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

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, what have you all been upto?" My mentor asked as he flopped back down onto his chair. "Heard you've had some decent fights. Even killed a C-ranker at early D-rank, that's pretty wild. Punching up is doable, but most people only manage it from the peak of the previous realm. Your new minions were telling me all about."

Dom bristled. "What do you mean minions? We're not his minions."

Sable rolled her eyes. "We're totally his minions. But I'm cool with it. What kind of minions get paid with divine artifacts?"

"Hey, I never got paid with a divine artifact," Abel protested. "I was one of your very first minions. Sure, I don't listen to you or do what you say, and I treat you with middling to low levels of respect and don't care that much about your opinion, but other than that I've been an awesome minion! Where's my god weapon?'

Mel snickered, patting him on the shoulder. "I feel like it you repeat that little speech to yourself out loud you might stumble on the answer on your own."

"I already arranged for you to train with the most powerful mortal Ascendant in the universe," I told him mercilessly, enjoying the karmic retribution/ "You only get one life changing opportunity from me. You're not my wife."

He snorted. "Yeah, thanks for that. Being tortured by an insane vampire for a few months was at the top of my bucket list. How would I have gotten through life without this foundational experience." His tone was dry, which was a good sign, so the rest of us weren't shy about laughing at his pain.

"Oh, is that Adnab?" chirped an excitable voice. "Welcome back! Did you have a good time learning from daddy?" Bethy appeared from seemingly nowhere, beaming at Abel as she brushed off her dress.

Abel actually flinched. "Oh! Bethany. I mean Lady Lark, I mean…your highness. It's nice to see you."

Bethy's winning smile deflated, replaced by a suspicious frown. "That's weird. You don't usually refer to me so formally. Or anyone. You're not a formal person at all. Did someone tell you to do that? It was Sebastian wasn't it? That old busybody. Don't listen to him. He's not the boss of anybody."

"Lord Stein is a noble and generous person," said Abel mechanically as he glanced around the courtyard, his eyes darting in paranoid little hops.

Bethy whirled, looking around in outrage. "Oh, he's HERE isn't he? Sebastian! You get out here right now! You're not allowed to bully my friend! Only I'm allowed to do that." She waited, expression thunderous. "Not coming out? Then how about I tell daddy who stole the spine from that Tomb Lord that he was planning to have made into a whip."

There was a whisper of darkness and a tall man appeared in front of us, his expression apologetic. "Young mistress, there's no reason to do that. I would never STEAL from the master. He simply forgot to let us know of his intentions for that piece of material. He completely forgot about it eventually, and there's no reason to bring it up. How did you even hear about that incident?"

"My mom told me," she beamed. "She said you're a busybody and that I needed leverage to keep you from being mean to me." She jerked a thumb at the man. "This is Sebastian Stein, my daddy's personal butler. He's like…super old, but he's stuck at A-rank because his body is built out of dead person parts."

The older man winced. "Young mistress, that is a GROSS oversimplification," he protested.

"It's your power," she said with a shrug. "If you think it's so gross why don't you try something else?"

His shoulder slumped in despair. "Yes, young mistress. I'll take that under advisement." He turned to smile at us pleasantly. "Good evening, my name, as the young mistress so helpfully informed you, is Sebastian Stein, and I am the butler of the Lark family. The young mistress beseeched her father to send one of her siblings to aid you in your succession battle, but the master decided it would complicate matters politically to allow a high ranking vampire to participate."

Bethy's eyes widened. "Daddy sent YOU? But don't you need to mind the house? He won't be able to travel if you aren't there."

My grandfather cleared his throat. "Regardless of internal business, we're honored to have you on our grandson's side, Lord Stein." He shot me an urging look, and I agreed, thanking him for his assistance.

Sebastian Stein looked…old. Which was saying something for an A-ranker. Bethy hadn't been kidding about his age. Silver hair, close cropped beard, serene blue eyes, he was every inch the elegant butler. The only confirmation of her earlier accusations were a few nearly invisible seams running across his skin at the neck, ears, and on his hands. Seams that could easily be very well applied stitches.

My grandfather stepped up next to me, and I felt a subtle shift as he used some kind of stealth technique. "Sebastian Stein is the most powerful non Lark Ascendant under Morgan's control. He must adore his youngest daughter to dispatch his steward. Stein is a Revenant, a necromantic construct of his own design, and he is one of the most powerful A-rankers I know of. His attendance will be a huge boon to your cause during the succession war." When he saw me start to speak and then stop, he chuckled. "You can just respond out loud, I'll hide your traces."

No one, not even the super scary A-ranker, noticed him speaking to me, though I suppose demi-gods have to have their tricks. "Ok, so this guy is some sort of mad scientist undead? Like that old story about the doctor?"

"Similar," he said with a grimace. "Because of his particular powerset, he's stronger than most A-rankers, but he's never been able to integrate a Saga. Regardless, for our purposes he's basically ideal. With him involved, we've got all your A-rank slots filled."

I was just as excited as he sounded, but sadly I was pulled back into the conversation by Bethy, who was lambasting the older man for "bullying her friend". "Isn't that right Shane?" she demanded triumphantly. It took me a second to replay the conversation in my head, but once I did I could only sigh and nod.

"Yes, Abel is an important member of my team. If he were to change because of your decrees it would make me…sad." My tone was dry, but Bethy ignored that, whooping with joy.

"See! Daddy says you're supposed to help Shane, and making him sad isn't helping, so bullying Alice is ignoring daddy's orders!" She sounded smug, and I had to choke down a laugh at her complete refusal to call Abel by his name, despite being actively defending him at the moment."

Sebastian sighed. "Yes, young mistress, I shall endeavor to treat master Abel with more respect. As a nominal disciple of the master, I suppose he deserves at least that much. His Ragam Blood Body is…acceptable. At least for his level. Perhaps he might one day become a halfway competent Ascendant."

Abel rolled his eyes, clearly less terrified the old man would smite him. "Acceptable," he says. My new form is fucking unstoppable. I based it on your staff art, Shane, creating my own Ragam form out of a fusion of my Path and martial art. I know your fire bullshit is overpowered, but there's no way you can keep up with my Ragam Blood Body."

I just smirked at him. With Sammael and my domains, I wasn't afraid of anyone my own level…except Bethy. I was terrified of Bethy. But her powers were bullshit and didn't count. Still, it was impressive he'd managed to create a form like mine. I'd never heard of anyone else doing anything similar. I wondered if he might eventually be able to make a pseudo Domain, though based on what my dad had told me it was vanishingly rare at my rank.

I was about to retort when I felt something change in the air around me. I tensed, ready for an attack, before realizing my grandparents, mom, and uncle were all here, and the chances of me detecting a threat that they couldn't stop before it smashed me like a bug were pretty much zero.

Looking around, I tried to figure out what was going on, and my attention was immediately drawn to something odd. Namely, a reflection in a nearby glass pane. Except it wasn't a reflection of me, or anyone else nearby. It was someone I knew though. Desria.

When she saw me, she slumped with relief. "Fist!" She shouted anxiously. "Thank the gods I got through. We're in trouble. I used your scroll to reach you. After you left, we stuck around Rackham for a while, but we decided to try to put our scrolls to work elsewhere. We waited like you said, but somehow someone noticed us leaving. We were chased into a nearby dungeon by some priests of…someone, and they're hunting us en masse. Hundreds of D-rankers are after us!"

"Des?" I asked in shock. "That's…ok, give me a second," That was a lot to process. "Where are you?" I checked my ring and sure enough, ten E-ranked chits had been deposited. Apparently messages to the actual wish granter weren't too expensive. Good to know.

"The dungeon is called the Screeching Shoals," she said urgently. "It's not too far from Rackham. We were heading here already when they caught up to us. Fist…I think it might be a trap. We're pretty sure they're luring you in. Ray says not to come, but I couldn't think of who else to call. I can't watch them die."

I shook my head. "It's fine," I told her firmly. "You did the right thing. I'm on my way, just lie low and stay safe."

The connection faded, and I turned to look at my grandfather, my expression solemn. "Ok, this little good will tour is going to have to be put on hold." I explained the situation. "I know that gathering my forces is important, but my friends-"

He waved me off. "No, I get that. We'll take you. With all of us here, unless there's an actual god waiting in the wings nothing can hurt you. But the actual dungeon…based on what she said, I think they're right about it being a trap. A hundred D-rankers is a nasty force. Chances are good no one above that rank can enter. I know you're strong, but those won't be normal D-rankers."

I was well aware. Raxus was most likely trying to get ahold of me to learn the location of the other divine artifacts. He'd send his strongest, and a hundred plus…that was a tall order, even for me. Quantity had a quality all its own.

Abel slung an arm over my shoulder with a laugh. "A hundred? Please. That's child's play. I hope they miscounted, honestly, because I could use a workout. We got this."

I stared at him for a minute, touched. Abel didn't know any of my new friends, and had no reason to take a risk like that. Confidence or not he wasn't stupid. That many presumably peak D-rankers were a danger even to him.

"What he said," I laughed. "You all just take care problems outside. But I'm a little worried. What if one of the Vanished gods show up?" I explained my theory about Raxus.

"Don't worry about that," he said confidently. "Gods can't engage directly so easily, not when we have our own to counter. I wouldn't be surprised if Black Sorrow is waiting in ambush in case he tries." That was something I hadn't considered. My great grandmother had pretty much vanished after I passed her the stone, was this still part of the mission? Was I bait? It didn't matter. My friends needed help, and I was going to help them. And I wasn't doing it alone.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, dungeons," I said as we all settled into the Acheron. 'Are they all like the Moonsong Glade?" We'd just gotten off the damned ship, so it was annoying to have to get back on, giving up the firm security of real ground. I was never quite as comfortable in space as I was on a planet. My grandfather pointed out that ships were basically planets, and that he'd been on ships that were LITERAL planets, but it didn't feel the same.


My grandfather shook his head. "Not all of them. I assume you mean are they inaccessible to higher rank individuals? That was a fairly unusual phenomena, but not unique. Locked dungeons aren't the norm, but I'm guessing the one we're heading to is one of them."


"It is," my grandmother said in frustration. "I just pulled it up on the database. It's a minor D-rank dungeon, so I'd never heard of it, but it's spatially locked. Your friends are right, this is a trap."


I frowned in worry. "That seems…insufficient. A hundred D-rankers seems like a lot, but Raxus knows I'm strong enough to beat a C-ranker. He has to assume I can handle that. Sure, maybe he sent some other D-rankers that could punch up, but no way the god of Deception doesn't know I have friends with me."


