followed Belladonna into the casino, keeping an eye out for possible threats.

There were a LOT of possible threats. Like…so many. The place was crawling with enemies, even though a lot of them seemed to be trying to blend in. I spotted several dealers, waiters, and bathroom attendants that my Danger Sense pinged off hard. Bad Millie wasn't the type to take risks it seemed.

Belladonna (she insisted I start calling her Bella because it wasn't as stuffy) and I headed for the center of the casino where a poker game was ongoing. Leading me around, Bella stopped in front of a pretty blonde woman who looked to be in her mid twenties, wearing a blue dress and sipping a cocktail. When we approached, two men in suits appeared (literally appeared, they'd been in Stealth) and blocked our path.

Millie smiled, waving them off. "No need to be so testy boys. Walthrum's daughter is always welcome at my place. Bella, darling, give your aunt Millie a hug." She smiled, spreading her arms, and Bella stepped up, pecking her on both cheeks before meekly stepping away. Despite the familiar greeting and the smile, Millie's ice blue eyes never thawed or warmed for a second. It was like looking into the eyes of a venomous snake. Those predatory orbs turned to me. "And who is your enormous friend? I don't think we've met. I thought I knew all your friends."

That statement seemed to make Bella deeply uncomfortable, and I could imagine why. That innocuous comment implied a level of observation most people would balk at. I didn't bother to be polite about it, given her icy demeanor. "My name is Mephistopheles. I'm looking for someone."

She fluttered her eyes at me. "A seeker of romance? Have I perhaps caught your attention? Or were you hoping to court our darling Belladonna?"

Purposefully misunderstanding me was annoying, but only briefly. I decided to be MORE blunt. "I'm looking for Chester Baddington. I heard you know where to find him." There was a sort of snap in the air. One second everyone was talking and gambling, and then it went eerily quiet.

Millie's eyes lidded dangerously. "Oh? And what might you want with my nephew?"

I felt my Danger Sense ramping up as the people around us slowly started to close ranks. It might have been subtle if I hadn't been expecting it, but as it was, they mostly just looked silly trying to casually shuffle into a formation around us.

"That's my business, but I mean him no harm." Once I caught him I just had to report to Echelon by burning the scroll, at least according to the item. He had to be immobilized, but once they confirmed the capture he would be released.

She snapped her fingers, and the people around us stopped being subtle, forming a wall of flesh between us and the exit. I cracked my neck slowly. "You should let Belladonna go." I said bluntly. "She was forced to be here, and you've got bigger things to worry about."

I called my staff from my ring, gripping it tightly as I triggered Abomination Engine, letting myself start to build power. Nothing impressive until I started fighting, but the cascading energy inside my armor began the process. Millie smirked at me. "Well, aren't you the confident one. But I have you surrounded, how exactly do you think she's going to le-"

Triggering Mephisto's Waltz, I blasted myself past her, right at the circle of waiting minions, my staff horizontal and acting as a bar as I smashed into them at top speed. The staff and my own momentum knocked them all flying, leaving a large gap in the circle. Bella bolted at top speed, vanishing into a haze of red mist, and I turned back to Millie.

"Now. I need some information, and you have it. So you can give it to me, or I can take it." I felt the power rioting inside me as I rumbled my demand. Shane would have been more circumspect, asked more questions. But Mephistopheles was a being of force and violence. This was far more his style.

She scowled as she took in the crumpled forms of her people, writhing on the ground. My staff was imbued with the dark corruption of my overlapping forms, and it had seeped into them on impact. While there were plenty of top level D-rankers here, I'd hit some of the weaker subordinates to make a point, and the corruption had seeped in and was burning away at them.

"You've just made a grave mistake, boy." Said Millie coldly as she stood. "I don't know who you think you are, but this is MY place. No one comes in here and hurts my people without paying a price for it. The only information I plan to impart to you is the exact process by which you can die in the most pain."

My Danger Sense went off when she was mid sentence, and I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind the back of the guy on the opposite side of the circle as two nearby people assaulted my illusionary double.

My fist lashed out with an explosion of black flame, stoking the Annihilation Engine just a bit as I blasted one of her helpers. Still, that wasn't going to be enough. I needed to put them all down as economically as possible.

I grinned as I reached into myself and called forth Limbo, the world rippling as the space around me filled with divinations of possible futures and responses to those attacks. I brought my staff up, readying to start the battle, and glared at Millie, who had whirled to spot my attack when I made it.

"One last chance." I boomed. "I don't plan to harm him. Give me the information and this doesn't need to get violent." I knew she wouldn't take the offer, she couldn't let this provocation go, but some part of me felt the need to make it fair. I'd come in here spoiling for a fight, I might be Mephistopheles, but I was still Shane too. I needed to at least offer her an out. Sure enough, she howled at her minions to attack, and they all converged. Which was fine by me. Now the fun could start.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Limbo was a fundamentally different place when I was up against so many fighters. In my last battle (if you could even call it that) against the Minotaur, I'd simply destroyed every possible timeline, whittling away his options until he had no choice but to walk headfirst to his destruction.

This time, things were a bit more complicated. I could still see the timelines, but I was running into a new issue. While I could destroy a series of events to ensure one came to pass, I couldn't find one where everything went perfectly. With this many attackers, the longer I went on, the more compromises I needed to make to keep up.

But that was fine. I had my Abomination Engine active, and as I exploded forward into my Waltz, the power inside me roared to life, stoked higher and higher by each blast as the energy cascaded around inside my armor.

Deciding to worry about potential sacrifices later, I focused on doing the most damage possible in the shortest time. I found that future, blasting toward a specific spot in the circle. I appeared in front of an innocuous random minion, slamming my staff into his foot, releasing an explosion that lifted him off his feet. My staff came up, slamming into his side and imbuing him with my corrosion as I whirled and tossed him into the crowd forming as they converged.

Stepping two feet left, I slammed my staff back, grinning as it met the kneecap of one of the faster minions, the blast of black flame taking out the leg as I hopped up and blasted off the shoulder of another as they fell, launching myself at a group of them.

Deciding to cheat JUST a little I used my bond with Callie to retain Mornax in the air, using her planted feet to offset the requirement for my ultimate defense, and then the dance began.

My staff whirled and smashed, batting aside bodies and blasting attackers away. For the first few minutes I avoided all the responses, my body filling with power as Abomination Engine roared to life inside me.

Four minutes in, the numbers caught up to me. I felt a spike of red energy slam into the joints between my plate mail, skewering my shoulder.

Even Mornax couldn't stop it, some kind of layered energy attack with a piercing attribute. It had been intentional. Tanking that hit would save me from being impaled through the spine in five minutes. The next hit I had to take cracked a bone, then a sprain, slowly I was worn down, but it didn't matter. Their numbers fell one by one as I danced, destroying them, getting stronger and stronger.

Until my Limbo hit something new. I lashed out to destroy a possible timeline, pushing the battle toward my perfect victory…and my staff slammed to a halt. I stumbled backward, eyes wide as I realize I'd been knocked OUT of my pseudo Domain.

A man stood in front of me, looking solemn, with plain brown hair and brown eyes, holding a ragged looking metal blade. The edges were chipped and torn, and his clothes were dirty and matted with blood. Millie was standing off to the side, glaring at me, and she turned and spat at him. "Took you long enough, Bount."

I realized quickly what he was, and why I'd lost my domain access. C-ranker. Not a strong one, or he wouldn't have been here working for her, but still, even a beginner C-ranker had too much Impact for my domain to effect.

My body was already moving before I made the decision to attack, Abomination Engine still pumping me up to absurd levels of power. My staff crashed against his blade, sparks flying up as I forced him back a step, my staff blurring as it became an ocean of crashing wood and metal, raining down on him like a dark hurricane.

