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

[Malcolm Tent]

I groaned as I pushed the door shut. I was exhausted. Today had been my monthly compulsory education download, and those always took it out of me. No matter how many times I sat in that uncomfortable metal chair and got let them stick those awful leads to my temples it never got any less jarring or uncomfortable. Still, it was better than the alternative, rumor had it back before the download had been perfected they forced everyone at or under majority to sit in cramped rooms all day and learn everything through rote memorization. That sounded like torture to me.

Luckily, the download didn't actually hurt, it was just tiring and annoying to sit through. I called it a win in any case. I dropped my wallet and scan ring on the table by the door as I slipped off my shoes and headed inside. The lights were on when I got here, but that didn't mean much, so I raised my voice to call for my Uncle. "Hey Zeke, you here?" I got no response, but Zeke could get a bit wrapped up in his work so I headed back to his workshop to double check. The door was unlocked as usual and pushing it open all I saw was an empty workbench full of creepy painted masks, as usual.

I shrugged. Seemed like he wasn't home. I headed back to the kitchen and popped a mat stick into the materializer, selecting the meal I wanted and pressing the button. I left the food to construct and headed over to slump down on the couch calling out a command to the scan box on the table against the wall. A floating screen of light identical to the one that appeared over my scan ring when it was in use appeared above the table, and I instructed the box. "Local news. Let's see what's going on today."

The scan box brought up the local feeds as instructed. Scan tech was incredibly intuitive, a sort of amalgamation of old style AR and hardlight tech pioneered about a century ago by an Ascendant who went by the name of Dr. Radical. No one was quite sure why he called himself that, but mad scientists tended to be even weirder than most Ascendants, and even the heroic ones were usually pretty nuts, as evidenced by their label. Still, their creations made up about half of today's commonly used technology, so it was hard to be too dismissive.

That attitude sadly, was not one shared by most people in the Conglomerate, as mad scientists were part of a select group of Ascendant powers that were considered to be high risk for corruption. Any potentially corrupt power was treated with suspicion and scorn, and that was one of the many reasons heroic mad scientists like Dr. Radical were an anomaly. It was a shame too, because they were damn useful, but so many of them got driven off the heroic track and ended up specializing in weapons because of all the disdain.

The feed today was pretty standard. Some heroic Ascendants from the Unity going up against one of the local criminal gangs. Most of the heroic Ascendants in the city ended up working for the Unity, mostly because their training centers were the only real place to get an introductory course on your powers when you Ascended. There used to be other places that would give a tutorial class on power use, but over time they had all ended up being "uncovered" by the Unity as being villain affiliated.

They weren't all bad though, Zeke hated them with a passion but I was pretty impressed with some of the executives. I wasn't really clear on how Ascendant powers worked since non Ascendants weren't really allowed to be in the know on that kind of stuff, but they could do some amazing things, plus the girls were pretty universally hot and almost all wore skimpy outfits, so what was there not to like. My personal favorite was Nightstrike, probably the youngest of the executives based on what you could tell in costume. Some people even claimed she was eighteen like I was.

After watching a light type Ascendant newbie from Unity named Captain Polaris bounce a couple goons who wore the telltale black suits and red heart painted masks of the Queen of Hearts goons I ordered the scan box to open my emails and started sifting through all my messages. I figured it was unlikely that Zeke bothered to tell me he wasn't going to be home but it was always a possibility. I scanned through the list of messages looking for his name but didn't see anything, and I was about to close the client when a name jumped out at me from the list.

Elijah Wyndham. I frowned. My dad never bothered to message me, I hadn't seen him in years and I rarely even heard from him. Still I was curious enough to open the message. It was a video message, and when I clicked it my father's face popped up on the screen. His sandy blonde hair and bright green eyes were only a few of the many features we shared, and despite being much taller than average at six foot three, I lacked the gravitas my old man could project even over the screen.

His piercing green gaze locked onto me as the message opened, almost like he was staring out the screen right into my soul, and I swallowed nervously. He always had that effect on me. On everyone I was pretty sure. His voice was flat and composed as he spoke to me, like I was a business acquaintance. "Hello Shane. Apologies for my lateness but I wanted to wish you a happy belated eighteenth birthday. I realize I'm a week or two behind but I've taken the liberty of sending you a token of congratulations via courier."

I almost fell off the couch. That was...wildly out of character. My dad didn't give gifts. Not for birthdays, or Christmas, or even for special events like weddings. He felt they implied obligation in one direction or another, and despised the concept of favors owed. My father insisted that life was a series of transactions, and that if something was to be given, an equal price should be paid in recompense. I was honestly flabbergasted that he would even think of something like a birthday present. I wasn't really sure how to take that.

His clipped voice continued speaking as if he was reading my mind. "This token is not a gift. It as a form of repayment for my years of absence and for my failure to enlighten you on certain subjects which will later become apparent to you. I felt this was only fair, as this will be the last time I take the initiative to contact you. You are an adult now, and my messages, as few as they may have been, were and attempt to engage with a child." His voice was hard, but not cold, as he stared out of the screen sharply.

I...didn't know what to think. He was just cutting contact with me? He'd never been a great parent, but this was a bit abrupt even for him. I saw a slight softening around his eyes as he finished his message, the last paragraph clearly meant to soften the earlier statements as much as he was able. "Our family is a harsh one, Shane. You have to be strong to survive being a Wyndham. If you can't gain that strength and come to find me, never speaking to you again is more of a kindness than you can know. For what it's worth though, I hope to see you again someday, son. Goodbye."

The message vanished. In fact, it was literally deleted from my inbox, and upon further searches so were all the other messages my father had ever sent me. I kept them in a saved folder, and I'd only ever had maybe a dozen of them in there, but now the emails and the folder itself had vanished, and any searches I did completely failed to bring up even a mention of my fathers name. Even mentions of him in other emails weren't showing up, and when I checked a few emails to Zeke where I knew I'd mentioned him his name had been altered or deleted altogether.

I was just floored. Not only had I never expected this, my birthday had been over a week ago. The email was recent, like from today, and lateness was not a habit my father indulged in. I stood up, walking over to the materializer and taking out the hot steak sandwich I had set to construct before beginning the message, what seemed like ten minutes or even an hour ago, but had been, based on the time one of these took to make, less than two minutes. I took a bite of the hot steak, trying to focus and figure out what the hell had just happened.

Before I could focus much though I heard a knock on my door. I jumped, having been so distracted by my reverie I actually dropped my sandwich on the hard wood of my living room. I cursed and picked the thing back up, checking to make sure it wasn't visibly dirty before wiping up the slight mess with the napkin I had wrapped around the sandwich. I shrugged it off. I was hungry and the wiper unit cleaned the floors while we slept at night so no muss no fuss. I took another bite, pleased it was still just as good and headed to the door to open it.

Whoever had knocked hadn't bothered to try again, just leaving as soon as they'd rapped on the door, because I didn't see anyone in either direction down the hall. I assumed this was the "token of congratulations" my dad had mentioned, so I picked up the dark wood box with my non sandwich hand and carried it inside, kicking the door closed. I carried it into the kitchen and set it on the counter, scarfing down the rest of my sandwich. Then I washed my hands, drying them thoroughly and carried the thing to the table in the dining room nearby.

Opening it proved to be simple enough. It had a brass cypher lock like the ones my father used to give me as tests when I was a kid. A brass dial surrounded by a series of shiftable rings. I had to turn the rings to make a labyrinth, shifting the dial in between turns to extend a metal wire along the path. Once the wire was threaded through the rings to the outside of the lock I would push it in and a short electric charge would be conducted from the dial the rim of the lock, popping the latch and opening the box.

This particular lock had twelve rings and was unusually complicated, but I'd done enough of these to figure it our after some trial and error and after about a half hour I finally pressed the dial button and the box opened with a click. I nodded with a smile, I'd always felt pretty proud of myself after I did one of these, and even my dad was usually impressed. That thought wiped away the smile, since it reminded me he'd just basically cut ties with me completely, so I opened the lid and looked inside to see what he'd sent me.

Inside the box was a rolled up piece of old yellow paper. I frowned, but figured he wouldn't have sent me something useless. I unrolled the paper, but as I did, a small point of metal, something like a needle, which had been rolled up in it, pricked my finger. I dropped the paper with a curse, and it oddly rolled itself out flat as my blood dripped onto the yellowed surface. When my blood hit the paper though, it didn't soak in. In fact the paper did the opposite of get wet. It caught fire. A wave of purple flame rolled across the parchment from the spot my blood struck and I stared in slack jawed amazement as it scrawled out a phrase that was meaningless to me, yet somehow filled me with trepidation.

Welcome young Wishmaster. It's finally time to begin.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Now, one might think the thing that would scare me in that situation was the purple flaming piece of paper that seemed to have swallowed my blood. That person would be wrong. Mostly because I recognized the name printed on the paper and it belonged to someone even I had heard of. Callus, the planet I lived on, was a pissant backwater production planet on the outskirts of the Conglomerate. We were probably the poorest planet in this solar system, if not the entire galaxy. We were barely hooked into the Conglomerate news media, and even then, I had still heard of the Wishmaster.

The Wishmaster was a universe level criminal. In point of fact he was considered one of the top three on the list of thirteen most wanted criminals in the universe. Exactly where in that top three ranking he fell was a hotly debated matter, especially since the Wishmaster was a legacy title that changed hands multiple times over the centuries, but whoever the current Wishmaster was always had a spot in the top three. The Wishmaster wasn't ranked so high just out of raw power, though no one in the Unlucky Thirteen was personally weak, but more accurately because of his personal force, the Wish Curse Palace.

The Wish Curse Palace wasn't a place, or even a number of places. They were a sort of universal black market. They were known for their strict adherence to contract and were renowned as being the most reliable black market source for illegal goods in any of the known systems. The Wish Curse Palace might not have the manpower of the Empire, the Fairyland, or the Conglomerate, nor did they have the fanatical reputation of the Church of the Red Revenant or the Black Sorrow Cult, but they were hands down the richest of the known factions, and they had eyes and ears everywhere.

For some unknown reason no one had even betrayed the Wish Curse Palace, and all attempts to infiltrate them had failed spectacularly, leading to an incredibly terrifying reputation that gave even the major powers on the universal playing field pause. This was general knowledge even a hick from bumfuck nowhere like me was aware of, which only served to underscore how absolutely terrifying it was that I was holding something that belonged to the Wishmaster. Did my dad work for the Wishmaster? Had he stolen this somehow? Was he the Wishmaster himself?

As much as it seemed like the third option was the only real feasible choice I just couldn't bring myself to believe it. My father was competent and terrifying in his own way sure, but being the head of a force that stood equal with the whole Conglomerate? The Conglomerate and the other members of the Five Faction Alliance like the Empire spanned millions of worlds. How could my father be involved with something on that scale? Unfortunately that particular question would have to wait because the words hadn't stopped and the thing seemed to be continuing to list more information.

Wishmaster candidate status. I-rank. Ability: Minor Wish- Three times a day grant a minor wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics. Current statistics:
Might-1
Impact-1
Fantasy-1
Vitality-1
Focus-1
Perception-1
Creation-1

That was...a lot. First of all I knew what an ability was. It was what made someone an Ascendant. I'd even seen the occasional reference to Might or Vitality before, and those were definitely words associated with Ascendants. I was presumably an Ascendant now. I might not have believed it but purple fire that doesn't burn things is a pretty convincing method of delivering news. Second of all it said candidate. Which meant I was possibly one of multiple people who had been given this particular ability...however the fuck that worked.

So...maybe dad wasn't the Wishmaster? Maybe he just knew him? But he had mentioned our family so maybe we were related to him? My fucking brain was hurting. This was too much too fast. I rolled up the paper, unable to find the stick pin that had shed my blood despite looking for it everywhere. Still, I wanted to put this thing somewhere safe for now. It was obviously important. As I slipped it back into the box however I found something else. A black metal card with nothing on it but the etching of an old style lamp with a skull emblazoned on the front.

It was the logo of the Wish Curse Palace. I recognized the symbol from the various tags that had been painted across the less prosperous parts of the city. I was pretty much out of fucks to give at this point, so despite being pretty sure this thing would be useful for me somehow I just shoved it in my pocket, shoved the scroll back in the box, and clicked the lid shut, spinning the latch to pop the button out. With that I grabbed my scan ring from the front table, put the box under my arm and headed back to my room.

I'd originally been planning to read, so I left my ring out front so I wouldn't be tempted to game tonight. It was the weekly Doom Sovereign challenge, and I'd already lost more than enough credits betting on myself to enter the finals. I was semi addicted to the game, a widescale rpg that allowed you to pit your character against other players in massive elimination tournaments every week. I actually wasn't bad, but I wasn't in the top ten percent even for this planet, and considering the game had a universe spanning fanbase in the trillions that meant I pretty much wasn't shit.

The elimination tourneys usually went by region though, so I'd tried my luck recently to make some cash and got cleaned out when I realized I wasn't as good as I thought. Despite my addiction to the game though I wasn't interested in Doom Sovereign right now, I was looking to get in contact with my best friend Benny. I fired off a request for a video conference, trying to decide what I was even supposed to tell him, since I knew discussing any of this directly would get me murdered or thrown in prison for sure. The Conglomerate monitored all means of communication, my dad may have been able to circumvent that shit somehow but I most certainly couldn't.

Within thirty seconds the call picked up, and the smiling, olive skinned face of my best friend appeared on the screen. Benny's sparkling green eyes were glowing with amusement as he smirked at me from the screen floating above my extended hand, the call interface generated by the scan ring just as perfect and clear as if I was looking through a hole in the wall at someone two feet away. "Shane, didn't think I'd hear from you today. You lost so badly last week I expected you to spend all day sulking in your room in the dark like a luddite."

I ignored how valid that prediction was and rolled my eyes. "I still kicked your ass, so don't be too smug. But I'm not calling about the game. I need to talk to you in person, somewhere private. Can you get away?" Benny's parents tended to be much stricter than Zeke. My Uncle was a sloppy unreliable drunk, but he was also a generally affable guy who mostly let me do my own thing. Benny's parents, on the other hand, were heavily involved in local politics, and his father was actually the leader of the planet's miner's union.

Despite how that may sound, the miner's union wielded insane amount's of power on our little production planet, and outside the local branch of the Unity Benny's dad Hector was probably the most powerful person on our planet. He was generally pretty affable, but Benny's mom Amber was a total tight ass about image. I half suspected she let me hang out with Benny because it looked good for her precious boy to spend time with a down on his luck local kid like me. Despite that she was incredibly strict about when and where he was allowed to go, and it was almost sundown on a Friday night so there was a decent chance he wouldn't be allowed to leave.

To my relief he just waved me off. "Nah, mom and dad are at some kind of charity gala the Unity is putting on. They won't be back for hours and Maria already took of with her boyfriend. Even if they came home early and somehow caught me out I could just tell them I was out with you and throw her under the bus. You know how much they hate Zack." I did. Benny's younger sister Maria was sixteen and still in her rebellious phase. Her boyfriend Zack was a local street thug our age who did odd jobs for the Queen of Heart's cronies.

Zack liked to act like that made him hot shit, but he was mostly just a sniveling little creep. He avoided Benny and I like the plague because Benny was Maria's brother and I was much bigger than most people, so we mostly did him the courtesy of leaving him alone as long as he didn't get Maria into any real trouble. Besides that Maria never went anywhere without her best friend slash bodyguard Anna, who was an Ascendant, albeit a pretty weak one from what I knew, so even if he did get her into a situation she would be fine.

Still I was glad for her annoying habits tonight as I shot my best friend a grateful smile. "Ok, meet me at the park near your place." I paused, unsure of how much to say over this line, but I figured there was at least one thing I could share without any danger to either of us, since I was planning to visit one of the intake sites to get registered and get a tutorial tomorrow anyway. I swallowed hard and shot him a conflicted look. He paused, his smile falling as he picked up on my discomfort, and I was able to force myself to tell him. "I got an ability."

His eyes went wide. "Holy shit man really? That's awesome! I'm so jealous, I wish I had gotten one. I've been drinking those disgusting gene excitement tonics for years now and nothing, and you weren't even trying and you Ascended. Damn man, some people have all the luck. So, what did you get? Is it something cool? Can you shoot lasers out of your eyes? Manipulate fire? Can you fly? Shit I've always wanted to be able to fly." I shot him a quelling look and he shut up, his face becoming serious. "Right. You want to talk in person, no problem, I'll head to the park."

I was guessing based on his mood shift he had picked up on my discomfort and assumed I got one of the powers people didn't like to talk about. Something that people would assume was going to push me toward corruption. People could be huge assholes about that kind of thing, and if I'd gotten one of those it would seriously mess with my quality of life. That said, I wasn't sure I had. The whole Wishmaster candidate didn't seem like something that would show up when I was inducted, and Minor Wish didn't really seem like an evil sounding power. Then again it was related to the Wishmaster so for all I knew it would result in me getting thrown in prison.

I winced and got up, shoving the box in a spare bag I had laying around and putting my shoes back on as I got ready to go meet Benny. I needed advice, and Benny and I had been close as brothers since we were kids. I'd met him at one of compulsory download buildings when we were five, and we'd been inseparable ever since. He'd even gotten transferred to the local childcare I'd been in before I turned thirteen because Zeke was too lazy to raise a kid despite having the money for private care. If there was anyone I could trust with this it was Benny, now I just had to hope he had some idea what to do.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The trip to the park was both way too quick and agonizingly slow. I took a bus to get there, mostly because I blew all my credits on Doom Sovereign but at least had the presence of mind to buy a buss pass at the beginning of the year when I still had a bit of money. The bus was pretty empty at six PM on a Friday night, so I mostly just sat by myself and thought over my options. I'd decided to wait a day or two before I did the intake process for the Unity. If I went now I would probably get thrown in prison or tortured for info I didn't have.

What I needed was some way to disguise my ability, and I was pretty sure I knew where to get that. I reached down to touch the smooth black metal card in my pocket, tracing the faint engraving of the lamp and skull. The Wish Curse Palace was the place to go for that kind of thing, but in order for that to work I had to get some money first. Assuming this card could let me buy things from them, I'd still probably need thousands if not tens of thousands of credits for something like that. Still, having some kind of plan was better than panicking so I felt much more optimistic when the bus stopped at the park and I got off to go meet Benny.

My best friend was waiting in his usual spot, sitting under a tree in the back of the park in the shadows. For a rich kid Benny tended to dress down pretty sloppy, and the usual torn jeans and hoodie over a beat up t-shirt made me smile with their familiarity. As usual Benny's messy brown hair peaked out from under the hood, wavy and too long as usual, somehow managing to fall in his eyes even with his head tilted back, but when he heard me coming he jerked to attention, looking around for me.

When he spotted me he gave a sigh of relief and climbed to his feet, walking over to clap me in a fierce hug. "Oh thank the gods. After that cryptic ass message I thought you might have been hauled off by the Cautious Men or something." Fear flashed through his eyes as he mentioned the Conglomerate's Ascendant identification and apprehension task force. The Unity handled big name criminals, but everyone had heard horror stories of newbie's being snatched up by the cautious men. It was one of the main reasons people were so quick to do the intake despite being railroaded so hard by the Unity.

I squeezed him back and pulled away with a laugh. "No, thankfully, though I wouldn't rule it our for the future The stuff that's been going on has been kind of nuts." I gestured for him to sit down by the tree and started filling him in on everything that had happened. The message from my dad, the paper, I didn't hold a single thing back, and despite it having been objectively only an hour or so tops this still felt like it had been weighing on me for weeks. When I finished I felt unburdened and smiled, leaning back against the tree just happy to be free of the weight of doing this alone.

Benny whistled. "Holy shit man. That's...heavy. I know your dad hasn't always been around but for him to literally disown you like that? Plus it sounds like he might have been involved with the WCP the whole time, that's pretty nuts." He bumped my shoulder with his. "But hey, at least you got this cool new power, I mean, granting wishes sounds fucking awesome. Can I be your guinea pig?" His eyes were alight with curiosity and a bit of excitement, and all the drama aside I had to admit I kind of got that.

I laughed at the enthusiasm. "I guess so. If there's one person I trust to grant a wish to it's you. So...shit, how do I do this?" I considered taking out the scroll, but it seemed like the whole Wishmaster thing wouldn't exactly be secret if a bunch of people were walking around with a burning piece of paper. I narrowed my eyes before looking at Benny and saying in a clear voice. "Minor wish." I waited. Nothing happened. "Grant Minor wish." Again, nothing. I rolled my eyes. "Ok maybe we're doing this wrong. Make a wish in front of me."

Benny shrugged. "Ok, well you said it has to be within your capabilities within the span of three days, but like...what does that mean? And you mentioned stats too, so do those affect it somehow? Whatever, I'll just ask for something big and we can see what I can get away with." He bit his lip. "Ok, I wish you could give me an ability." I felt a charge run over my skin as he said that, a light rumble of static rolling across my arms, making the hair all stand on end as I felt my power roar up from inside me to answer the call.

Wish detected, grant wish? The words wrote themselves across my vision in purple fire, and from his lack of reaction Benny didn't see it at all. I mentally tried to confirm but the letters rolled across my vision again. Insufficient stat points to grant wish. Requirements: 50 Fantasy, 10 Creation, 25 Impact, 10 Vitality. I blinked. So that was what it meant by being able to accomplish it in three days. Still, the fact that I could even give someone powers was fucking insane. I told Benny what it said and he cursed.

He bit his lip. "Damn. Kind of makes me want to wait, but there's not rule you can only do one per person right?" I shook my head and he grinned. "Cool, then I can do something small time now and we can go from there. I wish I had a steak dinner." The tingle came back again, less intense this time, which I assumed meant this would be an easier wish, but it was still noticeable and still took up a ton of my attention. Once again it asked if I wanted to grant the wish, and once again I confirmed I did.

Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 1 Fantasy, 1 Impact, 2 Creation, 2 Vitality. Compensation required. I blinked, remembering what it had said on the scroll. Right, it had mentioned that. I turned to Benny. "Says I can do that one, but we need to agree on fair compensation. What would be fair?" He just shrugged. I scowled and th0ught it over, deciding to ask for something more ephemeral since this was clearly some kind of magic bullshit or something. Something he wouldn't miss. "How about your Doom Sovereign skills?"

Benny snickered at that. "I'm not sure you can really call them that, I'm not even as good as you are, but I don't enjoy the game that much anyway so sure. You can have my Doom Sovereign skills." He grinned at me, gesturing for me to get on with the wish granting, so that's what I did. I confirmed the wish after he verified he was ok with it. As soon as I did I felt that electricity on my skin spark up to insane levels, the power feeling like it was filling me enough to burst. I saw a purple flash int Benny's eyes and then there was another flash in front of us, and suddenly we were sitting next to a table, fully laid out with a juicy ribeye and all the fixings.

I gasped as what felt like sixteen hours of non stop sprinting hit me at once, bowling me over as I fell to the ground, gasping. Across my black spotted vision those same purple flame letters danced. Skill Acquired- Minor Doom Sovereign Mastery. Synergy with existing skills detected, merging. Skill Acquired-Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery. I felt new memories slam into my brain. Nothing crazy, just hours of Doom Sovereign I'd never actually played. I felt reflexes I didn't have engraving themselves into my head.

Benny was up and at my side in a flash. "Holy shit man are you ok? That really took it out of you huh?" He helped me up, sitting me in the chair that had appeared next to the table with the steak on it. It was a tiny square table with a white table cloth, and the chair was cushioned and pretty comfortable. The steak on the plate was a juicy ribeye, with a nice steaming pile of mashed potatoes next to it and a bed of crisp asparagus to one side. There was a small dish of bread with a little plate of butter next to that and a full salad in a bowl to one side. Next to that was a glass of what looked like root beer.

I shook off the exhaustion and chuckled. "I'm good man, shit is just tiring. Still, you got your wish. Take a bite, see how it tastes." It smelled fucking amazing, and I was ravenously hungry after that. I was guessing that the closer I went to my limits the more tiring the wish granting would be. Still, it was pretty amazing I could make something out of nothing like that. Apparently creating a table with a steak wasn't a huge deal, since it only required a single point of fantasy and impact. I was assuming the creation was what made the actual process work, and vitality was probably what made it nutritious.

He looked like he wanted to argue with me but I shook my head, standing up and backing away from the table. He rolled his eyes, knowing that I wasn't going to eat any of it, though I suspected if he's realized how hungry I was he might have pushed me to at least take a bite. He sat down at the table, scooted the chair in and picked up the knife and fork, cutting off a small piece to pop in his mouth. I was struck by how weird this probably looked from the outside in, and I was glad we'd always come to this park because there were no cameras. Benny was paranoid about his parents checking up on him.

Since no one had seen me conjure this thing it would just look like some weird guy brought a table here to eat. I shook off the thought and focused on Benny. His eyes lit up as he chewed, and he swallowed the bite of steak down with relish as he picked up the glass to sip some of the root beer. He moaned with joy as his took a swallow. "Ok, that's the best thing I've ever tasted man. If I hadn't needed to pay with literal memories from my brain I would eat like this all the time. Wait, do I need to do that? Can I pay with credits?" I mentally consulted my power, which seemed to be happy to answer questions now that I was using it, and nodded to him in confirmation. He could pay in credits, though the price got a little nuts for anything more than basic conjuring like this.

He grinned at me. "Well then, I think I have the answer to your little money problem. If I can pay for food with credits than so can other people, and they can pay for other things too. If we're careful we can get you enough cash to pay for that identity masking whatever it is you wanted." He paused. "Though actually we should probably go see what that would cost." He cut another piece of steak and popped it in his mouth, not bothering to swallow before asking his next question. "So, you feel like going shopping tomorrow?" I had to admit, even knowing I couldn't buy anything right now the idea filled me with excitement. I was going to visit the black market.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Wish Curse Palace did not, oddly enough, move. It was ostensibly hidden, but asking around a bit near where we had seen the symbol tags the next day got us concise directions. It turned out that none of the Five Faction Alliance were quite willing to piss off the secretive force of fanatically loyal spies and assassins who lived hidden amongst their civilian population, go figure. Because they weren't willing to break into an outright war and they themselves benefited from the place, they didn't try to shut down the WCP branches.

Since we didn't have to look around for the location we made good time the next morning on the bus down to the local branch. On the way we sat and discussed what the actual plan was once we got there. Benny was, of course, excited. "I can't believe we're going to the WCP." He whispered excitedly, somehow speaking louder than if he had said it in a normal tone of voice. I glanced around frantically but didn't see anyone staring, so I just glared at him. He smiled sheepishly and lowered his voice properly. "Sorry, but still, I've never been. I wonder what they have there?"

Despite his borderline bad boy image of himself, my best friend was actually kind of a goody goody. I was the closest thing to a tough guy he spent time with and I was an introverted game nerd with limited social skills. He liked to think of our friendship as rebellion, but he was basically the equivalent of those kids in child care who look both ways to make sure no one is watching before saying a curse word and dissolving into fits of giggles. He never did anything too bad and this kind of thing was a major rush for him. Granted it kind of was for me to. I was just distracted by other issues.

I kept my voice pitched low but didn't bother to actually whisper as I responded. "We're looking for the prices for a masking program or artifact or whatever the hell. I don't know. But we need to at least figure out a price for it." I grit my teeth before asking the next question, hating myself for bringing it up because I knew Benny was uncomfortable with his money. "Did you bring any credits?" He opened his mouth and I hurried to add. "I can grant you a wish for however much you have to spend, I wouldn't ask to borrow cash for nothing."

He rolled his eyes. "Relax man, I'm not going to bitch in circumstances like this. I appreciate you taking my attitude about my money into account but shit like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've never been to the WCP but I hear you need an invite to attend. I have a hundred thousand credits in my savings and we can use that. Though I won't say no to a wish id it'll get me another meal like that steak." He bit his lip. "Or should I ask for something else? Shit we should do it while we're on the way right? So you have the credits when we get there?"

He looked around slowly, making sure no one was watching. His brow furrowed as he considered what to ask for. "I wish I was a master haggler. I'm willing to offer one hundred thousand credits." I winced as he decisively offered his entire savings, but I made a promise to myself to pay him back once I had the money. I should be able to earn it pretty quickly once I got this all figured out. I had a few ideas for making money, though I admit a not insignificant part of me wanted to bust out my new Doom Sovereign skills at next weeks tournament and clean up on bets.

The purple flames wrote themselves across my vision. Wish detected. Grant wish? I mentally confirmed. Insufficient stat points for Skill- Master Haggling. Requirements: NA Master level skill beyond the capacity of Minor Wish ability. I blinked. Huh, that was new. I frowned but then my eyes lit up. "Right, Master must be too high level. My ability is Minor Wish but I have a Lesser Skill, wish for that." He tried again and I accepted. Insufficient stat points for Skill- Lesser Haggling. Requirements. 30 Focus, 10 Impact, 10 Perception.

I cursed. "Shit. That one is too expensive. I guess I can go up a rank if I need to though, so that's good to know. But how is giving you a Lesser skill on the same level as giving you a fucking superpower? What level is Lesser?" I thought back to when I got my Doom Sovereign Mastery skill. Apparently my power could take most anything as payment as long as it was worth the value of what it gave, but just flat out creating things was harder. I did remember something though. "Ok, try wishing for a Minor Skill. That should be doable. Minor was weaker than Lesser so try wishing for that."

Another wish and I accepted again. Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 3 Focus, 1 Impact, 1 Perception. I felt that same tingle in my skin, and I accepted. I saw tiny purple sparks play over the surface of my flesh and leap to Benny, whose eyes once again lit up purple, before subsequently rolling up in his head. I started to freak out slightly, but I felt my scan ring buzz and when I flicked up my display I saw a deposit of a hundred thousand credits. I exhaled slowly. Ok, if my power completed the wish then he was fine, I could feel that it wouldn't have worked if he couldn't handle it.

Still, that had been terrifying. Also what the hell was with those requirements? The stats from Minor to Lesser differed by a full ten times. If that pattern held true what the hell would Master rank skills cost? Judging by the way my power phrased it Master wasn't just a single rank above Lesser. Probably not even two or three. What the hell were Skills? It couldn't just be knowledge. Not at that kind of price. What did they do? My introspection was interrupted however by a quiet groan from next to me.

Benny was coming out of his...trance? Fugue? Who knew. Point was he was waking up. He rubbed his temples. "Wow. That sucked. A lot. Like, more than most things." He blinked his still faintly glowing eyes, the light fading from them as his brain integrated the new skill. He looked at me in awe. "Holy shit, Shane. I...I know so many things now. Shit I never knew before. I know how to read people's expressions and body language, how to tell when someone is willing to fold and when to take the deal, how to detect uncertainty in someone's voice... Damn man, this is wild. Like I'm not a genius at haggling, but it feels like I've been doing it for years and I'm pretty damn good."

His voice was tinged with awe, and I made a promise to myself to test out my new Doom Sovereign skills tonight when I got home. I'd been too excited last night and gone right to sleep so I could wake up and come down here. Apparently you could have a skill for literally anything. I wondered what they were for? What did they do? I couldn't imagine what a skill past Lesser even did. I shook off the thoughts however as our bus pulled up outside the building we had been instructed to head to.

I looked at Benny and we grinned weakly at each other and got up, heading off the bus to make our way into the massive building. The skyscraper in front of us was, much like the rest of the city, massive. Architecture had advanced considerably with the creation of certain hyper alloys and various advancements from Mad Scientists around the universe. Valen city, the city we lived in, was a thriving metropolis, and most of the buildings were absolutely towering monstrosities, packed incredibly close together and filling the sprawling land inside the natural ring of mountains the city used for it's various mining and resource gathering needs.

