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

[Malcolm Tent]

I read through the volume of insights into the 'Great Book Heavenly Library' a bunch of times. It was…messy. Collecting information on a technique was difficult without having it directly described. My dad had cobbled together a dozen sources, but there were all kinds of footnotes on memories he'd traded for, impressions he'd gotten, and even secondhand accounts that were at least a little suspect.


According to the text, the Great Book Heavenly Library (hereafter referred to as GBHL) wasn't exactly a secret, so much as it was something that the Old Man didn't bother talking about. The pseudo Domain required an absurd amount of talent in either Skills or techniques.


The original Wishmaster hadn't used pure technique to make it, he'd built it out of stats, similar to the way my forms worked, but I knew that I had absolutely zero chance of managing that at my current level. Techniques were my only real chance. While my father had managed to collect hundreds of thousands of secondhand accounts from things like journals and stories of people who had known the Old Man in his youth they were all just vague mentions.


Except they weren't. Focusing with my soul like I had for the chair, I manifested something else. A book. My book of Skill construction information.


I'd been around this thing in Dantalion so many times that I'd absorbed the entirety of the text as written, even if I didn't KNOW the information yet. It was all progressive knowledge, and you needed the context of mastering earlier steps to learn it, but I was at least able to recreate the text from memory.


Flipping through it, I started picking out pages. Mentions of concepts from the journals. Nothing too concrete or that I could understand, but enough to help me cross reference the two books and figure out which insights were accurate.


As I read, and cross referenced, and collated, I was forced to expand my mind. Parallel after parallel was split off with Piece of Mind. Oddly, they didn't seem to produce much strain. In this odd space where time stood still I wasn't using them long enough. I managed ten of them before I officially couldn't handle any more, but that was more than enough.


The first step, from all accounts was the foundation. Like my dad had said, this would be the heart of all my pseudo Domains, and it would always be active. It needed a real foundation, which meant at least a Chronicle, so I'd need to manifest that first.


I noted how many parallels I had, and decide to try something. I started to split them off. Not using Beelzebub, but just manifesting clones with pure soul power. Each one got its own body, until it was me and nine simulacrums, each with my mind. One by one, they each triggered one of my forms.


First came Belial, then Mephistopheles, Mornax, Zagan, Bael, Beelzebub, Agares, Dantalion, and finally, Sammael. The nine other mes returned my gaze steadily, each of them understanding their role.


The Chronicle was the beginning. The lodestone on which everything I was going to make had to be built. Not just this library, but the Saga that came after, and all my pseudo Domains. It needed to be as sturdy as possible, able to withstand the events I would inscribe on it, the changes I would make, and truly support my domain seed later in my journey.


So I started with construction. Agares raised his hands, and from the void around us, ash bloomed. Swirling into a maelstrom of chaotic motion. Dantalion joined in, preparing to process all the information to craft the best possible result, with Bael joining in, lending his unholy perception to the information gathering form to increase his effectiveness. Agares condensed that ash into Sammael, who accepted the power into himself, amplifying it, and as he did, his form changed, shifting from a winged angel to a towering black tree.


Next was Zagan, who placed his hands on the tree, channeling his purification and life force into the bark, and washing away the darkness. The tree erupted into green flame among the canopy, the bark expanding into living wood under the power of the life energy and the fertile ash.


In the back of my mind I heard a chiming cry, and the flames on the tree exploded into a bonfire, leaping to the sky as Archie, somehow connecting to me even through whatever this temple was made of, infused the Life Nova into the leaves. Beelzebub was next, placing his hands on the tree, and suddenly, there wasn't just one tree, there were thirteen, all blazing brightly in the void.


Mephistopheles and Belial came after, jointly calling their power, creating that black corroding fire and letting it rain down onto the trees. As it passed through the Life Nova, it was purified, and strengthened, becoming a sort of concentrated pure acid that seeped down over the trunks and began to melt them into a thick white slurry. Agares pulled the slurry from the air, slowly drawing it toward him, and then began to condense it.


Soon there was a block of the stuff, and Mornax stepped forward, hands on the block, and I could FEEL his defensive power seeping into it. As we watched, the earth based defensive form turned to dust flowing over the block, creating a dark brown cover made of hard stone. It receded around the edges, and as it did, I saw the block had split into a hundred thin sheets of paper, each lined with a sparking green energy.


One by one, the other forms dissolved, their parallels and energies infusing the book that all of them helped create, and across the cover, three words carved themselves into being in green eldritch fire. "Ten Demons Tome."


Nine forms, and me. Ten demons. It resonated with my soul, synergizing with me in a way I'd never experienced. This was my Chronicle, my perfect book of deeds. In this I would record my rise to prominence, my ascension to power, and this book would be the cornerstone on which I built everything that was to come.


From there, I didn't need any more time or study. I understood what I needed to do. How I needed to proceed. I held out my hands, and the book floated over to my grasp. It felt strong. The individual legends of my powerful forms, my techniques, my challenges, it had all gone into this book. This book was something like what the Wish power had become eventually. More than the sum of its parts. A perfect technique.


I doubted, if you gave me a hundred thousand years to study and reflect, to experiment and attempt, I would have ever managed to make something this flawless again. This was lightning in a bottle, a moment of pure creative genius sparked by the realizations about my father, by this special space, and by the knowledge and ingenuity of my ancestor. Here, inside my soul, where my genius was at its apex, I had sewn these seeds of greatness and they had borne fruit.


I had done it, and now I would put it to use, while I was still in this inspired state. Holding out the book, I set it down in the air, and the void beneath it began to ripple. From the space beneath it, dark stone began to form, flowing up from nothing and melding together. This wasn't like what Agares did, this was more than just liquid rock, no matter how condensed. If I looked close I could see the faint shadows of stats in the flowing stone, see the building blocks of Ascension shifting and remaking themself at my command.


This wouldn't be possible again. Only here, in the moment of creation, when my Chronicle was forming and redefining everything I was, could my soul claim dominion over the concrete fragments of renown that made up my being and twist them as it would a technique.


Part of me wondered if my dad had known it would work like this, and I decided he probably had, and then immediately dismissed the information as unimportant. I had a library to create.


Of course, I wasn't reinventing the wheel completely. Some of the content in my Skill creation book came in handy. As the shelves formed from black stone and the books that represented my Skills, forms, abilities, and every other quantifiable part of me came together, I realized that my ancestor's special form of notation was probably made for exactly this scenario.


Each book filled with diagrams and symbols, deduced from Dantalion into perfectly legible and understandable script, even as they slotted themselves on the shelves. There weren't that many of them, but I could get more. In fact, I noticed with surprise that there were more books than I had Skills. Skills I'd lost when combining them into other Skills were still represented here, and could still be refined.


That ability alone would have made this powerful, would have made all of it worth it. But I could see the potential here. To create perfect Skills the same way I could techniques. To identify and patch flaws I'd never have seen before. To make myself into a being like my ancestor, creating a library of techniques to use for any situation, each one perfected and tested and at my fingertips.


Because Skills aside, I could see the technique books, novel length stories with the legends I'd carefully crafted, each with notations and written in my stats themselves, easily fixed with just a little effort. Easily improved.


This would be the heart of my power. The core of my Domain, the lowest level of the underworld upon which all my other powers would rest, held up by this unspeakably sturdy foundation. A demonic hall of knowledge containing the wisdom of all thirteen circles of hell, a repository of forbidden texts that would propel me into the stratosphere and out into the great universe as a future god among gods.


Pride. The thirteenth circle of hell, conceived early to set the stage for what was to come. My head swam, not with pain, but with power. I felt odd, different. I forced myself to stop, to think. I was spiraling. The recursion of all my forms crashing into me as they merged with my in the truest sense, the Ten Demons Tome making us all one being in a way we had never been before, at least in the eyes of the universe.


A hand landed on my shoulder, and I turned and found Callie, no mask, no costume. Just my wife, smiling up at me proudly. "I heard you calling," she said with a cheeky grin. "Guess you still need me, even after becoming a big bad future demon god."


I laughed, reaching down to put my arms around her, and all the recursion just…blew away. Because I might be all those demons, but when I was with Callie I was just Shane. And I wasn't afraid of a few figments of my imagination. I'd have gotten past the recursion myself, I was sure, but it might have taken longer.


Sadly, with Pride finished this strange void space where I had so much power was fading, and I was returning to the world. I gave my wife a quick kiss. "I don't know how the hell you got here, but I appreciate the help."


She rolled her eyes. "Don't you know by now? I'm always with you Shane, just like you're always with me. Even if I'm not in the room or can't reach you through the bond. We're always together." She smiled up at me warmly, stood on her tip toes, and gave me a lingering peck on the lips. "Now go kick the shit out of that priest, If you can't manage that after all this buildup, I'll be seriously disappointed." I started laughing, and the blackness faded away. I was still laughing when I opened my eyes, only a blink of time having passed. Well, I couldn't fail after a challenge like that.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

When my eyes opened, I quickly realized nothing was different. That whole experience had happened between one blink and the next, too fast for even a C-ranker to notice. It was a little jarring, readjusting to the world so quickly, but I managed it in just a second or two, and was able to catch up as Echelon spat "Your pathetic poison won't keep me from killing you and taking those items, boy."


Remembering that I had been mocking him about his damaged eye, I picked the conversation back up where I'd left it. "Weirdly, I still seem to be alive. You waiting for some kind of celestial event? Maybe you decided to count down from a million?" He was clearly wary, unwilling to provoke me head on just yet, and I was fine with that.


While I waited, I prepared. Limbo roared to life inside me, smooth and easy, and with a second pull, Gluttony awakened in my gut. The strain was still there, especially with both of them, but it wasn't nearly as debilitating. With Pride constantly weighing on the Ten Demons Tome, I knew I couldn't keep this up forever, but I was pretty sure an hour wouldn't strain me too badly. Granted, that might change as I pushed the domains further, but still, it was a massive improvement.


More than that, I realized something integral to this fight. Sammael was still active, and my base form was designed to amplify the physical capabilities of my body…which included how much energy my physical form could hold. Abomination Engine came to life inside me, revving up as it prepared to fuel my strength with the power of Gluttony, and I attacked.


Echelon, wary of me infecting more birds if he scattered, attacked head on, claws lashing out in some sort of quick, vicious martial art. The attacks reminded me of swooping birds, like a hawk descending to gouge its prey. With Mornax still active, my enhanced Impact for my rank, and my C-rank armor, I was able to deflect the blows, using limbo to eliminate the most dangerous attacks so the ones that landed were just glancing.


I could have focused entirely on dodging, of course, and probably avoided everything, but I wanted him to hit me. Every blow fed into Gluttony, revving the Abomination Engine higher, filling my body with unnatural strength.


My well of energy filled fast, the attacks of a C-ranker, even a very new one, almost too strong for my domain. Almost. I felt myself pass my previous limit, pass the level of strength I'd used even at my peak. The power built and built, and it never hit the limit I expected, never stopped enhancing me, until finally, I hit the wall at the peak of D-rank and couldn't go any further.


A hundred thousand points, mostly in Might and Vitality. Despite the continued assault, my body couldn't withstand the push to C-rank, and all the energy poured into the pit in my stomach and collected, creating a sort of reservoir that slowly filled, stockpiling strength for one big move later on. Which was perfect. With my power at peak D-rank, not to mention the buffs from Sammael, I was now matching Echelon blow for blow.


For the first time since reaching D-rank, I was well and TRULY capable of fighting up a rank. My armor was getting a little dinged up, since it was the same rank as my opponent and he could actually damage it, but the biggest problem was my weapon.


My staff whirled and struck like a cobra, but along the length of it, claw marks were scored into the wood, slashes from the C-rank claws of my enemy as he tried to tear into my flesh. I could feel the wood creaking, slowly coming apart. My weapon was dying, I could feel it, and it broke my heart because it had accompanied me through so much here.


This staff hadn't been loud or flashy in its usefulness, and I'd been sparing with the use of its ability, but it was the pillar of support that had carried me through all the nonsense I'd encountered since I arrived on Rackham and even before that.


So I developed a plan. I triggered Dark Reflection on my staff, and False Fatality, my two skills for damage reflection, and then poured all that gathering power from Gluttony into the staff. After that, I used Afterburner on the whole thing. I felt the wood creak ominously, and I could see little flickers of green flame in the cracks, but it held together.


Then I started to let him get more hits in. A score to my arm, the side of my neck, blows that clearly convinced him he's kill me soon, as his assault redoubled. I could see the psychotic glee on his face. C-rank wounds, even through my defenses and with all my enhancements, would take time to heal. He knew it too, he was planning to kill me like this, death by a thousand cuts, and I let him.


In my hands, the staff lay almost forgotten, not blocking, not deflecting, just shaking with suppressed power as all the energy from the damage I was taking poured into it. Gluttony was linked to the staff now, and all that power was brewing a hell of a storm.


Finally, I felt it reach the limits, and I dropped my guard completely, letting my head fall back, exposing my neck.


With a howl of savage victory, Echelon's claws lashed out, burying themselves in my neck as he ripped out my throat…and the staff fucking EXPLODED. The energy of the domain, the two Skills, the staff's nature, and the amplification of Afterburner all burst out with in a perfect hurricane of retribution.


In a moment, my body felt perfectly fine, all my wounds healed as the amplified power of the final gasps of my beloved staff mixed with my other abilities ripped away all concept of damage from my body and soul and slammed them into my enemy like a battering ram.


Wounds opened up all over his body, blood poured from his throat as it tore itself out, but more than that, the most devastating blow came from damage he wasn't even doing to me. Because this particular attack was imbued with my most fervent wishes and all the power of my soul, it was a technique as much as anything, and even though I would never be able to use it on the same level without the sacrifice of my weapon and these perfect conditions, it was enough to form a new pseudo Domain.


"Fourth Circle of Hell," I spat gleefully. "Retribution!" The soul strain of keeping up four pseudo Domains, not to mention Abomination Engine, Sammael, and Mornax, all slammed into him at the tail end of the attack, following the physical damage as one last gift from my devoted weapon.


I wasn't at the peak of D-rank in reality, I wasn't the Mightiest, didn't have the most Vitality. But I could endure. I could withstand pressure and pain and damage that no one else could take. I could hold up under soul weight that would demolish lesser men, even ones of a higher rank than me. My soul was perfected two ranks higher, my Chronicle was designed to withstand the pressure. He didn't have any of that going for him.


Echelon threw back his head and screamed, and for the first time in my memory, I watched the SOUL of another Ascendant SHATTER.


No resurrection, no secret moves, no healing. There was nothing that could fix it, nothing that could bring him back. The empty husk of the priest of Raxus fell to the ground, immobile and lifeless, even as his heart continued to beat, and I just stared.


My hands hurt. I dropped all the domains, all the power, and my body was aching all over from overstressing, but my hands hurt the most, the explosion of my staff having left slivers of wood in my joints where they'd been forced through the articulation in my armor. Blood seeped between the joints, and I fell to my knees, trying to collect the scattered remnants of my old friend.


We'd been through a lot together, my staff and I. It wasn't the first weapon I'd lost, but it had served me well. Carried me through D-rank, through the siege, through my trials. It had been there with me, and even if it was a little stupid to anthropomorphize a hung of wood, it still felt right to express my grief for something that had done so much for me.


I slowly removed my gauntlets, picking out the splinters and adding them to the pile. At some point, Dom and Sable had come out, and they silently helped me track down all the splinters we could find, and the two metal end caps, and pile them all up in front of me.


In one final act of mourning, I put my hands over the pile, the black flames of Mephistopheles consuming the bloody scraps, and I blew the ashes out over the water, where the residual power of the Enshrining Darkness should keep them undisturbed for a long time. Then I flared Zagan, letting my hands heal, and slipped the gauntlets back on.


"Sorry," I said quietly. "Needed to do that. You guys alright?"


They both nodded, seemingly unsure what to say. I imagine I looked stupid, cremating a stick, but I didn't really care. Reaching into my ring, I manifested the wreath, holding it out. "You two decide who gets it. But I keep my bargains. An introduction to your elders might be useful if you're up for that, but otherwise…you guys work for me now, right?"


Dom spoke up. "Intros are fine, I can manage that. And yeah, we're on your team now. Contract is a contract. As for the wreath…" he looked over at Sable. "Give it to her. That golem protected us both, and I'd have been butchered in that fight without it. That was way beyond what I was capable of keeping up with."


Truthfully, it was beyond me too. My tricks might have let me keep up with a C-ranker, but I wasn't sure how I'd have managed to actually HURT him without my staff's sacrifice. It reminded me a bit of Callen's sword, and it reminded me there were more things in the world than just rank and stats. Ascendants were beings of stories and wonder, and symbolism could have real meaning. In some ways, my staff had given its own legend to save me, and I hoped I could honor that sacrifice in some way down the line.


Still, he was right to be grateful, and I respected the sentiment. I held the wreath out to Sable, who blinked at us both in shock. "That's not…I mean…wow, thank you." She took it gingerly, closing her eyes to try to feel its nature.


I don't know how well she succeeded, but the attempt didn't last long. She stashed it away in her own ring, nodding to us both again in gratitude.


"Well…" I said slowly. "I guess we still have a few more weeks in this place. Want to wander around and try to steal as much shit as possible?" I grinned at them from behind my mask, and they both brightened at the idea, especially Dom.


"Yeah, I bet there's all sorts of valuable stuff around here," he said gleefully. "Even if I can't get the wreath, I can still make some money." He didn't mention the scythe, not that I'd have given it to him. I'd pass it to my grandmother to see if she had a way to help Callie use it. The ink stone would go to Black Sorrow, and my family would officially be free. As the thought settled into my mind, my heart soared. We still had months until the inheritance competition, and I had a very fast ship. Once I got out of here, it was time to start networking. I needed to build my faction if I was going to come through this in one piece.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After getting our stories straight inside the temple where we couldn't be observed (mostly just agreeing with Sable and Dom how they would tell everyone about what I'd done when they got back), and looting Echelon's corpse, we headed out to do our exploring, trying to maximize the impact of our time in the Fields of Strakkenthar.


Firstly, we scoured the marshes for Mournehollow Toads like the ones Bernadette had mentioned. I was shocked to see that Dom and Sable were both basically immune to the poison like I was, which was impressive considering the source. Since we were already out among the swamps we decided to scour the area for the toads to try to maximize our gains here, and we managed to find about thirty of them.


One of the little beasts was even on the edge of C-rank. Not there, thankfully, but close, and Sable was particularly excited to potentially have a beast that could eat C-rank curses, apparently witches used them a lot, even on each other.


Once we stopped finding any toads, even with Dantalion, we switched to hunting for Asphodel Flowers, the second major export of the Fields of Strakkenthar. This turned out to be a bit harder, and we only stumbled on the one meadow of the rare plants, stockpiling a decent, hundred and fifty of them.


And of course, over the three weeks we'd been there, I'd been keeping up my wishes in scroll form, and the consistent income had been just over five thousand points (five thousand and forty, to be exact, at thirty points per wish where I seem to have stalled), but that was just the icing on the cake on our last day when I finally let all the points I'd held back hit me all at once, and I was staggered by the windfall.


Aside from the five thousand from the scrolls, I'd gotten another thirty thousand from merging my forms into the Ten Demons Tome. I had no idea how, but apparently they were all kind of collecting individual renown (especially Mephistopheles) I'd have probably gotten on rank up, and the excess had sort of concentrated. On top of that Sable and Dom had spread word of what I'd done to Echelon, not to mention I'd had Callie have my grandma contact Bella (who I had no way to contact myself right now) and have her inform Ray so he knew his representative was dead and could ask for a new one.


The end result was…a lot. My mask mostly kept gods from scouting me unless they tried hard, and the temple itself was a perfect insulator from divine sight, so they didn't know about the special circumstances behind the kill (the sacrifice of my staff) and assumed that I'd just muscled someone a full rank above me from what they could literally detect was early D-rank.


That story had spread, quickly, and to not just gods, but high rankers in their service, and to high level Ascendants another planets, and waiting a few weeks gave it lots of time to accumulate.


A grand total, all in all, of one hundred and sixty seven THOUSAND five hundred eighty six points across all my various stats. Needless to say, given it was more stats than I currently had, it knocked me on my ass. Like they'd been telling me, D-rank was a higher level, where people cared more what you did. I was pretty smug about the whole thing, until I found out that after I'd passed the inkstone and scythe to my grandmother through Callie (one to pass forward and one to keep to try to pass to my wife) that Black Sorrow had decided to fucking CLAIM me as her great grandson to get ahead of the narrative.


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


Master Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Chronicle of the rise of the Ten Demons.


Might-92,410


Impact-105


Fantasy-47,606


Vitality-40,354


Focus-42,720


Perception-47,506


Creation-16,522


Progress to next rank:306,243/1,000,000


Soul strength- Amethyst Soul Body


Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome


wish scrolls stockpiled: 0 (4 in the possession of friends to be used over time)


Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)


Stored:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 0 triple strength density shifted attacks. 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 0 heal bursts (0 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)


Pet- Wolf named Jin


Financial resources: 71 E-ranked chits 45 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


Skills: Master Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Intermediate Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Expert Paired Dueling, Expert Dust Construction Mastery


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, False Fatality, Blood Curse, Creeping Darkness


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


Goetia Staff Art: First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames


Techniques: Abomination Engine- uses Mephistopheles flame to supercharge the magmatic body of Belial, creating a demonic machine of pure destruction


Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.


Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: condensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground iself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches


Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction


Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance


Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner


Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.


Fifth form- Bael. Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation (inverted), Afterburner (full effectiveness is seven times base Perception due to stacking, can only currently stack a single stat, unlike wish power which stacks them all)


Sixth form- Beelzebub. Piece of Mind, Stone Limb, Dust Construction, Shadow Clone. Create twelve copies (thirteen versions total) of Shane, each copy able to use a single form without straining Shane's soul past the strain of the original technique, which is only slightly more of a strain than a normal form and still allows one additional form to be used without overstraining. Can't remote control the forms, but can communicate with them remotely via telepathy principles from Paired Dueling. Might and Perception stacking, most versatile and well designed form yet.


Seventh form- Agares. Pit of Despair, Dust Construction, Stone Limb, Shadow Manipulation, Afterburner. Ability to mold and shape the earth, into black liquid tar, solid abyssal stone, or burning ash


Eighth form- Dantalion. Eye of Revelation, Overlay, Song of the Soil, Scent of Truth, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind, Rhthym of the Wild, Afterburner


Ninth form- Sammael. Baseline of angel trait, energy source: Enshrining Darkness. A more powerful baseline that acts as a foundation for all the other forms, allowing them to reach their true power.


Pseudo Domain:


First Circle of Hell- Limbo. Belial, Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. A psuedo Domain of confusion and mental manipulation, distorting the senses and controlling the body.


Recreated version: Piece of Mind, Overlay, Belial and Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. Uses Piece of Mind as it was meant to be used, to parse multiple timelines for Mephistopheles to destroy, forcing the victim to conform to a specific future.


Second Circle of Hell: Gluttony. Mephistopeheles, Mornax, Dark Reflection, False Fatality. Reinforces the body and uses the damage redirection skills to shift damage and pain into the pit of destruction in the stomach, consuming attacks to break them down for power. Can be used to fuel Abomination Engine.


Third Circle of Hell: Wrath. Mephistopheles and Agares. Creates an all consuming lake of burning dark ash infused with the fire of destruction.


Thirteenth Circle of Hell: Pride. The infernal library of techniques that serves as the foundation of the infernal realm. Deduce, refine, and perfect techniques. Refine and perfect Skills, albeit more slowly, and still requires a foundation of knowledge.


Fourth circle of Hell: Retribution. Dark Reflection, False Fatality, Gluttony to stockpile, Afterburner, Abomination Engine. Collects all the damage done to fuel Gluttony and inflicts it on the enemy.


I groaned at the changes, partially in pain and partially in outrage. It annoyed me to think about how much of that boost was from people learning I was related to Black Sorrow and retroactively attributing my success to being part of her bloodline. It helped that as soon as she'd claimed me, mom had done the same, though people still didn't know who Celia's dad was, so I only got the extra buzz off being related to one of the popes and not being triple godspawn, something I honestly didn't mind.


Chelsea, for her part, was ecstatic, because after the truth had some out she could actually show off her newly trained Enshrining Darkness, and learn to use it in combination with her purifying flame properly.


As for me, I felt reborn. I'd been drip feeding all this renown to seemingly no effect over the last few months, but now I'd finally pushed myself up to nearly one third of D-rank. For the amount of time I'd been in this rank it was basically unprecedented, and regardless what people thought, I'd busted my ass making it happen. I felt powerful, deadly, and most of all, vindicated. My family could finally reunite, I could start preparing for the competition, and based on what I'd accomplished in this short time, there was a decent chance I might be able to hit C-rank before it started.


Marmont came to get us on the last day, surprisingly returning us to our individual worlds of origin (origin in the test) without much comment on what had happened. I expected Felicity to contact me, or summon me, or something, but to my surprise, she said nothing.


When I reached Rackham, I just called up to the Acheron, requesting they pick me up. They sent a shuttle into orbit to meet me and I flew up to get onboard, kind of wanting to show off. And when I made it onto the shuttle, I was pleased to find my apprentice waiting. "Master!" Squeaked Bella enthusiastically. "I had no idea you came from such a prestigious bloodline! I'm so lucky you decided to train me, I swear, I'm going to be the greatest staff fighter in the universe. I'll play pool with the planets, smack stars out of orbit, do that trick where you knock a glass off a table and catch it before the water spills! I won't disappoint you!"


I laughed, ruffling her hair. "Someone's been talking out of turn I see. It's fine, I'm basically finished with this identity anyway. Time for Mephistopheles to disappear." I was planning to go pick up Sable and Dom on our way out of the cluster, and possible recruit their elders, so obviously I'd need to use my real name anyway."


A laugh sounded from behind me, and I spun reflexively, putting myself between my disciple and whoever had snuck up on us, but relaxed when I saw the familiar young looking blonde man lounging in the seat. Nicholas Anders, the Radiant Pope himself, one of the disciples of the Red Revenant and my maternal grandpa.


"Fancy meeting you here," I said to my grandfather. "Mom send you?"


"Of course," he laughed. "She was worried about her baby boy, but an A-ranker wasn't going to cut it. Besides, I pulled some strings and got you a few meetings. Of course, they're just meetings, you'll need to prove yourself. But from what I'm hearing, that shouldn't be too hard. So how about it grandson mine? You ready for your recruitment tour?" Judging by his smile, I wasn't so sure, but I didn't let that show as I confirmed I was. Time to get down to business.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My grandfather and I caught up as we headed back to the Acheron, and when we arrived, we retired to the dining room for a meal. "I'm impressed with your progress," he told me as we sat down to dig into a steak. The other crew members apparently didn't feel comfortable eating with a Pope, because it was just the two of us at the table, Bella having wandered off to who knew where.


"I'm not sure how much of it was really me," I admitted sourly. "Black Sorrow and mom both claiming me as descendants probably overshadowed anything I did on my own."


He shook his head. "I wouldn't be so sure. Obviously it would have helped, but killing a C-ranker at early D-rank is a hell of an opening act. Special circumstances or not, you're got some serious stones even fighting someone like that. Not to mention I can tell you've condensed your Chronicle, and it's a strong one. What did you name it?"


"The Ten Demons Tome," I said proudly. "It's built on the best techniques and forms I've come up with."


He nodded. "Your father reached out, mentioned your use of the Great Book Hevenly Library technique. The requirements are stringent for that one, I'm impressed you managed. It'll take you far, if used correctly."


"It's not the Great Book Heavenly Library," I said firmly. "Pride is unique to me. For one, it's aimed more at techniques than Skills. It can do both, but its true purpose is to help me perfectly refine all my techniques and pseudo Domains . I have big plans, but I have a feeling my current free form technique style isn't as high as the art of technique creation goes."


He chuckled at that. "Good instincts. It isn't, but we can get into that later. For now, I'd like to talk about your recruitment tour. Now, I heard what happened to your staff, and I pulled some strings. The best staves are made by the Bodgers at the Divine Tree Palace. It happens to be close by, and I prevailed on an old friend to let you participate in one of their ceremonies. You'll be selecting the wood for your staff yourself from among the Primordial Tree Sea. The elders of the Divine Tree Palace are S-rankers, three of them, so consider this an audition for support."


My hands twitched, still feeling the phantom pain of the shards I'd pulled from between the joints of my gauntlets. "I appreciate that," I said softly. "I do need a new one. It's just…"


"It hurts to lose a companion," he said knowingly. "Weapons are our closest friends in some respects. We carry them for months or years, imbuing them with a piece of ourselves every day. They channel our souls, our wills, and support our hopes and dreams. A good weapon is the lever you use to turn the world. There's no shame in mourning the passing of something so close to your heart."


"Yeah," I said, nodding. "That's what I'm doing. I'm mourning. It feels dumb to say out loud."


He shrugged. "Don't ever let anyone tell you how to feel, Shane. Weapons are more a part of us than a lot of people we meet. If you're sad be sad. And if you feel something admit it, because denying it just means you're giving other people power over what you think. Maybe talk to your wife about it."


That was definitely on my list. I hadn't yet because honestly I was a little afraid she'd think less of me. I was taking the loss of my staff harder than I'd expected. I hadn't mourned when the last one broke, but then again, like he'd said, this most recent staff channeled my soul. I hadn't been doing much with that when I was using my original weapon. Maybe that really was the big difference. Note to self, don't casually channel your soul through an object with techniques regularly and let it get broken.


"Anyway, my staff broke a few weeks ago but I doubt the story got to you immediately, with everything else going on," I pointed out. "So why did you come? Just for the recruitment tour?"


"Basically," he said cheerfully. "The thing is, the Acheron is an S-ranked ship. While it's capable of fast travel under any circumstances, for it to truly show its value, it has to be captained by someone with a Saga. When you hit S-rank, that's when you merge your Saga with your body. S-rankers handle energy in a notably different fashion, at least at the higher end. So while the A-rankers Celia sent might be faster than normal in this thing, they can't really push it."


I brightened. "So you can make this ship move faster? Because I was a bit worried about how many forces we could hit and still make it to the inheritance competition in time. There's only about nine months left, right?"


"Closer to ten," he chuckled. "The WCP tends to work on its own schedule. Some of the candidates will drag their feet, trying to get the last few alliances they can manage in. But you've got an advantage in that department. Not just me making calls, we did some digging into the peak E-rank popsicles you free on Callus, several of them come from forces that actually went on to be pretty powerful. Clans and families from the Fairyland mostly. I brought them along when I came, and if you can win them over, you might be able to leverage that into some alliances. If not…well, they're all D-rankers who owe you, so there's that."


That was…amazing news. I'd honestly forgotten about the frozen Ascendants from the cold storage. I knew they'd all been peak E-rank and had probably ranked up when the planet did, but I hadn't considered that they might be able to help me make alliances. I needed more Ascendants on my side for this war. S-rankers weren't allowed, but the more A and B-rankers I could recruit the better I'd do.


While my family might open some doors for me, my grandfather had mentioned I'd need to earn the favor of any powerful Ascendants he introduced me to. Once you hit A-rank, while you might be beholden to an S-ranker, you were too strong to just be ordered around for babysitting duty at the drop of a hat.


Sadly, the stipulations of the inheritance competition were that I needed to earn my backup. I couldn't just have my parents order all their friends to help. They themselves were free to help, and any of their friends who felt like volunteering, like Killian, who I knew, might be up for coming along, but I couldn't just demand an army. I hoped I could get enough high rankers onboard to counter the A-rankers some of the older candidates would be bringing, especially given some of them might be as high as B-rank themselves.


"So…how exactly are there any of these clans left?" I asked as we sat and ate in silence. "The popsicles were from like…ages ago right? Pre Aetherblight?"


He nodded. "Old as dirt, yeah. The Faerie Queen collected some of the remnants of the old clans into her court when she consolidated the Farieland. The Summerpeace Dynasty, for instance, eventually became the Peacehallow Clan. They're crystal pixies, and the bloodline is OLD."


"Summerpeace," I said slowly. "That sounds familiar. One of the stiffs?"


"Velliana Summerpeace," he said with a chuckle. "She was the one with the rainbow wings. Some of the bloodlines are extinct, but they have distant relatives willing to take them in for the chance to resurrect some of the old power in their lineage. Minotaurs have lost a lot of their power over the years. They pissed off some god about ninety generations ago and got cursed or something. Terrible sense of direction."


I hummed with interest. "How about the guy with the gemstone wings? He was memorable."


"Crystal Dancer, old fae bloodline. They're an ancestral variant of the Veldane. The current strongest Veldane is only a C-ranker, but there are a LOT of them. They lay eggs, and they lay them by the dozens." At my confused look he elaborated. "They're servants to a lot of major fae, and have a lot of sway because they're so omnipresent. The one you rescued is named Garth, and he's kind of like their messiah."


"So…basically I'm going to be doing a diplomatic tour across a bunch of different worlds and factions?" I groaned. "That sounds like a nightmare. But I'm guessing sending Celine wouldn't cut it?"


He just snickered. "Sorry kid, that's the burden of power. You have a few friends in the Empire who could get you some face to faces right?" I nodded, remembering the imperial scions I'd met at the ruined soul temple. "I'd wait until you get a few fae clans onboard. Oh, and your parents wanted me to tell you the WCP released an edict." He winced. "Ten B-rankers and five A-rankers as a limit."


"That's a direct attempt to target me isn't it?" I said sourly. "They're worried I'll mobilize the church against them directly. Not that I even could."


"It's a valid concern," he pointed out. "But yeah. Pretty much. This plays to your benefit too though. Despite what they may think, you don't have an army of A-rankers. This makes C-rankers the main high level force, assuming all the big players have all ten slots filled. C-rank factions are much easier to sway with promises of future gain."


When put that way, it did seem like a good thing. Especially since if I played this right I might manage to hit C-rank before the competition. My friends might be a bit behind, but I had some connections from the systems around Callus who would be able to help if that was the level I was playing at. Of course, I still needed fifteen high rankers, and it was more important than ever they be strong. Speaking of strong, I glanced at my grandfather. "Doesn't Bethy have a few A-rank brothers?"