Explosions of corrosion erupted at the point of Impact, and his blade batted them aside, slowly being tainted by the energy, but too slowly. His Might stat was lower than expected, or mine was so absurdly inflated it bridged the gap, but I suspected the former.

Bount, as she'd called him, was a bare minimum C-ranker, and I was pumped up with energy to the limits of my nearly unbreachable reinforcement form, but even so, without my armor I'd have died right there. His blade lashed out, seeking gaps in my assault, and scraped off C-ranked plate as he took the openings he could.

He stared me down, and I clenched my staff. My wounds were gone, I'd used the weapon to pass them to my enemies as I'd walked among them, cutting them down like firewood, but Abomination Engine was reaching its cap. I didn't have a way to take out a C-ranker yet.

So I did what any reasonable person would do in that situation. I bluffed. Lowering my staff, I put away the weapon, turning to Millie. "This is pointless. Are you really going to waste a C-ranker taking out some random person you've never heard of? What is it going to do to your business if you lose him?"

I figured that her grip on the section of Rackham's underworld that she currently held had a lot to do with this guy, and that he was an asset she couldn't afford to lose. She stopped, looking at me suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" Her voice was cautious, which made sense. From her point of view, I was able to punch up a rank. She, much like her people at the door, couldn't see where I was in D-rank. The ability to hang with him meant I was probably peak of D, and fighting up against him was clearly possible.

I sighed, shaking my head. "You can see from my armor I'm not lacking in funds. I HAVE weapons to dispose of your guard. But wasting them on someone at the very bottom of the C-rank would pain me. You'd lose, I'd lose, there's no point."
I dropped Abomination Engine, letting the power drain from my body. It was a risk, but honestly not a huge one. I was GOING to lose this fight if it kept going. I didn't have the power to kill him yet. By dropping my technique like I was so confident it didn't matter, I gave myself a better chance of selling this.

"So what, you want me to give you my nephew's location to save a hassle?" She said hostilely. "That kind of cowardice would ruin me.." The fact that we were still talking told me they weren't hard limits, but that was fine. By giving me a problem to solve before we did business, she was showing me the path forward.

"What if you didn't give it to me?" I asked bluntly. "What if I bought it? You're a businesswoman. I have no intention of harming your nephew, but I know how things work."

She paused, clearly thinking. Looking at Bount, she glanced at his sword, then at the armor where it had barely left scratches. I said a silent thank you to my grandmother, because this shit was WAY too high level for me, and it made me seem way more powerful and influential than I actually was.

"Make your offer." She said after a moment, nodding to her C-ranker. He lowered his blade and I let myself relax marginally. I'd played this as well as I could have, given the information I had on this place. No D-rankers I'd seen were threats, and this guy had shown up later. Sadly, my divination apparently didn't even WORK on him, because I hadn't seen him among the futures I'd destroyed. Something to take note of for later.

It was a stark reminder that there were threats here that I had no way to counter. I was walking the line that other Ascendants had to walk, daring vs. stupidity. No Zeke here to bail me out, and if anyone on the Acheron stepped in I'd forfeit my shot at pulling this off.

That said, if I shied away from conflict and backed off at any inconvenience I'd never advance either. Reaching into my ring, I withdrew a small bag of D-rank chits. Tossing it over, I waited for her to check them. Fifteen. Not too much, not too little. Enough that she could save face, since it was nominally paying for the location of one relatively unknown D-ranker.

"Fine." She said eventually, storing the bag. "Since you avoided killing most of my people." She glanced around at the broken bodies, mostly still breathing. The corrosion had countered their Vitality, but it was hard to kill a D-ranker, especially with so little time to focus. I was disabling them, but most of them were fine.

Not all, I saw a few bodies here and there, people who took a blow to the head or spine that hadn't managed to survive. Small numbers compared to the total though. It was staggering, this casino had as many D-rankers as my entire home planet. I was just lucky they were all pretty unimpressive. I guess if they weren't they would be working for someone stronger than Millie.

Still, I was proud of what I'd just done. I could push back a relatively week C-ranker, and my attacks had been fast and hard enough to convince him I'd be able to actually fight him, even if I knew that was VERY untrue. It made me believe I would have a chance against ACTUAL peak D-rankers soon. At least under the ideal circumstances that they let me ramp up fighting dozens of disposable goons first.

Millie passed me a small piece of paper with direction to a town and an address. The town was apparently so small it didn't have a name. She seemed less upset than I'd expected about having to cave though. Maybe it really had been all about her reputation.

Belladonna was staring at me with a weird glitter in her eyes, like she just found her new personal hero, and as I left, she trailed behind me peppering me with questions. "That was AMAZING! What was that? Can you do it any time? What was that stuff that was exploding? Why did it feel like everything changed around us for a while? Can you teach me?"

"That was a pseudo Domain, yes, corrosive energy, domain stuff, and no." I replied in order. "And why are you following me. You accomplished your promise. I appreciate your assistance and your friends are safe."

"But I don't want to LEAVE!" She gushed. "That was amazing, you're the toughest person I've ever seen!"

I shrugged. "Statistically that says more about you than it does me. Plenty of people on this planet are stronger than I am. Not even just C or B-rankers, but other D-rankers higher up into mastery.

She shook her head stubbornly. "No WAY. You're awesome. I want to learn from you. Teach me!"

I blinked at her. "Teach you what exactly? How to use a staff? Techniques? Do you even have a Path yet? Plus your ability is obviously completely different than mine. What am I supposed to be teaching you."

She stopped, putting her fists together and bowing. "Anything you wish, master. Your humble disciple is eager to learn."

"That's…what? Don't do that." I was appalled. I didn't need a fucking APPRENTICE here. That was crazy. Especially one who was already a D-ranker. I mean I guess I could train her in techniques but- NO. I wasn't considering this. That was ridiculous. "I'm not your master. I'm not training you."

I turned and strode off in the direction the paper indicated, and Bella jogged after me. "Wait, did the training already start? Is THIS training? Like if I give up I was never worthy in the first place? Master? Is answering me making things too easy? Stop moving so fast, my legs are so short compared to yours!"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bella was still following me. In my head, Callie was howling with laughter over my new 'apprentice'. I thought it was much less funny, but I didn't dignify her mockery with a response, opting to take the high road (which is much less effective when the person can FEEL how much they're annoying you). Still, I wasn't willing to beat her up or anything to get her to leave, so I'd had to get used to her incessant questions.

"Your armor is so cool, should I get armor too? Should I start wearing all black? Or using a staff? Maybe a really big mace. Oh, should I change my name? But Belladonna is already a pretty cool name, maybe I should change my last name. What about "Nightshade"? Or is that redundant?" She chattered happily as she trailed behind me, until finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

I whirled on her. "Fine!" I snapped. "You can be my apprentice. I will teach you my ways. First lesson, we are people of mystery, and we let the silence speak for us. Practice looming menacingly, and more importantly QUIETLY as we walk."

She squealed in excitement, bouncing up and down. "Yay! That's so exciting! And you're so right, silence can be so intimidating, like you've been silent this whole time and you're super menacing and now that I know I should be silent I can totally practice that too and I'm gonna be so good at it, I'm gonna be the most silent silent person to ever silence and everyone will see me and be like wow she's so quiet-"

I slammed all my attention into my Focus, blocking out the sound as my new apprentice fell into one of the longest run on sentences of all time without a breath as she completely ignored my instructions.

My wife's smugness and amusement radiated over the bond, but I did NOT contact her directly. I didn't need to hear her gloat about how hilarious it was that as both a teacher and a student I was absolutely miserable in the instructor disciple dynamic. I understood Abel's sadism a little better now, even if I was sure I'd never been this annoying.

We came to a stop on the edge of a towering cliff, overlooking a small valley. The valley in question (more of a divot really) was set far up into the mountains, and could only really be seen from directly above. Bella whistled in amazement as she stared down at it. "Wow, I didn't know this was here."