"The ring you used is a rare and difficult to source enchanted item," my grandmother pointed out. "It's not UNIQUE per se, but it isn't something anyone your level should have access to. Spatially binding two objects across unlimited distance requires S-rank spatial manipulation abilities, if not outright divinity. My mother made those rings herself."


"Which means that since he probably has some method of divining that I haven't seen her yet, he might assume I still have the artifacts," I said grimly. "That's why she never got in touch with me directly. Do you really think this is a trap she set?"


She sighed. "It might be, but we should proceed on the assumption that it isn't. If she arranged this, she's planning to intercept Raxus personally. The gods have their own arrangements for countering each other. Chances are good that we won't see her even if this is her doing, and if we do it probably won't be for long."


"I don't enjoy being bait," I told her bluntly. "Your mother may be a god, but I'm not super fond of the way she does things."


My grandmother gave me a sad smile. "It's hard for gods to see us as people, Shane. Becoming a force of nature changes your fundamental perception of the world. I only barely understand it myself. They retain some semblance of who they were, but it's not…gods and mortals are the same kind of being, but they're made of different things. You've had a small taste of it at D-rank, but imagine crossing that watershed, only a hundred times more intense."


"Why do you make excuses for her?" I demanded. "I get that there's nothing we can do about her behavior, but can't I even complain? Is she going to snuff me out for daring to criticize? Because honestly, if she is I might prefer it to having to keep my mouth shut!"


My voice had risen, and everyone was staring now, my wife looking a little alarmed at the outburst. I knew that not questioning divinity was part of the recursion of the gods, but Black Sorrow just kept pushing and pushing. I would have to be an unfeeling machine not to get at least a little pissed after everything she's done.


"I love her," she said with a shrug. "She's my mother. No matter what she does, that won't change. She's still the woman who carried me across star systems to demand my father's disciple heal me when I got slightly sick as a little girl, who created a new species so I could have a pet after I saw a fictional animal I thought was cute in a book. She's complicated and arbitrary careless, but she loves me more than anything."


"Well, she doesn't love me," I said bitterly.


She shook her head. "No, she doesn't. But she respects you. The mission she chose for you, the tools she gave you. They represent an investment. My mother doesn't waste her investments. Sure, she needed someone who could handle the Enshrining Darkness, but it isn't like she doesn't have a dozen younger members of the clergy who are trained with it."


"So I'm supposed to be grateful she chose to fuck up my life instead of theirs?" I demanded hotly.


"No, of course not," she denied. "I'm just saying that if she does come to care for you, which I believe she might be, it'll be a great benefit to you. She's far from impartial. She directly favors those she cares about. My goal in acting as an intermediary has always been to try to add you to that list. Fighting my mother is an exercise in futility, even my father knows that."


My mom snorted. "I personally think she's wasting her time. But I do agree it would be better to have BS on your side than not."


"So you expect me to bow and scrape to her on the off chance that she might be willing to be nice to me?" I snorted. "Because I'll pass. I'm not stupid enough to be rude to her face but I don't want her good opinion."


Celia laughed. "Amusingly, that's exactly the kind of talk that would get it. I understand your position. Just…don't judge her only by the bad. Those rings are unique and precious treasures. She made them for you personally, albeit at my request. To her, that's already showing a lot of care."


"We're getting off track," Callie interrupted. I expected my grandmother to be annoyed, but she just ceded the conversation to my wife. "We need to know everything we can about the Screeching Shoals. If this really is a trap, it's not one we can worry about. At least not at the divine level. We need to worry about what's IN that dungeon, because Shane is right. Either there are way more D-rankers in there than expected, or they sent something truly nasty. Possibly both."


I grimaced. We had no real context for exactly what the forces of the vanished gods could do. I'd seen some scary people among them at the conclave, and during the trial, but those trial members weren't even REAL initiates. The strongest of the vanished god's forces would be those legacy Ascendants from inside their worlds, who had been cut off from the universe and training in isolation since their gods originally fell.


Thinking about the surge of powerful S-rankers that Lark had fought off, I couldn't imagine what the internal D-rankers from the various god worlds might be like. I glanced at Bethy, Abel, Callie, and all my other friends…and part of me was actually kind of excited. We had to be some of the strongest D-rankers for our level. Sure, we weren't peak D-rank yet, and there were probably some five faction bigwigs who were stronger in D-rank by virtue of higher stats, but I'd give us good odds against anyone close to our level.


"Before we can even worry about that," cut in Abel. "We need to get inside. If this is an ambush they might be waiting with high rankers at the entrance. While I'm sure you could all fight them off in a blaze of glory, sitting around in one place while we explore the depths of the dungeon, consistently repelling ever increasing waves of bad guys seems…suboptimal."


Celia nodded. "You aren't wrong. I can slip us past. The Acheron is my personal vessel, and while my husband is perfectly capable of pushing the speed up, its true value is only visible when it's in my hands. They won't see our approach if I don't want them to. More than that, even after you've gone in, if they have some method of contacting the D-rankers in there, they still won't be able to locate us. I could park this ship on the Vampire's nose and he wouldn't notice it."


"Obviously, if a god shows up, especially Raxus, they'd see it instantly," my grandfather warned. "But under these circumstances we should be able to hang around unseen and wait for you to emerge. Once you've come out we'll make our escape."


"That's all well and good," said my mother grimly. "But looking at this particular dungeon, I don't think it'll be that easy. It's not unstable, it's enfolded."


My grandfather bristled, looking at the database, and then cursed. "Fuck, I missed that. Ok, that's bad." Seeing our confusion, he explained. "Spatial locking comes in multiple forms. There are always unique ways to manipulate any force, given how diverse Paths and abilities get. You've seen unstable space before, essentially it's too fragile to withstand higher Impact, directly collapsing if powerful people enter."


"Enfolded space is different," my mother cut in. "It's a similar mechanism, but it's wrapped AROUND the dungeon instead of overlapping with it. While that may seem like a meaningless distinction, it isn't at all. Because while people of a higher rank can't ENTER, they can still EXIST."


My eyes widened. "You're saying my friends are stuck in there with native high rankers?"


She waggled her hand. "Some, maybe. Locked dungeons distort renown, it makes it harder to rank up. There are probably a few C-rankers, but there won't be anything higher. You should be able to handle C-rankers together. If you're careful. But it'll complicate things. There's a difference between a running battle with a hundred random D-rankers and a running battle inside an occupied dungeon with higher ranked natives."


"Ok, I don't want to be the one to say it, but is this really worth it?" asked Abel bluntly. "You just met these people. Like it's not nice to say, but is risking our lives for some people you hung out with a few times worthwhile."


Bella, who had been mostly quiet until now, bristled. She'd been pretty intimidated by all the new faces and had been trying to disappear into the background and avoid notice, but Abel's words, she stiffened and glared at my mentor. "Hey, shut up rabbit-guy!" We all turned to look at her, but she was too busy glaring to notice. "Elena is a mom. She has two kids. Emma and Simon. Simon is eleven and he was really sick until master helped him. We can't just let his mom die!"


"Elena is with them," I confirmed. "They talked her into going along for the resources. Dungeons usually have some decent treasure and Simon's medical care has mostly wiped out their savings. She could have used that wish I gave her for money, but she decided to keep it in case Simon had a medical emergency." I held up a rolled up piece of paper. "This dropped into my pocket as we were entering. It's all the information they could give about their location and who is with them."


I'd only had a chance to scan it before we started this little meeting, but it hadn't been relevant to entry so I hadn't bothered bringing it up.


Abel blew out a breath. "Great. Kids. None of you bleeding hearts are going to let this go. Fine, whatever, as long as I get to punch things I'm happy. I want to really show off my new form."


Despite his carefree words, his tone was somber. Abel didn't give a shit about most things, but he liked kids. He had offered to train Cass to help with her trauma after being kidnapped by the Heartrippers, even if he played it off like a whim. My mentor might be a violent menace, but he was good people.


"Alright, well, now that we've got that out of the way, lets dig into this dungeon a bit more." I cracked my neck, hunkering down for some serious research. We needed to be ready for whatever was coming, because somehow, I doubted the god of deception had set a trap for me without a few nasty surprises.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took less than a day to get to the entrance to the Screeching Shoals. Like my grandmother had said, the Acheron was a whole different beast when she was the one commanding it. I hadn't noticed a real difference before, but it was clear she'd just been letting us take the scenir route.


Not just in terms of stealth, but speed as well, the ship had completely changed, swimming through space like an invisible fish cutting through still water.


During the trip, I took the opportunity to pass out my scrolls to the crew members, seventy two in total, after figuring out which of them were willing to trade stats. After such a big boost to my stats my wish powers had grown in scope, and I was able to get a whopping fifty points per scroll, though based on the difficulty, I was pretty sure I'd hit my limit again until at least late D-rank.


Thirty six hundred points was nothing to scoff at, but even more impressive was the other sixteen thousand that had come in ambient renown.


When Black Sorrow had started spreading word of our connection, I'd known I'd be seeing a big upswing in points, but it hadn't been more than a month since my big windfall, and to be getting nearly twenty thousand points was going to be an adjustment. Even more of an adjustment was how little those twenty thousand moved the needle in terms of overall rank.


My rapidly snowballing fame wasn't going to be able to keep up once I hit C-rank, or hell, B-rank. I understood now why the Unlucky Thirteen had been created. Funneling renown to the most promising members of the younger generation through those titles was the only way to maintain the fast rank up pace that so many of us grew used to at lower ranks. It put even more pressure on me to deal with this damned succession war seriously.


Still, for the moment I'd need to survive the dungeon, and on that note, I took stock of the changes to my stats. The thirty six hundred went into Might, moving me up to just over ninety six thousand total, five thousand each into Focus and Perception, putting them near and past fifty thousand, respectively, and six thousand into Fantasy putting it almost fifty four thousand.


Might was looking a little stacked, almost twice as high as my other stats, but BS's stories were apparently playing up my cleverness and intuition rather than raw force, and I assumed the Fantasy aspects were because of the involvement of other gods. I found it all pretty unbelievable myself, so I couldn't blame the masses for that one. I was conflicted though, knowing that my great grandmother's influence was helping me keep up, and that I didn't like owing her anything.


Callie took my hand, squeezing it gently to get my attention. As I looked up, she smiled warmly at me. "Don't sweat the big stuff," she told me in a warm but firm tone.