This particular building was basically falling apart, completely run down, though obviously not an actual danger to the citizens or they would have torn it down. We nodded to each other and headed inside, expecting to find some sort of guard or indication of an entrance. The inside of the building was empty. Not empty as in the place didn't have any people in it. Empty as in there was no furniture or object of any kind. There was just a sprawling atrium with nothing in it except empty marble floor.

Benny bumped me with an elbow, pointing to the opposite end of the room. "I think that's where we're headed." It wasn't a hard call. The only thing in this place was a set of brass double doors that obviously led to an elevator. The symbol of the Wish Curse Palace was engraved across the brass. I raised an eyebrow. "Subtle." Benny snickered and we set off across the atrium, each step seeming to take an eternity as we drew closer and closer to the doors, until finally we were standing right in front of the elevator.

Next to the door was the usual panel. The panel had two buttons, despite this being the first floor, but the lower button had a card reader beneath it, the button showing only the WCP logo. I pressed it. Nothing happened. I reached into my pocket and took out the black metal card, sliding it into the reader and pressing the button again. The button lit up, and I pulled the card out, stowing it again as a loud ding made me about jump out of my skin. Benny snickered at me again and I rolled my eyes at my friend as we climbed into the elevator.

Strangely the elevator had no buttons on the inside, as if pressing the WCP button had gotten us a special elevator just for this purpose, which admittedly was more than possible given the WCP's resources. I played with the card in my pocket. What the hell was it? Some kind of membership? Why did I get the feeling it was supposed to be a big deal? Benny bumped my shoulder with his. "Credit for your thoughts? You're spacing out man. Gotta keep your head on a swivel. Things are bound to get crazy."

I gave him a small smile. "Sorry. Just...a lot going on. I'm good though. One hundred percent focused" The door closed and the elevator began to move. Not up into the building as expected but backwards, literally moving away from the doors for what felt like twenty or so feet before coming to a stop. I heard some slight shifting, though I barely felt a tremor, and then we began to descend. It felt like we'd been moved to a different elevator shaft before descending, which was...weird.

I was guessing the main shaft didn't actually go to the WCP and they probably had the the thing protected up the wazoo. As we descended I braced myself for what I was going to see. This was my first real step into a new world, the first time I would be interacting with a powerful force that might be able to help me make some sense of what was going on. I felt a kind of energy run through me, not the electric tingle of my wish power, but a sense of excitement, of adventure. This had all been crazy but I couldn't deny I was enjoying myself.

As the elevator slowed I exhaled deeply. We'd been traveling down for a while, and at a decent clip from what I could tell. We were obviously pretty deep underground. It didn't surprise me the Wish Curse Palace could manage something like this but still, it made me kind of excited for what we were going to see when we got down there. As we came to a stop I stepped forward, brimming with anticipation as the doors slowly opened. Regardless of whether I found what I was looking for down here, I knew nothing would ever be the same. This was going to be a whole new world.

Becuase of Amazon's rules on published content the first six volumes of the series have been taken down for publication but they can be found on Amazon

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Hey folks, I'm not sure if anyone saw, but I figured just in case I'd do an announcement. The first book of Wish Upon the Stars has officially launched on Audible and Amazon anyone who wants to check it out its been thoroughly polished and edited, and I could really use some reviews for the ebook (available for free on KU). In any case, hope anyone who does check it out enjoys the story!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next three months flew by. Constant combat training, soul training, and a consistent influx of rollover points mixed with some wishes had slowly sharpened and molded me. I'd spent a large amount of time working on my staff art, trying to fuse it to DS Mastery by creating unique staff moves that melded well with my subskills, to middling success, but I'd become much more skilled with my staff as a result.

At the moment, I found myself resting after a rough fight with Abel, panting and exhausted as I glared at my mentor. "Why can't I beat you?" I complained. "I keep getting stronger, but you keep being just that little bit out of reach."

He snickered. "You're not the only one getting stronger, kid. Not only do I have a bunch of stat points rolling in from that last battle same as you, I'm also fighting with you, Blake, Callie, Valk, and about a dozen other people pretty much every day. You're training and working on your soul and Skills. Learning to harness your Path, and any number of other things, all I do is fight until my knuckles crack."

"Freak." I said scathingly, though it probably would have been more biting if I wasn't collapsed in a puddle of my own
blood and sweat.

"I'm sorry." Abel said with a laugh, cupping an ear. "Did you say 'weak' because while you are pretty disappointing in combat I wouldn't go quite that far. I'm sure you can catch up eventually." He snickered at my glare. "Jokes aside kid, you're improving more quickly than most. I'm just extremely narrowly focused. Not to mention I have a lot of room to grow after recently breaking through to expert."

I groaned, but acknowledged the point, crawling across the sandy floor of the training hall to a bench with a towel and water bottle to wash and wipe down my face. I considered healing up with a heal burst, but I was running low, and my Vitality was pretty solid, so I felt like it would be better to just wait it out for the moment.

To ensure maximum training efficiency I'd taken to sparring without my armor. It didn't do much good against Abel anyway, since it wasn't particularly effective against blunt force. My mask too was sitting to one side, since wearing just the mask and normal clothes felt weird. Callie, who was lounging nearby, grinned at me. "That was pretty impressive. Your new staff technique is coming along well."

Chuckling, I pulled myself up onto the bench. "You say that, but your growth over the last few months has been absurd. Not quite as much as that first burst, but still, you've already hit the halfway point of F-rank. I'm scrambling to catch up as it is." Though her soul growth was only up to sixteen percent, the one department she couldn't quite keep up in.

She grinned proudly. "True. I AM pretty amazing. I'm so close to forming a Path, I can almost taste it. Though I don't think I'm likely to form a Solid Path like you have, at least not anytime soon."

"Killian says that's actually less useful in the early days. Makes it harder to use." I said with a shrug. "I've progressed pretty far with that theoretically, but he's seen people form a Solid Path early and get stuck because of it. People like you and Abel and Gabriel can use your path at will, while I have to try to align myself with it manually."

While Zeke was forbidden to help us too much, Killian had no such restrictions. Having an A-ranker around willing to answer questions (some questions at least, he claimed he couldn't tell us too much or it might fuck up our progress) was extremely convenient for our growth. Not to mention his son Blake had become a friend and a hell of a sparring partner.

Speaking of. "How's Benny been doing?" I gestured to where her fingers had slipped partway into the shadows, no doubt using them to keep an eye on all our friends. Callie tended to get bored and check in with everyone regularly. Benny, who had improved explosively under my nearly complete attention, had been working with some new gear and a massive bump in stats, trying to improve as the rest of us did.

His growth in the soul department was particularly impressive, having managed to grind his way up to twenty five percent of the way through orange by virtue of his Spiritual Calming belt. I'd grown a bit more than that, reaching fifty percent, but mostly because I was using my Solid Path to push me ahead.

According to Killain. Forming a Path was a necessary and important step, but most Paths started as Illusionary Paths. Illusionary Paths, like Abel's, Gabriel's, and Callie's, were much easier to use and alter, as well as being more intuitive. This particular step was considered integral to refining your path to be more closely aligned with your personality and combat style.

Solid Paths were the NEXT step in the process, creating a literal Skill for your Path. He refused to expand on the later steps of the process, saying it wasn't important, but the fact was I'd skipped some steps. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be a good thing. Instead of mapping my Path to my combat style, I was forced to map my combat style to my Path, slowly finding a way to bridge the gap and activate my Path as I fought.

The only saving grace was the my DS Mastery was my main combat Skill already, so I didn't have to completely reinvent the wheel, but I'd always used it more as a utility Skill, ignoring the underlying elements of the Fatewalker class in order to lean into my strengths. Now I was forced to learn how form a cohesive whole, and it was much harder than it would be for most people because I was feeling around in the dark instead of defining my own way.

Callie clicked her tongue. "Only you would be upset that you're somehow accidentally much further along than the rest of us. Sure you have to catch up to where you're at, but there are plenty of people who never take the step of forming an Illusionary Path, much less a Solid One. As long as you can figure out how to stick to that, you shouldn't have any problem advancing all the way to C-rank right?"

"Other than the obvious problem of actually GETTING there." I snorted. "Bit premature. Wishes are lagging behind in terms of stat buildup. I need to get my name out there the normal way too. The godslaying fight was a good start, but we all have a long way to go before we can even think about D-rank, let alone C-rank."

She leaned down to peck me on the cheek. "Can you try to enjoy yourself a bit please? All this hardcore training is making you a bit too results focused. You're missing the forest for the trees honey." Which was easy for her to say...but also fair.

I sighed. "You're right. I never wanted to become someone who cultivated just for the sake of getting stronger. I'm too wrapped up in accomplishing as much as possible. Luckily we should be approaching the Temple soon. I can relax now, because I won't be able to accomplish much before we arrive anyway."

"Close enough." She said with an eye roll. "Tell the others to slow down too. Not Abel, of course, since he's a lunatic, but the rest of the team has been hard at work following your example."

My wince at that was hard to hide. "They have been, haven't they." I sighed in frustration. "I didn't want to push them into overdoing it, I was just kind of worried. We're going to be pretty disadvantaged as it is. I know that we can't actually die in the temple but if something happens in there that wounds our souls..."

She took my hand, squeezing it gently. "I know, honey. But you've done everything you can, both individually and as a team leader. Everyone has seen how much you've been helping Benny. Celine says he's really started to buckle down. Even Cass has been trying to do her katas more rigorously because she thinks you've been so cool." She giggled at my grimace. "It's cute. Jessie's been patching her and Cark is making sure she doesn't go too far."

"I guess." I said with a sigh. "But you're right. We need to make sure everyone calms down to relax a bit. Proper rest is a key aspect of growth too, something I should probably have thought of earlier. Jessie's lifeforce can only do so much for us. How long until we get there?"

"A week." She said matter of factly. "The traffic as we approach the Temple is pretty dense apparently. Killian said he didn't expect to run into this many obstructions. In any case, as to your earlier question..." She winced. "Benny isn't doing great. He's training with Blake right now, and we all know how that ends."

That made me wince as well. Blake was Killian's son, and had inherited the Zayne family soul stitching method. He used, like I was told Killian did (I'd never seen the older man fight) ghost binding techniques. Like Zeke had sniped at Killian, they had some downsides relative to Zeke's Voltomancy, but it was essentially a quantity for quality exchange. Fighting an army of high F-ranked ghosts was obnoxious and painful.

"Well, he can heal up and come find us when he's done." I said with a shrug. "I think since we're getting close we should do like a team movie night."

She smiled sweetly. "Sounds like fun. I'll gather everybody. I think Cark took Cass to the entertainment district. We barely managed to get her to stop practicing." She turned to glare at Abel. "Which we all blame you for, Abel!" He just flipped her off and went back to doing cool down pushups.

"Ignore him." I said with a laugh. "Just tell her I'll make Pepper jack mac and cheese tonight. It's her favorite, so it should be plenty of motivation to sit still and watch a movie. Although, do we have anything good?"

Her shrug was carefree. "I'm sure one of us has something from the can box saved to a ring we can watch. If not, Cass probably saved some of her cartoons. If nothing else it'll be hilarious seeing Celine have to sit through them. She seems like the type to dislike childish antics."

Despite the teasing I knew she didn't want to really upset Celine. The two of them had gotten much closer during the time we'd been here, along with Nat, they were basically always together. Nat who had been working with Celine constantly helping her keep up with Benny. Our elven friend was writing a lot of checks her family would need to cash, which I thought was pretty hilarious.

Standing up, I helped Callie to her feet, turning to the still exercising Abel. "Hey, quit the cardio and come on, we're doing a movie. Callie already reached out to everyone." Her shadow abilities were particularly useful for carrying messages around the ship, since she could either drop off written noted or pass her mouth through to shout.

I mentioned to her as we left to invite Blake too, and Annalise if she could find her, our friends could use the downtime too. It had been a hard few months, but now that we were coming up on the end of the journey, I couldn't wait to show what I'd accomplished. We'd all gotten stronger, and those assholes at the Ruined Soul Temple would never see us coming. After killing a god, I wasn't even scared of meeting an F-rank master. We were going to train our souls to the limit and win some of those rewards, and nothing they could do would stop us.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Benny!" I greeted my best friend as he finally made he way into the manor we were staying in. "How was training?" Killian had lent it to use as our traveling accommodations, and everyone had long since gotten used to it. Callie and I were laid out on the couch waiting for everyone to get back before picking a movie, and my friend groaned and tiredly dropped into a seat nearby as he arrived.

"Painful." He said with a grimace. "But useful. Between the considerable help you've given me over the last few months and my new piece of tech, I put up a much better fight."

Callie hummed with interest. "What are your stats actually at by the way? You've been pretty secretive about the whole thing. Even Celine doesn't know. Granted, she told me she hasn't told you hers either, but that's just retaliation for being so secretive."

He shrugged. "I've been avoiding saying anything because it feels like I'll stop making progress if I talk about it. I know it's stupid, but it's like a hot streak or something. Secrecy is my lucky underwear. If we're going to slow down on training for the remainder though, might as well tell everyone. Once Cel gets here I'll share my progress, as long as you guys do the same."

We both agreed, since it wouldn't be a bad thing to let people know where we were. Some of our team members weren't at the point where they were comfortable sharing that stuff, but Jessie, Callie, Benny, and I didn't have much to hide. Probably had something to do with the drastically different environment we'd come up in compared to the others, plus the speed. Honestly whatever we shared would be out of date in a month or two anyway.

Celine, Nat, Perit, Valk, Abel, Cark, Cass and the whole rest of the team showed up, and once we all settled in, we decided to show off how awesome we were before the movie. Benny, being the one of us with the biggest change recently, went first.

Benicio Cortez- F-rank. Ability: Intermediate Mechanical Embodiment- Allows the integration of existing inventions into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them.

Might-1405
Impact-35
Fantasy-56
Vitality-141
Focus-1683
Perception-282
Creation-171
Progress to next rank: 3773/10000

soul strength: Orange 25%

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

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

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

Everyone just stared in shock at the numbers. I grinned, buffing my fingernails on my shirt and then blowing them clean. "After the big jump from the godslaying incident, I can do seven points per wish now. Twenty two hundred of my three thousand seven hundred and eighty total points for the last few months went to Benny. We didn't just put them into his mains either, though most of them went there. Two hundred of it was rollover from the battle, but he didn't get quite as much attention as the rest of us."

Benny grinned. "Plus my new heart device which lets me create an illusionary double. It's twice as effective because the double is technically me, which means it can access my abilities despite not being corporeal. The spider legs have physical presence because they're an effect, which means some interesting possible combinations."

Callie whistled. "Damn, you really have been putting the work in Shane." She raised an eyebrow at my friend. "The invention is neat, but it's not really the same amount of effort." He rolled his eyes and flipped her off, and she just snickered, before turning to the rest of us. "As you know, I've been making steady gains since the battle, and I've hit the halfway point, though it's starting to slow down."

Calliope Reynolds F-rank Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies.

Might-1250
Impact-35
Vitality-342
Fantasy-1105
Focus-108
Perception-1875
Creation-485
Progress to next rank: 5200/1000

Soul strength- Orange-16%
Pet-Wolf named Rellia

Skills: Minor Tracking, Minor Dual Dagger Mastery, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Beginner Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Lesser Paired Dueling.

"Well...a bit over half." She admitted cheerfully. "Most of it went to Perception though. My Might gains were mostly from people who were there, my stealth and Perception abilities got hyped a lot in the aftermath, apparently people are making it sound like a backstab." She didn't sound particularly upset about that, which I could understand given her truly ridiculous gains.

"Guess it's my turn then." I said with a grin. "While twenty two hundred of the wish points went to Benny, I also spent a portion of the time doing point rebalancing for some of the other people on the ship, resulting in a substantial gain for me."

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

Might-975
Impact-35
Fantasy-500
Vitality-720
Focus-720
Perception-704
Creation-260
Progress to next rank:3914/10000
Soul strength Orange-50%

Stored:7 shadow attacks, 7 shadow jump, 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 triple strength density shifted attacks (ten in reserve). 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 4 heal bursts, 4 gravity attacks, 3 shadow clone, 21 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Skills:Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign, Minor Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Lesser Balam Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery,Lesser Paired Dueling

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

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rythym of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense

"Fifteen hundred and eighty points from that, and another five hundred from the battle over time." I said smugly. "Not to mention all the soul training from working on my Path, which has put me up to a full fifty percent. Callie may be way ahead on stats, but I'm not exactly being left in the dust." I was damned proud of my progress actually. Though it made me wonder about our last original team member. "How about you Jessie?"

She shrugged. "The complete Vitality focus left a big impression. I got about a thousand off the battle in the last few months. Plus about five hundred rollover from the Bond with Randall. My soul is up to about eighteen percent now."

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

Might-875
Impact-35
Fantasy-78
Vitality-2292
Focus-55
Perception-65
Creation-58

Progress to next rank: 3458/10000

Pet- Wolf named Lily and bear named Randall(Beginner Beast Bonding with Jessie)

soul strength: Orange- 18%

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

I whistled. "Benefits of hyperfocusing. That Bond is kind of bullshit too. Still, barring our resident godslayer, we're all pretty similarly far along. I admit I expected Jessie to lag a bit, I was planning to dedicate some wishes to boosting her for a while, but it seems like that won't be necessary."

She nodded. "Might from Randall aside, I'm WAY overpowered as a healer for my level, which makes a big impression. I'm not surprised a lot of those people I saved were talking about it. I've also spent the last month healing everyone who needs it on the ship, so there's been some renown from that too. Probably not much but you know what they say, ABH, always be healing."

"No one says that." Said Benny with an eyeroll.

Jessie grinned at him cheekily. "Well they'd better start if they want me to heal them next time they get their teeth kicked in by an army of ghosts." He gave conciliatory shrug at that, and the rest of us laughed. "Now I believe there was some talk of a movie being chosen?"

Cass, who had been unusually quiet (practicing her damned katas again) began to bounce with excitement. "Oooh! Let me pick!"

"No." Said Cark shortly, glaring around at all of us. Despite Cass being like a little sister to the whole team (I'd even caught Nat sneaking her candy a few times) she was Cark's ACTUAL sister, and we deferred to him when it came to making decisions for her.

"I think I should pick." Said Callie loftily. "I AM the strongest F-ranker in the group."

"In terms of stats." I said with a scoff. "I have the strongest soul." Abel cleared his throat and I rolled my eyes. "Or whatever. You know what I mean. You don't count, you're a monster."

Benny groaned. "Oh gods, can we just take a vote please? Everyone's submission counts for the same amount. Otherwise we'd have to just let Zeke pick." He shuddered. "Which would be a tragedy. He has absolutely terrible taste in movies." He glanced at me for backup. "Remember that six hour romcom marathon when we were eleven?"

I ALSO shuddered. "I don't think it was possible for me to forget that BEFORE I had seven hundred plus Focus. Voting is better."

"I like romcoms." Said Callie in an affronted voice. "They're not so bad."

Shaking my head, I corrected her emphatically. "Except he doesn't watch regular romcoms. He watches THEMED romcoms. Zombies and werewolves and aliens and shit. The production values are always awful and the writing is trash. I have no clue where he even finds them. I've never heard of half the movies I was forced to watch growing up anywhere else. It's like he conjures them or something." I shot him a suspicious look.

He just grinned. "I don't. Nor are they wish based or anything. I just have a pretty decent sized collection. Granted they're in an alternate format, so I had to have them converted into scan files, but it was all worth it. Besides, it's not my fault anyway. Your mother was the one who got me into those. Eli hated them, but Sasha would force him to watch them every time we had a movie night."

The geas didn't activate, presumably because that bit of info wasn't related to cultivation. Still, I ate up every syllable. I just couldn't picture my ice cold dad being bullied into watching bad movies. That sounded like something Callie would convince me to do. What had my parents relationship been like? I always envisioned it as like a marriage of convenience or something. Mom had left when I was too young to form many memories, so I hadn't seen them together.

It was just another in the long list of questions I had for my mom about why she left us. About why she took my sister away. I was getting really sick and tired of being in the dark about my own life. I tensed for a minute, but then forced myself to relax and enjoy the bickering from my family. I would find out the truth soon enough, for now I should live my life as it was now. No use dwelling on the past when I couldn't get the answers I wanted until later.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The movie night was a huge success. Granted, not because we found a good movie, but more because Benny (who had won the vote) had picked a terrible movie and we all spent the whole time mocking both it and him mercilessly. Even Celine got a few jabs in, and my best friend swore vengeance on all of us, saying he wold similarly excorciate or own taste when it was his turn.

And like that we decided to do seven movie nights, one for each day we had left before reaching the Temple. The next morning, I actually tracked down my Uncle in one of the entertainment districts to ask him a bit about where the Ruined Soul Temple was and what the situation there was.

Zeke had been around since we got here, but he was mostly keeping back. I think he was feeling guilty about not mentioning my sister. I still hadn't really brought that up, or even talked to him much one on one, because I knew deep down he'd have told me if he could. Asking him about it was only going to hurt him, and Zeke was the one person who had never bailed on me, regardless of the reasoning.

Despite knowing he was bound to me, I think part of me was terrified if I ever pushed him on things I'd lose him too. I almost never really dug in when I got mad at anyone, honestly. Losing my parents like I had made it way too scary to strain my relationships. It was clearly simple for people to leave me, and I couldn't take the thought of more loss. That was something I was working on, but I think even if it wasn't the case I wouldn't have called him on the omission. It wasn't his fault.

So, avoiding the elephant in the room, I plopped down across from him. I didn't bother with niceties, figuring the distraction of an actual conversation was better than awkward stammering. "So, I was curious about something. I wondered about it in the dungeon, first off, had you heard of Suvaya?"

He blew out a breath. "Nope. She was before my time. The vanished gods were gone long before I came on the scene."
"Fair. But she mentioned the six. I thought Unity was pretty young for a god." Honestly, part of me wished he hadn't been involved. We'd never really asked, but I'd always felt like the Conglomerate was just that little bit better than the other factions. Even having seen the nonsense politics and the corruption, part of me wanted to believe there were real heroes there.

"He is." Said Zeke. "Only about a thousand. I'm not familiar with Suvaya, but based on the timeline Unity wasn't there when they took her out. It was Hatescream. I wasn't around for it, but I knew people who were. Hatescream was the leader of the Blood Murder Palace, he was the fifth member of the alliance before Unity came on the scene."
I grimaced. "Blood Muder Palace? They sound like fun guys to have at a party."

"They shouldn't." Said Zeke dryly. "They were dicks. Like...all of them. Hatescream tried to install sleepers in all the other factions, presumably to eventually stage a coup and wipe them out. Clearly it didn't work, the others found out and he got killed. The Palace got wiped out after that from what I heard, though one of them pops up now and then to be a nuisance."

That was...kind of a relief. Not that terrifying murder cult that apparently used to be one of the major factions of my universe, but the fact that Unity hadn't been one of the six at the time. My ancestor still had, but then, I'd always known the WCP was morally ambiguous at best. Knowing the Conglomerate hadn't been part of that was a weirdly huge relief.
"Anyway." I said, happy with my answer and ready to change the subject. "We're a week out from the Temple. Where is it by the way?"

He chuckled, taking a pull of his beer. "No man's land. It's a small system stuck in the middle of the territories of four of the factions. The Cult, Church, Fairyland and Empire surround it, so no one faction has too much influence. As a consequences, the entire system is kind of a horrifying free for all of bandits, space pirates, and criminals who have escaped all the other territories. They leave the Temple itself alone, of course, so they don't give everyone else a reason to clean the place out."

"So...should we be worried about that? Are we in no man's land yet?" I hadn't considered we might get attacked in this ship. It was owned by an A-ranker after all, but hearing we were in some kind of lawless wasteland wasn't super comforting.

He shrugged. "Probably? Who knows. There are bandits that might try it, depends if we run into them. We're just inside the limit of no man's land, so it's possible. Most of the time I'd say we were safe, but the trials will have attracted a ton of factions large and small, chances are good that includes more dangerous bandits hoping to try their luck."

"And you guys can...handle that, right?" He didn't SEEM worried, but there was a non zero chance that Zeke wasn't capable of feeling personal fear anymore. I'd never seen him show any evidence of it, so I decided to operate on the assumption that he just didn't worry about his own mortality at all.

His shrug this time came with a wolfish. "Probably. Who knows?" He repeated. At my glare, he rolled his eyes. "Listen, don't worry about that kind of stuff."

"Why?" I said hopefully. "Because you guys have it under control?"

"Nah." He snickered. "Because if something comes along that can kill us there's nothing you could do about it anyway. No sense stressing for no reason."

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Thanks Zeke. That's comforting." I'd been expecting something a bit more reassuring.

"Look kid." Said my uncle with a sigh. "Let me tell you a secret that all Ascendants learn eventually. It's not cultivation based exactly, so I can share without repercussions, but this is a truth you'll need to accept if you want to make it in very far. Don't worry about it."

I blinked at him. "That was a lot of build up just to change your mind and rug pull me."

He rolled his eyes. "No, idiot. Don't worry about it IS the advice. Between abilities, recursion, fate sense, monsters, objects, and just random assholes doing random asshole things, our entire world is a dumpster fire of unrelenting chaos. The universe is a twenty way intersection interspersed with train tracks with no stoplights, where all the cars are made of explosives and the only speed limit is 'floor it'. If you don't learn to roll with the punches you're going to go crazy."

"So I just...what?" I said. "Accept that I could die at any second? That my friends could die at any second? What kind of life is that?"

His look made it clear he thought I was an idiot for even saying that. "Does not accepting it change anything? A random S-rank piece of space junk could punch through the hull of this ship and smash your head clean off right this second and you'd never see it coming. Does that mean it's something you should worry about? Just take things as they come, because constantly asking what if accomplishes nothing."

That actually made WAY too much sense. I'd always gotten a sort of 'devil may care vibe' from my uncle. Not like he didn't care about ME, but like everything that happened he took with the sort of casual nonchalance you would expect from someone who got slightly less than the full pound of cheese they paid for at the supermarket.

But learning about his little philosophy explained a LOT. No wonder he never seemed to freak out about anything. Because he was right, crazy shit happened to Ascendants all the time, if you got thrown by everything weird you stumbled on you'd have a nervous breakdown. Hell, worrying about what could go wrong would be a full time job.

Hell, in some ways I'd kind of already stumbled on this little pearl of wisdom on my own. I'd been trying to live in the now and not worry so much about the future for a while, I just hadn't really put it into those exact words. I could understand his point, but I honestly felt like he might be kind of overdoing it with the devil may care attitude. "Ok then." I said with an annoyed hiss. "Then when, exactly am I ALLOWED to worry. Because you can't just completely ignore all your problems can you?"

"Of course not." He said calmly. "I said take them as they come, not ignore them completely. Stay loose, keep on your toes, be ready to react to anything. It's a cultivated mind set, no pun intended. Like the ship, don't worry about whether we'll get attacked, there's people lined up to deal with that kind of thing. It's above your paygrade, so just don't worry about it."

"Like I asked earlier." I repeated. "When do I start worrying? What grand sign do I wait for that tells me that it's officially time for me to start giving a shit about my own survival." I was getting frustrated by his casual dismissal of my concerns. I understood the concept, but it was annoying to talk to someone who essentially just told you to blow everything off.

He started to shrug again, but pitched sideways suddenly, eyes narrowing with annoyance as the floor, no, the BUILDING under us rolled below our feet. He glanced down at his beer, which had spilled while he was distracted, and growled in annoyance as he put it down, sucking on his shirt so as not to waste the alcohol.

I stared at him, eyes wide in fear, and he grinned back at me, glancing up towards the ceiling. "Well, I don't know about you, but I kind of feel like THAT might have been the sort sign you were thinking of." Standing up, he offered me a hand up from where I'd been thrown against the side of the booth. "Here, come with me. Seems like we might have company on this little trip."

"And what?" I demanded, batting his hand aside to stand on my own. "You want to show them to me so I can die terrified?"

Rolling his eyes, he started out the door. "No, moron. I want to show you that worrying accomplishes nothing. If the sky falls, someone will be there to catch it. Us being attacked isn't your problem, it's Killian's and to an extent mine. So I'm going to escort you to the observation deck so you can watch us take care of business, and then maybe you can calm the hell down a bit."

"I've seen you fight before." I said with a scowl as I followed after him. "It was plenty scary, but that doesn't mean you can handle everything."

"You've seen me play around." He sneered. "Those were chump change B-rankers with almost no battle experience. I'm near the peak of B-rank kid, I can fight fucking A-rankers, and have done a time or two. You need to see a real battle between your old uncle here and some heavy hitters so you can stop underestimating me and relax."

I wasn't entirely sure he was right about that, but as we bolted through the ship toward wherever he was taking us, I had to admit I didn't care that much. I was going to see a real high ranking battle...in space. Whatever his reasoning for showing it to me I'd be an idiot to pass up the chance. I was currently scared out of my wits about the attack, but at the same time I couldn't stop my heart from pounding in anticipation. This was going to be good.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Apparently the others had noticed the huge influx of people bolting for the observation deck, because they fell into step with me as I ran. Zeke was with me, but while he was definitely moving at running SPEED, I noticed at a second glance that he was mostly just strolling with purpose.

Benny was the first person to catch up, with Callie on his heels, though neither of them was going at top speed obviously. "What the hell is going on?" Asked my best friend in a bewildered tone. "Did we hit turbulence or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "We're in space, dipshit. Turbulence is like...air currents or something. There's no air in space."

"There's no air in your skull." He grumbled. "No brain either."

I sneered at him. "Brutal comeback. You've clearly been secretly developing a repartee Skill."

"You're both equally morons." Said Callie helpfully. "Now can you please focus and tell us what's happening? Because if we're sprinting across this damned ship for no reason I'm going to kick someone in the throat." I snickered at her exasperation. She didn't really begrudge us our bickering, she just felt like she needed to keep us on task.

So I filled them in on what I knew about no man's land and how Zeke said we were probably getting attacked. Callie glared at my uncle. "You couldn't have TOLD us this before?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, not really relevant. At least until it was. Can't spend all your time worrying about what might happen." Finally we arrived at...the sky? But not the sky, a wall that looked like the sky. The edge of the section of the ship that looked like it was outdoors. Zeke help up a hand and pressed it against the wall, and a panel slid open, letting is into a large open metal hallway. This was the portion of the ship that was actually shiplike, and we'd never even been in here. "Follow the hall that way." He said, pointing to the left. "I have to go check in with Kill."

Then he was gone. Nice to know what it looked like when Zeke actually hurried. We followed his directions, and came out in a massive domed chamber where the rest of our friends and associates were waiting. "You guys!" Called Jessie, waving us over. "Glad you made it so quick. Blake was about to come look for you."

She gestured at our host's son, who cheerfully mirrored her earlier wave. I nodded back. "Ok, so Zeke said we were under attack and sent us here to the...observation deck? What actually is this place?"

Blake pointed to the wall, where I could see a shitload of stars. "Ok, so this is an A-ranked ship. I'm sure you noticed, of course, that you aren't being smashed into paste standing inside it. That's because the Impact is all being routed to various enchantments. Defensive runes, quality of life stuff, there's a whole industry for shipbuilding. Interspersed throughout the bindings engraved on every inch of the ship are millions of Perception runes, which aside from doing various tasks are also connected to this room, creating a complete 360 degree image of the space outside, though obviously not to scale."