"Pretty much no one does, from what I can tell." I admitted. "It doesn't even have a name. The locals just call it 'town' when they refer to it at all. I doubt I'd have ever found this place without directions."

Which made me wonder, had my fate pushed me along the path that had led to me being ambushed by Bella and co? Without them, I wouldn't have found Millie so quickly. Granted, I was pretty sure, given how close to Chester's hometown she had been, I'd have found her eventually. My research had definitely paid off in that department, even if I'd also kind of tripped over the answer. Better to be lucky than good, but being both was obviously better than either.

"So, do we go down and look for him now?" She asked excitedly. "I bet you'll find him in like…five minutes."

I laughed. "He has a Path dedicated to Stealth. Finding him won't be quite that easy." Unfortunately, busting out Bael right now would be a difficult thing to explain away, given my established powerset. Using it to hide a conversation was fine, but a long term usage dedicated to finding someone in hiding would draw far too much attention.

Eye of Revelation, however, would be fine. I could pass it off as a side effect of my mask, which was pretty eye catching on its own after the changes. I told Bella I'd be using it before I triggered my observations Skill, scanning the cliffside for traps out of habit before I descended to look for the man in question.

I paused. There were…several traps on this cliff. That was odd. Maybe Chester HAD prepared for company. They looked kind of old, to be fair, so he wasn't expecting me specifically. I glanced over them, then turned to Bella. "Second lesson, landing." I grabbed her by the back of her coat and tossed her off the cliff.

While that might SEEM harsh, Bella's ability was escape, which lent itself to landing just fine. I'd thrown her over the traps, and she managed to adjust in midair, landing perfectly safely (if somewhat disheveled and put out) in a small field at the bottom of the cliff.

Double Trouble put me right behind her, and I was in time to hear her cursing me under her breath as she stared up at the illusionary copy of me on the cliff face. "Sorry." I said calmly. "I didn't catch that. What did you say about my mother?"

She jumped out of her skin, whirling to stare at me, then spinning back to note the now vanished illusion. "Master!" She squeaked in terror. "How? When? It's so nice to SEE you! What a stylish and well executed descent. I was just saying your mother must be an amazing person to have given birth to such a suave and debonair master of the arts of…mountainclimbing."

"You should work on your lying." I informed her. "You're terrible at it. That's a character flaw. Lying is important. Now, what did you learn from that experience?"

She paused. "That…I need to be ready for the unexpected? Because danger could happen at any time? Was that what you were trying to teach me?"

I shrugged. "Oh I wasn't trying to teach you anything. I just needed you down here so I could teleport. Being able to learn from any experience is certainly important though. Good for you." I patted her on the head, ignoring the expression of horrified disbelief as I moved on. I definitely DIDN'T grin under my mask at a petty victory to pay back her incessant babbling.
To my shock, her sulking actually made her stop talking for a minute, and I peeled my eyes for any sign of…anything. I had the image of Chester in my scroll, but I'd never seen him. Still, upon searching the town as best as I could for anyone currently outside I didn't see him, or any sign of secret buildings or anything.

Resigning myself to asking around, I decided to take a horrible risk. I asked Bella a question. "So, what's your Path?" I realized earlier we were D-rankers, so both of us had to have Paths. I'd questioned if she had one earlier, but that had been stupid. She had to have a Path.

Her eyes brightened, her previous annoyance blown away in a storm of exuberance as she answered me quickly. "Oh, I'm on the Path of Escape! I decided to double down on my ability, that way I'd be super good at getting away. What's your Path? It must be really strong for you to be able to do all the stuff you can do."

DS Mastery might be a unique Skill, but Doom Sovereign itself was a very common game, especially in cult territory. Still, the less links between me and Solomon the better. "It's complicated." I said, brushing her off. "Has to do with my father's infernal heritage. I won't be teaching you my Path anyway. I'm going to teach you my staff art."

That was something of an experiment. Theoretically, if she could practice my staff art she could learn how to use my forms. Eventually. I'd have to teach her the stances first, but the forms themselves WERE fully functional skills constructed with proper Skill construction. I should be able to teach them the same as any other Skill. My Skill was Unique, but part of the reason those were so hard to create was because you were blazing a trail no one had taken before.

If nothing else, this little experiment would help me learn more about Skill construction and legacies, which should be valuable when perfecting Skills before S-rank. Seeing how Skills (even unique Skills) could be learned and passed down should help me better understand the way bloodlines worked.

There was a small chance I couldn't teach her, but I hadn't ever been told Unique Skills couldn't be learned, just that they often stalled out early because of the difficulty of development. Of course, from a Skill construction standpoint, I knew that most likely, the people making those Skills constructed them badly because they went in blind, and didn't have the soul strength to hold it all together through the bad engineering.

Mashing Skills together like I had been, or trying to invent new ones from scratch, was undoubtedly way harder without the ability to see and study the way Skills were put together. It made me damned glad for that book I'd gotten.

We walked through town, Bella going on about her Escape Path, and me looking for any sign of our target. Finally, we came to the place I was most likely to hear something, the tavern. We stepped inside and sure enough, all conversation cut off. I strolled over to the bar, dropping a pair of E-ranked chits and asking for a drink and a meal. As the barman scurried off to make the food, a woman emerged from the back. "Haven't seen you around here." She said blandly as she let both hands slip under the bar.

"Haven't been here." I answered, my demonic voice putting all of them on edge instantly. "Just here looking for a friend. Chester Baddington." The woman was older, maybe mid forties, and definitely an Ascendant, though only E-rank.

She glanced around. "Well, do you see him? I ain't seen anybody like that around, how about you Lyle?" Her icy blue eyes flicked to the man seated at the bar. She ran a hand through her thick black hair, showing the streaks of grey at the temples.

Lyle the bar fly, an older man who looked fifty and was probably MUCH older given his D-rank cultivation, just shrugged. "Doesn't sound familiar."

"There." She said triumphantly. "Doesn't sound familiar. And Lyle would know. If he's not here and Lyle don't know him he's probably not anywhere in town." She very carefully did NOT look at the table in the middle of the room, the one with a trapped door under it that I could see with Eye of Revelation.

I shrugged. "Maybe not. Maybe I'll just eat my meal and go."

She relaxed a bit…and then my apprentice decided to speak. "But master, Bad Millie told us he was here, if she lied we have to go back right? I don't want to go back, that big fight with all those guys was super scary, even if I wasn't fighting myself. I bet he's here and they're just lying about it!"

I closed my eyes, sighing in resignation as every person in the bar tensed up. I turned to look at Bella. "We need to have another discussion about the benefits of silence." I said tiredly. And then I moved, pushing her out of the way of the jagged knife Lyle had drawn from his sleeve and tried to open my throat with.

My fist lashed out, battering him off the chair with an explosion of black flame as I got in front of Bella, making sure Mornax was active.

"Look." I said bluntly. "I'm here for Chester Baddington, and I think we all know he's in your basement. Why don't you hand him over and this doesn't need to get ugly. Because you're not going to win if this turns into a fight."

I felt my Danger Sense scream and triggered Double Trouble on reflex, only for Lyle's knife to bisect not just my copy, but the fucking WALL behind it. I grimaced as I watched him cut the building in half on one side. That had been a technique, and a pretty nasty one too. Great.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"That was rude." I said dryly as I stared at the bisected wall. "I just came here looking for someone and you try to cut me in half. That's objectively bad manners. Don't you people have hospitality here?"

Lyle grinned at me. "Sure, I can put you in the hospital right quick, just stand still."

His arm blurred, but my Danger Sense warned me. I leaned to the side, the slash missing me and cutting into the wall behind me at another angle. Bella had backed up, giving the fight some room, and Lyle started to circle, drifting closer to the hidden door in the floor.

