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

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was in a good mood when I got back to the bookstore later that afternoon to talk to Harley. I'd already gotten my wishes stockpiled (I had seventy one), done some more training with Bella, and just generally had a fantastic day where I'd learned a lot. Sadly, my good mood didn't last long in the face of Harley's…Harleyness.

"Look man, I don't remember." The dark haired man yawned. "It was a long time ago. That was like…seventy five thousand naps ago."

Frowning, I pointed around us. "I mean, we're in a bookstore. I got the impression some of these books would cover, if not that subject, maybe the disappearances? It's been two centuries, SOMEBODY has to have written a book about it."

He blinked. "Hey, wow. That's a great idea." His brown eyes sparkled with excitement as his curly black hair flopped around, his head jerking to the side as he searched the messy stacks of nearby books. "You should check the books. They might have something about that whole thing!" He said it like he'd just had a brilliant epiphany, and I had to strangle a growl of annoyance.

"Where are the books on recent history?" I asked patiently, since I now thoroughly believed he would be no direct help.

He shrugged. "Over there." He said lazily, gesturing to basically the entire store. Rolling my eyes, I turned to the store in general, and of course, Harley took that as an excuse to go back to sleep. Sighing, I walked to the door, opened it, and called out loudly for my apprentice.

There was a loud crash from the woods off in the distance, and I watched a plume of smoke rise from where a tree had been not long ago. I waited another second or two, and Bella appeared, blazing into existence with a flash of fire and actually managing to stand still when she stopped, though she wobbled a bit like she might fall over.

"What's up, master?" She asked excitedly. "I've almost got the hang of this technique!"

I chuckled, pointing to her head, where a large piece of wood had gotten stuck in her hair by sap. She cursed, reaching up to try to pry it off, yelping at the pain when it pulled at her hair. I rolled my eyes and held up a finger, focusing a bit of black fire to the tip of it in a minute cosmic collapse and walking over to point at the wood, which exploded.

Given my new breakthrough, I suspected I could have actually tapped into both the black flame and the corrosion, even without my forms, but it would have been overkill for a piece of bark.

"I need your help with something." I said with a laugh. "If you're not busy." She pouted at my teasing tone, but I just snickered and turned to walk back into the shop. "So. We need to find any references to the disappearances, or to the murder two hundred years ago. I'm positive they're related, and we need to figure out where these people are going if we want to figure out the reasoning behind the murder."

She frowned. "I mean, it's kind of weird, isn't it?" She said slowly. "These people who were taken were people no one would miss, right? So why would whatever is doing it come into town and kill a shopkeeper? That doesn't fit the pattern at all. Are you sure it's the same thing?"

"Assuming it is, which both common sense and my instincts seem to concur with…yeah." I said in surprise. "It's a huge breach in pattern. That's a good catch, Bella. I should have thought of that." In fact, Echelon had actually helped do a lot of my work for me with this. Maybe because of the trial.

Unfortunately, it just made it more frustrating that there were no witnesses and no one to talk to about the shopkee-. I stopped mid thought, replaying what I'd been told earlier today. Old Ted Donahue's boy. I was still thinking like a mortal. If Ted junior had been murdered two hundred years ago, there was still a decent chance Ted Donahue was still ALIVE. If anyone would know what was going on with his son, it would be him.

"Bella, do me a favor, go through these books like we talked about. I'll be back to help, but I just thought of something." She gave me a sharp salute and picked up a random book, flipping through it and then tossing it on the counter before moving on to the next. Satisfied she had that under control, I headed back to the tavern, getting directions from bartender Kirk to Ted Donahue's place.

I was excited. Solving a mystery like this was kind of fun. Digging for clues, learning secrets, following leads. It made me wonder if I hadn't become an Ascendant, if I'd have wanted to be a detective.

Maybe after this whole war thing was over and my time as Wishmaster ended, Callie and I could spend some time solving mysteries. I had a feeling my wife would enjoy this as much as I did.

Despite my exhilaration though, I forced myself to calm down and take an appropriately somber tone as I knocked on the door to Ted Donahue's house. It didn't take long to answer, after a few minutes, a tired looking man in what appeared to be his early forties answered the door, dark circles under his eyes and grey in his beard. "Ted Donahue?" I asked.

"Aye?" He asked tiredly. "What can I do for you?"

I grimaced, trying to decide how to word it. "I came to ask about your son." His face hardened, and I held up my hands. "Please, I don't want to dig into painful memories for some Path nonsense. I think it might be related to a case I'm working on." It felt pretty awesome to be able to say that. That I was working a case.

He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Might as well come in." He said with a shrug. "Not like I have much better to do." He waved me inside, turning to head toward the small kitchen tucked behind an open bar in the back corner. "You want a beer?" He asked blankly.

"I'm good." I said politely, scanning the room as he dug in the fridge. It was…neat. But cluttered. Lots of things packed into a small space, but none of it looked out of place. On the mantle I saw pictures of Ted with a younger boy who looked a lot like him, a teenager. Photos of them with a snowman, awards from contests they'd won, and even one with a smiling dark haired woman that only appeared in that single image.

He saw me looking when he came back. "Sylvia." He said with a sad smile. "She was mauled by a mountain lion the same year. Beasts in these parts get antsy sometimes, and we have to send for a subjugation quest from one of the larger cities. My Sylvie had the bad luck to stumble on a wildcat. I'm ashamed to say I didn't take it as well as I could have. Left too much work on Teddy's shoulders."

I heard the guilt and regret in the sentiment, and easily followed it to its logical conclusion. "Like the shop?"

"It was a weekend." He said tightly. "He shouldn't have even been there. He wanted weekends off. But I was too drunk to open." He closed his eyes, voice jagged with grief. "I let myself fall apart and now my boy's gone. You mark my words, lad. A parent should never outlive their child. Ain't nothing worse."

"I'm sorry." I said truthfully. "I'm sorry to bring this up. But like I said, I think it might be related to a case I'm working. Did Teddy do anything strange or different in the weeks leading up to his death? If you don't remember that's fine-"

His eyes snapped open, narrowing at me in fury. "And who says I don't?" He snapped. "Who says I forgot the last days I had in this world with my son. You ask your questions, boy, and you see if I don't answer them! I'm good for that much still. Good for somethin'."

"I know he was…I guess the local word would be courting, some girl named Dana-" I started.

He burst out laughing, a genuine smile on his face. "Only in his dreams, boy. Dana Cassidy never had eyes for nobody but Brady Thornton, whom she eventually married. She was friendly enough, but never gave my son or Harley the time of day aside from polite chitchat. No, they 'admired' her from afar, and argued themselves stupid over the girl, but neither of them had a chance."

"So you don't think Harley did it?" I didn't either, but I'd met the guy for all of five minutes.

"Maybe if he was sleepwalking." He snickered. "No, Harley didn't hurt my boy. Doesn't have it in him. I saw the body. Had to identify him. Wasn't no bookstore clerk that killed him. That was trained knifework. A Skill, most like. I was in the army when I was a lad, and I saw men killed like that. Killed cold. Whoever did that knew what they were doin' and they didn't spare it no nevermind."

I nodded slowly. "Did you tell the constable?"

"Until I was blue in the face." He said with a shrug. "But I was just a grieving drunk. Ain't nobody minding me."

"So what about the weeks before." I prompted. "DID anything strange happen?"

He looked pensive. "Well…I'd never really paid it any mind. But maybe. He started asking me some questions about his ma. Where she liked to take her walks, if she knew how to fight. Dab hand with a long knife, my Sylvie. Damned cat must have surprised her."

"Really?" I asked in a faux casual tone. "That's an interesting thing to bring up out of nowhere. Where did it happen, if you don't mind me asking?"

Snapping out of his reverie, his eyes narrowed again. "Up by Deadman's Drain. The falls. She used to go up there to pick blackberries. They grow wild up on the ledges. Prickly, but sweetest damned berries you ever saw. She was making a pie for Teddy's birthday." He said absently. "Blackberry was his favorite."

I winced, realizing from the timeline his sons birthday was probably very close to the time he was killed. Not that anything could make losing a child worse, but still…that definitely wouldn't have helped.

But the last thing he'd done…that was interesting. His mother's death had been an animal attack. But him dying so close to poking around about it couldn't be a coincidence. Had the mysterious killer slipped up and left a corpse. Were there clues up at the falls maybe? I smiled at Ted. "I appreciate your time, Mr. Donahue. Sorry to bother you."

He shrugged, not even bothering to comment one way or the other. I said my goodbyes quickly and left, heading back to the bookstore to check in with Bella, a new lead in my pocket. The falls, animal attacks, plenty of possibilities to check.

As I walked, I thought to myself of what I would do if I lost a child like that. I didn't even have kids and the idea was unbearable. Then I thought about my mom. She'd lost a child, in some ways. Had been forced to give me up for my own good. Had she been like Ted, after I was gone? Drowning in her grief? Or had Chelsea saved her?

Whatever the case, I sent a quick message to my wife, to let my mother know I loved her. It didn't cost me anything to say, and it made me feel better. Then I arrived at the bookstore and stepped inside. For now, I needed to focus on the task at hand.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, what do we got?" I asked enthusiastically as I dropped another book on the pile of finished texts. I had all my clones out and multiple parallels going, offloading some of the strain to Callie, who was free and willing to help, which meant I was reading multiple times faster than normal. Of course, Ascendant books were stupid dense and used absurd microscript, so it was still taking a while. Especially since I could only keep a few parallels going at once.


Bella looked up from her book. "Oh, are we reporting? Let's see, i found a few mentions of those falls. They are apparently "tears cried from the eyes of hell", "the blood of an ancient evil god", "the saliva of the mouth of eternity", I'm not even sure what that last one means, but there's an illustration and it's disturbing. Giant tentacle tongue with tastebuds for eyeballs, gross."


"I'm pretty sure none of that is real." I said cautiously. "I mean…I feel like someone would have noticed, and probably tried to build a city on it or something. Ascendants are stupid like that." She nodded, acknowledging my point, but I continued. "That said, just because the falls themselves aren't special doesn't mean there isn't something special ABOUT them. There might be a place nearby housing a monster or something."


I was skeptical that was the case, honestly. Monsters didn't sneak into town and assassinate witnesses by slitting their throat. I trusted Ted's instincts, if he thought that was a professional job, it probably was. Someone with knife experience and probably experience killing people.


Chester, who had shown up a few hours ago, emerged from his own book pile. "I found a few references to animal attacks. They're not commonly talked about, but they've had to call a few "subjugation" quests. Mountain lions, bears, that kind of stuff. They always find something, but sometimes they spend a few weeks looking and have to range pretty far out. The assumption is that the "incidents" scared them off, but that doesn't sound right."


"It really doesn't." I said thoughtfully. "At least not to me. I'm not an animal expert. Luckily, I know someone who is, and she's within easy reach." I mentally shot a question to my wife, who had been relaxing helping me with my parallels. She sent me an impression of waiting, then went to ask Jessie about it.


It took a few minutes, but eventually she came back. I paused, listening to her, then thanked her and told her I loved her. Thought communication was so convenient. I made a show of bringing up the screen on my ring and fiddling with it, keeping one side of the projected image opaque while I pretended to text, then closed it.


"Alright, my source says it doesn't sound like common animal behavior. Most predators are territorial. An incident with prey wouldn't scare them off." Which had been what I'd thought. "That said, D-rank is a milestone, and the results of that rank up can be unpredictable, so it's not completely impossible. We'll have to go check the place out ourselves. If you two are interested."


They seemed excited, so I packed up all the books into something approximating their original piles (I wasn't too fussed about being exact, Harley didn't seem to have much of a system, and if he had requests he should have woken up) and then we all set off for the falls, ready to take the next step on our journey into mystery.


We arrived at the falls pretty quickly, they weren't that far away, and we were D-rankers, so travel time wasn't an issue. We came up the path across a small gorge from the falls themselves, and staring down at them…I could see why they had such an ominous name.


The water itself was normal, I could see that at the base where it collected in a pool, but because of the positioning, or some kind of material effect, it looked black as ink as it poured over the cliff. Liquid darkness, cascading off the peak of the falls, plummeting into the pool below, almost eating the light like the darkness of a collapsing star.


Deadman's Drain. I could see it. The pool at the base looked like it was consuming all life. While the edges were visibly translucent like water should be, showing the crystalline sand beneath, the center of the pool churned with the same fathomless black as the falls themselves, like the water was eating the world. "I wonder what causes that." I said with interest. I'd triggered Eye of Revelation, and I could tell it wasn't anything based on Impact or stats.


"The rocks at the top." Said my apprentice, surprising me. "It was in one of the books I was reading. They're a weird sort of inverted prism that creates a kind of anti-light. Don't ask me how it works. I read like three chapters on the effect and I still don't really get it."


I nodded with interest, tapping on the bond to send the image to my wife. I made a mental note to pick up one of those rocks as she responded with delight, clearly interested in the effect.


"Let's check around the top of the falls first. Unless there was a specific area where the bodies were found?" I addressed the question to Chester.


He shook his head. "Nothing concrete. Top, bottom, even in the woods nearby. It wasn't too obvious, or someone would have noticed it." He frowned as he stared at the dark waterfall. "Maybe. Do you guys feel…"


"Like this is a bad place and we shouldn't be here?" I finished. "Yup. It's a soul effect. It's not hitting me very hard because my soul is MUCH stronger than yours, but I can feel it a little. Scratching at the back of my brain. You guys ok here? If it's too much I can go it alone. Though I would mention this place is probably good soul training."


Bella looked interested, but Chester didn't. "My soul is already pretty decent. Sapphire. I never managed to break my second shackle, but honestly I don't mind."