Looking around, I saw that the dome DID have images of space on it. Lots of space, tons of tiny stars showing the area around us. Blake led us over to one of the walls after spotting movement and drew a circle before tapping it. The area inside the circle zoomed in, showing a pair of men in large grey cloaks holding bows, with a huge man standing behind them rippling with muscle, his face completely covered by a black metal helm shaped like a skull.

"Shit." Cursed Blake. "Those assholes shouldn't have messed with us." At our look, he pointed at the brothers. "Those are Valak and Carus Brightwind. Exiled A-rank elven archers from the Faerie Land. They lurk around here and hit ships as they pass by, but they shouldn't hit something as big as the Necromedes. The Zayne Clan is way out of their weight class." He pulled up a screen on his scan ring, flipping through a bunch of images.

"Ah, damn it." He threw the image he'd stopped on, projecting it up next to the circle. "That would be the reason they're willing to pick this fight. Archers aren't great at up close combat, and at A-rank that can be a long distance. That guy with them is Fabian Rayner, captain of Bone Ghost Pirates. Which means there's probably more of them around here."

Before he could go on, a booming voice rolled over the observation room. "Can you idiots not?" Asked the lazy drawl of my uncle. Blake drew another circle, and zoomed in to find Zeke and Killian standing on another asteroid, looking relaxed next to a short older man with tanned skin and black hair going grey at the temples.

"Oh shit!" Said Blake, flinching back from the image. "Grandpa sent Great Uncle Miles?" At our looks of confusion, he explained. "My Grandpa's brother is the closest person in the family to S-rank. Grandpa founded the clan, but he didn't do it alone. Great Uncle Miles is his brother and right hand, and he's in the high A-ranks. Rayner is strong, according to this but not as strong as Miles."

The skull masked figure let out a loud, rumbling laugh. "Miles Zayne." He boomed. I wasn't sure how we could even hear any of this. I guessed they were projecting their voices somehow to be heard through the vacuum of space. High level Ascendant bullshit probably. "They sending you on babysitting missions now?"

A calm, measured voice rolled across the room, somehow quiet despite its absurd volume. "Shouldn't matter, Rayner. Not if you have the sense the gods gave a rock. Who gave you the guts to try to pick a fight with a Zayne family ship? And with just a pair of ragtag point ear stick flingers?"

Rayner spread his arms wide. "And who exactly told you I JUST brought the Brightwinds?" The air behind Miles, Zeke, and Killian blurred, and a shadowy figure flashed forward, driving a dagger at my Uncle's back. A ghostly outline faded into being behind him, the form of a spectral knight, and the fire smashed into and through it. When the figure hit Zeke though, the weakest of the group, it passed right through him.

Miles hand went to his belt, drawing a sword, and a dozen ghostly blades formed around him, all superimposing on the black cleaver like monstrosity in his hand as he hacked at the shadow. There was a flicker and the figure vanished, appearing next to the skull masked pirate, holding an arm lashed open with the spectrally imbued sword.

Zeke, who was fine and not where he'd been standing a second ago, just laughed. "Morons. First rule of fighting up ranks is make sure you're never where it looks like you are. Did you idiots really think I'd just stand there to get backstabbed?"

The injured figure stepped forward, revealing a black robed man with a shining golden humanoid mask. "How did you sense me?" He hissed, his voice blasting through the room like the rustle of dead leaves over gravestones. "I should have been undetectable to a B-ranker, not to mention no illusion you made should have been that effective." He sneered Zeke's rank like it was an insult.

"Well you see, what I did was..." Zeke paused. "Oh wait, I'm not a fucking moron, so I'm not going to tell you that." Snapping his fingers, a bag appeared, and he dropped it on the asteroid, unzipping it and flicking his fingers. Ten masks rose out of the bag as he withdrew a robe, each coalescing into an identical robed figure as Zeke removed and eleventh mask and place it on his face.

The eleven figures were all completely indistinguishable from each other, and with another snap, they all vanished except the one who had been standing by the bag. Killian snickered. "Man, I don't envy you morons. I hate fighting Zeke. You never know which way is up. Even across a rank gap this is gonna be a bad time for you."

One of the archers stepped forward. Carus I think. "I'll take care of the gnat with the masks. Can the three of you handle the other two?"

His brother drew an arrow. "I've got the ghostling. You two can handle the old man together, can't you?" They didn't seem worried about being overheard, or maybe this weird projection speech only had one setting. I still had no clue how they were speaking audibly in space. Or breathing for that matter. Although I could hold my breath for a long time, so chances were good they could too. Maybe it was some kind of psychic speech.

Rayner nodded. "Miles is a tricky bastard, but Krian and I should be able to handle him two on one. He's not that much stronger than I am, and I have my own tricks."

That got a snort from Miles. "Rayner, I always heard you were Might focused, but with an imagination like that your Fantasy stat must be through the roof." He hefted his massive black cleaver sword over his shoulder, with a grin. The colossal blade was a jagged squared off hunk of dark sharpened metal lashed to a huge bone. It had a sort of awful necromantic beauty to it even without the glow from the inhabiting ghost blades.

Killing cracked his neck with a grin. "Whoever finishes first comes to help Uncle Miles. Or Zeke." He called over to the lone remaining figure. "Try not to die out there buddy."

Zeke snorted. "The day I'm in danger from some scumbag pretty boy elf with shooty shooty powers is the day I hang up my masks. Honestly, a bow? That's barely even a weapon. Might as well fling literal shit at me. How much do those arrows even cost? Because if they're A-rank they must be obscenely expensive."

Carus's face was turning purple with rage. Benny whistled next to me. "Damn Shane, no wonder you're so good at annoying people in combat. You came by that shit honest."

I snickered. "I still have a ways to go to reach that level. But hey, at least I have good examples both on and off the battlefield." He flipped me off but didn't take his eyes off the display, which was fair. Mine were glued to it too. I was actually torn between my excitement and worry for my uncle.

I'd seen people fight up ranks before. I knew percentage wise the difference in stats between someone at Zeke's level and the archer's was minimal, but still, it was a big Impact difference.

But as I stared at the screen, I paused. Why did Zeke have ten masks? I could have sworn back on Callus in the tournament he'd only had eight. Those last two (not to mention the one he was wearing, which I guess he hadn't needed before) must be newly made from the souls of those two bishops. One of them presumably had the conceptual dark skill the cult members seemed to love. I wasn't sure if it was the actual Enshrining Darkness ability Black Sorrow used or some kind of knock off, but it was damned powerful either way.

As Zeke bantered taunted the archer, I let my tense body relax. The excitement was still there, but the worry was washing away in the face of my uncle's confidence. If he was sure he could beat this guy I'd believe him. Besides, this was all just basic shit, I hadn't even seen any of them use their paths yet. Whatever was going to happen in this fight, I doubted it would be anything I was expecting. I'd just have to wait and see how it turned out. However that was, I was pretty sure I was about to see something amazing.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I watched in fascination as Zeke vanished from where he was standing. Seconds later, I saw him reappear some distance away as a massive arrow of light smashed into and vaporized the asteroid he'd been standing on. Miles and Killian had already moved to engage their own opponents, and I realized this view screen wasn't going to be good enough if we kept trying to watch everything.

"Can we make one of these circles just for Zeke?" I asked Blake. "I know you probably want to watch your dad and great uncle, but I want to see what my own uncle can do." I also wanted to make sure he didn't die horribly, but it seemed like a jinx to say it out loud.

He blinked at me. "Oh. Yeah, sorry. These are viewing portals. Watching A-rankers fight in real time is pretty much impossible, but the ship is A-rank and can keep up. It lets you watch as everything is happening. It's...my dad explained it, not slow motion, more like a kind of embedded imagery enchantment. In computer terms, you're watching normal frames per second, but each frame is a zip folder with a hundred images."

That was useful to know, but not as important as being able to watch Zeke. Blake, seeing my impatience, made another circle with his finger pushing it off to the side so we could go watch in private. He stayed behind, presumably to watch his Great Uncle Miles fight the other two. Meanwhile, when I resumed watching Zeke, I arrived just in time to catch him talking again.

"You know." He said conversationally as he poked a chunk of asteroid that floated by. "You might want to look into glasses. Eye strain can be a huge problem. Especially for snooty ass elves who have to constantly squint down at people from their high horse."

The end of the sentence was picked up by another chorus of voices as the ten other masked figures flickered into existence on nearby smaller floating space rocks.

Carus glared at them. "I don't know how you're doing that gnat, but mirroring your aura across all ten of those puppets won't save you. If I can't hit your copies one at a time with a single shot..." He trailed off, drawing the tall silver bow back slowly. Along its length, eleven lines of light coalesced, the points glowing like stars as Carus's eyes flickered. "I'll hit you all at once."

There was a ripple in the void around us as he spoke, his voice heavy and alien in a way I'd never experienced before. I knew without asking what this was. This was a Solid Path, at least. Probably one or two levels past that. Whatever that even was.

He released the string, and an explosive scramble of shooting stars spread out and smashed into every one of Zeke's clones, so fast that even through the weird slow motion of the viewing portals it was almost too quick to see. There was a deafening explosion and the forms of the masked figures were consumed in a conflagration of white light.

"Tsk. How gauche." Drawled my uncle's snide voice. "We were having such a nice talk. No wonder the elves kicked you and your brother out. Short tempers are a no-no for them. At least that's what my friend Alessa told me back when she ran with our little group."

Carus snarled loudly, spinning in place, clearly looking for my uncle. There was a flash of black as two of the masked figures appeared on either side of him and raised their hands. A storm of horrible conceptual dark shot through with red lightning consumed the elf, who screamed in pain. There was a series of arrows blasting free, tearing holes in the power, and it faded as the two figures vanished again.

I knew how Zeke was doing this, roughly. His mask didn't use stealth, it was an illusion effect. Probably enhanced by some other abilities, but regardless, Perception might not help as much here. The slightly ruffled and enraged elf was revealed as the darkness fell away. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" He screamed furiously. "Show yourself coward!"

Two more figures appeared, one yanking off his mask and throwing it at another. The mask slapped down on top of the first, a now bare faced Zeke vanishing as the mask glowed red, the two of them seeming to melt together. The figure gestured and the black chains we'd seen on Callus shot up, but this time the black was different. Like they were MADE of Enshrining Darkness.

Another pair of them appeared, one slapping its mask onto another as its robes fell to the rock below empty, no longer animated without a mask. The figure manifested the giant bow and arrow we'd seen him use against the bishops, but it was reinforced with red lightning. Zeke appeared next to it, smirking under his hood as he winked at the the elf. "How ironic is it that I'm going to kill you with archery?"

"That's not IRONY!" Howled the elf. "It's just a coincidence!" Zeke shrugged, snapping his fingers as a massive arrow made of red electricity barreled toward the elf. The archers eyes blazed with light again as he called his Path forward again, managing to draw his bow even with the chains taught, albeit just a bit.

A blinding arrow of light sheared through the chains and slammed into the asteroid below him, dropping him out from under the attack and into space. His foot came down as he stepped on starlight, vanishing and appearing on the other side of where Zeke and his masked alters were. He drew his bow again, a dozen arrows flashing toward my uncle, who threw up the same defensive barrier from the tournament before vanishing.

Carus was livid. "Why won't you just DIE!?" He screamed at the top of his lungs. Several places where the chains had touched his skin was blistered and cracked and his eyes were wild with pain and fear.

"Oooh, sorry!" Echoed nearly a dozen simultaneous voices. "We're all out of 'just die', perhaps I could interest you in some 'go fuck yourself'?"

The elf let a scream of incoherent rage and his hands blurred, a cosmic river of star tipped arrows blanketing the area around him. The various asteroids were reduced to powder as waves of white light consumed every inch of space within miles of the enraged A-ranker.

"That seemed uncomfortable." Noted the voice dryly. "Maybe it was something you ate?" This time, the voice was accompanied by all eleven of the figures appearing around the archer. Their hands came up, and a series of abilities harmonized together, condensing into a dark prison. A coffin like cube of dark energy manifested around the archer, red lightning playing over the prison as black chains wrapped it up securely.

Above the chain coffin, a massive bow, shining with that sharp yellow glow from last time and covered in purifying white flames. One of the figures stepped back, crossing their arms, and I saw that it was Zeke, the actual Zeke and not a copy, stroking his chin. "Is this derivative?" Then he shrugged. "Whatever, who doesn't love magic." He snapped his fingers ten times times and the bow released its arrow, redrawing and reorienting with each snap until the dark box was full of arrows.

The box began to shake unstably as the crackling red electricity built, and Zeke's eyes went wide. "Oh shit." He kicked off the empty space below him retreating fast and far enough to be clear of the blast radius when the box fucking EXPLODED in a conflagration of confusing conflicted energies.

"Huh." He said with interest. "I guess THAT'S what happens when you mix Enshrining Darkness and the Flames of Purification. Good to know. I wonder how much the other abilities amplified it though?" He was so distracted talking to himself he missed the white starlight arrow that sped out of the explosion and speared him through the chest. Zeke's eyes went wide and he stared down at the arrow, blood leaking from his lips. "Ok. Didn't see that coming."

"FINALLY!" Shrieked a livid voice from the dispersing cloud of energy. "You FINALLY shut up!" The archer looked...bad. Burns, bloody holes, but all of it was closing, albeit slowly. "I admit." Spat the enraged elf. "For a gnat, that was actually mildly alarming. But it takes more then that to kill an A-ranker, boy."

A pair of figures appeared on either side of my uncle, each grabbing an elbow. The same dark energy shield flashed into existence around the three of them, albeit not quite as close in. Zeke looked...bad. Blood was leaking from his mouth like a faucet, and his face was pale. His eyelids were fluttering weakly as if he could barely stay up, and I felt an icy claw of terror grip my heart.

"Damn." He burbled. "Really thought that would do it. I put a lot of power into that attack."

"Power?" Mocked the elf with a greasy sneer. "There wasn't even a Path in those blows. Is this the standard of a B-ranker from a major faction? I'd at least heard of you before, so I figured you might be worth something. It seems the other forces are just easily impressed."

My uncle actually looked offended at that. "Oh sure, mock me while you're punching down. Because it takes any skill at all to beat someone weaker than you. Plus you're stuck out there anyway. Is it really a defeat? I'm healing that arrow wound, albeit slowly."

Carus smirked. "Oh, is that right?" He raised his bow, and began to fire rapidly. The arrows slammed into and then stopped at the dark shield, suspended in air, but each on drove in deeper, cracks beginning to spread. He grit his teeth and shot faster, clearly winded by what he was doing. Once the shield collapsed, he stepped down once, like he was stepping on starlight, and appeared in front of Zeke.

He drew his bow again, and put a point blank arrow into Zeke, who screamed. His two constructs backed off as the elf archer approached, grabbing the fading white arrow and solidifying it just so he could twist it. Carus drew back his fist, and with a triumphant yell, punched it right through Zeke's head.

I cried out in anguish, but before I had a chance to react past that, one of the hooded figures appeared behind Carus and tapped him on the shoulder. As Carus stared in confusion at the shattered porcelain floating around his non blood covered fist, the figure flipped down his hood, revealing ZEKE'S FACE on the back of the hooded figure's head.

It reached up and tore the face of my uncle clear of its nonexistent skull, and as Carus turned around, slapped Zeke's face right on top of the elfs. The archer panicked, hands shooting up to claw at Zeke's face on his body, even as the face began to laugh. The other figures all appeared, chains lashing out to hold him still as all eight of them (not the one that had been shattered by the punch) grabbed onto the chains and pulled, yanking the elf spread eagled.

The lone remaining figure unoccupied reached up and removed his mask, revealing another Zeke, who snicked at the struggling A-ranker. "Janus is the god with two faces, moron. But thanks for letting me soften you up. How's that for a Path?" Reaching into his ring, he drew out a pair of gloves. "Now compensate me for that damn mask you pointy eared fuck."

As he drove both hands into the chest of the elf, we all stared in shock at my uncle killing an A-ranked. Callie swallowed hard, looking up at the screen in a mixture of awe and fear. "Remind me not to piss off your uncle. Like...ever." I just nodded dumbly. No shit.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We all stared in shock as Zeke ripped the soul from an A-ranker, just in time for Killian to appear next to him with a whistle. "Shit, that was brutal, you're still as terrifying as ever. Honestly I think you'd have hit A-rank before I did if you didn't keep killing all the witnesses every time you got in a tough fight."

Zeke reached over and snagged a broken mask shard from the air. "I need materials. These things always get broken in big fights." He grimaced at the thing. "Shit, this was my Piercing Metal mask. Armor penetration is always super useful." He kicked the floating elf corpse that he'd freed from the chains after the soul was removed. "Smarmy pointy eared bastard."

Killian chuckled. "Well hey, at least you got the soul. You think you even make a mask out of an A-ranker?" I couldn't remember if Zeke's power could do that either, though I knew he needed materials.

"It's fine." Said my uncle with a wave. "My Archery mask will provide a solid platform to attach it to. The soul has been fully integrated into that one and elevated the quality of the porcelain infinitely close to A-rank. I'll have to structure the enchantments carefully, but it should be more than suitable. Plus I can add his path to the arrows." He pocketed the flask containing the soul as he put away his gloves.

Killian just shrugged. "Fair. Let's go help Uncle Miles. He's going two on one, and Rayner is proving to be shockingly competent."

Zeke shook his head. "You go. I put way too much into that. The capture only worked because I channeled my whole Path into the mask at the end, plus the fake out arrows and the attack that softened him up were mind numbingly draining. Unless you need me?"

Killian shrugged. "Nah. Already killed mine, and Uncle Miles and I use similar abilities, so we can synergize easily enough. I just figured it would be fun to fight together again." Turning on his heel, he vanished, even as Zeke groaned and did the same. Assuming he probably wasn't coming right back to watch the fight with us, and assured he was ok, I walked over to join Blake at his own viewing portal, where he was watching Miles do his thing.

Much like Carus, Miles was obviously using has Path liberally. He was also using what appeared to be a weapon mastery with that sword, as a massive blade of condensed ghostly death was raining down blows on Rayner. The black masked man had condensed a manifestation of his own above himself, this one a massive version of his own body, arms made of the same dark metal as his mask.

Miles probably would have won, except he kept having to deflect dagger strikes from the rapidly appearing and vanishing gold masked man, who was emitting a concentrated air of death energy of his own. Weirdly, despite the similarities, the two auras were as different as night and day. Miles's Path was the chill of the grave and the ghostly, while the masked man seemed to be channelling the sudden ending of a life.

To my surprise, one of the daggers actually caught Miles along the ribs on the last attack, deflected too late, and the old Ascendant snarled, raising his cleaverlike blade. A dozen ghostly outlines of identical blades manifested around him, superimposing themselves on the manifestation of the blade, and the sword began to literally hum with power.

I wasn't sure at first why this seemed so different than last time, but the I spotted Killian standing to one side and realized what was happening. Those blades were made of ghosts, and Killian had just poured in his own ghost army to subsidize Miles's full power attack.

The gold masked guy didn't even bother to pretend to thing about it, he just dipped out, vanishing instantly. Rayner, frozen in fear, only had time to say "Shit." Before the colossal manifestation of that huge terrifying sword swung down like a headsmans blade and BISECTED both the construct and the pirate lord who had made it.

The two halves of him floated gently away from each other, bobbing in space, and I winced. It just went to show how easy battles could turn. It went from two to one against Miles to two to one against Rayner. That assassin was just gone the second things got bad.

"Alright, well...that was over faster than the other fight." I said in mild disappointment. I had been hoping to see another awesome display like Zeke had shown us.

Blake shrugged. "Most fights are like that. We had way more firepower and just crushed them. Granted, Great Uncle Miles is a monster, even for an A-ranker. He'd probably have ended them even sooner if that assassin wasn't directly restraining him. But once dad showed up, the assassin stopped the attack. Can't really backstab without leaving your own back open."

Killian appeared next to Miles. "Hey, you ok? Saw he got you." The words weren't echoing through the room anymore, but the viewing portal was still picking them up.

Miles coalesced a small, ghostly knife, then jammed it into the gash in his side, working it in slowly. After a second he managed to lever out a shard of dark smoking...something. "I'm fine." He grunted. "Don't get to my age without learning to deal with poison. That's a nasty one though. Hopekiller. Lucky he got me and not you, your vitality ain't near enough to suppress it."

He fished out a vial, stowing the dark smokey fragment, then put it away. "Let's get back. The assassin will be gone after losing his backup. Maybe this will be enough to dissuade any of the other. Rayner had a hell of a reputation out here, and killing him is bound to be intimidating to some." His sword vanished and he cracked his neck with a groan. "I hope so, because I could use a nap."

Killian chuckled, then turned his head, and somehow, his eyes fixed right on the viewing portal. "Why are you still watching us?" Echoed his voice through the hall, once again projecting loudly. "Tell everyone to get back to work, and let our guests move on with their day. Show's over Blake." Then he snapped his fingers and the portal disappeared, along with all the others, leaving us looking at a massive empty sky of stars.

I could just barely notice a speck in the distance if I focused, and with my Perception could probably have seen something if I looked hard, but it wasn't worth pissing off an A-ranker.

"Well." Blake said loudly. "You all heard him. Get back to work if you're a crew member, and if you're not enjoy your day." He turned to us. "I can take you to the docking bay they probably used. Zeke should be there still,I'm sure you all want to check on him."

We did, so we thanked him and he led us out of the observation dome and off down the hallway. It didn't take as long as I'd expected to come to a large open metal room with an open doorway off the ship on one side. There was a screen of green light across the doorway, and I saw Zeke slumped over a chair, taking long pulls from a very large bottle of liquor.
He finished his swallow and set the bottle down, nodding as he saw us. "Kids. I take it you enjoyed the show?" His smug tone made it clear that he knew we had. Which was fair, he had reason to be smug, it had been impressive as hell.

Abel chuckled. "You were in total control of that whole encounter for the entire fight. Every single action you took was bait for what happened next, wasn't it?" He sounded almost awed. "Would that initial arrow attack have even done anything to him if it had landed?"

"Not a thing." Zeke said casually. "Which is why it didn't. If there's one lesson I can teach you, it's that raw power isn't what decides a battle. Control is. Your enemy should never make a move you weren't expecting them to make. HOW they make the move can vary, but at the end of the day, they should be attacking when you want them to, defending when you want them to, and catching you when and if you want them to."

"So that whole thing with the copy of you getting shot?" I asked in amazement. "You knew that was going to happen? From the very beginning?"

He shrugged, taking another pull. "Of course I did. Otherwise the one who got shot might have been the real me. The same with the punch, I even framed myself up nice and perfect with a pair of masks just to make sure he was focused on the right me. The whole fight was a shell game."

"What about the mask?" I asked, putting my finger on one thing that had been confusing me. "You mentioned it was a Path ability you used. Why didn't it feel like one? When Carus used his I could sense it. Same with Miles. It like...changed reality. Like most Paths seem to do."

Zeke sneered. "Showoff nonsense. I make masks. Masks are discrete objects meant to conceal and confuse. How could my Path be the kind of noisy trash you can see at a glance. The power, much like all identifying features, lies UNDER the mask. Everything I did in that fight was in accordance with my Path, it just wasn't blatant. That last attack was definitely leaning into it pretty hard though."

"Yeah, what was with that?" I said, thinking of the crazy switch he'd pulled off. "Is that the nature of a mask too? Because I've seen your masks eat people, but that was almost like you were becoming him."

"Don't worry too much about that." He said with a wave. "Suffice to say that the concealment of a mask isn't always beneficial. I suppressed his personality. As for the mask I used, it has to do with the nature of my ability and my legend. That kind of thing isn't something you'll need to worry about until much later."

Did that mean that the next step in Path usage was to fuse your solid Path with your identity as an Ascendant? Or even an older story? I shook that off. I wasn't even finished learning to use the Path I had. Zeke was right, I had a long way to go before I needed to think about the next step.

Still, Zeke had made his point, in a way. He hadn't been lying in wait to get attacked, he'd reacted when it came. Whats more, he'd shown me that rolling with the punches didn't mean you had to constantly improvise. Plans and tactics were still useful and possible during short term engagements. I was sure part of the reason he'd done it this way was so I didn't abandon my attempts to think things through.

Zeke listened to all of our questions, deflecting most of them, and drained his bottle of what I was pretty sure was bourbon. Then, when he was finished, he bid us all goodnight and headed back to his room to sleep. I suspected he was much more exhausted than he was letting on.

I said my goodbyes to everyone and Callie and I decided to take some time to ourselves. Just walk around and digest some of what we'd seen and learned. Not training, we were still trying to take some time off, but just think things over.
Besides which, once we emerged back out into the ship, we were able to bask in the lovely scenery. Just a nice long walk with my girlfriend as we hurtled through space on a giant block of enchanted metal. My life could be pretty cool sometimes. What would it be like when I reached Zeke's level? I couldn't wait to find out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite my insistence on not training for the week, I still used the opportunity aboard the ship to get my wishes all done. At seven points per wish and forty two per day, the week netted me a full two hundred ninety four points. I made sure they were all in Creation, evening out my weakest stat a bit. It was a nice little bump as we approached the temple, getting me just that little bit more ready.

Other than that, we just hung out. Spent time together as a group, and just generally enjoyed our last few days of prep before we arrived at the temple. One the seventh day, I got a call from Zeke and Killian, telling me and the others to meet the in the observation dome.

We all packed up and headed over there, and when we arrived, we found them both relaxing in a pair of chairs, stargazing. "Shane!" Said my uncle with a wide grin. "We just arrived. Thought you might want to see a distance view of the place you're going to be spending a significant amount of your time for the next few weeks at least." He took a long pull off the icy blue drink with the swirly straw he was sipping.

Stepping up next to him, I rolled my eyes. "And you needed to show us this lounging on beach chairs and sipping icy poolside drinks?"

"NEED to?" He said with a scoff. "I NEED to do very few things. It's one of the main perks of being me. Basically baby sitting you is the only thing I need to do. Speaking of which, look at the temple and quit interrupting my starbathing." He flopped back down, fully dressed and seemingly unconcerned that 'starbathing' wasn't a real thing.

Still, I stepped past him, gazing into the viewing portal that was already open and gaping at the site of the Ruined Soul Temple in all its majesty.

Our destination floated in space, built atop a large chunk of rock that was flat on top but looked like it had been scooped out of the ground with a spoon or something. The building was made of burnished bronze, the metal glowing with an unearthly light. Golden symbols blazed, throbbing like a beating hear, scrawled across every surface, but they weren't carved into the bronze, instead seemed to be permanently branded onto it with energy.

The temple was surprisingly small, at least the main building, and it was open enough to see that it wasn't bigger on the inside. Just a small well kept area, at the center of which sat a bronze brazier, blazing with a golden light that pulsed in time with the symbols around it. The brazier seemed to be the center point of all the symbol chains, each of them feeding into the golden flame.

Surrounding the small building was a huge web of intricate golden runes and symbols, with open spots where large circles showed the perfect image of a thousand golden lotuses.

There was something sacred about the building, something holy. The bronze looked old and weathered, but it was still whole, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why it was called 'Ruined'. I whistled, and Zeke chuckled from where he slumped in his chair. "Yup. It's always a pretty interesting sight. Your parents and I were in one of these trials, along with Killian and a few of our other friends."

"That's the Ruined Soul Temple?" Callie said in confusion. "Why do they call it ruined? Looks pretty well maintained to me."

Zeke shrugged. "How the hell should I know? Who has any idea why people refer to anything as anything. Ascendants are absurd sometimes. All I know is that while you can always access certain parts of the temple, the trials are only open for a limited time. We got here on schedule, so the Temple should open later today. Don't bother trying to get a position closer to the building, it doesn't really matter anyway."

I squinted at the viewing portal. If I paid close attention I could vaguely make out a tiny shape in an elaborate dress. "Is that Bethy?" I asked, pointing to the figure.

"Probably." Said Zeke with a shrug. "Lark showed up after we left, and he's bound to have faster methods of transport. An A-rank ship is impressively fast, but Lark is the kind of person who can demand teleportation services on a whim. Hell, he could have had a whole ship teleported. He probably brought his daughter straight here."

I wondered if he was still around. Despite the terror of everything I'd heard, I kind of wanted to meet him at this point, just to see if he lived up to the hype.

Everyone seemed excited that Bethy was here, at the very least. And the massive metal clad blonde figure besides her was probably Gabriel. She'd offered him a ride last time we talked, and apparently he'd decided to come along. I hoped they'd gotten Satala settled. From what I was told, The Vampire was offering her protection, so I doubted there had been much trouble, but I kind of worried about her stuck back in the Glade alone.

"So." Said Killian, cutting off my train of thought. "You'll be taking the shuttle down there, same one that brought you onboard. It'll be a quick trip, but we can't get too close with such a big ship or we might activate the Temple defenses. There's plenty of pretty terrifying destructive capabilities hidden under that fancy exterior."

I tried to glance over the symbols, seeing if I could recognize them, but no luck. Whether that was because it was some abstruse form of powerful enchanting I'd never seen, or if these were homebrewed symbols the architect threw together on the fly, I had no idea, but the whole place might well have been painted blue and covered with glitter for all the mystical understanding I gleaned from studying it.

It only took us about twenty minutes to board the shuttle and get ferried down to the base of the temple. To no surprise, Zeke didn't follow us off the ship. He waved us goodbye, telling us it was the general agreement that high ranking Ascendants stay off the platform until after the trial. No one had ever figured out how to successfully cheat in the trial that they knew of, but none of the factions wanted to be in competition when the first person did.

There were a surprising number of people here, but I didn't see anyone I would consider unusually similar looking to myself or dad. I had no clue what my sister actually even looked like. I decided to head over and talk to Gabriel and Bethy. The Crusader probably had a better chance of knowing where she was.

When we arrived, the bouncy Vampire noticed us first. She squealed with glee, hurling herself onto Callie and I. "Friends! Hey guys! It's so good to see you. I'm glad you made it. Daddy said this trial is pretty boring, and that going with friends should help."

"So is your dad sticking around?" I said, looking around. Whether to confirm he was here or that he wasn't I didn't know, but I was curious either way.

She shrugged. "Who knows. He might stay and sleep on the ship, or he might be hiding behind that pillar over there." She pointed at a pillar, but after a slight pause, she nodded seriously. "He's not behind the pillar I don't think. Now we're narrowing things down."

Callie giggled at that, and I had to smother a grin myself. Same old Bethy. I turned to Gabriel. "Hey man. So...you said the Star Queen was going to be here. And her daughter. I don't suppose you've actually MET Chelsea before? Because I could use an introduction." I offered my hand as I spoke, and he took it, shaking briefly and then pulling away.

"No." He said firmly. "She's far too important to run into someone like me. I might be an Adamant, but I'm still an F-ranker. Even the leader of my sub branch isn't higher than D-rank. Chelsea is the little princess of the Radiant Papacy, she's far more important than any of us."

Bethy gave a pointed cough and narrowed her eyes at him, pouting. "Excuse me? Speak for yourself, I'll have you know I'm very important. Maybe you're just giving your little crush too much credit."

"Please don't even joke about that." Said Gabriel warily, looking around in concern. "There are multiple juniors of the church here that would burn me alive if they even suspected I was harboring those kinds of intentions. The Judgement Pope's grandson has a well known affection for her, and his purifying flames are at the Master rank. I could probably hold my own in that fight, but I'd rather not have to do it just because you don't think I'm giving you enough credit."

For someone like Gabriel to be worried about losing to another person they must be a monster. Gabriel's Path was that of the Adamant, always charging forward and never losing. I knew that there was some selective combat mixed in there, since if he fought an E-ranker he'd lose, nevermind someone like a D-ranker. Still at his own rank it must be a scary person who could intimidate him.