Once Bella was clear, i triggered double trouble, appearing behind Lyle, staff smashing down toward his collarbone.

Despite me lead, he spun on his heel and sort of…blinked. Like he skipped part of the motion. I had Mornax active, which was good, because that fucker had aimed at my throat, and the blade clashed off my neck in a shower of sparks. I grabbed him by the collar as he stumbled back, and then punched him in the face with the fist still wrapped around my staff.

Howling in pain, he lashed out again with his knife, and again he blinked. I was expecting it this time, triggering Double Trouble and vanishing as he tried to jam his knife into the joints of the illusionary armor.

I rubbed my neck in annoyance. He'd fucking CUT me. Not deeply, it had mostly bounced off, but there was a scratch.

Solid Path, at least. And that technique was GOOD. He'd spent time on it. Refined it. "You were cutting through the space." I said bluntly as he whirled. He'd already realized the illusion wasn't me and started looking, so I didn't try to be sneaky. "That's how you moved so fast."

He was starting to look concerned. Which was fair, I'd be concerned too. He was very obviously an incredibly dangerous person, and was probably used to killing his enemies in a strike. Priding yourself on cutting power and having your knife bounce off a guy's neck was probably a pretty unsettling experience.

His eyes narrowed as he adjusted his grip on his knife. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't taking Chess."

I adjusted my own grip, activating Limbo and Abomination Engine as I prepared to attack. Before I could though, a sigh echoed through the room. "Enough, Lyle." Rang a voice from the surrounding area, everywhere and nowhere at once. There was a ripple and the hatch I'd seen became suddenly visible, pushed open as a lanky blonde guy climbed up out of it.

"Chester Baddington I assume." I said mildly. Or as mildly as you can when you sound like a demonic bass drum.
"Friends and terrifying armored harbingers of doom call me Chess." He said, smiling winningly. "Especially ones with such lovely company." He winked at Bella, who glared back in a way that I suspect was supposed to be intimidating, but mostly just made her look like an annoyed kitten who'd just been dunked in a sink.

My apprentice must have realized her wrathful glower wasn't doing the job because she switched to a sneer before saying. "I'm Belladonna Darrow. Apprentice of Mephistopheles, the kingbreaker, avatar of destruction, ender of worlds, and sewer of…mean endings." She petered off a bit at the end, and I sighed.

"Bella, please don't make up titles. I haven't broken any kings…" I trailed off, thinking back to the Glade, I hadn't really broken Anna-Maria's father. "In any case, I'm here for the selection, and I've been given the task of tracking you down. Once I've accomplished my mission I can be on my way." I took out the scroll. I'd double checked the actual confirmation process and it was pretty simple. "I just need you to let me tie you up and slap you in the face with this paper."

He paused. "Well, that's…direct. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to respond to that request."

I considered doing something ominous or threatening like telling him it wasn't a request, but…he seemed to be considering it. I had no reason to burn bridges without trying to cross the damned things first. "Can we sit down." I gestured to the bar. "I just paid for food and I'd like to eat it, if possible."

"Of course." He said seriously. " Heloise?" He called to the woman behind the bar. "Be a dear and fetch us my rocking chair."

That seemed like an odd seating choice to me, but I wasn't going to tell him how to sit. So when the woman left and came back with a heavy chair made of dark stone and studded with gems, I was surprised when it had four legs. "That's…not a rocking chair." I pointed out.

He shook his head. "You misheard, I said Rock King Chair. It's made from the bones of a rock king. I stole it from some Imperial Viscount passing through here a few years ago. Shockingly comfortable for a chair made of stone." He plopped down in the chair, holding out a hand as Heloise deposited a bejewled goblet of…probably wine?

Taking a sip, he hummed in bliss. "An excellent vintage, thank you." He gestured for us to sit, and our dinner was served, along with glasses of the same wine, at least based on the smell. I wasn't a wine guy but I tried a sip. It was actually pretty good.

"So." Said Chester as he swirled his wine. "What are you offering?"

I cocked my head. "Offering?" I said. "For what?"

"For my help." He said cheerfully. "You need me to agree to help you, or else this becomes a big mess, and sure, you might win, but you'd waste so much time and energy. It'd be so much easier just to pay me for my trouble, don't you think?"

Raising a brow, I considered the man. "You're trying to extort me?" I asked lazily. I let Limbo leak out, specifically the form of it with the mist bank. Moonlit Night's obscuring fog filled the room slowly, climbing from our feet and slowly creeping up our legs.

"Whoa!" He said, his face paling as he backpedaled. He clearly had decent instincts, since he recognized my domain for, if not what it was, at least a threat, just at a glance. "I was just saying that this is an inconvenience for me. A bit of compensation isn't out of line, is it?"

I stared at him murderously for a minute, letting the silence build…before nodding. "Fine." I said. "You want money? Because I doubt I have enough on me to catch your attention."

"Not at all." He said smoothly. "Just a favor. You seem like a civilized…product of my nightmares. I'm sure you'll honor a deal later on, and I have a good feeling about you. Plus your armor is stupidly well made. That's some bespoke shit right there. Anyone who can afford that is the kind of person I could stand to have owe me a favor."

I relaxed a bit. "I suppose that's not too much to ask." I admitted. "I'm asking you for a favor, after all. Very well." I held out a hand. "We will shake on it. Or do you require a contract?"

Glancing nervously at the fog still swirling at our feet, he gave an anxious laugh. "Not at all. I trust you." He took my hand and we shook, sealing the deal.

"Great!" Said Bella enthusiastically. "I can tie him up. Being a former elite bandit leader, I know how to subdue a target." A coil of rope appeared in her hands. "Lay down on the ground, and I'll show you all how a master criminal takes down her prey."

Raising an eyebrow, the thief laid down, and Bella knelt in front of him. "Now, observe, master!" She raised the rope…and then stopped. "Wait…through the loop, and then under." She paused. "Put your hands out." Smirking, Chester did so. "Alright, so I'm supposed to loop it back twice, and then fold over…wait, no that's not right. Two folds? Yes!" She wrapped him in a complex web of rope and knots before proudly holding up one end. "And now all I do is pull this and…"

Yanking the rope, I watched the hope die in her eyes as the web of restrictions disintegrated like sugar under a waterfall. Chester tried not to laugh, I really believe that, but he couldn't help it, and my apprentice slumped to the ground, broken and defeated as she held a pile of loose rope on her lap.

I sighed, took the rope, stood the thief up, and then wrapped the rope around him from top to bottom, tying the two ends in a simple double knot. "There." I said with an eye roll. "Now I just have to slap him with the scroll." She opened her mouth but I cut her off. "No. I have to do it. Sorry."

Sulking, she went back to her slump as I withdrew my scroll. "Hey, is that a unicorn?" I looked up over Chester's shoulder. Confused by the sudden change in topic, he looked up…and I slapped him clean in the face with the scroll. It glowed briefly, and then the image of him dissolved in a flash of red light, the ink rearranging itself into directions.

"Alright." I said with a nod. "Now we're done." Chester grinned, and with a slight flourish, the rope fell into pieces.

"Sorry about your rope." He told Bella a bit smugly. "I'll buy you a new one."

She stared at it, apparently devastated. "My mother gave me that rope before she died. It was woven from strands of her hair."

Chester looked horrified. "Gods, really?"

She grinned. "No, I bought it at a store. Honestly. Serves you right for laughing at me earlier though." She stuck out her tongue at him, and he gave her a rueful smile, but nodded, conceding the point to her.

We all sat back down, digging back into our food, which had lain forgotten after we dealt with the business at hand.

It was pretty damned tasty, and the wine was still pretty good, especially paired with the food. "So." Said Chester as he flirted shamelessly with my apprentice. "I don't suppose you'd have need of a wily handsome rogue on your team for the rest of this selection? I could probably be convinced to help for another favor."