I winced. Soul strength was FUNDAMENTAL. Sure, you could theoretically stick to the base soul level for your rank, but at the later ranks you NEEDED a Path. D-rank was doable at base, but once you got to C-rank it was extremely difficult and time consuming to progress your Path, and using techniques was extremely tiring, if you could do it at all. Ranking up to D-rank without breaking both shackles was essentially consigning yourself to cap at C-rank. Nobody with a weak soul could handle condensing a Chronicle.


To be fair, C-rank was decent in most forces, and that was still fifteen thousand plus years of life. That was enough for some people, and it seemed Chester was happy in his comfortable life.


Getting a running start, I pushed off, exploding forward into a Waltz that crossed the distance easily, landing neatly on the other side next to the falls. Kneeling down, I snagged a dark crystalling rock that looked a bit like obsidian, stashing it in my ring before I began my investigation…until I realized I didn't know what the fuck to look for.


I reached out through Callie to Jessie again, and she informed me that I should try to find any signs of consistent passage by a predator. If any animals claimed this area, they would either BE what we were looking for, or they'd have come across it. At least assuming it was still around and they had been born when it had been here two hundred years ago.


I activated Eye of Revelation, Rhythm of the Wild, Song of the Soil, and Scent of Truth all together. The pulse of the earth, the song of the plantlife, the smell of fact, all these things blended together in my head as I opened myself to the stimuli, giving myself as much data as I could while I scanned the area. I saw so many things. Little tunnels dug by insects, holes in the wood of the trees made by woodpeckers, and so many other things…and somehow, all of it converged into my eyes, pushing my revelation to an even higher level.


Following a path that was nearly invisible, I trekked through the trees, down a small embankment, until I came to a spot where a divot in the earth dropped into a small cavern. Overhanging roots and overgrowth hid the entrance, but it was there, and I grinned triumphantly as I dropped down into the hole.


I found myself in a cave, low and smooth, seemingly worn from the rock naturally, but sculpted in a way that told me it was made with intent. Along the walls crystals poked from the stone, a low, blue glow illuminating the space.


In the center of the chamber was a long rectangular stone, flat on top like a table, and wicked iron bolts had been driven cruelly into the stone, pinning ragged cuffs of badly cured leather. Cuffs that stank of blood and violence to my revealing eye and truthful nose. I stepped back, able to almost feel the pain and despair soaked into the rock along with what looked like LOTS of blood. It had been soaked in the stuff more than once, stained in a way both ethereal and physical.


Bella had dropped down next to me and she gagged. "That's awful. What is that?"


"It's an altar." I said grimly. "Though to what I'm not sure. Based on those, I'd say some kind of…forest demon?" I pointed at the walls, where images could be seen of some kind horrible beast, crouched and menacing. Its limbs were long and spindly, with two jointed legs like a goat, ending in flat hooked feet with five equidistant talons that formed a circle around them for stability.


It's head looked kind of like a wolf, but with raw muscle exposed on its flat ugly snout. It was disturbing how much detail was in the picture, given it seemed to have been drawn in dried blood. Someone was quite the artist.


The image showed the creature looming over a bowing figure in a hood, with a body place on the table. In the next panel, it had torn open the chest and somehow folded itself up to climb inside. Once it was finished, it cut away the face, gifting it to the figure. After that it was hard to tell, pictograms only went so far, but I was pretty sure the figure did something with the face that made it stronger.


It didn't show what happened to the monster, or why the bodies needed to be replaced, but it was clear from the context that this was a regular thing that needed to happen every so often.


Glancing around, I could see that this place hadn't been used in quite a while, but while it might not give me any special insight…it did give me a new clue. A tunnel, leading out of the chamber and off into the darkness.


"Well, I'm going down there." I pointed. My Danger Sense would alert me if anything was going to jump out and murder me. It hadn't gone off yet, and my instincts weren't telling me something impossibly dangerous was ahead. I trusted them to pick up if that thing was C-rank or something. Plus I was pretty sure that town wouldn't exist anymore if it was.


Bella took a deep breath, then nodded. "I trust you, master. I know you won't let me die. Plus if you do, I can always haunt you later. I'd make such an awesome ghost."


I laughed, and we looked at Chester, who looked annoyed. "You're both bad influences. Fine, idiots. Let's go." He gestured for me to lead, which I did, and we took off down the corridor into the unknown. I didn't think the monster was here, but hopefully I would find some sort of clue as to who the figure was. I didn't see the faceless forest demon sneaking into town and slitting someone's throat, but that hooded figure…that I could see. Time to find us a killer.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The corridor was…disqueiting. Not because there was anything in there, but because there wasn't. I was an Ascendant, which meant I had powerful senses when I chose to use them. I had all my Perception dedicated to watching out for potential traps, just in case they were too fast for my Danger Sense, and I was listening close for literally any sign of local life. There was none.

No insects, no worms, no small creatures burrowing. Even the wind seemed somehow dead, and with a flex of Song of the Soil, I could feel the earth around me, and I was horrified to discover what was in it. Bones.

Big, small, and medium bones, human and animal and some things in between. Old bones, new bones, broken and whole, some chewed upon and some pristine. A sea of silence and death surrounded us, floating in the dirt like the scattered corpses of a sunken ship in an endless earthen ocean.

I could FEEL death. It was all around us, beneath and above us, I was choking on it, like I was buried alive with all the dead interred here in these walls.

Turning to check on the others, I found them on the ground insensate and terrified, and I pushed back the sensation of death, grabbing them and dragging them behind me until we finally emerged from the tunnel. As soon as we did, it was like the air cleared of poison, I gasped in relief, panting as the other two sat bolt upright, finally lucid again out of the influence.

That was…awful. And OLD. Those bones were countless, and some were ancient. This wasn't a few hundred years of sacrifices. It was thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Not that I was stupid enough to think some million year old monster was in here. No, this place was old, but any creature who had eaten that many high rank Ascendants would be WELL past C or even B-rank by this point.

I looked around the new cavern we had entered. The sensation had gone, at least the ambiance, but if I focused I could feel it gushing from the tunnel. It just wasn't sitting stagnant. It was being funneled into the room and around a huge formation, shoved into a number of statues surrounding us. More than a number in fact. Thousands. Tens of thousands, we stood in an ampitheater, surrounded by alcoves filled with statues.

The statues were humanoid but indistinct, vague manlike shapes, with only one thing unique about them. Their faces.

Screaming human faces, all perfectly preserved and lifelike, locked in a rictus of agony but not able to make a sound. I searched the faces, and I saw one in particular that I recognized. Sylvie. Ted's wife. Her face was hard to recognize without the rest of her body, but I'd just seen her picture earlier that day. There was no mistaking it. The statue had somehow mimicked her facial bones.

Animal attack. Ted hadn't mentioned that her face had been eaten. But why would he. Animals did that kind of thing all the time.

"Oh gods." Gagged Bella. "That's…what is this? What kind of person would do this?"

"I don't know." I said with a frown. "I don't understand any of what's going on here. The monster takes the faces and gives them to the hooded figure. I assumed he kept them, but it seems he…offers them here? To something. The faces don't seem dead. I think they have SOULS caught in them. They're using them to gather something."

I needed help. Some kind of advice. This was out of my depth, lorewise. I didn't know sacrificial rituals. Or soul harvesting. But I knew who fucking did. I reached through my bond to my wife, asking her to find my uncle. She did, bolting from the room when she felt my distress, when she arrived, I reached for Shadow Manipulation, and used the darkness and our bond to create a simulacrum for Zeke.

My uncle's shadowy form rose from the dark, just like we'd done back on Callus. He raised a brow at me. "Hey kid. What's the big idea? I was working on my tan." He froze. "Shane…why does it look like you're standing in a Soul Abattoir? Where did you even FIND one of those? They haven't been in common usage for longer than your GRANDFATHER has been alive."

I shrugged. "Fuck if I know. Also watch the real name stuff old man. I'm here with new friends." I had used stealth when I'd seen him forming my name to block out the sound, but it was still sloppy of him to slip. He must be shocked. "What is it?"

"It's…complicated. They're used for soul transplants. The spirits of the unwilling dead are harvested and suspended in a state of agony. The spiritual suffering drains into the center of the room, condensing into a kind of bath. A newly transplanted soul that bathes in the Abattoir for three days and three nights can stave off rejection."

Frowning, I described what I'd seen to him. Then I described the creature itself, and he grimaced. "Varenkarsel. Nasty. They're a form of evolved undead. They're concentrated decay manifested as a spirit. They burn out bodies when they wear them, the Abattoir probably helps, but they need new bodies regularly. The whole face thing must be to feed the Abattoir. The Varenkarsel is strong, but it's difficult for them to grow. Their nature is corrosive, and it eats away at their own progress."

"So this one could be as old at the Abattoir?" I asked in worry. If it was millions of years old we were fucked."

He shook his head. "They're spiritual beings but they're not eternal. Even with a regular supply of bodies this one probably doesn't have much longer to live. They don't accept supplicants until they're on their death bed. They spend a few centuries testing their faithful by having them acquire bodies, and if they follow through, when the Varenkarsel dies, it bequeathes its essence to the supplicant to use as a catalyst for a racial trait."

Bella looked sick. "Who would want to be something like that?" I'd dropped the stealth once I knew Zeke was paying attention and the others had been listening.

"Varenkarsel are rare, and they possess a particularly unique ability." Zeke said grimly. "They have three times the lifespan. A D-rank Varenkarsel lives longer than an A-ranker. Part of their nature shifts the corrosion of age onto their host body. It's why they burn through them so quickly. They were originally created by undead sorcerers seeking immortality."

I shuddered. "I don't think that's worth it. Living for what? Thirty thousand years as a corrosive body jacking ghost?"

"Most people don't." He acknowledged. "But there's always somebody. Someone with no talent or a weak soul, or a flawed Path who can't advance and is afraid to die. Based on what you told me about its pattern, this one is probably almost gone. But you need to find the supplicant before he can use the catalyst. It's almost impossible to KILL a Varekarsel. Even if you kill the body it can escape. You need someone with a soul altering ability, and you don't have one of those."

Cursing, I turned to look around. "Thanks for the help." I told him with a nod. You should go. Not safe to be talking like this."

"I'm masking us." he said with a shake of his head. "Unless someone much stronger is actively watching you, they wouldn't notice. Hopefully none of the vanished gods are keeping a close eye on you. I don't think it's a problem though. I couldn't do a thing to stop a god from watching me or you, but I could at least FEEL it happening."

I wanted to ask if that included Delthrys, the god I was doing this trial for, but I was afraid if I said the name it would call his attention. I just thanked my uncle and shut down the bond, letting the shadow fade.

"Well that was…terrifying." Said Bella nauseously. "I don't think I wanted to know about that kind of monster."

"Me neither." I said with a bitter chuckle. "But we have a chance to stop one from being born. We have to take it. Help me look around for clues in here. Don't touch the statues. We'll come back and free them when this is over, but if we wreck this place now and the Varenkarsel comes back it might spook and run off without passing on its essence here. It could pick some random asshole to turn and we'd never know."

She didn't look happy, and I didn't blame her, but Chester came to my defense. "They've been here for centuries." He said gently. "I know it sucks to leave them, but they'll be free soon. And I think they would want us to destroy the thing that put them here." He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, and my apprentice nodded resolutely.

"You're right." She said after a deep breath. "We need to help them, but we can get them justice first. They deserve it." Her sad eyes floated over the statues, horrified, before she turned and started pacing the hall, searching for anything that might be a clue.

Delthrys had sent me here, presumably to stop the transfer, so I could only assume it was happening soon. Sylvie had been one of the victims, possibly having stumbled on the cavern, and Teddy had been looking for her killer and maybe found this place. Or at least found the sacrificial chamber.

I paced around, Eye or Revelation active as I went over the details. The timeline felt off. Weird and stretched. Two hundred years after the last sacrifice felt off. But then, maybe there needed to be another one. Or maybe there had been and we just hadn't known about them. I remembered the man from the bar, talking about his niece.

"Hey, I found something!" I stopped, turning to where Chester was standing at a seemingly random corner of the formation. Walking over I stared down at a spot on the ground. There was a scrap of cloth there. I reached down, skeptical it could help. Maybe I could use it to track the owner, or try a blood curse and see who got sick.

I rubbed it between my fingers. "I don't think it's anything." i said regretfully. "Looks like a piece of like…towel or some-" I froze, then slowly, raised the cloth to my nose. I sniffed. It smelled like must, and death, and dirt…and alcohol.

My eyes widened. I remembered the first person I'd talked to. The person who had pointed me at Harley as a suspect, the person who had been sat behind his bar, cleaning a glass. Kirk the bartender. I turned to the others. "I think I know who it is." I said angrily. "And I know where to find him."

I passed them the scrap, telling them what I'd figured out, and their expressions flattened.

"We don't need to stop him." I admitted. "We completed the task. Find out who and why. We did both of those things. But I'm not leaving this unfinished. I'm going to find that bastard and put him down before he becomes some unkillable evil ghost. You guys in?"

Bella snorted. "I would be doing it myself even if you didn't master. I'm not leaving something like that loose on my planet. Abominations like that have no place on my world." Her eyes hardened. "I walk the Path of Escape. And I say there will be none for our enemies." Her voice echoed slightly, and I didn't know if it was the chamber or her Path, but I grinned in response.

"Well them, let's go kick some bartender ass." I said viciously. I turned and stalked toward the exit of the chamber, rage pushing me forward as I prepared to confront a monster. Even if I was working for the dark gods, I could still help people.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We arrived back at the tavern after dark. It was still open, but everyone had left. I stepped inside, letting the others in behind me, then chucked my chin, letting Bella know to go around out of sight. As I approached the bar where Kirk cleaned a glass, Chested bolted the door, though how much good it really did in circumstances like ours was up for debate.