The flames of purification were actually an ability I was familiar with, being one of Zeke's mask abilities. I still wasn't sure if that was the Red Revenant's actual ability or just a skillset he developed for his followers. The Church seemed to rely far less on the Revenant's specific gift than say, the Black Sorrow Cult, most of whom used at the very least a variation of their goddess's Enshrining Darkness almost universally from what I'd seen.

Regardless of the origin, being a Master at F-rank meant the guy had already undergone soul refinement the two levels possible. The peak of Green, the highest someone could reach at F-rank, was also called the Azure Soul Body. The soul solidified when you actually reached blue, and past that the only way to improve was to rank up. If you didn't reach the Azure Soul Body by F-rank reaching godhood would be impossible.

From what I'd been able to puzzle out, there were actually two soul ranks past violet, which was where the soul would naturally be in S-rank. In order to reach godhood your soul needed to have advanced those two thresholds ahead, or else you wouldn't be able to sustain the Impact needed to attain divinity, and your soul would shatter at the attempt.

People like the pope's grandson, had private heritages and training resources to help them reach their peak in time, but for the rest of us the Ruined Soul Temple was the only viable soul training mechanism. As a candidate I wasn't eligible for the WCP's heritage if it even had one. My family left me to fend for myself. But not Chelsea, at least not mom's side. I wondered what she was like?

Gabriel seemed to sense my thoughts and sighed. "I can, however, accompany you over to speak to her. I don't know if she'll meet with you, but it can't hurt to try. If she doesn't you can always try again in the temple. That is, if you think you're ready?"

I froze, but only for a second. Callie's warm hand slipped into mine, squeezing gently, and it felt like she was pushing calmness and serenity right into me. I let out a long breath. "Alright." I said firmly. "Yeah, take me over to her. The temple doesn't open for a while yet. Before that happens...I want to meet her. Introduce me."

He nodded solemnly, clapping me on the shoulder and turning to head off into the crowd nearby. Bethy, meanwhile, bounced up and down with a squeal, clapping her hands."Oh this is so exciting! Meeting a new sibling is always so much fun. I've met a bunch of mine, and they're usually super nice. Except Varis. He was mean, but daddy ate him so its ok." I winced at the casual way she mentioned that. Note to self, don't ask about Bethy's family.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Gabriel led us off around the central building, through the crowds and over the various symbols until we came to a group of young people on the other side. There were almost a dozen of them, holding court around a few central figures. Three of them exactly, actually. One girl with strange miscolored hair, intermittent locks of black and white, and the same green eyes I saw in the mirror every day.

Next to her stood a tall red haired guy about my age, with a haughty sneer on his face, absurdly gaudy red and gold robes, and amber eyes. The man on the other side had black hair and slate grey eyes and wore a somber expression over his suit of gunmetal grey armor.

"Lady Chelsea doesn't want to talk to deal with your monotonous drudgery, Vincent." Sneered red hair. "If she wanted to be bored out of her skull she wouldn't be attending the trials at all."

The dark haired guy chuckled. "I suspect any level of boredom is worth avoiding your presence Nathaniel." He said in a soft, steely voice. "But I think Lady Chelsea can speak for herself. Unless you're claiming the marriage proposals your grandfather has been sending his holiness have been accepted."

The world warped around the hands of the red haired man as white fire blazed into existence. I'd expected to be blown away by the power of Master ranked Flames of Purification, but since Zeke's were higher than that it made sense that these weren't that impressive.

In order to reach D-rank you needed to achieve a Path, but this guy had done something closer to what I had. He'd reached master rank with the flames (presumably he was on the job system so they were just a skill), so they had BECOME his Path. Just an Illusionary Path, mind you. My Skill had evolved into a Solid Path early, but still, he had already taken the step that would bring him to D-rank.

Gabriel grimaced. "That's the current youngest disciple of the Twilight Pope. Vincent Landrey. And the grandson of the Judgement Pope, Nathaniel Davies. They don't get along, and Lady Chelsea is the target of both of their affections. Don't worry though, the Saintess never sends her daughter anywhere without protection." He gestured to where a VERY large blonde man with a braided beard had stepped up behind the girl I suspected was my sister.

"The Lady." Boomed the giant, who had to be at least seven feet tall. "Chooses her own company, and she doesn't wish to entertain either of you brats. Get lost before I stomp your teeth in and wear your faces for shoes."

Gabriel actually grinned at that. "And that." He said smugly. "Is Callen Windermere. The high Crusader. Strongest F-ranker in the holy order. Technically each papacy has their own high crusader, but Callen is the Radiant High Crusader, and is generally considered the strongest of all of them. His Holiness supplies Callen with resources in exchange for his decision to halt at F-rank and wait for Lady Chelsea to Ascend."

The two puffing peacocks both looked unhappy, and I saw the redhead actually consider attacking, but apparently Callen was scary enough to make an F-ranked Master worried, because he whirled and stalked off. Chelsea pouted up at the man. "I didn't need you to do that Cal. If I don't scare them off myself they'll never stop pestering me."

The giant let out a booming laugh and reached down to tousle her hair, getting a yowl of annoyance from my sister as she batted at his hand. He ignored it as he beamed down at her. "I know, little one, but if you cripple or kill one of them it'll cause trouble for his Holiness. Best to let me play the bad guy. It's what I'm here for."

She snorted. "As long as you know I can handle myself." She stifled a small smile. "It WAS rather funny seeing them flee from you."

Callen's eyes, so full of good cheer, became chips of ice as he tensed, seeming to sense something. He looked up to see us, but his eyes stopped when he saw Gabriel. His brows furrowed, and then smoothed out at recognition hit. I took that as my chance to approach, and Gabriel nodded to the big man and to my sister in turn. "High Crusader, Lady Chelsea. Greetings to you both."

"Brightlaw." Said Callen, as if he'd just solved a puzzle. "Archbishop Julian's son. You're an Adamant. How is that going?"
Gabriel stood a bit taller. "Quite well sir. I recently returned from the incident at the Moonsong Glade. I've even been offered a spot in the Horizon Citadel after the trial if I do well."

The big man nodded. "Impressive. I hope to see you there. I'll be attending with her ladyship once she breaks through to E-rank. Why don't you introduce us to your companions. They certainly seem like interesting people." I was having some trouble getting a bead his age. He was older than us, but if the Horizon Citadel was a school he wasn't THAT much older. Most of the impression of age came from him being giant and bearded.

Gabriel nodded. "Right. This is Bethany Lark, youngest daughter of Morgan Lark. This is Nightstrike, and her boyfriend Solomo-"

"Shane." I cut him off. My eyes glued to my sister as I held out my hand. "Shane Wyndham. My dad is Elijah Wyndham."
She froze, staring at me with wide eyes. We stood there like that, for a minute, before she seemed to realize where she was and cleared her throat. "Ah, well. Nice to meet you...Shane. My name is Chelsea Anders." Her tone was a bit shy, but not hostile, and I smiled with relief as she shook my hand. I also reveled in the knowledge of what my moms last name was. I'd never actually heard her maiden name mentioned, Zeke just referred to her as Sasha.

I wanted to ask her more about herself, but when I opened my mouth her hand clamped down on mine harder. Her eyes were widened meaningfully, expression pleading with me not to say anything. I was confused, but I was willing to play along for a bit. "Of course." I said with a smile. "I've heard a lot about you."

"That's very flattering." She chirped. "But sadly I can't stay and chat. If fate wills it, we can meet again inside the trial. It's so crowded out here in any case. It's a terrible environment for getting to know someone."

Ah, she was afraid people would listen in. We could stealth, of course, but that only worked on similar levels of Ascendant or if the eavesdroppers weren't focused on you. Anyone stronger who was paying attention was more than capable of breaching our stealth with their higher Perception.

Patting me on the shoulder, she gave me another meaningful smile as she turned to walk away.

"Ouch." Hissed Benny from behind me. "That was rough man. I guess she doesn't want to talk? I'm sorry Shane, don't worry too much about it."

I cut him off, worried he might say something that tipped her hand. If she didn't want people hearing about us being related she probably had a reason. She hadn't struck me as a bitchy elitist, and her expression had contained some genuine fear. "It's fine. She was busy. I'm sure I can meet Lady Chelsea later. I didn't have any pressing business with her."

Benny hadn't been shaking her hand or standing right in front of her, so he hadn't noticed the subtext, but he wasn't stupid either. My hint was enough for him to realize what was up and shut his mouth about it.

The biggest shock for me was meeting Chelsea, and not just that, but seeing that she was the same age as me. I'd expected her to be a few years younger, maybe sixteen, but she looked to be about my age. She might just appear older, but if not, it meant Chelsea wasn't just my sister, she was my TWIN. No one had ever mentioned that, and for some reason it just made everything that much worse.

I'd always wanted a twin. It might be a weird thing to wish for, but the inherent closeness they share, the knowledge that you were essentially born with a best friend...I'd always been so jealous of that. Finding out I might have one of my own and had never been allowed to know her? I was angry, and sad, and frustrated, and a million other things that all swirled together into a miasma if misery in my gut.

Callie grabbed my hand, squeezing it. I don't think she knew exactly what I was thinking, but she could feel my pain, and she wanted me to know she was here for me. I squeezed back. Having her with me, watching over me, caring about me. It meant more than words could express. I didn't know how I'd have taken this alone, but I didn't have to find out either.

My questions could wait. They'd have to. Until then, we just had to head into the trial. Once we were in there I'd find Chelsea and finally talk to her about what was going on. Finally get a real chance to meet my sister. I glanced off the stone platform, out into the starry void. Powerful Ascendants waited, and watched, out of sight but not out of mind. They were probably the ones Chelsea had worried about tipping off. Well, some of them, because my mom was out there with them. My mom who I hadn't seen since I was a child. Who I had maybe one memory of.

Not the time for that. I'd worry about meeting mom later after I talked to Chelsea. My sister could tell me what happened when I was a kid, and there wasn't so much baggage there. I was really excited to meet her. She seemed like a fun person, and probably pretty strong based on her apparent desire to curb stomp an F-ranked Master.

Since it didn't matter where we ended up going in (that we knew of) we posted up nearby, claiming our spots. Twelve people wasn't a big crowd, but it wasn't the smallest group here either. I saw more than a few groups of one or two. Sitting down in one of the lotus circles, I looked around at my friends. "So, anyone know how this works? These are the entry circles right?"

Bethy nodded. "Yup. Daddy says these are some kind of powerful enchantment that will separate our soul and whisk it off into the trial. You can't die in there, but if your avatar gets hurt it'll cause soul damage. We also can't bring equipment in. Not really, anyway. We can bring in the images, but they don't have the same powers."

I cursed internally. That meant my staff was going to be staying out here. It didn't matter though, in the week of travel during my downtime, I'd been working on something new. The initial seeds of my own unique staff art, which would blend my Path and combat style together perfectly.

It wasn't DONE yet, obviously, but it would give me a leg up, especially since I'd already trained my soul halfway to yellow. While a lot of the elites here had gone further, there was a huge group of people. Most of them would probably be weaker than we were.

My thoughts were interrupted by a clanging sound, like a phantom bell that shook the ground we were sitting on. "It's time." Said Gabriel solemnly. "We should come in close together, but I'm not sure of anything. The rules change often, so don't take anything for granted." The brazier in the center of the building erupted in a fountain of golden flames, the energy sweeping out into the symbols and surrounding us, then the light was blotting out my vision, and we were falling.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The sensation of falling didn't let up as the light faded. When my vision cleared, I found that I WAS falling, plummeting really, through a massive and expansive cavers. A huge cylindrical shaft of stone rimmed with overgrown flora and beautiful waterfalls. They all gathered at the bottom, so far below it was hard to see, and the splashback created an impenetrable bank of mist.

Along the descent were beautiful islands full of lush greenery, linked together by rainbow bridges, and spread out like a wide staircase. My friends were nearby, but they seemed to be falling at different speeds. Abel was shooting downward faster than anyone else, I was falling the second fastest. As I fell, information was shoved into my mind, telling me exactly what was happening.

This was the trial of perseverance. I smirked internally because the powerful souls of the faction elite weren't going to help much with this. This trail pushed all of us to the bottom of the chute, and we all had to climb. The stronger your soul, the heavier the pressure weighing you down. Soul strain would press down on each of us at all times, making the journey all the more difficult for the strong.

For the moment, we were all just freefalling, though it was taking a while to get to the bottom. "Whoooo!" Squealed a familiar voice. I turned to see Bethy using a shawl she'd pulled from nowhere to catch the wind like a flying squirrel. "This is so much fun!" I remembered what she said about forms of items staying the same. I grabbed at my jacket, trying to do the same.

It...sort of worked. I looked around, trying to glide towards Callie. When I got close enough I was able to grab her hand, and was delighted to see that when I did the weight on me reduced. Of course, the weight on HER increased, but between the two of us it kind of evened out.

Despite the fact that items didn't work though, Skills still should. I reached for my overlay, looking for possible ways out of this. I noticed a few golden arrows, and grinned as I confirmed my Path had a way out. I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running. Stepping on the air, I followed the golden arrows, and the power of my Path shielded Callie and I from the pressure as I pushed off.

While there might be Masters here, there was no one else with a Solid Path that I was aware of. I had a unique advantage. Stepping off the air, I charged forward, heading for the nearest island, determined to start further up than everyone else. I wanted to bring my friends, but I couldn't reach them, I just had to trust they'd be ok. We could meet up later.

To my shock though, when my foot hit the air, I felt the weight return, slamming me down on the Ripple Running step. I gritted my teeth and took another, and the weight redoubled. I stared in desperation as the island. I had ten steps, but as far as I could tell, those steps would each double in difficulty at least. Callie had swung up onto my back, squeezing me tight, and I felt her lift some of the burden, letting me know she was with me.

I took a third step, then a fourth. My soul groaned, even with the training, but I was determined. One more step and I was halfway there. Ten steps to freedom, and I'd finished five. I pushed forward another step, and almost collapsed from the air with a scream. I refused though. This was training, good training too, my soul would improve here. I stepped again, seven down.

By the time I made the tenth step, my soul was cracking, it was about to break, but to my shock, as soon as my foot hit the island, not only did the pressure vanish, but a rush of cooling power flooded me, repairing the damage and elevating my soul strength by a level.

I slumped down on the grass, panting and shuddering, but I was still thrilled. Callie looked a little let down. Since the majority of the damage had been to me, I'd had more room to absorb the cleansing energy.

"Ok." I said with a gasp as I sat up. "I get it now. The walk along the rainbow bridges or trying to fly damages the soul. The stronger your soul is the more damage it does. When you reach the islands the energy there heals you, but there's a finite amount here. I can feel it depleting. So if you take too long to climb you lose out. The system rewards people willing to push through adversity to advance."

Callie grinned. "It's also a net loss for the stronger elites. The ones whose souls have already achieved perfection as the Azure Soul Body. Since they can't advance any more, the healing will just top their souls up to their original limits. How much did yours improve?"

"Five percent." I laughed. "But it was a fluke. The ability I used was something the trial didn't approve of, the damage redoubled and stacked. It meant I was under way more pressure than I should have been. I was pretty close to permanent damage, though I don't think I'd die if my soul broke here. I'm pretty sure this is just a portion of our souls, so even shattering would just kick us out."

She sat up next to me. "Alright. Then we need to rest a bit. How high up are we exactly?" I leaned out over the edge to look, trying to gauge the distance.

"I'd say three or four islands up." I said with a grimace. "Probably best I didn't try that higher up. I don't think I'd have managed at a higher island." I squinted through the mist. "I think someone landed on one of the lower islands though. We can take a minute, but we don't have too much time."

She nodded, giving me a minute to decompress and process. While we'd both been healed by the power of the island, I'd still just been functionally tortured for a few minutes. Mentally I needed to realign. Once my brain was working better, we headed across the small island and made it to the rainbow bridge. I held out my hand, but Callie shook her head.
"No. It might help, but we should make the most of this opportunity." She cracked her neck. "I'm way behind in terms of soul power, and I want to catch up."

"Works for me." I said with a smile. "Just be careful." Each of us took a long, slow breath, then we stepped out onto the rainbow. The first step was pretty easy, the second a bit harder. Taking the path laid out made the strain more gradual than fudging it to reach the island. Callie seemed to be under the same amount of strain despite out different levels of soul refinement, which proved what we'd suspected about the adjustable difficulty.

By the time we reached the other side of the bridge, we were both in agony, pouring sweat and panting. We thumped down on the island, letting the power flow into us and heal our spirits. "So." I wheezed. "This seems like it's aimed at weaker people, right? Or is that just me?"

She shook her head. "Nope. But that makes sense. The Ruined Soul Temple was created to help people refine their souls. The trials might admit ringers, but why would they reward them?"

"I hadn't thought of it like that." I mused. "But you're right. Hell, by that logic, I'd imagine that the benefit for people with lower ranked souls would be bigger too. You see any bump in yours? After those first ten steps, not to mention that walk, you probably shot up quite a bit."

"Four percent." She said with a grin. "You?"

I checked my soul again. "Two percent for the bridge on top of the five from the first ten steps. I think I got most of the refinement from that first bit because I was taking the steps."

After a few minutes of rest, we got back to it. This was a race, and were damned if we were going to lose. As we walked, we were able to see some of the lower rainbow bridges, and I could make out small forms stepping purposefully across them. The others were on the way. I felt kind of bad I couldn't catch them too, but they would be fine. I just wanted to make it to the top before the ringers.

When we reached the next island though, I realized quickly that might not be as easy as I'd expected. Someone had beat us there. Looking closely, I realized there were multiple islands on each layer and multiple bridges connecting them. Our view had just been bad from where we were falling.

"Hello neighbor." Chirped the small, pale man with a black mask tied around his head. The mask came down of his eyes and covered his hair, with two eyeholes cut out. The rest of his outfit was light dark armor. There was a sword on his hip, and his eyes were sharp and predatory. "You made good time. I didn't think anyone else would be up this high yet."

Despite his focus and clear animosity, he wasn't moving. I was assuming he'd been pushing hard to get up here this fast and hadn't let himself fully heal yet. The longer he waited the better shape he was going to be in, but we were recovering too, and there were two of us, so I let him stall.

"Same here." I said casually. "I'm guessing you've been sprinting through the islands, figuring you would heal on the last legs once you'd already won. Why go through the trouble though. What does an individual win matter. There's a bunch of these trials right?"

He nodded. "There is. But each trial awards the winner a piece of a key. First place is a gold key, second place is silver, and third place is bronze. You manage to get a whole key and you can unlock one of the treasure rooms at the end. That's what all the Azure Souls are here for."

"I had heard there were prizes." I admitted. "But I'm just here to improve myself. I'd never dream of aiming for such valuable winnings."

He snorted. "And the Emperor's my dad. If you're going to lie to my face at least make it convincing. That's just insulting."

"Sorry." I shrugged. "Thought it was worth a try. After all, you're only having this conversation so you can heal up and try to recover before we fight."

That got a grin. "Yeah, but you're only letting me because you don't think it matters. Not a great bet, by the way." His hand blurred to his hip, rapier clearing its sheath in a fluid movement as he flashed forward to attack.

My staff came up and around smoothly, smacking the spot on the blade where all the force was collecting and knocking his hand back. I stepped forward as Callie fell into her shadow, the F-ranked replica of my Stygian Branch whipping up and around to smash into the guy's jaw.

He took the hit and went flying, and I felt pretty proud of myself until I realized he'd just rolled with the blow and thrown himself out of reach. His hands slapped the ground and he bounced up into a handspring, avoiding the scything pair of dark blades Callie had manifested when she emerged for the dark.

Grinning, he swung his rapier in a quick series of cuts, limbering up most likely. "Ok, that wasn't bad, but I'm just getting started here. Neither of you is leaving this island alive." I just grinned and spun up my staff. No risk of death here (for either party) meant I didn't have to hold back. I wanted to try out the new staff art I'd been working on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Creating my own staff art had been on my mind for a while, but I'd never been sure how to go about it. I needed a way to connect my path with my combat style. After watching Zeke fight though, I realized there was other connections I could make. Zeke's dual mask thing was a way to invoke the legend of Janus. I'd done some research on the two faced god, and I could see why he'd be aiming for that, it was a source of power and fear added onto his already massive reputation.

It also gave me ideas for what I should do with my own combat style. Being a fatewalker and connecting that to my fighting style was fine, but if I could connect that to the actual legends of Solomon, that would give me that extra little bit of buzz. So I'd sat down and dug into every story about Solomon the Demon Binder. I'd scoured every possible source, looked through every obscure book.

No one was sure where those stories came from, they were just part of the public consciousness, the massive trove of legends and myths from who knew where that floated around space. But my research had clarified some of what the stories were about, how they worked, and how I could use them.

"Goetia staff art." I said levelly. "First form: Belial." I'd built the staff art around DS Mastery, so my Path would be inextricably linked, but using my path, and especially the strength of my soul, I'd been able to do things that I never could have before.

My body changed. Blackened stone covered every inch of me, crackling with toxic fire as I became a demonic avatar of poisonous flame. Rather than depend entirely on skills like Touch of Tears or Stone Limb, the first form of my staff are made me and my weapon both creatures of pure destruction, sharpening and refining multiple skills that I'd usually have to use in succession into a stable whole I could use for much longer than five or ten minutes.

My enemy whistled. "Well...that's new." He said in appreciation. "Never seen anyone do...whatever the hell that is. Don't think it'll save you though."

He blurred forward, sword cutting the air like a thousand arrows as he lashed out with dozens of stabs to try to poke me full of holes. His blade pierced me, but I felt no pain. Belial wasn't coated in poison magma. He WAS poison magma. This was the first step on my Path, and it was strong. I triggered my overlay, letting fate guide me. A wall of arrows showed me where I was being attacked.

I turned my body slightly, not enough to dodge, but enough to avoid getting hit in any vital areas. I had no idea if I'd heal completely when I resumed my human form, and I'd rather not bleed out. My staff came up, made of the same material as I was, and spun, knocking aside countless blows so that only a few of them actually landed. As soon as I saw an opening I drove my staff forward like a striking snake, my Path and my staff art combining to create a vicious piercing attack.

The man in the mask, shoved off with a foot, sending himself backwards with the force of my blow, but was forced to strip off the jacket over his armor with a curse as my ability infected it. "Shit." He said, waving his sword to clear off the corrosive liquid magma that should have been blood. "That's unpleasant. I don-" His eyes widened and he hurled himself to the side as Callie emerged from the shadows again, daggers aimed at his throat.

My staff came down hard on the spot he was heading for, and he barely managed to block with his rapier in time to avoid taking a direct hit. Callie and I were perfectly in sync, and he was in danger from either of us. Looking around, he cursed, and without a second of hesitation hurled himself over the side of the island, plummeting down into the mist below.
I blinked. "I...didn't know he could do that." I looked at Callie. "Did you know he could do that?"

She snickered. "Never change, honey. And speaking of change, can you turn off...that." She pointed at me. I let Belial retreat, wincing at the pain of a few almost closed stab wounds. I also exhaled in relief as the soul damage from using my new ability was repaired. Belial was powerful, but it put a lot of stress on my soul. Not enough to be unusuable or distracting, but it let me milk a bit of extra energy out of the island.

We rested up for a minute while I filled her in on my new staff are. She was intrigued, but I told her I'd only managed one form so far, and I didn't want to talk about any of my other ideas in case I jinxed it. After our break, we got back to it, not wanting to get intercepted again. Finding out there was more than one entrance to each island made it much less safe to lounge around.

Mounting the rainbow bridge, we continued on our way, slowly scaling towards the heights of the shaft. I hadn't seen what was at the top very clearly, since we'd started falling partway down, but I was pretty curious.

More than that though...I was having fun. No risk of death for me or the others, no excessively political nonsense, no dead gods trying to murder us. Just a game that I was having a blast with, and one that I thought I had a real shot to win. Callie seemed to be enjoying things too. We took our time walking, looking down at the scores of people making their way up.

We'd headed into a more central portion of the ascent, so we could see the multitude of other islands better now. It let us keep an eye on our competition and make sure no one was sneaking up on us. I spotted Benny and Celine fairly low down, making their way slowly but surely. Abel was several islands up, and despite being under much more pressure than we were because of how strong his soul was, he was absolutely crushing it.

"Should have known that monster would breeze through this." I muttered. "You see Gabriel and Bethy anywhere? I can't pick them out."

We were still walking across the most recent rainbow, but talking helped take my mind off how grueling this was. People are not designed to be tortured and then healed ad infinitum. Callie grunted, shaking her head as she wobbled, and I grabbed her elbow to steady her. "Nope. They're probably behind us or something. The layout here is nuts. We'll se the- what the hell is that?"

I turned my head where she was looking and spotted what she was talking about. A jellyfish. Just floating through the air. It was orange, and it flopped harmlessly through the air, coming slowly toward us.

"So...what are the odds the mysterious floating sea creature approaching us is a good thing?" She didn't respond and I sighed. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Can you hit it from here with shadows?" I didn't want that thing getting close to me. I was sure whatever it was going to do would hurt.

Callie scoffed. "How? We're standing on a rainbow. Even if I could find a shadow here there isn't one out there, and my constructs will be under the same strain as me. I'd basically be increasing the surface area of my soul and artificially inflating the resistance. Can you reach it with your staff?"

I flicked my hand out, my staff shooting to full extension before I caught the end in a firm grip. It extended out over the abyss, but didn't even come close to the jellyfish yet. As I did that though, it started to drift sideways, like it was circling around. I blinked. "Well that's convenient. Apparently it's scared of...Callie walk faster."

Able to sense my distress, her head snapped around to where my gaze had followed the jellyfish. A swarm of orange gelatinous creatures swarmed toward us, and as they drifted over the island, their tentacles dragged over the grass. Energy sparked and played as they began to very slowly pale, going from orange towards yellow.

"Shit." I snarled as we sped up. "Soul eating jellyfish? This is bullshit!" If I had to guess it was some kind of balancing mechanic for the people pulling ahead. Whoever had designed this fucking trial was a grad A asshole. We made it to the next island, stumbling forward to collapse to our knees, and looked back at the last island. The jellyfish were still there, soaking up the soul energy as they became more and more yellow.

"Once they're done there they'll come here." I said anxiously. "I don't suspect that them touching us would be beneficial, since we're fucking MADE of soul right now. Death by soul eating jellyfish isn't a death I've considered before, but it's low on my list even so."

I let the power flow into me, breathing deeply as I tried to suck up as much as I could. Sadly, I could only take in as much as I needed, and I quickly hit capacity. Pulling Callie up by her hand I yanked her with me across the island to the next bridge. We immediately mounted the next rainbow.

"Which way should we go?" She asked worriedly as she looked back at them. "I think we're in the lead, but that's not exactly a good thing right now. We need to get up to the top, right?"

I nodded. "Unless this is a giant fuck you to everyone the test has to be passable. Maybe the jellyfish are a reaction to me using my Path to bull ahead, or maybe they're there for another reason. That masked guy was up here too, so it's not just us. Chances are good some of the ringers have run into them, or will. But yeah, the top is probably a safe zone. I don't want to fight those things, especially not after they hit yellow."

Speaking of soul strength, mine was slowing down as we went. The higher it got the more energy was needed, and the less the damage I was receiving meant in terms of percentage. It was the same difficulty, but progressing was getting harder and harder. Nonlinear improvement, swell.

When we hit the next island, we stopped again, turning back to watch the jellyfish swarm the one we'd just left. The one before it, the one we'd last seen them on, was dead and blackened, every single plant a desiccated husk. Further reinforcing my idea that I didn't want to get caught by those things. Before we could move on another person stepped onto the island.

It wasn't anyone I recognized, just a short, green haired guy, but I didn't wait for him to react to our presence. I hit him while he was recovering and I wasn't, smashing his head with my staff as Callie tied him up. Then I carried him to the other side of the island and threw him bodily off toward where the jellyfish were just leaving the last island, hoping he'd keep them occupied.

When he hit the cloud of jellyfish, his body went rigid, and he started screaming as they consumed all the power in his spirit. We didn't stay to watch, heading for the other bridge, but we saw enough. I was just glad no one actually died in here. He'd be ok on the outside, if a little pissed off. Callie grabbed my hand and squeezed it, letting me know she understood and was on my side, and we resumed the climb. I didn't know how much time we'd bought, but we needed to make the most of it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the trip to the top wasn't so much boring as...anticlimactic. We were on edge and ready for a fight the whole way up, as well as in pain and just generally waffling between exhausted and healed up. Despite the multiple moments of weakness though, we didn't run into anyone else. We had to basically sprint to stay away from the jellyfish, so maybe that was why, but when we finally made it to the top we were definitely the first ones there.

I was still deciding which of us should go first when Callie pushed me ahead of her. At my obvious confusion, she just chuckled. "You're way ahead on the soul thing, and have a much better chance of actually winning this. I'll take the silver key fragment, you can have the gold. Besides, I already got some benefits from this. My soul is up to forty two percent of the way through orange after all that."

Mine was at sixty four, a consequence of the increased difficulty as we went. Still, we'd both made an absurd amount of progress. The first bump from that initial energy had been a huge boost, but the rest of them had really added up. I nodded to her gratefully, happy to be with someone who cared about me enough to pass up such an amazing chance.

The trip up had been pretty harrowing, and having Callie with me had certainly given me plenty of moral support, even if the trial tested us separately. Every step towards the end had been agony, and having her with me had made it possible for me to keep going, even when I was dreading the pain I would be feeling in the next second. I couldn't describe the relief of reaching the end of the line.

As we stepped onto the island, I saw a small, golden temple situated in the middle of the space. It looked peaceful and relaxing and very safe, and I just had a positive feeling from staring at it. I found myself walking forward almost unconsciously, but I wasn't worried. The temple was a good place. When I reached it I felt a soothing wash of power flow through me, cleansing the anxiety, the pain, and all the residual stress from the climb.

I was suddenly...at peace. I'd healed from the soul damage, but the mental strain had been taking its toll, and I hadn't realized how much exactly until it was all gone. There was a flash, and a small golden piece of metal was floating in front of me. I tried to take it, but as soon as I touched it, it just melted into energy and merged with my soul. I tried to find or interact with it, but there was no reaction.

Callie stepped up beside me, and I felt the cleansing through the bond before the silver fragment appeared in front of her and did the same thing. "Wow." She said with a relaxed sigh. "That is...nice. It's like a million good nights of sleep and a billion of the most soothing cups of tea ever all at once." Her voice was dreamy and serene. She was feeling the same things I was, and neither of us ever wanted it to end.

I nodded lazily, taking a seat for a minute inside the temple to process. We needed to decide our next move but I didn't see any of the others nearby, so it seemed like a good time to think. Going from terrible pain to perfect serenity in a few seconds was whiplash inducing, and I think we both needed a few minutes of down time on top of that to make sure we were in the right headspace to continue. After a few minutes of basking though, it became clear we'd waited long enough.

"So...what do we do now?" I asked. I had a decent idea, and we'd talked a bit about this, but I wasn't thrilled to consider it. Having to switch back to a normal headspace after being so relaxed certainly wasn't helping.

Callie sighed. "We move on." She said firmly. "We talked about this before we came in, if we got separated it might be necessary to split up." We'd made a few plans before coming into the temple, just contingencies for various situations, and getting separated was among those."Waiting here would be dangerous. Someone could find out we have the key fragments, not to mention no one can get seriously hurt or killed here. The others will be fine, but we can't hang around."