Despite my amusement at his transparent attempt to get closer to Bella…I didn't immediately turn him down. Two people wasn't much of a team, and neither of them were part of the selection, so it wasn't a conflict of interests to get help from them, even if they might try my patience a bit at times.

"Fine." I said after a brief pause. "We'd like your help. Of course, we don't know what the future tasks will be." The Delthrys line of tasks was open to me since I passed this one. I could just drop out now that I'd finished the first, but what if Felicity's tasks were beyond me. It seemed stupid to pass up a possible in with a god who might KNOW where the world I was looking for was.

So I'd take the next Delthrys meeting, see what they had to say. If the next task wasn't too crazy I could do it while I waited for my proper task line to start up. I was sure I'd find SOME use for the favor of a god.

With that settled, I sat back and enjoyed my meal, letting my apprentice and our new partner bicker about whatever it was they were talking about. I had to admit, the nonsense chattering reminded me quite a bit of being home, bickering with Benny while Callie rolled her eyes at our antics. It wasn't a bad ambiance to eat a meal to. Maybe letting him come along wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

 

[MichaelSuave]

And now I know it was a bad idea...

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The trip back to the inn I was staying at was surprisingly long. Not necessarily because of actual time spent, but because the bickering between Bell and Chester had gone from charming to unbearable fairly quickly. I'd retreated into my Focus as best as I could, but I needed SOME Perception active so I didn't trip and roll down a hill or something. I didn't want to trip and break my neck…at first.

When we finally arrived, I had them pay for their own rooms and went up to mine. I had barely gotten through the door when the shadows across my bed rose up into a familiar form, cackling her heart out.

"Your FACE!" Crowed my wife. "I couldn't even see it, but I could HEAR your expression when she bullied you into being her master."

I glared at her as she dissolved in near sobs of laughter. "It's not THAT funny." I grumped. "You could try being a bit more sympathetic you know. She's going to massively complicate this entire-"

"Suicide mission?" She said, her laughter cutting off. "Shane. Darling. Light of my life. I get that you're trying to be all serious and focused here, but you're overdoing it."

I snorted. "I'm not trying to-" I cut off, thinking over my new 'persona'. She…might be right. I might have picked this personality because it was hyperfocused on my goals. "Well, so what. This is a serious job. I can't afford to screw around. Lives are on the line."

"Lives are ALWAYS on the line." She retorted. "That's the world we live in. Black Sorrow isn't the first god to consider killing you. We live with danger every day, and if you don't take CARE of yourself, you're going to burn out and get murdered making a stupid mistake that could have been avoided. You're a charismatic and energetic leader, babe, but this dark avenger bullshit isn't you."

Which was fair. I'd never wanted it to be. This had been supposed to be a role I was playing, a way to separate myself from who I normally was…but that was the rub, wasn't it. I had taken it too far. I missed my friends, missed my wife, missed my family, and I'd decided to HIDE in Mephistopheles.

I considered what Abel had told me so long ago. About how he just had to be true to himself and screw the rest of the world. Zeke had told me something similar about rolling with the punches.

Wearing a mask was fine, but letting it wear me was going to get me killed.

"How the hell could you tell from all the way across the galaxy?" I asked her sheepishly, removing my ACTUAL mask. "I didn't even realize it was happening and I'm right here. You're making me look bad."

She sniffed loftily. "I'm your wife. I know you better than anyone. But I had some clues. For one, I did something similar when we first came to Rajak. Trying to be perfect all the time and never taking a minute to process. Not the same situation, granted, but you need to stop hiding behind this new persona."

"You think taking an apprentice will help?" I asked incredulously.

"I can feel your emotions, darling." She laughed. "It already has. She reminds you of Jessie. Benny may be your best friend, and I may be your wife, but Jessie was always the person who believed in you most out of all of us. Having someone like that around is good for you. You're not built to be alone."

Sighing, I conceded the point. I could do solitude, like I'd discovered in the temple, but…why would I want to. Just being able to endure something didn't make it positive. I had the strength to be an island, did that mean I should be?

Obviously not. I might not be pure support like most of my family, but I worked better with a team.

"So I should trust them?" I said with a frown. "Because that seems reckless."

She rolled her eyes. "Contrary to your experience, most people's alliance options aren't 'nothing' and 'friend you would trust with your life'. Trust, but verify. I know you've been with close friends since pretty much day one, but sometimes you need to work with people you don't implicitly trust with your life."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you." I sulked. "Getting to play the wise mentor again."

She smirked at me. "Comment on my 'wisdom' much more and you aren't going to touch me for the next decade. But yes, I have to admit, this is…kind of cool. You needed so much help when we started, and then before I knew it you caught up even surpassed me a few times. I miss you needing my advice."

"I'll always need your advice." I smiled softly. "I'm hopeless without you."

"You'd better not be." She laughed. "You're alone on a hostile alien planet doing a series of trials to serve a dark goddess."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm trying to be romantic. Must you ruin all my moments?"

"Considering you'd better only be having moments with me, I think I must." She giggled. "If I find out you're having moments I'm not ruining I'm going to be pretty upset. But I miss you too. Training isn't the same without you. Waking up alone makes everything seem so much emptier." Her shadowy hand took mine and squeezed, and I returned the gesture. I knew just what she meant.

"Speaking of training." I said, changing the subject forcefully. "How is yours? Any new techniques since we talked last?" We communicated at least once a day, but we hadn't talked about training in a little while.

She lit up (which was a weird phrase to describe a concrete shadow being). "Oh, I HAVE been working on something. I can tell you about it, since sharing the story will help reinforce it. I'm calling it…the Anti-Nova." I'd never been more in love with her than when she paused to announce the name of her technique with so much gravitas.

"Interesting." I said slowly. "Show your work."

"Well, supernovas are the explosions from a collapsing star. An Anti-Nova is what happens when an Anti-Star explodes. I'd been working on the Abyss thing with your mom and grandma, and I realized that just because I have an inverted image and theme, doesn't mean i can't use their star based techniques. Not just the shape, like you do, but also the form."

I hummed in interest, flopping down on the bed next to her shadowy form. "So you made like a dark star. How does that work?"

"It burns in an inverted universe." She proclaimed seriously. "The dark fire burns with the cold chill of the abyss, and when the dark star goes supernova, that chill expands, consuming the universe in concentrated heat-death. It's solid entropy, the flames from the end of creation, and one day, it will take us all."

Snorting, I grinned at her macabre enthusiasm. "A bit melodramatic, but still interesting. I wish I could use it. Sadly we both know it doesn't work that way, so I'll have to wait until I see you again."

We'd realized early on after our rank up, that while Callie could use my forms, and even the techniques from those forms, I couldn't do the same. Basically, because my Path was a part of my through my second ability, it was within reach of the bond as a Skill. Callie's illusory Path was still separate from her soul, having not gone through the same condensing that mine had when it had become Solid and then part of my ability.

She snickered. "Poor you. I tried using that new technique of yours and almost blew my chest apart. How the hell do you stand it?"

"Mornax, mostly." I admitted. "It's enough to help my body hold up under the enhancement. Also your Might is a lot higher than mine, so there's a higher requirement for durability. You can do two at a time, right? Try using Mephistopheles and Mornax together."

She shook her head. "Two is hard and I can barely hold it, much less do a technique. I can use your forms, but they're not really mine. That combo I used on the Wendigo was the best I've got for the moment. Maybe when the bond hits Master."

"Which might be years at this rate." I seethed. "It's impossible to progress it when we barely see each other. I mean, we use it all the time, but I don't feel like it's getting any stronger."

Her shadowy hand reached up to lay on my cheek. "Peace, love. I know its hard to be so far apart, especially just after our wedding, but we have thousands of years together, or more. A little patience will help put things in perspective. We're already growing faster than anyone has a right to expect."