"Pretty sure that's the opposite of the advice most people get," I pointed out wryly.


She shrugged. "You're not most people, Shane. You're involved in a whole lot of shit way above your paygrade. The affairs of gods are beyond our comprehension, isn't that what you told me? So follow your own advice. Focus on the trees, not the forest."


"It would be easier if the forest wasn't on fire," I complained. "But I get your point. Honestly this dungeon might be good for me. Getting back to basics, fighting people our own level with the team." I squeezed her hand. "With you."


She leaned against me happily. "I missed you too, you big reckless idiot. I was learning so much and getting stronger so quickly, but all I could think about was the danger and the pain I could feel from you. I spent the last month or two scared out of my mind you were going to die. I don't want to be a widow before I turn twenty one."


"Then why do you dress like one?" I smirked at her. She let out a faux offended gasp and I triggered Double Trouble on Benny who was nearby, laughing at her squeak of outrage as she fell through my illusion. She didn't actually fall over, catching herself easily, but she blurred to her feet, flashing toward me almost too fast to track.


Benny, who hadn't noticed me appearing behind him, squawked and stumbled back at her sudden rush, and I dropped down into a crouch as he did, letting him flip over my back like I was a table.


Callie screeched a halt as Benny hit the ground, he faux fury derailed by the admittedly unprovoked and unintentional assault on my best friend. She covered her mouth, looking halfway between horrified and amused, but the giggles from behind her hand gave away the game as her body shook with suppressed laughter.


"What the fuck?" Benny spat, throwing his hands in the air. "I expect that from him, but what did I ever do to you, Callie?"


Her face turned red as her laughter redoubled, giggles making it hard for her to breathe. "Gods, I'm so sorry. I was chasing him and he teleported behind you." She turned to me with a weak glare. "Did you have to make me an accomplice?"


"Partners in crime, baby," I said with a wink. "It's me and you against the world." I held out a hand, pulling Benny to his feet, laughing as he glowered up at me. I patted his shoulder. "Thank you for your sacrifice."


At his confused expression, I gestured around us to where everyone was watching with expressions of amusement or exasperation. I saw when it dawned on him what I'd done, and he rolled his eyes. The atmosphere had been a little tense, and I'd seen a chance to lighten the mood. I made a mental note to slip Benny a day's worth of scrolls when I could, to make up for involving him in a stupid childish prank. Then I ratcheted that down to five scrolls, because it wasn't like he hadn't pranked me in the past.


"That was so cool!" Bethy squealed excitedly. "You teleported behind him and you were like "ouaggh" and then you were a table and he fell over. I didn't even think of using abilities to prank people! We should all start doing that!"


"No!" Everyone in the ship immediately shut her down, our hearts filling with terror at the idea of what BETHY would consider a practical joke."


Callie smacked me in the back of the head, scowling. "You see what you do? If I wake up with battery acid in my coffee or something I'm blaming you. Honestly, do you want to get us all killed?"


I winced. Bethy had very little understand of proportional response. I wasn't sure how much of that was her messing with everyone, but I WAS sure it wasn't all of it. I cleared my throat. "No pranks in the dungeon," I told the vampire sternly. "We can talk about anything else later, but we're going to be entering soon and we need to be on our guard."


She pouted, but eventually nodded with a sigh. "You got it bestie, super serious." She stuck out a pinkie. "Pinkie swear? Cass taught me this. She said it means you can't break your promise no matter what."


I laughed, but extended my pinkie, locking it with hers. Cass did take her pinkie promises seriously."


"As adorable as that is," drawled my grandmother as she appeared beside us. "I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this heartwarming moment short. We've arrived, and we have a problem. Come with me."


The laughter on the faces of my companions faded, replaced by worry, and we headed over to the other side of the bridge, where the screen that showed the exterior of the ship was positioned. Actually, the screen could change size and location, but prior to this there had been nothing but space outside, so none of us had been paying attention.


"Radiant slide frequency filter," my grandmother said calmly. One of the crew, sitting at a terminal, hit a few buttons and…something happened. There was a ripple across the screen, and where before nothing had been out among the empty stars, now there were quite a few things. Gaps in space that looked like nothing so much as warped vision from a very curved piece of glass floated in the void of space.


My grandmother pointed. "First of all, as I'm sure you can see, there are quite a few ships waiting for us. We can avoid those, the Acheron is undetectable with me running it provided no gods show up." She moved her fingers and pulled on the edges of the screen, zooming in. "Our main issue is this, however.


"As you can see, the folded space of the dungeon is visible in this spectrum, I won't bore you with the details of this filter, but this is concerning." She zoomed in on a large spherical warp, focusing closer until we could see what looked like flows and patterns in the twisting space. "This is spatial power, as I'm sure you could guess. Folded space dungeons have very stable spatial power. The exact stability is called the Vechner Coefficient, actually, but that's not important right now, what IS important is the speed and complexity of those ripples."


My grandfather cut in. "What she's trying to say is that someone has connected to the inside of that dungeon from the void. It doesn't change the facts of entry, even from that side, no one above D-rank can get in, but we have no way of knowing how MANY they sent. And they can keep sending them."


That was…suboptimal. There was a big difference between them sending a hundred people into the dungeon and having a back door through the void. Theoretically they could flood the entire dungeon with D-rankers. Who knew how many existed in worlds those gods were hiding in the void.


Obviously guessing my thoughts, my grandfather smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry too much. There's a war going on. D-rankers are the main combat force Ascendants use in large scale battles. They might have kept some of their strongest in reserve, but there's no way they're going to mob you too badly. Especially since there's C-rankers in that dungeon. The more they send the more they risk getting into a dustup with the locals, and that doesn't benefit anyone."


"Maybe," I conceded. "But there's still probably going to be more of them than we anticipated. Besides our own problems, I'm worried about my friends."


My grandmother nodded. "Understandable. But the question needs to be asked. Are you still willing to go in? We have know way of knowing exactly how many will be inside or what the situation is. I know you're determined to help, but this might be a very bad idea."


"I don't believe they can stop us," I said bluntly. "With Dantalion, Murmur, and all my various combat abilities I can run, hide, and fight better than almost any D-ranker I can name. With Bethy, Callie, and Abel there, our combat power should be some of the best in the universe for our rank."


If this was a pitched battle I might have been concerned, but we were dropping into a large scale dungeon. Murmur and Dantalion meant I could both hide and seek perfectly. They'd never catch us unless I wanted them to.


Sighing, she smiled sadly and pulled me into a surprising hug. "You remind me so much of your grandfather," she said as she squeezed me tight. "Hopefully you're better than he is at staying out of trouble though. Be safe, Shane. If things go wrong, have Calliope use her bangle to report to us. We can figure out some way to get you out." I nodded to her confidently and she sighed, turning to the screen.


With a flick of her wrist, I watched her tear a swath of darkness in the air, through the screen and into space itself. It was a dizzying effect, and trying to understand how she did it gave me a migraine, but she just gestured to the hole. "Alright, this will take you inside. But that's all I can do. Good luck, and take care of each other." And with that, we stepped into the dark, plummeting through space toward the Screeching Shoals.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Landing inside the Screeching Shoals was surprisingly anticlimactic. I was half expecting to be attacked right off the bat, but glancing around, it was clear that we weren't in any immediate danger. At least not from people. Environmentally though, there was still some hazards around, something that was pretty clear from the moment we landed.


We were standing on a rocky outcropping, something you might generously call an island, if you had read that word in a dictionary and had never actually seen one. The sea around us was dark and choppy, completely opaque and covered with a thin film of mist. Away from our outcropping, several long wooden walkways extended into the obscuring fog lit at the edges with small lumps of blue green flame floating in the air just above the edges.


"This place is super creepy," noted Bethy bluntly. "I don't love it. Not creepy like daddy likes things, but like…that weird kind of creepy where everything is secretly run by tentacle monsters."


I nodded. "Yeah, weirds me out too. A bit of advice that Desria gave me, stay away from the water. There are creatures in there, and I'm pretty sure they're mostly C-rank. Stick to the walkways, apparently they're protected."


"Good to know," said Callie grimly. "You have a general heading for where they are?"


I waggled a hand. "Sort of. I know the name of the town they were last passing through, but I don't have a map of this place. We're going to need to visit a city to check in. Based on what they told me, the whole setup of the shoals is kind of like a snowflake, radiating clusters of empty rock islands coming off small villages which themselves come off cities, which radiate away from a central continent type island."


"So…the whole place is on this creepy black ocean?" Abel said dryly. "Gosh, because that doesn't seem like a bad omen."


Mel rolled her eyes. "Honey, shut up. No one is under the impression that this is an ideal situation. Your sarcasm isn't helpful. At least wait until we get to somewhere less…terrifying." She shivered. "I'm cold. But not like, physically cold. There's this weird sort of spiritual chill that my flames can't seem to shake."


Chelsea stepped up next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. White purifying fire washed over our red masked friend, and she let out a groan of appreciation. Seeing my sister do her thing, I triggered Zagan, imbuing everyone within reach while she did the same. Making a quick and dirty technique to keep the fire clinging to them was easy enough, especially given Zagan's flame and its life force enhancing properties.


Abel, Mel, Chelsea, Bethy, Gabe, Serah, Holly, Callie, Bella, Dom, Sable, and Daysia. Thirteen people all told, for this trip. I'd really wanted to bring Benny and Jessie, but they were both still E-rank. Jessie was preparing for her D-rank breakthrough with a little help from Alyssa, and Benny was taking the fruit. He'd also caught the attention of Sebastian, who had become interested in Benny's ability and Path and their similarities to his own, so I was expecting a big bump in his combat power when we got back.


"Alright, everyone stick close," I closed my eyes, Dantalion flickering out…and I immediately slammed my Perception closed and dropped the form, staggering. Callie caught me, looking confused, and I tried not to collapse as my knees got weak. "Holy SHIT," I choked. "Ok, DEFINITELY stay away from the water."


The underside of the dark waves was…awful. The ocean was packed with horrifying twisted creatures, all of them starving and dying to feast on the flesh of humans. Some of them had fucking NOTICED me seeing them.


Trying to shake off the sensation of being stared at by a million hungry eyes, I picked a direction. "That way," I shuddered. "We need to go that way. It's had the most traffic, so it should take us to a village at least. Just…be careful. Stay away from the edges. And stick together, I don't like this place."