"One or two, I think," he nodded. "Might be tough to swing, but with Abel training under Lark, you might be able to talk him into allowing it. Don't think it's an automatic victory though. The Vampire's children are mostly much weaker than he is. Bethy is a bit of an exception because of her mixed bloodline."


The more we spoke, the more there was to consider. I'd been expecting this competition to be much further off, but now that it was almost here I wasn't sure I was ready. Not to mention once it was over I'd be taking over the WCP going into a fucking GOD WAR. I knew I'd be sharing power with the council, but I'd still be the Wishmaster. Responsible for the lives of gods knew how many people.


I stopped, took a deep breath, and blew it out. "I'll go greet the popsicles after dinner. Figure out what order to visit their factions in, and we can set off for the Divine Tree Palace while we're at it. I have a lot to think about."


"Look, kid." He said slowly. "This is a lot. I get it. But don't get in your own head. You're not doing anything you weren't doing already. Get stronger and make allies, then bring them into battle with you. It's important not to lose perspective. This mission was absurdly dangerous, but the rewards for it were immense. Don't get lost in that and lose sight of why you took it on in the first place."


I froze. He was right. I was still me. I was still fighting for my family and my friends, still hoping to become a god and change the WCP for the better. Nothing had changed, except my chances of doing that had increased substantially. Now, I just had to stay the course. I took another bite of my prime rib. I could do this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Obviously, my grandfather didn't bring ALL the popsicles along. He didn't even bring that many. Five of them, specifically. Velliana, the Pixie, Darium the Minotaur, Garth the Crystal Dancer, and the two Imperial scions from families that were still extant, Alkem and Kesh. They were all waiting for me when I arrived in the training room, where I found Bella getting the stuffing beaten out of her by Keiko.


"Oooh, so close!" hissed the sadistic blue streaked. "You almost had me that time. Just a little faster and I know you can land a hit."


Velliana, who had pulled her feathered (literally, it was actual feathers) lilac hair up into a ponytail, frowned disapprovingly at the B-ranker. "Lady Keiko, I believe the young woman has had quite enough. It's entirely unfair to expect her to properly combat someone so far above her rank."


Keiko, who was a B-ranker, just shrugged shamelessly. "It's not like I'm going all out. Besides, I can see the deficiencies in her forms. I've dealt with the real thing more than a few times. I'm giving her good tips, and she IS improving."


"Keiko," I said blandly as I stepped into the room. "Can you please not bully my apprentice. It's the only joy I have in life anymore, and you're stealing all my fun."


"Master!" snapped Bella, halfway between exasperation at my attitude and joy at seeing me come to help with her training. "Oh wow, that new mask is so much less terrifying. Where did you get it?"


My hand drifted up to the smooth, familiar expanse of dark wood I now wore. The disturbing obsidian mask I'd had on before was powerful and useful…but it was also made by Black Sorrow, and I didn't love the idea of leaving it on my face. This one was a private commission from Zeke that Callie had made as a congratulations gift for completing my mission. It had been waiting in the ring when I checked it after dinner with my grandfather, and I had never been so thrilled to see a hunk of wood in my life.


"Present from my wife," I said casually. "Now, Keiko might be a sadist, but she does know my style. Or at least some of it. Keep working with her for a bit, I need to talk to our new friends over here."


She nodded seriously. "I wasn't complaining, master. I know how much work I still need."


I patted her on the head encouragingly, then turned and made my way over to the five former ice cubes. "Greetings," I said, bowing my head slightly. "I'm not sure if you know who I am, but my name is Shane. You can also call me Solomon if you're more comfortable with that."


It was a little formal, but these people were from who knew how long in the past. I had no idea what their customs or rituals were like, so I decided to air on the side of slightly formal politeness. I was less likely to mortally offend one of them and get challenged to a duel to the death that way.


Velliana, the apparent spokesperson, returned my bowed head with a formal curtsy. "Lord Wyndham, we are aware of you. Your Lady wife spun many tales of your heroism and compassionate nature. I understand we have you to thank for our release from our long incarceration."


Garth snorted. "She means thanks," he said wryly. "The pixies were always a little flowery." He held out a hand, tanned fingers worn from some kind of repeated activity, either weapon wielding or some kind of crafting. He was a big man, shorter than me but wider in the shoulders, and his grip was firm. "And she's right, thank you, I shudder to think what would have happened if we'd been left in there for another few centuries."


"How did you all end up stuck there, anyway?" I asked, gesturing them to sit down on a nearby bench used for observing fights. "I'd have figured they would have released you at some point. Were they really content to just leave you in storage until the planet ranked up?"


At first glance, the idea of Cold Storage made sense, but Callus had long since been terraformed and before that, probably abandoned. Their clans had just left them to their own devices and fucked off into space, and that struck me as a pretty terrible way to treat family. They must be terrified being in such a strange new world.


"We don't know," Vellianna said uncomfortably. "We don't know anything about what happened. We're from various different points in time. Dravost, the planet you call Callus, was the throneworld of the Summerpeace Clan when I was alive. It was part of a grand galactic formation of planets called the Wildstrife, a defensive emplacement that encircled the entirety of the fae territories. We weren't the strongest clan, of course, being firmly precelestial, but for the formation itself and my clan to both vanish? It's…concerning."


I wondered if they'd had a god. Her time had been well before the Aetherbright Empire, which meant none of our deities had been alive to take them out, but from what I knew Aetherbright was pretty strict about deity management too. Though that brought my attention to something else she'd said. "Precelestial?"


"Ah, apologies," she said with an embarrassed cough. "The Celestial stage is the name we used for the second watershed. What you call D-rank. Of course, in my time, Celestials were much rarer than they are now. The majority of the Fae were Precelestial. Only great lords of fairy had reached that storied realm. Things have…changed. As you can imagine, this new world is quite confusing, though finding out that remnants of my clan remain was a great consolation."


Garth nodded. "Same, the Cold Storage was a joint project of the Wildstrife, both the Fae and human factions, though admittedly there were fewer of the latter. Apparently some of the human bloodlines survived to this day, much to my surprise."


I knew that some of the Imperial factions were carryovers from the Aetherbright Empire, and that even the Imperial Family could trace their lineage back to the earlier dynasty. I'd done some research into it after our incident at the Aetherbright Academy. Knowing that the Aetherbright Empire had further descendants of even earlier dynasties didn't surprise me nearly as much, but it was still interesting. I turned to Alkem and Kesh. "Your families are still around?"


Alkem nodded. "I have a distant descendant who is a Duke, and Kesh's line eventually produced a Marquis. We were invited to return to our clans and decided we might as well travel with the rest of you."


An A and B-ranker respectively, which wasn't bad. Two of my friends from the Ruined Soul Temple were heirs to Ducal houses, and I was planning to stop in to talk to them anyway.


We all talked over the route, all of them agreeing to head to the Divine Tree Temple first, and then I said my goodbyes and headed over to work with my apprentice. Bella was lying on her back, wheezing, her nose broken. I turned to glare at Keiko. "You should be ashamed. What kind of monster hits a poor defenseless disciple in the face?'


"I didn't hit her in the face!" Keiko said indignantly. "She ran into the flat of my hammer headfirst. It wasn't even moving. She just vanished in a burst of fire and then appeared in front of me, slamming into the hammerhead at top speed."


Sighing, I leaned down to help my disciple up. "Still haven't gotten that movement technique down, huh?"


"Well it's not like I have many places to practice in here!" she said with an expansive gesture. The Acheron wasn't small, but it was substantially less sizable than, say, The Necromedes (presumably because it was a lot easier to build a giant ship out of A-rank materials than S-rank).


Laughing, I patted her on the shoulder. "Tell you what, you're obviously working hard, why don't you take a break. I was going to spar with you a bit, but now I just feel like a bully."


She sniffed in a dignified manner. "I suppose. I'll take my leave then." Lifting her chin high, she strode off, stumbling over her feet from dizziness, but barely managing to catch herself. Chuckling, I thanked Keiko and headed off to find a quiet corner. When that was done, I reached for my bond, and within seconds.


My wife appeared, manifesting from the dark like an angel of the abyss. "Hey stranger," she said with a warm smile as the clone condensed. "Been busy lately huh? I've been hearing all about your heroic exploits."


I shot her a weak grin, which I knew she could feel even if she didn't see it. Her smile wilted, her face clouding with concern. "Shane? Are you ok?"


But I wasn't. I stepped forward, putting my arms around her, and she pulled me close. I didn't cry, didn't collapse or weep, I just, clung to her. Not just because of my staff, which I would miss, or even because of the relief. Because I'd been through SO MUCH since we'd last been together in reality. Because I'd suffered, and endured, and triumphed. And sure, that last one was a good thing, but I had changed so much, gone through so many things on my own, and now that it was all over and I was through it, I just felt…exhausted.


Like I'd been holding my breath for the last few months, stuffing down any uncertainty or doubt, and it was all coming back up. The terror of failing my family, the fear of enduring an endless wave of torturous trials, the worry about what surviving those trials was doing to me. Even the anger of Black Sorrow claiming credit for my existence after being such a monumental pain in my ass for my whole life.


I'd ignored and pushed away so many things I'd wanted to feel about this whole ordeal, and now that I was home, or close enough to it, and Callie was here, and no one else could see. I just let myself finally experience it all. It washed over me, all that emotion and wear. It wasn't something the rebirth could fix, or that I could move past through the trials. It was just the natural consequence of suppressing everything and focusing on a single goal.


Callie held me close, not saying anything, just letting me know it was ok. It took me a few minutes to process everything, just silently working through my feelings, and when I was done, I stood there for another few just enjoying the closeness with my wife before reluctantly pulling back. "I wish you were here in person," I admitted to her wryly. "It's not the same long distance."


"Well, then you should be glad you're heading for the Divine Tree Temple," she said with a laugh. "My master has decided to meet her husband at the temple. Provide a united front to show support for her grandson. Your mom and I are obviously coming with her, and we'll be seeing you soon. Benny, Mel, Jessie, your sister, Gabe, and Bethy are all coming too. We aren't sure about Abel, no one has heard from him, though Mel assures us he's alive."


I snickered at that. "Probably not happily. I can't imagine Lark is a gentle teacher. But that gives me something to look forward to. I'll have to push gramps on that training he mentioned though. I have to maintain my lead now that I'm ahead again. Can't have you skipping past me with that scythe."


She laughed at that, and it was because neither of us really cared who was ahead. We were going to be together again, and we were strong. The rest would work itself out. In the meantime, I hadn't been running my mouth for no reason. My grandfather had mentioned some technique training during our talk, and I aimed to collect. By the time I saw my friends again, I'd be even stronger. After all, I had a reputation to maintain these days.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After meeting with the formerly frozen residents of the ancient Cold Storage we'd found on Callus during the siege, I'd made agreements with them to gain introductions to all their factions for potential allies. With the war of succession (which sounded better to me than 'wishmaster competition) coming up, I'd need all the help I could get, even if the contest was limited at the high end to ten B-rankers and five A-rankers.


While I had my mom, Zeke, and possibly my dad onboard, the other positions for A-rank support were still open, and I hadn't even started filling B-rank slots. In order to prove myself to the various factions, I needed to be at my strongest, so I decided to train the one aspect of my abilities with the most potential, my techniques.


To my surprise, I was given an ETA of just a week before we arrived at the Divine Tree Temple, and my grandfather was more than willing to do some training with me on the way, beginning the very next day. I was pretty excited, because while I'd worked with my mom, I'd never trained with an S-ranker before.


At S-rank, the Saga becomes part of the body, integrating into the physical form to the point where powers can be passed on as a bloodline. In a very real sense, S-rank was the beginning of real divinity, and it was a rare and impressive thing to reach this level. From what I knew, in the whole universe, there was only about a hundred S-rankers anywhere, which given the trillions of people scattered amongst the five faction alliance, was saying something about the difficulty of passing that barrier.


My grandfather, meanwhile, was one of the top ten or twenty S-rankers anywhere, meaning he was stronger than four out of five people who had managed to create bloodlines, and was renowned as one of seven popes of the Red Revenant Church, even if he wasn't the strongest of the Revenant's disciples.


"So," he told me as we cleared out the training room to start our lesson. "I've heard plenty about your gift for technique creation. But techniques at the S-rank and techniques at the A-rank aren't the same. To condense a Chronicle, your Path has to be part of your main ability, which means when the Saga becomes part of you, so does your Path. Technique manipulation is a whole different beast when your Path is integrated into your physical body."


I nodded slowly. "In what sense? Like they're smoother, finer control? Stronger?"


"All of the above, mostly," he said bluntly. "But one of the biggest things is that once you've integrated your Path, you have a deeper understanding of techniques, and can alter them more finely. Techniques are, at their core, just miniature Paths with singular uses. I'm sure you noticed that with your forms, which are essentially Solid Techniques."


I'd never really considered it that way, but he wasn't wrong. At the Solid Path stage, techniques were solidified with stats, made into Skills so they could be integrated into the Chronicle later. I'd basically been doing the same with my form so I could integrate Goetia into my Path of the Doom Sovereign. "So pseudo Domains are…"


"Complicated," he said with a wave. "If I had to describe it….it's like packing your techniques so densely they try to condense into a Chronicle but can't. Usually because you already have one or can't make one yet. Don't worry about the mechanics of your pseudo Domain, it's way too early to start altering or refining those more than you already have. Your forms are too Solid to be altered at this point without a lot of trouble too. What we're going to work on is your other techniques. Combat moves. Show me some of them."


That was an easy enough ask. Except I was currently missing my weapon, and Goetia was a staff art. All my movements were optimized for hitting things with a big stick, and I felt unwieldy and awkward without one.


Luckily, we were in the training room, and they had training weapons. Finding a staff tough enough to handle my output wasn't too much trouble. The Acheron played host to A, B, and C-rankers and they regularly sparred. Finding a C-rank training staff was simple, and after getting used to the weight, I started to limber up a bit, going through a few stances just to get into the rhythm of the temporary staff.


Once I did, I started moving through a few techniques. Cosmic Collapse, Life Nove, Mephisto's Waltz. I triggered my forms as needed, since it made it easier.


When I was done, my grandfather raised an eyebrow. "So, do you NEED to enter your forms in order to use those techniques? Can you do that black flame Cosmic Collapse without being in your Mephistopheles form?"


"I mean, sure," I shrugged. "Not easily, but yeah."


He grinned at me. "Well, we found your first exercise. Once you imprint a Path on your body, you gain finer control over your techniques. Your new pseudo Domain, Pride, should be able to mimic that function. The reason your technique isn't stable enough to use independently is because it's half formed. You know the effect, but the story isn't solid enough. Remember, these are almost like miniature Paths. The story is what matters."


Closing my eyes, I let myself drift down into my soul, appearing inside of the black stone Library anchored by my Ten Demons Tome. The heavy brown book sat on its pedestal in the center, holding the place together, and surrounding it were shelves of Skills and techniques.


The Skill tomes were pretty general. They had some information on function, and a vague diagram of the stats involved, but that took up most of the book. The techniques, meanwhile, were just stories, and most of the books that I looked through were barely even filled. A few pages, a chapter at most.


I could see what he meant. When I designed my techniques, I designed them to function as extensions of my forms. They were additions to the foundational stories of my demonic selves. But if I went back and altered the tomes holding them, I could add in that context. They would still reference my forms, but they'd also be able to stand independently of them.


Opening Cosmic Collapse, I started leafing through the pages. Cosmic Collapse was brief, just a quick story about a massive compacted wellspring of demonic energy that exploded out one side like an erupting star. I'd copied it from my mother, but it was made on the fly, so the sloppy construction really limited the usefulness.


So I started reworking it. I told the story of Mephistopheles, the demon prince of destruction. Mephistopheles was not the only demon to wield hellfire, but he was the most skilled. An artisan with the flames of destruction, Mephistopheles reached such a height with his skills in it's manipulation that he could recreate the natural world. What could be created could be destroyed, and the apex of destruction is to reach a form of creation.


The sun, giver of life and vitality, was the ultimate seed of creation in the realm of man, and so Mephistopheles sought to pervert the sun to his own use. He created an anti sun, a star of destruction that unmade any who fell within its light, and hung it in the sky above his realm, the circle of Wrath.


When the day came that challengers entered Mephistopheles realm, he called the un-sun from its place in the sky, and allowed it to return to it's natural state, an act of uncreation, an inverted supernova.


I had to add some context for the demon, referencing my form heavily to make sure the underpinnings of the story were solid enough to work on their own, but once I'd done that, I opened my eyes, emerging into the real world to find my grandfather waiting patiently. "For future reference," he said dryly. "Closing your eyes for twenty minutes in the middle of the fight is generally a poor tactical choice."


Chuckling, I just shrugged. "I've got Piece of Mind, which should let me do things like that mid combat without just stopping to wait. But I take your point, I'll watch that in the future. Now, can I show off my new technique?"


"By all mean," he chuckled. "Go ahead and use it on me. We'll see what you can do."


Spinning my staff around me to build up some momentum, I whirled and struck out in a thrust. Instead of triggering Mephistopheles or even reaching through it to tap into the black flame, I reached directly for my technique. After all the changes, I no longer considered it Cosmic Collapse, having renamed the move something a bit more fitting. Extinction Event.


As my staff struck out like a cobra, a small orb of black flame, much denser than one I would have formed after MINUTES of working with Cosmic Collapse, manifested in front of me. With a bit of will, I was able to shove more power into it, inflating it like a balloon until I decided I was satisfied, then slammed my staff into it look a pool cue.


Rather than rupture and spray out a cone of power like the old technique, the orb shot forward, blurring through the air, and on impact, exploded, expanding into a sphere of pure destruction that swallowed my grandfather whole, stopping at about fifteen or twenty feet out and hanging in the air until dissipating.


Of course, my S-rank grandpa with his purifying flame bloodline was unharmed, but he looked floored by the attack. "That was…a collosal improvement. I knew you were talented, and that this new domain of yours would be an advantage, but that was a staggering jump in quality. I won't say it was S-rank standard, you don't have the sheer impact to read the minor ebbs and flows of the story and map how they alter the minute aspects of its manifestation, but that was definitely the best technique I've ever seen from a D-ranker."


Grinning, I tried it again. This time I went with a smaller one. Again, it took seconds to form. When I pushed it too much bigger than balloon sized it did slow down, but it was still faster and smoother than Cosmic Collapse had ever been.


I could FEEL the difference in the technique. In the past my techniques had been sloppy and brute force, similar to holding Skills together with my soul. I could do it because of my talent for creating them, but it wasn't OPTIMAL. Now though, I'd machined Extinction Event to something so much more stable, and it made using it child's play.


My next revision was Mephisto's Waltz. This one was actually a lot easier, I'd put more effort into the story originally, and while context needed to be added for Mephistopheles to allow it to function more easily outside the form, the structure of the technique was better, and only needed some light revision in order to reach the standard I wanted. Glancing over to where my companion slept, I yelled to Archie. "Hey, lazy bones, wake up and watch this, you'll need to try to emulate it."


My sleeping phoenix, clearly annoyed at having to get up, raised his head from where he was sleeping on top of a nearby cabinet. I could see the disdain in his eyes…right up until I triggered my Waltz.


This one I didn't rename, but I could have. It was a whole different technique. The speed, fluidity, and versatility of the technique had all improved, and I knew from his expression that Archie could see the difference. Trilling a challenge, he rose and took off from the cabinet, flapping his wings. With a thought, I was standing right below him, my staff flicking up to poke him in the belly. "Tag," I said with a grin. "You're it." And the game was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the week was more of the same. I stockpiled another fifty six wishes, but decided against using them. I'd had a MASSIVE shift in stats, more than my current total, and while I wasn't exactly out of control in the Acheron, where I was able to spar with an S-ranker in an S-rank environment I couldn't break, my precision wasn't exactly what I was comfortable with.


Of course, that was functionally irrelevant to my grandfather. It was the final day of approach toward the Divine Tree Temple and we were getting in one last sparring session. I'd been refining Extinction Event, learning to use it in combination with my Waltz more smoothly, and I was landing it pretty solidly these days, though of course it still did nothing.


"Am I even ruffling your hair?" I demanded. "Like, I know you're stronger than me, but your close don't even look wrinkled. Are they S-rank too?"


"A-rank, actually," he laughed. "And no, not even a slight tousle. Kid, I have roughly five times the amount of Impact that you do, you get that right? I'm a demigod. Even beyond the impossibility of you harming a normal S-ranker, the idea of you being able to affect me at your rank is ludicrous. I could kneel in front of you and hold open my eye socket while you stabbed me in the eye and you wouldn't even scratch my cornea."


Which was…fair. More than five hundred Impact (I didn't even know how MUCH more) was bound to be an impassable gap, but I'd gotten so used to dealing with people who were NEARLY my rank where there was wiggle room that I'd forgotten how invincible the higher ranks were to me.


"Don't look so down," he laughed. "Being able to punch up at low D-rank, even using gear and tricks, is pretty impressive. You're on track to be a terrifying monster when you get older. Now, we should go get ready. We're landing on Verdenloft in a few hours, and I'll be introducing you to the Divine Tree Temple's elders, one of which is an old friend of mine. I think you're going to like her, she's a really compassionate person. We've known each other for years."


I could tell he had nothing but genuine fondness for her, but some part of my subconscious, presumably the Fatewalker part, got a twinge that my grandmother didn't like his "old friend" nearly as much as he did, and that she wasn't JUST coming out here to show her support. I briefly worried at how contentious their relationship must be for my fucking FATE sense to consider it relevant, but decided I couldn't really meddle in the affairs of S-rankers anyway so I'd do my best to stay out of it.


Considering how stupidly in love my grandfather was with his wife, I doubted it would be anything serious, just a little tension between Celine and whoever this mysterious elder was, at worst.


"So, Verdenloft huh? That's the planet name?" I asked my grandfather as we packed up all of our training gear. I'd gone through a few C-rank staves over the course of the weak, the repeated corrosive energy channeling too much for the poor quality barely C-rank materials over a long period of time. "What rank?"


He beamed. "B, A-rank planets are rare. But it's a beautiful place. The Primordial Tree Sea covers most of the landmass, and it's been tended by the Temple for ten thousand years." His enthusiasm for the place was evident. "Every generation, each seed for the council journeys out into the universe to collect a tree seed from a new kind of tree. The quality of the seed decides their placement in the Temple upon their return. Tasha and I met on her tree journey, and I was the one who helped her find a seed for an S-rank Wandering Soul Pine. It's her bound tree now!"


I followed him down the hall, intrigued by the terminology. "Bound tree? Do the Temple all use the same ability?" While not as effective as bloodlines at maintaining a cohesive power system, I knew lots of factions had specific synergy routes and Skills they merged into their abilities to stay relatively uniform.


"Oh, didn't I tell you?" He said with a pause. "The Temple is made up entirely of dryads. Tasha was born a dryad, but there are plenty of members who use a catalyst to switch to the Dryad racial trait. The faction is ENORMOUS, with multiple sub temples all over Verdenloft, which is widely considered to be the Dryad homeworld. We're technically in the Fairieland already, which works out well since we were heading here to talk to your friend's clans."


That actually sounded fascinating. I'd been wondering about Dryad's back on Rackham, and now I was going to a planet full of them. Of course, knowing the whole planet was one gigantic forest made me a bit less excited, but I'd MOSTLY gotten over my hatred of the woods after creating the Heart. The feeling of the place was just so magical I couldn't hold onto my grudge.


But hearing where we were made me wonder something else. "How is grandma getting here anyway?" I wasn't sure how they usually traveled, but I knew the Acheron was her personal ship. Seemed like crossing galaxies without it might be tough.


"She'll probably just borrow your wife's Starpluck Bangle." He said with a shrug. "She has techniques for plating anchor points long distance. It is a relatively Path aligned artifact that she had for a long time. They can just teleport over together and Celia can recharge the bangle after to make sure Calliope isn't left without her escape measures."


That sounded pretty damned convenient. We finally finished our trip, making it to the control room, where Sorana was standing in as Captain again. I nodded to the Saintess, who returned the gesture solemnly, and to her second Kristoff, who winked at me, otherwise maintaining a stoic demeanor. "Aright people, we should be on approach soon," my grandfather said casually. "Do we have sensors on Verdenloft yet?"


"Of course, your Holiness," said Sorana serenely. "Would you like us to put up a visual?"


"Sure, might as well let the kid see where we're headed," he waved carelessly and the ship, which I knew he was controlling, overrode the controls and manifested a floating green sphere in the air in front of us. "Bear witness," he said grandly. "To the Primordial Tree Sea. The whole planet of Verdenloft is covered in trees. Not just the land, but the ocean floors have all been planted with nautical forests, and even the clouds hold some tree variants."


I blinked at the orb of what was probably about sixty forty green and blue, whistling at the revelation. "But how do they…do anything. Like how do you build a town when there's trees ever ten feet?"


"Most of the settlements are built in the eldest trees, the mother trees that were planted during the Dryad's first landing on Verdenloft." He pointed out a few dark spots, zooming in so I could see the shapes of MASSIVE trees whose canopies covered miles. With the sensors as good as they were, he was able to shift the angle to show me the upper reaches of the trees, where huge flat platforms bridged the gap between branches, creating miles of space for buildings.


Even as we watched, the others arrived, and Bella, who had taken to carrying Archie around, spotted the diagram and squealed with excitement. "Oh wow, that's amazing! That's the biggest tree I've ever seen, man, if you cut that thing down it would crush half a continent."


"It would take a Demigod to cut down one of those trees," my grandfather said with a laugh. "And probably one with a Path specifically aimed at cutting. I don't think I could do it. They're A-rank, but peak A-rank, and the sheer size of them makes them pretty much impervious to most kinds of damage."


I wondered exactly what the dimensions were. I also wondered how the Dryads could live up there. "Isn't it freezing at that height?" I pointed out. "Like, the air must be insanely thin, and the windchill is probably insane."


"The canopy protects them. Those leaves generate sunshine from the underside, to prevent the other trees below from dying of malnutrition." He pointed at the forests below the massive mother trees. "They also generate oxygen, because, you know…trees. The cities under their branches are the lushest and most opulent on Verdenloft. The trees themselves form the Temple branches, pun intended, and each Divine Tree Temple is a unique and beautiful work of natural art, still living as it supports its caretakers."


Zooming in, he showed us the central area at the top of one of the mother trees, where the densely packed branches above the trunk and below the canopy wove together seemingly naturally into a towering hall of living wood, golden vines and leaves artfully covering the outside.


"Jessie is going to lose her shit over this," I laughed. "Is this the one we're headed for?"


"Yup," he beamed. "This is Prime Pine, the lifebound tree of the very first Dryad elder of the Divine Tree Temple. It's the largest domain of the Temple, and over ten million Dryads live in its branches. That's pretty dense for Dryads, they mostly like to spread out."


Ten million people in a tree city seemed like a lot for anyone, until I remembered some of the cities I'd seen already. With spatial expansion, it wasn't unusual to see some cities on higher ranked planets with people approaching the trillions. I hadn't actually seen any of those myself, but I knew with more Impact space was more stable, so spatial expansion could be pushed further. Actually, the Tricorn might have housed a trillion people, it had certainly been huge.


"So what's this ceremony we're here for?" I asked bluntly. "It's not the seed search thing right? Because then we'd have to leave to search the universe, and that seems counterproductive."


He shook his head. "It's the lifebonding ceremony. Dryads don't bond with their trees until D-rank. Up to that point, they have a temporary bond with a mother tree until they pass the watershed. Once a sufficient number of born Dryads and Dryad hopefuls reach the proper rank, a ceremony is held, sending the Dryads out into the Primordial Tree Sea to find a tree to bond with from among the ocean of greenery planted by generations of Dryads before. Bonding requires not just Impact, but suitability with a tree, so it can be quite an ordeal finding a good one."


That sounded like a huge event. I wondered how it would work for me. I only needed a staff, so I'd need like…one branch. I wouldn't need to find my own tree. But presumably I wanted to find a branch from one suitable for me personally.


Zagan was probably the closest I came to being able to commune with trees, assuming Dantalion couldn't find me something. I had a vague idea for how to refine that search, something maybe Jessie could help me with, since her lifeforce was one of the foundations of that form. I'd have to ask her about it.


For now, our time to chat was coming to an end. Outside the viewing portal behind the holographic image, I could see a green and blue orb approaching. We had officially arrived at Verdenloft. Fascinating Dryad stuff aside, I knew what it was most excited about. The chance to hold my wife again for real after months without her was causing my heart to pound like war drum. I'd missed her and all my other friends, and I couldn't wait to be back with my people.


Whatever was coming, be it the war of succession or this recruitment tour, it wouldn't matter as long as I had them at my back. I'd proven to myself that I could handle things on my own, but I vastly preferred when I didn't have to. Despite heading to a location I'd never visited before, I was so glad to be going home.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Touching down on the mother tree was an experience. The design of the whole place was very holistic and natural, and they'd clearly paid attention to the scenery. As we emerged from between a pair of giant leaves, golden sunlight from the undersides shone down onto a huge plains area dotted with cities and buildings.


The grass was so green it almost hurt to look at it for too long, beautiful idyllic flowers dotted the landscape, and the rolling fields of grass we interspersed with what looked like hard wood roads, carefully fitted together from stained and polished pieces of intricately shaped lumber. The buildings themselves were all a sort of twisting wooden structure grown from the emerging roots of large trees that were themselves part of a forest under the boughs of the mother tree.


It smelled amazing, the scent of the leaves carrying across the plains and even up to where our shuttle descended, and on the ground I could see crowds of people waiting, some familiar, some not, and some of them…green.


Ok, I'd known they were dryads, but I hadn't expected like…dryads. Greens of every hue and shade. Some dark emerald or hunter green, some so bright they looked almost gold. Every dryad had a unique pattern to their hair as well, some flowers, some leaves, some vines or branches like a weeping willow, but all subtly different and distinct to the dryad in question.


As we approached, I got sick of waiting. With a strong flex of my wings I leapt out of the shuttle, catching the scented air to glide gently down toward a familiar dark haired form.


I hit the ground at a graceful walk, folding my wings just in time to take a wife shaped missile to the chest that I swear almost dented my armor as Callie smashed into me, legs wrapping around my waist as she kissed me senseless.


"Oh, gross!" complained my sister as she caught up. "You're married now, all the passion is supposed to be gone from your relationship."


There was a throat clearing from behind her, and my mother's voice rang out acerbically as she said. "You shouldn't tease your brother. Especially not when I don't see you bringing anyone home. You're not getting any younger you know, dear."


"I'm in my early twenties!" snapped Chelsea, outraged. "Grandpa tell her she's being crazy!"


My grandfather snorted. "Obviously, my precious grandaughter isn't getting married before she's at least a century old. I won't stand for it. Gods forbid she runs off with some shady ragamuffin like you did."


I pulled away from Callie, laughing at his wry tone. "I'd call my dad a lot of things, gramps, but I don't know if I'd call him a ragamuffin."


My mother rolled her eyes as she plucked Callie off me, dropping my wife gently on the grass as she pulled me in for a hug. Once she'd successfully reconfigured my spinal column, she shoved me away, holding me by the shoulders as she looked me over. "Let me look at you. Everything is still attached, even your wings." She paused. "Wait…those are new." She shrugged. "That's fine, extra pieces are allowed as long as you're not missing anything."


"I told you he was fine," said my grandmother as she stepped out from behind the slowly gathering crowd of my loved ones. "Sorana told me exactly what condition he was in and I passed it on. You're being a…what was the word you children use these days? A helicopter parent?"


Mom turned and gave her a flat stare. "Mom, when I was seventeen you had me kidnapped and put into a hyper realistic illusion so I would think I was taking a trip to a resort planet. You had the native fruits and some cultural knick knacks SHIPPED across the galaxy and filled my luggage with them. It took me two and a half years to figure out I hadn't gone anywhere."


"Well, you weren't listening dear," my grandmother said patiently. "Dravorax the Unhinged had just declared war on your third uncle, and it was too dangerous to be in the Daliax Cluster. You got to enjoy all the high points of the trip with none of the inconvenience."


My mom threw her hands in the air. "I'm not having this argument with you again! I don't know how to explain to you that abducting and mind controlling your child so they don't have a beach weekend is not okay!" She whirled on my grandfather. "Dad can you talk to her please? She always does this!"


Sighing, he shot me a long suffering look. "Celia personal privacy is important, Sasha your mother loves you and was just trying to keep you safe."


"Fine! Take her side!" The two of them spat in stereo.


His shoulders slumped as he turned to me, gesturing expansively at the two of them. "This is my life. Jokes aside, I swear they do love each other. They can put aside the squabbling when its important, like the whole Black Sorrow thing, but when everything is calm they tend to fight. They're too similar to get along well most of the time. It's better now. When Sasha was a teenager their fights were SO much worse. They kind of became friends when she grew up."


"We are NOT similar," said my mother acidly. "I, for instance, have never traveled across a galaxy to hover over my husband because I'm threatened by his childhood friend."


My grandmother snorted coldly. "I imagine you'd have to know where he was first."


Despite their sniping, I'd seen their relationship before. When I was in trouble they'd both been willing to do almost anything to help. "Alright guys, this is the first time we've been together as a family in our whole lives. Can we take it easy with the jabs and just enjoy our reunion?"


They softened, and my mother let out a long sigh. "Sorry, honey. We've been cooped up together for the last few months. I love your grandmother, but there's a reason I only visit for short periods of time. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that." Both of them chuckled, and I let out a relieved chuckle.


"Now, speaking of sniping, where is my idiot?" I grinned and looked around, easily dodging the rock that was whipped at my head from what would probably have been a blind spot on a normal person. I did NOT manage to dodge the tackle to the back of my knees, Benny's enhanced density sending me ass over teakettle in a clatter of armor.


My best friend pounced on me as I went down, trying to get his arm around my neck, but I got my own limb in the way, twisted around, and then rabbit punched him in the back of the head.


"Ow!" he snapped, scrambling off me as I popped back to my feet with a grin. "Fucking beast! How did you get so much stronger?" Despite the venom in his words, his tone was appreciative as he rubbed the back of his head.


Callie pinched her nose. "An idiot. I married an idiot."


"Love you too sweetie," I told her cheerfully. "I guess you've never seen us separated long enough to see our ritual."