"But is it enough?" I asked with a sigh. "The candidate competition is coming in less than a year. Do you know how SCREWED we are if we're not strong enough? There will be actual A and B-rankers."

She shook her head. "Not really." She corrected. "I mean, some probably, but only a few. Don't forget, you're not the only one who was expecting this to go on longer. They moved it up because of the war, but that means everyone else is losing just as much time. Your mom says most of the strongest are C-rank, with a FEW B-s as outliers. Not to mention this is a faction building competition. You have some serious power players on your team. Especially if you get this done and your mom can actively support you."

That was one thing that made me feel a bit better. I did have some built in support from my mom's side of the family. Grandpa and grandma would help (not directly obviously, I wasn't even sure we COULD bring an S-ranker to the inheritance competition) but they had access to quite a few A-rankers at the church, which would bridge the gap between me and some of the more powerful candidates.

Hearing that there wouldn't be a bunch of A-rank wishmaster candidates running around helped too. I probably should have discussed this with mom, but I hadn't exactly been flush with time before leaving.

"Tell her I said I love her." I told my wife. "Chelsea too. I miss them. It's weird, I spent so much of my life without them, but having them around for just a short time they became such a big part of my world. I guess that's family for you. Anyway, you'd better go. I need to try to get some sleep before Echelon wakes me up dramatically in the middle of the night."

She giggled at my sulky tone, then leaned up and gave me a soft kiss. "Sweet dreams." She said as she leaned against me and dissolved. I sent the same sentiment back over the bond and rolled out of bed, dragging off my giant set of plate armor. I put my mask back on before i went to sleep though, just so my face was covered.

I woke in the middle of the night to a rapping on my door. Groaning, I got up, stretched, and took the time to re-armor before I walked to the door and pulled it open.

"You are requested." Said Echelon in that raspy creepy voice. He dissolved into feathers again, and I rolled my eyes, walking down the hall and banging on Bella's door, and then on Chester's. If they wanted to be part of this they could wake their happy asses up just like I had to.

They looked fuzzy, but excited as I led them downstairs where Echelon waited. Their first exposure to the creepy bastard seemed every bit as tense and portentous as mine had been, but I'd kind of gotten used to him. "Alright." I said after a minute. "Can you hurry this up? I want to go back to sleep." Callie had been right. No more doom and gloom personality to hide behind. I was Mephistopheles in name only. Shane Wyndham was back, and he was going to kick the asses of everyone in the selection.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Greetings." Echelon rustled. "You've completed your task." He glanced at Chester. "Perhaps even more thoroughly than expected. I take it from your presence here that you wish to continue the trials of Delthrys?"

Bella stepped in front of me. "Master, this guy is super suspicious." She whispered too loudly to even pretend to be stealthy. "And I think he might be birds."

"What does that even mean?" Chester snorted. "That's not even- nope, just used my Path to pierce his stealth. My bad, he's totally birds. Like…a lot of birds. That's objectively too many fucking birds, man."

The servant of the god of secrets sighed. "I am NOT 'birds' as you so eloquently put it."

"He's like…a thousand birds in a guy suit." Chester reiterated. "He is very clearly lying to you. Why else would he be wearing that suspicious ass cloak?"

"We're getting off track." I said tiredly. "It's fine if he's birds. I have nothing against birds. He's here to give us our next assignment. That'll keep us busy while we wait for MY trial to come up. Speaking of, when is the Lady of Lamentation's trial starting?"

Echelon cocked his head. "Next week. Though I would seriously advise against pursuing that path. Her trials are notoriously horrifying to take part in. They're made to weed out sadistic lunatics, and usually end up picking up masochistic lunatics instead. Some of whom go insane. More insane. They're unpleasant."

I'd assumed that, but it was nice to know I wasn't going to need to torture someone else, just ENDURE torture. Joy.

"Your completely unbiased opinion is noted." I said dryly. "Now how about you give me the next trial. I need something to do for the next week, assuming I don't solve your next one as quickly as the first."

That seemed to genuinely offend him. "You will NOT. The Manhunter exercise is a basic introductory lesson to get you used to the concept of secrets. It's the easiest and quickest of all the tasks you'll undertake. The god of secrets governs all things hidden."

"Actually, I was wondering about that." Said Bella curiously. "His twin brother is the god of deception, right? What's the difference?"

The cloaked head snapped around. "That question." He hissed. "Represents a fundamental lack of basic logical thinking and a complete dearth of creativity. Deception is the deliberate obfuscation of a truth. It is a base and hamfisted method of concealing that which you dare not reveal. Secrets are truths worn away by time or desperation. They are currency. They are POWER. Deception is just making shit up."
"We're getting off topic." I soothed the angry bird person. "You were going to tell us about our next task?"

He sniffed. "Yes. I suppose. Your task is simple, and yet infinitely complex. Two hundred years ago, in a town not far from here called Devule, a shopkeeper was murdered. You are to find out who murdered him, and why." I froze, and the messenger's tone turned vindictive. "What, is that too easy for you?"

It wasn't. It was the exact opposite of easy. Two centuries of time…but then, maybe it wasn't. This was a B-ranked planet, everyone here was F-rank or higher. Which meant they all had a lifespan of far beyond two hundred years. Most of the people involved were probably still around.

Still, it wasn't a walk in the park, I just nodded grudgingly. "Alright. That's kind of tough."

Managing to look smug when your whole face was a floating half mask in a pitch black hood was impressive. With that, he turned to the others. "You may receive help from your…allies. Return to this spot at midnight when you've completed your task." There was an explosion of feathers as a massive wave of ravens burst from the cloak hood, streaking from the room.

The cloud of birds split in two, one half mobbing my apprentice and the other Chester, and the two of them shrieked and batted at the animals as they cawed and pecked at them before flying out the window, which had burst open in the exodus.

Bella was panting, hair askew and body littered with little cuts. "There are feathers in my MOUTH!" She screamed at the retreating forms of the birds in the sky.

"Petty bastard." Chester muttered. Then he turned to Bella and subsequently burst out laughing.

"What?" She demanded, checking herself over for possible reasons he might be so amused. "What did I miss?"

Chester gasped, leaning against the wall to prop himself up as he cackled so violently his legs went weak. "Nothing." He wheezed. "It's just…those ravens were murder on your hair." Then he dissolved into even louder cackles. Even i chuckled a little at that, though Bella just pouted harder than I've ever seen a human pout.

"Well, that was bracing." I said with a clap of my hands. "Apparently you two have a gift for pissing off people more powerful than you."

They both just shrugged sheepishly, and I rolled my eyes. "So, being locals I don't suppose you've heard of Devule? Any sort of lead would be a good thing. Like is one of you secretly from there?"

"You know where I'm from." Reminded Chester.

"And I'm from Delthaven. It's one of the largest cities on Rackham." Said Bella brightly. "My family is kind of a big deal. I could ask around though?"

Somehow, I doubted it would be that east. Like obviously we would still do it, but based on Echelon's attitude we'd probably need to go to the actual town and interview people connected to the incident. This was obviously supposed to test our mystery solving acumen. Which I totally had. I'd found MULTIPLE serial killers. Sure, one of them had just shown up and tried to kill me, but the recursion had to count for something.

There was a crash behind us, but before I could whirl to check it out, I heard a familiar voice. "Fist?" Camethe drowsey tones of Rayden from the doorway. "What are you doing down here this late." I turned to find Ray standing blearily in the door. "Wait, were you meeting Echelon? Fuck, you totally already finished your first trial didn't you? Were you the first?"

"Doubtful." I said, annoyed the bird bastard had clearly dropped his noise suppression on the way out to be spiteful. "At least he didn't mention it. Which I'm sure he would've. Guess someone else on Rackham is a better detective than me."

Chester raised his hand like we were in childcare. "Question. Who the hell is this person?"