The bartender smiled at me as I approached. "Evening." He said jovially. His smile was wide and friendly, but it didn't reach his eyes. In fact, nothing reached his eyes, because he didn't have any.


The picture on the wall hadn't had eyes either, just empty black holes in its face. I'd assumed that was artistic license, but it wasn't. Kirk's face was sporting a pair of black pits in its eye sockets, devouring the light like gravitational singularities in miniature. Seeing those eyes in a human face was deeply disturbing.


"So you're not even going to pretend not to know what's going on?" I asked tiredly. "I assume you watched us in the cavern somehow?"


He chuckled, the same friendly chuckle as before I'd known who he was, but it was somehow infinitely more grating coming from someone I knew was a monster. "Of course. So many of my faces in that temple. How could I miss you? That mask seemed to cause problems with my vision, but I was able to gather enough to figure out that you know who I am. I already initiated the ceremony. I even had a snack before you arrived."


His head turned toward the bar, and I followed his lack of gaze to where he was facing to find several bloody corpses, faces missing. "Don't you need the temple to absorb their souls?"


Shrugging, he gave a wry smile. "We existed before we found the temple. It just made the process more streamlined. We've been using it a long time, and we've learned how to imitate the mechanism. With limited results." He burped. "Bar snacks. Never very filling. But don't worry. I'll be sure to consume you properly. I want to keep this body as long as possible. Guess I'm sentimental like that."


I sniffed. I could smell…something. Truth, but not. He wasn't telling me everything, but that wasn't a surprise. I considered just attacking him, but my instincts told me I could learn more, could understand more about what was going on. And beyond that, I wanted the truth. I'd spent days trying to track this asshole down, and I wanted to hear the end of the story.


Despite that, I slid a hand behind the bar and began to concentrate, a parallel split off with a flex of Piece of Mind, controlling the condensation of the Cosmic Collapse as I built up my biggest punch. Corrosion and black flame swirled into an orb of pure destruction, but I left it up to my parallel, focusing on the murdering psycho currently explaining his evil plan. He seemed almost enthusiastic to tell me. I think he'd been frustrated that no one knew how brilliant he was. Villains and their fucking monologues.


"It's not like I'm some bloodthirsty demonic lunatic." He said jovially as he cleaned a glass I didn't think was even dirty. "I just want to live. Really, ten thousand years is an eye blink to people like us. And I never took anyone important. Just strays no one cared about. I think I did them a favor, really. Gave their lives purpose."


I snorted. "Say I bought that, which by the way I don't. Say I agree that not having close friends or family makes it less evil to sacrifice someone to a soul torturing temple. What about Sylvie? What about Teddy? I know Teddy stumbled on your lair when looking for what happened to his mother, but why kill her to begin with."


He grimaced. "It was so stupid and avoidable. Back when Sylvie and Ted and I were kids she had a cousin. Sweet girl, her name was Mary. Pretty, desperate, followed me everywhere. She was my first, you know. Before I knew what I was doing. I buried her body out by the falls. We got into a fight, you see, and I had my knife on me. I used to apprentice under Harley's father Brock as a butcher, before I took over the bar. That's how I met Him. The blood attracted him."


"So you killed her cousin?" I asked. "Because you're a hell of a lot older than two hundred years. The timing doesn't add up there."


"Rain washed up the body." He said with a sneer. "I told you, I was new. I got much better over the years. You'd be surprised how much you can pick up about murder in a butcher shop, especially with lots of practice. I went through a phase in the beginning where I went a little overboard, but eventually I got my rhythm. Once a decade, sometimes twice. Slow and steady.


"Anyway, a storm rolled through and unearthed the bones. Mary had this charm bracelet Sylvie had given her." He shrugged. "Everyone thought she'd run off. Even Sylvie wasn't suspicious. But once she saw the body…well, like I said, I was sloppy my first time. She connected me to the spot and to Mary. Lured me out there to 'talk'. She was a formidable woman, but I've gotten some nice perks from Him over the years. And lots of practice with my knife."


Truth. I was choking on it. Gagged with it. This was almost all the unvarnished truth, and he was RELISHING getting to tell me. Because there had been one lie he'd told for sure. He WAS a bloodthirsty lunatic.


I triggered Double Trouble, my Cosmic Collapse already formed and condensed to the most dangerous attack I had, aimed at the back of his head as I fired it off. There was a sort of…shift, in the space, like a hitch in the world, and he ducked and whirled, gracefully avoiding the attack like a snake as the eruption of dark corrosion blew a hole out the side of the building the size of a bus.


Snarling, I reached for Limbo, triggering it complete with mist as I triggered Double Trouble again, appearing behind Bella where she'd been positioned off to the side. The illusory copy of me was shredded by dinner plate sized clawed hands as Kirk's fingers stretched and warped. He'd seemed amused when I tried to attack, but the dodge wiped the smile off his face as he scanned the room with his empty pits.


"You can't hide from me!" He hissed, jaws distending. "I don't have eyes. And your little tricks can't fool me senses for long." I scented the air. Lie. I could hide from him. Whatever trick he'd used to sense my attack wasn't enough to pierce my pseudo domain. Limbo was holding him off.


Which was good…because he was WAY stronger than I was. This was a fucking PEAK D-ranker. Probably with a Solid Path, and a rather developed one. He was, from what my Eye of Revelation was telling me, halfway through digesting the spirit, but he had access to all its years of experience and instinct, and all it's hoarded power. It had been grinding away for millennia, ancient and horrible and strong. It might just be D-rank, but it was a KING of D-rank, and if I let him fully integrate it we'd all be FUCKED.


I triggered Mephistopheles, Belial, and finally, in the safety of my domain, Beelzebub. Twelve of me manifested, all burning weith black flames as they assumed their OWN Mephistopheles form, and we fucking blitzed it.


Something I hadn't known, or had no way of knowing, was that the number of possible future actions a being could take SCALED with power. All my enemies in Limbo had been around my level, but something about this one, Path or power, made it so much more than me. An endless ocean of possible ways this could go wrong was arrayed before me, tens of thousands of overlapping futures.


With thirteen of me, I went to work, revving up Abomination Engine as I shifted into a Waltz, blasting apart possible outcomes as I began the long work of whittling away his options.


I heard a scrape and felt hot blood on my neck, felt a slash through my elbow tendon between plates on my arm, caught a blow under my armpit, and that was just my main body. One of my clones got fucking eviscerated, and I FELT that, felt the pain and horror of the slow draining death, but I ignored it.


He was so far, so vicious, and despite not knowing where I was, he was somehow FINDING my weak spots. I was destroying futures as fast as I could, but there was always a dozen of them where I got hit, and I couldn't get rid of them fast enough.


Bella and Chester were staying back. My physical form was getting stronger, and my armor was C-rank, but either of them would be dead by this point, like one, no sorry like THREE of my fucking clones were. A second one had its throat slit, and the third was snapped over his knee like an oversized tree branch that wouldn't fit in a garbage can. Ouch.


I'd taken this fight WAY too lightly. I needed to have Callie and the others cash in those fucking wish scrolls, because I wasn't advancing fast enough. If this guy had actually been at peak D-rank, I'd be dead right now. But he wasn't. Not really. KIRK was early to mid D-rank. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Which was why I had managed to blow several holes in it.


My staff licked out and I tapped a shoulder, unloading my injuries back onto my enemy, sighing with relief at the lack of pain. As I watched, the damage mounted, and the number of futures to destroy began to dwindle. Rather than eliminating them in singular, as was the case in a more even battle, my damaging attacks were withering possibilities by blocking off actions he could take.


A hundred thousand, eighty thousand, fifty. The futures dwindled, and as the tide turned I was in less and less danger. I could see the dangerous futures, and I was destroying them before they could be used against me. The stealth aspect of my domain wasn't doing much here. He couldn't see me, but I'd narrowed down how he was tracking me to attack. His Impact sense.


D-rankers had it integrated with ALL their senses. Sight was the big one, but also hearing, smell, and even instinct. He'd integrated it with whatever sense he had that wasn't eyes, and he was using it well. It was a shame, but it was good to know there were ways around it early rather than late.


Finally, I'd taken so many chunks out of him that I was able to destroy all the futures where I'd miss. Using my twelve bodies, I narrowed all paths to victory, and slowly beat him down, one blow at a time.


My clones managed to restrain him, switching to Mornax to make sure he couldn't escape, and with one might heave I slammed my staff butt first into his head, or more accurately, and empty eye hole, detonating a Cosmic Collapse inside his skull. I watched as the body died, and the soul rose from inside it, screaming.


The spirit of the Varenkarsel was…hideous. Ancient and twisted and falling apart, like it was rotting in front of my eyes. Zeke told me I didn't have anything for this, that I couldn't affect the spirit…but he was wrong. As soon as I saw it I knew. This was an abomination against nature. It was a blight. And I could cleanse it.


I dropped Beelzebub, triggering Zagan, and I started blasting holes in the creature with my purifying flame. Again, and again, and again. I obliterated it. And when I was done, I finally let my domain fall, and slumped to the ground. I was exhausted. But it had been worth it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next week was pretty peaceful. Train, teach Bella, talk to Callie, I just chilled and did my own thing, getting ready for my first trial for the Lady of Lamentation. I had a feeling it would be a doozy. I made another fifty six scrolls, bringing my total to one hundred twenty seven, and I had Callie and the others use a hundred of them (I didn't tell them what FOR, just asked they hurry up).





Fifteen points per scroll netted me fifteen hundred, and I got another fifteen hundred from the renown gathered during the trials (kicking the shit out of the D-ranker with pseudo Domain and fighting a crazy spirit monster serial killer on a B-rank planet really paid off) split evenly among Might, Focus, and Perception. I got fifteen D-rank chits for the lot of it bringing me to forty five, and it became clear exactly how much help I needed to rank up.





I'd have to start pushing to higher per wish stat payouts soon, and more than that, wishes weren't going to let me keep up if I didn't push myself. I kept two scrolls for personal use, gave the other twenty five to Callie and my friends, and left it at that.





It was becoming clear that advancement, even independent of Path stuff, wasn't something the Wish power could support on its own. Not quickly at least. EVENTUALLY, if I kept at it, I'd reach B-rank. But there was a built in secondary requirement in the competition that was only now becoming noticeable. You had to keep up.





Which was why I had arrived early for my meeting with the Lady of Lamentations representative. This trial would suck. I knew that. Ray, Desria, Cavallo, Archie, Vesper, and Tanner were here too, all taking the second trial as theirs had yet to come up. I fully expected them to regret that decision, knowing what was to come, but it was nice not to be in this alone. Chester had left after the investigation concluded, deciding life with me was too weird, and I'd made Bella stay home for this.





I stepped into the empty tavern we'd been asked to meet at (the Lady apparently believed in manners) and scanned around for our contact.





What I found was…not what I'd been expecting. I'd thought we were going to be meeting some doom and gloom edgelord, maybe with fangs, or whips, or some kind of chains hanging off them. Instead I found a peaceful, cheerful looking girl a bit older than I was. She had a round face and a wide smile and eyes covered with a grey cloth, over which say a nun's habit.





"Good evening." She said as I approached. "I bid you welcome to my table."





"Um, thanks." I said after a minute. "Are you my contact? For the task of Felicity, Lady of Lamentations?" I mostly called her the lady in my head, since I had a cousin with the same name, but formality seemed like a decent idea here. "I expected someone more…malevolent."





"Please, sit." She said with a kind smile. "I am Sister Bernadette. It is lovely to meet you. I understand your confusion, but if you might wait until the others arrive, all will be revealed."





Shrugging, I sat down, and since the staff was here this time, I ordered a milkshake and a steak with a baked potato. After a few minutes, everyone else showed up, and they seemed much more confused than I was, which was saying something.





Once our final member arrived, Sister Bernadette pushed back her chair, standing to bow. "Peace, my friends. And be welcome at my table. I am Bernadette, a sister in the order of mercy in the service of our Lady Felicity, the Lady of Lamentations." Her smile was bright and welcoming, and my confusion did not abate.





Ray, of course, raised a hand. "Um. No offense but…what the actual fuck?" Desria elbowed him in the ribs and he yelped. "Ok, OW. But seriously. Your goddess is a dark torture god. Why are you…" he waved at her appearance. "This."





"Our Lady is NOT a goddess of torture. She is a goddess of torment. Of suffering." She corrected.





"Not traditionally cuddly things." Ray said. "I don't see the difference."





She smiled sadly. "There are many who do not. And once, long ago, they swarmed in droves to kneel at the feet of my mistress. They did not understand her gifts, the lessons and the wisdom she had to bestow. They saw only the chance to harm, and through that harm enrich themselves in material wealth."





"Ok." I said slowly. "So why don't you tell us what her true message is. Tell us about her gifts." Everyone else had ordered, with Bernadette assuring us she would pay for everything, which seemed nice. The food arrived and she finally decided it was story time.





Nodding, she sat back down, taking a deep breath. "When man is born, he is a blank slate." She began. "His empty, a vessel to be filled. We fill this vessel with family, with life, and love, and joy. But as with all drinks, to sip only of joy deadens the palate. For what is joy without sorrow?





"And so comes pain." Her voice was a whisper. "And pain gives shade to the light, gives the eyes respite, and teaches us the contrast between suffering and delight." That part was said like it was a rote prayer she said all the time, and the rhyming made me believe that might be the case.