My mother's face was disapproving. "Who exactly TAUGHT you this…ritual?" She asked suspiciously. Her eyes darted around, locking on a spot where my Uncle was casually trying to slip out of view. "Because it's suspiciously close to how Ezekial and your father greet each other after a long time apart."


"Not last time," Zeke pointed out sulkily. "I was dying from that stupid fight. Now he's got one up on me."


I paused. "I…holy shit, Zeke DID teach us the ritual. He said best friends always try to beat each other up when they've been apart for a long time. You need to know that your friend can defend themselves or if they went soft when you weren't around."


"What exactly were you teaching my child?" Demanded my mother waspishly as she rounded on Zeke.


He turned frantically. "Tasha!" He shouted happily as he spotted someone from the dryad group coming over. "Look! It's your old friend Nicholas!"


My grandmother glared at him, but my grandfather just beamed, blurring over to scoop the tall, willowy dryad (no pun intended) up into a spinning hug. "Tasha!" he shouted happily. "I haven't seen you in ages! Just look at you! How have you been? I hear you have a grandaughter now, congratulations. This is my daughter's boy, Shane. But you knew that of course."


He set her down, laughing happily, and I saw my grandmother twitch slightly. Tasha was…impressive. Emerald green skin and long woven branches of hair that hung down to her knees. She radiated a sort of serene competence and surety that put everyone around her at ease. Or at least, it did for me and Callie. I didn't see any actual signs of romantic interest from her, though I suppose I'd have no way to know what to look for, she mostly just looked like an old friend happy to see my grandfather.


"Nicholas," she nodded gracefully, her golden irises shining in dark green sclera. "It is So very good to see you, my old friend. It's been too long. You've haven't been back to Verdenloft since before Drayla was born, nevermind her daughter. But yes, my grandaughter Alyssa is undergoing the ceremony as well. I hope your boy will help her as best he can. She's already made friends with one of his companions, in fact."


Apparently Callie and the others had gotten here a while ago, because sure enough, when I looked around, I found Jessie standing with a short girl with moss green skin and purple flowers in her hair. When my healer spotted me looking, she squealed with excitement, breaking away from her friend and the pack of dryads they'd been standing with and barreling toward me for my third tackle of the day. "SHANE!" Shouted the tiny blonde. "This place is AMAZING!"


The girl with the purple hair, who I assumed was Alyssa, approached a bit more slowly. She waved hesitantly. "Hello." She said in a shy voice.


"Lyss! Come meet my friend," chirped Jessie. "Don't worry, he looks like a big thug but he's actually really sweet. Kind of dumb too." She hip checked me fondly, then darted over tog rab the girl's hand to drag her over. "Shane, this is Alyssa Peridot. She's been showing me around this place, and it's been SO COOL!"


Alyssa smiled wanly. "It's been an honor. Jessica has truly awe-inspiring power for a D-ranker, and her gift with plants and animals is a priceless treasure." Speaking of animals, I heard a tiny rumble and a small head poked itself out from over Jessie's shoulder, Randall having been sleeping in her hood until she jostled him awake.


My grandmother, who I was surprised to see actually DIDN'T look worried or insecure, (though she clearly didn't like Tasha at all) cleared her throat. "My grandson is obviously exhausted from his trip, perhaps we might save the rest of the greetings until he's settled in. I'm sure Natasha wouldn't begrudge him a bit of rest."


That statement was…cold. But not in the way I'd expected. I was pretty sure my instincts had misread this, and my mom had probably done the same. Whatever was going on between those two wasn't a romantic rivalry. Then again, that just made me all the more intrigued, I hoped I'd figure out what their deal was while I was here. Either way, she wasn't wrong. I was a bit tired, and I'd love to find a place to rest.


Tasha nodded regally. "Of course, let it never be said our hospitality is lacking. Alyssa, why don't you and Jessica escort Shane to the Ordolon Oak. Our honored guest should have nothing less than the finest accommodations." I thanked her, then headed off after the dryad and my friend. I had so much to get caught up on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Ordolon Oak was a particularly lovely building. One of the roots of a large tree that formed a city/ I'd been expecting all the root buildings to be pretty similar, but I was impressed by how intricate and personalized each of the buildings was. The wood had been shaped into gorgeous reliefs and designs, with gemstones and even metals seemingly growing through it in places, creating beautiful murals and artwork along the walls.


What impressed me was the fact that there were absolutely no tool marks on the wood, it seemed to have been shaped as it grew. When we mentioned this to Alyssa, she seemed excited to share the secret.


"The method for shaping the wood is called 'Tree Singing'," she said brightly. She'd been a bit reserved since we met her, with Jessie trying to encourage her to open up and talk to us, but this subject seemed to be a passion of hers. "Dryad's come in lots of different variations and can do many different tasks. Tree Singers are artisans, some of them do construction like this, some of them create more functional designs, siege engines and the like. The Mother Trees themselves and the construction of the Temples are an example of powerful Tree Singing."


That was an interesting idea. "Siege engines? Like the trees can move?"


"Some of them," she said brightly. "But they're mostly stationary. We have another direction of study called Tree Dancing. Tree Dancers can make their trees move, though only within their natural limits. War Trees are special trees optimized by Tree Singers and controlled by Tree Dancers. War Trees are one of the great defensive means of the Divine Tree Temple. Any tree might be a war tree, and in the Primordial Tree Sea, that means all other factions have to tread carefully."


Which reminded me of a question I'd had, actually. "About that. The Primordial Tree Sea was planted by the dryads right? So wouldn't all those trees already be bonded?"


She burst out laughing. "Heavens no. There are far more trees than dryads. For their ascension to elder, every dryad goes out into the universe and finds a unique tree seed to bring back and plant in the Tree Sea. That said, most of them bring more than one, because there are a great many trees here, and it's hard to say if your particular tree will be unique. There's a book where we try to record trees as they're bonded, but many of the wild and unbound trees are a complete mystery to us."


"So you just go out into the giant forest and…look for a tree that feels right?" I asked slowly. "But the planet is huge, how do you know you're even close?"


"The Tree Sea tells us," she said proudly. "The intertwining roots of the sea have formed together over time and become their own consciousness. The Mother Trees protect the temples, but the Tree Sea protects us all. The Sea is an S-rank entity, and a powerful one at that. At the beginning of our trials we commune with the Tree Sea and it gives us a relative direction and distance. More narrowing down which section of the Tree Sea we should look in than anything."


I admit, I was a little thrown by the concept of a forest being a living being. Maybe I shouldn't have been, it was hardly the weirdest thing I'd seen, but something about the idea of a living being made of twisted up roots was weird.


Jessie, however, seemed to be ecstatic at the possibilities. She sat and talked with Alyssa alongside Callie for about an hour before the dryad left, and when she did, I finally asked the question that had been churning in my mind for a while. "Are you thinking about becoming a dryad?" I asked my healer.


I didn't begrudge her the interest, and if that was what she wanted I was happy for her, but it just seemed a bit fast for such a big change. Then again, I had wings now (temporary though they may be), so maybe it was hypocritical to throw stones at people for masking big species changes on a whim.


She looked conflicted. "I…don't know. Aside from the baseline Vitality boost, which would be huge for me, the synergy with my abilities is immense. I wouldn't lose them either, they would just become a Skill alongside my racial trait, and I could synergize them in when I create my Solid Path. I know it seems like a big change, but it just feels…right. Becoming part of the forest. But then again it also doesn't. Like it's close but not quite right."


Callie, who had been quietly listening, perked up. "So…don't." We both looked at her, confused.


"Why haven't you gone with a racial trait before? I know why Shane and I don't, it's nearly impossible to break into divinity with a racial trait because you're sharing your renown with a whole species, not even mentioning Path stuff." Despite her relatively demoralizing words, her tone was excited, but I wasn't getting her point.


At our blank looks, she growled in frustration. "What if instead of a dryad, you became something ELSE? The big problem is the catalyst, but what if you had another way to get a catalyst?"


Now I was getting it. "You mean use a wish?" I clarified. "I mean, that would be a gamechanger, but I feel like just creating a racial trait from nothing would be too expensive a wish to even bother with. That's…a lot." I wasn't sure my power could even do that. Not at D-rank. I knew I could resurrect the dead at D-rank, provided they were mortals (though my VItality wasn't high enough yet, I'd checked) but creating a species? I was a little unconvinced.


"If we were making one from scratch, sure," she shrugged. "But think about Anna-Marie. She was a Nereid, and now we've met Dryads. Those are both kinds of nymph. Even if admittedly Anna-Marie didn't seem to be bound to a body of water, she was also like…many generations removed from a pureblood Nereid from what I remember. Though I don't know how that even affects racial traits. Or if it does. Or maybe Nereids are different. It doesn't really matter though.


"Clearly there's a base architecture there, Jessie just wants to be LIKE a Dryad but different. In fact, I bet I know what she leans more towards, on account of her bond with Randall." She grinned at our friend. "You want to be like an animal version of a Dryad, don't you?" My wife sounded like she was on the verge of bursting out of her seat and punching something. It was easy to forget she was a total nerd about this stuff sometimes.


She wasn't alone, either. Jessie squealed excitedly, popping to her feet in shock. "YES! Yes that's exactly what I want! Trees are great, but they're not ME. I don't want to lifebond with a plant. I want to lifebond with my big fluffy teddy bear!"


"Exactly," said my wife smugly. "Sort of a…Thirionad."


"Kind of a lame name," I snickered.


My wife rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't name her after some obscure demonic pig farmer or something. If we want her to sound like she was spawned from the pit we'll give you a call honey, otherwise stay in your lane."


"I'm sorry, am I getting naming advice from the woman who selected her cape name when she was like twelve and never changed it? Because Nightstrike isn't exactly simple and elegant." She knew I was joking, but we still probably would have gotten sucked into bickering if Jessie hadn't cleared her throat. "Ah, damn, sorry Jess, it's ultimately your call."


She chuckled at our back and forth. "How kind. But really I'm not sure. My motif was made back when I was plant based, and Agria goes better with being a Dryad, plus I could help with your trial and weigh in for you with the elders. There are a lot of reasons to be a classic Dryad. But still…"


I waved her off. "I think you forget I can talk to plants. I'll be fine. You just do whatever you think is best for you."


Biting her lip, she finally nodded. "This feels like the right call. You and Callie are leaving me behind, and Benny too. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to try a racial trait himself. He hasn't been thrilled with your rapid progress, at least not in comparison to himself. Alright, I want to do it. Cal?"


Beaming, my wife flourished a hand, pulling a scroll from nowhere, one of the four emergency scrolls they had stockpiled outside the fifty six I was building up for my next wish binge. Jessie did a flourish of her own, then flipped me a coin, one I caught as she opened up the scroll, eyes going wide. "Is this…holy shit Jessie where did you get a C-ranked chit? This is twice as much money as I've ever had at once."


She shrugged. "People in the Holy Dominion were really rich and I'm a great healer. That's my payment, in case it wasn't clear." Popping the scroll, she raised it above her head, and in a loud, clear voice, she announced. "I wish a had a catalyst that would help me accept a racial trait similar to Dryads, Nereids, Maenads, and similar nymphs, but I want to be bonded to a single animal rather than a part of nature."


I felt the stirring of power, my body gathering the same purple electricity it always did during wishes, though in bigger quantities than I'd seen in a long time, maybe ever. I'd never been in the room when someone used one of my scrolls before, and it was a weird feeling. The static built and built, hanging on the air like an oncoming storm, then it shattered, and the room was consumed in purple lightning.


The power that left my body was explosive and substantial, and I staggered a bit at the expenditure, not having felt any drain that massive in a long time. I pocketed the coin, then slumped into a chair, waiting for the lightshow to end. It didn't take long, the purple lightning that I was pretty sure they couldn't even see began to condense, slowly curving and shifting in the air into a sphere and then sucking in on itself.


Purple electricity became denser, thicker, and more solid as it shrunk, finally taking on the shape of a spherical bottle with a short neck. It dropped out of the air slowly, almost casually, and Jessie snapped it up, cradling it protectively in her hands as she stared down into the glowing brown muck.


"Well," I said after a moment. "That does NOT look appetizing."


Jessie rolled her eyes. "It's the catalyst for a racial trait, not a mocha latte. It's not supposed to be delicious, it's supposed to be powerful." She paused for a second. "It really does look like…extra gross, doesn't it?"


"I'm sure it tastes fine," Callie said soothingly. "It kind of looks like hot chocolate."


Jessie shot her a quizzical look. "Really? Do you think so?"


"No, it looks like mud. And that's being charitable," my wife admitted. "I'm sure it's disgusting. I was just trying to make you feel better."


I burst out laughing, and Jessie pouted angrily at both of us before realizing it wouldn't accomplish anything and rolling her eyes. "You guys are both assholes. Fine. I'm getting ready to do this. Wish me luck."


Before we could react, she popped the cork from the curved glass claws that served as the bottle's stopper and tipped it back, dumping it right down her throat. She stumbled back, body going rigid as her eyes filled with a mixture of green and brown energy. I hissed in annoyance, having planned for her to let us analyze it or have Zeke give it a shot. Hopefully it would be alright without the redundancy checks. Of course, that was when the screaming started.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

There were a lot of reasons to avoid racial traits. One was similar to the reason most people didn't follow a god's Path after they had taken it if they wanted to advance/. Sharing your renown with an entire species was a bad way to get lots of attention. Another was because it made creating a Solid Path harder, because the Path needed to be anchored to the racial trait instead of to a normal ability, and the process was much more complex.

The one I had NOT known about was the fact that it was fucking AGONIZINGLY painful. Even I, who had spent the last three months being essentially tormented to the very edge of breaking, winced at the pain Jessie was clearly going through as she transformed into a Thirionad.

I suspected if not for the absurd Vitality and her frankly broken power, she might have died early on, and as it was, I had to trigger Zagan and start pumping life force flame into her to carry her through the process. Not only that, Callie and I had to pin her down to prevent her from injuring herself, and I ended up shoving my hand into her mouth to bite down on so she didn't bite off her own tongue.

On the upside, as I triggered Dantalion to observe the changes, I did get a pretty good look at what was happening, and it was pretty fascinating. Unlike the Dryads, Jessie's surface appearance didn't change too much. No fur on her skin, though she did grow a pair of rounded black bear ears on top of her head with swirls of green in them, and her hands warped as her fingers were remolded to contain absurdly large and sharp claws that could retract back under her nails.

Subdermally, her muscles became denser and shifted in composition, optimizing more for prolonged force output and stamina than explosive force, albeit with enough output to make the difference pointless at lower levels.

Her bones became denser and heavier, becoming something a bit closer to stone, though still living, and her spine thickened, joints reinforcing across her body in a way that would allow her to maximize her new weight advantage by firmly locking herself in place to withstand a charge that would knock over basically anyone else her size.

When she finally stopped twitching, I pulled my hand out and channeled Zagan's flame to my hand to repair the bloody teeth marks she'd clamped into the web of my thumb, sighing in relief as it faded. After that, we just had to wait for her to wake up.

It didn't take long, her eyes flashed open, a swirling green that flickered with the force or primal life, and she sat up with a bonerattling roar that seemed way too big to have come from someone her size. Callie, looking unamused, reached up and wiped a fleck of spit from one cheek, glaring at our healer acidically.

Jessie, having noticed what she's done, flushed and cleared her throat. "Sorry. That's…sorry. I just feel…different."

"I'd imagine," I told her bluntly. "Because you just got about ten thousand Might from that transformation. I knew there could be multipliers, but I didn't know you could just inherit stats like that."

She grimaced, shaking her head. "It's…more complicated than that. Much like Dryads, I gained a lot from Randall. There was some extra synergy because I evolved him with my power, which means my species inherited some attributes from him. I'm not a Thirionad, I'm an Undying Lifestorm Thirionad. Ten thousand Might and another ten thousand Vitality. "

"Well, that sounds pretty fantastic," I admitted. "Why do you seem unsure?"

"Because the binding is…different. Trees last a long time, but beasts don't always live full lives. If Randall dies, it could cripple me, and the same for him if something happens to me. Plus I can't rank up unless he does, which means even if I hit the peak of E-rank he'd need to hit D-rank before I could break through. Even if it takes a thousand years, I can only wait."

Those were some admittedly steep drawbacks, but not as bad for Jessie as for some others. She loved Randall, and would have been destroyed if anything happened to him, so she would never let that happen. As for him ranking up, she had me around. She could wish for stats for the big lug whenever she wanted. I said as much to her, and she nodded after I finished laying out my points.

"Yeah, you're right. It's just kind of intense right now." She giggled nervously. "It's an odd feeling being so connected to another creature."

"Gee," I said blandly. "I can't imagine what that might be like. The idea of having my very soul linked to another person is a completely alien and confusing idea to me, and I can't understand anything about how you may be feeling." The sarcasm in my tone was so evident by the end that Jessie was having trouble holding back a laugh.

My wife rolled her eyes. "What my idiot husband is saying is that we're here to help. We have experience with a bond like that. I know you had your beast bond before, but I think this is probably a much more profound connection, isn't it?"

"It really is," Jessie nodded. "It's like…well I imagine what having a twin is like."

I shrugged. "I don't think the twin thing is as exaggerated as most people say. Chelsea and I don't have any sort of mental communication or whatever." Then I paused. "Though I have met lots of twins who have. So…hard to say. Maybe Chelsea and I should train together. Especially with her full powers available."

"Put a pin in that thought," Callie said with interest. "Adding her to a formation or something could be really interesting. But for now, we should check Jessie's stats. Not just the boost from the racial trait, but also months of healing and building her rep enough to make that huge amount of money. I'm curious to see where she's at. We didn't really compare notes while you were gone, I mostly just trained, worried, and talked to you when I could."

I smiled softly at her, taking her hand in mine and squeezing. Jessie, meanwhile, nodded proudly, grabbing some paper from her ring and writing out her stat sheet.

Jessica Evans- E-rank. Ability: Expert Thirionad Racial Triat- Undying Lifestorm variant. A spirit of the wild, bonded deeply with the Undying Lifestorm Ursa Randall. The beginning of a line.

Might-15,625

Impact-65

Fantasy-2758

Vitality-59,587

Focus-3755

Perception-4765

Creation-5958

Progress to next rank: 92,513/100,000

Pathath of the Green Sun

Lifebound partner: Undying Lifestorm Ursa- Randall

Soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

Skills: Expert Lifeweaving, Intermediate Horticulture,Intermediate First Aid, Minor Herbalism, Minor Flower Arrangement, Intermediate Beast Taming Mastery

"Huh," I said with an impressed whistle. "Beast bonding is gone, and so is shape of the wild. Consumed to fuel the transformation maybe? I hadn't know that was possible, but then again this was kind of treading new ground to start with. You got about forty thousand points. Granted a decent chunk of those was probably from three months of training, but still, that's pretty impressive."

She grimaced. "My Lifeweaving is a Skill now. So it won't rank up when I do. Plus I STILL haven't made it to D-rank. I'm still eight thousand short, and that means Lifeweaving is stuck at Expert even after I hit D-rank. Grinding it higher is going to be a nightmare."

"True, but it's not locked to your rank anymore." I pointed out helpfully. "Which means you can rank it up even further. You could reach Grandmaster level with your Lifeweaving and be an even stronger healer, plus all the advantages of your new racial trait, which I'm betting are substantial."

She grinned proudly at that. "Double the effective Might and three times the effective Vitality. Which considering what my base is for Vitality is nothing to sneeze at."

"I should say fucking not," I laughed. "Your effective Vitality is higher than mine and Callie's put together." I paused. "Actually your BASE Vitality is higher than mine and Callie's put together." I glanced at my wife reproachfully. "You've got to get on the ball with that one. I know you like to concentrate your stats into a few key values, but less than ten thousand Vitality as a D-ranker is pretty awful."

Grimacing, she nodded. "It's actually higher now, but still pretty low. I'll share my status with you later. Right now is about Jessie. I'll pass you some of my scrolls, but it'll still take time to boost Randall up to D-rank. You might be stuck in E for a while. You ok with that? I imagine if necessary we could still reverse the process. Wishing or even a Life Nova could probably purify the catalyst, at least considering the rank difference."

My abilities had an outsized effect on things below the watershed, which meant I could probably create a technique to return her to human, assuming I had her permission. Purification was finicky, and the positive connotations would make it impossible for me to forcibly remove someone's changed nature against their will, unless it was something particularly dark and twisted. Animal nymph definitely wouldn't be on that list.

Honestly, if it hadn't been reversible I probably wouldn't have agreed to grant her the wish. A change like this was huge, and only the fact that she could walk it back if she didn't like it made it at all a responsible choice to allow her to try it.

She was having none of it though. She shook her head quickly. "No! I don't want that at all! I really like this. It might take me longer to get to D-rank, but still, I think it'll be worth it long term. I'm on a Path that no one has ever seen before, and I'm excited for it. Plus, once I get a sizable head start I was thinking about expanding. I might like to see other Thirionads. It would be cool to be the mother of a whole new species."

"Well, as long as you're keeping your goals manageable," I said dryly. "It says a lot about your state of mind that you're not going crazy with ambition and coming up with impossible end goals."

"You're trying to become a GOD," she laughed as she rolled her eyes. "I don't want to hear about manageable goals from you."

I shrugged. "I never said my state of mind was good. But yeah, that's fair, Ascendants are all crazy. Speaking of crazy, where if that grumpy old bear? I know you bonded with him through your beast bonding Skill, but I thought he was with you still, just hiding in your hood."

"Nah, he's outside," she said with a laugh. "He hitched a ride out with Alyssa when she left. She feeds him way too many snacks, so he tends to follow her around. I felt him turn around to come back when I drank the potion, but he's waiting outside because the process reversed his shrinking enchantment so he's full sized and won't fit through the door."

Walking to the exit, I opened it, peering out to find a glowering black and green bear flopped down on his belly on the grass outside. When he saw me, he snorted derisively and looked away, and I rolled my eyes at the bear. "Yeah, he's out here," I told them over my shoulder. "Just as bad an attitude as ever. Speaking of which, do you want to meet MY companion?"

Archie was with Bella at the moment, but a quick mental tug on our bond had him winging toward us. Jessie's face lit up, her new bear eyes wiggling happily, and I couldn't help but laugh and ruffle her hair. She scowled and batted at my hand and Callie giggled at her expression, and I had to admit, it was really nice to be back with my family.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After helping Jessie adjust to her new species (and wasn't that a weird thought to have), Callie and I packed all of our things and headed out to meet with my family for dinner. More than just Zeke, mom, Chelsea, and Celia though, I finally got to see all the friends I hadn't been able to talk to during my time on Rackham. Cark, Cass, Mel, Bethy, Gabe, Felicity (my cousin, not the goddess), and even all the animals.


My apprentice was also there, currently deep in conversation with…I closed my eyes in pain, groaning as I realized I was too late to prevent possibly the most terrifying event I could conceive of. Bella was getting along with Bethy.


"Shane!" chirped my favorite terrifying vampire. "I was just talking to your apprentice. She's so sweet. Not like, literally, at least I don't think so, I don't bite strangers, but she seems really nice! I'm curious though, why does she seem so…unconcerned. Daddy's apprentices are always really twitchy. I've dropped this cup like four times and she hasn't flinched one."


Bella blinked at her. "Wait…is that why you kept doing that? I thought you were just really clumsy."


Bethy patted her reassuringly on the hands. "Oh I definitely am, there's nothing else going on. Don't worry about it. Here, chew on this branch." She passed her a small, slightly gnarled stick, and my apprentice looked at it in confusion before taking it cautiously.


My sister, sitting between Bethy and Gabe, burst out laughing at our confused expressions. "It's a Dryad thing. They have these special trees called freshwood, and they chew them when they're distracted. Makes your breath smell like eucalyptus. Bethy has developed a weird fixation on them since we got here."


"It's not WEIRD," protested the vampire. "Proper dental hygiene is important. Daddy says that the speed at which your fangs can pierce through a jugular can be the difference between life and death." She bared her fangs at us before flicking one of them proudly. There was a high, sharp ping like she'd flicked a piece of steel. Just remember, no one is afraid of a predator with tooth decay."


The mental image of The Vampire teaching Bethy how to floss and instructing her on proper brushing technique almost broke my brain, but I pushed through it, forcing myself to acclimate to the absolute chaos that was Bethy as quickly as possible. "I'll keep it in mind," I said slowly. "Speaking of apprentices, any idea when we'll be seeing Abel again?"


She shrugged. "Alexis is still alive. Daddy said he doesn't even cry anymore, which is pretty impressive. The last one lives under a giant rock last I heard. He's afraid to come out into open air. At least he's alive though. Only about ten percent of them survive." At our collective horrified stare she paused, glancing up thoughtfully. "Oh, did I not mention that before? Oh well, doesn't really matter now."


I buried my face in my hands, but she was kind of right. I doubted Abel would have backed down from a chance to learn at the feet of the strongest mortal in the universe because of a little lethal danger. Plus there was a good chance she was just messing with me anyway. It was always hard to tell with Bethy.


"So, tell us about your solo adventures," interrupted Benny, which was honestly probably a good call. This could go on for a while. "Did you get any cool stuff?"


I perked up. "Oh a bunch. I got a token that can block a single attack up to god rank, plus some kind of rebirth ritual that cleansed some of the damage from my soul. Apparently it'll be really helpful down the line."


Zeke looked intrigued. "A defensive token? That's interesting. But I wouldn't assume it can block ANYTHING below god rank. Nameless tried that."


"I mean, he IS still alive," my mother pointed out. "So I guess it kind of worked."


"Who," I asked patiently. "Is Nameless? And why is he relevant? I think you guys have forgotten how little I know about Ascendant nonsense while I was gone."


Zeke just laughed. "Sorry, I figured you might have heard of him from Bethy. Nameless is the eldest disciple of Black Sorrow. He's one of her ten popes. She gifted him a defensive token when he Ascended to S-rank. He used it to try to kill Lark, and it went…poorly. Which is my whole point. 'Anything below god rank' sounds good, but a token is just an item. There's a lot of wiggle room there. Lark tore it apart and fed on Nameless, ripping out a LOT of stats. He recovered eventually, but it wasn't pretty."


"I didn't know Lark was enemies with the Cult," I said in confusion. "Like sure, he didn't seem to like them at the conclave, but not to that extent."


My grandfather, who had been unusually silent (I realized he was just eating) swallow a bit of steak and spoke up. "Nameless is…well, you could consider him kind of a precursor to Lark, albeit a much less successful one. Lark established his Domain and its dominance by destroying all the vampires in the universe aside from his own line. It was a massive undertaking that took him centuries to manage. But he got the idea from Nameless, who achieved his own S-rank in a similar way."


"It's why they call him Nameless," my mother added. "He decided that he could become the most powerful version of himself if he was completely singular. So he hunted down and murdered every person who had the same name as him. After a while, people obviously stopped naming their kids that, and then superstitions developed and they stopped even SAYING it."


That was…extreme. "So he's a lunatic?" I asked bluntly.


"Completely insane, yes," my mother agreed. "Not all of the cult's popes are, of course, but totally nuts. He's also very petty. When Lark stepped into S-rank using a similar method Nameless took exception. Hunted the vampire down to fight him. He'd been S-rank for quite some time by then, but Lark grows fast. Nameless used the token to defend himself, but Lark is…well, Lark. He chipped away at it and eventually got through."


I blew out a breath, shaking my head in amazement. "Damn, Bethy, your dad is hardcore. Also, wait, you said Black Sorrow has TEN popes? I thought the Church and the Cult were basically equal in power?"


"We are," said my grandfather with a grin. "In case you forgot, I'm a demigod. So are Judgement and Moonlight. We can each fight the Cult's popes two to one."


My apprentice, having been apparently unaware of a lot of this information, just kind of gaped at all of us. I don't think she'd realized she was eating dinner with a pair of S-rankers, a pair of A-rankers, and the daughter of one of the most legendary Ascendants who had ever lived.


My grandmother rolled her eyes. "Please don't get him started. He'll go on for hours, breaking down the individual strengths and weaknesses of the Black Sorrow Cult Popes and how he would deploy Church forces against them in the event of all out war. Which, I might remind you all, would be BAD, since we're already in one of those, and the Cult is on our side."


"With friends like those," muttered my grandfather, and I had to admit I agreed with him.


Celia sort of wilted. "I know," she admitted sadly. "They can be…terrible. But I did grow up there, and some of those S-rankers helped raise me. There are plenty of bad apples over there, but not everyone in the Black Sorrow Cult is a monster. In the end, trillions of people live under my mother's reign, and you've met very few of them. The Heartrippers aren't exactly the Cult putting its best foot forward. But it isn't like the other factions don't have less savory sub branches. The Orphans come to mind."


My grandfather scowled. "The Orphans aren't indicative of the way the Church works. Absolute doesn't listen to anyone except the Lord. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring them up in front of the kids."


She sighed, nodding apologetically. "You're right, I'm sorry. That was petty. We've had this argument so many times my part of it has become routine. Forgive me?" She put a hand on his arm and they smiled at each other, and I got a glimpse of what kind of love motivates you to blow up a planet and pretend to have killed the daughter of a god.


"Anyway," said my grandmother after a moment of awkward silence. "Not everyone in the Cult is a psychopath. Nameless and Deathwish are both…problematic. But Silence is a thoughtful and kindhearted person, and Dread has a wonderful sense of humor. I hope now that my mother has finished her tantrum you all might be able to meet some of the people I grew up with. It's always better to have friends than enemies, I say."


I wasn't so sure, but I wasn't ruling it out. She was right that there were trillions of people in the Cult, and that not all of them could be bad. Plus, my dad's family were about as shady as it got, and I got along with some of them. Black Sorrow herself wasn't going to be on my birthday card list anytime soon, but I wasn't against meeting some of the popes in a controlled environment. I wouldn't be recruiting any Cultist A-rankers for this competition though. There was a long way to go before I'd trust any of them.


It also highlighted a difference in worldview that I'd long since noticed in high level Ascendants, and one I'd even been finding myself being sucked into. To Ascendants, life was a story. Things happened, some bad, some good, and almost all dramatic. But if you wanted to get ahead, you couldn't take it all personally. Stories were best left in the past. When everything everyone did was dramatic and important, holding grudges over minor (from their point of view) incidents just took up too much time.


My dad binding Zeke, Black Sorrow all but conscripting me into a possible suicide mission. Both of those things, to a mortal, would be unforgivable. But it was hard for me, even now, to hold it against her too much given how things turned out. It was just one more way my mortality was slipping away, and that my personality was changing as I became less and less human.


Oddly though, I didn't mind. As a tradeoff for all the amazing things I could do, a little sensitivity seemed like a pretty minimal price to pay.


We ate dinner as it was brought out, a four course meal made by my grandmothers chefs, and my wife insisted that my cooking was better, despite literally everyone knowing she was lying. I squeezed her hand and sent a pulse of affection through the bond, and she beamed at me.


Benny regaled me with the experiments he'd been doing, working on both his Path and his Inventing, even trying to manifest effects from his items into his Path of the Dracolich to upscale the effects. He'd envisioned the Path as a sort of combination of Inventing and techniques that I was interested to see come to fruition. Chelsea told me about her training with both abilities, Bethy raved about spending time with my grandmother, and Cark and Cassidy filled me in on the places they'd stayed during the training.


All in all, it was a wonderful dinner and a great chance to catch up with everyone. Sadly, all too soon it was over, and we were informed that we would be meeting with Tasha and the council the next day to attend the ceremony that would mark the beginning of the tree search. With that deadline hanging over our heads, we bid everybody goodnight and headed to bed. It was going to be a big day.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day I made my scrolls, bringing my total to sixty four, then took a long shower and got dressed and ready for the opening ceremony. After so long on Rackham I'd gotten used to taking my time doing things, but I knew that with the succession war only ten months away I needed to buckle down and get my recruitment going.


While I had most of the A-rankers I needed, finding ten B-rankers to serve among my forces, not to mention as many C and D-rankers as possible, was still quite a challenge. This ceremony was a chance to show off my strength in front of a bunch of D-rankers, as well as possibly get a B-rank Dryad for my growing faction, which as I'd learned from Alyssa could be a huge benefit given their skillsets.


It was also my chance to see some of them at work. So when we entered the main hall of the Divine Tree Temple, it was with the solemn gravity befitting the occasion.


"Hey, do you think when Dryads eat vegetables its technically cannibalism?" asked Bethy in a loud voice as we all looked around massive amphitheater. My head slumped in defeat as my wife stifled her laughter. Bethy, unfettered, expanded on her thought. "Or, I guess fruit, since most veggies don't grow on trees. But I wonder if any Dryad is ever sitting at lunch with a friend who ate an apple and is like 'Grandma NO!'."


Alyssa, who was escorting us, smiled indulgently at the admittedly interesting question. "Fruit bearing trees aren't killed when they're harvested, Bethy. Nature's bounty is a gift from the earth for all of us to enjoy. If a Dryad were to grow fruit and it were to be left uneaten, it would simply rot and fade away, and that would be a waste of all of the efforts of our fruit bearing cousins. We welcome the bounty of all fruit trees." She paused. "Except lemons. Lemons are a trash fruit." At our uncomfortable looks she winked at us. "Sorry, little tree humor."


The rest of us chuckled, able to appreciate a little ribbing, and Jessie looked smug that her new friend (who was very pretty and very much her type, I noticed) was finally warming up to us. "Good to know," I responded, cutting off our vampire before she could take us further off topic. "Can you tell us a bit more about the ceremony? How does it work? And is this particular temple the main site for deployment?"


"It is," she nodded cheerfully. "It was decided long ago that using a central point was the fairest starting point for those undergoing the ceremony. This mother tree is, in fact, the most central point in the entire western hemisphere."


"What about the eastern hemisphere?" I asked curiously.


She just shrugged. "We don't go over there. It's full of lemurs. Don't let what you know of the more mundane version fool you, Verdenloft Lemurs are vicious, terrifying creatures. Their speed and ferocity is only equaled by their incredibly soft and shiny coats."


At her words I noticed a familiar gleam in the eyes of my vampire teammate. "No," I told her bluntly.


"What?" she said with feigned innocence. "I was just going to-"


"No," I repeated. "You don't need to finish that sentence. The answer is no. I can't imagine what you would do with a primate that other people describe as 'vicious and terrifying' that would possibly be a good thing."