My boots crunched on the loose gravel as I led the way to the left hand walkway, the sound of my steps echoing strangely in a way they shouldn't out in the open. Everyone grimly lined up, following me carefully, and we made our way down the walkway slowly, taking extra care to watch for danger. The protections on the walkways held, but we saw tentacles and eye stalks rise from the dark water to follow us, tracking our movements as if waiting for us to slip.


In a literal sense, the trip across the first few bridges was probably only an hour or so, but it felt like eternity. When we finally caught sight of the larger island where the village was situated, we all sped up as much as we could without being reckless.


Arriving on the island, there was an immediate sense of relief to be back on solid ground where it was safe. Or at least safer. The first village we came to wasn't any less creepy than the rest of the dungeon, but it was more unsettling than terrifying, which was a win in my opinion. The village was, as the word might imply, small. A collection of run down dark wood buildings, mostly decomposing and clearly in heavy need of repair from constant exposure to the sea mist.


As soon as we stepped onto the island, we were noticed. Windows slammed shut, the only gap being the space needed to peek out.


Only one man emerged, coming out to meet us. He was old and gaunt, clearly not healthy and only E-rank. "What is your business here, strangers?" He asked in a reedy, shaking voice. "We have no food to share, nor gold to steal. You'll find robbing us a useless endeavor."


I stepped up, holding my hands palm out to show I meant no harm. "Whoa there, no one is here to rob anybody. I'm looking for some friends and got turned around. I just need some directions and we'll be on our way." I cocked my head. "You get a lot of robbers around here? You don't seem surprised to see us."


He chuckled bitterly. "Robbers, Mistwardens, Pale Men, there are always unwelcome things in the mists. The Mistwardens are ostensibly supposed to protect us, but Malzareth only cares about his tributes. The robbers and the Pale Men stalk the shoals, taking gold and living flesh as their due."


Lot of information there. But not enough. "Who is Malzareth?" I asked cautiously.


This time his laugh was a full throated bark, though just as bitter. "Malzareth the Unceasing is the lord of Highhaven, the city to whom this village owes fealty. One of the undying generals under Skartaris the Weeper. You must be lost indeed not to know his name." He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Very well. You may come inside. I suppose I couldn't stop you in any case. You're all clearly at least at the Mistwarden level."


I got the feeling he was talking about our ranks. If these Mistwardens were consistently D-rank, that would probably make them the main fighting force of this dungeon's society. Malzareth would most likely be high D-rank or possibly C.


Shooting my companions a look, I gave a subtle nod, and all of us marched into the village behind the man. It wasn't a long walk, but he made it VERY slowly, so we had time to talk a bit.


The man's name was Wesley, and he was the mayor of this town, Rothook. They were apparently a fishing village, using some kind of net system to catch VERY small and innocuous creatures from the ocean. They caught enough to eat most of the time, if barely, but Malzareth charged them a monthly tribute. The fish from the black ocean was actually highly prized, especially their scales, which could be used to make fine but very durable armor.


He also filled us in a bit on the Pale Men, essentially robbers who had fallen into the ocean and survived. Something they saw down there had driven them insane, and when they emerged, they had new and unsettling powers and a hunger for human flesh.


I shuddered at the explanation, thinking of some of the things I'd sensed down there. I could see how some of those beings might be able to make a deal with a person.


The Mistwardens were Malzareth's guard, and they patrolled the shoals in the area adjacent to his city. They were supposed to hunt robbers and Pale Men, but they mostly just bullied the fishermen into offering them extra tribute. Fish from the black ocean didn't rot, apparently (which I found even more unsettling than the idea of eating them to begin with), so the smallest kind, called groush, were used as a form of currency.


Finally, we reached the house in the center of town. I'd have called it "nicer" but that would have implied it wasn't basically a shack made of rotten boards, so I noted that it was at the very least bigger than the other houses. I didn't say that out loud, obviously, I wasn't a monster. I just complimented Wesley on his home.


He seemed proud of it, and welcomed us inside. Apparently none of the other homes in the village would have been big enough to fit us all. Not just the ten of us and Wesley himself, but his wife Vanna and son Michael as well.


Vanna was a thin, nervous looking woman with intricately braided hair and dark skin. Despite her obvious uneasiness, she was a warm and welcoming hostess, offering us all a fish stew she'd been simmering for, apparently months. That was another thing that threw me off. Apparently since the fish didn't go bad, most families had a pot of stew boiling for their entire lives, adding new ingredients to it over the years and allowing it to cook down.


As D-rankers, we were pretty much unpoisonable by something an E-ranker could eat safely, so we accepted hesitantly, though I insisted on giving them some supplies from my ring in return, stuff like bread and veggies to eat with their stew.


To my absolute shock, the stew was delicious. It had this sort of uber permeated flavor that blended dozens of tastes in a way I'd never tried before, and I saw Callie looking regretfully at the pot, obviously wanting more but not being willing to ask. I mentally comforted her, telling her through the bond that I'd learn to make the stew myself.


Michael was about thirteen and fascinated by us, especially Abel, for some reason. The kid couldn't get enough of my mentor's stories. All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend an evening, and the warmth of the stew helped chase away the chill of what I'd seen under the water.


Wesley passed us a map of the local area, though it only covered the shoals around Highhaven rather than the entire dungeon. Still it was a godsend, and I copied it gratefully before returning it along with some gold. Apparently they still used it here, and I had a pretty decent amount stockpiled from years of travel where mortal money was literally worthless.


Finishing up dinner, we bid them goodbye, deciding to head inward to Highhaven and try to get a hotel there instead of resting in the village. We were just getting ready to leave when we heard it. A twisted, horrifying scream. Wesley's head jerked up, eyes going wide with terror. "No," he whispered fearfully. "They're here." Turning, he bellowed back to the village. "PALE MEN! The Pale Men are coming! Retreat to your homes and light your candles!"


He turned back to us desperately. "Friends, please, come back inside. You can take shelter under the light of our candle. We need to go, quickly. They'll be here soon." He shot a terrified glance out into the fog, and through the mist I could see shapes moving, human shapes, walking along the surface of the choppy black water. From the direction of the shapes, another horrible scream echoed. Huh, so THAT was why they called it the Screeching Shoals.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The forms that emerged from the sea mist were only nominally "men". They had all the parts that made up a human: skin, eyes, even hair to an extent, but those parts were…lacking. The skin was too tight and wrapped around what looked like desiccated flesh, their eyes were shriveled and cloudy, and their hair was wispy and brittle looking, more like straw than healthy human hair.


In short, they looked super creepy. But what they looked like was nothing compared to the SOUND. The screams that came from their gaping, nearly toothless mouths wasn't just LOUD, it affected us on a psychological level. I was able to brush it off, as were Abel and Bethy, but those of us with less training dealing with psychological pressure looked spooked. We sent the rest of them inside with Wesley and his family, while the three of us waited out here.


Abel grimaced at the hideous Pale Men (weirdly they DID all seem to be men, which made wonder if the Pale Women just didn't exist or traveled in a different group), shaking his head in disgust. "I'm not even sure I want to touch those things long enough to beat them to death."


Bethy nodded. "Super gross," she agreed. "They look like overcooked chicken wings. You know, like when they cook all the moisture out and its just like shriveled meat and fried skin on a bone? They probably taste way worse though."


"No eating the sea zombies," I told her sternly. "You don't know where they've been."


Hesitating slightly, I triggered Dantalion. We were pretty firmly inland, so I didn't have to go through mind break as I stared into the endless abyss that was the ocean. I kept the radius of my detection penned in to a hundred feet or so. Dantalion would enable me to investigate the enemy and determine what exactly they were. Whether that would HELP us at all was probably anyone's guess, but more information never hurt anyone. Except me. Very recently.


To prepare, I triggered Sammael and Mornax too. Three forms was easy when one of them was Sammael, and now that I'd perfected my techniques enough to use them outside their forms, I didn't strictly need to be in Mephistopheles or Belial unless I wanted to up my damage output.


Next to me, I saw Abel vanish, replaced nearly instantly by a simulacrum of himself made of shimmering blood. I blinked at the transformation. This must be his 'Ragam Blood Body', the one he'd mentioned to Sebastian. He caught me watching and grinned toothily. "Pretty cool, right? You haven't even seen the most impressive part."


"I'd imagine it's the fact that you somehow folded and entire full body manifestation with your spatial powers and condensed it down into the appearance of a normal person." I said somewhat smugly. His expression fell and I laughed. "Dantalion is active, manifesting a form this close to me is just asking me to figure it out."


Still, the Ragam Blood Body WAS impressive. Despite appearing about five foot ten, Abel's blood body was actually hundreds of feet tall. He'd manifested his Path through Ragam and then used his ability to warp space to condense it, but it wasn't ACTUALLY any smaller. Because of that, any attacks on Abel had to go through what looked like a layer of blood energy but was essentially feet after feet of Path affected manifestation, essentially bleeding energy from every blow.


Abel's Path was The Infinite Blood Sea, a fusion of his Ragam, Path of Blood, and spatial abilities. I knew he'd been working on merging the last into a cohesive combat style, and his new form had definitely achieved that goal.


Even Bethy looked a bit impressed. "Wow, that's pretty cool," she said enthusiastically. "Can I lick it?"


He glared at her. "NO! I'm not stupid. I saw your dad eat plasma at that conclave. You think I'm going to let you LICK my infinite blood sea? We're about to fight zombies, I'm not weakening myself because you want to know what space tastes like."


"I bet it tastes like cotton candy," she said, clearly ignoring almost all of what he just said. "Or nachos. Space seems like nachos, right?" She didn't have a chance to explain that comment because her head jerked up excitedly like a hunting dog catching a scent. "Oh! First!" She vanished into a cloud of bats, and we both realized the Pale Men had made landfall.


"Shit," I cursed. "BETHY, leave some for us!" I flashed forward in a burst of black flame, the Ten Demons Tree coming to my hand as I appeared among the incoming wave of sea zombies. I crowed with joy as my staff whirled, the ends smashing into the bodies of my attackers, extinction events consuming body parts as I laid waste to the terrifying creatures. I saw Bethy reform amongst them , claws out and shredding muscles and ligaments as she whirled among the mostly dead, dancing to a rhythm only she could hear.


Abel was as brutal and efficient as ever, his fists shattering the air as he punched out in short, sharp jabs, crushing monsters with every blow. Each punch shattered a whole enemy into dust, clearly playing with the compressed space of his condensed form to unleash horrible strength across a larger area.