Ray gasped. "Who am I? Who AM I?" He paused. "Wait, I just woke up, my head is fuzzy. Hey Fist, who am I?"

"That's Rayden." I said with an eye roll I was sure they could hear in my voice. "His keepers are Desria and Cavallo, who are approaching from behind. I assume they didn't notice him slipping out of his room."

Desria snorted. "We aren't his KEEPERS. We're just responsible for watching him to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, or dangerous, or crazy, or reckless, or rude…" She trailed off. "Son of a bitch we are his keepers." She turned to her boss with a glare. "I want a raise you chaotic bastard."

"But I don't pay you." He said bluntly. "So…sure. I'll quintuple your salary."

"I can't decide if you're going to be a bad influence on them or the other way around." I said tiredly. "But I'm almost positive that letting you all meet is not going to end well. I can hear the world screaming. Also, did you break down that door on the way in?" I pointed at the entrance to the room, where the door was hanging off its hinges at an angle."

He cleared his throat. "No way. It was always like that. All the doors are."

We turned to stare at the OTHER entrance to the room, where the door was intact. Chester perked up. "I think it was cool. I want to bust a door down." He strode over and raised her foot, stomping on the wood…and immediately bounced off, falling flat on his ass. "Ow." He hissed. "Ok, clearly that door has been recently replaced with some kind of security door much tougher than the other doors."

Bella walked over and knocked on it. "Nope. This is wood. And like…old wood. There's cracks and the paint is peeling. Plus the hinges have small layers of rust on them. This door is older than my dad. And he's super old."

Chester cleared his throat as he stood. "Right. Old world craftsmanship. Like I was saying. It's clearly much older than the other doors. Those are flimsy new doors made of inferior materials. Nobody takes pride in their work anymore. Half assed doormakers and their half assed doors." He pointed at the hanging door. "Look at it. So half assed."

"Luckily you don't need to worry about that." Said Bella sweetly. "You're an entire ass."

"I like them." Decided Ray seriously. "We should keep them. And Fist too. You're now our prisoners." Desria whispered in his ear. "Wait, what? That's the wrong word? Well that doesn't sound right." He shrugged. "Alright, apparently the proper term is 'friends'." He made the quotation marks with his fingers as he said the word.

Great. It was like dealing with multiple Bethys. I wished the original Bethy was here. They'd all be so confused.

"Anyway, I take it you haven't found your target yet?" I asked Ray. "How hard could it be."

He grimaced. "My target is part of a large family, who for several generations have named all of their fairly large numbers of multiple children Russel. Even the girls are Russel. And they're all Ascendants, so theres like five generations of Russel Devingtons spread out like a damned root network. We've found two hundred and five of them so far."

"Oh that SUCKS." I laughed. " You still have the picture though, right?"

"I told you, the family has a lot of multiples." He seethed. "Like ten sets of twins. ALL identical. Half the family has the same face. We've tried five different Russels and they were all duds."

I couldn't help it. I just cracked up. I wasn't bothering with my menacing image anymore, but I imagine the demonic voiced dark knight with the horrible terrifying mask leaning against the wall howling with mirth was a weird image to take in, because everyone else in the room was just kind of staring at me blankly. When I finished, I took a deep breath. "Sorry, I needed that."

Ray sulked, but Desria was grinning at me. "Now. Why don't we get some breakfast or something." I said. "It's early as hell, but we're up anyway. I could use some grub. I'll cook again."

They perked up, and Ray threw an arm around Chester's shoulder. "You're in for a treat. Fist can cook like nobody's business. I hope he makes waffles."

"Blintzes." I called as I walked into the kitchen ahead of them. "I'm in the mood for blintzes. Haven't had them in ages. Maybe with like, a nice fruit compote." I left the stunned silence behind as I walked away, enjoying the shock. It was nice to be back to my old self.

Laughing, Ray caught up. "Guess you're not doing the brooding loner thing anymore? You seem even more different than when your persona slipped the other day. Definitely more fun."

"Am I more like…DEVILGHOST!" I sang the last word.

"No." he said bluntly. "Totally different vibe. He's kind of a weary saint. You're alright though." He winked, dragging Chester off to one side as I prepared to start cooking. Now, I just had to figure out if they had all the ingredients for blintzes. I cracked my fingers as I got to work. I did so love to lose myself in cooking. Maybe I'd have some ideas for my investigation while I worked. If only life was that convenient.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Devule was smaller than I'd expected. Ascendant cities tended to be large, but Imperial towns ignored the convention because of the Empire's taxation system. Still, this wasn't actually Empire territory, and most of the cities I'd seen had been decently sized, barring outliers like the town with no name.

In contrast, Devule was more of a hamlet than anything else, and it was surprisingly peaceful and picturesque…until we arrived.

"And I'm telling you, that bear was going to attack us ANYWAY. We trespassed on its territory, and it wasn't going to let us go regardless of what I did or didn't do." Argued Chester as he and Bell trailed behind me.

My apprentice glared at him. "You have honey on your FACE right now, as you're saying that. That basin of cave honey was in the deepest part of its lair, it was OBVIOUSLY protecting it."

"You say that." Drawled Chester. "But you had some too."

"Because you didn't TELL us where you got it!" She shouted in exasperation. "Master, can you tall this sticky fingered lunatic that he shouldn't STEAL from dangerous wild animals. There's being a thief and then there's being an idiot."

I sighed. "Chester don't steal from bears, Bella let it go. We've arrived, so you two need to calm down so we can work. Now, obviously we're heading for the local tavern to collect information, I need you two to try to blend in."

"Master, you're nearly six and a half feet tall and you're wearing a full set of C-ranked plate armor." Bella said carefully. "I feel like that ship has sailed."

She wasn't wrong. I mostly just wanted them to shut up for ten minutes. But I didn't admit that. "Bella. Am I or am I not your master?" She nodded. "Then trust that I have a reason for the assignments I give you. I need to know you can move undetected. We'll be separating. Your mission is to make conversation with the locals. I'll be acting as a distraction, so they're less likely to single you out as outsiders."

Her eyes widened in understanding. "Of COURSE." She said in an awed voice. "You're going to be using your obvious and incredibly overdramatic presence to act as a cover for us." She bowed to me deeply. "I'm so sorry master. I should never have questioned your wisdom."

"Sure." I said unconvincingly. "That's definitely what I'm doing. Wait- what do you mean overdramatic? These are just my clothes."

She was already heading for the tavern, dragging Chester behind her. "Of course master, they're every bit as eye catching and pointlessly extravagant as you had hoped! You're truly a master of subterfuge."
Then they were gone. "Next lesson." I muttered to myself. "You'll be running laps. Around the planet. On your hands."

After giving them a minute to settle in, I headed to the tavern, taking a beat before I shoved open both doors loudly. All the talking stopped (opening both doors is such a power move) and I stepped heavily into the tavern, my boots thumping on the wooden floor.

Rather than talk and ruin the mystique too early, I walked slowly to the bar, thumped down an E-ranked chit, and said. "Your finest brandy."

The bartender looked at it, then raised a brow. "Our finest brandy is eight hundred years old and brewed from the tears of an Alderian Snow Wyvern. This will buy you a thimble of it. And it won't cover the actual thimble."

"Your most one chittingest brandy." I corrected. And the man laughed, pulling out a cup and pouring a healthy measure of amber liquid into it before passing it over. "So, I haven't seen you around these parts. Just passing through?"

"Bob?" I asked in a quavering voice. "You don't remember me? It's me, Lance." My mask opened up and I tossed back the brandy, having to take a beat to keep from choking at the burn. I really didn't like alcohol. "Kidding. I know I make an impression. Yeah, I'm here to ask some questions about something that happened about two hundred years ago?"