She bowed her head three times to touch her interlaced fingers after she said it, and only when she finished the motion did she continue. "Many people despise pain. Suffering. Torment. Whatever name you call it by, pain is the enemy of man in their own minds. But that is not so.





"When a person is born, they are empty, and through their years, pain fills their cup. Tears and sorrow mold them, not just in contrast to the joys of life, but in contrast to others. Pain unites us, teaches us, it shows us how we are alike." Despite the dour topic, she had a soft smile on her face. "Without pain we could have no empathy, no understanding. Pain is the commonality between all people. The single universal constant. Pain is life. Life is joy. Joy is pain."


That was…interesting. I couldn't necessarily argue those points. I wasn't entirely eager to volunteer to be tortured to…what? Season myself? Though I guess that's exactly what I was doing. "Look, this is fascinating." Said Vesper politely. "But what exactly IS the trial? Because if we have to go out and torture some random person to "enlighten them", I'm going to pass on this one."





"Such suspicion." Murmured Bernadette. "Such cynicism and doubt. My heart breaks for you, young one. For you have clearly been hurt by the cruelty of others, but gained through that pain no understanding. Pain without clarity, without understanding, is waste.





"And so I bring to you a gift." She beamed. "A chance to gain knowledge, to sharpen your understanding of the human condition. Experience pain with me, children, and through that gain enlightenment. Suffer and learn to grasp the suffering of others, and you will never truly be alone."





Ray cocked his head. "Sorry. I missed that."





"She's saying WE'RE going to be tortured." Archie said gruffly. "The trial is an endurance test. At least the first one. But what do you mean we? Are you going to take it with us?"





Nodding happily, she chirped. "That is my honor. The Order of Mercy are the teachers and students of human understanding. We experience pain, and through our suffering feel the truth of all living things. Tonight, you will take my journey with me, and you will gain the wisdom to understand all who may be at odds with you in the future."





"Ok, but HOW?" I asked in exasperation. "How are we going to experience the pain. I guess we have to give consent to take the trial?"





Laughing, she shook her head. "Oh no, your continued presence is considered consent by my mistress. You've already agreed to take the trial." Her tone was pleasant and upbeat, but I was annoyed.





"Ok, fine!" I said unhappily. "But when does it START?"





"Any second now, I would imagine." She chirped. "It takes a minute for the poison to kick in." We all froze, then looked down at our plates…and then the screaming started.





I keeled over. I'd been through some serious shit in my life. Mindmelting agony, bonecracking pain, I got eviscerated once which is objectively not great. But literally NONE of it felt as bad as this.





The pain wasn't constant, it strobed through me like a second heartbeat. Bursts of agonizing torment melted my fucking stomach (except they didn't unfortunately) and I just laid there and screamed.





"Don't worry!" Called Bernadette cheerfully through gritted teeth. "It won't kill you. Simply allow the wisdom to wash over you. It's so much less unpleasant when you let the pain into your heart. Oh, but not literally, because that would probably actually kill you. So if it goes near your heart you should take this antidote. If you do so, you will of course forfeit, but worry not about the missed chance for enlightenment. I know the pain of losing this opportunity will be integral to your spiritual growth."





There was a clink and we all jerked up to stare at a bottle on the table. It was tall and sturdy, made of dark blue glass and full of a thick liquid.





We all glared at her, but we didn't have the strength to yell or protest. I just held on suffering. I considered using Mornax, but I didn't think it would DO anything. All I could do was wait it out, screaming and twitching as the agony ripped through me. Oh gods, I could TASTE it. Wait, no, that was just vomit.





Finally, after what seemed like eternity but based on my scan ring was an hour. it subsided. I lay on floor, shaking and sweating, lying in a pool of my own vomit and having spent at least twenty of those sixty minutes just dry heaving. I groaned, climbing back up into my chair to glare at Bernadette, who was sipping a cup of tea, the rest of the food having been cleared.





Tanner was gone. As was Archie. Vesper, Desria, Cavallo, and Ray were the only ones left, and they all still had to shake off their poison. They'd eaten a bit after I had. I glared at her. "You proud of yourself for that shit?" I rasped.





"Very much so." She said excitedly. "We've taken such a marvelous journey together. Do you not feel closer to your fellow trial takers? Do you not understand their struggles?"





"Yes!" I snapped in outrage. "Because they're MY struggles too! I just went through them!"





She clapped in delight. "Precisely! Oh, I do hope you continue on your path, new brother. I feel so close to you now that we've shared this suffering. I believe in time we will become great friends!"





"You POISONED ME!" I shouted, throwing my hands up. "I'm extremely upset at you."





She nodded in satisfaction. "Yes." She said in a glowing tone. "I know. I understand you completely."





"That…IS A VERY FRUSTRATING ATTITUDE!" I screamed at her, even as the others climbed up onto their chairs groggily. She just hummed happily and drank her tea, and I had to bodily restrain myself from diving across the table and attacking her.





As I watched Bernadette 'enlighten' the others, I felt a strong pang of loss. Why couldn't I have gotten edgelord Echelon for my emissary. He'd been a dick, but he was better than THIS. I had a feeling this frustration would get worse before it got better. Fucking Black Sorrow. This was all her fault.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I groaned as I thumped down into my seat in the inn's dining room. "Oh gods. My stomach. What the hell did she give us? I'm still in pain, even after it 'wore off'. Also I'm so hungry, but I can't imagine eating." I looked at the others. "Are you guys hungry?" Dropping all the false formality was a relief, since I actually liked everyone I was working beside here.





Ray moaned pitifully. "Please don't talk about food. I'm pretending to live in a universe where I don't need to consume sustenance to live. Do you think there's a racial trait that lets you live off photosynthesis like a plant? That sounds pretty good right now. Just lay out and work on my tan when I'm hungry."





"Dryad maybe?" I said slowly. "I'm not even sure if they're actually green. I don't think I've ever seen one. Now I'm curious."





"You're really going to keep going?" Vesper said with a groan. "After that? From what the second trial for Delthrys was like, I assume that they get harder. That was…agonizing. I can't imagine the next one will be better. I'm not taking the second one, I'll wait for one of the other gods."





I nodded. "It's what I'm here for. I'm honestly relieved that its not torturing small animals or something. Pain is inevitable."





"You sound like HER." She teased. "Are we going to start hearing long diatribes about pain and how it brings us together. Don't you feel CLOSER to us now Fist?" She crooned that last bit in a sugary voice that was so over the top it couldn't be anything but mocking, and we all burst out laughing, yes, even me.





"Well, when I get offered salvation by the Lady of Lamentation and welcomed into her super special best friends afterlife where everyone is at peace with each other, you guys aren't invited." They stared at me in shock, and I wondered what the hell they were so surprised about, since it had obviously been a joke, until I realized something had felt different. "Huh." I said in my normal voice. "I lost the demon tone just then, didn't I?"





They nodded slowly. "Yeah, it sounds weird." Said Vesper. "Like…human. I don't associate you with that. What brought about this change? You trust us now?"





I shrugged. "I'd already let my real personality show. Might as well drop the pretense." Also voices weren't particularly distinctive, and no one I'd be interacting with had met me. People took pictures of faces, but I doubted anyone was going to be sending recordings of my speaking voice across the galaxy on the off chance I showed up somewhere.





Plus, now that I was in the right series of trials, I had no reason to keep people at arms length. I wasn't competing with any of them anymore. They were all dropping out of the Lamentation trials because they weren't fucking insane (or working for someone insane), and I wasn't taking on any others, so I was officially out of the running for their respective goals.





It felt nice to let my guard down a LITTLE. I'd already accepted maybe making some friends, but this felt different. I could relax a little more, even outside of my downtime and training Bella (she was currently working on her movement technique, hoping to get it functioning after my last round of advice). Of course, a poorly timed spike of stomach pain reminded me I wasn't exactly out of the woods.





This series of trials was going to push me beyond my limits. Mornax might help with some of it, but I was going to have to come up with another technique to help offset some of it. I even had an idea of how it might work.





Triggering Mephistopheles, I focused on the pain in my stomach. That was a mistake, my Focus homed in on the pain, amplifying it, but that didn't matter right now. I let myself feel the suffering, like a flame in my gut, and then I pushed my power into it. Black flame flooded my gut, condensing inside the pit of my stomach into…well, a pit.





I could feel it readying, hungering, I pushed the pain into it, and I felt it slam into that pit and start to break apart. It wasn't enough though. I needed not just a place to put the pain, but a way to shunt it out of the rest of my body. I had to turn myself into a vessel, a spout to pour the agony down that led right into that endless yearning pit of black fire.





I triggered Mornax, then Dark Reflection, False Fatality. Both methods of reflecting or altering the impact of damage. I felt something start to click, to blend together in a familiar way, and suddenly…I felt it snap into place.





A pseudo Domain manifested in me, condensed to the size of my body. The second circle of hell: Gluttony.In the original myths circle two had been Lust, but I had no use for that, and my circles weren't going to follow the original script anyway.





I spun myself a story. About a monstrous place where Mephistopheles and Mornax created a pit of destruction contained within an unbreakable body. A consuming chasm that chewed up their enemies and digested them for strength.





Gluttony was a powerful ability. A condensed domain that operated within the limits of my body. Mornax made me nearly indestructible at my level, but Gluttony didn't just tank damage. It ATE it. Gulped down attacks and burned them away in the destruction of the pit in my stomach. I could feel that it would synergize with Abomination Engine too, providing another way for my body enhancement technique to gain power faster.





The others were staring at me in shock. "What the fuck was THAT?" Desria demanded, having been mostly keeping quiet in her suffering.





"That was a new trick." I laughed. "I can't go into details. Just a technique I was working on."





I'd succeeded too. Gluttony didn't JUST eat pain, but it definitely did that too. It gave me a way to withstand what was coming.





"You just…invent techniques?" Said Ray in an impressed tone. "Because that's kind of terrifying. Most people take a lot longer than…a minute or two to make them. Techniques require focus and structure. Imagination and vision. Making them is one of the hardest parts about being an Ascendant."





He sounded serious, which was kind of a shock coming from Ray. But honestly, what he said didn't seem right to me. My mother's surprise at my ease of technique use had seemed odd to me for a long time. Techniques were easy. You just…made them. You came up with an idea and then put it into practice.





But hearing Ray talk about them like that made it clear that I wasn't the norm. I'd helped a lot of my friends make Techniques, but they didn't have as many as I dad and theirs didn't seem to be as powerful.





Was I really just a natural genius at techniques? I mean, I'd gotten my Path by accident way too early. Was it some mixture of having a lot of Path to work with and a strong soul? It was an intriguing thing to think about. It felt good to have a talent like that, but it seemed to have come from nowhere. If it was Skills I'd get it, the original Wishmaster was a Skill genius, so maybe it was genetic. Could my ability with techniques just be some kind of mutated bloodline talent? Did those even exist?





"Hellooo?" Said Vesper, waving a hand in my face. "Fist, you in there? Or did the black flames on your head literally fry your brain?"





"I was just considering how to tell Ray that he's probably just bad at techniques." I said in a faux contrite tone. "He's already D-rank, I was worried that finding out he's not cut out for being an Ascendant might break his poor little heart."





Desria, Cavallo, and Vesper all burst out laughing. Ray just gasped. "I liked you better when you were pretending to be all menacing and silent." He grumbled. "Talky Fist is mean."





"You're just pissed you don't get to be friends with Devilghost." I snorted. "Sorry I'm not the fictional character you idolized as a kid. I may be badass, but I'm a perfectly normal person under this C-rank armor."





Vesper snorted. "Sorry Fist, but jokes aside, Ray isn't wrong. You absolutely are NOT normal. You have a partial Domain at D-rank, and not a fake one. You also have way more techniques than you should. I'm betting we haven't even seen all of them, but I've seen you use a couple at least."





I suspected she was assuming some of my forms were techniques of their own, which…they almost were? But not really. Still, I wasn't going to explain to them how my powers worked, that would have been absurd. Instead I just shrugged. "It's ok." I consoled them teasingly. "Someday you too may be as strong as I am."


"I mean, that day might be pretty soon." Reasoned Ray. "If you get tortured into insanity by that crazy nun."





"Gee, thanks Ray." I said wryly. "Because I needed more reasons to have nightmares." I paused after that. "Actually, I have surprisingly few nightmares considering all the things I've seen." Admittedly, having Callie around probably helped. I always slept better when my wife was next to me. Which was still a crazy thought to have, but if I went down the 'holy shit I'm married' rabbit hole every time I thought the word wife I'd never do anything else.





I felt a surge of amusement and affection through the bond, and realized that even without a direct communication thought Callie was good enough at reading my emotions to pick up the general shape of my thoughts. I sent a burst of warmth through the bond, just a quick I love you, and got one in return before going back to talking to my new friends.





They were going on about possible trials they might have to face, and some of them made me kind of glad I was locked in on my current series. I wondered how many others would be involved in the trials later on. I was pretty sure that there were other groups of people on Rackham for the selection and they just weren't nearby, there was no way there was less than ten of us total.





On the upside, it would take a…special type of person to follow the path I was taking, so I doubted it would be too busy. I was betting the Lamentation trials were the least popular of all the trials, actually. Which probably improved my chances if I could stick them out.





We spent the rest of the night talking, going on about all the crazy shit we might have to deal with, and talking about what we'd do if we got selected. None of us knew how the internal structure of the vanished gods forces worked, so it was mostly guesswork and nonsense, but it was still a lot of fun.





When the night ended, we said our goodbyes and headed up to our rooms, and I stripped off my armor and flopped into bed. After a quick conversation with my wife to let her know how the trial had gone (and ignore her laughter at my absurd experience) I was finally ready to head to sleep.