She stomped her foot indignantly, causing the wooden floor to groan a bit in a worrying fashion. "That's so mean! I'm the best pet owner. Luggage, Donuts, and Poptarts are healthy well adjusted members of society now. They were so rude when I met them and now they're the sweetest!"


"Again, you've traumatized all three of them," I pointed out gently. "And they aren't your only animals. In fact, there are a lot of them missing. Where are your squirrels, Bethy?"


She paused, looking a little perplexed. "My…huh? I…kind of forgot about them to be honest. I haven't seen them in ages. They're probably fine though. I'm sure they're just flying around my Domain having adventures."


"Your Domain is like a mile across tops." I pointed out. "And as you mentioned, you have a pair of big cats and a hellhound living inside. No lemurs Bethy. End of story."


She pouted, but I think I might have actually convinced her, so I turned back to Alyssa. "Sorry about that. You were telling us how the ceremony works?" I was quickly getting used to refocusing conversations with Bethy around. It was more art than science, and I'd just needed to get back in the groove.


The Dryad brightened. "Oh! Yes. Like I said, the Primordial Tree Sea guides us to our destination. But only in a very broad sense. We get a basic heading and a rough distance approximation and then we all set off. Once we reach the spot we were shown, we have to go looking for the tree that completes us. The variety of tree has a big impact on what kind of abilities you develop as you evolve, though the previous ability, which becomes a Skill, plays a large role as well."


"Why do Dryads wait until D-rank to lifebond a tree?" I asked. "You would think they'd grow faster if they bonded earlier in their journey."


"It's the Path," she said with a smile. "Most trees here are D-rank themselves. You can't enter D-rank without a Path, and trying to bond with a Path bearing tree when you're still below the watershed and Pathless yourself is incredibly dangerous."


I probably should have assumed that. Most of the blocks in the Ascendant ladder were Path based, I found. Of course, that might be bias because I was a wishmaster candidate who could trade for points whenever I wanted, but still, it wasn't a shock. I wanted to ask more about the process, but we quickly arrived at the lowest levels of the amphitheater, taking seats at the base of a large flight of stadium style seats grown from the wooden floor. Tree Singing, no doubt, and a seamless example of craftsmanship.


Up at the front of the room, Tasha stood with a bunch of other Dryads, male and female, around what looked like a pedestal made from a giant bud. It was an incredibly odd thing to see, just this strange green stalk with a bulge at the top, so much bigger than any bud should be that it wasn't even recognizable.


On the bud there was a single golden leaf symbol, a rune of a sort, glowing away, the shimmering golden energy pulsing in time to some invisible heartbeat none of us could hear. "Welcome," called Tasha, her voice carrying effortlessly through the amphitheater without needing to shout. The acoustics in this dome shaped wood room were shockingly good. "Friends, initiates, and guests. Today is a solemn occasion. Today we send our young ones out into this world to find their place.


"As you all know, the Tree Striding Tour is when our most promising seedlings spread their roots, and after their ordeal, return to us full fledged Dryads of the Divine Tree Temple," she paused, looking around with a smirk. "You might say it's their chance to…turn over a new leaf."


Alyssa buried her face in her hands, groaning at the bad pun as the older Dryads chuckled good naturedly and the younger ones forced a laugh. Jessie just patted her friend on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile while Bethy burst into giggles. I was kind of glad Serah wasn't here, the pun loving angel would have gotten so many ideas from that.


Despite the reaction, Tasha just looked smug, and I saw my grandfather shaking his head in amused exasperation. "While we wait for the younger generation to…branch out, we'll observe the rituals of bounty to ensure a plentiful harvest for the feast we will host upon their return. All fruit bearing Dryads will be given life sap priority, and non fruiting treekin will be expected to help them pick and transport their wares. You all know how this goes."


I didn't, obviously, and Alyssa noticed my confusion. "Life sap is the sap from the mother tree. It's incredibly dense with Vitality. It can speed up the fruiting cycle of Dryad trees or increase the growth speed of more combat oriented plants. During wartime life sap priority is given to trees with strong woods and combat applications, so the Tree Dancers can maximize their collaboration with the Tree Singers for the greatest effect. In peace times though, fruiting trees are often given priority on feast days. Jessie's abilities have a lot of similarity to life sap, and it's one of the reasons she's had such a warm welcome here."


Jessie beamed proudly. One of the big upsides to her new racial trait was that the cap on Lifeweaving was gone. She could rank it up to Grandmaster or even Legendary, though with all her previous experience with the ability being innate, I imagined it would take her quite a bit of research and study to figure out how to advance it.


I let that interesting concept fall to the wayside though, as Tasha continued speaking, calling our attention back up. "Now, as the first step of this hallowed ceremony, I invite the eldest of the initiates up to consult the Tree Sea's knowledge bud. Daysia, please come up to see your destiny."


A Dryad with light green skin and daisy woven hair emerged from one of the higher benches and and made her way down to the bud. She walked with poise and elegance, a long skirt of woven willow branches trailing the ground…until she stepped on one of the branches and tripped. She caught herself quickly, but her face flushed emerald at the light chuckles from the audience and she hurried the rest of the way.


Once she reached the bud, she curtsied to Tasha, then knelt and leaned forward to whisper to the plant. The golden leaf rune flashed, and in the reflection of her face showing on one of the chairs, I saw an identical mark blaze to life on her forehead, her eyes filling with golden energy as she channeled the plant.


When she was done, she stood and turned, and the rune remained on her forehead as she strode out of the room. Alyssa leaned down. "The initiates always take up along the perimeter of the platform facing the proper direction to wait for the ceremony to begin. Once everyone is done the symbols will flash and notify the participants. They remain on the forehead until you reach the correct general area. After that it's all up to luck. Or fate if you prefer."


Tasha continued, calling the next Dryad, a male named Sardin, and then continuing in apparent age order until she reached Alyssa. Our guide rose excitedly, slipping past the group to bolt to the stage like she'd just won a prize. The general mood of those going up seemed hopeful and excited, and I was pretty curious to see how I would fit into this. I needed to find my staff wood, but would I commune with the bud? I mean, I could, but how did they know that? Was there some other way they could bridge the gap for people without my gifts?


Alyssa knelt immediately to commune with the bud, and it took barely any time for the symbol to appear. From what I could tell the more talented a person the faster it showed up, anywhere from a minute to a second. Alyssa's was a respectable five seconds, not the most talented in the group but not bad at all.


Once she finished, Tasha called a few more, then turned to me. "And for the end of our ritual, a new event. A guest has come from far way in search of a branch from one of our trees, to replace a treasured companion on his journey, a wooden staff who sacrificed itself to save his life. I invite Solomon, candidate of the Wish Curse Palace, and grandson of my dear friend, Nicholas Anders, the Radiant Pope, to come up to address the Primordial Tree Bud." Well, no pressure or anything.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The difference in atmosphere during my communion and the others was pretty stark. When they went up there was lots of laughing and muttering, good natured teasing for people these Drayds had known for years. When I was announced though, everything went dead quiet, and the whole vibe became much heavier.


I ignored it. I'd spend the last quarter of a year being tortured in increasingly inventive and complicated ways. Being up here in front of a bunch of people I actually knew might be nerve wracking, but these complete strangers opinions were irrelevant to me.


As I approached, Tasha smiled warmly at me, bowing her head. "Solomon, welcome. Your grandfather told me you might have a way to commune directly? If you'd like me to link your mind to the bud I can do that as well. Whatever makes you more comfortable." Her eyes were kind and her smile was warm, and I was pretty grateful she was obviously doing her best to make me feel comfortable in such a tense situation.


"I'm fine, thanks," I told her with a nod. "I could use a little elbow room though." I didn't like the idea of being mentally compromised with someone I didn't know standing so close, even someone I had objectively no chance of defending myself against if she decided to hurt me.


She stepped back, not at all offended by the request, and I turned to look at the bud. I considered how I wanted to do this. Dantalion would be the surest way to connect…but it would also be way more information than I needed. I already had a Skill for connecting to plants, and I didn't need to make a mountain out of a molehill. Kneeling down, I set my eyes level with the bud, then triggered Rhythm of the Wild.


I'd used the Skill before. It was interesting, but not overwhelmingly useful. I could sense and somewhat evaluate plantlife in a specific area nearby. It was supposed to be good for finding high end herbs when I was out on my own, but it hadn't really come in handy until I made Dantalion.


Unlike in Doom Sovereign, there were NOT ancient powerful herbs just lying around every ten feet, even on high ranking planets. For instance, on a B-rank planet, there were a lot of C and D-rank plants. Almost all of the plants were that powerful, actually, just natively by being part of such a strong world. That said, D-ranked grass is still just grass, same with most flowers and trees. The process of ranking up via Impact exposure by being part of a high level ecosystem was NOT the same as a plant actually cultivating by gaining renown. D-rank grass was just grass, albeit harder to cut.


All of this was to say that Rhythm of the Wild normally gave me a vague sense of where plants were and what they were. In this case though, the second my Perception touched the plant I got…well the best word was probably kidnapped.


A tendril of attention had been gingerly extended to touch the bud, like dipping a finger in a hot drink to check the temperature, except in this case a big ass arm had burst out of the cup, wrapped its giant hand around my bicep, and yanked my whole body INTO the cup like a snake swallowing a mouse.


The sensation of falling was worrying, but it didn't seem threatening, so I just waited, plummeting into darkness before finally landing on what appeared to be the face of an enormous daisy.


Shooting to my feet, I looked around, trying to find…anything. And find something I did. Or rather, someone. Namely, an extremely tall (even to me) green skinned woman with antlers made of what appeared to be polished wood. She had emerald eyes with no sclera and wooden teeth that were shown extensively by dark green lips that had been pulled into a smile.


"Well now," she said in a warm voice that reminded me a campfire on a cold night camping. "Isn't THIS a surprise."


I blinked at her. "I mean. Yes. I can say with complete confidence that I did NOT expect to be yanked out of my body and into some kind of spiritual plane to meet a giant tree person with antlers."


She rolled her eyes. "I meant for me, child. What an interesting Skill. Quite a bit of overlap with my own Domain. I don't meet with many outsiders, at least not without one of my children facilitating the connection. Well then, I find myself intrigued by your purpose for coming here. You don't seem to be capable of lifebonding a tree. What are you searching for? I admit, I you meat people are always so frantic, I tend to ignore when you talk amongst yourselves."


"Ah," I said after a moment of surprise. "I guess that makes sense. I'm here for…wood, I guess?"


Snorting, she raised an eyebrow. "I daresay you needn't commune with me for that. I'm a protective mother, but not quite so temperamental as to object to you taking a single branch from the millions of trees covering the surface of this planet. Was there some kind of special wood you seek?"


I thought about. And…maybe. Maybe I was searching for something. Not even wood, just…something. The weight of my old staff had increased in my mind, after it's sacrifice. And the necessity of finding a proper replacement pressed heavily on my thoughts. My journey as I went forward would depend on this weapon. I needed something strong enough. Something RIGHT for me.


So I told her that. I told her about my staff, and how it had saved me, and how I worried that my next one might not be enough. I considered my options, getting something C-rank to keep up, having a weapon designed for me and imbued with my Skills or power.


But it all felt so…insufficient. I wanted something more. A real partner who could accompany me to godhood. A weapon that could someday become one of my objects of power. I knew it was possible. I'd seen Callie's bracelet, an S-rank item. I knew you could suppress a material to make it usable by those of lower rank. Hell, they did it with ships all the time.


I also knew this S-rank being wasn't going to give me an S-rank length of wood just because I asked. So I'd need something suitable. Something that could grow to be what I needed. Trees could grow, that was a thing, so it made sense to ask for something like that.


And she listened. The Primordial Tree Sea (at least I assumed) sat and let me talk, venting about all my concerns, and when I finished, she nodded.


"I see," she mused. "I understand your wishes. There are a great many trees connected to me, and some, I suspect, would even suit your purposes, to some extent or another. In fact, I can think of a dozen which would be overwhelmingly powerful companions for you on your journey…for a time. But you don't just want power. You want potential."


"Will you help me?" I asked her anxiously. "I know you don't owe me anything. You don't even know me. I mean, you don't answer to the Dryads either. At the end of the day there's no real reason for you to go out of your way."


She laughed, a tinkling, cheery sound like wind through frozen leaves. "Had you asked for anything else, I may have refused. But your request appeals to me. As a mother, what I wish most is to see my children grow. Seeing one of them accompany a young prodigy all the way to godhood? Well, what parent wouldn't wish such a success for their offspring? Of course, your ability to accomplish such a task remains suspect, But chopping down a sapling in case it doesn't sprout hardly makes any sense, now does it?"


I could kind of see her point. "Alright, so you said there's one you think would have better potential? As opposed to being overtly strong right now?"


"There is," she nodded genially. "But I think perhaps I'll see if you're suitable." Her green eyes flashed gold and I felt something burning on my forehead. "There," she beamed. "This mark will lead you to an area where such a tree might be find. But in that same wood there are other trees that might be more immediately useful. I shan't tell you which is which. Let's leave it to fate. Shall we?"


I opened my mouth to respond, and suddenly the world kind of…shifted. I was flung up out of the space I found myself in like a rocket, or maybe someone at the end of a bungie chord. I exploded up through the dark and then back into my body, returning to my fleshy form so suddenly I fell over backwards from the impact.


Inside my head, I could feel information sort of blooming. Like my brain was cracked cement and the knowledge of what I needed to do was growing through the breaks, pushing my mind wider to expose the inner depths.


I was starting to get a little lost in the sensation, but to my surprise, a trilling cry echoed through my brain, and my mind sort of cleared instantly. I felt a sense of smugness and had to fight back a laugh as I glanced across the room to where Bell was sitting with Archie on her shoulder, feeding him some kind of seeds.


"Careful there," Tasha laughed as she stepped forward to offer me a hand up. "It can be a bit disorienting. While we aren't bonded before the ceremony, most Dryads have at least temporarily connected to the Trea Sea through various trees around the Temple. I should have warned you it can be overwhelming."


I shook my head, both to refute her statement and to clear it. "It's fine. I think she was just being friendly."


She stilled, eyes snapping to my face. "You…spoke to her? Personally? Did you SEE her?"


"Didn't everyone?" I asked in confusion. "You said they communed with the Primordial Tree Sea. Isn't that what you meant?"


"Most of our children receive verbal or even emotional communiques," she said with an odd expression. "That's…interesting. Maybe Nicholas was right. You might be someone to watch after all." Her clouded face cleared, her warm smile returning. "Apologies, simply a bit lost in thought. Please, take your position on the platform. Since you're not competing, you might consider teaming up with whichever Dryad you happen to be closest to. There are no rules against teams, even if it usually doesn't work out that way."


Her tone was exasperated but fond, and it was clear she wished the younger Dryads could be team players in this particular competition. I nodded absently, thinking about my meeting with the Tree Sea, and turned to head up out of the room. As I passed, Archie spread his wings and swept across the room to perch on the shoulder of my armor.


I didn't send him away. Like she said, teamwork makes the dream work. Plus, I wasn't even really part of this competition. I had a feeling whatever I had been supposed to show off, I'd accomplished that already. That said, I wasn't stupid enough to think this was anywhere close to over. She'd mentioned a test, and I had the feeling it wasn't going to be multiple choice.


Still, I took up my position at the edge of the platform, waiting for the competition to start before taking off. Daysia, with the daisy hair, was actually right next to me facing the same way. SHe smiled at me when she noticed me looking and I nodded, approaching and offering a hand. "Hi there, Solomon. You looking for a partner in this whole thing?" Hopefully, she could help me narrow down exactly what tree I needed. I had a feeling that I would need all the help I could get for a test set by an S-ranker.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Daysia, it turned out, WAS looking for a partner. Despite seeming incredibly shy and anxious, the daisy haired Dryad was extremely enthusiastic about working together. "I'm so happy not to have to do this alone," she gushed. "I've never been very speed oriented. I'm a Tree Singer, and Dancers tend to be the ones who create speed techniques. Do you have some kind of transport we could use?"


Shuttles, I was told, weren't allowed, but mounts were considered fair game. I didn't have a mount, but I DID have a bird. "I'll have Archie carry you," I said, jerking my thumb at my phoenix. "Just hold onto his legs once they call for it to start. Now, since that's out of the way, do you know anything about where we're headed? That direction…I want to say like five hundred miles?" It was tough to estimate based on the sensation of distance, but anything she could tell me about the general area was going to be useful.


"Of course!" she said enthusiastically. "I think we're supposed to be going to the Gloamwood. It's the territory of the Dark Moon Weasel King. He's at the C-rank. The Dark Moon Weasels are the sworn enemies of the Verdenloft Lemurs, and the Gloamwood is right on the edge of Lemur territory."


That sounded…less threatening than it probably should. A C-ranked beast would be very dangerous, but I found it hard to imagine a weasel being threatening. Then again, Melinda from the Beast Lord Garden had a weasel companion, and he'd been some sort of Moon Weasel if I remembered right.


Best case scenario I could avoid him completely. I made a mental note to lean hard into Bael when I entered. In fact, I'd been working on a possible pseudo domain that might help in this situation, one that would be frighteningly effective in a place called Gloamwood.


Sadly, I didn't get a chance to bring this up, because only a moment later, a voice rang out across the platform of the Mother Tree. "The ceremony…BEGINS!"


Tasha's voice boomed over us so fiercely the leaves in the canopy above us shook, and everyone sprang into action. All around the perimeter, I could see the vague forms of Drayds plummeting into the Tree Sea below. Some jumped, some created wooden gliders, some swung down on vines somehow, and some seemed to drift and dance in the air like dandelion leaves. But none of them could fly.


I sprinted forward at top speed, leapt off the platform, and spread my wings wide as I reached for an old friend I hadn't used consciously in a very long time. State of Grace.


What had once been a relatively useful trick, when given literal wings, turned into a massive qualitative boost in capability. In a State of Grace, my movement speed and versatility in the air was magnified multiple times over, giving me an effortless sense of control and freedom as I soared out over the trees miles below me.


Archie trilled in exultation, winging forth from the platform with a shrieking Daysia clinging to his legs like she was using a feather hang glider.


I cackled joyfully, exulting in the freedom and excitement of flying miles above the ground with perfect control of my movements, spinning and dipping and flying in loops. Archie chirped in annoyance as he passed me, and I smirked before reaching into myself and triggering my waltz.


The new and improved Mephisto's Waltz didn't require a form to utilize, and offered so much more freedom and ease of movement. I flapped my wings, vanishing in a burst of dark flame, and Archie screeched a challenge before doing the same in a blaze of green.


Daysia shrieked, but the sound was carried away on the wind as my companion and I REALLY let loose, wings beating the air like the blades of a propeller as we flashed across the countryside, our speed pushed to the limits of what a D-ranker was capable of. This was where the waltz could really shine, up in the sky on the wing, with nothing in the way and the only limitation being my own energy.


Miles were eaten up under our travel, smaller forests making themselves clear as we moved from region to region of the Primordial Tree Sea. Eventually, we came to one where the leaves were dark purple and the bark was black. The air above it was cold and bit at my skin and dark clouds gathered atop the canopy.


As we approached, I swept down, spreading my wings as I approached an open clearing where my leaf symbol had been drawing me. My wings billowed, catching the wind completely and pulling back on my rapidly descending body like a parachute, with State of Grace allowing me to slow even further and land gracefully at a steady walk.


Archie, appearing next to me with a cry of outrage at me beating him here, unceremoniously dropped Daysia as he braked, letting the poor Dryad hit the ground in a bruising roll and bounce painfully across the clearing, landing on her back about halfway across.


"Daysia?" I asked her as I approached. "You good?"


She just laid there, staring up at the sky and twitching. "I can hear the sunlight," she croaked out quietly. "I can taste the north winds as they blow seeds from the deepest jungles."


I frowned, then leaned over her and rolled my eyes. "Oh damn it, you're a plant person." I turned to my phoenix. "How many doses of life fire did she get during that race. You didn't wonder if letting it just explode out like that would be good for her or not? Come on, that's just sloppy!" He cawed back cattily. "Obviously you should care! She looks like she's about to have a seizure!"


He just sniffed and flew away to perch on a nearby branch, looking away from me in the snittiest way possible. I rolled my eyes again. Sore loser. Kneeling down, I poke her shoulder. "Daysia? You in there?"


"I'm a part of the great tapestry of growing life," she rasped.


"Hm," I muttered. "One second, I've got something for this." I let Sammael drop, my wings vanishing, and then triggered Belial. I didn't want to use too strong a version of it, since Belial was especially effective against things like plants, and Sammael would massively amplify that. I put a hand on her forehead, then let the toxic flame seep into her skin.


She sat bolt upright. "OW!" she yelped, her hands flying to her head. I hadn't used much, and the overwhelming life energy in her system took care of it, but it was enough to shock her awake. "That hurt!" she whined, rubbing her head. "Also thank you. That felt…weird."


"I'm guessing your plant body was able to absorb way more of that stuff than it should've," I noted. "For baseline humans it usually just tops up and stops. I'll have to let Jessie know to be careful of that too. Sorry about the poison. You ok?"


She shook her head, but not to indicate a denial, more to clear it. "I'm fine," she said after a minute. "It just sucked."


"Blame the feather duster," I said, gesturing to where Archie was peacocking on a branch. "He really should be a little more restrained with that technique." I smirked up at the seething bird. "He can't keep up with me anymore, since I refined the waltz."


Realistically, his variation of that move was stronger than mine. Life Nova had an advantage in that kind of bursting explosive movement. Destroying space between two points was doable but extremely taxing, but after refining my waltz in the library, I'd reached a whole new level of precision and speed. Archie, naturally, was annoyed.


She smiled a little, and when I cocked my head she explained. "Sorry, it's just nice to see how close you are with your companion. I hope my companion and I are as close as you two."


"Wait, I thought most D-rank trees weren't like…cognizant," I said slowly.


"Dryad trees are a little different," she said with a chuckle. "Once you lifebond a tree their soul advances as it mixes with yours. Plants tend to advance on rank up, meaning their souls are pretty stunted for their level. So…how are we supposed to search this place? The weasels will surely notice us enter, and the Dark Wood Weasel King is far beyond our ability to fight."


Depending on its stat allocation, I might be able to fight it, actually, but I wouldn't be able to kill it. And thinking about it, I might not even manage to keep up enough to hold it off. The amount of effort I put in to kill off that dark priest would be nothing compared to how difficult it would be to kill a proper C-ranked beast, and one that had presumably been at that level for a long time. Beasts usually had enormous Might and Vitality, and there was no way even the limit of D-rank would be enough.


Luckily, I had my own ideas on how to do this. "Archie," I called my companion. "Enough sulking, time to get to work."


Hearing the seriousness in my voice, his head snapped up, fierce eyes locking on me. At a gesture, he swooped down to land on Daysia's shoulder. He would be acting as an outlet for this domain so I could channel it into her without needing to huddle right next to her. That would keep my staff free for combat as well as providing personal space I was sure we would both appreciate.


With that done, I closed my eyes and entered the library. Waving a hand, I conjured a blank book. This was the first domain I was going to be making in here, and the first technique I'd be creating from scratch with Pride as a base. I was kind of excited, but I was confident I could skip a lot of prep work by using the library, and that the resulting domain would be even better than my others.


The first thing I did, obviously, was write in the information about the forms I'd be using. Bael and Dantalion respectively. Bael was a stealth form that gave me a huge boost to Perception, and Dantalion was another heavily Perception based form with Focus playing a crucial role. Ideally, Dantalion's amazing information gathering capabilities would allow me more deeply parse and eliminate traces of myself, leading to exponentially more effective stealth, even for that amplified effectiveness.


I wrote them both into the book, identifying the exact volumes for the forms, the roles they played, and then started to get into the story of the domain. Domains were just advanced Paths, which were effectively techniques. Forms were basically halfway points between techniques and Paths, and the pseudo domain was a halfway point between a Path and Domain. Since they all came from the same place, I could use the library to build my pseudo Domains just as easily as a form or technique, and even easier than a Skill.


While my ancestor's "Great Book Heavenly Library" was Skill focused, my own library focused more on techniques, prioritizing story over stats. This limited me in terms of Skill creation and adjustment, but gave me a massive advantage in terms of anything Path or domain related.


So that was what I did. I focused on telling a story. About how Bael and Dantalion descended into the depths of hell to the city of Murmur, the demon lord of secrets who served as a Duke under Bael, and with their powers of invisibility and information gathering, they gifted him the ability to move undetected even under the nose of the greatest princes of hell.


With my Focus and Perception, it only took me about ten minutes to finish writing the story, scribed in stats to empower this domain. When I finished, I slammed the book shut, sliding it onto the shelf in an open spot, and then emerged from my mind.


Daysia looked confused, but I just grinned and reached for my most recent triumph. I had Callie prepare with a few piece of mind parallels just in case the infodump was too much, and then I said the words aloud for the first time. "Fifth circle of hell. Murmur." And all trace of us disappeared from the forest.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was prepared for the deluge of information that hit me when I activated Murmur.. With Callie as a backup just in case, especially using Piece of Mind, I was more than up to the challenge of handling the avalanche of stimuli.


One of the adjustments I'd made when creating this particular pseudo Domain was making it an ACTUAL domain, as in, an area under my control directly. By compressing Dantalion's influence to a smaller area, I'd been able to achieve a deeper level of control and inspection with which to utilize Bael.


Around us, for about a hundred feet, my Perception was packed (tripled as it was by Bael) into a dome about a hundred feet across. Within that dome, all the traces of our passage, be they sight, sound, or even the ineffable traces of the fate sense, were within my control, being erased flawlessly as we walked. Even inside, I could see traces of the process, with the entire world becoming a dull grey as my neutralization of our visible selves scrubbed the color from the air as a side effect.


"Wow," said Daysia in amazement. "This is so cool! You're saying this is keeping us from being spotted as we enter the Gloamwood?"


I nodded distractedly. "Yes, but I'll need you to keep an eye out for compatible trees. My Perception is all packed into this dome, so unless we literally trip over one I won't be able to tell what works for either of us." That was the one downside to this domain. It made Dantalion functionally useless for other things while I was running it. I'd planned to use Rhythm of the Wild to scan each tree to find the most suitable, but with Murmur going, I'd have to rely on Daysia until we got close.


Archie, perched on her shoulder, trilled sarcastically, and I glared at him. "I'm not stupid, you glorified feather duster. I'm BUSY. Some of us are useful for things outside of just healing small cuts and screeching at people."


Daysia giggled at our back and forth. "You two make fun of each other, but I can tell how much you rely on one another."


I shrugged. "Oh, Archie is the best, he's just got a huge ego. I think it's a bird thing. Have to let some of the air out of his giant head or he'll be unbearable." I lowered my voice in a stage whisper. "Don't tell him, but his healing is actually almost useful."


The chirping this time sounded more like laughter than anything else, and I felt a warmth through our bond.


My smile, though, died in the next second as we stepped across an invisible barrier and the entire vibe of the forest changed. I came to a halt, looking around sharply. I felt…watched. Had something broken through my stealth? It didn't feel like that though. More like the entire area around us was under observation. We'd stepped into a surveilled space, but hadn't been noticed yet.


Daysia's face become solemn. "This…I think we're in the heart of the Gloamwood. Well, heart is misleading. This area is the Dark Moon Weasel King's personal territory, but it isn't a circular area in the center, more like a strip of land that bisects the forest. We must have entered the heart directly from the edge of the wood. I'll begin my search here."


Her eyes, which had been pale gold with no iris up to this point, flashed a darker bronze color. I felt a pulse of power run through my domain, and I had to scramble to erase the traces of it as it left the hundred foot circle.


I was only nominally successful. I was sure that whatever was watching this wood could see that energy, but not the origin of it. If we were lucky and they weren't watching too carefully they might miss the signs, but even if they were right here with us, I was confident Murmur had stopped it from being too obvious where we were.


Daysia hummed. "I don't think any of these are what you're looking for, and I know they aren't what I need. Gloamwood has a lot of dark aligned trees, but it's also right along the Vardenswift River. Combined with a relatively high elevation, there are a great many moon and water aligned trees as well. The overlapping of these various forces can create strange and useful mutations as well. Seeds are how a tree grows, but the various planted trees, over a long enough time, can also cross pollinate and create unique hybrids depending on the environment."


That was…interesting. And confusing. I wasn't sure what tree the Primordial Tree Spirit had sent me after, but I was sure it was something unique. I just didn't know how the moon, darkness, or water would fit into that. Was I going to be getting a staff that amplified Sammael's dark energy? That might be useful, and it certainly fit with my foundation requirement, but it didn't seem…right.


Then again, who knew what kind of weird conceptual bullshit you would get mixing all those environmental factors. Considering what I'd achieved with a video game Skill, I wouldn't be at all surprised that one of these trees had mutated into some kind of time freezing tree or something.


Even the thought was enough to make me laugh. Since when had my luck been THAT good? More likely it was some kind of dark based empowerment for my base form like I'd considered. Regardless, I decided to stop wondering, if only to prevent myself from getting my hopes up only to have them crash and burn.


Daysia, meanwhile, was filling me in on the trees basic characteristics. The wave of power had been some sort of base level tree speaking that Tree Singers could do universally. It reminded me a bit of Rhythm of the Wild, but it only worked on trees instead of all plants. Since these trees weren't awakened, it could only tell her basic information, but that was enough for our purposes.


We made good time, traveling along the line of the heart of the Gloamwood, scanning trees, and checking to see which ones would be most suitable. Nothing went wrong for about an hour, my domain keeping us safe through multiple weasel tribes as we passed through the territories of powerful D-rank beasts we spotted racing across the treetops. About a hundred miles into the heart though, we were suddenly assaulted by a massive pressure and the ground beneath our feet started to shake. I manifested Mornax, taking up a defensive stance as I scanned the area trying to figure out what was happening.


Daysia, cursed, the normally upbeat girl clearly disturbed as she stared up at the trees, pointing out a pair of speeding forms. "It's the Weasel King!"


I glanced up sharply, following the line of her finger to lock onto the form of a relatively sleek looking silver and black weasel, perched on a branch with a shining silver crescent blade clenched between its teeth. Across from it, I spotted another form, and it didn't take much to identify him as a C-ranked lemur.


"Heaven Cutting Lemur Lord," Daysia said in an awed voice. "The lemurs must be staging an incursion into weasel territory. Why would they…" her eyes widened. "Is the nine life reincarnation tree flowering? It's supposed to purify the soul to make forming a Chronicle easier. The lemur lord might be trying to break through to B-rank."


One of the reasons that I'd agreed to partner with Daysia was that the girl had spent YEARS studying for this ceremony. She knew all the most powerful notable trees, the various factions, and the environmental characteristics of the various forests. The well known trees were mostly too powerful for young Dryads to lifebond with, but due to cross pollination the areas around them tended to have the most powerful varieties of new and undiscovered trees.


"What is the nine life reincarnation tree?" I asked her, slowly backing away from the fight. Taking on a C-ranker was possible if it was a weak one, taking on TWO C-rankers, at least one of whom was aiming to rank up? I might as well lay my head on a stump and expose my neck for beheading. We needed to GO.


On the upside, this meant the weasel king was distracted, and that meant we had a chance to go deeper into the forest heart. I suspected the existence of the king was the test that the Primordial Tree Spirit had intended for me. With a siege going on (and there WAS a siege, I could hear fights breaking out as lemurs clashed with weasels) this was my best chance to avoid it.


Speaking lemurs…they were terrifying. Firstly, they were primates, which meant they had fucking HANDS, which meant they could use weapons. The Dark Moon Weasel King was damned effective with his mouth blade, but the Heaven Cutting Lemur Lord was using fucking TECHNIQUES. Sword techniques. The small, sleek lemur had snow white fur and black mask like features around its eyes, and it was using its tail to maneuver as both arms wielded a pair of short, straight blades. Sparks flew as the weasel king soared through the air blade clashing against the swords as it tried to cut the lemur lord down.


I was genuinely in awe of the power. Past D-rank beasts would start to develop enough consciousness to be considered sentient, though not all beasts chose to focus on that kind of thing. They could also take human form, but most of them didn't bother, their lifestyles and bloodlines being optimized for the animals they started out as. These two had clearly retained their animal forms but definitely awakened their sentience, because their combat skills were dizzying.


I'd have loved to stay and watch, but ultimately I was here for a reason, and it wasn't to see a couple rodents throw down. I decisively turned my back on them, heading deeper into the heart, though I had Daysia stop her pulses of speech, waiting until the trees entered my domain to inspect them. It was slower, but with a pair of high C-rankers around, the chances of us being noticed was too high.


We passed a few skirmishes, weasel vs lemur, but no other C-rankers appeared, and my domain was more than up to even the closest inspection from a D-ranker. We passed within inches of a few of them, but they never noticed.


After about an hour, we came to a dark based tree that I was sure would be perfect for Sammael. Based on what the Primordial Tree Spirit had said, there were a few here that would be suitable for me in the short term, but that would have less potential in the long run. I was sure this was one of those.


My instincts told me to wait, so I decisively passed it up, and did the same to the next tree I found, which seemed to be some sort of devilized yew tree. It would have been a great synergy with the Ten Demons Tome, but it wasn't what I was looking for.


Finally, we came to the very center of the heart. In the middle of a clearing, surrounded by dead weasels and lemurs, we found the nine life reincarnation tree. It was smaller than I expected. Just a sapling, made of dark grey wood, with some sparse branches of hunter green on top. Perched above them, gleaming in the low light, was a single purple fruit.


It felt…heavy. I knew what it did, based on what Daysia said. It was like the soul rebirth I'd undergone, cleansing deeper trauma to the soul. It was good for more than just forming a Chronicle, those hidden injuries would be a big obstacle for condensing a Saga too.


I didn't need it, but I knew it could be useful to one of my friends. And since I was here for the tree…well, I was planning to take it for myself. Or at least, I would if I could get it. Because before I could even approach the tree, I'd need to beat the calm looking lemur with the pair of curved knives crouched in front of it, somehow staring right at me. D-rank or not, my Danger Sense was going off like a storm siren. This wasn't going to be an easy fight.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The lemur was looking at me. This one was smaller than the king, with copper colored fur and piercing amber eyes. The knives it was resting lightly on the ground were wickedly curved and jagged along the inner hook of the blade, with the outside sharpened to a razor's edge. The most absurd thing, though, was that I was pretty sure this thing could fucking SEE me. Somehow.