He nodded. "The Danhalt murder." He said knowingly. I stared at him in shock. He shrugged. "This isn't a big town. Not a lot of stuff happens. Two hundred years ago would have been the eighty third year of the Eclarian Red Calender. Pretty much the only thingsof note that happened in that whole decade were the Danhalt murder and the mayor accidentally inventing a new variant of local cheddar."

"Fair enough." I laughed. "Do you happen to have any-" He rolled his eyes and pulled out a block of cheese and a knife, cutting it into slices and quickly arraying it on a plate with a selection of sturdy cheese bearing crackers. "Cheers." I said happily, passing him another E-ranked chit. "So…the murder."

The bartender, who was an E-ranker, chuckled. "Aye, I was around. Just a boy at the time, but I still remember it. I'm Kirk, by the way." He held out a hand.

"Mephistopheles." I responded, shaking it. "But you can call me Fist. Apparently its easier to say."

"Less dramatic too." He said cheerfully. "Anyone ever tell you that you might be trying a little to hard?" He waved at my armor. "Don't get me wrong, it's an intimidating image, but it seems like a lot of effort."

I groaned. "It's NOT." I argued. "It's just good armor and I'm very tall. I use it when I need it, but it's not THAT over the top." He looked skeptical. "Look, I didn't ask for fashion advice, Kirk. If I want to know how to dress like an old timey bartender I'll give you a call. Stay in your lane, buddy."

He laughed, which had been my intention, and shook his head. "Touche." He chuckled. "Anyway, the murder was big news that year. Old Ted Donahue's boy Teddy. He was closing up one night and someone came up behind him and slit his throat. Bled out right there in the shop. No trace of who did it."

"There wasn't an investigation or anything?" I said, a bit put out. "Evidence collected? Maybe some pictures of the scene."

"Devule is a small town." He said with a shrug. "The local constable is also the candlestick maker. I mean, they looked into it, asked around. I remember Teddy having a bit of a beef with the butcher's son, pardon my pun. They were both after Dana Cassidy, though she ended up marrying the baker's boy."

I latched onto the comment. "Do you think the butcher's son might have done it out of jealousy?"

"Harley?" He said with a laugh. "Harley's too lazy to get out of bed most day's. He took a job over at the bookstore a few years later. Still works there. Sleeps most of the day behind his counter. No, the constable questioned Harley, and he wasn't motivated OR skilled enough. They were all F-rank at the time, just barely strong enough to live here. There really was no obvious motive."

"And there haven't been any other murders?" I asked, desperate for some kind of clue.

He snorted. "Of course not. We have some runaways once every few years. Someone decides they can't take it and leaves, but that's nothing big. They're always pretty vocal about wanting to get out of Davule. Most don't have too many connections here, so they don't keep in touch."

That sounded kind of suspicious to me, but he seemed not to mind it, so I just filed it away. I sighed, eating a few more crackers. "Can you give me directions to the bookstore?" I asked with a sigh. "I'd like to at least talk to Harley."

Laughing, he shook his head. "You kids and your mysteries. We get a couple of you popping up every decade or two. Hear about something suspicious and try to make your bones as a detective by solving the great mystery. Not a lot of those around. Your Path something related to investigation?"

"You could say that." I said wryly. "Anyway, thanks for the info Kirk. I'll be sure to swing back by for those bartender fashion tips."

He guffawed. "You do that. I'll show you the ropes. Nothing screams 'charming and debonair' like a stained leather apron with a dirty bar rag in the pocket."

Chuckling, I turned and headed out. I didn't move right over to the bookstore, but waited outside for about a half hour. Finally, Bella and Chester came out. "Well?" I asked. "How did you do? I made a big enough ruckus to give you something to talk about."

"It was genius master!" Bella squealed. "It actually seemed like you were a total idiot who embarrassingly tried to underpay for good booze. If I didn't know you were doing it on purpose, I'd have assumed you were completely incompetent." I took a deep breath, counting to ten and promising myself to double her laps when I assigned them.

"Yes." I said blandly. "That was clearly my intention. No need to keep going on about it." I'd actually planned to play up the intimidation vibe, but since it didn't work and I'd mostly abandoned my persona, I just went with friendly and personable. I hadn't realized they'd have decent brandy, and that part hadn't been intentional, but I wasn't admitting that to my apprentice.

Bella beamed, but continued. "Anyway, we asked about the incident after you finished talking to the bartender. A few of the other patrons had a bit to say. Most of them didn't want to talk to strangers, but there was a drunk or two who felt compelled to comment on your performance. You really had them convinced you were a complete dumbass.

"Basically, they said that they weren't so sure the 'runaways' were runaways. One of them said his niece vanished. She was an orphan, but he swears she would have called or written at some point." She frowned. "The others seemed to dismiss him, but I thought it was really sad. Do you think it has to do with the secret we're looking for?"

"My gut says yes." I nodded. "I'm going to look into the bookstore. I want you to go back in and talk to the locals some more." I passed them a bag with ten E-ranked chits. "Buy some people drinks, get them to open up. Try to get dates for the disappearances, we need to see if there's any patterns besides 'people who won't be missed'."

She nodded solemnly. "You got it master. I sent word to some of my contacts, but they don't know much about this place. It's kind of off the beaten path." Chester echoed the sentiment.

"I know. I didn't have much hope for outside sources on this one." I shrugged. "I'm sure SOMEONE on this planet knows something, but I'm not interested in paying some information broker a fortune to get answers. I sincerely doubt it would count anyway." My task was to find the secret, and the investigation and discovery was the whole point. I might pass by buying the info, but I doubted I'd make a very good impression, and if I was doing this I might as well do it right.

They headed back inside, and I turned and made my way to the bookstore. As I did, I smiled to myself. This felt…good. Looking for answers, hunting for the truth. Something weird was going on, and if I figured it out, i might be able to really help these people. I wondered what I was going up against. Surely nothing too overpowered, the god of secrets wouldn't send me after some ancient demon or something on my second trial.

As I arrived at the bookstore, I pushed the door open, the next steps on this journey were clear enough. I needed more info. A bookstore seemed like the perfect place to get it. Now I just needed to ask the right questions.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Aureus]

These threadmarks are busted.
Where is Chapter 5 and onwards?

 

[Quenster06]

These threadmarks are busted.
Where is Chapter 5 and onwards?

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The rest of book 1 was put up for purchase on Amazon if I remember correctly. @Malcolm Tent you might want to put a link at the end of chapter 4 so people know where to go since this question is asked fairly often.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of book 1 was put up for purchase on Amazon if I remember correctly. @Malcolm Tent you might want to put a link at the end of chapter 4 so people know where to go since this question is asked fairly often.

Click to shrink...

Pretty sure I DID lol but I'll double check. There was a note on it in the chapter, but no link. I added that, though I'm not sure it'll help since people don't seem to be READING the explanation note to begin with.

 

[Quenster06]

Pretty sure I DID lol but I'll double check. There was a note on it in the chapter, but no link. I added that, though I'm not sure it'll help since people don't seem to be READING the explanation note to begin with.

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The toppest of keks. They probably just see the chapter gap and immediately comment instead of A: checking chapter 4, or B: looking to see if there's a threadmark about it. Which I did check for after my previous post.

 

[Aureus]

Pretty sure I DID lol but I'll double check. There was a note on it in the chapter, but no link. I added that, though I'm not sure it'll help since people don't seem to be READING the explanation note to begin with.

Click to shrink...

The toppest of keks. They probably just see the chapter gap and immediately comment instead of A: checking chapter 4, or B: looking to see if there's a threadmark about it. Which I did check for after my previous post.

Click to shrink...

Maybe it's a mobile issue but I clicked the extras threadmark before posting anything. It leads nowhere.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Maybe it's a mobile issue but I clicked the extras threadmark before posting anything. It leads nowhere.

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It's not in extras lol, its an AN at the end of chapter 4 where it cuts off. I think the extras post got deleted when I stubbed a later book, sorry. I'll add something new./