Tomorrow I'd be talking to Sister Bernadette again to see how long I'd need to wait for my next trial. I didn't know how many rounds the Lamentation series had, or any of them had, really, but I wanted to get started as soon as possible. Dragging it out was just going to make things ten times more agonizing. Surprisingly, I was smiling as I fell asleep. Painful and imposing things might be, but at the very least I wasn't bored.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After waking up the next morning and stockpiling my wishes (ten with twenty five still in the hands of friends back home) I gathered Bella and headed out to meet Sister Bernadette. "I can't believe I get to go with you this time!" My apprentice was squealing. "I want to see the trials you came here for. I bet you looked so cool resisting the pain like, 'you shall not break me'!" She put on a deep pseudo demon voice that reminded me so much of Bethy it was genuinely terrifying.





"I looked like a shuddering, vomiting, crying mess," I said bluntly. "She poisoned us without telling us, and it was agonizing. I THINK I have a way to counter it, though I'd be shocked if it's completely effective. These trials were designed by a god."





She wrinkled her nose. "Geeze, master. Maybe try to be a bit more dignified. Puking is gross."





"My mistake," I chuckled. "I'll try to suffer in stoic silence next time. I wouldn't want to embarrass you. Speaking of embarrassing, how is you movement technique? Still running into trees?"





"No!" She spat. Then she paused. "It was a cliff this time. It hurt."





Rolling my eyes, I just shook my head. "You need to keep iterating. Change the story behind your technique in little ways, refine it. You can brute force techniques to make them work, but it's easier to alter them to better suit you." It was what I'd done with Limbo and Abomination Engine. Techniques leveraged Fantasy and the power of the soul as a medium to leverage your Path directly on the world around you. They were an embryonic form of Domain usage, and just like Domains, they needed compatibility.





She sighed. "I know. I remember. It's just…this one is so fast. And honestly it might be TOO fast. But it feels like slowing it down would go against my Path. Escape Velocity has to be the fastest I can go."





I hummed in understanding. "Well, I can't exactly solve this for you." I shrugged. "Techniques are deeply personal. I can give you the tools, but you have to figure out how it clicks for you. If it's too fast for you to use functionally, it's not a useful technique. Only you can decide how it needs to work."





We kept walking in silence for a while, until we came to the clearing I'd been directed to, where Sister Bernadette was sitting on a stump. In front of her, a little doe was nuzzling her hand while a squirrel sat on her shoulder. She was cooing to the animals, seemingly enjoying just spending time with them. When we got closer, they heard us and took off, and she made a sad noise and stood, brushing off her habit.





"Sorry about that," I told her with actual contrition. "Though I have to be honest. I didn't expect a pain nun to be all buddy buddy with the animals."





Giggling, she shook her head. "Animals are lovely creatures. Simple and uncomplicated. Humans can be layered and complex, the types of pain you need to go through to truly understand another human are as numerous as the stars in the sky. Animals, in contrast, only know a few types of pain. Hunger. Grief. Injury. If you've known these things, relating to an animal is simple enough."





"That whole relating thing," I asked cautiously. "Are you an ACTUAL Empath? Like is that literal?"





She shrugged. "What is empathy? A sense? An action? I connect to others through shared pain. Of course, I can only connect through pain that we've both endured. There are so many kinds of pain, I could never experience them all. But you and I have shared a pain, and so we are connected. Can't you feel it?"





I couldn't. I had a connection with someone already, and didn't need any more. If Bernadette was really forming empathic connections with everyone she met….I shuddered at the thought.





"So," I said, moving the conversation on. "What's my next task. I was kind of figuring there would be more people here. Don't tell me I'm the only one on the planet who decided to pursue the Lamentation trials?"





"Not at all." She smiled serenely. "But the others won't be joining us yet. There are seven trials that the Mistress demands her chosen persevere through. Only five will be done in the company of others. They will, in fact, be competitions. Those who last the longest will gain favor. However, before reaching the third trial and meeting your future brothers and sisters, you must prove yourself."





I snorted. "The poison didn't do that? Because lasting through that wasn't easy."





Her smile this time was sad. "I'm afraid not. This next trial…it is my least favorite. While all pain is beautiful because it gives understanding, some pains are a sad beauty. The next trial is a pain of the heart, and one I wish we didn't have to inflict."





"I'm not already infected with it am I?" I said cautiously, spinning around to see if I was standing in poison gas or something.





"No," she responded softly. "This must be your own choice." She withdrew a small bottle. "This is Lamentation oil. A holy sacrament of the lady. If you accept the trial, I will pour this over your head, and light it aflame. The flame burns away your courage, and you will be inflicted with not just agony, but crippling fear. A world where there is no safety. No shelter. Nowhere to run. You can give up at any time, but to succeed you must endure until the flames burn out."





That was…ominous. My new domain would help with the pain, but I didn't think it could eat emotions. And especially not a lack of them. It sounded hellish. But I'd been through worse. Nothing could be more horrible than the total isolation under which I'd broken my schalke in the Ruined Soul Temple. If I could withstand that I could handle anything.


"I'm in," I said with a slow breath. "Go ahead and do it. If I can't take it, you said I can give in? You have a way to put it out?"





She nodded solemnly, pulling out another bottle. "Water from an arctic spring on a light based planet. This will quell the flames and soothe your agony. Are you ready to start?" I nodded, and she stashed the second bottle, uncorking the first and upending it over my head. The glass was black tinted, the bottle unassuming on rectangular, and as she dumped it onto me, I grimaced at the strange feeling.





It was like…shampoo. More than anything else. A thick and viscous chill dumping into my hair and sloughing down the sides of my head, seeping into my armor at the neck and running down my chest and arms. It was almost freakishly cold, nearly burning my skin with the chill…and then she clicked her fingers, and the oil caught fire.





Pain. My world was consumed with pain. This wasn't like the pain from the poison, this was so much deeper. A burning inside, eating away at my confidence. It hurt, sure, but worse than that was the fear. Was this going to permanently scar me, would Callie stop loving me, would people avoid me, would I lose feeling in my skin, would I lose my abilities? The fire seeped into my soul, dripping into the cracks in my courage and burning away inside me.





Crazy theories, absurd worries, a million different worst case scenarios. The air on my skin was eating away at me, animals circled above ready to attack, germs in the air could be infecting me. I didn't scream, because I was so afraid that someone would hear and know I was vulnerable, so I stifled it, horrible broken noises erupting from my chest as I choked back my cries of agony.





I was crying, because of course I was. The world was awful and everything was trying to hurt me. I triggered Gluttony, just as a last resort, and I felt the physical pain leach away as it poured into the pit inside me. It wasn't perfect. I still felt the pain, it was just brief, sliding through me and seeming to take hold less, but still hurting me on a surface level.





The fear didn't end though, didn't stop. I was hyperventilating, suffocating from unrelenting terror. I hadn't wanted this, hadn't been ready for this. No one was ready for this. I was going to die. I wanted to give up, but I was so paralyzed by terror I couldn't bring myself to try to speak.





And then I felt something shift inside me. The fear started to crack, then recede. I dissected the worries, the trauma. Explained patiently to myself how unlikely each scenario was. It shouldn't have worked, not out of nowhere, not when it hadn't before. But then I realized what it was. Callie. She was lending me her courage. Giving me the strength that was being taken by the flames.





It felt like a thousand years I was burning. A million. But eventually the flames started to flicked and then went out, a sickly grey fire I only really saw toward the end guttered and vanished, leaving me whole and intact, not even ash in my hair.


I put my hands on my knees, panting, sweat dripping from every inch of me, throat sore from the screaming I'd been holding back. Bernadette stared at me sadly. "It takes true strength to endure such a trial." She said gently. "The oil is a test that only our most pious undergo outside of selections like this. You've done very well." She pulled a piece of paper from the air, passing it to me. "You've earned your place in the third selection."





There were directions on the paper, and I memorized them before I put it away, just in case. "Thanks." I rasped. "I'm going to go ahead and go."





"I understand," she said with a smile. "I know you may be upset with me for this. It is a cruel trial. But I'm very proud of you for the courage you showed, new brother. Please know that this particular pain is not one I inflict lightly, nor am I ignorant of the toll it demands. You've done well."





I didn't have the strength to respond with anything more than a nod. I turned and limped out of the clearing, Bella trailing behind. My muscles were sore and torn, violent cramps and seizing from the fear had caused very real damage that the fire hadn't. My apprentice slid under my arm, propping me up. "I've got you, master."





"So," I croaked wryly. "What did we learn?"





"That not everything is an adventure." Her voice was quiet and hollow. "Some things need to be done, but I need to be aware that they'll cost me. That was…master, what could be worth paying that kind of cost?"





Smiling sadly, I just shook my head. "Family, Belladonna. Family."





I didn't elaborate, and she didn't ask, which I was grateful for. My throat hurt and I was exhausted. I just wanted to walk in silence, and my apprentice seemed to have picked up on that desire. Given how much Bella talked, I was grateful for her forbearance. The whole trip could have been much worse.





In my soul, I felt a soothing trickle of warmth. Callie couldn't use Zagan to heal me over a long distance, the power she had access to came from the bond so it didn't work that way. Still, it was nice having her love and care patch the cracks in my psyche. Because there were still cracks. That flame had damaged me in a very real way, even if it hadn't caused me physical hard. I hoped that whatever the next trial was, it was more physical and less metaphysical. I could deal with bodily harm, but this mental torment really fucked me up. I suppose I would see at the next trial. Only three days to go.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next two days mostly passed without incident. I didn't spend them crying in bed or anything, but Callie's shadow was definitely there for me while I slept. I was able to use Zagan to help purify some of the lingering effects myself, though I still had a few mental cobwebs. I didn't feel like working on wishes, so I just piled my extra sixteen into the ring, which brought me to fifty one total, counting the ones my friends had outside the ring.

Tomorrow was going to be my next trial, and I wasn't exactly thrilled about it, so instead of dwelling, I decided to spend some time working with my apprentice.

"Now," I told her as we hiked out to a clearing in the woods. "Here's where we take the next step in your training. You have your movement technique, but now you need to learn to use it for actual combat. Moving from safe and stable locations is fine for a beginner, but you neat to be able to not only trigger your technique but properly control it in the heat of battle, and that takes practice."

She frowned. "I guess…" she said slowly. "I was going to say Escape Velocity is aimed at escaping rather than active combat, but I could escape attacks as you make them, so it should work. It's more built to disengage than dodge thought."

"Not always an option." I said bluntly. "Sometimes you're dealing with someone faster in flat out acceleration and you need to move around constantly, sometimes you're in a confined space and the entrance is blocked, sometimes you're injured in a way that makes sustained flight impossible but you can still move in short bursts. There are lots of reasons to learn this. Now, you brought your staff?"

She held up the three foot stick confidently. "I went with a smaller version. More maneuverability."

"You sure you want to learn to use one?" I asked. "While it's true that I want to try to pass on my Goetia Staff Art, I'm not sure it can be done. I've never tried to teach a unique Skill before." And I technically wasn't now. Goetia was almost a subskill, though my forms DID have a base of stats like any other Skill, which should make them learnable.

Teaching Bella the staff are was something I'd waffled over. I wanted to see if she could learn, but at the same time, it could hypothetically give me away. I didn't think it was TOO big a risk, given how few people knew the details of my power, but it was a chance I was taking on my apprentice. Still, she'd helped me out so much with my Path, and I wanted to pay her back somehow. Sincere instruction seemed like the easiest way.

She nodded seriously. "I totally want to. I've been practicing all the movements you've taught me. All the underlying staff styles of each of your forms." She didn't understand what a form was yet, really, she just thought I meant it in the sense most martial arts would. Practicing the actual martial arts component of the art seemed like the best place to start.

I'd created a unique style of combat for each of my forms, as part of designing the Staff Art. Mephistopheles involved lots of powerful blows and thrusting slams, Belial lots of deflection, I'd been working on proper styles for my more recent forms, and Bael involved lots of feints, but that was the only one I'd gotten so far.

"You get a Skill yet?" I asked hopefully. This was still kind of a proof of concept thing, and even a Minor Skill would be a huge coup.

She shook her head in frustration. "Not yet. I feel like I'm close though."

"Alright, then this might help." I gestured for her to step into the clearing. "Adding your movement technique in will bring you closer to how I actually use my Staff Art. And fighting against it will show you more of how it works. Just stick to the styles I showed you as we fight, there are movements that should work in any situation. I'll do the same, and we can try to get you that Skill."

She grinned eagerly, and I took up a combat position. "So, your first task…don't go down too easily." I moved. Black flames exploded as I vanished, appearing next to her, staff whirling as I brought it smashing toward her head.

Her own burst of flames flared up, but I was already moving, my Waltz carrying me to the spot her eyes had landed on as I continued my whirling series of strikes. Her eyes widened and she squeaked as my staff cracked down on her knee, taking a tumble and landing on the ground with a hiss of pain, cradling her leg.

"Lesson number one." I said as I whirled my staff in lazy figure eights. "Reactive movements are fine, but always know where you're going after your next step. One move ahead means you have no wiggle room. Your need to look around and find an escape route gave me time to mark your next move. If you'd planned ahead, I'd have had to chase you."

Wincing, she climbed to her feet. "Two moves ahead." She said forcefully. "Got it."

"Three is better, but that gets complicated," I admitted. "So yeah, two is fine for now. Reset and let me know when you're ready."

She steadied herself, took a deep breath, and then nodded. I blazed forward, appearing behind her, and she vanished. I noticed the slight flare of heat preceding her move and Waltzed across the distance, marking her again, but this time I was the one reacting. Sadly for her I was doing it in armor that enhanced my black flame, and with a very advanced movement technique.