"Human," said the lemur in a high pitched, scratchy voice. "I sense your presence. Come out."


I blinked. His eyes seemed fixed on me, but moving slightly from one side to the other, I realized that he was mostly just looking in my general direction. He couldn't see me, he was detecting me some other way, he'd just gotten lucky with his initial eye positioning. Still, being able to detect me at all was impressive, and even more unbelievably-


"Holy shit, it can TALK?" I gasped to Daysia. I immediately felt terrible about the comment, but luckily it didn't seem to be able to hear me. Whatever it was using to detect my presence was very general and didn't include sound or other senses I was scrubbing.


Daysia, despite the danger we were in, giggled at my shock. "Yes, many enlightened beasts can talk. This one must be near the peak of D-rank, though. D-rank is usually a transitionary stage for beasts, between being just very clever animals and having humanoid intelligence. Like your companion, he'll most likely gain the ability to speak once he's progressed further."


"He's also a baby," I conceded. "Archie hatched less than two months ago. Still, I'm going to let him see me. You stay back, I'll keep you under stealth." Making sure Mornax and Sammael were stacked, I allowed myself to become visible, simply stopping my domain from erasing me, one moment to the next. As I did, I split off a parallel, allowing it to access Rhythm of the Wild, attempting to make contact with the Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree.


As I appeared, the lemur tensed, eyes snapping to my face. "Human," he said again. "You come to this place for the fruit? My father has bid me capture it for his glorious ascension. If you plan to interfere, I, the Moment Chopping Lemur Prince, will make sure you never leave this wood alive."


"Kind of an arrogant name," I said mildly. "But good for you, being so confident in yourself. Not that it'll help. Your chances of beating me are slim to none."


While my main brain distracted the lemur, my parallel made contact with the tree, consulting it about becoming my staff. The current Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree was basically just a long stuck with some leaves at the top. It was barely enough wood to make a staff as it was, and I'd most likely end up having to uproot the whole thing to take it with me. Given the Primordial Tree Spirit's attitude, I was sure I'd need the tree's permission, or at the very least, its lack of objection if it wasn't sentient.


Except this tree WAS sentient. Very low level sentience, sure, but I could sense that it had emotions if not actual wisdom. And it was very slow to react to any of my prompting.


I turned my focus back on the lemur. The little beast was looking upset, but also cautious. I think his instincts were good enough to realize I was a danger, but he seemed convinced he was pretty much unbeatable at D-rank. I was less sure.


"Human, don't try my patience. You've interrupted my harvest, but I can still allow you to leave. Remove yourself before I remove your head, I will not ask again." He gestured to the corpses. "The weasels in this place were slain by me for their sin of shedding the blood of my kin. I have no desire to take your life, but I will do so in the pursuit of my mission."


I was annoyed. I didn't have a staff, which was bad. Because my moves were part of a staff art, and could exert about a fifth of their power without a weapon. Granted, that was a lot for most enemies, but this guy wasn't most enemies. I could feel a sense of danger emanating from him. I was sure that THIS was the trial I needed to pass, not the C-rankers.


But I had to admit…I didn't really think I could lose. A random D-rank beast on a B-rank planet? My standards were much higher than they had been before. I might not be able to keep up with peak D-rank geniuses from the five factions, but I didn't think I'd lose here.


"Enough talking," I said as I got into a fighting stance. I wasn't exactly a master of the fist, but I was big and wearing armor, plus my techniques could be used through other mediums without much effort, even if using my forms without a staff would be unwieldy. "I'm taking that fruit." I specifically didn't mention the tree, because I was worried he might threaten the tree itself to get me to leave him the fruit if he knew what I wanted.


I continued my conversation with the plant, but it was taking longer than I had thought, so I'd need to stall the only way I knew how. Violently.


Still, I wasn't planning to actually kill the little guy. He was being pretty considerate, given his orders, and he was kind of adorable in a bloodthirsty way. As long as he didn't attack Daysia, I was confident I wouldn't need to- I stumbled to the side, a knife pommel slamming into my temple from seemingly nowhere.


"What the fuck?" I blurted as I saw him lowering one of the knives. My head was fine, I was heavily armored in Mornax, especially with Sammael's amplification. But the key point was that I hadn't seen how he did that. Inside Murmur, my Perception of events reached an absurd level, but that attack had hit me out of nowhere. Almost like it…


I groaned. "Moment Chopping Lemur," I said flatly. "It isn't a title. It's your species. Moment Chop is your ability."


Between the name and the strange effect, it was the only thing that made sense. The lemur cocked its head. "You realized so quickly? Truly an impressive foe. Sadly, I cannot desist. I must have the fruit, and soon. Your defenses are substantial, but these knives are C-rank treasures, and will pierce through eventually. Give up, for knowledge of my power will not save you."


I cracked my neck, rubbing at my head. He was right, I could feel the Impact from that hit. A C-rank weapon should nominally be able to punch through my defenses, but a weapon's effectiveness somewhat depended on who was using it. His attacks were D-rank, which meant they would have trouble getting through, even if they would eventually manage. Otherwise my defensive form would be counterable just by having a slightly more expensive weapon.


The issue wasn't his weapon though. It was his ability. "Moment Chop," I said contemplatively. "It's time manipulation, isn't it. You're literally cutting through moments, with your attacks landing seconds before you even launch them."


"Indeed," he said with a nod. "So you see, there is no victory for you. Your hard shell is powerful, but it will fall eventually, and you have no hope of preventing my blows. Regardless of your understanding, you are destined to fall here. Retreat, or I will cease using the pommel of my weapons, and you will die here."


I stared at him intensely. "That," I said as I let Murmur drop. "Is one of the most frightening natural abilities I've ever even heard of. And I met a girl whose power was literally good luck, and regularly travel with a vampire. You're absolutely terrifying. I think there's probably not many Ascendants at our level who could possibly counter you." I watched him, letting another domain slide over me, my first domain, and seconds later, my fist smashed out, channeling Extinction Event through my punch.


As Limbo showed me all the possible futures, I picked out the one he was attacking from, and my punch exploded with dark energy as the C-ranked knife skittered off my C-rank armor. The lemur stumbled back in shock, staring at me with wide, confused eyes.


I grinned at him, resetting my stance. "Not many," I repeated. "But some. And unfortunately for you, I'm one of them."


Limbo allowed me to destroy possible futures until I could box my enemies in, and it happened to overlap perfectly with his time based attacking ability. Without my staff I was weakened, but I was pretty sure his ability was Perception based, and despite being peak D-rank, he wasn't overwhelmingly strong.


More than that, I was pretty sure this lemur had never met anything his own rank that could match him. Being able to cut through time WAS stupidly overpowered, and I couldn't imagine anyone before now being able to even react to that ability, much less counter it. The intimidation factor of meeting someone who could break that kind of ability must be huge, and I was betting he was feeling real fear for maybe the first time.


But to his credit, he didn't let that sway him. "You are a powerful warrior," he admitted, raising both blades. "And I can no longer guarantee your safety. I had hoped not to end your life, but your skills are too terrifying. What happens after this, human, is of your own making."


He blurred forward, and I felt a hundred attacks rain down on me, a thousand, all coming from different possible futures. Growling, my fists burst, Extinction Events shattering the torrent of attacks one by one, but I couldn't keep up. His knives pinged off my torso, then my arms, with a few cuts slipping through to hit my neck and face. Then a few more, then finally enough of them landed on one spot that they actually cut through the skin of my neck, a small trickle of blood flowing.


My eyes widened as I was pushed back. I activated Gluttony and Abomination Engine, the attacks feeding me power, my stats growing under the onslaught, but the extra Might just let me destroy a few more of the possible futures, it wasn't enough to really stem the tide.


Moment Chop was overpowered, but even more than a single attack, the deluge of temporal anomalies was more than even I could handle in my current state. At least…without a weapon.


But I wasn't without a weapon anymore. Under the tide of attacks, my parallel finally convinced the Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree that I was showing my worth, that I could really go the the distance, and its consciousness began to wake up, shifting out of whatever dreamlike haze it had been in to really watch me fight.


More than watching, it wanted to join in, was eager to, in fact. The tree, currently C-ranked in its own right, communicated its desire to travel with me, to become my companion.


I couldn't forge it or enchant it or whatever the process was, but I could wield it. I triggered Double Trouble, the lemurs attacks landing on my illusion as I appeared behind him, vanishing in a burst of black flame, my hand closing around the trunk of the sticklike tree.


With a single pull, the tree relinquished its hold on the ground, roots letting it go as the leaves, branches, and bark simply…fell off. I was confused about the mechanism for a second, but in the background I heard Daysia raising her voice in song, and realized she'd used her Tree Singing Skill to help the tree shed its trappings.


I could sense power and potential in the wood, unique and perfect for my purposes, but now wasn't the time to explore it. For now I didn't need potential, I just needed a partner, and as I spun, staff whirling, and swept away a torrent of temporal attacks, driving the lemur prince back, I knew I'd found one. My search was over. Now it was time to show my enemy what I could really do.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The difference between using my Goetia forms with and without a staff was stark. The smoothness of my motions, the speed, the explosive power. They were all incomparable to what I could manage with my fists, and that became obvious to the lemur as soon as the staff smacked into my palm.


The swords, being metal, bit into the untreated wood of the staff, but to my shock it healed even as they pulled away. Being a tree the Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree was extremely high in VItality, and apparently was somehow still ALIVE without a root system.


My staff flashed a dozen times, and I could still hear the sound of music in the background as Daysia Sang to my tree. Even as I moved, the tree adjusted itself in my grip, shifting to fit my hands better with every swing. I could feel the connection between us, though it was still low level. The staff was connecting to me through my Goetia Staff Art, and it was eager for battle.


To my amusement, the lemur's face was spread into a wide grin. While he wasn't completing his mission (Daysia had snagged the fruit and stowed it away as I moved us clear of it), he was apparently having fun, which was nice to see.


Realistically, I didn't have THAT much more of a claim to the fruit or tree than the lemur, from the point of view of the animals in this forest. Granted, I was pretty comfortable with my course of action, given the permission from both the spirit being that made up this planet and the actual tree itself, but from their point of view, I was probably just another thief.


But the little guy clearly enjoyed what he did, and the chance to fight someone who could match him must have been exhilarating. I had noticed some fear when I first deflected the attack, but I was sure he saw the opportunity in meeting a real opponent, and honestly, so did I.


I'd been getting awfully cocky about my combat abilities. Success after success had made me overconfident, but this fight reminded me of an obvious and important fact. Powers could be fucking anything. For every super genius from a divine clan, there was some random person who got a super busted ability. Like this guy, or like Sydney from the Moon Warren back during the tournament on Callus.


The lemur's blades flickered, a massive rain of attacks falling on me through a hundred futures, and I triggered Flurry of Blows, enhancing my speed even more as my staff flashed out, Extinction Events demolishing the cuts before they could reach me.


"Solomon," called Daysia worriedly. "The tremors have stopped. "I think we need to go!"


Cursing, I launched an extinction event at the ground before disengaging, using Double Trouble to appear behind her. Moment Chop was busted, but it was short range, requiring an actual head on attack. Once I was out of his radius, I dropped Limbo and triggered Murmur, erasing all trace of us again.


This time, the lemur prince couldn't seem to track me. I was pretty sure his detection earlier had been some time bullshit, seeing possible futures he could attack in when I got close enough. Now that I'd backed off, he'd officially left combat with me, so those options weren't available for him to use as a detector. I'd been hoping that was the case.


My Danger Sense was blaring, far more loudly than before, and I could tell that Daysia was right. The C-rankers were coming.


I turned to run, but stopped before I got too far. Dantalion was specialized for long term information gathering. Namely, the longer you scouted the same spot the better you could conceal. While I was confident in my ability to stand up to C-rank scrutiny with Murmur when they didn't know I was there, doing it while they were LOOKING for me was another thing altogether.


As long as I made the conscious decision not to attack the lemur prince under and circumstances, there would be no possible futures where we were in conflict, and he couldn't use his ability to identify my general location. If he approached, I would retreat. With that flaw resolved, I absolutely did NOT want to run off into the dark woods where my stealth would be running on fumes. Instead, I pulled Daysia to a stop and we stood stock still, Dantalion slowly refining my information about the area and improving my stealth.


Within seconds, the pair of C-rankers appeared, both of them clearly roughed up but not remotely out of commission. The lemur king glanced around, scowling. "My son, have you already acquired your target? You can be at ease, now that the fruit has been claimed I will not allow that cowardly weasel to deprive you of your spoils."


That would have been a lot more noble if I hadn't been completely aware that the lemur prince was here specifically to steal the fruit so the king could reach B-rank.


The prince looked sheepish (for a lemur). "Father, I'm afraid my mission ended in failure. A human arrived shortly after I, and he spirited away both the fruit and the tree it grew upon. I humbly request punishment for my failure." He bowed deeply, knives scraping the ground.


Rather than look upset, the king looked concerned. "A human? And he defeated you? Was he at C-rank? Are you injured?"


It made me think well of the king that his first concern was for his kid. The weasel king, however, seemed less impressed. "Perfidious lemurs!" Roared the sleek looking weasel around the crescent blade in its teeth. "You think me a fool? A human in my territory? Without my notice? And we arrived so soon after the battle. This human would have passed us in his escape, or else still be within my range of Perception."


The prince shook his head. "Great weasel, the human has a strange means of stealth. I only managed to vaguely pierce it with my unique advantages. He seems to have gone. And in answer to you, honored father, the human was at D-rank. Never in the past have I experienced such tremendous power from one at my own rank. I feel I have grown much through this battle."


The lemur king sighed. "What an unfortunate turn of events. I suppose neither of us will have the fruit, eh Dark Moon?"


Despite his apparent sadness, I could hear a hint of mockery in his voice. This siege hadn't JUST been about getting the fruit, it had also been about making sure the weasel DIDN'T get it. I suspected the weasel might be the closer of the two to B-rank. Either way, neither of them were Perception specced, thankfully. Or if they were, Murmur was way more effective than I'd even imagined. Either way, we were safe for now.


Of course, we still needed to actually fucking ESCAPE from here, but I was sure we could find an opportunity. I felt a little bad though, Daysia was in the middle of her ceremony, and should still be searching for a tree to bond with. Now she was stuck in the domain for probably hours waiting for the beasts to leave.


The flower haired dryad didn't seem the least bit upset though, playing with Archie by tossing seeds for him to catch. I'd originally expected to need him connected to her to stealth her, but since Murmur was a dome, being inside was enough, and my companion had to think fast to catch the seeds before they hit the ground. She was very careful not to throw them in a way where they might leave the domain, so a bit of motion was fine.


Since we were safe, I decided to explore a bit about the staff. I left a parallel running the domain and closed my eyes, retreating into pride. Sure enough, the staff came with me, connected to me through our current communication via Rhythm of the Wild. Since it had awakened a bit more, I was able to speak to it a bit more directly. It didn't…talk, exactly, but it could communicate in a way similar to how Archie did.


The tree told me of its desire to see the world, of the promises its mother had made (the Primordial Tree Spirit, obviously) and what it could do for me.


A bond wouldn't be possible, since I wasn't a Dryad, but I already knew that the Temple had perfected a method of connecting a person to a wooden weapon that involved basically creating an artificial bond from the tree side to attach to the user. That was part of the process of forging I was here for, and it would be even more effective on a still living tree like this one.


What confused me was what exactly it did. I knew the Nine Lives Reincarnation Fruit could cleanse deep soul damage, similar to the rebirth I'd earned from the Lady. But I'd already undergone that. So I wasn't sure how the tree would be useful. I was taking the S-ranker's word it would help me on my journey. Closing my hands around it, I poked at the thing, trying to figure out what it could do. Dantalion reached out and connected and…


I was someone else. I stood in a darkened hall, below me, a thousand shadowy demonic forms knelt in supplication. I was a spider, the weaver at the center of a great web. Pluck a single thread and the vibrations could be felt across all of hell, but at the same time, I could be still, wait and experience those vibrations from the other side. I could have knowledge, and for knowledge I hungered.


The scene continued, each demonic form rising to report their findings. Information about neighboring duchies, about powerful infernal lords. They whispered secrets, bits of context that combined with the shivers of my endless web to uncover hidden truths.


I sat there for days, weeks even, living the life of a lord of hell, plotting my schemes and learning the dark secrets of my enemies, and then…it ended.


One moment to the next, I was back in pride, shuddering on the ground, sweat coating my body. My brain felt fragile, my soul having been massively pressured by that experience. I didn't even know what that was. I dropped the staff, both in real life and in Pride, releasing it as if my hands had been burned.


Inside my library, I took a minute to process, my mind racing. I didn't know what that was. I glanced down at the staff, and I noticed something strange. At the top of it, about five inches down, a symbol had burned into the wood. A dark demonic eye with a spider as the pupil.


I had a thought, and stood, staggering over to the shelves, I pulled out Dantalion, and sure enough. More context had been added. The story had been strengthened, reinforced. It felt more complete now. Even in real time, I could tell that Murmur had become less of a strain, the slightly perfected form adding to the utility of the Domain.


I turned back to the staff, staring at it in horror and wonder. For a normal person that would have been pointless. Maybe a bit of extra oomph in a technique or some extra recursion. But for me, with Pride, I could catalogue and alter techniques on a very fine level.


The staff that the tree spirit had recommended WAS useful to me. Because if I was right, it was something more valuable than all the destructive power in the world. The Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree had let me LIVE as Dantalion. Combined with my flawless technique talent and the library, I'd been subconsciously proofing the form, evolving it through experience.


The process wasn't fast, obviously, and I imagine with more lives it would be even slower, but if I persisted with that staff…she was right. That staff could follow me all the way to godhood. Nine Lives. It was perfect for me. I felt my lips peel back in an almost painful smile. Nothing could stop me now.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took about an hour for the kings to leave. After fifteen minutes of no progress, the weasel king had proclaimed the lemur prince a liar and attacked. The lemur king had driven him back and the two of them had exploded into fierce combat again, with the lemur king slowly luring away his enemy.


The prince, seemingly unsure if I was actually gone, glanced out at the clearing, but when he couldn't detect anything, eventually gave up and left.


Without any active scrutiny, plus the improvement in Dantalion, I was pretty confident about our chances of retreating. I turned to Daysia. "Alright, that didn't take as long as I was afraid of, so we can still find your tree. I've been doing some deep recon on the area while hiding us, and I think I might have a direction for us to try."


Dantalion became more effective the longer you stayed in place. While Murmur used that information to more thoroughly erase traces, deepening stealth over time, I was still learning, and with all the root systems on this planet intertwined into the Primordial tree sea, my information gathering had been slowly uncovering info about the entire nearby forest as it drilled down further.


The Dryad looked relieved. "I'm glad," she said with a wan smile. "I was willing to give up if I needed to, I already said I'd help you and I wouldn't begrudge you an opportunity, but if we hadn't found something I'd have needed to bond with one of the water trees we passed. My suitability percentage with them was only about twenty percent, which would have been a huge problem."


I wasn't actually clear on how suitability worked, but hearing they could detect percentages was pretty interesting. Planting my staff on the ground, I stood and offered her my hand. "Well, let's find you something good then. I owe you one for all your help. That Tree Singing is the only reason I had a usable weapon to win that fight with."


I was reasonably sure, given the motivation to go all out, I could have killed the lemur prince in a bare knuckle fight, but the thing was, I hadn't HAD that motivation. The little guy was just doing his best for his dad, and he'd been a good opponent. Technically we were both here to steal from the weasels, so it wasn't like I had the moral high ground. I hadn't wanted to kill or seriously injure him, but if I hadn't been able to get my hands on a proper weapon, I'd have had to use all my strength to disengage and he might've died.


Daysia beamed. "It was my honor. The Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree is only C-rank, but it's one of the very few soul attribute spirit plants on this whole planet. Most of them are guarded by terrifying beasts. The only reason this one has remained with the weasel king is because it was still a sapling, so its rank was low. Being able to harmonize with a tree like that is a dream for most Tree Singers."


"Even so, I bet we can find you a really nice tree to bond with," I said encouragingly. "Now that I'm free to focus, why don't you tell me which trees you've gotten the best responses from. We can try to look for commonalities and narrow down our search parameters."


Once we were out of the clearing, I wasn't too worried about being noticed. The C-rankers were fighting fiercely, so they wouldn't be able to focus on any random spot checking for stealth, and below C-rank Murmur should be basically invincible. At that last thought, I reached over to a tree I was passing and rapped my knuckles on the bark. I'd been having a lot of those arrogant determined thoughts lately. It might've been recursion, but it was probably best not to keep tempting fate. I made a mental note to try to curb my ego a bit.


We chatted as we walked about the various trees we'd seen. As I'd been searching, Daysia had been making notes about her reactions to different plants. As she'd mentioned, water plants seemed to have a pretty low suitability percentage, and dark plants, which most of the trees here were, even less. She said she had a high suitability with moon plants, but that the overlap between the three was causing problems.


The main issue was that the mark only gave her a general area. While that area SEEMED to overlap with the Gloamwood, it didn't necessarily mean that the tree she needed most was in this forest. Just that it was nearby. With that in mind, we decided to follow the moon attribute trees out of the Gloamwood and towards the forest where the lemur king reigned.


"Lemur King" was a bit of a misnomer. It implied that he was the strongest of the Verdenloft Lemurs, which he very much wasn't. There was, apparently, a Lemur Emperor further into the wilds, and all the Lemur Kings paid tribute to the B-rank beast. This particular Lemur King, the Heaven-Splitting Lemur King was a variant species that seemed to lean towards light based techniques, and the forest he ruled made this abundantly clear.


Reaching the river that divided the two territories, it was basically night and day. Literally. And after we crossed, the suitability percentage Daysia was seeing skyrocketed.


While there was a strong moon attribute in the Gloamwood, the Lemur forest, also called the Glimmerhedge, was pretty much a mirror image. Fire, light, and eventually, sun, these were the attributes of the trees there.


Daysia, in a turn of events that I should have expected from a Dryad with sunflowers for hair, was heavily attuned to the sun attribute in trees, and the more sun energy she found in a plant the better she seemed to harmonize with it.


With the lemurs across the river having a turf war, exploring the Glimmerhedge was surprisingly easy, and we managed to find a perfectly suitable tree with a whopping ninety six percent suitability near the center of the forest. The tree we found was seemingly incredibly old and VERY large, being at the high end of C-rank itself, though not as rare or powerful as my new staff since it was missing the unique attribute.


The tree was called a Dawntreader Elm, and it had rich brown bark and metallic golden leaves shot through with veins of blazing light. Plant attribute, I had learned, was very similar to the naturally occurring runes that had developed on that water stone I'd seen in the early days on Callus. It worked a lot like natural formations, only self contained, and was kind of the plant version of a bloodline.


Existing in an environment heavily steeped in a specific kind of energy would influence the environment directly. As I'd found during my own Ascension stats, barring those created with wishes, were made up of renown, and the belief and renown that composed them could affect the way they behaved. This was the core concept behind recursion, the belief using the stats as a medium to alter the mental state of an Ascendant as the stats take up a larger and larger percentage of their being.


It was kind of a chicken or egg issue, whether the environment influenced belief to alter the basic nature or whether it changed as the belief altered the stats in the area, but whichever was the case, environmental factors had a big influence on plants, animals, and minerals.


Animal bloodlines were formed in a similar way, with sub D-rank animals mostly lacking sapience and being passively influenced by external factors. Obviously, that was just influence, and bloodlines passed down biologically as well as culture all played a role, but the combination of the three could produce some interesting results, like the Moment Chopping Lemur Prince. The more I learned about cultivation, the more intricate and complex it seemed, and the more the things that had happened to me in the past made an odd kind of sense.


Daysia, meanwhile, was spinning around the tree, humming a cheerful tune as she wrapped the trunk in garlands of…her hair, as far as I could tell. At least it looked the same, sunflowers on long green vines very different than sunflowers normally grew on. As she sang, the wood of the tree reshaped itself into gently curved hooks that she hung the vines across.


Once she finished, she stood in front of the tree and continued her song. The tree bark and wood receded like water flowing off an emerging turtle, opening to show a doorway. Daysia walked forward into the hollow, and as soon as she was gone, the tree just…closed up.


I stood, staring at the trunk. That was interesting. No one had warned me that would happen. With a sigh, I sat down, leaning against the tree, Murmur began to settle, deepening the stealth I was under, and to keep myself amused I started throwing acorns for Archie to try to intercept in midair.


Archie, getting bored with this quickly, landed on my shoulder. He trilled in annoyance. I raised an eyebrow at the bird. "What? No, that's not her house, it's a TREE." He chirped in annoyance, and I had to pause. "I…I guess they do all live in trees. But that's not what I meant. No, it's not her house, she'll be back soon."


I assumed. I didn't know anything about this ritual, but I was at least mostly sure it wasn't supposed to take too long, since speed was the priority in the ceremony. Sure enough, after only about an hour, the bark of the tree peeled back, revealing that same archway, and Daysia emerged, beaming in triumph. Literally, she was glowing now, her veins shining under her green skin like the vessels in the tree leaves, as were the petals of the flowers in her hair.


"Well, that was dramatic," I said with a laugh. "I assumed it would just be a quick conversation, not all that pageantry."


She shrugged. "It can be. But normally, Dryads can't bond with trees of higher rank. It requires a ninety plus percent suitability and a special ritual. Tree Singers are a necessary part of that, though the tree also has to help. Molding living C-ranked wood is pretty much impossible without active assistance from the tree. I had to pledge myself to the tree heart, which is kind of complicated. But I did it." She spun, gesturing down at herself. "I'm now a Dawntreader Dryad! Are you ready to head back?"


I could tell from her demeanor that she was eager to show off. She'd worked hard on this, both to help me and for herself, and I was better her results were out of the ordinary. Especially after hearing that rank up bonds required such high suitability. I was guessing that wasn't exactly a common thing to find.


Turning to look at Archie, I jerked my chin toward her. "What do you think, can you be a bit more careful carrying her this time?"


Daysia, who had originally been confident and self assured, flinched in the corner of my eye. I held back a laugh at the horror that slowly dawned across her face as she realized she would be a passenger on air Archie again.


I had to hand it to her, she didn't complain about it, just grabbed his legs and closed her eyes as he took off with a trill of challenge. My wings beat the air twice, hurling me up in a pair of strong updrafts before I leaned forward and fell into a glide. I'd give him a headstart this time, just so he wasn't too sulky later. But as soon as we got back, I'd have to bring the staff directly to Tasha. I couldn't wait to see what it would be capable of when it had been properly refined into a staff.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We made good time returning to the mother tree. Aside from Archie knowing to be careful, Daysia was much stronger now, her link to her tree granting her new powers, and the life fire didn't overwhelm her as much. By the time we landed she mostly just seemed extra energetic, but even that might have been excitement.


As we arrived, we confirmed that Daysia was the third of the Dryads to bond with a tree. While normally this would have been a good result (though not amazing), her bond with a C-ranked plant like the Dawntreader Elm made her infinitely more valuable to the Divine Tree Temple.


Much like with Jessie, if a Dryad wanted to break through, their tree had to proceed them to the next rank. Trees ranked up very slowly, given their long lives. While the bond was powerful and gave a lot of advantages, it had corresponding drawbacks, or else the Dryads would have taken over the universe by now.


Even a peak D-rank tree might require a decade or two of nurturing by the special tree sap to reach C-rank, and they didn't have nearly enough of that stuff as it was, shared between so many Dryads.


Daysia, meanwhile, could rank up to C-rank immediately upon reaching the limit, though she would need to adjust her Illusory Path to fit the tree better before solidifying it. That was apparently what suitability was, finding a tree with a strong Path resonance. With that advantage, she was considered the most promising Dryad to come out of this ceremony, and she waved happily as the elders escorted her away to record information about her tree in their records, as well as any other tree info she had picked up on the trip.


"We owe you a debt of gratitude," said Tasha as she stepped up next to me. "That Dawntreader Elm, according to Daysia, is at the peak of C-rank. With a bit of nurturing we can promote it to B-rank and smooth her path up to the edge of A. Past that…we'll have to see. But she'll be a strong elder when she finishes growing. You've done us a great favor."


I shrugged. "She helped me first. I'm glad it was good for you guys, but it was mostly for her sake. Without her, I might not have gotten this." I held up the staff, passing it over to Tasha, who would be refining it into a weapon suitable for me,


She ran her fingers over the wood breathlessly. "What a terrifying tree," she said in a reverent tone. "Soul attribute plants are rare and difficult to nurture. They require incredibly complex and often bizarre confluences of environments, as well as luck, to form. This one…we knew about it, but it was still young so we left it alone. The weasel king was enough of a deterrent to keep anyone from harming its growth."


That was an uncomfortable thought. "Didn't I harm its growth?" I asked wryly.


Laughing, she shook her head. "She sent you to find it. Her relationship with the Temple is complicated, but she is our mother in many ways. The trees are all hers, and part of her, and so if she says the tree should journey with you, it will. Preserving its life when I refine it will be complex, but ultimately make for a more powerful weapon. And one that can grow alongside its wielder. I'll need to know more about your abilities before I do so, however."


Reluctantly, I passed her the staff. We'd left the platform, and rather than join up with everyone else she'd taken me further into the trunk of the mother tree. Descending a stairwell obviously made by Tree Singing, we walked for about fifteen minutes, and she asked me repeated questions about my Chronicle, my abilities, and my experience with the staff as she explored it.


My grandfather trusted her, and whatever weirdness was going on with her and Celia, I didn't think she'd hurt me, so I told her everything she asked. Once she finished though, I couldn't help but bring it up.


"So…why does my grandmother hate you?" I asked bluntly. "Because honestly, I kind of assumed she was threatened by you romantically, but it doesn't seem like that."


Her face clouded. "I made a mistake," she said softly. "When I was younger. Your grandfather got hurt because of it. It wasn't on purpose, but it eventually led to the battle where she had to fake her death. During our travels, I ran my mouth when I shouldn't have. Nicholas forgave me, he's always been that kind of person, but Celia…she has her reasons for being upset. A lot of the things that have gone wrong with your life have been because of me."


Which meant, if I was reading the situation right, that she'd been the one to inform Black Sorrow that my grandparents were together, albeit probably not directly.


"Wow, yeah I could see why she'd be pissed," I admitted.


She raised a brow at me. "Are you? I'd have thought that with your life, at least as your grandfather described it, you would harbor some resentment. Honestly, that's the reason I offered to refine this staff for you. I feel like I owe you."


"I won't turn down free stuff," I laughed. "But I'm not really upset about it. If you'd asked me a year ago I might have tried to punch you, but honestly…I've come to terms with my life. Well and truly. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." I'd confronted my demons, sometimes literally, and I knew that my past didn't have any more hold over me. One by one, the painful notches in my psyche had been sanded down.


Not that they didn't AFFECT me anymore. I still felt the impact of what had happened in my life. But it was old pain, familiar and comforting. Like a fond memory of a lost loved one.


Her expression was complicated. "I think I know now why she sent you to this particular tree," she said with a wan smile. "That kind of wisdom requires a lot of introspection. You must have worked on yourself a great deal."


"Yeah," I said dryly. "That's not why. But it probably didn't hurt." We both laughed at that, even if it wasn't really funny.


Finally, we came to a stop outside of a large, dark wood door. It was set flush into the wood, but it was banded with a bright amber material that kind of looked like a mix between metal and resin. "Sapsteel," Tasha informed me when I asked about it. "Most metal can't conduct life energy very well. Tree Singing and Dancing doesn't work well with them. Sapsteel is a living metal refined from Mother Tree sap. Very strong and very useful."


The door didn't have a knob or anything, but a quick knock and it opened of its own accord. Inside was a kind of lab, with various tools and vials of strange substances. Tasha strode inside, placing the staff into a vise on a table in the center of the room.


I stepped inside, the door closing behind me, and gazed around the room with interest. "Are you going to use Tree Singing to do the enchantment?"


She nodded. "Tree Singing is an entirely natural way to imbue power into plantlife. It's closer to formations than enchanting, really, though it involves both, as well as some plant cultivation Skills. We learned it from the trees, actually. Or rather, from the Primordial Tree Spirit. She's a natural Tree Singer."


Pulling out a bottle, she started rubbing the staff down, the oil staining the wood a shiny dark color. Once she finished, she started plucking vials, sprinkling various kinds of dust and liquid onto the surface. It all stuck, suspended in the oil, and when she finished, she turned to me. "Alright, this next part will be complicated, but you need to be involved. Based on what you told me, you plan to use the nine lives granted by the tree to refine your staff forms?"


I nodded, and she grabbed my shoulders, moving me around the table and setting me up in front of the staff, hands raised over it, palms out and flat.


"One of your lives is already imprinted, which creates an initial link. That's good," she lectured as she lit some candles and used the oil to trace a few patterns on the table. Nothing I recognized, but that wasn't surprising. Enchanting styles were highly localized, and this wasn't even enchanting. "What I need you to do next is to slowly imbue each form into the staff. But only as I say so. The initial bond is cemented, but for the staff to serve the purpose you want, and to grow along with you, we need to rebond it to you nine times."


I shook my head. "Ten," I said firmly. "My chronicle is the Ten Demons Tome. One binding for each of the forms and one for me personally, bonding all of them together and then to me again."


She was the expert on staff making, but I was the expert on me. I knew what my powers needed, and I wasn't shy about speaking out.


She frowned, but nodded. "Ten, then. I can do that. A moment. We need one more thing before we start."


Walking over to a nearby shelf, she removed a dark box. Opening it, she took out a dark amber ingot. Sapsteel. Walking over to the bench, she set it down. "This will serve as the binder. You'll need an anchor for the tenth binding, and this will give you something to find purchase on. I'll need some of your blood."


She raised a hand over the ingot, humming softly, and the whole thing just kind of…melted. But not into liquid. More like it turned into jelly? Regardless, the consistency shifted. I raised my hand, cutting it, and bled onto the ingot. My blood seeped in, dying the metallic amber a deep crimson.