She was right, but I hated it. Not just because I felt like we were abandoning our friends, but because I desperately wanted to wait and talk to my sister. Sadly, Callie was right. Staying would put us at odds with everyone who came here. Judging by the way the keys melted into us, we'd need to be killed in here to retrieve them. If I died and got kicked out I might never get the chance to talk to Chelsea.

I gestured over to the doorway at the far end of the temple. Soothing golden light swirled within it, so bright it was impossible to see inside. "I'm guessing that's the entrance to the next trial. Getting a headstart will probably be helpful." I stood up, walking over to the portal slowly, trying to mentally prepare. I glanced at her. "You realize we might get separated in there too? In fact, it'll probably happen eventually."

She nodded. "I do. But hey, absence makes the heart grow fonder right? Besides, I need to get stronger on my own. My soul is way behind yours. We're both aiming for the same thing here, and if we stick together the whole time I'll be leaning on you and vice versa. It might be best to separate." She sounded nervous, and I got it. A bond like ours was habit forming. Knowing someone was there to watch your back, FEELING it.

Separating wouldn't be a big deal to most people, but losing that constant feedback would be like losing a part of me. Which...was probably all the more reason to do it. Because she was right, this place was about refining your soul, and while the normal percentage bumps were possible just by repetition, the actual transition to the next level was more involved than that. Unless you were a jellyfish, apparently. But for human beings elevating the soul to the next level was difficult.

It was why outside of a place like this temple you could only go up one soul rank. Abel had reached the peak of orange at G-rank, and was now peak of yellow after rank up, but he couldn't break through to green without help. He'd told me a bit about what he'd needed to do to hit orange in the first place, and it was going to require serious willpower. Any weaknesses might screw us both over.

Leaning down, I removed my mask, pulling my girlfriend into a long kiss. When I was done, I squeezed her in a tight hug. "You be careful ok? I won't be there to watch your back this time."

She snorted, a suspiciously wet noise that made me suspect she was crying, though I didn't mention it. "Shut up. I'm stronger than you, I should be worried about you getting killed in here. If I make it to the end and you fail out after I gave up that gold key piece I'm gonna be super pissed. I better see you again before we reach the end of this." I nodded, kissing her on the forehead. Then I turned and walked through the portal, letting the gold light consume me again.

When my vision cleared. I was alone, and in a completely new place. A serene and peaceful forest surrounded me, mist blanketing the ground to my knees and giving the place a transcendant, ineffable appearance. It wasn't spooky, it was too pleasant for that, but it looked surreal and unnatural.

I triggered Eye of Revelation, looking for...anything. Nearby humans, animals, hell, I'd take some particularly chatty plants. Sadly, there were no sentient beings nearby that I could sense. Within a minute or two I felt the information I'd been expecting drop into my head, at least what there was of it.

Second trial. The Tranquil Forest. Callie and I had been right to split up, the forest would have separated us anyway. Maybe fate sense pushed us that way, but regardless, everyone who entered came in here alone.

Where the first trial tested determination and willingness to endure, the second trial tested something completely different. While exciting and dangerous evolution was an important part of refining the soul, peace was needed as well as war. So many Ascendants couldn't handle the quiet contemplation of true solitude. Unstable thrill seekers were a dime a dozen among powerful Ascendants, but among those who could advance past the limits of the soul, that wasn't enough.

This trial was unintentionally kind of a hot button issue for me, because being alone was something I had a lot of trouble with. I was almost never alone. I was with Benny, or with Callie, or spending time with Zeke. My training was alone sometimes, but my friends were always nearby, always a shout away. Being here like this, in total solitude...this was something I had no experience with. Especially not long term.

But if it was just solitary meditation there wouldn't be a forest, there would just be a room. There had to be more to this test. So I started walking, into the depths of the forest, through the mist, and tried my hardest to understand the trial here. To understand what the temple wanted from me.

The deeper I went, the higher the mist rose. I could feel the trees around me, so I didn't bump into them, but the world itself began to be consumed by stifling white vapor, occluding itself from my view, isolating me even further. And that was when I understood what was happening.

There are levels to being alone. Not conscious ones, not really. But they exist. A person in a crowd can be lonely, and a person alone in a room can be with friends. But that lonely person alone in a room will be more deeply alone than the other person. It's another level of lonesomeness, another tier of solitude.

Being alone in the forest was a first tier, and as I walked deeper, I became more alone. I was sure this would continue as I got deeper. There must be a central area to this place. A finish line like the last place had, and in order to pass through I needed to reach it. I needed to keep walking through the loneliness.

But I doubted it would be that easy. There was no jellyfish here, no other people to fight. This was a trial of the self. Of the heart as much as the soul. I stopped, taking a deep breath and letting my uneasiness fade a bit. I didn't like this place, not at all. I needed a second to catch my breath and shake off some of the fear.

This trial was the worst one I could think of for me. The most primal weakness I could think of. Which was why I was now determined to complete it. This was a way for me to grow stronger. Not with stats, but mentally. I was confident that because of my issues I would get more out of this trial than anyone else.

I started walking again, the mist getting thicker. This would be my test for myself, more than anything. I had a nice head start here. I could get through this faster than anyone. It was a shame my soul wasn't strengthening here, otherwise I'd have been hoping to use this opportunity to break through to yellow. Oh well, I could do that on the next trial.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The mist became thicker as I walked. It muffled sounds, not just my feet, but even my breathing. I was in silence, complete nothingness. The deeper I walked the harder my heart pounded, but I kept at it. I kept walking, progressing further and further into the mist.

It should have been absurd, me being afraid of mist. Moonlit Night was all about the mist. I lived in this stuff. But it was still making me nervous.

Sometimes when you walk alone at night, you listen for sounds that mean nothing, and a primal part of you feels fear, that something waits for you in the dark, coming to swallow you whole. Even as an Ascendant that part of you lives on, at least at my level. But as I walked into the mist, I knew for certain that I would not be attacked. That nothing waited for me in the depths of the fog. And that was so much worse.

Because beyond the fear of creatures in the dark, for me at least, there was something deeper. That there was nothing at all. No people. No friends. No family. That I was alone and would stay alone. Forever. And the deeper I got the more the fog started to fade from pea soup to something so thick it blocked even light. First it was dim, then dark, then so black I felt like I was standing in the depths of starless space.

After the fog came the dark, and somehow, the loneliness got deeper. I wasn't just by myself. There was no one here now. Not even me. The sensation of standing somewhere even I wasn't was something completely new and awful to me. I felt panic as I had the sudden urge to look for me, the paradoxical feeling that I was lost, not from my own point of view, but like I needed to find myself or I'd be lost forever, like I'd ran away from me.

That feeling seemed like it would be the worst this would get. That I'd reached the peak of the solitude this place could inflict...and then my friends started to vanish. Not from around me, but from my heart. I knew them, could remember them, but one by one they disappeared from me, in a way so permanent I couldn't recognize the feeling they gave me as anything close to even recognition.

First was Jessie. My friend and teammate. Someone with whom I shared a promise to help her bring back her brother. Someone who had been there for me, who had saved my life. Someone who made me smile and comforted me when I was sad and who I could always count on. I kept every memory of her, every detail of our time knowing each other, but the emotions were just gone. She was a stranger.

Then I lost Benny. My best friend. The person I counted on most in the world, and who I would die for. I remembered playing games together, meeting him as a kid, time hanging out at the park or going camping or just talking bullshit. I remembered him leaving his life behind to follow me into the unknown, and how easily he did it, and how I'd promised myself deep down I'd make sure it was worth it to him. I didn't feel a thing.

Next was Callie. Who I adored. The strongest, most intelligent, most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. The person whose love I felt like a pillar of strength and support every day through our bond. The person who made me happier than I'd been in my entire life. She was gone.

Finally I lost Zeke. My uncle. My dad in every way that mattered. The drunk irresponsible frustrating impossible man who had supported me through every terrible thing that had ever happened to me. I didn't know why mom left, or even why dad did more than in passing, but Zeke stayed. He'd always been there. Keeping me safe and watching out for me, even when I didn't know it. Now he was nowhere.

There were more. More friends that vanished, more acquaintances who just...disconnected from my heart. I still remembered them, still knew the facts, but they vanished from me all the same, and I could feel the hole they used to fill growing darker and deeper.

My body shook. My eyes filled with tears, and I began to weep there, in the pitch black, as everything I'd ever loved or cared about was stripped away, leaving me empty. Not a healthy, rational kind of empty. A yawning abyss inside that howled for me to fill it, to find some way to stop the nothing from growing before it consumed everything and I just ceased to exist.

I'd always been afraid of being abandoned. Of being left behind by more than just my parents. And now I had. I'd been abandoned by everything. Everyone. They were gone in the most fundamental and profound way that I could imagine. I felt like I'd never get them back. Never be happy or safe or content again.

The feat stretched on, stoking itself into terror, and continued to deepen along with the nothingness. I fell into myself, into a bottomless well of existential dread. I kept falling... but nothing else happened. I didn't die, or feel any more pain, or suffer. I didn't bleed or die or scream. The fear was suffocating, it was consuming me, but there were no consequences to it.

I thought of Jessie. Of my friend who was so completely gone from me now. I thought of how knowing her had changed me. How she showed me that I could move past the bad things and focus on joy in my life, how she taught me to be strong even when I was hurting, like she had when her brother died.

I thought of Benny. Who had always been around, who had watched my back and supported me. Who had given everything to be my friend and follow me off Callus. Who was such a fundamental part of who I was that imagining never having met him turned me into someone I didn't even recognize.

I thought about Callie. Who showed me I was worth caring about even if some people left. Who taught me what it was like to truly love someone for the first time in my life and made my whole world ironically brighter. Who trusted me enough to convince me to take over as leader even though deep down part of her needed that to feel like she mattered, and was happy for me when I did.

I thought of Zeke. Who had supported and cared about me. Who had given up his whole life to sit on a backwater planet and watch some kid grow up, geas or not, because he cared about me. Who had sacrificed almost two decades of life as a titan of power in the universe to sit at home and listen to me whine about my day, or get me soup when I was sick, or get me out of trouble.

I thought about myself. Shane. The person that was the sum total of all those experiences, who was the being made of the memories I still had. I wasn't gone. I was still here. I'd been here the whole time, and when I realized that, suddenly, I was back. I could feel myself again, and I wasn't lost. I was just alone.

But being alone didn't change me. Not at all. Despite not being able to feel the feelings my friends and family inspired in me, the effect that had on me was still there. Even when they were gone, I was the same person. I was Zeke's nephew. Callie's boyfriend. Jessie's friend. Benny's brother, in every way that mattered.

And as I came to these realizations they came back. Jessie was standing next to me in the dark, smiling. Benny was behind me, guarding my back, Callie was by my side, holding my hand, and Zeke was watching over me from afar, keeping me safe and proud of what I was doing.

The emotions came back, one by one, and as they did, the fear receded. Because I realized that even if I lost them, gods forbid, and there was no one else. I'd never really be alone. The person that I was carried them with me. Carried them in my heart and even in my soul.

Solitude wasn't loneliness, it wasn't emptiness or isolation. It was just being by myself. The people I cared about were never gone. Not my dad. Not my mom. Nobody. They were with me wherever I went, and I didn't have to be afraid to be by myself, because that couldn't hurt me, no matter how afraid I was.

My tears dried, and my muscles eased, and the gnawing pit in my stomach filled in. Not just to where it had been before, but even more. That underlying terror of being left alone that I'd always had was gone. I'd faced the deepest, darkest pits of my abandonment issues, and realized they had no control over me.

The dark began to recede, though I didn't mind it so much anymore. I strolled confidently and happily through the blackness, and then out into the fog. I didn't know when it would finally end, but I didn't need to. I was just enjoying the quiet, and a little time to myself. There was really no big rush.

The sound came back first. The crunch of my boots on gravel and twigs. Then my sight started to return, and I was walking through a pleasant, tranquil forest. Whereas before there had been some underlying hint of threat to the peaceful tranquility, now it was just pretty scenery. I was happy to be here, to enjoy this walk through the trees.

But all good things must end. Eventually I came to a clearing, and in the center was a small golden building. A temple just like one after the first trial. As I entered, there was a flash of light, and a golden piece of metal appeared. I reached out to take it and it melded with me just like the last one had.

Part of me was surprised I'd made it out first. I wasn't sure how long I'd been in there. it had felt like eternity, or maybe a few seconds. But I'd kept walking, step by step, and I was the first one in, so I suppose I shouldn't be too shocked. I turned around, looking back at the forest I'd just walked through, and took a long, deep breath of the crisp air.

I thought I might miss the place when I left. I hoped the others had a nice time in there. Once you got past the first part it wasn't so scary. Maybe I'd come back some day. For now though, I had to move on. I turned and walked through the temple, heading for the golden doorway again, and the next step in my journey.

The trials worried me less now. I felt whole. In a way I hadn't before. There had been so much nonsense, so many little things going on. I'd felt so scattered and overwhelmed, and now I was just complete. Like my soul had sublimated and become more cohesive. It felt nice to be so much more... solid. Like anything anyone threw at me I could handle, if I needed to.

My worries weren't completely gone. i still felt them, they just seemed like they were less important now. Like I had a new perspective. I took one last deep breath of clean forest air before walking into the doorway. As the light consumed me, I smiled. I was ready for what came next, whatever that might be. I was going to win this, and no one could stop me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

When the golden light faded, I was standing alone in a dark stone hall. The room expanded out in every direction, and along the walls I could see portraits and furniture and sconces with candles. The floor of the hall had a long strip of red carpet running down it, and upon turning around I found myself standing in front of a throne. The golden chair had a single white cushion each on the base and the back, lined with golden leaves.

Figuring this had to do with the trial, I tried to approach, but as I walked toward it the space between the throne and me seemed to elongate. The red carpet gave the illusion of an endless path, and that illusion was definitely fulfilled when I tried to get closer. So I turned and walked the other way, and managed to make my way to the door out of the hall with ease. When I pushed it open, I saw the hallway was heavily shadowed, lacking the light from the crystal chandelier I hadn't noticed in the chamber.

Once I stepped out, the door slammed shut behind me of its own accord, and I glanced around carefully, just to make sure I wasn't about to get eaten or something.

I wasn't too worried right now. After my recent soul tempering experience I just didn't have the emotional capacity to feel fear in this situation. I'd already been through worse recently, and all my fear would have been just another aspect of my fear of loneliness. I was perfectly comfortable walking these halls by myself. Possibly too comfortable, not that there was much I could do about that.

The knowledge that I SHOULD be afraid was at least enough to motivate me to be extra vigilant. As I strolled down the stone corridor, I kept an eye out for anything that might be a threat. I passed a few slit windows letting cold moonlight into the hallway, but I didn't see any objects or people until I reached the first large room in the hallway. When I did, I stumbled on a strange sight.

A lone suit of armor standing in the middle of the room, facing the entrance I'd just used. The armor was pitch black plate mail, and it held a huge halberd. I could see orange fire rolling behind the visor, like eldritch eyes watching me, and as I entered the room, the head very slightly shifted to focus on me.

My cheerful fearlessness was somewhat muted under an understandable bit of caution. The last time I'd seen an orange glowing thing here it had been a jellyfish that wanted to eat my soul. Still, the slam of the door behind me made it clear the only way out was through. Through an ominous suit of armor. Joy.

I spun up my staff, and figured this was a good chance to train up Belial a bit. I shifted into my first stance, my view filling with arrows as my body shifted into toxic magma stone.

Rather than just attack all out though, I took the time to really feel out my situation. There were lots of arrows that showed me possible attacks, even the gold ones that guided me down the path of the Fatewalker were numerous, but more than that, they weren't specific. They showed me where to attack but not how, and I'd been thinking over the first form and how I could improve it.

Activating state of grace and ripple running, I glided forward, staff slowly rotating as I came. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. I repeated something I'd heard at the pavilion in my head. I'd been so excited to bust out my new move last time I'd completely ignored how to best use it. I'd been too focused on the form part of the staff form and ignored the staff part.

Each of my Goetia forms should and would function as an independent style. Because they had different abilities (or would eventually). Belial was toxic and destructive, but it showed its usefulness in lots of little attacks rather than a single large one. I stepped off the air, surprised to see the Ripple Running platform beging to crackle as I left a toxic stain in the air under my foot.

Pushing off the platform my staff licked out, deceptively lazy in its arc, and without any particular force behind it. The attack only grazed the armor before I stepped again on the air, bouncing off a spot on the opposite side and repeating. I leapt casually and lightly around the armor, tapping and grazing it as I went, enjoying the sight of my demonic corruption (what I'd decided to call Belial's toxic energy) slowly covering the dark metal.

As a Path attack, Belial was much more destructive than the normal toxic fire I used, and much harder to get rid of. Granted, the armor was pretty much a solid hunk of metal, so it didn't show too much obvious sign of wear, but it was still being damaged.

By never committing too much to any one attack and staying mobile, I was able to move quickly and easily. The armor tried to spear me on the pike head of his halberd and when he missed he switched to wide swings, but he couldn't lay a hand on me.

As the fight progressed, I could hear the groans and creaks begin to issue from the armor as my corrosion slowly chewed through the metal. My Fatewalker Path guided me towards the most deadly striking areas, and I learned more about my staff form as I worked, dismantling the armor and sending it to its final fate.

I saw the change in the arrows as things ended, before the armor even gave out, and landed lightly behind it, dismissing Belial without even looking as the plate of the armor finally gave out and the whole suit collapsed to the ground in a noisy heap.

To my surprise, once it dropped, the fire inside didn't go out, it swirled through the air above me and then dove into my soul body. I felt myself become stronger, my soul purifying and reaching further along the path to yellow. Of course, this far in it was only a slight bump, only a percent, but I understood what was going on.

If my guess was right, the trials were set up in such a way that they alternated between pure power gain and soul refinement. The first trial let us gain power as we went, then the second forced us to face complete solitude. The third trial was clearly more in the vein of the first. An opportunity to grow more powerful.

Once the armor was destroyed, the archway behind it lit up on either side, clearly welcoming me to move on. I left my staff out just in case, wishing it was the actual E-rank Stygian Branch instead of a shoddy F-ranked knock off. When I reached the next room, I stopped inside and winced at what I saw.

Armors. Plural. Two of them. Beating one hadn't been too difficult, but beating two meant turning my back on one at any given time. Still, this would be a great opportunity to train Belial more, and it wasn't like I could just ignore the chance to improve my soul.

Triggering Belial again, I studied the arrows in front of me. Based on what happened last time, the armors wouldn't attack until I did. The mess off arrows was complicated and difficult to sort through. Not because I was short on option but because I had too many. Same as last time, I needed to find a road through this that both corresponded to Belial's form and allowed me to walk further in my Path.

I studied a few different moves I could make, and once I picked the best one, I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running again. Light and subtle. I also internalized more of what Willow taught me. Her use of leverage was perfect for Belial. Dashing forward, I stepped off the air, once and then twice.

The first step took me toward the armor on the right, the second took me clear of the blow from the left armor that it aimed at me as I came in. I sailed gently over the attack as it slammed into and shattered the corruption hanging in the air where I'd stepped, then pushed off a third time. As the right hand armor swung it's halberd around, my staff licked out and smacked gently into a spot about three quarters of the way up the haft.

My attack hit the halberd at a balance point, diverting it away, and slid down the length of the weapon as it was deflected down into the left hand armor. There was a crash as the right armor's corrupted weapon split the shoulder plate on the left armor, spreading my attack through the metal.

The left armor gave an impression of fury as it began raining down attacks on me, and the right hand armor pulled its weapon free and resumed the attack as well.

I moved like a dancer, following the arrows I felt lined up best with my Path. I felt my soul almost glow as the Path took me forward. I wasn't just walking the road of fate, I was guiding it. This was the exact link between my form and Path that I needed to maximize my growth.

Between the Ripple Running platforms, my staff, and the overlay, I moved through the attacks like a fish through water. My staff flicked out lazily a dozen times, not enough to do serious damage even with the corruption, but it didn't need to be. By hitting the exact right spots, I could change the fate of a blow, redirecting it from myself towards another enemy. The corruption built in their weapons as they tore each other apart from the inside, all while trying to kill me.

This was what Belial was for. Crowds. Tearing an enemy unit apart with its own attacks. I landed my last blow and the two armors finally collapsed. The two waves of orange flame consumed me, both of them stronger this time because I was still on my Path. Another five percent soul progress total filled my body, and I exhaled with relish.

I didn't bother dismissing Belial this time, just kept it active as I walked to the next room, and when I found the expected three suits of armor, I just attacked them directly. Three was harder, and I deduced that I was starting to reach my limit with Belial for the moment. I needed to train.

In order to take full advantage, I slowed down a bit, getting a better handle on my timing and speed as I worked on my newest form. The Ripple Running steps were added in, used as land mines in the air to corrupt weapons. Every move became a step in the Path, ever little twitch shifted the tides of fate, and I felt almost invincible under the effects of Belial.

Not that I was. I knew that the feeling was just a side effect of being in ideal conditions. Multiple slightly weaker enemies was pretty much heaven for me right now. Belial made me an army buster if I was willing to put in the time. Sadly, it wouldn't be nearly as useful against single opponents. Sure, a bunch of light taps would add up, but anyone sufficiently powerful would just muscle me.

After I finished the three and got ANOTHER five percent progress toward my soul. I moved on, but the next room wasn't just some random hall filled with armor. This one was a more open space with multiple doors. Through all but one of the four passageways came a person, myself and two others. When I saw them, I sighed deeply. I'd been hoping for more armors, but these weren't them, or even people I knew. Well, time to see what the others had to say.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The two strangers in the room looked as wary of me as I was of them. Of course, I was made of green magma and the ground was smoking and bubbling under my feet, so I couldn't really blame them for being a bit unsettled. "So." I said cheerfully. "I'm guessing we beat each other with sticks now?" I held up my staff. "Because I feel like if that's where this is going, I have sort of a home field advantage."

One of the other two guys, a short dark haired man with incredibly wide shoulders, a goatee, and huge muscles, laughed at that. "Well you're certainly direct. I like that in a...whatever you are. No need for things to escalate, Mr. Poisonous Lava Monster."

"That's Doctor Poisonous Lava Monster, thank you very much." I said with a grin. "I didn't spend six years in Poisonous Lava Monster medical school to be called Mr." Seeing that they weren't attacking, I chuckled and dropped Belial. I could bring it back up nearly instantly, and it seemed like these guys might not want to fight. Still, I made sure my overlay remained active.

He sighed with relief. "I'll be honest. I feel way more comfortable talking to you when you don't look a modern art piece someone pulled out of a toxic waste dump. I'm Vinnie, by the way. Vincent Barder to my enemies."

"Solomon." I said with a wave. "Wish Curse Palace. Which faction are you with?" I glanced at the other guy, a tall blonde man with telltale pointed ears. "Either of you, actually. I'm a candidate, so I'm not really too familiar with the larger factions outside the six. Don't be offended if I've never heard of you."

The blonde smiled slightly. "I'm from the Ostwallen family. We're elven nobility in the Faerieland. My grandfather, Bartholomew Ostwallen, is part of the Queen's council. My name is Simon."

Vinnie nodded. "Heard of you. The Barder family are Imperial. My gramps is a king. The WCP huh? I didn't realize they sent anyone this time. Lot of Churchies, a few Cultists, and the usual mix of Empire and Faerieland, but the Palace having people here is pretty interesting."

"Not to be like...indelicate, or anything. But does this mean we're not going to fight? Because if so, I'd love to sit down while we talk." Using Belial didn't strain my soul too much, but it was still effort to maintain. Some downtime would be appreciated, and might take the edge of my headache. It was so mild I barely noticed it, but it was definitely there. Plus I could learn some more about the other contestants.

Simon laughed and gestured to the center of the room. "Why not. This isn't a race like the first trial. And it's not like we can get the gold key fragments. I'm not sure who got first in the first two trials, but last I heard, Adrian of the Fist God Temple got the second silver fragment. Personally, I think that for those of us who don't already have an Azure Soul Body, it's more beneficial to take our time and get as much as we can out of the trials."

Despite having claimed the first two key fragments, I nodded. He was right. I was in no rush. If anyone wanted to assemble the gold key they'd need to go through me anyway. It seemed like people couldn't tell who had a key piece, and neither of these guys felt confident in getting to the end. I left the overlay up to warn me in case of attacks, but I headed to the center of the room and sat down in a chair I pulled from my spatial ring.

Weirdly enough, the chair came out just fine. Apparently everything here was made of the same of simulated material. It was pretty damned realistic, and I could barely tell it wasn't a real chair. I hadn't expected our spatial rings would be mimicked by the temple too.

The others grabbed their own chairs and sat down. Since we were hanging out, I decided to provide snacks. I had some jerky in my ring, and a few bottles of craft soda from back on Callus I'd been holding onto. Sadly my stock of Black Cherry was gone, but I had a few bottles of melon soda. I passed one to each of them with some jerky, and they both nodded their appreciation.

My food and drink were pretty low level, so I wasn't expecting them to flip out, and they didn't but both seemed at least pleasantly surprised. "This is pretty good jerky." Said Vinnie as he snacked. "Desert will be on me." He withdrew a small table and some plates, and then started cutting slices of cake for us both.

"So." I said as we ate. "This Adrian guy. He famous? I've never heard of him, but like I said, I'm a candidate so I'm a bit out of the loop."

Simon nodded. "He's a Master ranked boxer. Fist god boxing is pretty famous in terms of unarmed martial arts, and Adrian is considered the most talented student the temple master has ever had. He already has an Azure Soul Body. The Temple is part of the Empire, and rumor has it the temple master is friends with one of the princes. He got his student access to their heritage."

I whistled. "Lucky bastard. What's with the Fist god thing? Is the Fist god one of the vanished gods or something? You'd think the other factions wouldn't approve of that kind of naming sense."

"Nah." Said Vinnie with a wave. "There's no actual Fist god. It's some philosophical bullshit. Anyway, the six don't care who or what you worship. They don't allow new gods to show up, but it takes a lot to get to that level. It's not something that's quiet or easy to accomplish. There's even more than a few Demigods around."

I hadn't know there WERE Demigods, but I didn't want to sound too ignorant of common sense stuff. I'd ask Zeke or Killian about Demigods later. "So." I asked the others. "If this isn't a race, what is it exactly?" I hadn't seen any signs of a test or task besides beating armors. Which was nice, but if there was some overarching goal I'd rather know what it is.

"Pretty straight forward." Said Vinnie. "Just fight and progress. The key is hidden somewhere among the armors. There's no specific end point. Once someone finds it the door to the next trial will open behind the throne. We just have to backtrack once that happens. It might be a while though." He gestured around. "As you can see, there's not always a fight in every room. They tend to be randomized numbers, though the deeper you go the more there are. The first few were one, two, and three for me."

I nodded. "Same. So we just keep fighting until it ends. What about rooms like this?" I glanced uneasily at them. "Are we expected to fight?"

Simon shook his head. "No expected to. Some people will. I'd be on your guard. Of course, some people will simply sit and talk, exchange information and such. The trial isn't just about winning. Like I said, it's also about growing. Most of us are people without the connections to access the heritages that let people like Adrian reach Master so early."

I felt a bit relieved. They'd told me they wouldn't attack, and the overlay was bearing that out so far, but paranoia was a healthy thing in my world. It was nice to be able to make actual friends in here though, even casual ones. "So, Simon. I have a friend from the Faerieland, she's an elf too. She can control trees and stuff, I guess she's a wood elf noble? Are you the same kind of elf?"

He shook his head. "I'm a high elf. We tend to be born with light based abilities. Often healing or other types of support roles. We get along well with the Red Revenant church, actually. Quite a few of my relatives have entered the clergy. I don't know many wood elves, but I know several prominent families of them number among the council."

I nodded. "Of course. I met a Naiad too. Apparently those are rare around where Celine's family hangs their hat. You ever run into any?" I hadn't known about other variations of elves until I met Anna-Marie, and I was interested in how many there might be, but I wanted to feel out Simon's reaction. 'List all the different kinds of elf' seemed like it might be an annoying conversation for him.

He seemed surprised though, when I mentioned meeting a Naiad. "Really? That's a shock. They're incredibly rare. I think aside from dark elves, sea elves are the least commonly seen among our peoples. There's actually several variations of them. Naiads tend to be more comfortable in shallower waters. They're also called river elves and lake elves."

Before we could get too deep into the elfy stuff, Vinnie cut us off. "We can talk about that later. Have you seen anyone here that might be a problem later on? I haven't run into anyone that stuck around, but it's nice to be forewarned about running into some nutcase."

"I don't know anyone involved." I said with a laugh. "I did meet a guy in a weird black bandana mask and armor. He tried to kick the shit out of me and my girlfriend, but we ended up throwing him off one of those islands back in the first trial."
Vinnie looked amused. "Sounds like Kelix. He's with the Robber Barons. They're a thief faction, roaming pirate fleet and all that. He's a tricky guy to deal with. More power to you for the win. I'd watch out for him though. Robber Barons are notorious for being vindictive assholes. He'll definitely have it out of you if he made it this far."

I just shrugged. "Let him try. It's not like I die in real life if I die here. Not much point staying in the trials if I'm going to back out at the slightest sign of fake danger."

That got a barking laugh from Vinnie. "Well said. If you get got, you weren't meant to be here to begin with. Might as well give it your all and see how far you make it." Finishing up his cake, he put his chair away and stood up, stretching. "In the meantime, I think it's time for me be to hitting the road. It was great meeting you guys, glad it was under these circumstances."

He turned and headed in the direction Simon had come from, and the elf smiled as he saw me cock my head. "The rooms are different for each of us. Except multiple entry rooms like this where we can meet." He paused. "I wonder if this is the trial trying to get us to interact more peacefully? Or hey, maybe it's just trying to confuse us. I'll be going. See you soon."
He headed out the door I came in through, which left me with two options. The one Simon came from or the one on the opposite side of the hall that was left over. As I walked toward the door, I let Belial take me, my face splitting into a grin as I drew my staff.

It felt good. Being the hunter. Being able to stand on my own two feet and challenge anything that came my way. After the trial of solitude, I was able to just enjoy the journey more than I had been before. I didn't feel so conflicted or lost. Of course, I did miss my friends, but I'd see them when I saw them. Until then, I had training to do, and the more armor I destroyed the stronger my soul got. I spun up my staff as I stepped through the door I'd chosen. Time to play can opener.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My next two rooms were cakewalks. The more armors added in, the easier the group was to take apart. My danger sense combined with my overlay made the mid combat portions of my Belial form incredibly simple, and the more I trained them the more I honed those reflexive moves. I realized after I finished the third, however (which was a bit more challenging) that I'd run into a slight problem. My soul had finished its refinement in orange, but I had no clue how to break through to yellow.

After my experience in the forest, I felt like my soul had sublimated, but apparently whatever had happened wasn't the necessary trigger to jump to the next rank. I sat for a while in my third room, meditating on the potential methods I could think of to break through. Unfortunately, it wasn't a problem I felt particularly equipped to handle. It was like trying to flex a muscle you didn't know you had. You could think about it all you wanted, but the actual mechanics were just...a mystery.

I sat like that for about an hour, eventually getting bored and deciding that there was no way to break through here. At the very least, I could still train my Belial form. I'd been getting substantially better with it. As a technical subskill of DS Mastery, it was folded into that Skill, and I was pretty thrilled with the progress. I'd even started work on my second form, though it was still in development.