My staff struck out at her head, but to my delight, she deflected it. Belial. Grinning I came in for another attack, and she stood her ground, defensive staff work bleeding off the power of my strikes ala Mornax, and thrusts towards my joints in response with Mepjistopheles.

I could have easily overpowered her, but I pulled back a bit, letting her vanish again before catching up and pressuring her more. The point of this was for her to learn, not take a beating, which meant I needed to pace myself. She was picking things up, and I was excited to see exactly what she could manage.

We battled like that, vanishing and appearing across the clearing, staves clashing against each other as we ran the gamut of the moves I'd taught her, then circled back for more. She looked like she was tiring, but I didn't pull back any more than I was. She needed to learn, and that meant at least some pressure. I couldn't say when the change happened, but it definitely did. Between one second and the next, something about her staff work just…changed.

I was striking at her knee again (because it was safer than head shot), when her staff licked out and tapped mine. Rather than bounce it away or even slide it off her staff, I felt the force sort of…bend. True deflection, and as I glanced at my weapon, I could have sworn I saw a faint flicker of green.

Backing off, I waited for a reaction, and sure enough, she froze, staring down at her hands and then back up to me. "Master…" she said quietly. "I did it. I got the Skill. Minor Goetia Staff Mastery."

I grinned manically. That was amazing. I could TEACH my staff art. I considered teaching it to my friends, and I would offer through Callie, but I doubted they'd take me up on it. Versatile and powerful as it might be, making any progress learning it would require full dedication.

Ascendants, by and large, picked one or two Skills to focus on, and they were usually either very basic or part of their ability. The only people I'd seen go the other way were people with Jobs that leaned toward multi-skilling, like Mages, who I was pretty sure had some kind of meta-skill to make them learn faster.

At the end of the day, even I had to choose between having a lot of Skills and just one or two. I'd just cheated by making my one major Skill absurdly diversified, and by getting a second ability so it would grow with without needing to be manually trained.

I was well aware that without my second ability, not only would I not be nearly as powerful in terms of my Path and techniques, but I'd probably never have managed to get my DS Mastery to Master. Even getting it to Intermediate had been a colossal task, and the effort had been unknowingly weakening the Skill as I'd mashed new ones into it, effectively preventing me from ever using it to create a Chronicle.

You could be known for being really good at one thing, or you could be decent at everything, but you couldn't do both without some kind of workaround.

Bella, however, was on the lookout for a decent combat style. Her 'escape' ability wasn't suited for the kind of lifestyle she wanted to live, and she was willing and able to give her full focus to the Goetia Staff Art. Which was something I realized I WANTED. Part of me wanted to pass on my legacy. I was excited at the possibility that something I created would pass on to future generations.

I held out a hand, pulling her to her feet. "Good work." I said proudly. "Of course, a Minor Skill is nothing. You'll need to grind it up to at least Intermediate before it'll be much use. But hey, you've got plenty to work on. Did you feel a little bit of Belial there just then?"

She nodded eagerly. "I did! It felt like some of the power from the deflection seeped into your staff."

"It did, though it was such a minute amount there was no chance it was going to damage a weapon like mine." I laughed at her disappointed pout. "Don't get down on yourself, a Minor Skill isn't much, like I said. I doubt anyone could have seriously damaged my staff with a Minor Skill at D-rank. It's a good sign though, because it means you're learning."

She nodded slowly. "So, in order to use the energy like you do, I have to use the corresponding style?"

"I imagine so." I said with a shrug. "I created the Skill, so it makes sense I'd be able to use it differently. It's ultimately a martial art, so you need to use certain moves to get certain effects." Benefits of a unique Skill, I supposed. I could just trigger forms with a thought, because the Goetia Staff Art was part of me. But being able to use the forms by mimicking the style was still a huge boost in power if she got it to a decent level.

For my part, I was nearly vibrating with excitement. I'd CREATED a Skill that other people could learn. I'd known that was a thing, in retrospect, but my own personal experiences and creations felt so personal. It was crazy to think that anyone could learn what I could do, if I decided to teach them.

It was a little different, and I was pretty sure she could never pass my own rank in it, but that hardly mattered. I'd contributed to the universe. I'd made something that was a part of this crazy world I lived in, and I was proud.

"Well," I said as she finished processing. "Getting the Skill was just step one. We still need to get it higher. Back in position, we're going again. I'm going to make sure you can use that staff properly if it kills you." Her elated expression became wary, but I just smirked behind my mask and got into position. She needed to learn, and if this part of the training helped me vent some of my frustrations at my own mentors…well, two birds and all that. I'd never claimed to be perfect.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I woke up and got my wishes converted to scrolls before heading to the meeting place where I was told to wait for Bernadette. This next trial was going to be my first with the other potential selection candidates, and I was kind of curious how they were planning to do this one.

Obviously it was competitive, but how did you compete on who could handle the most pain? See how many times each of us could handle being stabbed? I felt my gut clench at the thought and immediately regretted even putting it out there into the ether. I knocked on a nearby tree as I passed, a weird little ritual I'd read about that was supposed to diffuse bad luck.

When I arrived at the spot where Bernadette had directed me, I was surprised to see several other people there. A dour looking girl with a shaved head occupied only by a single spiked up strip of green hair, a tall man with a craggy face and a pair of extremely oversized gauntlets, and a motherly woman with long black hair and a kind smile.

When they saw me, the reactions were varied. The older woman smiled and nodded to me in welcome, glove guy looked away, and the green haired girl sneered at me in what I assume was meant to be menace. "Great," she snorted. "First it's poser mommy and captain oven mitts, and now frankenposer. What's next? A clown?"

"Seems like that position is filled." I snapped reflexively. "At least I assume the circus is where they trained you to wear that much makeup."

She froze, staring at me in outrage for a second, before bursting out laughing. "Well, at least you're not as boring as you look, tin man. Do you have a name, or should I just keep calling you 'can o' dark' in my head? I'm Mnemosyne."

"Mephistopheles," I responded slowly. "People around here just call me Fist. You're not…offended?"

She shrugged. "The fuck do I care if you like my makeup. Not like I wore it for you. Besides, with that hideous fucking mask on your face you're not exactly in a position to throw stones. More like the opposite really, bet if we stuck you in the middle of town in a stockade you'de have all the local kids reaching for some rocks."

"Honestly," said the older woman. "There's no need to be so…gauche. We're all competitors here, but we can still behave civilly."

Mnemosyne nodded to her. "That's why I call her poser mommy. She keeps saying shit like that." She glared at the woman. "You're not my mom, lady. Stop trying to tell me what to do, or I'll get annoyed."

"I wonder what THAT would be like?" I said sarcastically. I turned to the older woman, ignoring the green haired girl's diatribe. "As I mentioned to Mnemosyne, I'm Mephistopheles."
She smiled warmly. "Elena. It's lovely to meet you. Just because we'll be at odds in the trial doesn't mean we should abandon our manners. My daughter is the same age as she is, so I'm somewhat used to the sass."

I admit…I was kind of thrown. This woman didn't strike me as being some hardened warrior, or alternatively as being nuts. That fucking ego fire had almost broken me, and probably would have without Callie. How had these three all gotten through it.

But, of course the answer was the same way I had. They had tricks. Talents that lent themselves to this series of trials. Methods to manage or divert the pain. Underestimating someone because they seemed like somebody's mom, or because they had a foul mouth, was a recipe for another knife in my back. Travis might be dead, but the lessons he'd taught me were alive and well.

"Oh, lovely." Said the cheerful voice of Bernadette as she arrived with another entrant. This one was a dark skinned guy about my age, though much smaller than me. He was probably five foot ten, with amber eyes and sharp cheekbones. His eyes were cold and flat, scanning the rest of us with interest, though without any malice.

"Bernadette." I nodded to her. "Who's your friend?"

She beamed. "This is Harper. He's one of your competitors. I see you've met Mnemosyne, Elena, and Ajax. They were all the closest entrants that made it through. This is a large planet, so each of my brothers and sisters were given a wide area to oversee. That's why some of you had our trial on the first day of the second week, some the second, etcetera. Before we leave for the testing ground, does anyone have any questions?"

"Yeah," said Mnemosyne. "Where the fuck are you taking us? What is this trial."

Chuckling, Bernadette just shook her head. "Don't be silly, new sister. If I told you that it would spoil the surprise. That said, I AM allowed to tell you that there's a prize for this particular task. Incentives become a possibility once we enter the competitive phase. I can hardly wait to see what the mistress has gifted us for your reward."

She sounded so perfectly happy it was easy to forget we were probably about to be tortured in some horrible way. "Ok." I chimed in. "Well how do we get there?"

Smiling, she raised her fingers to her lips, letting out an ear splitting whistle. There was a rustle, and the trees parted, revealing a silver coach, flying through the air and pulled by…otters? Yeah, they were flying otters.

They slid to a stop in the middle of the clearing, and Bernadette gestured for us to enter. I stepped up first, pulling open the coach door and climbing inside, followed closely by the other candidates. Harper was the next one in, then Mnesmosyne, then Elena. Ajax, aka captain oven mitts, was the last to enter, his craggy face looking dour and serious as he scanned the area for threats. Or I suppose other threats, since we would all probably count.

We didn't talk much on the ride over. This sense of almost universal tension had come over us, like the world was holding its breath. We were all about to willingly torture ourselves for the approval of a goddess of torment and an as yet undisclosed 'prize'. I was sure we all had our reasons, but still, I think it was just sinking in for some of us. Or maybe they were all trying to come up with a new muffin recipe, I didn't fucking know these people.

Luckily, it was a short trip, at least as far as these things go. Twenty minutes and we stopped. "Alright, is everyone ready?" Bernadette asked eagerly. She didn't seem upset like the last time, so I was pretty sure that meant THIS task was just going to be physical agony, instead of soul breaking flames of hopedeath.

At our affirmations, she grinned and threw open the door. We were hanging in midair, not that it mattered to any of us. Even on a B-rank planet a twenty foot drop wasn't enough to ruffle any of us.

Below us was a small lake with a smaller island in the middle. The water in the lake was blood red and boiling, and seemed to darken as it approached the middle where that one single spire of rock sat untouched. "Welcome," crowed Bernadette excitedly. "To the lake of judgement! We had it moved here from a dreadworld in the Acteon cluster. I'm so jealous you all get to undergo such an amazing trial!"

"Um…" I said cautiously. "What IS that shit? And what does it do, other than apparently hurt a lot. Or I mean, I'm assuming."

"Oh, no, it definitely hurts a lot," she confirmed. "But it's not JUST pain, it's also a test. You'll all enter at the bank, which is equidistant from that island in the middle. Each step will not only increase the pain, but will increase the pressure on you. The further you walk, the deeper your suffering, and the harder it is to take even another step."

Mnemosyne blanched. "Wait, we're going to be going UNDER that lake? Like submerged? How the fuck do we survive that? Whatever that shit is, I doubt it's supposed to be in a person's lungs. Are we supposed to hold our breath?"

"Not at all," chirped Bernadette. "Breathe freely. The water is highly oxygenated. You won't drown." She paused. "Well, you won't drown ALL THE WAY. Fluid will enter your lungs and it will be agonizing, and it'll get worse as you go on, but that's part of the trial. You'll even be given a special rock to crush in case of emergency. After all, it's not a competition if you can't forfeit."

Around us, other people were arriving, or some were already here. There was a huge cross section of humanity surrounding the lake, and some other things too. I saw some fae, a devil or two, and I think at least one demon. There were easily a hundred people there, and I was shocked so many could handle the trials before. "So, what happens if we use the rock?" I asked as I scanned the forming crowd. "Are we out of the trials?"

"Not at all," she said serenely. "We've passed the point of expulsion. It's unnecessary in any case. The first two rounds are meant to weed out those too fragile to survive the trials. They're a mercy from Our Lady to prevent the unnecessary breaking of her possible supplicants. From this point, you're trusted to know your own limits. You won't be expelled, but you can drop out of the trials at any time if it becomes too much."

That was surprisingly cuddly for a torture goddess, but then, the order of mercy seemed to be the nice side of the Lady of Lamentation's worshippers, for some values of the word. I wasn't going to complain that they weren't sadistic enough.

"Well, come along new brothers and sisters," Bernadette said energetically. "We need to get you all in position to begin the trials once everyone arrives. Oh, and of course, as I mentioned, there is a prize. The first one to make it to the center will receive…" She squinted at the island. "I feel like that's some kind of egg?" She shrugged. "Guess we'll find out soon! How exciting."

She led us to the shore of the lake, lining us all up, and some of the others took positions at our sides. A single line of candidates ringing the entire lake, side by side and all the same distance from victory.

"So, the rest of you as terrified about this as I am?" I asked the others in my group.

Mnemosyne snorted. "Hell no, I'm way more terrified than you. You can't even come close to how pantshittingly terrified I am right now. Get on my level."

I burst out laughing. "Is everything a competition with you? Wait, no, don't answer that, you'll probably tell me it's more of a competition for you than it is for me." At her sulky glare, I snickered loudly. "I totally nailed your reaction, didn't I?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Children," she said chidingly. "Can we focus please?" As she spoke, her skin started to shift, red metal rolling across the surface of her body as her eyes started to glow a deep crimson. "It's time to be serious now. Because I'm certainly not going to hold back just because you amuse me."

Snickering, I let Gluttony pour forth, my body turning stony as the pit of black flame swallowed my gut. "Feel free not to hold back at all." I boomed in my demon voice. "It won't make a difference."