With that done, she picked up the jellylike material and draped it over the staff. It sat atop the cylinder, jiggling lightly. Then she gestured for me to begin. So I did. Dantalion was already done. Next was Mephistopheles, then Belial, then Agares. Mornax, Zagan, Bael, Beelzebub, and finally, Sammael. After each connection, I had to actively resist falling into the staff, but with each one, a new symbol appeared on the shaft.


A flame, a pair of dripping fangs, a cyclone of dust, a bull, a beating heart, a shadow, a fly, and a pair of black wings. As I worked, Tasha sang, and with each new symbol, one of the binding agents she'd sprinkled in was absorbed into the wood, the grain shifting and swirling as it formed strange patterns. The symbols, rather than just sit there, were swept into the swirling grain, being stretched and reformed into yet more symbols, albeit ones so deeply imbued in the wood it was hard to tell they were symbols at all rather than wood grain.


Finally, the ingot melted, flowing along the staff, traceries of the substance flowing along the patterns until it reached either end and collected into a pair of dark metallic red caps. The caps were hideous demonic faces, screaming in torment, which I didn't LOVE thematically, but I wasn't going to interrupt over stylistic choices. Not when I could feel how powerful the staff was.


When the caps set, the staff thrummed, power vibrating through both it and me and then…it vanished. Or rather, it retreated. Into me. Closing my eyes, I searched inward, finding the new staff (I was calling it the Ten Demons Tree) floating above the tome in my library, wisps of dark smoke trailing down from it and seeping into the book. I couldn't tell exactly what it DID, but I knew it wasn't bad.


I opened my eyes, beaming at Tasha as I held out my hand and the staff appeared, slapping into my palm as I pulled it from my soul into the real world. Then it vanished again. I started laughing, a high, maniacal sound that I couldn't resist. "This," I told the elder Dryad. "Is PERFECT." And I couldn't wait to try it out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After the ceremony, we had a meeting set up with the elders, but since Daysia and I were some of the first back, we had some time to kill before things actually ended. Hours if not days, depending, so I decided to take my new staff for a test drive.


First though, In wanted to show it off. I gathered all my friends together, and once they'd all arrived, I gestured dramatically. "Ladies and gentlemen," I said portentously. "My weapon woes are over. I've found the perfect support weapon, a C-ranked staff, and one that can grow with me. I have to figure out how to feed it, but it can rank up even ahead of when I can, though there are limits." I summoned my staff, letting it smack into my palms as I called it from my soul.


The ability to enter and exit the library was a fairly rare feature of the Ten Demons Tree, and one that most weapons didn't have. Soul storage was coveted because it meant weapons could be taken anywhere, regardless of rules or restrictions.


Even an S-ranker couldn't see into my soul, which meant I would never be unarmed again if I didn't want to be. That alone would be priceless, but the unique ability of the staff to refine my forms was unimaginably powerful. The more refined my forms, the more powerful their effects. This, in turn, could allow me to reinforce the Ten Demons Tome. In order to create the super Domain that would let me condense three objects of power, I needed an absurdly sturdy foundation. Both my Chronicle and the forms the pseudo domains are based on needed to be absolutely perfect.


Not to mention the life experience of living as nine different demons would be invaluable for technique creation, and the will of the Ten Demons Tree itself acted as a filter to help me resist any mental pollution.


I was sure my new weapon had even more versatile and powerful functions, but I'd need to discover them over time. For the moment, though, just the abilities it had now were enough to fill me with a sense of confidence and fighting spirit. As long as my forces for the succession war reached the right level, I was positive I could at least stand out.


After going over the abilities inherent to my staff excitedly, I waited for everyone's reaction. Benny seemed excited, as any decent inventor would be when faced with a unique item, and Callie looked happy for me, but Bethy seemed confused. "So…it's another stick?" She asked innocently.


I grimaced. "It's a powerful unique staff perfectly suited to help me improve my powers."


"So it's not a stick," she said in dawning understanding. "Because it kind of looks like a stick. So I was confused."


That derailed me. "I mean…technically it's a stick?" I said helplessly. "But it's not JUST a stick. It's a useful and powerful weapon. Look, forget about the stick part, the important thing is that it helps me refine my forms which will improve my pseudo Domains."


"That does sound neat," she said brightly. "Maybe I can help you test it out! Want to spar?"


I hesitated. I was strong. Really strong. And Bethy was most likely close to where I was stat wise. As Lark's daughter she had a more consistent stat income, but I'd had some very big bursts of renown lately, not to mention my wishes. But even at the same level, I wasn't sure I could take Bethy.


For one thing, she had a complete Domain. Lark had used a domain seed to help her condense hers early in a way that didn't put pressure on her soul. I didn't know how it worked, just that the process USUALLY cut off the advancement potential of the recipient.


When someone used a domain seed as a base to establish a Domain, like Black Sorrow had, it integrated into their personal Domain, becoming part of them. I hadn't known that was possible until BS told me, but from what I gathered it was much different than integrating a domain seed before you were ready to establish a Domain of your own.


My mom had told me that using a Domain seed was considered a huge waste for a normal Ascendant. It basically locked you out of forming your own. Bethy's Domain was special, something to do with her bloodline, and Lark had managed to integrate it without the usual drawbacks. It made her absurdly powerful for her rank even aside from her ability to drink stats from people, and she would still be able to form a Domain of her own later on.


Not to mention Bethy's racial trait wasn't just vampirism, she'd inherited her mother's maenad nature as well. I'd been helping her control it slowly, but the combination of the early Domain and the powerful racial trait made her nearly invincible.


Even Abel, who was one of the most naturally gifted combatants I'd ever met, was afraid to fight Bethy.


Which was why I had to do it. I needed to see how my progress stacked up to the most brilliant D-rankers in the universe. Bethy might not be the undisputed queen of D-rank the way her dad was for S, but she was definitely the top one percent among everyone in our generation.


I saw Callie shoot a worried glance between us, and that solidified my resolve. Not only did I need to know, but I realized that I'd started to fixate on victory. Winning was great, but I didn't need to win every spar. Growing and honing my edge was more important than a temporary success. Sure, Bethy might beat me, but honestly that might not be such a bad thing.


"Sure," I told her after a moment of thinking. "I'd love to spar. I take it you know a place where we can go all out without being disturbed? If not we can just fly down and find a clearing. I'd prefer to do this at ground level."


While victory wasn't all the mattered, these trees were extremely durable and highly ranked. The platform would resist Agares and Wrath both, which would cut out a significant tool in my arsenal. I wanted to put my best foot forward.


Lucky for me, a minor crisis of recursive identity wasn't a big deal when you share your soul with someone. One of the reasons Callie and I worked was that she always noticed when I slipped over the line in terms of recursion, being able to sense when my thoughts changed too much. It was why I didn't mind when she chewed me out about doing dumb shit. Because I trusted her to monitor my recursion more than I did myself. Harder to see changes in your own mental state.


Reaching out, I asked her about it as we flew down to the ground. Her response was pretty much immediate. "Yeah, you've definitely been getting a little arrogant. It's a common thing with powerful Ascendants though. People see you as this invincible figure, and it stars to warp your self image. It hadn't gotten bad enough to bring up yet, but noticing it early is a good sign." My wife's tone was enthusiastic in my head. "


Your grandmother put me through some training to try to curb that particular bit of recursion. Fighting Bethy should definitely help." A chuckle rang through the bond. "Even if you win, which lets face it, you probably won't, it's not going to be easy. Remember D-rank is a watershed. For someone like Bethy who was already much stronger than most…that effect is compounded."


I knew that. Bethy's racial trait was one of the best in the universe, and while Sammael was effective, it wasn't close to the level of something like Lark's bloodline. Not to mention she had her Domain on top of it.


But the thought had settled into my brain. Even knowing I'd probably lose I couldn't resist the urge to try it out. Without the recursion warning me off a losing fight, I found myself all the more eager to test my mettle. It was a stark warning about the effects of recursion on my mental state. The rapid switch from excitement to reluctance and back implied that I wasn't stable enough.


I glanced at my staff, specifically the end caps. It occurred to me that I had TEN forms bound to this thing, not nine. Could I use the staff to experience my own life over again and grind off possible recursive corruption?


That was a use I hadn't considered. If it could filter out mental influence from experiencing life as a demon, maybe it could do the same for recursive influence on my human self. I could re-experience my life without recursion shaping my perception and hopefully use that to stabilize my mental state. It was a unique advantage that I didn't think any other Ascendant had.


Of course, I didn't want to take it too far. Recursion was a protection as much as a poison. If I wore away all the recursion in my mind, I'd probably collapse from trauma. The experiences I'd been through up to now weren't ones a normal person could withstand.


By the time we reached the clearing, I had a general plan for how to handle it. I still had to test the human reincarnation, but if it worked, I'd most likely only use it after using all of the other eight. It should help balance my mindset so I didn't regress too far.


"Hey, are you listening to me?" demanded Bethy waspishly. I jerked, looking up to find that we were down in the forest, having found a clearing. I'd let a parallel take control of my body while I thought about the implications, but it hadn't been doing anything but steering.


I shrugged. "Sorry, got distracted. What did you say?"


She rolled her eyes. "I SAID, we'll just fight normal, no pets or anything. Between Luggage and my kitties I have way too big of an advantage." She flashed her fangs at me in a too wide grin. "You sure you want to do this? I'm not gonna hold back. You've been getting way stronger and I've been itching for a decent fight for ages. No offense to Mel or Albus, but none of you guys are really on my level."


Her voice was smooth and dark, her eyes more focused than usual, and her irises glowed with an eerie crimson light. This was vampire Bethy, the version of her that took over in a serious fight. My already slim odds of winning dropped substantially, but it only made me more excited to do this.


Sammeal was already active. I triggered Gluttony and Abomination Engine too, just to be safe, and I felt a thrum in my hands from the staff. The aura of the weapon shifted slightly, matching my fallen angel form. The resonance between the two flooded me with strange insights and odd half memories, showing me the past of a being that had never existed, but only in an auxiliary sense.


The passive reinforcement was nice, but done like this it would take decades to improve what was already my strongest form. Still, it was enough to show me that the staff was with me, and would help how it could.


"I'm ready," I told her as our friends backed off. "Hope you are too, because I'm not making this easy on you." I spun my new staff, reveling in the perfect balance and the weight, and Bethy watched me, eyes lazy but alert, like a half asleep leopard still waiting to pounce at the slightest move.


There was a sort of suspension of energy, like the world was holding its breath, and then I triggered my waltz, Double Trouble, and Beelzebub all at once. In a flash of black flame, the clearing filled with twenty four versions of me, half of them illusionary and half of them appearing around Bethy to launch all out attacks. I, meanwhile, triggered Murmur while she was distracted, fading into invisibility, and the fight was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My normal style, at least recently, had involved a lot of head on combat. Explosive charges and big flashy explosive battles. But after my earlier epiphany, I started to analyze my behavior a bit more. I realized that I had better tools for combat than just burst strength. As useful as that was when I needed it, some enemies couldn't be overcome with brute force.


Bethy, it turned out, was one of those enemies. Within an instant of the start of the fight, the entire clearing was full of copies of me. Half illusory and half real, as the real ones surrounded her and attacked from her blind spot.


It was all a cover, not only allowing me to enter stealth but to give murmur time to start adapting more deeply to the environment and erasing even more of my traces. With Dantalion having been enhanced by my first use of the staff, I was confident that even if I couldn't hide from Bethy, I could at least slow down her noticing me by a bit.


That confidence was shattered nearly instantly, because as my twelve doppelgangers, all in Sammael and using Mornax, attacked, things started to go wrong.


Bethy, eyes a burning, hellish red, extended her fingernails into claws and just sort of…blurred. Two of the attacks, aimed at her kidney and shoulder respectively, slid past her seamlessly as she did a graceful pirouette between the blows, and as the lunging clones passed by, she neatly ripped out their throats.


It wouldn't have killed me. Not with my defense and my capabilities, but the clones coldn't actually use the full strength of any of my forms. I hadn't really noticed the gap until Sammael was completed, but the stronger I got the less they could keep up. As constructs, they weren't as powerful, and unless I improved Beelzebub, they weren't going to close the gap.


Still, despite the fact that I would have survived, I couldn't help but wince as Bethy's claws effortlessly sliced the carotid arteries on the pair of clones, drifting past them like a ballet dancer as they collapsed to the ground, dissolving into fine dust.


I made a mental note to experiment with a new pseudo Domain that merged Agares with Beelzebub, making stronger clones. Unfortunately, that would have to wait, because as I was thinking that another three of my clones had converged on Bethy from all sides, trying to lock her down by attacking from multiple directions at once.


Bethy arched her back, bending backwards over the staff like it was a limbo stick, planting her palms and then popped up off her feet essentially curving her body around the still moving staff swing. She twisted on her hands, legs snapping out, and the heels of her shoes opened the throats of the two passing clones, whirling back up to her feet in time to spin and knock aside a powerful staff blow with her wrist and disembowel the third, her claws gutting him THROUGH his fucking armor.


Now I knew that my clones didn't have gear at the same quality as mine, my power couldn't recreate C-ranked items, but that was still a suit of full plate armor made by someone above the peak of D-rank Impact wise.


The other eight clones, being me and therefore not fucking idiots, backed off, creating a perimeter around Bethy at an equal distance. It was a solid move, it meant she'd have to move the same distance to attack any of them, giving the others time to react, and they all had Double Trouble to exploit to get close.


Bethy licked one of her fingers, then grimaced and spat. "Gross, your blood is all dusty." She stared at the clones intently. Her eyes had an odd shine in them, not the literal shine of the blood colored light, but a sort of fae madness, like a cat playing with a mouse.


It occurred to me that while I'd seen Bethy fight before, I'd never seen her TRY before. She just brutalized anyone she fought against. While that might make it seem like I knew her capabilities, I realized now that if no one had ever pushed her past, say, ten percent of her strength, that would be the highest level I'd seen her fight at. It was a sobering thought.


But I wasn't out of this yet. As I sat and waited, Murmur deduced the world around me, slowly scrubbing more and more traces of me from the environment. Every second I became more completely hidden, more impossible to find. Bethy was an apex predator, but even C-rankers hadn't noticed me after a certain point.


Not to mention that Gluttony was active, along with Abomination Engine. Every time Bethy hurt or killed a clone the damage fed back through Beelzebub into me, slowly increasing my strength.


It said something about her power that I still wasn't sure I could win. Even with my slowly growing strength, Bethy was on a whole different level. Beyond that, I was starting to worry that she might have slipped too far into the bloodlust. The gleam in her eyes was beyond the normal play-crazy act she liked to put on.


My Danger Sense was screaming at me to run, which wasn't ideal, but I didn't listen. I could do this. What I did do was activate Mornax, and tweak Abomination Engine to feed back into the defensive form. I should create a more powerful defensive domain, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. I was beginning to regret coming into this half cocked.


On the upside, I was absolutely not feeling invincible right now, so lesson learned, I guess. I just had to made sure I fucking SURVIVED it.


I didn't think Bethy would kill me if she had control of herself, but I wasn't sure that she did. In fact, I was pretty sure the longer this went on the more blood mad she was getting. I could feel a sort of…aura coming off her, like the scent of freshly shed blood, and it was getting stronger.


Callie was watching from a distance, and I felt her worry starting to build as Bethy blurred forward, engaging four of my clones at once. They lashed out in a picture perfect formation, condensing their power into a single whole using some of the tricks we'd learned in the Imperial Army. It didn't matter. Bethy dipped gracefully under an attack, and as one of the clones went by, ripped his arm clean off and spun to smash the disintegrating stone limb into the head of a second.


Her head snapped forward, neck twisting like a snake and slightly ELONGATING as she ripped out a third clone's fucking throat with her teeth and left it choking to death on dust as she pounced on the forth and tore him apart with her claws.


The other four rushed her, obviously terrified and trying to end things quickly, but she dismantled them, seeming to get stronger and faster as she killed. She was inhaling something from them as they died. Not blood, but…death, maybe? Like a conceptual life force that she was able to steal with their demise.


Which was when it clicked for me. I had a way to fix this. Bethy had gone over the deep end. I wasn't sure why, maybe I was too strong and she'd gotten too into the fight, maybe killing the clones had been too close to killing me and she'd snapped. Whatever the case, she was currently being overwhelmed. Taken over. Corrupted.


I pulled on Abomination Engine, shifting it so it fed back into the pit in my stomach instead of my defense. Mornax was reinforced heavily, and with C-rank armor I should survive at least one attack. Hopefully. In the meantime, I triggered Zagan, and pulling on my connection with Archie, I started to form the Life Nova.


My companion's power, my own power, the damage Bethy was doing to the clones, I funneled all my strength into that single burst. And as I did, knowing I didn't have much time, I closed my eyes and fell into the staff.


Inside of it I was a king. A grand demonic lord sitting atop a jungle pyramid, lording over a wild world of predators and animals. The trees grew dense and vicious beneath the green sun, and I felt the world evolving, growing and shifting to become more dangerous, more deadly, with every breath I took.


There was no disease, no poison or rot, simply the purity of combat and the growth of species, selecting for the strongest and most powerful beasts to come to pay supplication. I ignored it all, forcing my eyes up to the sun. That was the Life Nova, the beating heart of the world that Zagan ruled, the manifestation of his constantly overflowing life force and the basis for this world of evolving horrors.


It was…terrifying. One of the most awful things I'd ever seen. It was TOO MUCH life. Like I was looking at something that had transcended the state of life and become some sort of conceptual predator that lorded over the concept of living itself. This was life two point oh, the next stage of life, and there would be no more room for the rest of us when it finished its ascension. Because it WAS Ascending. Growing even now, become more alive, more vital, creating a vitality so potent it would kill your average person, overwhelming their pathetic bodies with power, running them ragged like an engine trying to function on jet fuel.


I fixed that image in my mind, created a parallel just to hold it, and then I opened my eyes. I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind Bethy, and reaching out with one hand, I grabbed the back of her head and dumped the most powerful Genesis Burst I could manage right into her skull.


Bethy's head jerked in my hand, her mouth opening in a scream as green flames ERUPTED from her mouth, eyes and nose.


Genesis Burst, at its core, was a technique created to erode the soul damage done to my cousin Felicity by her father. It fundamentally repaired an aspect of her that was broken in such a way that normal healing couldn't fix it.


This time, I altered the intent of the technique, aiming it at Bethy's nature. Bethy HATED her bloodlust. The only times I'd seen her cry were in regards to hurting people she cared about because of the overwhelming bloody madness in her bloodline I'd eroded that with wishes up to this point, but I hadn't been able to figure out how to fix it beyond my wish power. It was too complicated.


A mix of the vampire's bloody hunger and the maenad's belligerent battle madness was too much for one person to handle. If it had been before, I wouldn't have had any way to deal with it, but now I was different, for several reasons.


First, I had a Chronicle. I wasn't a B-ranker, but my techniques were qualitatively around that level. I was lucky Bethy's madness had prevented her from using her Domain because this wouldn't have worked. Second, I'd created a racial trait. I knew enough about how they functioned to know where I should aim this Genesis Burst.


And finally, I wasn't doing this alone. I knew my friend, and there was no way that the real Bethy wasn't somewhere in her head, raging at the bloodlust for trying to kill her 'bestie'.


The power from the dead clones lasted about ten minutes, and when it lapsed, I dropped her, letting her collapse bonelessly to the ground. She lay there, twitching, and then her eyes opened and the madness was gone. They fixed on me, tears beginning to well up as she whispered. "Thank you."


My technique didn't fix her. There was no way I could cleanse the bloodlust from her bloodline, let alone with a single purge. But I had HELPED. Her control would be better, and she'd be able to tap into more of her power without losing it. Once she was feeling a bit better, I helped her sit up, and then I got straight to the point. "Ok…what the FUCK just happened?" That had not been a normal sparring match.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bethy looked bad. Not just devastated (though that too) but tired and slightly thinner. She wilted a bit at my question, but shook it off quick. "I'm SO sorry," she said emphatically. "That was…I've never had that happen before. My bloodlust usually doesn't surge like that, and you've been helping me wear away at it." She subconsciously toyed with her bracelet, seemingly unaware of her own actions.


"It's fine," I assured her. "I'm not dead, which means you weren't really trying to hurt me. I'm under no illusion that I won that fight. I subdued your bloodlust and you decided not to fight me any more. You were kicking my ass."


"I think that was what did it," she said worriedly. "Not me kicking your ass. I think my instincts detected a genuine threat. I've never felt THREATENED before. But I could feel something nearby waiting to attack. It wasn't you though. Or, I guess it was you, but in stealth. I could sense you but couldn't pin you down and my blood lust went crazy."


That was…frankly terrifying. The idea that Bethy was so much more powerful than other people her rank that she'd never felt threatened enough to realize she had a trigger like that only emphasized how fucking strong she was.


Because I knew for a fact that based on the beginning of that fight, I had no shot against her in my current form. Granted, I wasn't anywhere near the peak of my rank, but then neither was she. I reached out a hand, putting it on her head and channeling Zagan into her, hoping to restore some of the lost energy.


"So what happened to you just now?" I asked as I worked on her. "Bloodlust I get, and from what I can tell we just purified at least part of your bloodline, like…permanently. Which is great. But if that's the case why are you so weakened?"


"I was supercharged," she explained weakly. "The life essence I harvested from your clones…it's like spiritual blood. I don't usually mess with it, daddy says it can get out of hand fast. But it's basically like rocket fuel for me. I pumped myself up super big and strong, and when you washed all of it out I was left with just a skeleton of my normal power."


Chelsea, who had come running as soon as Bethy went down, glared at the other girl. She seemed like she wanted to yell at her, but couldn't think of a reason to do so. I felt an amused flash from Callie, who clearly also recognized the sentiment and empathized, I shot her a quick pulse of…well, it was basically the emotional equivalent of sticking out my tongue at her.


My sister, after thinking over the situation, just hugged the small vampire. "I'm glad you're ok. Don't scare me like that. Gabe was about to charge in here to try to help."


Gabe nodded resolutely, and we all winced at the possible disaster we'd averted. Gabe was an Adamant, whose path only worked if he maintained victory. After reaching D-rank he had a BIT more flexibility, in that he wouldn't just lose all his power if he was defeated, but it would still be really bad for him. Bethy, specifically, was a person Gabe NEVER engaged in combat with. Not just because of his very obvious crush on her, but because she was someone he couldn't beat.


Bethy looked abashed. "I didn't do it on purpose," she protested weakly. "But if it helps I don't think this will happen again. Not just because I'm not going to spar with Shane again but because I feel…different. Whatever you did, it wasn't just cleansing my bloodlust. I feel like I've CHANGED somehow."


"I didn't cleanse your bloodlust," I told her bluntly. "I cleansed your bloodLINE. Or a bit of it. Related to some new tricks I picked up. But I don't have near enough power for a permanent fix. At the very least it should help though."


I didn't think it would be possible to purify all the bloodlust. As a vampire, Bethy's predatory instincts weren't a corruption, they were a natural part of her racial trait. That said, SOME parts of her heritage could be mitigated. Her mother's maenad power had mixed with her father's vampirism in a very alarming way. She had a lot of power, but at the high end little control. Part of that was because maenads had a sort of wine madness that was heavily mixed up in bloodlust.


The madness I could purify, at least partly. Without the combination she would have much more control over her vampiric nature, but it would take more than a few attempts to get rid of it all. Not to mention I got the feeling the only reason I'd succeeded at this first attempt was because I'd only just gotten started. Based on the suppression of Bethy's bloodlust we'd tried to do with wishes, this kind of thing got progressively harder the further you went.


For now, everyone was safe and alive and that was all that mattered. We helped Bethy up and Archie offered to carry her back up to the platform. Once we got her up there Chelsea and Gabe took her back to the room she was staying in to get some rest.


Gabe, based on what I could see, wanted her to feed on him, but she'd gotten enraged last time he suggested it. Bethy's bite was agonizingly painful because it literally ripped stats out of her victims. The idea of subjecting Gabe to that kind of agony horrified her. I considered offering myself, sure I could take the pain after my ordeals, but I realized Zagan would probably be just as useful and WOULDN'T inflict mind numbing agony on me.


My wife, who I'd mentioned this too, seemed ecstatic I'd come to a sane and rational decision about the problem, and the attitude made me seriously rethink some of my decisions over the past few months. Most of them I would stand by, but a quick recap of my choices made it clear exactly how much recursion had been affecting me.


Callie stopped me after we split from my sister, Gabe, and Bethy. Benny and Jessie had gone ahead so it was just us. "You alright? I felt…something."


"The staff," I told her. "It's kind of intense. Surprised you didn't sense it last time. I think I might have blocked you from picking it up with Murmur. Subconsciously worried about it affecting you, maybe."


She nodded with interest. "Well I have to admit the results are impressive. I can't wait to see what you can accomplish with that thing after some time to work with it." She stopped, stepping forward to wrap her arms around me and rest her head on my chest. "It feels so good to have you back with me, Shane. Talking through the bond just isn't the same."


I hugged her tightly. "I know. And I still owe you a honeymoon. But with the succession war coming up…"


She just shook her head. "I'm not in a rush. We're going to spend the rest of our lives together. You being safe is way more important than a honeymoon." She smirked at me. "Besides, imagine where you can take me if you become the Wishmaster. I'm thinking a planet entirely covered in delicious food. Maybe a giant fruit orchard."


I laughed but shook my head. "I figured you'd want to hit something like Strega Thirty Seven. It's a giant ocean of random loot. Half of it is worthless, but there's a whole society dedicated to mining that place for treasure. It's at the junction of a bunch of portals leading to destroyed battlefields and objects fall to earth there every day. It's been going on for centuries now, and some of the biggest up and comers in the universe got their start there."


Her head snapped up, eyes intense. I'd been researching possible honeymoon locations on my downtime for a while now. I knew Callie had to wait because of everything going on, but I refused to let her down beyond that.


I knew my wife though, and the loot goblin in her was strong. Forget paradise planets or fruit orchards, the massive interstellar junk yard full of mysterious loot was pretty much her dream destination. Feeling how smug I was, she cleared her throat, looking away. "Sure," she said with faux nonchalance. "That sounds like fun."


"Never change, honey," I said with a laugh. "Anyway, we can worry about that after the succession war. We've got more than a few of our A-rankers, but B-rank recruiting is going to be a pain. As for C-rank and below…well, I wanted to see if we could get a few Dryads onboard. I bet Daysia would help if I asked. Tree Singing would be a huge advantage in almost any survival situation. I still don't know the details of the succession competition but given the WCP in general and my personal experiences in specific, I somehow doubt it's going to be a puppy shampooing contest."


She cackled at the image. "You say that, but dogs hate getting baths. Imagine Bethy trying to shampoo Luggage."


"CAN you shampoo Luggage?" I asked with genuine interest. "Because I still don't know what hellhounds are made of. Hell, I don't even know if they have actual fur. I'd kind of like to see that now."


"Do NOT suggest that to her," she said firmly. "That hound might be docile around her, but he's way stronger than most of us. With our luck he'd burn the tree down or something and then we'd have no chance of working with the Dryads. I know you well enough to know what you find amusing, but that would be way too much trouble."


I had to admit to that one, so I just nodded. It sounded hilarious to me. I wasn't sure if this was an example of recursion influencing me or just me being an idiot, but I decided to give myself the benefit of the doubt.


"So, we have this big banquet and then we're heading out," I said with enthusiasm. "Where's the next stop on the recruitment tour? I figure since you've been training with my grandmother you might have heard." My grandpa had planned this whole thing, but I hadn't asked him too much about it, having been so excited to see my friends and family.


"One of the imperial clans I think," she said with a grin. "More than that though, while you were out on your nature hike Bethy got a message from her dad. Apparently Abel has successfully completed the first leg of his training, and Lark is sending him out to gain experience."


I perked up. "Wait, he's finished? Did he succeed? Did he learn anything impressive from Lark?"


"I asked that too," Callie snickered. "Bethy said he must have, since he's still alive. I thought she might be joking, but really it's hard to tell with her sometimes."


That was true, but still I was excited. While apparently Bethy was someone I was completely incapable of matching, I wanted to spar with Abel. My mentor had given me a lot of…personal guidance, over the time I'd known him. It was my duty as his student to show him exactly how much I'd improved.


I briefly worried that Bella might come to a similar conclusion later in life once she had trained more…and then I dismissed it. No way she'd be able to keep up. I was safe. Though I decided to maybe be a little less enthusiastic about recreating my mentor's methods.


Callie and I kept talking as we walked back to our place, enjoying the crisp evening air and the alone time. The breeze carried a faint scent of apples and flowers, and the silvery light of the leaf canopy above (it apparently had a moonlight setting) illuminated the world around us in beautiful relief. It was a good night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The returning contestants took longer than expected to get back, so they ended up pushing the feast back until the night after. I spent that whole evening with my wife, and then the next day, after stockpiling my wishes, I went to see Benny. I hadn't checked in with my friend beyond our greeting, mostly because…I didn't know what to say. While he was happy to see me, I knew him well enough to notice the hesitation in his mannerisms when we reunited, and I knew exactly what had caused it.


Benny had come on this trip to explore with me, to have my back, and I was slowly leaving him behind. It was inevitable really. Callie had a whole bunch of very lucky encounters (for some value of that word) and was getting a massive income in stats from all the renown, not to mention possibly being able to gain some inspiration from the scythe (I didn't expect her to be swinging that thing around anytime soon, but using it as a roadmap might be helpful, and if anyone could help with that it would be my grandma), and Jessie had her new racial trait.


My best friend probably felt totally useless, and I hadn't known how to help besides just focusing my wishes on him.Of course, I could still do that if I handed over all my scrolls, but unless he could borrow some cash from Celine he wouldn't be able to pay for it all anyway, because I didn't need stored attacks as much, and if he paid with points he'd just be course correcting and not gaining anything.


But now I'd come up with a new plan. Or rather, one had fallen into my lap. "Catch," I called to my friend as I tossed him the fruit I'd been carrying. He did, his hand reaching up casually to snatch the item from the air without getting up from where he was lounging in front of a small pond.


"You brought me a snack?" he said wryly. "You didn't even peel it. Some effort would be nice." Despite the flippant words, I saw his eyes brighten. He could feel the C-rank power in the fruit, even if he didn't know what it meant.


I laughed and flopped down next to him, putting my arms behind my head and staring out at the pond. "Reincarnation fruit. It'll cleanse the soul. There's actually two ways to do that. There's the normal condensation, which increases clarity and improves your odds of forming a Chronicle, and there's a secondary method that cleanses deeper impurities from things like pills and…honestly I don't even know yet. But I've gone through both, once in the Falls of Lamentation and once in a rebirth ceremony performed by the Lady."


Pointing at the fruit, I grinned. "That is supposed to do the same thing as the falls. It should pave the way for you to get into B-rank more easily, and having a purified soul will make Path stuff easier. Your progress forming your Solid Path should be easy as pie, and it'll help you exert way more power with your Path, which will make gaining renown easier. Even I didn't have something like that going into D-rank. I'm a little jealous."


Benny had been training and working the whole time we'd been apart, probably even harder than Jessie had. I knew some of the wishes had gone to him, but beyond that he'd been busting his ass to get stronger, working on his inventions and integrating new tech I hadn't even seen yet, not to mention his Path advancement.


Without Celine around, he'd been desperately pushing to improve, I'd heard as much from Callie. I didn't feel bad for him or anything, we all trained our asses off, but I thought that kind of determination should be rewarded. Not to mention he was my best friend, and I wanted him to have all the advantages he could get. From a selfish perspective, I didn't want to leave him behind, and this might help with that.


I'd considered giving the fruit to Callie, but after thinking it over, she had plenty of advantages already. Benny had been with me since we were kids, and I owed him my support.


He stared at it with a complicated expression. "I want to say no," he said in frustration. "To give this to Jessie or something. But she already got that new racial trait. I considered wishing for one, but I don't have anything I'm suited for like that. Nothing that feels right. I'm just…mediocre. But this will help me in ways you can't imagine. Invention is heavily dependent on the soul. I think that the way it works is reminiscent of randomly generated Paths. With this, I might be able to more easily control what I make."


"Wait, really?" I asked with interest. "How are the Paths generated?"


"It's like…bringing out the inner nature," he said after a slight pause. "The more I work with my Path the more obvious it becomes. Like calling out the renown inside and letting it twist into whatever form it's most suited for. Basically just letting recursion go nuts on a bunch of materials."


I nodded thoughtfully. "I always wondered about that. Invention is…weird. And the high percentage of mad scientists seemed strange when we were starting out. You never really had that issue, so I thought it wasn't that serious and the others were just hamming it up for renown. I guess your soul has always been a bit further ahead, at least since you really got deeper into Inventing."


"Pretty much," he admitted. "I didn't even realize what it was until I formed my Path, and then it started to seem…familiar. I've been experimenting with infusing my Path into my Inventions to change their nature, and I've had some success. It's kind of like a technique. But this will take my control to a whole new level. And going into D-rank…" his eyes burned with an almost manic intensity. "Shane if I can create enough powerful tech and integrate it all, I think I can upgrade my ability that way. Not exactly a racial trait, but close. And one I make myself."


That sounded amazing. "If you need some help I've made my own temporary racial trait and helped with Jessie's. I mean, you could even wish for the catalyst, but it doesn't sound like you want that."


"No," he said firmly. "Stats are fine, but if you help me with this I feel like I won't ever be able to take the next step on my own. I need to do this myself. It's the only way I'll be sure I can keep going. But this…yeah, this'll help. Thanks, man."


It was funny, I knew Benny well enough to know how his mind worked, and I was aware of how he'd been feeling just from that, but I hadn't seen many signs of it. Benny wasn't the type to show his unhappiness on the surface, at least not most of the time. Now that it was gone though, his previous dissatisfaction was obvious for its absence.


The energy and life that filled his face were the kind that had nothing to do with green fire or stat points, and everything to do with a renewal of purpose. Abel's advice all those months ago about drive and determination flashed through my mind. Maybe this would be even bigger for Benny than I imagined. The idea of my friend being able to catch up to or even surpass me in the short term made me beam with pride, and I hoped this would be as effective as I thought.