Eventually though, I acknowledged that I needed to move on, and stood up to head through the door to the next chamber. As I entered, two others stepped inside. I was preparing to meet some new people, but to my shock, I found that I knew both of them. Sadly, only one of them was a friend.

"You!" Shouted Kellix, the masked man from the first trial. Apparently falling off the island didn't kill you. After he yelled, he drew his rapier and lunged at me, blurring across the room to try to kill me. Sadly for him, a massive fist manifestation hit him like an oncoming bus and slammed him bodily into the now closed door he'd come out of.

I nodded casually to the other figure. "Hey Abel." My mentor was looking as amused as ever, and waved at me as he strolled over. I found my eyes drawn to the seriously injured form of Kellix, bashed literally THROUGH the door. "Damn. You didn't pull that punch, did you?"

Abel shrugged. "Reflex. Years of people screaming 'you!' at me in an accusatory manner. By the time I figured out he was pointing at you and not me it was already over. Environmental conditioning."

That drew a sharp laugh from me. "Why do I not find that hard to believe. Surprised you aren't with Mel. You guys split up for the duration too?" Their teamwork was even better than mine and Callie's. I wasn't sure why Abel would feel the need to split up, unless it was just to enjoy himself rampaging solo.

"I hit a wall." He said with a shrug. "Peak of yellow, about to break into green. Breaking the second soul shackle is much harder than the first though. Now I understand why you need access to a heritage or this temple to break through more than one."

I nodded. "I wanted to ask you about the first...soul shackle? Are we good to talk, or do we have to worry about this idiot attacking us from behind?" I pointed to the damaged but still functional body of Kellix. We can just kill him before he picks himself up if you want."

Abel chuckled and shook his head. "Nah. He won't bother us again." He let his Path leak out, bloodlust and violence permeating the air. "Will you?" Kellix made a low whining sound and jerked his head side to side. "See." Abel said, jerking his thumb toward the immobile form. "What a great guy. Plus the more we leave alive the more fun we get to have later. Elimination games are so boring."

"That sounds more like you." I laughed. I was impressed again by his Path. That weird oppression he used. I wondered if that was unique to his path or if I could learn it too. That was a bit personal though. I decided to stick with the more important question as we sat down. Or at least the more urgent. "So, what can you tell me about the soul shackle? I knew there was a barrier of some kind, but not what it does or how to get past it."

He shrugged. "The soul shackle is hard to explain. The body is connected to the soul. When you rank up, your soul goes along with it. You know this, it's why I'm at the peak of yellow. But the body's connection to the soul isn't all positive. It uplifts but also limits. You have three soul shackles. The first shackle binds the mind. Break the heart shackle and your soul can ascend to the next rank. The heart shackle is different for everyone, so I can't give you specifics."

"How did you learn all this?" I asked incredulously. "Aren't you from the same backwater I am?"

He snorted. "Sure, which is why I spent the three months on the ship when I wasn't training asking around about soul refinement. I'd already broken the mind shackle, and it was a...weird experience. I'd hoped learning more about souls would help me understand what I went through."

I blinked at that. "Oh. That...makes sense. Now I feel stupid, I should have done that. What about the other two shackles. I imagine the second shackle is what lets you get your soul to the required two levels above. What about the third? What do you become if you break the third shackle?"

"A corpse." He said with a snicker. "Mind, heart, and self. The shackles tether your soul to your body. Break one and you can reach the next level of soul refinement, break two and you go two above, break the third and your soul loses its connection to your body and floats away. You become an empty shell. Luckily, you have to actively try to break shackles, and no one is stupid enough to make the attempt on number three."

That made sense, but it didn't answer the biggest question. "How did you break your mind shackle though? How am I supposed to break it? And why can you only break the first one without the temple?"

For probably the first time since I'd met him, Abel hesitated. He seemed almost afraid to speak. "I can't say much. It might make breaking it harder for you. But I can tell you something that will explain the why of your last question. The mind shackle is a binding you place on yourself, and the heart shackle is a binding placed on you by others. Internal and external. You can overcome the influence you have on your own thoughts, but overcoming the place others have in your heart is different. I'm guessing you got that during the second trial."

I nodded slowly, considering his point. "You're right. I could see how that would be different. So, you said everyone's is different. What was your mind shackle?"

"Fear." He said bluntly. "Fear of failure. I used to be much different. I was always talented, and strong, but for a long time the constant expectation of victory spurred me forward. I probably would have ended up becoming an Adamant myself if I'd stayed on that path. But when I spent all that time on my own, leaving behind everyone else...there wasn't much I could call that but losing."

He looked unusually philosophical as he continued. "I was depressed for a long time. Pinned under the weight of guilt and the fear that I would let someone down again, but eventually, I came to realize that losing wasn't the end of the world. Hell, it was the best part of fighting. Losing means you found something you can't beat. It means you have something that challenges you to grow."

That explained so much about Abel. But part of me also worried about it. "That sounds like a big change. Almost like you lost an important part of yourself. Are you sure we're SUPPOSED to break the soul shackles?"

"Ascending is the process of releasing your humanity, kid." He said with a smile. "You can't get something for nothing. Not even in a world like this. Ascendants are both more and less than the humans we used to be. You need to give up a part of yourself to progress. Sure, you could ignore the shackles, get stuck at S-rank and try to hold onto who you were. But here's the thing. People change. The you who was here yesterday is dead. And today's you is going to die too. You can't stop that, and clinging to who you are won't change it."

Zeke had told me something similar once. I understood their point, and I agreed with them mostly. That fear of evolving was natural. I'd changed too much too fast. It made sense that there was still parts of the old me left. But the problem was that I didn't know what my mind shackle was. A restraint I imposed on myself? That could be so many things.
"Do you regret it?" I asked quietly. "Losing that part of yourself. Losing more of your humanity? Faster than you had to I mean."

He just shook his head. "You're focusing too much on the past. Let me put it to you this way. The soul Ascends as we do.
To rise in power and quality, it sheds parts of what it was. Well, sublimates them, but they get crushed by the sublimation, so sheds still works in a sense. When a person ranks up, their being becomes much bigger in a sense, and stats are used to fill that in. It's why only strong willed people overcome recursion, the core of their being has to be strong enough not to get diluted and swallowed up."

"I know that part." I said in annoyance. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Abel rolled his eyes. "The soul of a higher ranked Ascendant isn't like the soul of a lower ranked. It changes. Which means to sublimate your soul early, you need to undergo that change early. You need to sever part of what makes you what you are so you can become something else. You don't break the shackle to rank up, you rank up because you break the shackle."

Put that way, it seemed less...scary. It was something I'd be doing eventually. Refusing to break it wouldn't make me more human, it would just put off the change. I blinked. "Wait, is that why we need to complete going up two ranks before we hit Master?"

"Yup." He said with a shrug. "Something weird happens at Master rank, the shackles become part of your soul. You can't break them anymore. Not sure what exactly. Something to do with Paths I expect. Who knows what ranking up to D-rank actually requires. Anyway. I should be moving on kid, and so should you. I kind of want to see if I run into anyone stronger than me."

I laughed at that then stood and headed for the next room. Personally I wanted to run into my sister more than anything. I had a lot I still wanted to know about her. Maybe talking to her would help me break my mind shackle, but even if it didn't I was still buzzing with excitement. As I stepped into the next room, I froze. Ten suits of armor, nine of them black one of them glowing a brilliant gold. I rolled my eyes at the temple. "Subtle." And then the fight was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The fight with the gold armor started off the same as the others, but quickly devolved. First off, though all of the armors came at me at once, when they got in close, the dark ones split off to surround me while the gold one attacked me head on. The armor had a massive spiked golden mace, and despite being bigger than the others, it seemed to be much faster.

State of Grace, Ripple Running. I bounded out of the way, letting my danger sense tip me off and using my staff as a pole vault to leap over the crowd of armor trying to literally axe murder me. As I came up, my staff shot out behind me, slightly shifting the course of multiple halberds as they attacked, redirecting and infecting.

As each weapon slammed into the gold armor, they left behind a slight groove in the metal and the usual corrosive damage. Despite that though, the damage was barely spreading. The golden material of the armor was just exponentially more durable than the rest of them. It might only be F-rank, but it was clearly an impressive metal. F-rank copper and F-rank titanium were not the same level of hardness, and this stuff was definitely high end.

I could feel the Impact from the gold armor, and it felt like a normal thirty two points rather than some obscene value like forty. My extra three points of Impact gave me a serious advantage against mediocre F-rankers, but this armor didn't seem particularly inconvenienced when I struck out with a few probing shots. Which meant I had to focus on using the other suits of armor. Their Might seemed much higher than mine.

Still, this was going to call for something a bit more...delicate. I triggered Moonlit Night, flooding the room with concealing fog. Moonlit Night actually wasn't perfectly suited to the Belial form. Belial was all about misdirection and feints, and Moonlit Night was pure stealth. You can't misdirect someone who can't see or hear you.

Luckily, I could tweak my skills, especially give my beefy new soul, so allowing sound to filter through the fog was easy enough. I stalked forward, keeping low, and as I drew close to goldie I let the but of my staff drag the ground slightly, creating a low scraping noise.

The armors pounced on me like wolves, all their halberds headed for me. Sadly for them, I'd picked this spot on purpose. I was already low, and slipping under the attacks was easy. I ended up on my back on the ground, and my staff flicked out, hitting balance points and centers of gravity on the axes as I imbued them with corrosion yet again. They all slammed into the gold suit.

This time, however, the armors couldn't see what they were hitting. They felt the impact and went crazy, wailing on the gold suit full force, desperately trying to kill it with repeated blows. The gold armor didn't seem thrilled with this little development, and it swung its massive mace in a wide arc, trying to destroy its attackers.

Which it did. Or one of them at least. Sadly as I was at my limit the orange flame joining with me from its death didn't improve me. It DID, however, have a similar refreshing effect to the islands in the first trial. Doing so much was a slight strain, but now even that was gone. I felt energized and alert, it was like the soul version of Jessie's life force infusion.
The killing blow on the armor had apparently tipped goldie off though, because it stopped attacking, slamming its mace down on the ground in some sort of signal that had the rest of them breaking off to circle again.

I didn't think the same trick would work again, but luckily, I had other tricks. It's easy to ignore fake danger, and much harder to ignore real danger. I rushed one of the closest armors and attacks, my staff flashing out in a blur to tag a series of spots on the dark metal. Feeling that I was actually attacking it repeatedly and presumably noticing the weapon was not a halberd or mace, the armor reacted on instinct, coming after me.

My overlay did its job. I saw the incoming the arrows, and combined with my danger sense I was able to nimbly avoid every blow as it frantically came toward me. I made sure to make noise as I moved, though only loud enough to be picked up close by. As it committed more and more, I slowly led it to the next suit, and, with a particularly well timed dodge, let the armor hit one of the other suits.

The dark armor stumbled, slamming into another who was pretty close, and all three came after me. Ripple Running let me step off the air, leaping over them and landing silently off to one side before making a noise and letting them all realize where I was. A stampede of metal rushed me, just as I'd expected, and the three of them slammed right into another two armors I'd positioned behind me, even as I jumped over their heads again.

Meanwhile, goldie was carefully monitoring its surroundings, trying to find me without hitting its teammates. Not that it was having much success, but the complete stillness was almost jarring.

I continued my game of cats and mouse, drawing the last three into the melee, and between the stealth and the damage from the corrosive weapons, I started to worry I might accidentally kill some more of them before I could finish the boss. I started leading them toward goldie, preparing to engage it in combat.

As I got close, the armor seemed to sense me, a massive swing of the mace aimed right at my skull. Luckily my danger sense warned me well before the attack would have landed, and I could see fine anyway, I slipped under it and the blow slapped one of the halberds, knocking its wielder into the crowd of other armors and eliciting an enraged reaction (as much as armor can be enraged) from the one who had been hit.

They swarmed at me, and at goldie behind me, but I slid under the golden armor, out between its legs, and came up behind it. As they all attacked, I lashed out with a series of light taps on the weapons, reinforcing the corrosion, but also using some of my stored triple strength density shifted attacks. I had ten of them from various wishes over the three month break, and there were eight of the armors left, and another ten in reserve.

Every single one of the halberds smashed into goldie like a freight train, not just the density of the weapons, but the multiple stacks of corrosion from Belial were augmented. Rents and tears in the metal were torn open from eight directions as the attacks landed, ripping holes all over the gleaming golden armor.

I was pumped. This was all going according to plan...until it wasn't. With the sound of tearing metal, the faceplate of the golden armor tore open, a jagged rent like metal teeth revealing itself as it threw back its head and roared in outrage. It hefted its club and the object began to glow with golden light as it brought it swinging around in a flurry of terrifying smashes.

Being close by to arrange the hits, I was in the strike zone, I used Pit of Despair, creating a ten foot circle of fine dust that I dropped into, avoiding the strikes. Partway down I stepped off one of my Ripple Running platforms and catapulted myself up and out, another attack was coming at me unintentionally, but I slammed my staff down on another platform and vaulted over it midair.

Landing about twenty feet away, I made sure to make noise. The golden armor roared again, ignoring the eight suits of crushed armor he'd left behind, and turned to come after me. It dropped right into the pit, roaring and thrashing as the eight orange flames merged with me, repairing some of the damage done by maintaining so many different skills on top of Belial.

The monster was covered in tears and rents and its whole body was being invaded by corrosion energy, but it kept thrashing, trying to stay above the dust as the substance pouring into the empty armor, dragging it down. I groaned in annoyance. No more patsies, which meant Belial was going to be way less effective. My next form was going to be based on single combat.

I hauled back, slamming the staff down on his head, unleashing the simulated death energy (much less effective without the rank advantage) along with a triple stacked density boost and a gravity attack from Alden. I was running low on those, and couldn't get more, but despite being a rank below me, the combination with the empowering boost gave it enough kick to push the armor further down.

Once its arms were partly submerged, I cancelled Pit of Despair, and left the thing literally fused into the ground. Its elbows were stuck, meaning no arm movement, and it snarled at me impotently as it struggled to get free. Didn't work. I wasn't sure what these floors were made of, but it was sturdy as fuck without some sort of skill to soften it up like I had.

I considered using Flurry of Blows, but since it couldn't move, in the end I just settled on beating it viciously about the head and shoulder with my staff. Took me about eighty whacks to get the job done, but eventually the corrosion built up enough to let me cave in the helmet, and it FINALLY died.

The rush of orange fire this time came with a third golden key piece, and I let my Belial form fade away in relief as my soul was healed and soothed. I was doing quite a few things at once just then, and it was really taking a toll. Reaching out, I grabbed the key piece, completely unsurprised when it merged into my body. I let out a sigh of relief, but I was surprised out of my state of relaxation by an odd noise.

As all the armors vanished and the floors repaired themselves, the doors on both sides of the room opened up. More than that, two NEW doors appeared on either side of me. I could see other rooms through them. Empty rooms in some cases, and in some rooms with people in them. Turning on my heel, I thanked the gods State of Grace didn't run out until the timer ended.

I sprinted through the door I'd come through, remembering which way I'd taken through each room. I actually didn't know why I was running. Everyone else was running, I could see them, but I had the key fragments, so getting there earlier wasn't a huge advantage. Even if someone else got the next one I could just take it off their corpse at the end. Still, it was fun, so I kept sprinting, at least until I came to the first junction room where I'd met Simon and Vinnie.

When I arrived there, I froze. A familiar head of black and white hair was in front of me. As she heard me enter, my sister turned to look and spotted me. She stared back, neither of sure what to do, until some asshole on a green hoodie bolted through the door next to her, shoved her aside and screamed "Victory to the mountebanks!" At the top of his lungs as he dove through the door we'd both been headed to.

Neither of us knew what to do for a second, but finally we broke down laughing as I walked up to her and put out a hand. "So...this seems like an ALMOST decent place to talk without being overheard. Might be a good idea to give it a few minutes though." I said with a grin. "After that...I have some questions." And they were a long time coming.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once everyone had gone, I started talking first. I used Stealth just in case, but we could see the rooms for quite a ways around, and I didn't notice anyone. "So." I said casually. "I'm guessing do you know who I am? Did you know right away or...?"

Chelsea sighed. "Not right away. All the pictures mom has of you are old. You don't look exactly like dad either. The resemblance is there, but the bones in your face are softer, more like mom. I figured it out when you told me your name." She swallowed hard. "It's nice to meet you, Shane."

"You too." I said. My voice rough with emotion. "Are we twins? I didn't even know you existed until recently, but we should be around the same age, right?"

She nodded, smiling slightly. Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out a word and beaten up picture. She passed it to me, and I almost dropped it as a wave of...something, tore through me. Frustration, sadness, rage, love, longing, and about a hundred other things trampled each other for the honor of gut punching me as I looked down at a picture of my family. My WHOLE family.

Dad stood behind us, looking somber, while mom crouched down holding us both up. We were too young to really stand on our own, so it was hard to clearly identify us. Well, me anyway. I just looked like a blonde kid. Chelsea was pretty noticeable, given her black and white hair color.

I passed it back. "I guess so. You can keep it, I won't be able to take it out of here anyway. Soul stuff. Do you mind if we sit down? This is really a lot."

"Of course." She said quickly, seeming as nervous as I did. She pulled out a pair of chairs, setting them down in a corner, out of the way of all the doors. "So...how was it? Living with dad? I never met him really. Not that I remember at least. He doesn't come around. Grandpa doesn't like him."

"Shocker." I said with a smirk. "He's a devil now, and I somehow doubt the Radiant Pope approves of his daughter being married to a literal creature of darkness. What's he like Anyway? I've heard some crazy things. Does he treat you ok? You and mom?"

She snorted. "Mom has grandpa wrapped around her little finger. She's his only daughter, and one of his most impressive children. Not to mention all our uncles were from his first marriage. Mom is his only kid with his current wife." She trailed off at that, like there was something she wasn't saying. "The point is, mom and I are treated very well. Some of the stories about grandpa are blown out of proportion."

I didn't mention the whole 'killing a planet' legend. I was sure she'd heard it, and she knew the guy better than me. I had a million other questions, but in the end, I was only able to come up with one. Everything I wanted to ask just dissolved on my tongue, and I ended up blurting out. "Why did mom leave?"

Chelsea looked away. "Because of me. I was born with two abilities. I'm sure you've heard of it happening?"

"Yeah, Aidan, the current Wishmaster has two." I said with a nod. "Why is that a reason to leave? I would think dad would have been thrilled, hell, mom too. Having two abilities is pretty great."

She shook her head. "There's something wrong with one of them. I can't really go into it. But I shouldn't have one of the abilities I do, and if someone found out they might come after me, and you. At least, if they knew who my dad was. By taking me away and raising me on my own, they were able to pretend it was some big secret. It was to protect me, and also to protect you."

"I don't understand." I said in frustration. "How does being born with an ability matter? How did they even know? And what about dad?"

She looked away guiltily. "They knew because of a wish. And the ability I was born with is a bloodline. I wasn't supposed to have it, and its existence gave away some kind of family secret. I can't say more, please don't ask. I'm begging. As for dad. When he found out mom had to go, he was furious apparently. I was too young to remember any of it, but from what mom said, he refused to let her leave."

"That seems to have worked out well." I spat. "Seems like he really stood his ground there."

"She made a wish." Said Chelsea sadly. "As a way to keep the secret. That's how she got her second ability. She thought having it would make it easier to explain mine. It wouldn't have worked, probably, but she paid with the most valuable thing that she had. Your ability. Kept under lock and key until your eighteenth birthday. Another layer of separation between us."

My head was spinning. I'd always wondered about the strange way I'd gotten my ability. Most people just developed it, but mine came in a scroll on my birthday. Mom had done that? Dad had helped? I could have been an early bloomer like Callie. I could have been a fucking B-ranker like Zeke by now. Whose bloodline ability did Chelsea have that prompted all this? I didn't know nearly enough about bloodlines to figure it out.

Plus...she'd asked me not to try. She wanted me to let it go. Despite how PISSED I was at mom and dad (less so at mom than I had been, though that didn't let dad off the hook for the way I grew up) I didn't blame Chelsea for any of it, and I could tell from her face that she expected me to.

You'd think that would have made it harder, in some ways. To just...drop it. But it didn't. The realizations from the forest came back to me. Mom and dad weren't here, but that didn't change the impact they had on me. Neither would finding out the truth. It might hurt my sister though, and she didn't deserve it. This wasn't her fault. I leaned forward awkwardly in my chair and hugged her.

Chelsea stiffened at the contact, clearly expecting me to be upset and lashing out, but once she realized what was happening she hugged me back. "Family secret bullshit or not, you got something wrong. This didn't happen because of you. It happened TO you. None of this was your fault." I pulled away. "Now, tell me a bit more about your life. I want to know what growing up as the Radiant Princess is like."

I still had so many emotions tangled up inside. I was still reeling. And honestly, I should have been angry. That she got the childhood I didn't, that she was with mom being adored and fussed over while I was stuck on some backwater nowhere hellhole. But...I wasn't. Any of those things. Forget dad. I'd had Zeke growing up. And Benny. I loved my life, and I didn't need to fantasize about growing up being pampered by strangers.

She groaned at the nickname, chuckling wetly as she wiped her eyes. "Please don't call me that. it's so lame. But really, it's not as crazy as you might be thinking. Mom keeps me out of the limelight when possible. Which can be hard. It's why I had to come to the trial to begin with. She didn't want me using the Church's heritage in case something about my second power leaked."

"How is she?" I finally asked. I'd been avoiding it, but I couldn't help myself. I hadn't seen my mother for so long that my only memory of her was a single glimpse of her face.

"Quiet." She said sadly. "She misses you. A lot. Part of the contract she signed with dad is that she can't seek you out. She did it that way on purpose, so that she wouldn't be tempted and put both of us in danger. She hates herself for it though. I still catch her crying sometimes."

Contract. She'd said wish before, which made me think it was both. My dad was a wish devil, after all, he granted wishes through contracts now. That was basically ALL I knew about him these days. "Does that mean I can't see her?"

"Nope." She beamed at me. "Contract says she can't seek you out, doesn't say anything about the other way around. I think she'd love to see you. We'd have to be a bit creative about it, and it would have to be after the trials. If you want to see her, I mean." Her smile wilted. "I'd understand if you didn't."

"I do." I stated firmly. "I still have questions, but even if she can't or won't answer them...she's still my mom. Knowing she did all this to keep us safe makes it a lot easier to deal with."

Her smile this time was enough to light up the room. "Well, what about you? I noticed you came here with friends." Her tone took on a teasing lilt. "And a girl. It must be serious if you're traveling together. You going to bring her with you to meet mom?"

"Probably." I said without flinching. "I've met hers. And yeah, it's pretty serious. My friends are all from my home planet.
Mom ever tell you anything about Callus?" I wasn't actually sure mom had BEEN to Callus, actually. My memory of her didn't come with context or location details. It was possible it had been before I'd moved to the psuedo-D ranked planet.
Chelsea shook her head. "Not that I remember. I's love to hear about it though. Mom said you were raised by dad's best friend?"

I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled forth as I tried to think of how to describe Zeke. "Yeah. He's...he's a hard guy to explain. But he's taken care of me my whole life, and always been there when I needed him. I think you'd like the old drunk. What about your protector? I heard he's a big shot for his level, but he's been keeping his rank down so he can stick around and protect you."

"Callen has his own reasons for remaining at F-rank." She giggled. "But he's definitely kept me safe for most of my life. He's my guard for places higher ranking Ascendants can't go. You'd be surprised how often that comes up." She gestured off into the temple. "He's around somewhere. We got separated in the second trial, of course. I'm sure he's looking for me everywhere, but it's a big place and there are a lot of people."

I shrugged. "Not a huge issue though, right? If you die in here you just get kicked out. It's a safe place for you to do some exploring on your own. What's the power you can use, by the way, since the other one is a secret."

She held up a hand, and an ivory, crystalline flame flickered into existence. It looked weird, like an animated opal statue of fire. "Purifying flame." She said proudly. "It's grandpa's bloodline, though he uses it a bit weird, so most people don't know that." I was kind of curious what that even meant, but I decided there'd be time for that later.

I changed the subject, asking her more about her childhood, and she asked about mine again. I shared stories, embarrassing incidents, and just stupid things I'd done, and she did the same. We got to know each other, sitting there in that stone room and catching up with our lives. The rest of them got further ahead in the next trial, but I didn't care. i was finally getting to know my sister, learning more about my family, and that was plenty for me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I wanted to stay and talk more with Chelsea, but as much fun as it was, the few hours I took catching up with her was the most either of us were willing to spend. We were here for the trials, at the end of the day, and that meant we needed to get going.We walked together to the portal, at least. After a quick hug and a promise to talk more later, we each stepped through the doorway behind the throne.

As expected, we were separated in the next trial. If my conjectures earlier were correct, then they were alternating soul refinement resources with trials aimed at helping people break soul shackles. Of course, I doubted this could continue. They were trials, and chances were good we'd be up against each other within the next few trials.

When the telltale gold light faded, I found myself standing somewhere completely new. Not in a castle of dark stone, but in a maze, the likes of which I'd never seen before. The maze seemed to be made of mirrors, but the mirrors, at least from the angle I was at now, had no reflections in them. As I stepped forward past one, I saw myself enter the image next to me.

Oddly though, the image of me wasn't wearing my current armor, he was wearing white robes with golden trim. He had a circlet on his brow set with a beautiful blue sapphire, and his expression was pious and kind of snooty. As I watched. He stepped out of the mirror gracefully, offering me a jaunty wave. "Oh, hello. It's nice to meet you. I'm Shane Anders. Are you participating in this trial too?"

As he spoke, I finally got the download from the temple about the rules for this trial, and what was going on became obnoxiously clear. The Heart Demon Maze. The reflections represented weaknesses and blind spots in my psyche. This particular trial would have been much more help with my heart shackle than my mind shackle, but it should help me refine myself either way.

"Hi." I said awkwardly. "I don't suppose you know why you're here?" I would have felt terrible just assaulting someone who didn't mean me harm, even an egotistical version of me obviously raised by my mother, with a somehow exponentially more punchable face than my own despite being nearly identical to me.

He sighed heavily. "I do. We're going to have to do battle. It's a shame. I don't have anything against you personally. I do need to get through this trial though, and you won't be harmed physically by your demise here. I'll try not to-" His words were cut off by my staff flashing through the space his head had just been occupying as I shifted into Belial and triggered State of Grace, Flurry of Blows, and Ripple Running.

The staff passed in front of his nose, and I kept the motion going as I made a full rotation, using the force of my body to speed up the already much faster attack. Other me scowled. "Well that's not very polite. I was still speaking. His eyes began to glow with unearthly blue radiance as his hands came to life with white fire. Familiar white fire. Flames of purification. Of course.

This was the version of me who inherited my grandfathers power from my mom. Who grew up in the Church with her. Did he have a second power like Chelsea? I'd find out. But at the moment I had to stay alive. A dozen strikes and sweeps licked out, my staff moving deceptively gently but fast as I could go, like I was dancing or something.

An impression probably helped by other me's flawless dodges and deflections. Not only did my corrosion not infect him, where his flame hit my staff it started burning away the strength of Belial. After a few exchanges I was the one on the back foot, dodging as the tempo slowly shifted to him attacking me.

My overlay really shined here. Not literally, I couldn't manage to find a Path here for attacking. Apparently there was no version of this fight that conformed to Fate, which I guess made sense. I pushed off the air with Ripple Running, vanishing as he struck out with purifying flame, and grinned as he caught some corruption to the chest from the platform I'd used to push off.

Other me hissed, slamming his purifying hand into his chest, and as he did, I triggered Moonlit Night. Fog filled the mirrored corridor, cloaking me in stealth. His face (my face I supposed) smoothed out after a minute, his purifying flame eradicating the demonic corruption. "That was very clever." He complimented earnestly. "Corrupting the air and drawing my focus so you could catch me with a mine."

I gritted my teeth. That sounded so patronizing coming from him. Or maybe I was just pissed off at his existence. This version of me seemed almost...better. Even without my wish power (which I hadn't been able to use since entering here, I was pretty sure there was some time shenanigans going on in the temple) he'd made it further than I had. He was seemingly on the high end of F-rank, while I was only coming up on the midpoint, and I...

My mind froze. I got it now. The maze wasn't built specifically for fights. I mean, it was good training and in some situations it would probably be important, but the point of it was to overcome flaws in my mind and heart. Flaws like this one. Ever since I'd first heard about Chelsea I'd wondered what would have happened if mom had taken me. Would I be stronger? Better? Happier?

It was no effort at all to let Moonlit Night and Belial drop. This version of me hadn't attacked, he'd said he would, but he'd mostly just waited patiently. I stared at him. "I don't want to be you." I said firmly. "I like my life. My friends. Zeke. I wouldn't trade them for some fancy robes and time with my mommy. I could beat you if we kept fighting, but more importantly...I don't think you're as happy as I am."

I blinked and he was gone. I was looking in a mirror at myself, eyes behind a blank wooden mask. A second later the mirror cracked, and the image of me as I was vanished, the reflective surface replaced with a blank wall of golden bricks. I felt...lighter. Stronger. Like a piece of me that was broken had been fixed. I felt a lot of things honestly, and it was hard to pin down a specific emotion in the maelstrom.

Rather than continue, I sat down and closed my eyes, thinking through what I'd come to terms with. The Heart Demon Maze was meant to help cleanse your flaws, if I hadn't come here as an orange it would have been mainly aimed at my heart lock, but since I had, I got to face off with the demons I had in my own head. My internal limitations.

Figuring out the limits you imposed on yourself was a bitch and a half as far as I could tell. I had some ideas, but for the moment I just needed to take this one step at a time. Exhaling loudly, I stood up, brushed off my pants, and then stepped forward into view of the next mirror.

This time, the version of me that stepped out of the mirror WAS wearing my mask. He was also wearing much different clothes. A pitch black three piece suit with a black shirt and tie. The tie had the WCP logo stitched into it with gold thread. He nodded to me coldly as he emerged. "The test continues, I see. What version of myself do I face now? I don't see any obvious clues to which weakness I need to eradicate here."

So he thought he was taking the test. Interesting, but ultimately irrelevant. "I suppose we should chat then." I said casually. "Try to figure out a bit about each other." Fighting wasn't my go to this time. I needed to understand, to figure out what this guy represented.

"What's in that for me?" He laughed frostily. "I could just kill you and advance. I hardly think a conversation with a figment of my imagination is worth my time.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be insipid. If we were going to fight we'd have started by now. Quit your posturing so we can get this shit done."

He shrugged. "I should have expected myself to be smart enough to see through that. Fine. My name is Shane Wyndham. Son of Elijah. I assume you're the same? Your clothes lead me to believe you're not exactly proud of our illustrious heritage. Shame our father didn't impress the importance of family onto you. I suppose even he isn't infallible, as much as he likes to pretend otherwise."

It hit me then. Not all of these versions of me needed to be real possibilities. The last one hadn't been. If there was a version of me raised by mom, there was a version raised by dad. This was the REAL Wyndham inside me. The part of me that expected that I could have been a real power player if dad had stayed with me and taught me properly.

"You grew up with the family?" I said, unable to help my curiosity. "What was that like? You must be pretty strong." He was F-rank, but clearly much further along than I was. Just like the last one.

"Strength is irrelevant." He scoffed. "It's just a facet of power. I HAVE power. Some I get from our father. Some from my own wit. But it belongs to me. And you..." I could HEAR the sneer behind the mask. "You're weak. Empty. Too soft to do what needs to be done to achieve our goals. You sicken me."