Across the shore I saw figures shifting and changing. Some becoming powerful hulking brutes, some shifting to forms like humanoid slimes, and some just manifesting small signs of energy use. All of them looked confident though, readying for battle, and I hoped my advantages were enough. I had a feeling this wouldn't be easy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first step into the lake was agonizing. My foot passed into the water and pain poured into me. It rolled up my, into the pit in my stomach, but it left trails of broken glass dragging through me as it passed. It wasn't the same as I suspected it would be on its own though. Pain, energy, all of that poured into the pit and sat there. I triggered Abomination Engine, and the power roared through me, pulsing in time with the beat of my racing heart.


Another step, and I was up to my knees, more contact and more pain, but it flooded me with strength as the consumed power fed back into my enhancement technique. My face stretched into a vicious grin as I continued moving.


Beside me, Elena was wading in, red eyes blazing as the boiling crimson water rose around her metallic red form. Her teeth were bared in a rictus of pain, a mockery of the kind smile she'd had earlier, but her eyes didn't just blaze with power, they flared with determination. I tore my gaze away, focusing on the island completely, then I stepped forward again, submerging up to my chest.


The pit in my stomach pulled the pain through me like water down a drain. Not only was it emptying my body, it was increasing the rate of entry, making the agony hit me much faster. It was pretty much an even trade in terms of utility, so I ignored it, and without much preamble, I took my final step off into the lake and my head went under.


Madness. Liquid horror and torment pouring into my lungs, exploding into me like jet fuel that combusted as I inhaled, setting off mushroom clouds of torture in my lungs and flashes of agony behind my eyes.


I froze for a second, my body locked with fire and fury pouring through me. My instinct was to stop, to hold my breath and not let the water in, but that was the trick. We needed to breathe, even us, especially as we got deeper and the pressure redoubled. On a B-rank planet, we weren't nearly as strong, and the constant crushing weight of the D-ranked lake around us made breathing a necessity.


My hand flexed around the rock I'd been given, a chalky red stone that I could crush without thinking. I had to be careful not to flex and powder the thing by mistake.


It took me a minute or two to adjust to the new dimension of horror, but I got there. I breathed through the pain, letting it flow through me and out of me into the pit. It was horrible, and I choked and gagged on the liquid agony in my lungs, cramping and spasming at the pain, but eventually I managed to get past it.


Once I could breathe without seizing up, I took another step, an experimental step. I was paying close attention to the sensations of entry, so I was well aware of the slight increase in the physical strain of moving forward. I felt…not weaker exactly, but like the water was denser. Like I was walking through jello, but jello that could affect a D-ranker. Admittedly, it was still pretty watery jello at this point, but I could feel it getting harder.


I turned my head, Eye of Revelation flaring, to try to see the people around me. I could, at the moment, though the deeper I got the more opaque the water became. How that worked in terms of actual fluid dynamics and water intermingling I had no clue, but I decided 'Ascendant bullshit' was as close to accurate as ever and decided to ignore it.


That proved to be a timely decision, because my casual glance around picked up a slight shift in the water. Danger Sense was screaming at me, mostly because I was being TORTURED and it was pretty much maximum dangerous to keep moving, and I was ignoring that like a dumbass. Which, you know, fair enough. But that meant I had no warning other than my eyes when one of the nearby walkers tried to perforate me with a spear.


Moving through weird superpressure water wasn't as easy as he seemed to think though. The spear was sluggish, and I slipped aside with ease, my hands clamping around the shaft as it passed.


The other guy started jerking back, but his eyes widened when he realized his spear wasn't moving. Every beat of my heart increased the power flooding my Abomination Engine, and it wasn't just that either. Gluttony was a pseudo Domain, and that meant it was MUCH more effective at what it did than Limbo.


The power flooding me kept rising, kept making me stronger, and I couldn't feel it slowing down. No cap, no ceiling. I felt like I could keep getting stronger forever. I was guessing that WASN'T the case, but my limits were far more elastic than they were using the technique normally, and I was already ferociously powerful.


This was, however, a very niche technique. Having nonstup input to pump me like this was obviously not replicable. Sure, this would be useful in combat, but I wasn't likely to find the circumstances to become a juggernaut like this again.


I also realized that while something like grabbing a spear let me use my full strength, actual movement was restrained by the water, and a fight wasn't likely to go well for me down here. So I didn't have one.


Turning, I took a step, and then another, shoving myself against the pressure as the pain redoubled. Moving faster seemed to ramp the agony, which wasn't ideal, but it was much worse than that for spear guy. I fucking DRAGGED him deeper, stepping implacably forward, pulling us both into the stygian depths as the torture rolled through my body.


He finally couldn't take it anymore, letting go and crushing his rock. I looked down at the reasonably pricey D-ranked spear in my hands and shrugged, stashing it in my ring before resuming my underwater trek. I looked around for any others, but it seemed like I'd pulled ahead of most. I saw others close to my depth, but they were all a ways away, in different parts of the lake leaving their own nearby candidates in the dust.


The opacity of the water was climbing, making it hard to see more than a few feet away, the deeper I got the darker it became. The pain, the pressure, it was unbearable. Except it wasn't. I could bear it, could hold up, and I did. One foot in front of the other, all I needed was another step, and another, and another. One more step, on repeat.


I could have reached for Callie, could have pulled on her resolve, but I didn't want that. I wanted to get through this myself. This was my trial, and it was only the first. If I couldn't hack it with all my cheats at number three of seven, I wasn't going to get through this, and that wasn't fucking acceptable. I owed this to my family.


Which was a weird thought, given all the resentment and regret involved in my situation, but there it was. I wanted this for them. I wanted to give my mom a hug in public without worrying about being hunted down, I wanted to introduce my sister to new my friends, I wanted to visit my grandparents at the home where Chelsea had grown up and see for myself what that side of the family was like.


And that spurred me onward. It gave me strength, and purpose. Contrary to what most people will tell you, pain isn't actually the end of the world. Pain is a response to stimuli, a consequence of damage, and the reason we fear it so much is the primal understanding that every time we feel pain, damage might be occurring that we can never recover from.


But as Ascendants, the rules for what can and can't be recovered from are wildly different. Pain is, in some ways, a vestige of our mortality. An outdated fear response that is so ingrained in who we are that it's hard coded into the human psyche, even when we've left our old bodies far behind.


I reached a state of equilibrium. Agony pouring in, power poring out. My muscles started to strain under the pressure, bones creaking. Even my domain enhanced body wasn't going to hold out forever. I had no clue how anyone else was keeping up with me, or if they even were, because the water was pitch black as I sunk deeper and deeper into the endless abyss. My mind reached a sort of…peace. The peace of complete and utter satiation of sensation, of feeling too much and not being able to process any of it.


Then I hit the wall. Not metaphorically, I literally walked right into a rock face. Surprisingly it kind of hurt. I ignored that, my fingers skimming over the rock until I found purchase, and then I started to climb.


I really hoped this wasn't just some random outcropping I was wasting time with, but I'd run across literally no debris on the floor of the lake as I descended, so somehow I doubted it. I hauled on the rock, pulling myself up, and it took all the strength I had in my body. When I found balance, my other hand reached up, searching, and then I did it again.


If I'd thought the steps were hard, the climb was IMPOSSIBLE. Every single movement was more effort than I was physically capable of. Each time I stopped, I was sure I'd never start again, that this would be the movement that would kill me. Each time I reached up, my arm was shaking with the effort and when my fingers dug into the cliff, I was barely in time to latch on before my muscles gave out forever and I fell back into the dark, hungry water.


I lost track of time, of light, of space and thought and anything but pain and struggle, and when my hand finally broke the water, the lack of agony in that part of my body nearly made me let go of the rock and fall back into the lake, because I was convinced someone had cut my fucking arm off. The sensation of not hurting was so alien to me at this point I thought my fucking LIMB was missing.


Once I realized what it was, I scrambled to find a handhold, and with all the strength left in me, I HAULED, my muscles tearing under the sheer effort, even with the power from my domain and technique flooding me.


When I slumped down on the rock, exhausted, I let my technique fall away, let Gluttony recede, and felt the pounding of soul strain wrack my head as all the power debt I'd been deferring hit me at once. That had been the most exhausting thing I'd done with my soul since F-rank, and from what I could tell I was fucking MICRONS away from cracking it in a way I couldn't undo.


But I didn't have time to mope around. Now the soul strain was gone, and it was just bodily exhaustion. That was nothing compared to what I'd just been through. I staggered to my feet, knowing that I had to keep going. I didn't see anyone else, and that meant I was first.


I scrabbled up the incline of the rock, slipping and staggering until I reached the top, where I found a small, intricate nest woven of black brambles. When I reached down to pick up the nest, I hissed as the thorns somehow slid through my armor without breaching it, tearing into my flesh, and my blood dripped between the joints to spill onto the egg.


Stashing it away without time to look at it, I turned to leave, only to find Bernadette there waiting. I slipped and tumbled forward, and she caught me without effort. "Easy there, new brother," she chuckled. "Your journey is done. Let me take you back across. You earned it." And that was the last thing I heard before I blacked out. Damn it. I thought I'd broken that habit.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up in a dimly lit room with a headache. This was pretty consistent with my unfortunately vast experience as an unconscious person, so it actually took me a second to remember why that wasn't where I was supposed to be. If my people had been around, I'd have got it, Callie or Benny or even Abel might have toted my metal clad ass back to the inn to sleep off my soul trauma hangover.

But I HADN'T been with my friends. I'd been mostly alone with a bunch of randoms I didn't know, and I'd just won a PRIZE. Honestly, passing out would have been legitimately stupid of me if I'd had any actual control over it happening. My sole saving grace here was that if I was beat up from that anyone else should have been just as crushed.

"You're awake," said a voice from the dark. Not like…inside the dark, FROM the dark. A literal shadow manifested from the unlit portions of the room…in the shape of my wife. Who did not look pleased with me. At all.

I chuckled weakly. "Hi honey, fancy seeing you here. Guess you really missed me, huh?"

"To clarify a point you apparently missed," she said as she glared at me. " 'Don't do this until D-rank, it'll definitely kill you, but even after that wait until you condense your Chronicle', does NOT mean 'once you hit D-rank it'll probably be fine'. And it definitely doesn't mean you should not only ignore the very considerate advice not to use your pseudo Domain, but MAKE ANOTHER ONE!" She was hissing like a snake by the end, her eyes narrowed in incandescent rage.

I swallowed hard. She didn't get this angry with me very often, especially not lately. I must have really scared her. "In my defense…it seemed ok the first time?"

"Shane!" she barked. "You could have DIED. Permanently. If your soul breaks before Mirror you're gone forever. No resurrection, no wishes, not even a GOD could bring you back!"

Her voice was choked, tears streaming down her face. I didn't even know the shadow clones could cry. "Do you really care that little about me? That it doesn't even bother you to nearly kill yourself less than a year after our wedding?"

That one hit me like a punch in the gut. "I…I honestly didn't think about it like that." I said softly. "I should've. It was selfish and stupid and I let my ego run away with me. I could say that I need the Gluttony domain to survive this…and honestly it might be true. But I didn't make a conscious decision to take the risk, and I won't pretend I did. I was just being an idiot. I thought since I got through it before that I'd be fine. What happened to me? Can you tell?"

"Your soul is cracked," she whispered. "And it's very weak right now. Life Nova will help. You're lucky your bullshit healing form works on soul damage. Your mom had an expert on hand teach me how to diagnose soul damage. She's furious by the way, and if straining the bond too much wasn't dangerous, she would be here right now yelling at you."

I winced. "Ok, so what do I need to do besides Life Nova. Beelzebub should let me use it on myself. I assume there's something else though. You don't just sound angry, you sound afraid."

"You can't use more than two forms at a time for the next week. Your healing will need to come first. I talked to that red metal woman, Elena, when she got you back here. We owe her a thank you, by the way." She hesitated. "But theres another trial in five days. Which means…"

"Which means," I finished. "That I'm going to have to tank the next torture trial with sheer willpower, without any cheating abilities beyond Mornax to keep my body intact."

Which wasn't as impossible as it sounded. The reason I had injured myself was that I'd been trying to WIN, not just survive. Speaking of winning, I reached into my ring, pulling out the egg that I'd gotten from the island.

"By the way, think you could ask Jessie if she has any clue what this is?" I asked hopefully/. "Seems like a long shot, honestly, and I'll ask Bernadette when I see her, but a little extra info couldn't hurt." She stared at me impassively for a second, and I felt the indecision through the bond. Callie was scared, and hurt, and angry…but she was also relieved. She was glad I was ok, and she didn't necessarily want to focus on our fight any more than I did.

That might have been a cop out on my part, really. I was on the other side of the galaxy on a suicide mission, of course she didn't want things to be awkward. Changing the subject was more for me than for her, but it was for her a little bit. Being in a fight was going to make her already hellish experience waiting for something bad to happen to me worse, and I didn't want that.

"I'll have her check," she finally said with a sigh. "It does seem like it could be something cool. You, meanwhile, need to go see your friends. Your apprentice was about to try to fight every person who was at that trial with you." She smirked. "I like her. She's gutsy. Hopelessly outclassed and unaware of her own limits, but then, I wonder where she got that from?"

This time, the jab was light hearted, with only a little sting. She walked over and sat on the bed, removing my mask to give me a soft kiss and then press her forehead to mine. "I was promised a long life together, Shane Wyndham. If you die and cheat me out of that, I will hunt you down in whatever afterlife you end up in and kick your incorporeal ass. Just…be safe? Safer than this at least."

"I'll figure something out," I promised. "I can't tell you I'll never use my domains again, but I'll talk to Zeke. There has to be some way to protect my soul until I finish my Chronicle. Maybe some equipment or something that can offset the strain."