Between the three of us, it took us only moments to destroy them all, and we were left kind of…underwhelmed.


Bethy pouted. "That was lame. I was all excited, but they were super weak. Why don'-" her voice was cut off as a torrent of mist exploded up from the shredded bodies at her feet, funneling into her mouth and down her throat, sending her stumbling back, choking.


I cursed, flashing forward and triggering Zagan, bringing my hand up to flood her with purifying energy, but stopped as she held up a hand.


As we watched, Bethy, twitched a few times, growling, and her eyes flared red. She shook her head, blurring the space with how fast she moved, and the mist that had invaded her seemed to have trouble catching up, some of it left behind in the air. When there was a decent cloud of mist she whirled and hissed, striking like a cobra, teeth sinking into the mist as she savaged it, tearing into the incorporeal being with a snarling ferocity I'd rarely seen from her.


We heard a scream, and a body manifested from the mist, one of the stronger Pale Men, hiding amongst his brethren, hoping to possess someone. Dantalion identified him easily at this range. The transparent humanoid screeched an even more disturbing cry than usual, its ragged fingernails clawing the air as it tried to drag itself away from the vampire.


Bethy inhaled heavily, and as we watched, she sucked the entire spirit back into her body, gnashing her teeth as she did until it vanished down her throat, and then she swallowed loudly.


We just stared at her, panting heavily, eyes blazing red. I half expected to need to help her calm down, but she closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and then suppressed the bloodlust. "Well," Abel said brightly. "That was fucking terrifying."


"Yup," I agreed. "And not just to us. There's another bodyjacker over there mixed into the crowd I killed. He didn't have time to get me and now he's too scared to try. Bethy, if you'd be so kind?"


Even as I spoke, the incorporeal monster screeched and exploded off the ground, trying in vain to streak away back into the misty sea. He didn't manage to get very far before Bethy appeared behind him, sinking her claws deep into his misty body and dragging him mercilessly back toward us.


"I got him," she said sulkily. "I can't believe I didn't notice that first one."


She tossed the monster spirit on the ground, pinning him with a sharp heel, then bared her teeth at him menacingly. "Hey, snack. You better answer my bestie's question or I'm going to gargle you with sparkle crackers." I hadn't had the fizzy candy she mentioned, but she's talked about them before, a favorite of hers as a child. Apparently, despite the lack of context, the threat was still effective because the struggling ghost creature froze, going completely still under her foot.


Nodding smugly, she glanced at me, as if passing the torch. I was already learning plenty from Dantalion, but nothing useful. I honestly didn't have many questions for this thing. It was a monster. It wanted to eat people. Not much mystery to its motivations. But I thought of a few things.


Since it used to be human, I decided to directly ask it about the area my friends were supposed to be. "Do you know how to get to Ashcrag?" I demanded in my coldest voice.


It stared at me, shriveled ghostly eyes fixed on my mask. "He asked you a question," snapped Bethy, grinding her heel. The monster screeched again, and I winced as I felt the impact against my soul. That was such an unpleasant ability. Finally, after seeing its screams weren't working, it calmed down and moaned piteously, flopping limply to the ground. "Mercy," came a grating, warbling his. "Mercy for this lost one. Mercy, great things for poor Io!"


Suspicious but interested, I gestured for Bethy to ease up. "Well, I asked you a- DODGE!" I screamed the last as my Danger Sense, which had been silent since before we finished the fight, roared to life. I hurled myself sideways, Bethy and Abel following suit, just in time to avoid an arrow from the ocean headed right for my back.


The blazing missile of light crashed into "poor Io" with the white hot intensity of supernova, and the monster screamed in agony as his soul appeared to be literally annihilated by the impact.


I whirled, staff up, wings in front of my friends as I triggered Gluttony, but there was no followup. In the distance, out on the water, I saw a small wooden boat. On the boat sat a figure with a bow the size of ME, the string relaxed and no arrow knocked. When we spotted it, it stood, swept into a courtly bow complete with hand flourish, and then sat down, beginning to row away.


Bethy surged forward, ready to pursue, but I caught her arm tightly. "Don't," I said bluntly. "See that little green candle on the boat? That's the same fire we saw on the bridges. It's some kind of protection. You absolutely do NOT want to go out on that water without it."


She hissed angrily, but closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. "Right, that's fine," she said slowly, as if convincing herself. Releasing Gluttony but not Mornax, I put a hand on her shoulder, triggering Life Nova. Her shoulders slumped. "Sorry, sorry, I'm fine. That was…unpleasant. Attempted possession gets my back up."


Her voice was rough and ragged, far from the effervescent and bubbly chirp I was used to. I sent another surge of Life Nova into her, and that drew a smile from my "bestie". Abel cleared his throat. "Glad you're ok, fangs, but we've got bigger problems." He pointed at the destroyed spirit being. "That attack was DANGEROUS. I don't know about you, but I think it might have killed me if it landed."


"I could have taken it," she said thoughtfully. "But it wouldn't have been much fun. How bout' you Shane?"


I nodded. "Same. But you're right. That was…that was a powerful blow. I think we just met one of the D-rankers from the god worlds. I hope they were one of the stronger ones too, because if not, we might actually be in some trouble." That had been one of the strongest targeted attacks I'd ever seen from a D-ranker, INCLUDING myself.


Turning back towards the village, I frowned. I needed to talk to Wesley, see if he'd heard anything about them. If they were geared for sea travel they'd probably been here for a while. I didn't know when my friends had arrived, but the others might have been here even longer. This could pose a problem.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Callie was waiting with the others when we got back inside, and she tackled me in relief. "Shane! What WAS that? Those screams…" she shuddered. "I felt like it was drowning me in my worst fears. I kept seeing visions of you dying, my mom being killed, even Jessie getting murdered. I tried to use the bond to pull strength from you but I couldn't shake it."


I grimaced. "I don't know what it was, but I felt it too. I went through a similar experience back on Rackham, where a priestess burned me with this fear inducing ego fire. I think it gave me a tolerance."


"So you think I can resist it better next time," her face fell. "I feel like such a weakling having to run in here and hide, but I just…I couldn't think, the fear was suffocating me."


I looked around. "How about the rest of you? Are you doing alright?"


Chelsea, Serah, and Holly looked mostly fine. My sister grunted her annoyed agreement. "My purification flame helped, but it took a bit to work. The girls were able to resist by summoning their inner light but was a constant drain."


I glanced at Gabe, who shrugged. "I was actually ok. My Adamant Path makes me all but immune to mental effects like that. I have a responsibility to protect her ladyship though, or I'd have been out there fighting with you." He shot me an apologetic smile, but I just waved him off. I knew he had a job to do.


Mel seemed mostly ok, if a bit quiet, but Daysia looked seriously spooked. I was on my way over to talk to her, but Callie beat me there, wrapping the smaller girl in a tight hug. "Hey, don't worry so much, ok? The rest of us have been doing this for ages and we were just as scared. You're alright, we all are, and we can figure out where to go from here. Everything is alright."


"I…don't know about that," I said apologetically. Callie shot me a glare, but I shrugged. "Sorry, but we ran into one of the god world D-rankers out there, at least we think so. They were…they were really strong."


Danger Sense scaled with how much of a threat to my life an attack was, and it had been SCREAMING at me when I reacted to that arrow. In Mornax and Sammael both and wearing my C-rank plate, and I was still sure that shot would have seriously injured if not outright killed me. That had been a Solid Path attack, at LEAST, and it might have been supported by a Chronicle.


And this was just the first one of them we'd run into. Who knew how strong the others were, I'd been so convinced we could handle anything our own level, but I was starting to feel like this wouldn't be as easy as I'd expected.


Turning to Wesley, who was staring at us like he couldn't decide if we were monsters or saviors, I decided to broach the obvious topic. "Have you heard about any outsiders showing up recently? Really strong ones maybe working for Malzareth? The one we saw had a candle like that one in his ship. What is that, by the way?" I gestured at the green glame candle illuminating the center of the house. I had a general idea based on what he'd said earlier and the flames on the walkways, but it would be good to know WHY it seemed to keep things from the sea at bay.


He cleared his throat, trying to recover from his silence, or maybe just terrified of us now. "Ahem, sir, no, young master, no, great lo-"


I held up a hand. "Man, I don't even slightly have time for all that, just call me Solomon."


"Yes, Lord Solomon," he bowed his head and I sighed. "These candles are a special type of repellant that holds back the mist from the sea. While it may look harmless, in reality the mist contains vapors from the frothing waves, and it spreads the dark powers of the sea inland. The dark power of the water is repelled by these flames, and so we use the candles to keep ourselves safe."


I blinked at him, waiting for more information. "But…why?" At his blank look I elaborated. "WHY do they drive back the darkness from the water?"


"Ah, the darkness fears the light, as all darkness does," he said philosophically.


"So…all candles protect you?" I pushed, determined to get to the bottom of SOMETHING about these damned candles. I was sure that knowing how they worked would be useful, and I was getting NOTHING about them from Dantalion.


He shook his head. "No, just these."


I stoically ignored the snickers from my friends, though I was glad to see Daysia perking up a little. "Anyway, have you heard anything about newcomers?"


"No, Lord Solomon," he said immediately. "But we are a small village, and we don't receive many visitors. Leastwise not ones who still number among the true living. You may have noticed my suspicion upon your arrival."


I sighed. "Yeah, I got that. It's fine, we just need to head for Highhaven I guess. Anything we should be wary of when we get there?"


"Almost everything," responded the somber mayor. "Highhaven is a dangerous and violent place. Though, I suspect anyone who can destroy a wave of Pale Men should be capable of holding their own even in Malzareth's domain. If I might offer any advice, it is not to trust any local forces. Highhaven is Malzareth's personal plaything. Any forces that exist within its walls do so at his sufferance. Regardless of stated position or outward anitpathy, if they call Highhaven their home, they must bend the knee to Malzareth in private."


Malzareth who was PROBABLY a C-ranker. Lovely. "Noted. But we could use more information before we arrive. What can you tell us about his guards? Mistwardens, you called them?"


"The Mistwarderns are the dogs of Malzareth," he said caustically. "They can do essentially whatever they wish, and this abundance of power draws the worst of the worst. They wear specialized helmets that contain candles to drive back the mist, and they're supposed to ride the countryside, repelling Pale Men and robbers. Instead they only bestir themselves after a village is destroyed, unless you pay them an extra tithe to offer more protection."