"I don't know what this will be like," I warned him. "My experience with this process happened during the course of trials for a goddess of torture. So you can imagine that the sensation might not be what you'd describe as pleasant. I don't know if the fruit will be the same…but I also don't know it won't."


Of course, I had no clue how much of the Falls of Lamentation had been Falls and how much had been Lamentation, so to speak. It was highly possible the actual reliving of my experiences was the only necessary part and all the suffering was just Order of Mercy seasoning. For Benny's sake I hoped so. My best friend was tough, but I wasn't sure it was possible to get through some of the stuff I had without gradually working up to it.


Before I could warn him again though, a message shot through the bond and I cursed. He raised an eyebrow at me and I climbed to my feet, brushing off my armor. "The last Dryad just got back. We're being summoned for the banquet. I have to go schmooze tree people to try and recruit some B and C-rankers."


"Sucks for you," he gloated. "I'm going to go eat this fruit and get way stronger. Bet you wish you could skip like I am."


I snorted. "Dude, I remember going through what you're about to. I'd rather deal with politics all day than go through that again. Have fun spending your next two hours curled up in a ball on your bathroom floor crying and throwing up."


"You cried?" he snickered as we walked away from the pond. "Wuss. I bet I won't make a sound. I've always been tougher than you."


"More delusional at least," I retorted. "Remember when we were fifteen and you broke your toe? You acted like you got eviscerated. You would stare dramatically off into the middle distance whenever you talked about it. I've met literal crying infants with a higher pain tolerance than you."


He bristled. "That was a COMPOUND fracture! Those are extra painful. And I don't want to hear that from the guy who sprained his ankle and told everyone he broke it in three places. I-"


"If you idiots don't hurry up, I'll show BOTH of you what suffering feels like," came my wife's voice from a nearby shadow. "The banquet already started and they're hassling me to know where the big hero is. Daysia won't shut up about how amazing you are and I'm getting mobbed."


I winced. "Sorry honey," I called sheepishly. "I'm on my way." I turned to Benny. "You got lucky this time."


"Please, your wife totally saved your ass," he sniffed scornfully. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat this fruit and then casually relax and watch a movie. Then make fun of you for being such a baby." He flipped me off and we separated, me heading toward the banquet and him back toward his tree lodgings. Before he got too far though, he stopped. "Shane?" he asked quietly. I made a sound of inquisition and he sighed. "Thanks. For real. It means a lot. I won't let you down man."


I laughed. "I know that, idiot. Be careful with that fruit. Seriously."


"I will," he promised. "And you kick some ass at that banquet. Snag us some tree people for the trip."


Smiling, I watched him go. I followed the sensation of distress to the banquet hall, and Chelsea met me at the door with a smirk. "You're in so much trouble," she told me with a grin. "Callie has been fielding questions from admiring Dryads, including Daysia who I think has a crush. She is NOT pleased."


I shrugged. "She'll get over it, I can't help being awesome. Someone was bound to notice." I did a fake flex, making sure to exaggerate so it was clear I wasn't actually that conceited. My sister remained unamused. Everyone was a critic.


Sulking because no one appreciated my humor, I made my way over to Callie, slipping in to sling an arm over her shoulder. "Sorry ladies, need to borrow my wife for a minute. I'm lost without her you know."


Callie's shoulders straightened smugly as we walked away, and I triggered Bael as soon as we broke line of sight. "Well," I said with a laugh. "That seemed like fun. Now, who am I supposed to talk to around here to get some backup?" I saw her consider being annoyed, but eventually she just laughed along with me and turned me toward one of the Dryad elders. Hopefully this party wasn't going to go on all day. Maybe Benny WAS the lucky one.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The banquet was surprisingly energetic. Most of the ones I'd been to were somber, formal affairs, but the Dryads were incredibly lively. Dancing, singing, party games. Rather than champagne or wine they served chilled fruit smoothies (though some of the fruits were intoxicating, I avoided those) and everyone was laughing and having a good time.


The group of Dryads who had been looking for me (most of whom had just been hoping I could help them like I helped Daysia, despite my insistence that SHE had helped ME) had all been scared off by Tasha and Alyssa, so we were free to approach the elders and some of the stronger Dryads in peace.


Speaking of Alyssa, Tasha's daughter had bonded with a powerful metal and electric attribute tree called a "Gold Leafed Thunder Spirit Tree", and was glowing literally as well as figurative. The latter glow was mostly because of her date, a smug looking Jessie, who had finally gotten the courage to ask the girl out. I was happy for her, both because I knew that her relationship with Maria was over because of the strain of distance, and because Alyssa seemed like a good match for her.


Daysia, meanwhile, had dragged a very similar looking Dryad woman and a tall Dryad man with lavender hair over to us. "Mom, dad, this is Solomon, he helped me so MUCH. I don't think I could have ever found my tree without him. Solomon, this is my mother Heather and my father Connifar."


It was clear she was trying to pitch me some helpers, and B-ranked Dryads would definitely be helpful. I smiled at the couple from behind my mask. "Nice to meet you. Are…am I allowed to ask what your tree is? Or is that impolite, I don't know the etiquette."


Heather laughed cheerfully. "Perfectly fine, dear. Con is bonded to a Dreamcatcher Oak, and my partner is a Sunshine Maple. Daysia got her attribute alignment from me, I think. Though clearly she's much more compatible with her tree than I was, and already C-rank. It took us both centuries to reach B-rank. I can't thank you enough for giving her this opportunity."


"Is it really that important to have a higher rank tree?" I asked. "I mean I get that it makes ranking up easier, but…"


Connifar shook his head. "You don't understand. The rank up prerequisite is the biggest roadblock to Dryad advancement. Our growth is steady and our foundations are much more solid than normal Ascendants, but the price for our power is slower advancement. Trees are long lived beings, and they grow slowly. There are substances to increase that growth speed, but they're rare and difficult to get in large quantities."


"No to mention the headstart," added Heather. "With her tree already at C-rank, Daysia can continue to help it grow to the edge of B, preparing herself to help it break through again once she ranks up to C herself. Her Dawntreader Elm is near the peak of C-rank as well. Rather than just being a rank ahead, it's closer to two. As long as she doesn't rush herself too much, she'll have no barriers up to B-rank. Especially not with her tree's Path to use as a model for her own advancement. You've completely changed her future."


"She helped me more than I helped her," I said firmly. "The new staff she helped me get, the one she helped shape. Well, my Ten Demons Tree wouldn't exist without her." I called the staff out, enjoying the sensation of it smacking into my palm as it appeared in my hands.


Connifar whistled. "That's a beautiful weapon. Lady Tasha's work, I assume? Her Bulwark Bonsai has always had a strong affinity for Sapsteel. There are many trees that can condense it, but hers is the highest quality. May I?" I nodded, passing him the staff. I could recall it into my soul at a moment's notice so it wasn't like he could steal it.


He passed it between his hands, stepping back as he whirled the weapon around himself in a complicated flowing pattern. "A regal piece," he said with a solemn nod, handing it back.


"Oh stop being such a stick in the mud," laughed Heather. "My husband can be a bit somber. We just wanted to thank you, and possibly discuss joining your retinue."


I nodded enthusiastically. "I'd love to talk about that. Though I was curious, how would you all come with us? Don't you need to be like…with your trees? I'm not sure what the limitations are on that."


"There aren't many," she assured me with a warm smile. "The bond between a Dryad and their lifebound tree is a soul connection. I'm told you and your wife have a similar bond, do you have any issues being separated?"


That made a lot of sense. I'd been subconsciously leaning on old Dryad stories for my information. "So, you two want to join my retinue? You realize the succession war is going to be rough. We're allowed ten B-rankers and five A-rankers, so you'll be up against pretty steep odds. I don't even know how many relatives will be IN this competition. I'm guessing probably not just a few."


Which actually explained why the limitations on A and B-rank forces were in place too. I knew there were a hundred S-rankers in the universe, give or take (not counting the ones brought over by the vanished gods), but how many A-rankers were there? Ten times that number? A hundred times? Even if it was a hundred times, that was only ten thousand Ascendants. Letting any competitor field more than five risked taking a large bite out of the top ranked forces if anything happened.


If there were two hundred contestants that was a full TENTH of the A-rank forces in the universe. Granted my numbers could easily be off, but I was still sure that resource scarcity was part of the motivation for the throttling of high ranking forces, at least as much as "fairness" a concept the WCP rarely had any use for.


"So…what do you guys DO?" I asked slowly. "I don't know how the variants of Dryads actually work. Just that bonding to a tree makes you different."


Connifar shrugged. "It's mostly Path harmonization. Makes techniques easier. We get a sort of base power with the racial trait that works like a Job. Becomes a main Skill. The real benefit is being able to mobilize soul power across the bond. It's like having two souls, though plants can't break their shackles."


Even with a lower level soul, having a secondary source of soul strength was pretty useful. I could see why Dryads considered themselves so powerful at the same rank, even if it was harder to advance.


Heather cut in. "At least for us personally, I have a lot of fire and light techniques, and Connifar can use a mental attribute that's incredibly difficult to defend against. He calls it Dreamshadow, and it's sort of a silvery mist that fogs the mind. We're considered two of the more effective B-rankers in the Temple, though admittedly not the top."


"That's Salvang," Connifar grimaced. "Strong man, but not the most humble, and not so easy to get on with."


His wife smirked. "Salvang had a bit of an infatuation with me when we were younger. He used to ply me with gifts. Admittedly, he's also a bit of an ass, but Con is a bit sensitive when his combat prowess is brought up."


"He bound a C-rank tree in his ceremony," sniffed Connifar. "It's just a brief advantage. Another thousand years or so and I'll catch up. Regardless, Salvang is in line for an elder position when he hits A-rank. He wouldn't leave the Temple. We, however, would be happy to be two of your B-rank warriors. If you would have us."


I nodded enthusiastically. "Hell yes, even just Tree Singing would be a huge boon for us. We have no idea what the succession war actually entails, so versatility is key."


In fact, I was on the fence about trying to get an A-rank Dryad, but with only five, I had to be sparing with my invitations. Mom, Zeke, possibly dad. Maybe Killian? And potentially an A-ranked Vampire if Bethy could swing it. Having seen how terrifying my friend was going all out, having someone of that level on my team would be a hell of a comfort.


Most of my picks were more recent A-rankers, but at the A-rank Path mattered more than stats. Mom, dad, Zeke, they all had absurdly powerful abilities for their level, with my dad crushing another A-ranker who had beaten Zeke down and Zeke himself destroying an A-ranker at B-rank, bridging a MONUMENTAL Impact gap. My mom had two abilities, which meant theoretically should have two Solid Paths (even if I wouldn't be able to take that Path due to how overcomplicated and time consuming creating my Domain had become) and could honestly be even scarier than the other two for all I knew.


Whoever my last one or two A-rankers were would need to be elites, and while Tasha seemed nice, I didn't think she was in their weight class.


After confirming Heather and Connifar for two of my B-ranked slots and adding Daysia to the retinue, I decided that my high rank Dryad quota had been filled. Whereas before it seemed like a chore to fill all those spots I had available now it suddenly felt like there weren't nearly enough of them.


Still, with two B-rankers down, I still had plenty of C-ranked slots. Alyssa, being Tasha's daughter, was able to introduce us to the most promising C-rank candidates. There were a surprising amount of them, but sadly most of them weren't willing to come along. I had my pick of about fifteen C-rank Dryads who had been enticed by the promise of power and adventure. I picked five of them.


A tall, teak skinned man with bright purple named Eldrys, a shorter girl with red leafy hair and blue eyes named Naria, a pair of twins named Zelden and Rayda (both pale with green hair and eyes, though Rayda, the sister, had longer hair), and a short, barrel chested man with green skin and a green leafy beard named Kelgan.


The others either didn't want to go despite saying they did or were annoyingly cocky. Given we were meeting back up with Abel I didn't have room in my life for that nonsense.


Once we finished up, I went to find my grandfather. He was outside standing on branch walkway out of the large tree building, staring down into the darkness. "Hey old man," I said casually. "What are you doing out here? Want me to leaf you alone?"


He rolled his eyes. "That was terrible. And no, it's fine. Just thinking. Not that long ago, at least as I measure it, I was here with Tasha, ready to go on an adventure. The seed journey is the next step in the Temple journey, undertaken by new B-rankers. That's when they're considered strong enough to venture out on their own."


"She said it was her fault," I said matter of factly. "Everything with Black Sorrow."


He rolled his eyes. "Despite what my wife would have you believe, her mother is more than capable of causing problems without provocation. Celia loves her mother, and she makes excuses. Not to mention she's a god. It's hard to hold grudges against a force of nature. Of course, that's recursion talking. But it doesn't change how we feel."


"Wait…what?" I said with a blink. "What do you mean?"


He laughed. "Gods are beings beyond human understanding, beyond petty mortal concerns, revered and lionized, they're above reproach. Or at least, that's what they tell us. It's part of their marketing. Kind of like how being an Ascendant makes it easier to do brave or stupid things because we all associate Ascendants with those kinds of actions."


I frowned for a second, then started laughing. Well that certainly explained a few things. "Well, I can't wait to be a god myself then. All I have to do is become the Wishmaster. Guess we ought to get going to our next stop then, huh? I have an army to recruit." The affairs of gods were out of my hands, I could only worry about my own coming troubles. Worry or not though, I would damn sure be prepared.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Our next stop was the Imperial clan descended from Alkem, the Varhana clan. They were a Ducal clan under Duke Darius Varhana, known for their wind attribute abilities. Apparently even in Alkem's time they had a whole legacy of wind based Skills and spells, and often synergized them with their main Skill to create unique capabilities.


It wasn't a bloodline, because they'd never had an S-ranker, but after generations of similar abilities they had a tendency to develop powers in that vein, which was a fascinating little quirk. I had no idea you could achieve that effect without merging with a Saga.


I'd been planning to pick up Sable and Dom, but the two of them had elected to meet us at the Varhana clan home base, a B-ranked planet called Akasha. We'd been approved for meetings with their clans but they would be a week or so out. Ostensibly because they needed time to prepare their hospitality, but Zeke told me it was more of a power play. A-rank factions had a lot of pride, and especially in their own territory couldn't be seen capitulating too easily, even to a candidate.


We didn't have much information on Akasha at this point. Alkem hadn't been back in thousands of years, so any knowledge he had of the planet was completely useless. Even the oldest living member of the Varhana clan hadn't been born yet when he was frozen, and while they HAD already been on the planet, it had been C-rank when he went under.


The only real reason they were welcoming him back so enthusiastically was because of a particularly powerful legacy Skill he practiced that had been lost to the clan for millennia. I didn't dig into it because it seemed like an internal thing, and honestly I didn't need more fucking Skills, I already had way too many if you counted subskills from DS Mastery. Still, his lack of information meant we were flying blind here, so Callie and I were waiting in the bridge to watch the initial descent onto Akasha.


Which was what were seeing now. As we watched, the ship descended into the atmosphere, and on a large screen in front of us, the details of planet Akasha came into view.


It was, of course, absolutely beautiful. Most high rank planets were gorgeous, which made sense given the renown needed to rank them up was as good as terraforming. Still, the strange way that stories could spread and twist, combined with the changes brought on by Ascendant materials, animals, plants, people, and even natural formations, meant that high ranked planets could be pretty unique, and Akasha was by far the most interesting I'd seen.


Firstly, there was almost no land on Akasha. Or rather, no land on the surface. Below us, over a citrine sea of leaping waves, continents floated miles above the ocean, chunks of rock suspended in the air.


The reason for that was pretty obvious at a glance, because among the waves, howling gales of wind raged and whipped across the surface of the planet, hurling the ocean to and fro. The continents were high enough up to avoid the waves and wind, but there were jagged mountains spearing out from the seas that weren't so lucky. As we watched, the wind and waves pounded the dark stone, and based on the pitting and sharp lines on the rock, the water was hitting pretty damned hard.


Alkem, who had been called up when we started our descent, entered, staring down at the planet with a conflicted expression. "The Sulfuric Sea has risen," he said unhappily. "It wasn't this high when I was here last. And some of the continents remained on the surface. Important land with cherished history. To abandon the caverns and labyrinths of the ruined cities in the Valkyr Wastelands, the weeping palaces of the Benretti hills. What could have changed Akasha so much?"


"Time," said Zeke bluntly. "Time changes everything. Even the gods aren't totally immune to time, much less a B-rank planet. Sorry, just following up, that ocean is literal acid? Because time changing things is pretty common but that one is new for me."


My grandfather snickered. "I've seen it before. I visited this one planet where the whole ocean was made of a gelatinous bouncy substance you could sink into. It would digest anyone who fell in. Turned out the whole thing was a giant slime monster. Coastal property values went down pretty drastically after we publicized it."


Alkem chuckled softly. "Yes, it is acid. The Sulfuric Sea is a unique feature of the planet. It's sop powerful the waves actually burn away the air as they crash. It creates pockets of vacuum that disturb the atmosphere, creating the powerful winds that rake the planet.


"They were a staple of Akasha even before the sea expanded." He said wistfully. "It's why the Varhana specialize in wind Skills. The animals in the sea are also shockingly powerful. Fishing is a dangerous but lucrative business. Or at least it was. Who knows how things have changed with the alterations of the climate and environment. Perhaps fishing the Sulfuric Sea is no longer possible."


I nodded with interest, though I suppressed a small chuckle when I saw my wife eyeing the ocean speculatively. She loved food almost as much as loot, and super powerful acid fish was both.


"So, which of these continents are we heading to?" I asked Alkem, gesturing to the screen. "Looks like there's a fair few of them. You've been in contact with your family, right? How did you manage that by the way?"


"Wishes," answered Callie for him. "They used some of the scrolls. They paid in cash."


Alkem smiled. "It was quite useful to be able to reach out so simply. But yes, they told me where to go. We are looking for the highest continent. The one made of golden stone. Its name is Deva. It shouldn't be difficult to spot." He pointed at the display. "In fact, I see it right now."


I did too. Staring out at the screen it was pretty obvious based on the description. In fact, I probably should have guessed earlier, because Deva was the most opulent and majestic of the continents. However, it was also on the other side of the planet. B-ranked planets were big, but being so high up in the atmosphere we had a bird's eye view so we didn't have to go far before more of the world was revealed, and Deva came into view only seconds after I'd asked my question.


My first impression, as we descended toward it, was…gold. Lots and lots of gold. Not normal gold, obviously, because mortal metal would have been crushed into dust on a planet like this, and I could see even as we approached that the metallic…stone, according to Alkem, was at least D-rank.


It was a sprawling palatial city covered in towers, spires, and strange swirling and twisting architecture. Not twisted in a way that an architect could manage, but like someone had melted and shaped the stone itself. Some parts of it had even turned crystalline, making natural windows in the rock that were mostly covered in curtains. "Damn," I said in a reverent tone. "Now that's how you build a house."


Alkem looked similarly impressed. "Golden stone was very rare in my day," he admitted. "Such exquisite workmanship requires abundant resources for practice. I too am impressed by the beauty of this new architecture."


Everyone else nodded along as we approached. Gold is normally a pretty intense design element. It's easy to overwhelm people with it, making your whole project look gaudy and cheap. But because of the melting of the stone and the clean and sweeping lines, this whole continent seemed like one solid piece, and the style underscored the natural beauty of the material, making it seem more, for lack of a better term, down to earth.


Which is where we were now heading, having passed through a large number of floating figures that I was pretty sure were B-rankers. Flight was possible on D or lower planets at D-rank, using Impact to push against the natural suppression of the planet, but since we'd left Callus right after hitting D-rank, I'd never been able to do it without wings.


Except they weren't doing that either. Not really. On closer examination I was able to see swirls of wind beneath them all, acting as a platform holding them up. While eyeballing the Impact of a continent was doable through the screen, estimating the rank of a bunch of random flying people was a little harder.


It was kind of nerve wracking, actually. We had introductions to the Temple when we approached before, my grandpa knew Tasha and we were invited by an elder. Here, we just knew Alkem, and he didn't actually know anyone. Sure he was their ancestor or whatever, but the connection was pretty tenuous obviously. Aside from the first impression thing we were also going in mostly blind here. Only knowing we had my grandparents and Zeke and mom along made me feel a little better about the possible risks.


The floating people were NOT stupid enough to attack an S-rank ship, so we slid effortlessly between the buildings, stopping above a large courtyard that Alkem read us directions for off a piece of paper.


When we got there, I was pleased to see that Sable and Dom were already waiting, and more than that, Abel was there, his old black rabbit mask back in place as he lounged in a woven beach chair, wearing a wide brimmed hat with rabbit ear holes punched out and sipping a brightly colored drink from a swirly straw.


As we descended, the air pressure from the ship blew the dust of the courtyard up, and he had to shade his drink with his hand to stop it from being filled with dirt. He glared up at us resentfully, and I grinned, knowing from just that reaction that my mentor was the same as he'd ever been.


I'd worried that hard training from someone like Lark might have changed him, and not for the better. Abel's Path was already based on blood, and training from one of the most feared and brutal beings in the universe was a great opportunity, but it was a lot to handle. Obviously I shouldn't have worried, from his mannerisms, he'd managed to retain that charming devil may care attitude that we all knew and tolerated. Thinking about it, if anyone could handle that kind of pressure it was my teacher. Not to mention I'd been through something similar and come out of it fine, and he was way tougher than I was.


When the ship finally touched down, we all filed out, and I had to admit, despite the increase in pressure, it was nice to be on solid ground. I'd spent so long on B-ranked planets lately I'd developed a bit of a fondness for the stable feeling of hard packed high rank ground under my feet. The whole time back on Callus I'd felt like I was walking on sugar glass.


Abel popped up to his feet casually, ambling over, but he was blindsided by a red masked streak as Mel tackled him from the side, not that he seemed to mind. I had been approaching, but I pulled back, letting Callie meet up with me as the two lovers greeted each other. They'd been separated longer than we had, and we both understood the kind of joy you felt when being reunited with a bondmate, especially one you loved, after such a long time.


Once they finished their reunion, Abel accompanied Mel over, an arm around her shoulder as he greeted us with a wide grin. "Hey kids, miss me? Because man do I have some stories to tell you." I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. It was good to have the gang back together.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, what have you all been upto?" My mentor asked as he flopped back down onto his chair. "Heard you've had some decent fights. Even killed a C-ranker at early D-rank, that's pretty wild. Punching up is doable, but most people only manage it from the peak of the previous realm. Your new minions were telling me all about."

Dom bristled. "What do you mean minions? We're not his minions."

Sable rolled her eyes. "We're totally his minions. But I'm cool with it. What kind of minions get paid with divine artifacts?"

"Hey, I never got paid with a divine artifact," Abel protested. "I was one of your very first minions. Sure, I don't listen to you or do what you say, and I treat you with middling to low levels of respect and don't care that much about your opinion, but other than that I've been an awesome minion! Where's my god weapon?'

Mel snickered, patting him on the shoulder. "I feel like it you repeat that little speech to yourself out loud you might stumble on the answer on your own."

"I already arranged for you to train with the most powerful mortal Ascendant in the universe," I told him mercilessly, enjoying the karmic retribution/ "You only get one life changing opportunity from me. You're not my wife."

He snorted. "Yeah, thanks for that. Being tortured by an insane vampire for a few months was at the top of my bucket list. How would I have gotten through life without this foundational experience." His tone was dry, which was a good sign, so the rest of us weren't shy about laughing at his pain.

"Oh, is that Adnab?" chirped an excitable voice. "Welcome back! Did you have a good time learning from daddy?" Bethy appeared from seemingly nowhere, beaming at Abel as she brushed off her dress.

Abel actually flinched. "Oh! Bethany. I mean Lady Lark, I mean…your highness. It's nice to see you."

Bethy's winning smile deflated, replaced by a suspicious frown. "That's weird. You don't usually refer to me so formally. Or anyone. You're not a formal person at all. Did someone tell you to do that? It was Sebastian wasn't it? That old busybody. Don't listen to him. He's not the boss of anybody."

"Lord Stein is a noble and generous person," said Abel mechanically as he glanced around the courtyard, his eyes darting in paranoid little hops.

Bethy whirled, looking around in outrage. "Oh, he's HERE isn't he? Sebastian! You get out here right now! You're not allowed to bully my friend! Only I'm allowed to do that." She waited, expression thunderous. "Not coming out? Then how about I tell daddy who stole the spine from that Tomb Lord that he was planning to have made into a whip."

There was a whisper of darkness and a tall man appeared in front of us, his expression apologetic. "Young mistress, there's no reason to do that. I would never STEAL from the master. He simply forgot to let us know of his intentions for that piece of material. He completely forgot about it eventually, and there's no reason to bring it up. How did you even hear about that incident?"

"My mom told me," she beamed. "She said you're a busybody and that I needed leverage to keep you from being mean to me." She jerked a thumb at the man. "This is Sebastian Stein, my daddy's personal butler. He's like…super old, but he's stuck at A-rank because his body is built out of dead person parts."

The older man winced. "Young mistress, that is a GROSS oversimplification," he protested.

"It's your power," she said with a shrug. "If you think it's so gross why don't you try something else?"

His shoulder slumped in despair. "Yes, young mistress. I'll take that under advisement." He turned to smile at us pleasantly. "Good evening, my name, as the young mistress so helpfully informed you, is Sebastian Stein, and I am the butler of the Lark family. The young mistress beseeched her father to send one of her siblings to aid you in your succession battle, but the master decided it would complicate matters politically to allow a high ranking vampire to participate."

Bethy's eyes widened. "Daddy sent YOU? But don't you need to mind the house? He won't be able to travel if you aren't there."

My grandfather cleared his throat. "Regardless of internal business, we're honored to have you on our grandson's side, Lord Stein." He shot me an urging look, and I agreed, thanking him for his assistance.

Sebastian Stein looked…old. Which was saying something for an A-ranker. Bethy hadn't been kidding about his age. Silver hair, close cropped beard, serene blue eyes, he was every inch the elegant butler. The only confirmation of her earlier accusations were a few nearly invisible seams running across his skin at the neck, ears, and on his hands. Seams that could easily be very well applied stitches.

My grandfather stepped up next to me, and I felt a subtle shift as he used some kind of stealth technique. "Sebastian Stein is the most powerful non Lark Ascendant under Morgan's control. He must adore his youngest daughter to dispatch his steward. Stein is a Revenant, a necromantic construct of his own design, and he is one of the most powerful A-rankers I know of. His attendance will be a huge boon to your cause during the succession war." When he saw me start to speak and then stop, he chuckled. "You can just respond out loud, I'll hide your traces."

No one, not even the super scary A-ranker, noticed him speaking to me, though I suppose demi-gods have to have their tricks. "Ok, so this guy is some sort of mad scientist undead? Like that old story about the doctor?"

"Similar," he said with a grimace. "Because of his particular powerset, he's stronger than most A-rankers, but he's never been able to integrate a Saga. Regardless, for our purposes he's basically ideal. With him involved, we've got all your A-rank slots filled."

I was just as excited as he sounded, but sadly I was pulled back into the conversation by Bethy, who was lambasting the older man for "bullying her friend". "Isn't that right Shane?" she demanded triumphantly. It took me a second to replay the conversation in my head, but once I did I could only sigh and nod.

"Yes, Abel is an important member of my team. If he were to change because of your decrees it would make me…sad." My tone was dry, but Bethy ignored that, whooping with joy.

"See! Daddy says you're supposed to help Shane, and making him sad isn't helping, so bullying Alice is ignoring daddy's orders!" She sounded smug, and I had to choke down a laugh at her complete refusal to call Abel by his name, despite being actively defending him at the moment."

Sebastian sighed. "Yes, young mistress, I shall endeavor to treat master Abel with more respect. As a nominal disciple of the master, I suppose he deserves at least that much. His Ragam Blood Body is…acceptable. At least for his level. Perhaps he might one day become a halfway competent Ascendant."

Abel rolled his eyes, clearly less terrified the old man would smite him. "Acceptable," he says. My new form is fucking unstoppable. I based it on your staff art, Shane, creating my own Ragam form out of a fusion of my Path and martial art. I know your fire bullshit is overpowered, but there's no way you can keep up with my Ragam Blood Body."

I just smirked at him. With Sammael and my domains, I wasn't afraid of anyone my own level…except Bethy. I was terrified of Bethy. But her powers were bullshit and didn't count. Still, it was impressive he'd managed to create a form like mine. I'd never heard of anyone else doing anything similar. I wondered if he might eventually be able to make a pseudo Domain, though based on what my dad had told me it was vanishingly rare at my rank.

I was about to retort when I felt something change in the air around me. I tensed, ready for an attack, before realizing my grandparents, mom, and uncle were all here, and the chances of me detecting a threat that they couldn't stop before it smashed me like a bug were pretty much zero.

Looking around, I tried to figure out what was going on, and my attention was immediately drawn to something odd. Namely, a reflection in a nearby glass pane. Except it wasn't a reflection of me, or anyone else nearby. It was someone I knew though. Desria.

When she saw me, she slumped with relief. "Fist!" She shouted anxiously. "Thank the gods I got through. We're in trouble. I used your scroll to reach you. After you left, we stuck around Rackham for a while, but we decided to try to put our scrolls to work elsewhere. We waited like you said, but somehow someone noticed us leaving. We were chased into a nearby dungeon by some priests of…someone, and they're hunting us en masse. Hundreds of D-rankers are after us!"

"Des?" I asked in shock. "That's…ok, give me a second," That was a lot to process. "Where are you?" I checked my ring and sure enough, ten E-ranked chits had been deposited. Apparently messages to the actual wish granter weren't too expensive. Good to know.

"The dungeon is called the Screeching Shoals," she said urgently. "It's not too far from Rackham. We were heading here already when they caught up to us. Fist…I think it might be a trap. We're pretty sure they're luring you in. Ray says not to come, but I couldn't think of who else to call. I can't watch them die."

I shook my head. "It's fine," I told her firmly. "You did the right thing. I'm on my way, just lie low and stay safe."

The connection faded, and I turned to look at my grandfather, my expression solemn. "Ok, this little good will tour is going to have to be put on hold." I explained the situation. "I know that gathering my forces is important, but my friends-"

He waved me off. "No, I get that. We'll take you. With all of us here, unless there's an actual god waiting in the wings nothing can hurt you. But the actual dungeon…based on what she said, I think they're right about it being a trap. A hundred D-rankers is a nasty force. Chances are good no one above that rank can enter. I know you're strong, but those won't be normal D-rankers."

I was well aware. Raxus was most likely trying to get ahold of me to learn the location of the other divine artifacts. He'd send his strongest, and a hundred plus…that was a tall order, even for me. Quantity had a quality all its own.

Abel slung an arm over my shoulder with a laugh. "A hundred? Please. That's child's play. I hope they miscounted, honestly, because I could use a workout. We got this."

I stared at him for a minute, touched. Abel didn't know any of my new friends, and had no reason to take a risk like that. Confidence or not he wasn't stupid. That many presumably peak D-rankers were a danger even to him.

"What he said," I laughed. "You all just take care problems outside. But I'm a little worried. What if one of the Vanished gods show up?" I explained my theory about Raxus.

"Don't worry about that," he said confidently. "Gods can't engage directly so easily, not when we have our own to counter. I wouldn't be surprised if Black Sorrow is waiting in ambush in case he tries." That was something I hadn't considered. My great grandmother had pretty much vanished after I passed her the stone, was this still part of the mission? Was I bait? It didn't matter. My friends needed help, and I was going to help them. And I wasn't doing it alone.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, dungeons," I said as we all settled into the Acheron. 'Are they all like the Moonsong Glade?" We'd just gotten off the damned ship, so it was annoying to have to get back on, giving up the firm security of real ground. I was never quite as comfortable in space as I was on a planet. My grandfather pointed out that ships were basically planets, and that he'd been on ships that were LITERAL planets, but it didn't feel the same.


My grandfather shook his head. "Not all of them. I assume you mean are they inaccessible to higher rank individuals? That was a fairly unusual phenomena, but not unique. Locked dungeons aren't the norm, but I'm guessing the one we're heading to is one of them."


"It is," my grandmother said in frustration. "I just pulled it up on the database. It's a minor D-rank dungeon, so I'd never heard of it, but it's spatially locked. Your friends are right, this is a trap."


I frowned in worry. "That seems…insufficient. A hundred D-rankers seems like a lot, but Raxus knows I'm strong enough to beat a C-ranker. He has to assume I can handle that. Sure, maybe he sent some other D-rankers that could punch up, but no way the god of Deception doesn't know I have friends with me."


"The ring you used is a rare and difficult to source enchanted item," my grandmother pointed out. "It's not UNIQUE per se, but it isn't something anyone your level should have access to. Spatially binding two objects across unlimited distance requires S-rank spatial manipulation abilities, if not outright divinity. My mother made those rings herself."


"Which means that since he probably has some method of divining that I haven't seen her yet, he might assume I still have the artifacts," I said grimly. "That's why she never got in touch with me directly. Do you really think this is a trap she set?"


She sighed. "It might be, but we should proceed on the assumption that it isn't. If she arranged this, she's planning to intercept Raxus personally. The gods have their own arrangements for countering each other. Chances are good that we won't see her even if this is her doing, and if we do it probably won't be for long."


"I don't enjoy being bait," I told her bluntly. "Your mother may be a god, but I'm not super fond of the way she does things."


My grandmother gave me a sad smile. "It's hard for gods to see us as people, Shane. Becoming a force of nature changes your fundamental perception of the world. I only barely understand it myself. They retain some semblance of who they were, but it's not…gods and mortals are the same kind of being, but they're made of different things. You've had a small taste of it at D-rank, but imagine crossing that watershed, only a hundred times more intense."


"Why do you make excuses for her?" I demanded. "I get that there's nothing we can do about her behavior, but can't I even complain? Is she going to snuff me out for daring to criticize? Because honestly, if she is I might prefer it to having to keep my mouth shut!"


My voice had risen, and everyone was staring now, my wife looking a little alarmed at the outburst. I knew that not questioning divinity was part of the recursion of the gods, but Black Sorrow just kept pushing and pushing. I would have to be an unfeeling machine not to get at least a little pissed after everything she's done.


"I love her," she said with a shrug. "She's my mother. No matter what she does, that won't change. She's still the woman who carried me across star systems to demand my father's disciple heal me when I got slightly sick as a little girl, who created a new species so I could have a pet after I saw a fictional animal I thought was cute in a book. She's complicated and arbitrary careless, but she loves me more than anything."