I expected her to snap at me to just quit trying to use the ability. I might have done that, if it was her in the bed. Instead, she paused. "That's…an interesting idea. I don't know how viable it might be. But we do have the rings to transfer things to you. I'll talk to your mom. Even if Zeke can't help, maybe she can. In the meantime, your soul is on bedrest. If I feel you straining it beyond what we talked about, I will NEVER forgive you. You hear me Shane? No cute little quips about withholding sex or kicking your ass. If you ignore me and hurt yourself in a way that can't be fixed, you'll be breaking my heart. I don't know if we'll ever get past it." She was crying again, and I started to panic.

"Whoa!" I said as I wrapped my arms around her. "I'm not stupid or suicidal. I don't think things through, but I would never purposefully ignore you for no reason and hurt myself. No more than two forms at a time, Life Nova healing, no domains. I promise."

"And no more than one or two parallels," she added. "You know how Piece of Mind scales. If you desperately need more than that offload the strain to the bond. But even that should wait until your first Life Nova session. Which I expect to be tonight. As soon as you finish talking to whoever you need to speak to about winning. Now put your mask back on, remember it protects you from divination."

With a laugh, I scooped it off the bed and deposited it back on my face. "Well?" I asked her expectantly. "Don't I look pretty?"

"Yes," she deadpanned. "Pretty frustrating. I love you, Shane. I'm sorry I got so mad. I just…I should be there. We should be together, like always. I know you don't need me, that you can do things on your own-"

"Bullshit," I spat. "I'll always need you. And I'm never on my own. We're always in this together Callie, every day. Telling you what I went through, pulling on your strength when I need it. Feeling you there supporting me. You ARE here. We are together. And we always will be. And that's why I know I can do this, even if you aren't physically present."

Her eyes closed and she exhaled a shaky breath. "I hate her," she said quietly. "I hate her so much for doing this to us. Fow showing up at our wedding and taking you away and making you do this."

"Don't," I replied simply. "It's tempting, to rage and spit and despise. But don't. It's dangerous. She's not a person. Not a human being. She's a WORLD. And until we reach that point in our own right, we can't allow ourselves to focus on our anger. The toxic hope of maybe pulling off a miracle would be insidious. Treat her like a force of nature. If I fall and break my leg I don't hate gravity."

She snorted. "You can be so cold-blooded sometimes. I don't really control who I hate."

"Well you need to," I told her. " I won't lose you because you decided you thought you saw an opening that didn't exist and took a shot at a deity. Those kinds of emotions put you in danger. Just…don't. If you need to cool off, draw from my fear through the bond, that should put things in perspective."
"Why can't you be this introspective about trying to murder yourself?" she snapped.

I shrugged. "Well, I can't be right all the time, other people deserve a turn too. Besides, you should be glad I have introspective moments, otherwise you just married an idiot."

"Cute how you think those things are mutually exclusive," she snickered. "I'm glad you're safe." She leaned in and gave me a tight hug. "Now get out there and explain my existence to your competitors. Kind of a moot point getting you to commit to be careful if you get bounced for cheating or something."

"I don't think I CAN cheat," I said slowly. "But yeah, I get you." She was being careful not to use the word spy. None of our current conversation should be observable with the mask and all, but better safe than sorry. We hadn't exposed any big secrets, using vague terms like 'your mom' and Zeke's civilian name which could belong to anyone.

She melted back into the shadows, and I took a moment to compose myself and think of an explanation as I rose and stretched. I still felt like shit. Callie was right, I needed that Life Nova treatment asap. Another thing to add to the list.

Walking to the door, I got myself in order before opening it, stepping out into the hallway. I was immediately struck with a human shaped missile as my apprentice tackled me in a surprisingly bone crushing hug. "Master! You're ok! I was so worried. They said you had soul damage, are you going to be alright?"

I shouldn't be surprised that they noticed, but thinking about it critically it might have been a lucky break. My domain was kind of bullshit, and it would draw way less attention if they thought I had to kill myself to use it. Which, admittedly, I kind of did. For now.

"I'm fine, Bella," I laughed, ruffling her hair. She swatted at my hands, which made me laugh harder. "Is Bernadette here? Or Elena?" I was anxious to talk to literally anyone who know what was going on with the trials. At her nod, I sighed in relief, then gestured for her to go ahead. "Alright, well, take me to them. I have questions." I also had a feeling this would be a long night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bernadette and Elena were waiting downstairs. Just in case there was some kind of candidate specific information being kept secret, I sent Bella to wait in the dining room before entering the library to meet them. I was a little surprised Elena was even still here, and then I was surprised she came at all, because she must have been staying a ways away considering the whole large area selection thing. Still, their faces lit up when I entered, and Bernadette beamed proudly.

"Mephistopheles!" She chirped happily. "Truly an inspiring performance. The depths of your fortitude is staggering. I'm proud to have such a determined, inspiring initiate as a new brother. How are you feeling?"

"Like someone rabbit punched me in the consequences," I said sheepishly. "But at least I won. I got the prize. Which, by the way, is…what exactly?"

She clapped her hands together excitedly. "I am SO glad you asked. I prayed for guidance on that subject while we awaited your return to the land of the living. It appears that the mistress has planted an egg for Blackmirror Ghost Crow. It's an undead relative of the Three Legged Golden Crow, though obviously a much weaker bloodline."

"Ok, that explain the ghost part," I hedged. "But why is it called a Blackmirror Ghost Crow?"

She chuckled. "Simple, because it's a reflective companion. To awaken the crow you need to feed it with energy, and it absorbs that energy and adopts that is its element. It works for nearly any type of Ascendant. Far less powerful than its sun based relative, but much more versatile. And of course, your crow can rank up alongside you as bonded beasts often do."

"Will I need beast bonding?" I'd seen Jessie work with that skill, and I wasn't sure I had time to grind it.

She shook her head. "Unnecessary. Ghost Crows bond with their 'parent' naturally. The energy you impart forms a connection between yourself and your companion. This particular crow is a staggeringly rare opportunity. As you know, D-rank is a watershed, and many beasts never make the leap. This egg was D-rank at conception, laid by our Mistress's own animal companion, Sorrowsigh."

I tried to imagine a GOD (or at least S-rank) level version of the animal she had described and came up blank. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet some overpowered elemental bird made from the inherent abilities of a goddess of torment. The name was kind of ominous too.

Firmly changing my mental direction, I finally turned to Elena, bowing my head slightly. "Also, I wanted to thank you. Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, I owe you one."

"It's fine," she said with a smile. "We're comrades. I don't believe that just because this is competitive it means we need to try to cut each other down. No one ever said there could only be one winner."

Bernadette nodded smugly. "Well reasoned. Understanding those who have shared your pain is a key tenet of the order of mercy. We're not like those monsters in the order of abomination." She froze. "I mean, what? Nothing. That's not real. I was testing you. You pass! Bye!" Then she vanished from the spot she was standing.

I turned to Elena. "Obvious dissembling aside, did you know she was that fast? Like…I know she's D-rank, but it was hard for me to get a more specific read."

"It's the habit," she said with a nod. "I asked her about it. It's some kind of suppression artifact. Constant restriction and pain. Some of the things the order does seem…extreme, to me. But I do truly believe in their mission."

Walking over to the chair next to the fire place, I gestured for her to sit down. "Sorry, I never even asked why you were here. Seems a bit ungrateful."

"It's fine," she laughed. "You've got your own stuff going on. Like shadowy ghost girls following you around. I didn't mention her to Bernadette, by the way. It didn't seem like it was relevant to the trial."

My shoulders slumped in relief. "That's…that's awfully nice of you. Thanks. That's Callie. My wife. That's her ability. It lets her talk to me long distance." Which was a collection of totally truthful statements arranged in such a way as to give a very misleading impression. I felt a biot bad bullshitting someone who had just saved my life, but if people thought Callie had a long distance communication power, they'd never connect her with Nightstrike the godslayer.

I wasn't worried about giving her name. Callie wasn't exactly the most interesting or unique name in the world. Calliope was far more unique, so I just used her everyday nickname.

Technically, I could have just made up something totally false but elaborate lies were always harder to keep track of. Like Benny said whenever he caught me making shit up to mess with him, keep it simple, Shane.

"So, we were talking about your reasons for being here?" I prompted. "Assuming you want to share. I can drop it if that's a sensitive subject."

Flopping down into the overstuffed chair across from me, she shrugged. "Nothing too exciting. My son is sick. He has a chronic wasting disease. There's no cure that we've found, but it causes him immense pain. The order teaches methods of absorbing the pain of others to higher initiates. My husband wanted to be the one to come, but he was never quite as gifted as I was, and isn't suited for these trials. He's taking part in the Delthrys trials to hopefully lobby the god of secrets to help our boy."

I blinked at her. "That's…a lot." I said sympathetically. "Must be scary. How old is he?"

"Eleven," she said with a warm smile. "His name is Simon. He's one of the loudest, most energetic little boys you'll ever meet…" her smile dimmed. "Or he used to be. Since he got sick he's been so quiet. He's staying with my brother while we're away. I call and talk to him every night."

Another reminder that just because these people were trying to get in good with dark gods didn't mean they were all evil monsters. People had their reasons for being here, and plenty of them weren't so bad. Whether that was helping their family, like Elena and I, or just looking for opportunity like Ray and Vesper.

To my surprise, she didn't ask about my reasons for being here. To be fair, my terrifying demon mask was probably off putting enough to make it clear I wasn't looking to share.

After thanking Elena again, I told her goodnight, then left to find my wayward apprentice.

I found her in the kitchen, which was closed, sitting at the counter with a dozen empty mugs in front of her. "Master!" She shrieked. "You're back! I'm so glad, because I was worried about you and then I wasn't and then I was and then I was like wow, so drama, so I came down here and I was tired so I looked around and found this stuff my dad told me about when I was a kid but that I'm not supposed to drink-"

"Whoa!" I said, holding up my hands. "Slow down." I walked over to the counter, sniffing. "Are these mugs all coffee? You've never had coffee? Also why didn't you just refill the same mug?"

"Ahahaha," she said, literally speaking the syllables somehow faster than a normal laugh. "That's so silly, who would do that. Back home daddy buys new dishes whenever we finish using one, but yeah this is coffee and it's SOOOO good, well no its bad and tastes bad but it feels good and I put some sugar and stuff in it to make it sweet so then it was good and now I feel AMAZING!"

I counted the cups. "You drank…thirty seven cups of…" I peered into a mug. "D-rank coffee? Why do they even have this, and how much would this much of it even COST?"

"It doesn't matter!" she crowed. "It makes me invincible! Teach me a new technique, teach me a hundred techniques, teach me all the techniques at the same time and we can combine them to create a SUPER technique!"

"Nope," I said bluntly. "Not doing this. One Bethy is already too many." I looked around, making sure I wasn't being watched, and then, counting on my mask to hide me from divine sight, I triggered Zagan. I grabbed my apprentice by the head and flooded her with purifying fire, burning away the caffeine with a slight effort of will.

She staggered back, eyes wide as she tried to adjust. It shouldn't have been too rough, the flames had a stimulant effect of their own, and a healing effect, so she shouldn't crash. It took her a second to reorient. "You good?" I asked her casually. "Or do you need another blast?"

"I'm fine." She said, shaking her head. "Sorry. I was nervous, and making cups of coffee helped give me something to do." She winced at the counter, where an almost empty bag of beans sat. "I'll…pay for that."

"Yup," I agreed. "I'm sure as hell not going to. Also, your dad was right, you shouldn't have coffee. Ever again. That's an order." She slumped a bit and I laughed. "Anyway, I have to heal myself, and I'm going to use my forms to do it. You want to come watch?"

Bella…Bella had earned my trust. I'd been sort of half assing it with my apprentice, but given I'd taught her my main skillset, that was kind of silly. Minor Skill or not, she was my successor, and that meant that I'd need to start trusting her more if I wanted her to learn my skills properly and live up to my legacy.

I kept thinking about Ragam, Abel's martial art, and how he'd learned it from a book. The creator had established a powerful and enduring legacy that had given birth to one of the most dangerous people I knew. I wanted that. Wanted to know that the Goetia Staff Art would continue to be respected and known. Not to mention as the creator I could reap some serious renown if users became famous.

Her eyes lit up with excitement. "That sounds amazing! Where are you going to do it?"

"Outside, there's a clearing a few miles from here." I could use two forms safely, and I'd promised Callie to be safe. Luckily, those two forms were independent of the forms my clones could take.

Bella followed me out to the clearing, and I triggered the two I'd need. Beelzebub and Bael. Stealth seemed like a good precaution to take when using a bunch of power I wasn't supposed to have. Once the clones manifested I had them circle around me, triggering Zagan. "Wow," goggled my apprentice. "This is amazing, will I learn to do this?"

"Yes," I said as they started charging the Life Novas. "Eventually. This and more. I'll teach you about the others later. But you need to practice your martial arts. Stances are what let you tap into power like this."

She nodded excitedly, but I didn't have time to focus on that. Zagan couldn't be used on myself, but the clones were treated as discrete individuals. I'd noticed an inability to heal myself a few months ago and had been working on a fix, and adapting the Beelzebub form had taken a while but it was a decent solution.

After a few minutes, the twelve other me's detonated their Life Novas, consuming me in purifying green fire. I let the power wash through me, slowly mending the cracks in my soul. I sat there for an hour or two, and finally, once it was done, I relaxed. I wasn't fixed, or even close, D-rank souls were sturdier and more resistant to change, which made them harder to repair. But it was a start. Now I just had to take things one day at a time.