Abel nodded. "Protection rackets are pretty common everywhere. Back when we lived in the WCP we saw them all the time. Not surprising that the weird haunted ocean hellscape has corrupt patrolmen."


"It's good to know in advance," I said firmly. "Means we can avoid them. Do you have any of the candles? Might make our journey a bit safer."


"Sadly, no," he said regretfully. "The methods for producing Mistbane Candles has been lost to time, at least as far as anyone out here knows. We buy ours from Highhaven. These are diminished, and can only last a year or two with consistent lighting. We suspect he has some method to melt them down and redistribute the power to create more inferior copies."


I examined the candle. I hadn't paid too much attention to the flames on the walkways, but after going back to double check it, they DID come from candles, but the candles seemed MUCH weightier than these. Still D-rank, but more than just entry level. He was probably right.


Thanking him, we asked if he had a place for us to stay. We'd been planning to head right for Highhaven, but knowing how hostile it could be, we decided to rest here for the night and make our approach during the day to give us more time to feel out the situation. While he didn't have much extra room where we were, he did point us to an abandoned shack we were able to repurpose with materials we had on us.


Once we settled in, we had a meeting. "Alright," I said to my friends. "This has been a lot to get into, but I think that given what we learned today, a bit of training before we go might not hurt. Specifically I think we should try to train your mental resistance in case we meet more Pale Men."


"Agreed," said Abel. "We weren't expecting it, but this particular weakness is a major liability, especially if there are more powerful Pale Men out there. But how do we train it?"


Bethy raised a hand. "Oh! I can help! I'm super good at mental manipulation, and my Domain makes hitting a bunch of people at once easy. I can be a little scary when I want, so we can just beat them into shape that way."


I laughed. "Good thought," I said with a smile. "But I think something a bit more targeted would be better. I'll create a mental protection technique, and then teach it to Callie through the bond. Teaching a technique to a normal person is a bit rough for me, because….well, you guys just don't really get things that come easily to me. But Callie should be able to translate fine, at least for a basic general technique."


Teaching a Skill like my staff art to Bella had been easy enough, but trying to teach her my mother's Supernova Step had been tougher than I expected. She learned it eventually, but I realized in the process that a lot of things I just naturally understood about technique usage were completely unintuitive to her. We didn't have time for me to create a complicated technique and dumb it down for everyone.


Callie perked up. "Oh, am I going to get to experience what it's like inside the Pride library? I mean, I've been there, but not during your creation process. That sounds like fun!"


"Glad you think so," I laughed. "Hopefully you can maintain that enthusiasm, because I feel like technique creation would be boring to watch otherwise. While we're at it, I can try to tweak your Dance of the Abyssal Fairy if you want, help align it with you a bit better." Our connection should let me use her techniques like she could use my forms, and being able to upgrade her capabilities was a benefit I'd never really considered.


Being part of such a unique experiment seemed to make everyone perk up a bit. Granted, most of them wouldn't be doing much, but it gave us all something to focus on. Daysia and Bella, the least experienced of our number, seemed to be most shaken, even if my apprentice hadn't been as open about it as our Dryad friend.


I could feel through the bond that Callie was excited too. Partly because she wanted to both get stronger and be less vunerable to the mental influence, and partly because she was excited to show off how much she'd grown since the last time I'd seen her stats a few months ago.


Of course, the actual process would take place inside my soul, so there wasn't much to watch, and after the two of us sat down and clasped hands, the others quickly got bored and went to sleep, with only Abel staying up, insisting on standing watch in case we got another wave of enemies.


Callie and I closed our eyes, retreating into Pride, where Callie had been before. When we arrived, she looked around, amazed by the construct. She hadn't been here long before, only for a bit during my Chronicle condensation, so she wasn't really used to it yet.


She glanced over at my staff, floating above the pedestal where the Ten Demons Tome sat, and then spun to face me, a determined look on her face. "Alright. Let's do this. How do we start?"


I considered that. It was an interesting question, because custom made techniques were usually based on my own personal abilities. I couldn't use Mornax as a base since most of them wouldn't be able to use it. I quickly came up with a plan, then focused back on my wife. "Alright, I think I know how to start, but before we do, there's one other thing. Let's see how much progress you made while I was gone." Between her godslayer rep and training with my grandmother, I was looking forward to seeing how much stronger she'd become.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Callie beamed at me as she called up her stats. Then paused. "Um…do you have some paper I could use?" She helplessly held up her hands. "This isn't the real world, so I can't bring my stuff in here, which means I don't have anything to write on."


Thinking about it, being able to carry objects into my soul and leave them there like the staff would have been useful, but probably pretty ridiculous. I cleared my throat and snagged a book off the shelf. I decided since I was custom making Callie a technique, adding her exact stats to it might make things easier. Strong reference points seemed to help.


After conjuring her a pen (I could make basic things in here, like my dad had made that chair when we were talking during my Chronicle condensation), I sat down and considered my possible options while she worked.


My techniques worked best when they had a baseline. I could make one up out of nowhere, but finding a way to embed Skills or forms let me bind it into my mythos, allowing me to make it a cohesive part of my legend. It was like adding rebar to concrete. Concrete by itself was pretty solid, but that strength was compressive, not tensile. Adding rebar allowed it to withstand other kinds of pressure.


This technique couldn't include my forms, because I needed to be able to teach it, but it COULD include Skills. DS Mastery was a Skill that other people could learn, which meant techniques based on it would be far more functional for your average layman than one based on my forms. I could probably teach Bella something like that, but everyone else would struggle immensely.


So what I needed was a defensive ability as a base, something with a mental component, and possibly something to amplify the effects. The last one was simple, Afterburner was my most consistently used Skill when creating forms or domains. As for the first, Mountain Stance would be perfect for this. My main issue became the mental component. So while Callie copied down her stats, I meditated on possible solutions.


I started with Mountain Stance. Defense was paramount here, and an important aspect of the technique. Mountain Stance was also a solid foundation to use symbolically, being the hard ground underneath the feet of the user. Next up I used an inversion of Marked for Death. It usually allowed armor penetration on the opponent, but in this instance my alterations turned that penetration inward, changing it from a literal armor piercing attack to a mental penetration ability.


My third ingredient was one I hadn't used much. Blood Curse. A rogue skill I'd gotten at D-rank, one which let me use blood to affect a target at long range. I didn't do much cursing, but the mechanism of the skill was thaumaturgy, and working with Sable had shown me the possibilities in that particular art.


Blood Curse linked something big with something small. In this case, using the penetrative power of Marked for Death, I was using the conceptual structure of Blood Curse to connect the physical body with the infinitely more complex mind and spirit. I started trying to put the structures together in my head, combining the various skills as perfectly as possible.


I failed. And then I failed again. And again. It wasn't a shock. This was the most complex technique I'd ever made by a large margin, and I had to structure it in a way that would make it simple enough to be used by anyone. My usual techniques involved using my strong soul and talent to bully reality into doing what I wanted. Since I got the library, I'd been learning to refine and improve them as I went, reinforcing the core structure that I used as a baseline.


I grabbed a book off the shelves, a blank one because I didn't need Callie's stats for this part, just for her reworked Dance of the Abyssal Fairy. For this I needed to start from scratch. To write my own brand new story. It wasn't complicated. A story of mind over body, of conquering the flesh with the power of the soul.


Since I needed this to be general application, I avoided my usual demonic imagery. This skill was all about human ingenuity. Or rather, the flame of human inspiration. I focused on that image, fire. I needed that as a connection point for Afterburner anyway, and it gave me the perfect foundation.


Prometheus, and ancient figure who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind, lighting the fires of creativity in the hearts of humanity. It was a ubiquitous myth even now. It would be perfect as a foundation for this.


So I leaned into that. I wove a story about Prometheus stealing the flame and carrying it down to earth, once it arrived, he passed it to mankind, and through that flame humanity evolved. The spark lit the path that showed them how to take their earthly nature and transcend the mundane to become something more.


Mountain Stance provided the earthly foundation, Blood Curse the mechanism, and the inverted Marked for Death gave it the penetrative nature. Finally, with the structure completely formed and the spark lit, I poured Afterburner on the flickering ember, and it burst into a roaring flame. The book I'd been writing in shook, the Skill shuddering under the influx of power as it basically fault tested itself.


I made changes, small alterations to the story, wording, sentence structure, even the stats used for the individual words. Inside the library, the Ten Demons Tome's full power was instantly at my fingers, and Dantalion whirled in my mind, deducing various possibilities as I drew on that framework, truly pushing my creative abilities for the first time.


The potential of the library had never really sunk in. It was impressive and useful, but I'd never grasped EXACTLY why it had made my ancestor so unrivalled. Not really. Not until right at that moment.


The book fell from my fingers, slamming to the table as I released it, my mind spinning from the overwhelming task of deducing the technique I'd wanted. I felt like I'd just run a marathon with my brain. I'd simulated the technique, over and over again, slowly altering it, falling into the story headfirst in a way that I normally needed…I froze, my eyes flicked over to the staff quietly hovering above the tome.


My Ten Demons Tree, that was what had changed. Where before I could see and alter techniques easily with the books, I could only adjust them based on my intuition and technique. Now though, the staff had combined with the library. It had let me run the technique through a sort of testing program, over and over, working the kinks out slowly in a way that was even more terrifying than the library itself.


The Primordial Tree Sea hadn't lied to me. That staff was the PERFECT companion for me. This one ability alone combined with my library gave me an advantage that no one else in the universe could match.


Of course, it only worked with techniques because of their intrinsic nature, further specializing me away from hard skills, but that didn't matter. I'd long since shifted my focus to the Path based aspects of cultivation rather than hard Skill creation. That was my ancestor's path, not mine. I stared at the tome, almost in awe of it, slowly picking up the technique and passing it to my wife, who had long since finished her own work.


"I wrote out the Dance in the book," she said as we traded. "It should help give you a starting point for deducing it. This is the defensive technique?"


I nodded solemnly. "I call it the 'Promethean Fire Soul Body'. It's probably the most amazing technique I've ever made. Try learning it, and let me know if you have problems. I'll work on your technique while you do. Having some more detailed data on how your techniques work should help me refine it more to make it accessible to everyone."


She nodded, opening the tome and starting to study it. While she did, I focused on her own tome, opening it up to study the stats I'd been so looking forward to seeing.