"Well, she doesn't love me," I said bitterly.


She shook her head. "No, she doesn't. But she respects you. The mission she chose for you, the tools she gave you. They represent an investment. My mother doesn't waste her investments. Sure, she needed someone who could handle the Enshrining Darkness, but it isn't like she doesn't have a dozen younger members of the clergy who are trained with it."


"So I'm supposed to be grateful she chose to fuck up my life instead of theirs?" I demanded hotly.


"No, of course not," she denied. "I'm just saying that if she does come to care for you, which I believe she might be, it'll be a great benefit to you. She's far from impartial. She directly favors those she cares about. My goal in acting as an intermediary has always been to try to add you to that list. Fighting my mother is an exercise in futility, even my father knows that."


My mom snorted. "I personally think she's wasting her time. But I do agree it would be better to have BS on your side than not."


"So you expect me to bow and scrape to her on the off chance that she might be willing to be nice to me?" I snorted. "Because I'll pass. I'm not stupid enough to be rude to her face but I don't want her good opinion."


Celia laughed. "Amusingly, that's exactly the kind of talk that would get it. I understand your position. Just…don't judge her only by the bad. Those rings are unique and precious treasures. She made them for you personally, albeit at my request. To her, that's already showing a lot of care."


"We're getting off track," Callie interrupted. I expected my grandmother to be annoyed, but she just ceded the conversation to my wife. "We need to know everything we can about the Screeching Shoals. If this really is a trap, it's not one we can worry about. At least not at the divine level. We need to worry about what's IN that dungeon, because Shane is right. Either there are way more D-rankers in there than expected, or they sent something truly nasty. Possibly both."


I grimaced. We had no real context for exactly what the forces of the vanished gods could do. I'd seen some scary people among them at the conclave, and during the trial, but those trial members weren't even REAL initiates. The strongest of the vanished god's forces would be those legacy Ascendants from inside their worlds, who had been cut off from the universe and training in isolation since their gods originally fell.


Thinking about the surge of powerful S-rankers that Lark had fought off, I couldn't imagine what the internal D-rankers from the various god worlds might be like. I glanced at Bethy, Abel, Callie, and all my other friends…and part of me was actually kind of excited. We had to be some of the strongest D-rankers for our level. Sure, we weren't peak D-rank yet, and there were probably some five faction bigwigs who were stronger in D-rank by virtue of higher stats, but I'd give us good odds against anyone close to our level.


"Before we can even worry about that," cut in Abel. "We need to get inside. If this is an ambush they might be waiting with high rankers at the entrance. While I'm sure you could all fight them off in a blaze of glory, sitting around in one place while we explore the depths of the dungeon, consistently repelling ever increasing waves of bad guys seems…suboptimal."


Celia nodded. "You aren't wrong. I can slip us past. The Acheron is my personal vessel, and while my husband is perfectly capable of pushing the speed up, its true value is only visible when it's in my hands. They won't see our approach if I don't want them to. More than that, even after you've gone in, if they have some method of contacting the D-rankers in there, they still won't be able to locate us. I could park this ship on the Vampire's nose and he wouldn't notice it."


"Obviously, if a god shows up, especially Raxus, they'd see it instantly," my grandfather warned. "But under these circumstances we should be able to hang around unseen and wait for you to emerge. Once you've come out we'll make our escape."


"That's all well and good," said my mother grimly. "But looking at this particular dungeon, I don't think it'll be that easy. It's not unstable, it's enfolded."


My grandfather bristled, looking at the database, and then cursed. "Fuck, I missed that. Ok, that's bad." Seeing our confusion, he explained. "Spatial locking comes in multiple forms. There are always unique ways to manipulate any force, given how diverse Paths and abilities get. You've seen unstable space before, essentially it's too fragile to withstand higher Impact, directly collapsing if powerful people enter."


"Enfolded space is different," my mother cut in. "It's a similar mechanism, but it's wrapped AROUND the dungeon instead of overlapping with it. While that may seem like a meaningless distinction, it isn't at all. Because while people of a higher rank can't ENTER, they can still EXIST."


My eyes widened. "You're saying my friends are stuck in there with native high rankers?"


She waggled her hand. "Some, maybe. Locked dungeons distort renown, it makes it harder to rank up. There are probably a few C-rankers, but there won't be anything higher. You should be able to handle C-rankers together. If you're careful. But it'll complicate things. There's a difference between a running battle with a hundred random D-rankers and a running battle inside an occupied dungeon with higher ranked natives."


"Ok, I don't want to be the one to say it, but is this really worth it?" asked Abel bluntly. "You just met these people. Like it's not nice to say, but is risking our lives for some people you hung out with a few times worthwhile."


Bella, who had been mostly quiet until now, bristled. She'd been pretty intimidated by all the new faces and had been trying to disappear into the background and avoid notice, but Abel's words, she stiffened and glared at my mentor. "Hey, shut up rabbit-guy!" We all turned to look at her, but she was too busy glaring to notice. "Elena is a mom. She has two kids. Emma and Simon. Simon is eleven and he was really sick until master helped him. We can't just let his mom die!"


"Elena is with them," I confirmed. "They talked her into going along for the resources. Dungeons usually have some decent treasure and Simon's medical care has mostly wiped out their savings. She could have used that wish I gave her for money, but she decided to keep it in case Simon had a medical emergency." I held up a rolled up piece of paper. "This dropped into my pocket as we were entering. It's all the information they could give about their location and who is with them."


I'd only had a chance to scan it before we started this little meeting, but it hadn't been relevant to entry so I hadn't bothered bringing it up.


Abel blew out a breath. "Great. Kids. None of you bleeding hearts are going to let this go. Fine, whatever, as long as I get to punch things I'm happy. I want to really show off my new form."


Despite his carefree words, his tone was somber. Abel didn't give a shit about most things, but he liked kids. He had offered to train Cass to help with her trauma after being kidnapped by the Heartrippers, even if he played it off like a whim. My mentor might be a violent menace, but he was good people.


"Alright, well, now that we've got that out of the way, lets dig into this dungeon a bit more." I cracked my neck, hunkering down for some serious research. We needed to be ready for whatever was coming, because somehow, I doubted the god of deception had set a trap for me without a few nasty surprises.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took less than a day to get to the entrance to the Screeching Shoals. Like my grandmother had said, the Acheron was a whole different beast when she was the one commanding it. I hadn't noticed a real difference before, but it was clear she'd just been letting us take the scenir route.


Not just in terms of stealth, but speed as well, the ship had completely changed, swimming through space like an invisible fish cutting through still water.


During the trip, I took the opportunity to pass out my scrolls to the crew members, seventy two in total, after figuring out which of them were willing to trade stats. After such a big boost to my stats my wish powers had grown in scope, and I was able to get a whopping fifty points per scroll, though based on the difficulty, I was pretty sure I'd hit my limit again until at least late D-rank.


Thirty six hundred points was nothing to scoff at, but even more impressive was the other sixteen thousand that had come in ambient renown.


When Black Sorrow had started spreading word of our connection, I'd known I'd be seeing a big upswing in points, but it hadn't been more than a month since my big windfall, and to be getting nearly twenty thousand points was going to be an adjustment. Even more of an adjustment was how little those twenty thousand moved the needle in terms of overall rank.


My rapidly snowballing fame wasn't going to be able to keep up once I hit C-rank, or hell, B-rank. I understood now why the Unlucky Thirteen had been created. Funneling renown to the most promising members of the younger generation through those titles was the only way to maintain the fast rank up pace that so many of us grew used to at lower ranks. It put even more pressure on me to deal with this damned succession war seriously.


Still, for the moment I'd need to survive the dungeon, and on that note, I took stock of the changes to my stats. The thirty six hundred went into Might, moving me up to just over ninety six thousand total, five thousand each into Focus and Perception, putting them near and past fifty thousand, respectively, and six thousand into Fantasy putting it almost fifty four thousand.


Might was looking a little stacked, almost twice as high as my other stats, but BS's stories were apparently playing up my cleverness and intuition rather than raw force, and I assumed the Fantasy aspects were because of the involvement of other gods. I found it all pretty unbelievable myself, so I couldn't blame the masses for that one. I was conflicted though, knowing that my great grandmother's influence was helping me keep up, and that I didn't like owing her anything.


Callie took my hand, squeezing it gently to get my attention. As I looked up, she smiled warmly at me. "Don't sweat the big stuff," she told me in a warm but firm tone.


"Pretty sure that's the opposite of the advice most people get," I pointed out wryly.


She shrugged. "You're not most people, Shane. You're involved in a whole lot of shit way above your paygrade. The affairs of gods are beyond our comprehension, isn't that what you told me? So follow your own advice. Focus on the trees, not the forest."


"It would be easier if the forest wasn't on fire," I complained. "But I get your point. Honestly this dungeon might be good for me. Getting back to basics, fighting people our own level with the team." I squeezed her hand. "With you."


She leaned against me happily. "I missed you too, you big reckless idiot. I was learning so much and getting stronger so quickly, but all I could think about was the danger and the pain I could feel from you. I spent the last month or two scared out of my mind you were going to die. I don't want to be a widow before I turn twenty one."


"Then why do you dress like one?" I smirked at her. She let out a faux offended gasp and I triggered Double Trouble on Benny who was nearby, laughing at her squeak of outrage as she fell through my illusion. She didn't actually fall over, catching herself easily, but she blurred to her feet, flashing toward me almost too fast to track.


Benny, who hadn't noticed me appearing behind him, squawked and stumbled back at her sudden rush, and I dropped down into a crouch as he did, letting him flip over my back like I was a table.


Callie screeched a halt as Benny hit the ground, he faux fury derailed by the admittedly unprovoked and unintentional assault on my best friend. She covered her mouth, looking halfway between horrified and amused, but the giggles from behind her hand gave away the game as her body shook with suppressed laughter.


"What the fuck?" Benny spat, throwing his hands in the air. "I expect that from him, but what did I ever do to you, Callie?"


Her face turned red as her laughter redoubled, giggles making it hard for her to breathe. "Gods, I'm so sorry. I was chasing him and he teleported behind you." She turned to me with a weak glare. "Did you have to make me an accomplice?"


"Partners in crime, baby," I said with a wink. "It's me and you against the world." I held out a hand, pulling Benny to his feet, laughing as he glowered up at me. I patted his shoulder. "Thank you for your sacrifice."


At his confused expression, I gestured around us to where everyone was watching with expressions of amusement or exasperation. I saw when it dawned on him what I'd done, and he rolled his eyes. The atmosphere had been a little tense, and I'd seen a chance to lighten the mood. I made a mental note to slip Benny a day's worth of scrolls when I could, to make up for involving him in a stupid childish prank. Then I ratcheted that down to five scrolls, because it wasn't like he hadn't pranked me in the past.


"That was so cool!" Bethy squealed excitedly. "You teleported behind him and you were like "ouaggh" and then you were a table and he fell over. I didn't even think of using abilities to prank people! We should all start doing that!"


"No!" Everyone in the ship immediately shut her down, our hearts filling with terror at the idea of what BETHY would consider a practical joke."


Callie smacked me in the back of the head, scowling. "You see what you do? If I wake up with battery acid in my coffee or something I'm blaming you. Honestly, do you want to get us all killed?"


I winced. Bethy had very little understand of proportional response. I wasn't sure how much of that was her messing with everyone, but I WAS sure it wasn't all of it. I cleared my throat. "No pranks in the dungeon," I told the vampire sternly. "We can talk about anything else later, but we're going to be entering soon and we need to be on our guard."


She pouted, but eventually nodded with a sigh. "You got it bestie, super serious." She stuck out a pinkie. "Pinkie swear? Cass taught me this. She said it means you can't break your promise no matter what."


I laughed, but extended my pinkie, locking it with hers. Cass did take her pinkie promises seriously."


"As adorable as that is," drawled my grandmother as she appeared beside us. "I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this heartwarming moment short. We've arrived, and we have a problem. Come with me."


The laughter on the faces of my companions faded, replaced by worry, and we headed over to the other side of the bridge, where the screen that showed the exterior of the ship was positioned. Actually, the screen could change size and location, but prior to this there had been nothing but space outside, so none of us had been paying attention.


"Radiant slide frequency filter," my grandmother said calmly. One of the crew, sitting at a terminal, hit a few buttons and…something happened. There was a ripple across the screen, and where before nothing had been out among the empty stars, now there were quite a few things. Gaps in space that looked like nothing so much as warped vision from a very curved piece of glass floated in the void of space.


My grandmother pointed. "First of all, as I'm sure you can see, there are quite a few ships waiting for us. We can avoid those, the Acheron is undetectable with me running it provided no gods show up." She moved her fingers and pulled on the edges of the screen, zooming in. "Our main issue is this, however.


"As you can see, the folded space of the dungeon is visible in this spectrum, I won't bore you with the details of this filter, but this is concerning." She zoomed in on a large spherical warp, focusing closer until we could see what looked like flows and patterns in the twisting space. "This is spatial power, as I'm sure you could guess. Folded space dungeons have very stable spatial power. The exact stability is called the Vechner Coefficient, actually, but that's not important right now, what IS important is the speed and complexity of those ripples."


My grandfather cut in. "What she's trying to say is that someone has connected to the inside of that dungeon from the void. It doesn't change the facts of entry, even from that side, no one above D-rank can get in, but we have no way of knowing how MANY they sent. And they can keep sending them."


That was…suboptimal. There was a big difference between them sending a hundred people into the dungeon and having a back door through the void. Theoretically they could flood the entire dungeon with D-rankers. Who knew how many existed in worlds those gods were hiding in the void.


Obviously guessing my thoughts, my grandfather smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry too much. There's a war going on. D-rankers are the main combat force Ascendants use in large scale battles. They might have kept some of their strongest in reserve, but there's no way they're going to mob you too badly. Especially since there's C-rankers in that dungeon. The more they send the more they risk getting into a dustup with the locals, and that doesn't benefit anyone."


"Maybe," I conceded. "But there's still probably going to be more of them than we anticipated. Besides our own problems, I'm worried about my friends."


My grandmother nodded. "Understandable. But the question needs to be asked. Are you still willing to go in? We have know way of knowing exactly how many will be inside or what the situation is. I know you're determined to help, but this might be a very bad idea."


"I don't believe they can stop us," I said bluntly. "With Dantalion, Murmur, and all my various combat abilities I can run, hide, and fight better than almost any D-ranker I can name. With Bethy, Callie, and Abel there, our combat power should be some of the best in the universe for our rank."


If this was a pitched battle I might have been concerned, but we were dropping into a large scale dungeon. Murmur and Dantalion meant I could both hide and seek perfectly. They'd never catch us unless I wanted them to.


Sighing, she smiled sadly and pulled me into a surprising hug. "You remind me so much of your grandfather," she said as she squeezed me tight. "Hopefully you're better than he is at staying out of trouble though. Be safe, Shane. If things go wrong, have Calliope use her bangle to report to us. We can figure out some way to get you out." I nodded to her confidently and she sighed, turning to the screen.


With a flick of her wrist, I watched her tear a swath of darkness in the air, through the screen and into space itself. It was a dizzying effect, and trying to understand how she did it gave me a migraine, but she just gestured to the hole. "Alright, this will take you inside. But that's all I can do. Good luck, and take care of each other." And with that, we stepped into the dark, plummeting through space toward the Screeching Shoals.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Landing inside the Screeching Shoals was surprisingly anticlimactic. I was half expecting to be attacked right off the bat, but glancing around, it was clear that we weren't in any immediate danger. At least not from people. Environmentally though, there was still some hazards around, something that was pretty clear from the moment we landed.


We were standing on a rocky outcropping, something you might generously call an island, if you had read that word in a dictionary and had never actually seen one. The sea around us was dark and choppy, completely opaque and covered with a thin film of mist. Away from our outcropping, several long wooden walkways extended into the obscuring fog lit at the edges with small lumps of blue green flame floating in the air just above the edges.


"This place is super creepy," noted Bethy bluntly. "I don't love it. Not creepy like daddy likes things, but like…that weird kind of creepy where everything is secretly run by tentacle monsters."


I nodded. "Yeah, weirds me out too. A bit of advice that Desria gave me, stay away from the water. There are creatures in there, and I'm pretty sure they're mostly C-rank. Stick to the walkways, apparently they're protected."


"Good to know," said Callie grimly. "You have a general heading for where they are?"


I waggled a hand. "Sort of. I know the name of the town they were last passing through, but I don't have a map of this place. We're going to need to visit a city to check in. Based on what they told me, the whole setup of the shoals is kind of like a snowflake, radiating clusters of empty rock islands coming off small villages which themselves come off cities, which radiate away from a central continent type island."


"So…the whole place is on this creepy black ocean?" Abel said dryly. "Gosh, because that doesn't seem like a bad omen."


Mel rolled her eyes. "Honey, shut up. No one is under the impression that this is an ideal situation. Your sarcasm isn't helpful. At least wait until we get to somewhere less…terrifying." She shivered. "I'm cold. But not like, physically cold. There's this weird sort of spiritual chill that my flames can't seem to shake."


Chelsea stepped up next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. White purifying fire washed over our red masked friend, and she let out a groan of appreciation. Seeing my sister do her thing, I triggered Zagan, imbuing everyone within reach while she did the same. Making a quick and dirty technique to keep the fire clinging to them was easy enough, especially given Zagan's flame and its life force enhancing properties.


Abel, Mel, Chelsea, Bethy, Gabe, Serah, Holly, Callie, Bella, Dom, Sable, and Daysia. Thirteen people all told, for this trip. I'd really wanted to bring Benny and Jessie, but they were both still E-rank. Jessie was preparing for her D-rank breakthrough with a little help from Alyssa, and Benny was taking the fruit. He'd also caught the attention of Sebastian, who had become interested in Benny's ability and Path and their similarities to his own, so I was expecting a big bump in his combat power when we got back.


"Alright, everyone stick close," I closed my eyes, Dantalion flickering out…and I immediately slammed my Perception closed and dropped the form, staggering. Callie caught me, looking confused, and I tried not to collapse as my knees got weak. "Holy SHIT," I choked. "Ok, DEFINITELY stay away from the water."


The underside of the dark waves was…awful. The ocean was packed with horrifying twisted creatures, all of them starving and dying to feast on the flesh of humans. Some of them had fucking NOTICED me seeing them.


Trying to shake off the sensation of being stared at by a million hungry eyes, I picked a direction. "That way," I shuddered. "We need to go that way. It's had the most traffic, so it should take us to a village at least. Just…be careful. Stay away from the edges. And stick together, I don't like this place."


My boots crunched on the loose gravel as I led the way to the left hand walkway, the sound of my steps echoing strangely in a way they shouldn't out in the open. Everyone grimly lined up, following me carefully, and we made our way down the walkway slowly, taking extra care to watch for danger. The protections on the walkways held, but we saw tentacles and eye stalks rise from the dark water to follow us, tracking our movements as if waiting for us to slip.


In a literal sense, the trip across the first few bridges was probably only an hour or so, but it felt like eternity. When we finally caught sight of the larger island where the village was situated, we all sped up as much as we could without being reckless.


Arriving on the island, there was an immediate sense of relief to be back on solid ground where it was safe. Or at least safer. The first village we came to wasn't any less creepy than the rest of the dungeon, but it was more unsettling than terrifying, which was a win in my opinion. The village was, as the word might imply, small. A collection of run down dark wood buildings, mostly decomposing and clearly in heavy need of repair from constant exposure to the sea mist.


As soon as we stepped onto the island, we were noticed. Windows slammed shut, the only gap being the space needed to peek out.


Only one man emerged, coming out to meet us. He was old and gaunt, clearly not healthy and only E-rank. "What is your business here, strangers?" He asked in a reedy, shaking voice. "We have no food to share, nor gold to steal. You'll find robbing us a useless endeavor."


I stepped up, holding my hands palm out to show I meant no harm. "Whoa there, no one is here to rob anybody. I'm looking for some friends and got turned around. I just need some directions and we'll be on our way." I cocked my head. "You get a lot of robbers around here? You don't seem surprised to see us."


He chuckled bitterly. "Robbers, Mistwardens, Pale Men, there are always unwelcome things in the mists. The Mistwardens are ostensibly supposed to protect us, but Malzareth only cares about his tributes. The robbers and the Pale Men stalk the shoals, taking gold and living flesh as their due."


Lot of information there. But not enough. "Who is Malzareth?" I asked cautiously.


This time his laugh was a full throated bark, though just as bitter. "Malzareth the Unceasing is the lord of Highhaven, the city to whom this village owes fealty. One of the undying generals under Skartaris the Weeper. You must be lost indeed not to know his name." He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Very well. You may come inside. I suppose I couldn't stop you in any case. You're all clearly at least at the Mistwarden level."


I got the feeling he was talking about our ranks. If these Mistwardens were consistently D-rank, that would probably make them the main fighting force of this dungeon's society. Malzareth would most likely be high D-rank or possibly C.


Shooting my companions a look, I gave a subtle nod, and all of us marched into the village behind the man. It wasn't a long walk, but he made it VERY slowly, so we had time to talk a bit.


The man's name was Wesley, and he was the mayor of this town, Rothook. They were apparently a fishing village, using some kind of net system to catch VERY small and innocuous creatures from the ocean. They caught enough to eat most of the time, if barely, but Malzareth charged them a monthly tribute. The fish from the black ocean was actually highly prized, especially their scales, which could be used to make fine but very durable armor.


He also filled us in a bit on the Pale Men, essentially robbers who had fallen into the ocean and survived. Something they saw down there had driven them insane, and when they emerged, they had new and unsettling powers and a hunger for human flesh.


I shuddered at the explanation, thinking of some of the things I'd sensed down there. I could see how some of those beings might be able to make a deal with a person.


The Mistwardens were Malzareth's guard, and they patrolled the shoals in the area adjacent to his city. They were supposed to hunt robbers and Pale Men, but they mostly just bullied the fishermen into offering them extra tribute. Fish from the black ocean didn't rot, apparently (which I found even more unsettling than the idea of eating them to begin with), so the smallest kind, called groush, were used as a form of currency.


Finally, we reached the house in the center of town. I'd have called it "nicer" but that would have implied it wasn't basically a shack made of rotten boards, so I noted that it was at the very least bigger than the other houses. I didn't say that out loud, obviously, I wasn't a monster. I just complimented Wesley on his home.


He seemed proud of it, and welcomed us inside. Apparently none of the other homes in the village would have been big enough to fit us all. Not just the ten of us and Wesley himself, but his wife Vanna and son Michael as well.


Vanna was a thin, nervous looking woman with intricately braided hair and dark skin. Despite her obvious uneasiness, she was a warm and welcoming hostess, offering us all a fish stew she'd been simmering for, apparently months. That was another thing that threw me off. Apparently since the fish didn't go bad, most families had a pot of stew boiling for their entire lives, adding new ingredients to it over the years and allowing it to cook down.


As D-rankers, we were pretty much unpoisonable by something an E-ranker could eat safely, so we accepted hesitantly, though I insisted on giving them some supplies from my ring in return, stuff like bread and veggies to eat with their stew.


To my absolute shock, the stew was delicious. It had this sort of uber permeated flavor that blended dozens of tastes in a way I'd never tried before, and I saw Callie looking regretfully at the pot, obviously wanting more but not being willing to ask. I mentally comforted her, telling her through the bond that I'd learn to make the stew myself.


Michael was about thirteen and fascinated by us, especially Abel, for some reason. The kid couldn't get enough of my mentor's stories. All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend an evening, and the warmth of the stew helped chase away the chill of what I'd seen under the water.


Wesley passed us a map of the local area, though it only covered the shoals around Highhaven rather than the entire dungeon. Still it was a godsend, and I copied it gratefully before returning it along with some gold. Apparently they still used it here, and I had a pretty decent amount stockpiled from years of travel where mortal money was literally worthless.


Finishing up dinner, we bid them goodbye, deciding to head inward to Highhaven and try to get a hotel there instead of resting in the village. We were just getting ready to leave when we heard it. A twisted, horrifying scream. Wesley's head jerked up, eyes going wide with terror. "No," he whispered fearfully. "They're here." Turning, he bellowed back to the village. "PALE MEN! The Pale Men are coming! Retreat to your homes and light your candles!"


He turned back to us desperately. "Friends, please, come back inside. You can take shelter under the light of our candle. We need to go, quickly. They'll be here soon." He shot a terrified glance out into the fog, and through the mist I could see shapes moving, human shapes, walking along the surface of the choppy black water. From the direction of the shapes, another horrible scream echoed. Huh, so THAT was why they called it the Screeching Shoals.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The forms that emerged from the sea mist were only nominally "men". They had all the parts that made up a human: skin, eyes, even hair to an extent, but those parts were…lacking. The skin was too tight and wrapped around what looked like desiccated flesh, their eyes were shriveled and cloudy, and their hair was wispy and brittle looking, more like straw than healthy human hair.


In short, they looked super creepy. But what they looked like was nothing compared to the SOUND. The screams that came from their gaping, nearly toothless mouths wasn't just LOUD, it affected us on a psychological level. I was able to brush it off, as were Abel and Bethy, but those of us with less training dealing with psychological pressure looked spooked. We sent the rest of them inside with Wesley and his family, while the three of us waited out here.


Abel grimaced at the hideous Pale Men (weirdly they DID all seem to be men, which made wonder if the Pale Women just didn't exist or traveled in a different group), shaking his head in disgust. "I'm not even sure I want to touch those things long enough to beat them to death."


Bethy nodded. "Super gross," she agreed. "They look like overcooked chicken wings. You know, like when they cook all the moisture out and its just like shriveled meat and fried skin on a bone? They probably taste way worse though."


"No eating the sea zombies," I told her sternly. "You don't know where they've been."


Hesitating slightly, I triggered Dantalion. We were pretty firmly inland, so I didn't have to go through mind break as I stared into the endless abyss that was the ocean. I kept the radius of my detection penned in to a hundred feet or so. Dantalion would enable me to investigate the enemy and determine what exactly they were. Whether that would HELP us at all was probably anyone's guess, but more information never hurt anyone. Except me. Very recently.


To prepare, I triggered Sammael and Mornax too. Three forms was easy when one of them was Sammael, and now that I'd perfected my techniques enough to use them outside their forms, I didn't strictly need to be in Mephistopheles or Belial unless I wanted to up my damage output.


Next to me, I saw Abel vanish, replaced nearly instantly by a simulacrum of himself made of shimmering blood. I blinked at the transformation. This must be his 'Ragam Blood Body', the one he'd mentioned to Sebastian. He caught me watching and grinned toothily. "Pretty cool, right? You haven't even seen the most impressive part."


"I'd imagine it's the fact that you somehow folded and entire full body manifestation with your spatial powers and condensed it down into the appearance of a normal person." I said somewhat smugly. His expression fell and I laughed. "Dantalion is active, manifesting a form this close to me is just asking me to figure it out."


Still, the Ragam Blood Body WAS impressive. Despite appearing about five foot ten, Abel's blood body was actually hundreds of feet tall. He'd manifested his Path through Ragam and then used his ability to warp space to condense it, but it wasn't ACTUALLY any smaller. Because of that, any attacks on Abel had to go through what looked like a layer of blood energy but was essentially feet after feet of Path affected manifestation, essentially bleeding energy from every blow.


Abel's Path was The Infinite Blood Sea, a fusion of his Ragam, Path of Blood, and spatial abilities. I knew he'd been working on merging the last into a cohesive combat style, and his new form had definitely achieved that goal.


Even Bethy looked a bit impressed. "Wow, that's pretty cool," she said enthusiastically. "Can I lick it?"


He glared at her. "NO! I'm not stupid. I saw your dad eat plasma at that conclave. You think I'm going to let you LICK my infinite blood sea? We're about to fight zombies, I'm not weakening myself because you want to know what space tastes like."


"I bet it tastes like cotton candy," she said, clearly ignoring almost all of what he just said. "Or nachos. Space seems like nachos, right?" She didn't have a chance to explain that comment because her head jerked up excitedly like a hunting dog catching a scent. "Oh! First!" She vanished into a cloud of bats, and we both realized the Pale Men had made landfall.


"Shit," I cursed. "BETHY, leave some for us!" I flashed forward in a burst of black flame, the Ten Demons Tree coming to my hand as I appeared among the incoming wave of sea zombies. I crowed with joy as my staff whirled, the ends smashing into the bodies of my attackers, extinction events consuming body parts as I laid waste to the terrifying creatures. I saw Bethy reform amongst them , claws out and shredding muscles and ligaments as she whirled among the mostly dead, dancing to a rhythm only she could hear.


Abel was as brutal and efficient as ever, his fists shattering the air as he punched out in short, sharp jabs, crushing monsters with every blow. Each punch shattered a whole enemy into dust, clearly playing with the compressed space of his condensed form to unleash horrible strength across a larger area.


Between the three of us, it took us only moments to destroy them all, and we were left kind of…underwhelmed.


Bethy pouted. "That was lame. I was all excited, but they were super weak. Why don'-" her voice was cut off as a torrent of mist exploded up from the shredded bodies at her feet, funneling into her mouth and down her throat, sending her stumbling back, choking.


I cursed, flashing forward and triggering Zagan, bringing my hand up to flood her with purifying energy, but stopped as she held up a hand.


As we watched, Bethy, twitched a few times, growling, and her eyes flared red. She shook her head, blurring the space with how fast she moved, and the mist that had invaded her seemed to have trouble catching up, some of it left behind in the air. When there was a decent cloud of mist she whirled and hissed, striking like a cobra, teeth sinking into the mist as she savaged it, tearing into the incorporeal being with a snarling ferocity I'd rarely seen from her.


We heard a scream, and a body manifested from the mist, one of the stronger Pale Men, hiding amongst his brethren, hoping to possess someone. Dantalion identified him easily at this range. The transparent humanoid screeched an even more disturbing cry than usual, its ragged fingernails clawing the air as it tried to drag itself away from the vampire.


Bethy inhaled heavily, and as we watched, she sucked the entire spirit back into her body, gnashing her teeth as she did until it vanished down her throat, and then she swallowed loudly.


We just stared at her, panting heavily, eyes blazing red. I half expected to need to help her calm down, but she closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and then suppressed the bloodlust. "Well," Abel said brightly. "That was fucking terrifying."


"Yup," I agreed. "And not just to us. There's another bodyjacker over there mixed into the crowd I killed. He didn't have time to get me and now he's too scared to try. Bethy, if you'd be so kind?"


Even as I spoke, the incorporeal monster screeched and exploded off the ground, trying in vain to streak away back into the misty sea. He didn't manage to get very far before Bethy appeared behind him, sinking her claws deep into his misty body and dragging him mercilessly back toward us.


"I got him," she said sulkily. "I can't believe I didn't notice that first one."


She tossed the monster spirit on the ground, pinning him with a sharp heel, then bared her teeth at him menacingly. "Hey, snack. You better answer my bestie's question or I'm going to gargle you with sparkle crackers." I hadn't had the fizzy candy she mentioned, but she's talked about them before, a favorite of hers as a child. Apparently, despite the lack of context, the threat was still effective because the struggling ghost creature froze, going completely still under her foot.


Nodding smugly, she glanced at me, as if passing the torch. I was already learning plenty from Dantalion, but nothing useful. I honestly didn't have many questions for this thing. It was a monster. It wanted to eat people. Not much mystery to its motivations. But I thought of a few things.


Since it used to be human, I decided to directly ask it about the area my friends were supposed to be. "Do you know how to get to Ashcrag?" I demanded in my coldest voice.


It stared at me, shriveled ghostly eyes fixed on my mask. "He asked you a question," snapped Bethy, grinding her heel. The monster screeched again, and I winced as I felt the impact against my soul. That was such an unpleasant ability. Finally, after seeing its screams weren't working, it calmed down and moaned piteously, flopping limply to the ground. "Mercy," came a grating, warbling his. "Mercy for this lost one. Mercy, great things for poor Io!"


Suspicious but interested, I gestured for Bethy to ease up. "Well, I asked you a- DODGE!" I screamed the last as my Danger Sense, which had been silent since before we finished the fight, roared to life. I hurled myself sideways, Bethy and Abel following suit, just in time to avoid an arrow from the ocean headed right for my back.


The blazing missile of light crashed into "poor Io" with the white hot intensity of supernova, and the monster screamed in agony as his soul appeared to be literally annihilated by the impact.


I whirled, staff up, wings in front of my friends as I triggered Gluttony, but there was no followup. In the distance, out on the water, I saw a small wooden boat. On the boat sat a figure with a bow the size of ME, the string relaxed and no arrow knocked. When we spotted it, it stood, swept into a courtly bow complete with hand flourish, and then sat down, beginning to row away.


Bethy surged forward, ready to pursue, but I caught her arm tightly. "Don't," I said bluntly. "See that little green candle on the boat? That's the same fire we saw on the bridges. It's some kind of protection. You absolutely do NOT want to go out on that water without it."


She hissed angrily, but closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. "Right, that's fine," she said slowly, as if convincing herself. Releasing Gluttony but not Mornax, I put a hand on her shoulder, triggering Life Nova. Her shoulders slumped. "Sorry, sorry, I'm fine. That was…unpleasant. Attempted possession gets my back up."


Her voice was rough and ragged, far from the effervescent and bubbly chirp I was used to. I sent another surge of Life Nova into her, and that drew a smile from my "bestie". Abel cleared his throat. "Glad you're ok, fangs, but we've got bigger problems." He pointed at the destroyed spirit being. "That attack was DANGEROUS. I don't know about you, but I think it might have killed me if it landed."


"I could have taken it," she said thoughtfully. "But it wouldn't have been much fun. How bout' you Shane?"


I nodded. "Same. But you're right. That was…that was a powerful blow. I think we just met one of the D-rankers from the god worlds. I hope they were one of the stronger ones too, because if not, we might actually be in some trouble." That had been one of the strongest targeted attacks I'd ever seen from a D-ranker, INCLUDING myself.


Turning back towards the village, I frowned. I needed to talk to Wesley, see if he'd heard anything about them. If they were geared for sea travel they'd probably been here for a while. I didn't know when my friends had arrived, but the others might have been here even longer. This could pose a problem.