"Right back at'cha." I laughed. "Do you care about ANYONE but yourself? Or did dad teach you all his bad habits. Abandoning people you care about. Pushing away your loved ones. Why even bother using your own name. Might as well call yourself Eli jr."

He straightened menacingly. "How DARE you? Our father taught me everything I needed to survive. To thrive. I have power, wealth, influence. What do you have?"

I snorted. "A personality. Also friends, and a girlfriend. I'm assuming you have none of those things. You're just a rich selfish prick with too high an opinion of himself." I laughed at myself. Both of me. "I can't believe part of me wished to be like you. I had enough trouble shaking off dad's bullshit when he was barely around. I don't hate him, I'm not even as mad at him anymore after hearing some of his reasons, and honestly, I'm glad he left."

The other me froze, then stepped back into the mirror and became my mirror image before the mirror once again cracked and vanished. I just smiled. I loved my dad. Even after everything. I didn't LIKE him very much, but I loved him. But I also thought he was an asshole. I didn't want to be like him. To live up to his expectations. Or even to make him proud. I didn't need to do any of that.

My father was an absentee deadbeat with a god complex. He didn't deserve my anger. My resentment. Or the space he took up in my mind. Mom had to leave, for whatever reason, but dad didn't. He chose to abandon me because of the way the family did things. And I was glad he did. I was glad both of them did. I wouldn't be who I was without their choices.

Zeke hadn't just raised me to be like him. He'd raised me to be ME. I'd never realized what a gift it was for him not to try to impose his morality and judgement on me. Call him absent or neglectful if you wanted, but Zeke had taught me the most important lesson anyone had ever taken the time to teach me. How to be true to who I was. With that realization, I took a deep breath, and stepped forward. On to the next me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

There were so many things about myself that I had never wanted to confront. So many dreams, hopes, and nightmares that I just stuffed in a box in the back of my head so I didn't have to think about them. As I progressed through the maze, I faced them all. Some of them broke my heart (the me who had never met Benny and had become a terrified shell with no one to lean on), some of them scared me (the me who had joined the Black Sorrow Cult out of rebellion against my parents), and some just left me feeling empty.

But as I progressed down the path, the slight notion I had about what my mind lock was began to develop. Each new version of me brought me closer to the inevitable confrontation I knew was coming. Of course, it was also a maze, so I hit a few dead ends, but eventually I figured it out through the tried and true method of picking a direction and sticking to it.

After several hours of facing my demons, I reached near the end of the maze. Only two more mirrors to go. Approaching the second to last version of myself. I watched him step from the mirror gracefully. Raising an eyebrow at me as he did. No mask, no costume. This version of me was a powerful cultivator, sure, but he wasn't a heroic cultivator. He was a more...direct sort of Ascendant.

He raked his eyes over me slowly, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "The trappings of mediocrity." He drawled. "Playing hero, playing human. You rely too much on your humanity, ignoring the power you could have. Resisting the desire to destroy your enemies out of base sentiment. It's pathetic, really."

"Why is nearly every version of me an unbearable jackass." I wondered aloud. "Like none of me are cool? I guess I need to know your schtick. Are you the me of christmas future? The person I turn into if I decide to throw away my ties to the Unity and just be a lone wolf?" I didn't have any clues to who he might be, so I figured I'd just ask. He seemed smarmy and self absorbed enough to just tell me outright to be honest.

With a snort, he turned his back on me. Unconcerned with me as he studied out surroundings. "Thrown away? I never had any ties to those simpletons. Children playing dressup, focusing on everything but the true business of cultivation. Not that I can blame them I suppose. Their incomplete cultivation style may be fast, but its obviously deeply flawed. It's no wonder they're all madmen or con artists."

That was when it clicked. "You're me as a full cultivator. No heroic inclinations, just the same brutal pragmatism I hear everyone else try to endorse." I looked him over. Trying to see signs of something I knew wouldn't leave any. He just looked like, but more of a dick.

The smarmy smirk didn't help that impression. "Brutal pragmatism?" He mocked. "You're speaking only of reality. The world as it is. Accepting the way the universe works is nothing to be ashamed of. One must do what is necessary to advance. Killing enemies, stealing from others, exploiting the weak. These things are human nature. There's only a finite amount of power in the world, in order to accrue it you must seize it from others."

"Whatever asshole." I scoffed. "You're not the first to say that kind of thing to me. I've found the opposite to be true though. My friends are what keep me grounded. Keep me going. They give me the drive to move forward and be what I need to be. People like you just consume to try to fill the pit in your soul, but I've got an actual reason to fight, and I'll take that any day."

As I spoke, I realized that every word of it was true. This was how I felt. There had always been a part of me that had desperately wanted to embrace the way a real cultivator did things. That though I was only half assing it and that was why I progressed so slow. I wasn't proud of that part, but it had been there. Seeing what my life would be like as that kind of person though, letting it go was the easiest thing in the world.

Power without people to share it with was empty. This version of me had basically gone full recursion, just using the Job system as a buffer to prevent obvious insanity. When I had that realization, other me froze, and then stepped back into the mirror, showing my own image once again as the glass cracked and faded away.

I turned to the last mirror. And then there was one. The last flaw the maze had found in me. Not that I thought I was perfect now, but based on what I'd been feeling, at the very least this should be the one to help me break through my mind shackle. I stepped up to the mirror, looking into the glass to see what horror I'd have to deal with now.

As I faced the final test the maze had for me, I expected something dramatic and dangerous, but to my surprise, the me that stepped out of the mirror looked...normal. He waved to me casually. "Oh, hey man. Nice duds. You look like a character from this game I like to play."

"Doom Sovereign?" I asked with amusement. "Because that's way closer to the truth than you might think." I wondered what he thought he was doing here. The rest of them had been undergoing tests like I was, but this version of me wasn't an Ascendant as far as I could tell. He was just a regular person. Not an inkling of Impact came from the slightly shorter me.

It was the height that tipped me off. I'd traded Callie for an inch of height during a wish back on Callus. This Shane was six foot three, like I had been for most of my life. All the little details combined made it clear what I was looking at here. This was me if I'd never began cultivating.

In a way, this was more intoxicating than any of the other possibilities. This wasn't some alternate life where I didn't have any of my loved ones or had some radically different viewpoint. This was me as I had been not too long ago. Happy, at peace with myself.

This part of me was more insidious than some dark undercurrent wishing for power. This version of me was all about regret. What if I'd never left Callus. Never abandoned my home there. What if Benny and I had stayed and lived our lives. No danger, no craziness. Just me as I had been.

But the rest of the maze had already worn the shine off that apple. I'd seen myself dark, seen myself, cold, seen myself miserable, happy, strong, weak. I'd seen what I'd have been with my mom, with my dad, raising myself unsupervised. Every version of me had been a choice, a possible ending for my story that I hadn't decided to write. This one was no different.

Not just because this version of me didn't have Callie (though it definitely factored) but I knew I didn't want this because it was just one more thing I was supposed to hope for. That had been the theme here. I always wanted what everyone else wanted me to want. Trying to live up to expectations, trying to be what I thought I should.

It wasn't my heart shackle, as much as it sounded external, because the pressure didn't come from outside. It was my own. I wasn't trying to live up to anyone's expectations, I was trying to live up to what I thought their expectations WOULD be. An impossible benchmark none of them would ever set. I wanted to be perfect, to prove myself to EVERYONE, and to myself in the process.

I stared at the other me, feeling myself...change. Grow. Not into a yellow soul, but in a way I couldn't define, sublimating and straining at the shackle. I was on the right track. But I wasn't quite there. I cocked my head at the normal me. "So...don't you ever want more? Want to be someone else? Or are you happy where you are."

He shrugged. "That's the trick isn't it? The one we play on ourselves? Wanting this ineffable far off thing. This perfect future. But if we spend all our time chasing the sunset, we trip over the things under our feet. Who cares what I'm going to be? Having goals is fine, but they don't just happen. You can commit to a thousand long term plans, but that doesn't matter if you aren't taking the steps to reach them."

I blinked at that. "What do you mean? You're saying my goals are all pointless? Because I AM trying to reach them. It's all I've been doing lately."

"I know." He said with a laugh. "But have you actually been getting any closer? Confusing advancement with progress is just standing still on an escalator. All this training. All this work. Have you been doing what you need to do to move forward?"

It was hard not to real my eyes at the quippy philosophical bullshit, but I did see his point. "Hurry up and wait." I said with a grimace. "Instead of constantly trying to make my life something far off and perfect, I should be taking the steps needed to make it as close to that as it can be right now. Not a long delayed journey as the same person where I magically transform at the end. A step by step transformation where I'm a different person each day."

He snapped and pointed at me, the other finger going to his nose. "Bingo! You'd already mostly figured it out anyway. You need to say it the right way though. You're almost through, and you know it. There's a few thoughts there. You need to put it all together."

"Be myself." I said with a snort. "All of it comes down to that. Be the me that I am in the moment. Not for my loved ones, or for the expectations of others, or to put myself in a better position. Reputation, renown, recursion. It's all secondary. The main person that decides how my story unfolds is me. I need to take control of my own life and steer my destiny. I made that realization partway when I decided to change my family, but I never followed it all the way through."

"You got it." Grinned the other me. "Not that I'm saying you need to be a contrary asshole and never do anything anyone wants. Just that in the end, no matter how it seems. You're the one who decides the path you take. Even if the direction is sometimes laid out for you, you're the one who walks it. After all, you can always take a hard left turn into the wilderness, right?"

I felt the shackle give way. A chain binding my spirit fractured and my entire sense of self...changed. Evolved. I became more than I had ever been as my soul ascended to yellow. I felt... clean. Free. Unleashed. I hadn't noticed the restriction of being at the peak of orange until it was gone, but now I just felt like I was more.

"Who are you?" I asked the me standing in front of the last mirror. "Are you really just a possible version of me? None of the others seemed quite this self aware."

He just shrugged as he stepped back into the mirror. "I'm just a maybe. No need to think about it too much." As he stepped inside, the mirror cracked, and a fragment of silver metal flew forward to float in front of me. I guessed the wait time talking to Chelsea had cost me the gold. I let it merge into me so I could save it for Callie, and then turned to the golden glowing door. On to the next trial. Whatever that may be.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

When I materialized in the next trial, everything felt different. My mind was sharper, I could hear better, it wasn't that I felt like I'd grown so much as my stats were more in tune with my body now. More a part of me. It was a tough feeling to explain, but definitely a pleasant one overall. Of course, it was also distracting, which is why I didn't notice the person standing in front of me.

"Oh shit!" I yelped, as I jumped nearly out of my skin. The guy across from me did the same, and I sighed in relief when I realized that he didn't seem hostile. Still, I eased a hand to my staff, looking suspiciously at the man in a strange yellow furred three piece suit with brown fur cuffs. His head had a flat topped brown fur hat with yellow ears poking out of it, and his eyes were feline and predatory, though they seemed more wary than aggressive at the moment.

He nodded to me. Blinking once in the time most people would have done so five or six times. "Hello." He said in a rough and slightly sibilant voice. "My name is Felix."

"I bet it is." I said as I slowly calmed down. "Can I...help you? Were you waiting for something? Wait, what are we even do-" And that was when the information for this particular trial dropped into my head. Trial number five, the trial of unity. The soul wasn't built to be solitary. While inner surety and a powerful will were needed to refine it, it was also necessary to form bonds with others. That was what the heart shackle was all about, after all.

The trial of unity wasn't a partner thing. It was a proxy war. All the remaining participants would be split up into fortresses. Each fortress would be given flags with numbers on them. Capturing a flag from the other team would reward soul refinement based on the recipient's level. I blinked at Felix. "Ah, just got it. Team one or team two?"

"Team two." He said succinctly. "Yourself?"

"Same." I said with a relieved breath. "You have any idea where the fortress is? I don't think sticking around out here in the wild will be a good idea. Someone is bound to try to pick off stragglers."

Felix nodded. "Lone prey is weakest." He agreed cheerfully. "Retreat to the den." He turned and headed in a seemingly random direction without really answering my question. Still, I figured following him would be a better idea than wandering off. I also wondered how he was here at all. I'd assumed that Fist God guy was the one who got the golden fragment last time. Was it Felix? Or did the arrivals get randomized. I could see other figures moving in the distance.

Something was going on with time in here for sure, because despite being like a day or two so far, I didn't need to sleep, or eat, and I couldn't feel my wishes refreshing for the day. Maybe time wasn't moving at all in here. In which case the temple could have screwed with our sense of it?

Regardless of what was happening, we made our way to fortress two without much delay, arriving at the gate within about forty minutes. I kept my eyes peeled for enemies, but we made it safely. The fortress, as it turned out, was a massive stone structure with an ACTUAL drawbridge. "Hello the gate!" I bellowed. I'd always wanted to say that.

"Shane?" Squealed a happy, familiar voice. "You're on team two?" I laughed as Bethy poked her head out from the parapet. "This is gonna be awesome! Gabe ended up on team one I think, and I saw Benny and Jessie over there too! You've got me on your team though, and we're gonna totally crush them!"

"What about Callie?" I asked as the gate came down. I'd stepped out of the way with Felix. When it reached about halfway Bethy jumped off the parapet and landed on it, screaming with joy as she rode the falling gate the rest of the way down. When it thumped into the earth, she jumped off and sprinted over to us. I grinned. "I was about to come up there, you know?"

She shrugged happily. "This was faster." She turned to Felix with a big smile. "Hi I'm-" Her eyes went wide. "KITTY!" I cursed and hurled myself forward to catch her before she tackled him, but I was too slow, even in here. She wrapped her arms around the yellow suited man, cackling in glee, and I pinched the bridge of my nose in amused frustration.

"Well I think everyone saw THAT coming." Drawled the most beautiful voice I'd ever heard in my life. I turned to find my girlfriend giggling as she leaned against the open parapet.

"Cal." I grinned at her. Stepping forward, I swept her up into a tight hug. She just laughed, burying her face in my neck, and we held each other for a while. As much as it had only been a short time since I'd seen her, it felt like much longer. Between the forest and the maze, time had sort of lost all meaning, but I'd changed quite a bit since we'd last been together. Just because I was fine without her didn't mean I wasn't happy to see her.

She laughed and held onto me until I put her down. There was something different about her. She seemed relaxed and at peace in a way she hadn't before. Having gone through the same thing myself I could easily recognize the signs. "You hit yellow didn't you?"

"Yup. You too?" I'd gone through several waves of armors at a hundred percent, unable to advance because of my shackle, so catching up didn't seem too weird. At my nod she grinned. "I also progressed my Path a bit. I've been work on it since my enlightenment after the Glade. It's actually progressed to a usable extent. Really helped me get through the castle. Those armor suits were sturdy."

Callie had way more Might than me, but those things had definitely been durable as hell. I'd have figured she'd have more trouble with them. Her Path must be pretty combat applicable. I was really looking forward to seeing it. Turning to Bethy, I asked. "So...do we have any details about how this is supposed to go?" Having been here longer I was hopeful she might have a better grasp on what was happening.

The information download covered the very basics, but the actual context of the trial was something we'd need to learn on the fly. She nodded. "Yeah, a bit. You know about the flags, but it seems like this is going to be a longer trial than the others. The general consensus is that there will PROBABLY be seven of them. The last three are probably going to take a bit longer, because the weaklings have been eliminated and we're down to serious contenders."

Between the forest and the maze, I could see how lots of people would have given up. There was an option to just leave if you couldn't take it, though I knew it wasn't something I'd ever exercise. If this was going to be a long drawn out battle some of the details made sense. If there was just one flag it would be kind of pointless. It sounded like we might be attacking each fortress in waves.

Felix, who had extricated himself from Bethy's vise like grip, headed through the draw bridge, and I laughed and grabbed Callie's hand. "He's got the right idea, we really should go inside." Even at the actual entrance to the second fortress we were making targets of ourselves sitting around like this. "Anyway, Bethy, tell us about our teammates. Anyone we know in here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know who you know. We got the broody guy from the platform, the one whose grandpa is a pope. Also a stabby guy who seems kind of crazy, and a punchy guy who doesn't talk much. He seems pretty strong though. I think at least two of them are Masters." I exhaled in relief. Masters on our team were bound to make things easier. Especially if that punchy guy was the Adrian person Vinnie and Simon mentioned. Speaking of whom...

"I was actually wondering if two friends of mine came through." I said brightly. "One of them is a kind of stuck up elf guy? And the other one is short and super buff with a goatee."

Bethy made a thoughtful sound. "They do sound familiar. I'm not sure if I saw them here or in one of the trials though. Most people were avoiding me except the really strong ones. I might have gotten a little bitey during the first trial and I think I scared some people off." She sounded pretty disappointed, and I remembered how hard she worked to control her vampire side better.

Callie pulled away from me, walking over to throw an arm around the diminutive vampiress. "Their loss. You're awesome, and having you on our team is going to be amazing. Everyone else better watch out, or they won't make it past round five. Now, why don't you show us around this place."

Sufficiently distracted from her woes, Bethy sprang into action dragging Callie up a set of stone steps to show her around the fortress. I nodded to Felix, who had been standing in the shadow of a nearby wall. "Sorry about her. She's a sweetheart, just...enthusiastic." I would have explained more about Bethy, but before I had a chance there was a shudder in the ground beneath us and the sky went black.

A yellow light blazed up inside the fortress, coming from a bell tower like structure in the middle, where I could see a glowing golden flag with a big number two on it. "Incoming!" Bellowed someone out of sight of me. "We have a wave starting. Defenders to the walls, anyone who wants to try their hand at flag snatching I'd get the hell out there before we're swarmed."

My eyes widening, I bent my legs and jumped clear up to the walls. I didn't have time for stairs. I bolted in the direction Callie and Bethy had gone, finding them pretty quickly. "Cal." I said, coming into view of my girlfriend. "Can you carry us out past the attackers once they arrive? If we can leapfrog them we can hit their fortress with a light guard."

She glanced out over the wall, sidestepping an arrow as she peeked from behind a crenellation. I followed her lead, noting the massive crowd of Ascendants. Counting them off, I could see hundreds of them just outside. Including the defenders on the other side and our own teammates, there must be almost a thousand of us left in this round. I wish I'd taken the time to find out how many there had been to start. I spotted Abel and Mel out among the crowd, as well as Nat, Valk, and Nathaniel, the pope spawn kid that had been hitting on my sister. I made a mental not to take him out early if I got a chance, just because he had a hateable face.

Callie nodded. "I can jump us past them. They're only less than a mile thick, that's within my range. You'll have to be ready to get us moving when we land though. I'm going to be reeling from the effort." Once she got my agreement, she turned to watch the attackers pile in. "Bethy." She said over her shoulder. "You coming with us on this raid?"

The vampire shook her head. "Nah, I think I'll go out and fight." She winked at us, then gestured down to her shadow. "In fact, I think I'll let my cats out to play, they've been cooped up since they got here." Her eyes gleamed a bloody red as she grinned toothily down at the crowd of attackers. "Donuts, Poptarts...go for a walk." The last thing I saw as Callie pulled me into her shadow was the two Night Pride being unleashed on the horde of challengers. Sucked to be them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We appeared on the opposite side of the horde of siegers. I looked behind us just in time to see a pair of dark shapes fall on the attackers. "Huh." I said as I had a thought. "How did she get them in here? Does her shadow count as part of her soul? Or are they counted as weapons?"

Callie just giggled. "I think it's best not to question the things Bethy does. That's a good way to drive ourselves crazy." She whistled as they fell upon the other team. "Seems like she trained them though. Or maybe they're just acting on their natural instincts."

"Oh gods!" Someone screamed. "That one is wearing his face like a hat!"

We both winced. "Ok." I said. "Even in soul bodies, that just seems excessive. Why don't we go and let them handle this. They're probably just picking off the week anyway." We turned to head toward the yellow glow in the distance, when a dozen Ascendants stepped from the dark forest to bar our way.

"Stragglers." Grimaced Callie. Then her face lit up. "I have an idea. How about we see who can take out more of them faster. I've improved a lot on the way here."

Drawing my staff, I let Belial roll over me. "Sounds like fun. And...go." I darted forward, ignoring the squawk of indignation from Callie for starting without warning her. My overlay unfolded in front of me, and as they surrounded me, my staff licked out, changing the paths of weapons as I nimbly evaded strikes through a combination of the overlay and Danger Sense.

Three, four, five they tore into each other, my staff slamming down on them in finishers as their attacks tripped each other up. Behind them though, I watch flashes of darkness explode as Callie blurred from shadow to shadow, slashes of pitch black bisecting people and space alike as she bounced around.

Before I could finish my sixth attacker, she'd killed seven of them. As she materialized again, she grinned at me. "My new Path. The Path of the Abyss focuses on world destroying darkness encroaching on all things. All my blows carry the taint of entropy."

I whistled. "Pretty damned impressive. No wonder you took at all the armors in the last trial."

She shrugged with a giggle. "I guess. I have a Might advantage though. Even then, I had to really push to win that. If that had been a bigger crowd you'd have won. Is that your new staff art? The way you made them, tear each other apart was amazing."

"Ok." I said with a laugh. "Patting each other on the back is fun, but we should probably get going before we hit another group. Plus we'll need to bypass the defenses to get the flag. Since you're teleporting us in you can take this one, ok?" Her new Path was absolutely fascinating, and I couldn't wait to see what she could do with it as she got stronger.

Grabbing my hand, Callie pulled us back into the shadows. Apparently she'd done a half jump the first time, trying to save herself some strain, which was why we'd run into the stragglers. Still, I saw her logic, and I'd felt her desire to do it through the bond and hadn't said anything, so I couldn't complain.

The bond being back was...amazing. It had been suppressed since split up, it made being apart easier, but now that we were back together I could feel Callie again all the time. Going through the forest had cured my dependence, but the feeling of being wrapped in the constant love and acceptance of the person you care about most in the world was pretty transcendent even if you weren't addicted to it, especially after you'd been missing it.

I could feel that she'd missed it too, though the emotions had changed a bit since our souls were upgraded. In fact, as I focused on the difference, I felt something shift slightly, Callie and I both coming to a hard stop as the bond changed. Beginner paired duelling. That Skill had been at Lesser for a while, but apparently the separate evolutions of our soul had elevated it to the next rank.

Once that finished, the two of us took off towards the fortress again, Callie hiding us with the darkness, infusing it with Stealth to keep us hidden as she drew it around us like a cloak. A bit of Seek Hidden to avoid any patrols or last minute additions and we reached the fortress together in pretty good time, standing outside the stone walls and scanning the battlements for defenders.

Still under Stealth, I leaned down to murmur to Callie. "Ok, so what's the plan for getting up there. Can you teleport us in? Or is it too much carrying me? If it is, I might have a plan."

"Two of us isn't a problem over short distances, but keeping up Stealth, finding a good spot to emerge, and moving us up as well as forward is going to leave me pretty out of it." She sounded worried, but I'd expected that. I told her my plan, which she thought was a little out there, but since we were in an illusionary soul space where neither of us could die, she eventually agreed to it.

As she vanished into the dark, I charged out into an empty space. We weren't the only ones from team two besieging the fortress, but Callie had taken us around the others and into an empty area opposite the attackers from our side. As I ran out, I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running, bouncing off the air twice as I sailed up onto the wall. I probably could have free jumped it like I had back at our fortress, but if I did that they wouldn't have as much time to notice me.

Belial was already coating me as I hit the parapet, bellowing as loud as I could. "I AM INVINCIBLE!" I wasn't obviously. But everyone within a hundred feet noticed me and swarmed in my direction. All the stragglers came for me as predicted, and my Danger Sense triggered, letting me know I was under attack. I dropped bonelessly to avoid what appeared to be a purple flaming crow bar, planting my staff to vault back up to my feet as someone tried to stomp on my head.

I rolled sideways to avoid a smash from a colossal bronze hammer, and someone threw a smoking green ferret at me that I deflected with my staff. This plan had seemed simple and easy to accomplish, but when I'd been planning how to execute it, I'd missed a key detail. Belial worked best in open spaces, and I was standing on a fifteen foot wide section of wall as a score of dangerous Ascendants attacked me en masse.

Of course, most of them were on the other side fending off the attackers from team two, so there wasn't enough to drown me in bodies, but between the limited space and me underestimating how many would be back here I was barely hanging on by the skin of my teeth.

Trouble or not, the plan WAS working though. No one noticed the shadows shift near the base of the bell tower except for me, and since I was wearing a mask that was literally just wood, they couldn't exactly follow my eyeline.

Following my Path arrows, I deflected a crossbow bolt slightly, knocking it off course into the hammer guy, distracting him enough for me to jump, bounce off a Ripple running platform, and then do a smashing drop kick onto the side of the hammer, knocking it off course to hit the ferret, which exploded into a cloud of green smoke.

My mask filtered the poison from entering my lungs, and you can't actually poison toxic magma anyway, so I was free to trigger my Moonlit Night skill, overlapping the cloud with stealth fog as effectively tied them all down. Inside the fog, I could see perfectly fine, while they were all isolated, and I tweaked it enough for noise to get through as I started lashing out to tap and prod the forms around me, inciting them to attack.

I managed to kill ten of them before they wised up to what was happening and started to run, several of them still poisoned by both the cloud and my attacks, and limping or stumbling from wounds they left on each other. I dropped off the wall, heading for the central area and leaping up to land on the bell tower like structure just as Callie grabbed the flag.
There was a torrent of yellow energy as a beam of condensed soul power slammed down on her, breaking the dark sky as she was imbued with a powerful boost.

Screams of outrage started echoing around the fortress, and I grimaced as I grabbed her hand. "Honey, we've got to go, please tell me you can jump us."

Callie was breathing fast and heavy. "Yeah, I just need a second. So much soul energy. I think I got a solid ten percent off that flag. My soul is acclimating. Buy me a second."

I grimaced. Ten percent of an orange soul and ten percent of a yellow soul were VERY different things. Even though soul refinement got harder as you progressed, there was still a big difference in levels. A ten percent bump at yellow was huge. Unfortunately, the enemy forces were all closing in. I spotted Benny and Jessie approaching, Nat next to them, and all ready to throw down with us if need be.

I triggered Pit of Despair, and the platform below us vanished as we dropped through it into the hollow tower structure below in a shower of fine dust. I kicked off a Ripple Running platform as I grabbed Callie around the waist, landing on a staircase. "Any time now love." I said anxiously as I watched someone punch through the stone wall at the base of the tower. The whole structure shook.

Finally Callie's eyes snapped open, and she grabbed me, shoving us both back into the shadows. We emerged about a mile and a half away from the fortress, and she pushed me into a crevice between some rocks as she tried not to pass out. Even with the soul boost, that was a hell of a jump. "Keep watch." She wheezed. I could tell she was recovering fast off the excess soul energy in her body, so I peeked out of the rock formation to look around.

No one was nearby, so I slumped against the nearest boulder, letting out a sigh of relief. "We're good. Just recover as quick as you can and we can bail. You doing ok? That was a hell of a jump."

"Fine." She groaned. "Sorry for the close call. Luckily I got a bit of information when I claimed the flag." At my questioning look, she grinned. "Hint for the victor. Next flag isn't going to be in a fortress. It'll be hidden in the area behind it. That'll happen on both sides, so they'll have to look same as we will. I suspect underground or in a cave, so the light doesn't give it away."

That WAS good news. If we were the only ones who knew it meant we had a serious advantage. Her expression didn't seem particularly enthused about it though. "Ok, guessing the good news came with bad? What did I miss?"

She grimaced. "I saw your sister over there while I was grabbing the flag. She was on the other side warding off the defenders. I'm guessing next time we'll need to deal with her directly, along with probably the rest of our team."

"Alright." I said with a groan. "Then we need to get back and share our info with the others. We're going to need a hunting party for the next flag. At least if we expect to win." And I did want to win. I also wanted the next flag. That ten percent bump was too good to pass up.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After recovering a bit, Callie jumped us through the shadows back to the fortress. Because she could find shadows for hopping to, she was able to keep us out of sight easily enough, and when we finally got back, let us bypass any remaining siege forces.

"Oh hey!" Said Bethy as we reappeared. "You guys are back! Did one of you get the flag?" She glanced over us like she could sense our souls, focusing really hard on our faces. After a minute of staring and squinting she pouted. "I can't tell. You guys are so sneaky."

I burst out laughing. "I don't think you not being able to tell if our souls are stronger is a sign of sneakiness. I think you just don't have the ability to do that."

She shook her head. "I don't think that's it. Daddy always says I can do anything I set my mind to. I think you guys are just sneaky." I opened my mouth to retort, but realized that she actually DID sometimes do crazy shit that she shouldn't be able to do. Still, I was pretty sure she just couldn't do this. Souls were pretty esoteric, and sensing someone else's probably wasn't possible at her level.

Realizing I was getting sucked into her crazy mental rhythm, I shook it off, focusing back on what we'd learned. "Anyway, we're here because Callie DID get the flag, and she got a clue for the next one. It's not going to be in the fortress." I gestured off the wall, into the surrounding trees to where we could see mountains and streams and various other wilderness style nonsense.

I'd ceased to be impressed by the temple's ability to create random stuff after the sky island trial. At the moment, it was more inconvenient than amazing. Still, Bethy seemed excited. "Oh! We could go look for it early right? Form a forest investigation team." Putting on a serious look, she summoned her cats and struck a pose. "Bethany Lark, forest detective! Taking a bite out of injustice!" She bared her fangs at us, and I had to stifle a chuckle at her antics.

"Is there...like, justice in the forest?" Questioned Callie hesitantly. "I mean, it's mostly animals and plants, I feel like justice as a concept is sort of outside the meta."

"Well, I mean, survival of the fittest." I shrugged. "That seems like forest justice. But you can't really bite survival of the fittest, if anything you'd just be disproving your entire conceptual model. Unless this is supposed to be an irony thing. That might work."

Bethy groaned. "You're overthinking this. I'm not making a philosophical statement. I just want to have some fun with my cats and be awesome. Obviously the forest doesn't have detectives." She stomped her foot in annoyance. "I wish Tracey and Ada were here. They would have played along."

I put both hands up in surrender. "Sorry. We didn't mean to be buzzkills. We'd love to have your help investigating the forest Bethy."

She pouted. "I guess. I don't know if I even feel like it anymore. You guys are no fun." She sulked for a few seconds and then her face lit up. "Ok I'm over it! Let's go look for the flag. Should we ask one of the others to come with us. That Adrian guy maybe. I don't like that other guy. Bloody Billy I think his name was. He gives me a bad vibe."

"What about the big blonde guy who was guarding Chelsea?" I asked, looking around. "Callen? I haven't seen him around anywhere, and I doubt he got bounced this early. Do you think he's in our fortress?" A lot of people had ended up on the other team. I was wondering exactly how strong Adrian was, to offset so many powerful fighters, or was it even balanced at all. Maybe it was just random.

"Should we wait to actually start looking?" Asked Callie. "Because if the flag isn't out there yet we might waste our time and overshoot. If we pass it and end up deep in the woods or something when the next flag rush happens we'll be screwed. Also, when IS the next flag rush? The rules weren't clear about time frame. The first one hit pretty early, but who knows how long it'll take until the next."

I considered her point. "I think looking around is a good plan. At the very least we might get a better feel for the area. Sure, we might pass the flag and end up far away, but we could just easily stay here and find out it popped up on the other side of the forest. The more information we can gather the easier the search will be."

Seek Hidden was also an option, but if the flag was underground it would make things harder. Seek Hidden wasn't optimized for that kind of thing, that was why I had my mining divination skill, even if I'd turned it into something else. It would help get us a direction though, at the very least.