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


Might-67,550


Impact-105


Vitality-29,742


Fantasy-56,520


Focus-17,908


Perception- 36,375


Creation-27,485


Progress to next rank: 235,667/1,000,000


Soul strength- Amethyst Soul Body


Pet-Wolf named Rellia


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


Path of the Abyss-Illusory. Technique: Dance of the Abyssal Fairy


I was impressed. Even in my current high power deduction state, I had to stop and admire my wife's progress. I'd passed her by a solid margin, as I'd expected, but there was still only a fifty thousand point gap. Even with months of godslayer rep and becoming the apprentice of an S-ranker (and marrying into the royal family of the WCP) she must have been putting in a lot of work to gain that sort of recognition during her training.


But I shook that off. The Dance of the Abyssal Fairy was Callie's movement technique, and a powerful one at that, but it wasn't perfect. I went through the tome manually first, reading the story, making small alterations in places where I could see the stats making up the content weren't being fully expressed. Then, once I finished my first pass, I triggered my new state.


Mentally, I was calling it "The Wisdom of Solomon". The Ten Demons Tree shone in its place above the Tome and my mind began to whirl. I saw the Dance of the Abyssal Fairy play out, once, then twice, then a hundred times. And each time it got a little better, a little more perfect, slowly transforming, sublimating under the pressure of repetition as Dantalion became more and more familiar with it through the Ten Demon's Tree's simulations.


Finally, I finished, and I dropped the book, drained even more by the effort. I turned to find Callie waiting again, apparently the Wisdom of Solomon took a while. That was fine. We traded books again and she gave me her notes on what parts were too difficult or abstruse to learn without talent like mine.


I deduced it again. Then returned it to her. Then again. My brain was getting foggy, but Callie opened the bond, pouring her energy into me to reinforce my mental state. I smiled warmly at her, and we continued. Research and deduction, perfection and evolution. Until finally, the technique was done.


We emerged from the library and I pitched forward, Callie catching me and easing me down onto a nearby bedroll. "Watch yourself, honey," she said softly as she helped me get comfortable. "I've got you. Your part is done. Get some sleep and I'll work on teaching the others, ok?"


I was drowsy, but I forced myself to stay awake to make sure everything was done. "Are you sure it's done? You can teach it?"


"I've got it," she said firmly. "It's completely finished. Not only can I teach it, after reading that whole book I'm basically an expert. I can explain this thing in my sleep. You did an amazing job tailoring it. It's going to make all of us much safer." She moved my mask aside, leaning down to kiss me gently. "Go to sleep, love. You handled the hard part, now leave the rest of it up to me. Everything will be better in the morning." And you know what? I believed her. I was still smiling as I let myself fall into blissful slumber, Which was definitely different from passing out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke feeling oddly refreshed. No pain, no exhaustion, if my memory wasn't so good I might have forgotten how I fell asleep in the first place. This feeling of refreshment ended nearly instantly as I opened my eyes to see a hideous fish staring right into my eyes. I shrieked, hands going up to protect my face as I rolled, hitting the floor of the shack in a clatter of armor and curses.


Leaping up, I spun, summoning my staff to find…Bethy, unconvincingly trying to hide a fishing rod behind her back. "Hey guys, he's awake!" she called innocently as the rod disappeared in a flash, presumably into her ring.


Callie pushed the door open, leaning inside to squint at her suspiciously. "Thank's…" she said slowly.


Chirping that it was no problem, Bethy turned into bats and blurred right past my wife, who turned to raise an eyebrow at me. "You ok? I thought I heard someone squeak," her face was concerned but I could feel the amusement through our bond.


"I didn't make a sound," I said blithely. "But I heard something too. Was more a manly bellow than a squeak."


She just laughed, stepping up to pull me into a tight hug. "I was a little worried for a second, but I figured out quick you were fine and just sleeping. Thank you for working on my technique for me. I feel so much…stronger," she clenched a fist, seemingly erupting with fighting spirit at just the thought of what she could do.


"I'm guessing you can use it instantly now?" I asked with a laugh.


"Yeah, I can tap into the tome through the bond directly," she responded eagerly. "It's just so much different than having to do it all manually. I have so much more room for control and adjustment when I don't have to juggle a dozen images in my head. It's not like I'm using an automatic ability either, it's more like…muscle memory."


I laughed, "It is pretty convenient. But don't keep me in suspense, the new technique I made, how is it?"


"It's…strange," she admitted. "It works great, burns away mental influence. Not just influence from outside either. We're PRETTY sure it increases soul clarity. Not a lot, but it does SOMETHING. Bethy said it helps her focus through her bloodlust better. We had to adjust it to our Paths, obviously, but apparently you made it compatible with most people."


That made me smile. That had been intentional, and had actually massively increased the difficulty. The Promethean Fire Soul Body was…frankly it was beyond my understanding at the moment. The Wisdom of Solomon and Dantalion combined had allowed me to make something that I was pretty sure I shouldn't have been able to create.


Some of the alterations and changes I'd made, in retrospect, shouldn't have worked. Marked for Death had been stretched well beyond its intended usage, as had Blood Curse, and the inversions and tweaks I'd applied should have made the skills flimsy and fragile. Not to mention the soul interaction aspect, which even beneficially I shouldn't be able to manage at the moment.


The only thing that explained it was the tree. The Ten Demons Tree's simulations had let me essentially run the library like a computer, making the alterations within the reincarnation simulation repeatedly, essentially living out the story a thousand times in a second to stress test the technique over and over, slowly smoothing out the flaws.


The deeper I'd gotten, the more entrenched Dantalion became. It was so effective I briefly wondered if it counted as a new domain, but according to my stat page it was just a power interaction with the tree.


I almost immediately wanted to go back in and start deducing my forms to a deeper level. I was sure it had some sort of limit, but I was just as positive I could increase the power substantially, or at the very least make them easier to use so I could run them more easily and use more at once.


Sadly, now wasn't the time for sitting around meditating, so I just sighed and followed her outside to where everyone was practicing. Well, mostly everyone. Bethy was obviously done with her training, and Abel seemed to have finished.


I wasn't shocked, they were both geniuses, though I was still reeling that my technique could clarify the soul, even a little. Techniques were more effective for soul interaction than skills, since Paths heavily involved the soul, but I'd never heard of one that could do that. Soul clarity was hard to effect, and usually took dramatic and powerful means to improve.


Even if the Promethean Fire Soul Body could only purify a thousandth of a percent per YEAR it would be a priceless technique. Feeling out the library, I was shocked to see that the staff seemed…tired.


Apparently using the Wisdom of Solomon wasn't without cost. Which made sense, if it could make techniques like that. It was a bit sad I couldn't just spam it in the background with a parallel at all times, but even this one technique was already a huge benefit, and the staff would recover with time.


Soul clarification was the process I'd undergone in the falls, rather than the one I'd undergone in my rebirth. There were layers of soul, and clarification purified the upper reaches. Still very useful, but not the same level as the wreath or the rebirth.


I needed to ask someone about that, I didn't understand half of what was going on with my soul, and given that it was one of my biggest advantages, I really should.


Speaking of advantages, I triggered the Promethean Fire Soul Body and Zagan, overlapping the two effects to see what it would do, and was blown away by how…clear I felt. It wasn't a cold clarity, or a robotic calm. I felt like I'd ascended to a crystal heaven, where everything was clear and calm and smooth. I knew without a doubt that no mental technique below B-rank would even scratch my mind, and the purification aspects of Zagan seemed to be internally strengthened by the technique.


I was so lost in the sensation it took me a minute to notice that I'd inadvertently created another domain. I had to organize my mind for a minute to properly categorize it, but finally I settled on a name.


Sixth circle of hell: Leviathan. Named after the invincible beast who couldn't be stopped. Granted, it wasn't a PLACE, but neither was retribution, and I thought confining my circles to specific place names was a limitation I didn't need. Leviathan was supposed to be a colossal monster, so being an entire circle of hell only seemed right.


"Shane," Callie said, obviously repeating herself. My head snapped up, so distracted I'd almost missed her comment. "You have that look. You just get a new power?"


I just laughed. "You know me well. But more like combined ones I already had. Regardless, it's a pretty cool one, I'll tell you about it later. Bethy and Abel already perfected their versions of it, huh?"


"Not exactly," said my mentor from where he leaned against the wall of the shack, eyes closed. "I'm trying to integrate it into my Ragam Blood Body. It's a useful effect, and I think it could qualitatively raise the level of my combat effectiveness. But it's kind of an abstruse technique, and I'm having trouble."


I nodded in sympathy. I'd developed that technique to its limits. On the surface it seemed simple and easy to master, and it was compatible with almost any Path, but the mechanics were so refined that any small alteration would ruin the structure. It reminded me a lot of the wish ability in that sense, though I had to admit that even with my staff it wasn't a millionth the complexity of something my ancestor could make.


Dropping down next to him, I decided to try to help if I could. Since he wasn't soul bonded to me, he couldn't access the library, but I could ask him questions and offer advice. "Well, how exactly does your Ragam Blood Body work? I can tell you got a lot stronger, but I'm not sure HOW exactly. It seems almost more quantitative than qualitative. Like your spatial energy isn't really any more refined, and your Path doesn't seem deeper."


"Because it's not," he said bluntly. Not all of us are freaks of nature who can refine and perfect a Path in real time. It takes most people decades to even REACH Solid Path, nevermind go past it. I don't think you got how abnormal you are."


Laughing, I just shrugged. "Maybe, but then how did you get stronger? What kind of training did you do with Lark?"


"Not training," he corrected. "Killing. You know that my Path is the Infinite Blood Sea. By definition the more beings I kill, the stronger I get. The blood sea increases in depth and scope, expanding as I fill it with the blood of my enemies, and it has no limit."


"Ok, but that's just an aura, right?" I asked bluntly. "Like I know it makes you scarier, but how do you weaponize that?"


He snorted. "Lark is one of the most powerful blood Path users in the entire universe. He found a way. By manifesting the Infinite Blood Sea with my Ragam Manifestation, I'm able to essentially solidify the sacrificial energy. The more of it there is, the denser it becomes, and the more sturdy my defense when I condense it down with my spatial lubrication. THat's the principal behind the Ragam Blood Body. An infinite ocean as a physical form."


I just gaped at him. That was…that was BRILLIANT. I wouldn't have even conceived of something like that. Lark had taken a few disparate pieces of relatively useful skillsets and forged a top tier form beyond anything I'd ever dreamed of.


I'd been sure that with Sammael, I was stronger than Abel could possibly be, but the Vampire had just casually slapped together a few Skills and abilities and made something that could most likely compete with my entire combat system all on its own. It was, without a doubt, a stark reminder of just how far I had to go.