Callie mulled over my points. "Ok, that's fair. Let's head out and look around. We can take note of any areas the flag might be hard to find. Not to mention the flag might already be placed and just not...active? I don't know what term I'd use there."

I hadn't considered that. Maybe she was right, the flag had already been placed in the bell towers before the first rush after all. Bethy was bouncing with excitement. "Let's GO!" She leapt up onto the battlement. "I'll send the kitties out to scout ahead. "Poptarts, Donuts, GO FORTH!" She pointed imperiously out into the forest.

The shadow cats materialized and then dove out into the woods. I chuckled at her enthusiasm and hopped up on the battlement myself before stepping off. Callie followed me after and I caught her in a princess carry effortlessly, though I groaned and stumbled around like she was heavy just to mess with her. She rolled her eyes, appearing not to take the bait, but I tripped over a shadow after putting her down before I even got three feet.

She blinked innocently at my glare, but I caught a hint of a smirk when I turned around. Rolling my eyes, I headed off into the jungle, paying extra attention to my Danger Sense, and triggering Seek Hidden on enemies just in case one tried to sneak up on us.

Bethy and Callie both vanished from behind me, Bethy into a swarm of bats and Callie into the shadows, leading me to follow the trail blazed by the cats carefully, trying to be as Stealthy as possible without an actual Stealth skill. My Moonlit Night wasn't optimized for searches like this, but even if I couldn't use Stealth abilities directly, careful foot placement and deliberate movement made surprisingly little sound.

In the distance I could see small red dots. With my soul's improvement came an enhanced range with Seek Hidden, and human beings were large enough for me to pick up at this point. It made avoiding enemies much easier. "Shane." Whispered Bathy's voice from somewhere nearby. "Poptarts found a cave to the left." Apparently her bats could talk.

Turning left, I silently made my forward until I came to a small brook between a pair of large hills. The brook was shallow, babbling lightly. At the bottom I could see wet rocks and tightly packed mud leading to a small cave set back into a larger hill that rose behind the two others. Stepping into the brook, I strode through the ankle deep waters, my boots well made enough to keep my feet dry as I approached the cave.

Upon entry, I found Poptarts (probably, who could tell those things apart) crouching in the shadows, waiting for us, and when I arrived Callie emerged next to him. We headed down further into the tunnel to get a bit deeper. Donuts appeared and Bethy manifested in a surge of bats. I used Seek Hidden, checking to see if the flag was here. It wasn't nearby, but off in the distance I saw a tiny speck of red.

"It's not here, but it IS underground." I said as I knelt to get a better vantage point. "I don't think we can access it from here, but I have a direction for us." I pointed off to the northwest.

Keeping Seek Hidden active, we retreated from the cave, climbing one of the hills as we headed in the direction where I had seen the flag. I lost sight of it once we got back to ground level, but I kept the skill active just in case, so we'd have a heads up when we got close.

I was so focused on tracking, I neglected to search for enemies, but my Danger Sense was more than up to the task of alerting me to their presence. As it triggered, I stepped off the air with Ripple Running, shouting a warning to the others as a volley of arrows hit the dirt where I'd been standing.

"Nice reflexes." Called a familiar voice as a tall blonde man with pointed ears emerged from behind a tree. Simon grinned at me. "Sorry about this, Shane. We're on different teams now."

My Danger Sense went off again, and I hurled myself sideways as a colossal spiked mace smashed into the earth where I'd just been. The mace had somehow grown to about column size, and as I watched it shrunk down enough to reveal a chain on the end, which was used to pull it back.

Vinnie caught it easily, giving it some more slack as he lazily spun the mace beside him. From behind him emerged Kellix. I frowned at the masked man. "Did Abel not kill you?" I tried to remember and realized we'd left him smashed but alive in the third trial. "Don't suppose you're so grateful to be alive that you're willing to let us leave once as a sign of gratitude?"

He drew his rapier with a sneer. "Maybe the ladies. I hesitate to stain my blade with the blood of such lovely creatures." He offered them what I assume he thought was a charming smile. "Would either of you like to change companions? You could travel with us, I assure we'd keep you safe."

"Gross." Sneered Callie. "And no, I don't want to help you murder my boyfriend so you can 'protect me'." She looked at Bethy. "How about you, Beth. Any interesting in switching teams?"

Bethy giggled. "No, but maybe we could keep him. He's funny." Kellix beamed, until she continued. "He's so weak, but he thinks he can protect us." I realized with a start that we were alone with them. Three on three. I didn't see the cats anywhere. A quick Seek Hidden revealed their barely corporeal forms slinking through the shadows of some nearby trees.

"I'm standing right here." Said Kellix indignantly. "And gorgeous or not, I'm not going to let you talk down to me. I'll take care of you both now, and hopefully you'll get over it after we leave. It's a trial after all. Don't take it to heAAARGGH."

His little monologue was cut off as one of the cats fell from a tree manifesting as it hit him, while the other emerged from his shadow to sink its teeth into the back of one of his knees. I winced as I watched him viciously torn apart, and Bethy just clicked her tongue. "Probably for the best." She said lightly. "I could never date a man who doesn't get along with my cats."

Vinnie and Simon had both freaked out and retreated as their third team member was butchered, and they watched us warily. Before we could encircle them though, another familiar voice rang through the clearing. "Looks like you boys could use a hand." A form stepped from the shadow of a nearby tree clarifying itself into Abel, who gave us all a cheerful wave. "Mind if I cut in and make this three on three again?" I swallowed hard. This...might be a problem.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Abel." I said with a nod. "Surprised we ran into you. I thought you'd be resting up for the next assault." Without the clue Callie had gotten when she got the flag, I hadn't expected much competition before the next round started, but it seemed like some people had wanted to move out and eliminate the competition a bit. I probably should have expected that from Abel.

He shrugged. "I'm less worried about making it further now. I broke my heart shackle in the maze. I mean, I'm hoping to fill out my soul a bit in green, but even if I get bounced I can still make it all the way to the peak of green eventually. That was basically all I needed here."

I cursed. "Seriously? Lucky bastard." I paused, thinking over what I knew about him. "Oh you asshole, you're walking around looking for someone to fight to the death in here aren't you?" That was just classic him. Finish up your business and then go out in a blaze of gory.

His grin was answer enough, but Abel had no problem confirming it. "I mean, we all have a free pass to live through anything. It would be crazy NOT to take advantage, don't you think?"

"I do think you're crazy." I said drily. "But what makes you think I'M crazy enough to accept a challenge like that, instead of dropping you in a hole and leaving, or tag teaming you with Callie? I have options here beyond just doing what you want."

He shrugged. "I'd accept a two on one fight. But I don't think you'll do that. See, I think you remember how close you came to beating me last time. I think you want another shot at taking me down, and being in here provides us with the perfect chance to do that without actually taking too big of a risk. So, am I right? Do you want the chance to beat me once and for all? With your progression speed if you take me out I'll have trouble catching up again."

My fists clenched. I...really wanted that. I wanted to beat Abel, to take the spot of strongest member of our team from him. I'd been SO close last time. I'd almost had him. And I'd grown so much. I could beat him, I was sure of it.

"Idiots." Scoffed Callie as she stepped from the shadows. "You realize this is only the fifth trial right? What if we need him for something later?" She glared at Abel. "And YOU stop being a selfish dick and only thinking of yourself. You're part of a team, AND your girlfriend is in here. There's no reason you can't have your big showdown in the last trial, once we've sorted out all the details."

I deflated. She was right. Fighting to the death this early was a bad tactical call. As leader, it was my job to avoid that. I had to do what was best for my team.

Abel looked annoyed. "I guess..." He bit out grudgingly. "But I still want to test my new soul strength. How about this? If you take one punch from me at full power. Just one. I'll defect. Switch to team two and help you both get as many flags as I can. Hell, I'll even play double agent and lure the others away from you if you need it. You'll both be in charge."

That...was a really tempting offer. I just had to survive an attack. Abel was strong, but I wasn't a weakling either. Fighting him would have involved tanking a hit too. And I did want to see if I could take him on with his new soul level. "Deal." I said decisively. I glanced at Callie. "If we didn't humor him he'd probably have chased us down until we had to try to kill him anyway."

She shrugged. "He's a lunatic. No argument here." She pointed past him. "But what about the two of them? They heard this whole conversation. Couldn't they go and tell everyon-"

There was a flash and a fist slammed into Vinnie and Simon from the side, pulverizing them. Abel rolled his wrist. "Nope. No danger now." I winced. Damn, that was a shitty way to go. I felt kind of bad for them. Still, they HAD been on the other team, and they could always come into the temple outside the trials and try to break their shackles then.

"Alright, so what are the terms here?" I asked my mentor. "I assume there are conditions? Even ones as simple as 'don't team up with Callie."

He just laughed. "No conditions. Do what you want. Personally I think it'll mean more if you tank it yourself, but hey, that's just me." He adjusted his footing. "Just so you know, I'm not holding back. This is going to be the strongest punch I can throw. You'd better get ready."

Despite being in critical danger, I still felt a thrill of excitement there. In my last fight with Abel, I may have come close to winning, but he'd shown that he hadn't gone all out. This would be my chance to see if I could take everything he could dish out. I kind of wished I had a defensive stance. I put that on my list of stances to develop, third after an explosive single combat stance like the one I'd been tinkering with in my head.

I gestured to Callie to step back. Whatever happened, this was going to be a fucking mess. I also mentally noted the direction of the flag. This should be a pretty quick exchange, and I didn't want to lose track since we wanted to get back on the road right after if we were going to get there before the next round probably.

Triggering Belial, I made sure my body was fully magma. It was probably my most durable state at the moment, even if I hadn't designed it with that in mind. Mountain stance, triple strength density shift. I felt myself become heavier and stronger, the durability of my body becoming massively higher as my density shifted, creating an immovable statue-like state I could use to tank anything.

Well, probably not anything. But I was insanely durable. My whole body being magma made the density shift a comprehensive full body effect, and a damn impressive once. Stacked with Mountain Stance it meant I was almost tense times more durable right now than I was in my normal Belial form, which included Stone Limb as a base and was already pretty damned sturdy.

Adjusting his feet, Abel pulled back his fist, preparing to strike. Above him, an image of a person condensed. A full body manifestation. The image began to move, taking on a series of poses, Ragam stances, a powerful series of buildup movements to prepare a strike, but in reverse.

As the image moved, the air behind it blurred, spatial lubrication linking them together. The further along the stances he got, the thinner the spatial warping, becoming weaker and weaker until the image stopped in a specific pose. In front of it a series of differently posed images, like a stop motion animation, and linking the first one to Abel, a trail of spatial lubrication.

"Are you ready." Gritted my mentor. "Because I can't guarantee this wont kill you. You'd better be prepared to tank this."
I was gaping. The sheer soul weight of what he was doing had to be immense, he was essentially using Ragam ten times simultaneously and his ability on top of it. Of course, I wasn't exactly doing nothing either. Still, my defense wouldn't be enough, I had to meet his attack with my own or I was going to get fucking shattered. As I nodded to him, I prepared the strongest strike I could.

Not being able to move my feet because of mountain stance was rough, but it wasn't the end of the world. I wasn't using the attack to cancel the blow, just to leverage it, like I'd learned to do. I triggered my overlay, ignoring the impending doom Danger Sense was warning of, and I prepared to deflect. Mercy Kill, Afterburner, Flurry of Blows, and I thre in a gravity attack just for good measure.

I launched that attack just before Abel did, and I was glad I had, because when he released his, I was scared out of my fucking mind. As he threw his fist, the lubricated space snapped taught like a rubber band. The last posed figured blurred into the next, which blurred into the next even faster, picking up speed as the figures traced out the attack in order, combining this wind up attack with cicada stacking step and with his lubrication ability to enhance the already devastating blow.

As the image hit the last figure, all the power was dragged down through the lubrication tether, a dozen plus times the power of Abel's normal all out attack channeling through his body as he launched the most devastating punch I'd ever seen from someone our level.

No wonder he'd needed to hit green for that, I was pretty sure his soul would have shattered otherwise. The fist came right at me, somehow everywhere and nowhere, the space around me used as a medium to transmit the power of the attack in a way that, without my overlay, I'd NEVER had been able to track coming at me. The sheer power of the blow was making my head split as Danger Sense wailed in warning, but I forced myself to focus.

My already launched attack was heading for the intersection point where the blow would land, and I tried to process the feeling that his fist was both normal and the size of a fucking train. My overlay showed me the one tiny potential sliver of a chance I had, but I needed to use Seek Hidden to narrow down which of the potential attack paths that were being shown was the one that would actually work.

As my blow landed, it hit the train sized fist presence at JUST the right angle to move it SLIGHTLY to the left of me (the opposite side from Callie). Even with an absolutely flawless deflection, the small fraction of the damage from the blow drove my feet into the ground to the knees, and only the perfect compatibility of my Path with the redirection made it possible to even pull that off.

My body cracked. Like...all of it. Downside of being made of magma, but it didn't collapse. I triggered my heal burst, grateful it worked in here. Abel lowered his fist, breathing hard, and grinned at me. His nose was leaking blood and it dripped onto his teeth as he bared them at me in respect. "Damn kid. Not bad." His eyes went over my shoulder, and I turned slowly taking in the attack he'd thrown after I redirected.

My corruption had been infused into the blow itself, and that had obviously enhanced things, but still, the sheer damage I'd just avoided taking made me lightheaded. Abel's fist had DESTROYED a mountain. Punched through it like a fucking subway tunnel, drilling so far in that it had come out the other side and continued into the sky.

As I watched, the corruption continued to eat away at the stone, until the entire fucking mountain (a small one, granted) collapsed under its own weight. Callie raised a hand, letting the stones hit and then drop through shadow portals instead of smashing us, and I just stared in terror at the amount of destruction we'd just unleashed.

"So." Said Abel as he shuffled over to stand next to me, clearly exhausted. "What's the plan from here boss?" I rolled my eyes, reaching out and triggering another heal burst as I put my hand on his shoulder. I didn't really feel like talking to him right now.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Are you morons done?" Came my girlfriend's slightly shaken but still acid voice. She'd intercepted all those rocks, shifting them away from us, and had used plenty of power doing it, so she wasn't in the best mood. "Because you just blew up a MOUNTAIN and there's no way everyone in this damned trial didn't notice it. So we need to leave before hordes of them show up to kill us all."

I groaned, stumbling forward. My whole body had cracked under that attack, but the healing burst I'd used was mending me way too slowly. It wasn't made for a magma body. I let Belial drop, and then almost fell over as I realized what a terrible fucking idea that had been.

My arm was shattered, my shoulder blade and collar bone were cracked, and every rib on the left side of my body was fractured. Not to mention my hip was broken, my leg had been snapped and I was just generally wrecked on my left side. Forget a train, I felt like I got hip checked by a collapsing star. Callie appeared next to me, catching me under my good arm.

Abel whistled. "Damn kid. You look rough. Kudos for keeping it together enough to stay in the temple at all. You going to be alright?"

Grunting, I tried to nod, then realized it was probably going to kill me to move my neck that much, so I just gave him a thumbs up with my free hand. "Yes. You bastard. Callie's right though, we better get out of here. It'll take hours for my bones to heal, and I don't want us to get caught."

I wasn't even sure how the hell heal burst was working. I was a soul fragment right now. The Ruined Soul Temple was...weird. I looked longingly toward the flag, but Callie just shook her head. "Don't even think about it. I think we need to miss this one. We don't even know when the round will start anyway, or how long until the one after. Maybe taking a few hours to rest will be a good choice."

"I know." I sighed as she helped me through the trees, away from the site of our little exchange. "Sorry I got us mixed up in that, but I really think having Abel on our side will make a huge difference going forward."

She sighed. "It probably will. Tactically it was the right choice, but that doesn't mean I like seeing you get hurt."

"See." I said with a sigh. "Now that you're stronger than me again you're totally patronizing me. I can't even shatter fully half of the bones in my body without you nagging me." I winked at her to make it clear I was teasing, and was pleased to actually get a giggle for my trouble.

She put on a serious look. "I guess I'm just controlling like that. It's part of my devious master plan to completely do away with all the fun you have. Today its life threatening injuries in meaningless battles, tomorrow who knows? Maybe I'll make you cut out red meat."

We both dissolved in peals of laughter, quickly cut off by howling wracking screams from me as I remembered that laughing makes extensive use of the torso and neck.

Callie's joking expression faded to concern as she held me through the fits of agony until my body stopped feeling like a wafer cookie someone fed through a woodchipper.

"Come on." Said Abel from behind us. "I know a place nearby we can hole up. Found it just before I found you. We'll have to negotiate with the shitbag squirrel that lives there, but I'm sure one of us has something it wants." He muttered something uncomplimentary about the squirrels parentage, and I wondered what the thing had done to leave such a negative impression after what had to be a very short meeting.

He led us down a side path, through a copse of trees, and down a small hill into a little crevasse where we found a hole leading into the base of a very short buy VERY wide tree. We stopped at the base, and within seconds, a pair of huge red eyes opened in the darkness.

A chittering sound came from the dark. Abel scowled. "No I didn't bring any acorns you asshole. My friends and I need a place to lie low."

I blinked at him, then looked over to Callie. "Can...can he speak squirrel?" I whispered in Stealth.

She shrugged, which caused a wave of pain to rip through my shoulder as it tilted, but I bit back the curse. "Who knows with him."

Despite the stealth, Abel seemed to know what we were saying. He shrugged as he looked back at us. "This thing is a total monster. It follows the Path of Blood like I do, and I can SORT of understand its intentions. This kind of thing is usually only a factor in battle, but I'm not going to look a gift squirrel in the mouth. Anyway, it says it wants fruit. F-rank or above."

I blinked at him. "Exactly where the fuck do you think I'd have gotten F-ranked fruit? Also, can it even eat shit in here? We're all SOULS. How is it even hungry?" Actually, how had I been eating earlier. This whole temple gave me a huge fucking headache.

"Don't think about it too hard." He chuckled. "You don't have any fruit? I know what a foodie you are. I'm surprised you're not holding."

I chuckled guiltily. "I mean...I HAVE fruit. But it's all G-rank. I don't carry F-rank food. I'm not a good enough cook to make proper use of it anyway. Realistically I don't make the best use of G-ranked food either, but at least I can put in the work to come close. Will it accept G-ranked fruit or nuts?"

He turned back to the red eyes. After a second, he scowled. "That's absurd. Why would he even have that much?" He paused. "Because he's not a fucking squirrel. We don't stockpile food for the winter." His expression became a scowl. "How is that speciesist? That's a notable thing that squirrels do!"

Callie groaned in annoyance. "As funny as this would normally be, my boyfriend's left side is currently the next best thing to a tube of toothpaste full of drywall screws, so can we please hurry it up? What exactly does it need to let us in? Someone might come through here soon. I have some fruit too, how much does it want?"

Abel rolled his eyes. "Your body weights. It wants you to hand over your entire weight in comparably ranked fruit." He shot a dirty look back into the cave. "You just try and eat us, you overgrown guinea pig. I just blew up a mountain over there, let's see you live in a hole in the ground instead of your cozy little tree."

Shoving him aside, Callie stepped forward, leaving behind a shadow clone to hold me up. It was a smooth shift, and I was pretty damned impressed. She came within about a hundred feet of the tree and bowed slightly. "Mr. Squirrel, can you understand me?"

Abel paused before nodding. "It can. It can't speak but it knows human language." He frowned. "It's weird that this thing is here. What is going on with this temple?"

"Shut up an translate." Growled Callie. She looked back at the cave. "We're willing to hand over all the fruits and nuts we have on us. It might be a simple offering, but I know that such a majestic and powerful creature must have an equally broad heart."

There was a chuffing sound, and the darkness shifted as a MASSIVE russet squirrel emerged from the hole. It towered over Callie, chest puffed out, before eventually nodding. Turning around it knelt down, and Callie looked at me uncertainly before shrugging and climbing up onto its back. It's huge fluffy tail came up and wrapped around her snugly before the squirrel scampered off down the hole.

"Thanks." I called sourly. "I'll just walk. You furry asshole."

Abel threw his hands up in triumph. "See!" He shouted. "I TOLD you! We should probably go though, who knows if its coming back, and it did kind of run off with your girlfriend."

I shrugged. "Callie can teleport, it's not like she would be there if she didn't want to. But yeah, come on. You want to help me with the walk, this shadow clone isn't exactly intelligent, and this IS kind of your fault to begin with. Playing walking stick is the least you could do."

"In point of fact." He said dryly. "The least I can do is nothing. Also don' you actually HAVE a walking stick?"
Scowling at him, I gestured vaguely with my destroyed arm. "Yes, but I can't fucking USE it right now because you injured me too badly, now shut up and help me walk."

He did, slipping under my arm as he helped me hobble into the hole in the ground. As I walked, I was able to get a better look at the burrow. The walls were made from twisting tree roots that seemed to have grown into a passage, the roots were thick and gnarled and looked incredibly sturdy.

Something seemed different about this trial. The first few had seemed...isolated. Like we were in special small worlds made just for this purpose. This place though, it seemed almost like a complete world. I'd tried looking off into the distance and I could see land for miles and miles.

Was this trial different than the rest? What was the temple and how was it here? Were we really just soul fragments being rendered in some kind of magic virtual environment? The more I saw of this place, the more confusing it got. What was the Ruined Soul Temple really? Where had it come from?

After about ten minutes walking down a very steep tunnel, we entered a large wooden room. The walls were lined with acorns, fruits, and nuts of various kinds, and when we arrived I found Callie reclining on the soft looking bushy tail of the squirrel and feeding it an apple. She waved as I came in and I rolled my eyes as I looked around and found nothing to sit on at all.

Luckily I still had my own chair, and removed it from my ring to take a seat, with some help from Abel. The heal burst was still working, but it seemed like it would take a while for me to heal so I reclined in my seat and closed my eyes, considering taking a nap.

The next round hadn't started yet, but it was only a matter of time, and while we'd sat this one out, who knew if someone would stumble on our hiding spot soon. Of course, we did have the squirrel to chase them off, but who knew how effective the furry bastard would be.

I needed to rest and recover as best I could and get ready for future rounds, having Abel with us was a big advantage, but eventually we'd be up against someone strong, if not here, in the later trials. I also wondered about Gabriel, would he leave after he broke his soul shackles? The Adamant couldn't afford to lose, and he was unlikely to survive staying here until the end.

All of these things swirled around in my head as I drifted off, and more. I'd worry about that when I woke up and wasn't in so much pain. As I started to fall asleep, I let my mind drift to potential second stances and combinations that could produce powerful attacks. I had some ideas that would really blow the competition away, I couldn't wait to try them out later in the trials. For now though, Belial still needed polishing. So much work to do here, but damn if I wasn't having a blast.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Waking up, I felt a pleasant buzzing in my head. The buzzing was substantially less jarring than half my body feeling like trail mix bouncing around in a blender though, so I considered it a net improvement. As I opened my eyes, I found Callie at my side, smiling gently. "Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?"

I rolled my arm in its socket to double check, and then nodded in relief. "I'm good. Between the heal burst and the nap I was able to fix up all the bones I cracked. Not sure if that's because they're not real bones or just proves that sleep is the best medicine, but either way, I'm good as new."

"That's very sweet." Drawled Abel. "But if you two are done, we've missed two rounds of this trial waiting for sleeping bratty fritters away all our time, and I kind of want to get going."

I flipped him off. "A. shut up, this is all your fault, and B. you work for me now, so shut up again we leave when I say we leave." My tone was firm, but after a minute of sitting around without any idea what to say next, I sighed and stood up. "And shut up a third time because I guess we should get going."

My mentor snickered, and I rolled my eyes as we headed for the exit. The squirrel, which had been napping happily in the center of the wooden tree room, snapped upright. It's eyes locked on Callie, and it bolted across the tree to hurl itself dramatically in front of the exit, spreading its arms to block her way.

She made a sad sound. "Awww, I know buddy. I wish I could stay too, but we need to find the flags." She leaned her head on my shoulder. "I named him Biscuit, because it seemed like something Bethy would do, but now I'm all attached, can we please bring him with us?"

"He's not real though." I said uncertainly. "Like we'll be leaving him behind when we exit the trial. Wouldn't it be better to make it a clean break now?"

The squirrel sneered at me (which is impressive for a squirrel) and glared menacingly, red eyes flashing. Abel chimed in helpfully. "It says you're not real. Your whole family isn't real. And then it devolved into a bunch of insults that I don't want to translate because they're graphic and weirdly specific."

"My life would be way less complicated if my family wasn't real." I muttered. "But fine, he can come with us."

The squirrel cheered, then ran a circle around is with dizzying speed and crouched down in front of Callie. She giggled and climbed on his back and he took off up the root tunnel. "Nah, we're fine." I called. "Again." Abel and I shared a sympathetic look. "Man, that squirrel is an asshole."

When we made it to the surface, the squirrel was waiting for us, hopping from foot to foot excitedly in a way that made me almost feel bad for calling it names. Despite the glowing red eyes and palpable bloodlust, it was actually pretty cute.
I looked around for a bit before realizing I was being an idiot. Glancing at Callie, I asked. "So...quick question. How long between rounds and how long since the last one?"

Snickering, Callie lounged back on Biscuit's fuzzy tail. "About four hours between the first one and the second, and six between the second and third. The third round just ended a bit ago, so we have probably eight hours until the next. We should head back to the fortress and check in. We've been gone for ages so I bet Bethy is worried." She paused. "Actually...where is Bethy?"

I froze. She'd been with us when Abel showed up. She'd killed Kellix, but then once the fight started she'd just vanished. "I...don't know? Do you think she just kept going and got the flag for the second round? She had a good heading. Honestly I hope so. If we didn't get it I'd prefer her to one of the others."

Things had been so crazy I hadn't had a chance to take stock of who was with us. Between the fight and all the damage, we'd all been kind of distracted. I felt kind of bad, Bethy had been with us and we'd just lost track of her. Still, she was basically a monster, and she had her cats. The chances of her being injured or killed in here by anything less than a concerted attack by several powerful Ascendants were slim.

"Let's look for her back at the fortress." I said sheepishly. "Abel, when we get there, you can stay outside with Biscuit. I'd prefer not to get you killed before we can get any use out of you."

A normal person would have been offended, but he just shrugged. Once we settled that, I used Seek Hidden to orient us toward the fortress and we all set off as a group, doing our best to make good time. Being outside like this made us vulnerable to any random patrols, and I was pretty sure after realizing the flags were all over the place, there would be plenty of those.

We had a short window of time because the round had recently ended, so it was best to get to cover within that time period. Luckily, we were all pretty damned fast, and going all out we made it back to the fortress within a half hour or so. We'd traveled further than I expected, and I made a note to watch that in the future. Without Seek Hidden I'd have been screwed finding a way back.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the giddy form of Bethy hopping off a stump. I was about to mention how convenient it was that she found a good place to sit right near the entrance to the fortress, but after looking over to the side I realized she'd ripped the tree pretty much in half to make herself a seat.

Bouncing to her feet, she clapped excitedly. "You guys aren't dead! That's great. I was just telling Poptarts that it would be so boring in here without you. Donuts was out looking for you all, but I guess I can call him back now. Ever since I broke my mind shackle I've been able to let him wander way further away."

Considering Donuts was a living creature who had only been stuffed into her shadow recently I tried not to think too hard about that. Or the fact that she'd broken her first shackle, which I hadn't known. "Bethy." I said with a smile. "Glad you're ok too. Where did you go?"

"Oh I saw you guys making new friends and figured it would be better to do my own thing. " She said with a shrug. "Good thing too, because I totally got the next flag!" She glanced at Abel. "And you brought back that guy. With you. Hey...you. Glad to have you onboard."

Abel just gaped at her. "What? What do you mean new- do you not KNOW me?" He sounded genuinely offended. "I'm Abel. Appolyon. Shane's mentor, a Master Candidate and one of the toughest people in his group."

She looked at him quizzically. "That doesn't ring a bell. Are you sure we've met? Apple did you say your name is?"

"ABEL!" He shouted, more agitated than I'd pretty much ever seen him. "You KNOW my name isn't apple. You're an F-ranker!"

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "Don't be sad Adelle. I meet a lot of people. I'm sure you'll do something impressive enough to warrant my attention soon. You just have to try your best. Oh! Gabe could teach you how to be more impressive! Do you know Gabe?"

I honestly couldn't tell if she was fucking with him at this point, but I was having too much trouble not dissolving into gales of laughter to interrupt. Callie looked just as amused, so we both watched out mentor try to resist pulling his hair out in outrage.

Honestly, if she was doing this on purpose it was brilliant. I wished I'd thought of it, except we couldn't have pulled it off. Deciding we had bigger problems, I took pity on him and stepped between them. "You can get to know Axel later Bethy." I couldn't resist getting his name wrong just to rub it in. "But we were hoping to head inside to talk. He's team one, though he's defected, so he's going to stay out here with-"

I had just enough time to realize how close I was standing and that I'd just brought her attention to Biscuit when her eyes locked on the giant squirrel and my ear drums were shredded by the high pitched squeal of. "SQUIRREL!" As she blurred across the clearing to hurl herself onto the big fuzzy animal.

Touching my face, I found actual blood coming from my ear canals and sighed. I didn't trigger a heal burst because I was really low until I could meet up with Jessie. It was minor damage. I could still hear. Kind of.

"Bethy!" I called (probably too loud). She didn't respond, too busy nuzzling Biscuit and cooing to the giant squirrel in a baby voice. "BETHY!" Her head jerked up, expression guilty as she refocused. "Thank you. Now as I was saying, Biscuit."
I winced as another squeal tore the air. Yup, I could definitely still hear. "BISCUIT!" I derailed any more cuteness overload. "Will be staying out here with Abel for a while."

She sat up sulkily, brushing fur off her dress. "Awww, I wanted to play with him. Well, we at least have until whoever that is gets here right?"

I choked back a laugh as Abel made a strangled sound, but I caught a flash of mischief in her eyes when he did. She WAS doing it on purpose, though gods knew why. I decided not to give her away, because his reaction was hilarious. "Anyway." I continued. "We wanted to go in, can you take us to see those two guys you mentioned that are running things? I'm hoping they have a map or something. Adrian and the one with the edgy name."

"Bloody Billy." She snickered. "It IS dumb. But don't say that to him. He smells..." She trailed off, her eyes becoming troubled. "Wrong. Off. Like he's been bathing in a lake of blood. He's also strong, and he shouldn't be. He entered without a faction that I know about. Daddy says anyone who manages to slip in between the big factions is either very scary or very lucky. Usually both. He keeps to himself though, and isn't really in charge."

She'd completely left her ditzy spaz impression behind, and her formal tone made it clear that she was being deathly serious. I nodded gratefully, and her face brightened back to its usual guileless grin. Abel had been right back in the glad. She scared the shit out of me too. I kept forgetting that for some reason.

After saying our goodbyes to Abel, who decided to station himself off the path in a clearing (he insisted it wasn't hiding, and that he just wanted to avoid any unnecessary fights with teammates) and we filed into the fortress again.

Since this wasn't the beginning or end of a wave we had plenty of company. I saw a few familiar faces. The emo guy who had been talking to my sister, Chelsea's bodyguard Callen, and a few others I recognized from the temple outside. Bethy led us into the depths of the building, toward the middle tower where the flag had been on the other stronghold.

She took us inside, and then down into an office below ground, where a short, tanned guy with messy hair who looked about two years younger than me was talking to a tall dark skinned man with plate armor and amber eyes. When we entered, they both looked up, taking us all in. "So." I said into the silence. "Who do you have to kill to get a map around here?"