But that didn't mean I couldn't improve it. I frowned at him. "Manifest your Blood Body."


He didn't question why, just did it, his form instantly replaced by a rippling humanoid sculpture of shimmering blood. I triggered Dantalion, making sure Sammael was active, and then condensed the whole thing down to a few feet, making sure Abel was covered. Then I told him to continue his attempts, narrating them for me as he went.


Without the Wisdom of Solomon I couldn't run instances, but I was still a genius with access to the library. I retreated to my inner domain, sitting down at a table with a book and leaving a parallel to parse his speech as I started to write. I couldn't deduce a whole technique down to a tome with just Dantalion, no matter how long I sat there, but I COULD use it as a framework and have him fill in the details.


I asked questions, poked and prodded, and just generally dissected his technique as best as I could manage. Story, stat construction, anything I could piece together. Then I started experimenting with the Promethean Fire Soul Body, slowly trying to integrate the two together.


Abel hadn't said it, but I knew why he wanted to do this. Not just for the power, I'd seen Abel in the grips of his Path before. Fully leaning into the blood, and it made him…colder. He'd been different since he got back, clearly unsettled by something he'd been made to do, and I suspected it had to do with all the killing.


The quick power up had obviously taken a toll, and integrating the Promethean Fire Soul Body and the Ragam Blood Body into one form would hopefully help erase some of the aftereffects. I didn't notice how wide I was smiling until about two hours later. I guess there was time for some sitting around doing research.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"I expected it to be more…on fire," I said lamely as we all studied Abel's new form. "Or maybe steaming? It looks the same." His Ragam Blood Body had been adapted by the both of us working together. As a former Master Candidate who had broken his shackles on pseudo D-rank planet and condensed an illusory Path long before I met him, Abel was obviously pretty talented in techniques too.


With our combined effort, some help from Callie, and the foundation of the two extremely powerful techniques we were using, we'd managed to integrate them smoothly, though I'd had to use the Wisdom of Solomon again to complete it.


Since it was just the last little bit, and the staff was just mostly exhausted not completely tapped out, I'd been able to push through, though teaching it to him after had been tough.


Now he stood before us, shimmering blood replacing flesh, and he looked…the same. Bella, who had been watching the proceedings with rapt attention, leaned in to squint at the form. "I think the blood is like…bubbling?"


Abel shoved her away, then waved his hands around him to drive us all back. "Alright you vultures, it's an INFINITE blood sea, a little fire isn't going to set it to a full boil. It worked, we're done, can we just go? We've already delayed way too long. I appreciate the upgrade help, kid, and I have no doubt it'll be useful, but we need to find your friends."


My expression became solemn. "You're right," I confirmed. "We've taken too long here. Everyone good on the technique?"


They all nodded. All around me, eyes began to burst into open flame. Some dark fire, some light, Chelsea had one of each, but it looked like they'd adapted their new soul bodies to their respective paths.


"Then let's go," nodding, I gestured for them to follow me, and we took off down the nearest walkway at a dead run. I wanted to fly, but without one of those candles it wasn't worth the risk, so I just sprinted at top speed. Even suppressed by the local Impact, we were still more than up to the task of crossing a large amount of space in a short time, and before we knew it, we were approaching the city.


We slowed down, obviously, to avoid being too attention grabbing, and approached at a normal walking pace as we crossed onto the much larger island that housed the city of Highhaven.


Highhaven was…gloomy. I'd assumed being a city it would be nicer than the village, but honestly it wasn't that much better, just bigger and more imposing. The whole place was made of dark ragged stone and had sharp pieces of broken iron sticking out of it in odd directions. I couldn't tell if the walls were supposed to have defensive blades or if there used to be a lot of decorations that just broke off in really unfortunate ways.


The whole city had a pall of grimness and unpleasant decay smothering it like a blanket, like we were looking at it through a depression colored lens filter. We approached the oversized, poorly forger iron gate, and were stopped by a pair of D-rankers wearing strange dark metal helmets with light flickering out of them. Mistwardens.


"Halt!" barked the taller of the two. "Who goes there?"


I raised my hand in greeting, calling back cheerfully. "I'm Solomon, this is my wife Nightstrike and our crew of friends. We were hoping to prevail on your lovely city for some fine dining and perhaps a place to rest on our journey."


The guard just…froze. I was pretty sure he wasn't used to people complimenting this depressing scrap heap without sounding obviously sarcastic. "I…yes, obviously," he said, regaining his momentum. "Highhaven is the jewel of the eastern islands, all of the weeping domain knows of our luxurious accommodations."


We all turned, looking up at the city and then back at the guard, and even the other guard tilted his head in confusion. But since I was the one who started the flattery, I just shrugged it off. "What will it cost us to enter?"


"Ten fish," he said bluntly. "No negotiating. One for each of you."


"But there are-" Bella started from next to me, but I covered her mouth quickly.


I continued smoothly. "There are so many of us and you've set the price so low, we can only thank you for your mercy." I glared at her, not wanting to pay the extra when she pointed out this guard apparently couldn't count past ten.


At D-rank, I had legitimately no idea how his Focus wasn't too high for that sort of thing to happen, but then again, maybe he was so mean and stupid that he'd developed some kind of idiot based recursion. I'd seen similar phenomena back on Callus, and this guy seemed even less clever than the Jerks.


We paid the fish, depleting the minimal stock that we'd gathered at the village, trading for other food, and then entered the city smoothly. In the background, I could hear the guard bragging about how stupid we were, and how he'd charged us an extra fish. I didn't even try to do the math on that one, and just assumed we got the better deal since we snuck three people in for free.


"Alright, now that we're here, we need to be careful," I told the group. "Wesley said that the inside of the city is nominally a safe zone. In reality, it's only safe from outsiders, friendly factions to Malzareth get a slap on the wrist if they're caught fighting, and they will absolutely ignore it."


Abel snorted. "If those idiots up front are their rank and file, we might not need to worry about it."


"Malzareth is probably C-rank," I reminded him sternly. "And that means we have almost no chance of beating him head on. Do NOT give him a reason to come down on us. We can't afford it."


Even if we could escape, it would waste too much time. Abel had been right earlier, I'd dragged my heels helping him and the danger the others were in had increased. We needed to find some kind of lead on them and soon, with the god world D-rankers running around, who knew what kind of trouble they might run into.


"Wesley said there's a force around here that specializes in information gathering right?" I asked Callie. She'd chatted with the mayor and his family for a while while I was working with Abel, she liked to get a handle on local politics whenever we went somewhere.


She nodded. "The Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower. It's not just a local force either, they exist all over the Screeching Shoals. Apparently they're run by the a mysterious advisor to Skartaris the Weeper. Don't think that just because Malzareth is considered 'a general' he's particularly strong. Skartaris has one hundred generals, and Malzareth is one of the weakest."


"A hundred?" I frowned at that news. A hundred C-rankers. At least. And that didn't even count the ones in the oceans or any high ranked Pale Men. Granted, the Shoals were huge, so a hundred was actually a pretty small number spread over that kind of area, but it meant locally there were at least a few more, and there were probably a BUNCH where Skartaris held court.


The central city in this twisted snowflake shaped hellworld was in the main continent, and was called Mournehold, because of course it was. Skartaris ruled the city, and was, based on all accounts, a PEAK C-ranker, most likely with a Chronicle.


In other words, he was way too much for us to handle and should be avoided at all costs if we didn't want to die instantly. I did have a few tricks up my sleeve, like the defensive token from the Lady, but I didn't want to waste a divine ranked lifesaving treasure on someone below B-rank.


"Well, where is this Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower?" I asked her with a sigh. "That's clearly the place to be, though I don't know if we can afford anything there."


Fish were the local currency, and we'd spent ours. Did they take chits? If not maybe we could barter. I'd stockpiled my eight wish scrolls for the day. In an isolated place like this, they might not have even heard of the Wishmaster, so trading them might be safer here. That was a last resort though, and if we did it I would go in on my own and leave in stealth, just to be safe.


But it was a bit early to decide that, instead, we should go and check out the tower, and make sure they even had the information we wanted.


Callie led the way, referring to a small map that she'd drawn based on Wesley's descriptions, and we quickly arrived at a strange looking building. The place was layered white stone, with eaves at about every ten feet to create a sort of pagoda effect. The eaves were made of what looked like obsidian, except it had barnacles all over it and eerie blue veins shot through the stone.


On the front of the tower was a white sight, showing a black bone snapped in two, from which emerged a dark ghost outline with a fierce expression. "I think we found it," said Bethy helpfully.


I snorted in amusement, but didn't respond. I stepped forward, rapping on the large black doors, and after a minute, they swung open and a small man with a ratlike face and bags under his eyes poked his head out. "What?" he snapped, rotten teeth exposed by his sneer. His Vitality must be extremely low.


"We're here to buy information," I told him bluntly. No reason to beat around the bush.


He squinted at me. His eyes took in my expensive armor, then the weapons of all my friends nearby, and he eventually nodded sourly. "Fine, come in. Don't dally."


Throwing the door open, he hurried us inside. He slammed it shut as soon as we were through, barring the entrance quickly. I wondered what exactly he was on guard against, given his boss was supposed to be a huge bigshot. But maybe the individual towers weren't a priority. He handed me a ticket with a number on it. "Wait til you're called," he said shortly, then turned and vanished behind a counter.


"Friendly place," I said dryly. "Nice to see the customer is always king."


Rather than laugh though, my friends froze, all of them tensing as the looked over my shoulder. I didn't feel any Danger Sense, but I knew that this place was protected, so that didn't mean much. I turned to see a small group of belligerent looking men and women, all smiling at us unpleasantly.


"Well, isn't our luck fantastic tonight," said the leader, a long haired dandy in a foppish blue velvet waistcoat. "Our target has shown himself."


One of the taller young men, a bald guy with a handlebar mustache and very little shirt covering his frankly absurd muscles, surged forward, but the dandy held up a hand, stopping him in place with just a gesture. "Not yet, Declan. This is neutral territory, and even we don't want to pick a fight with the tower master."


One of the women, a pale girl wearing a blue ballgown, sneered. "When Damien breaks through, it won't matter who's protecting them. Count your days, thieves, our eldest initiate is at the edge of C-rank, and once he forms his Solid Path you'll all be fish food."


I tensed. That…that was the worst case scenario. God world initiates were geniuses, so they didn't have reason to remain at the peak of a rank. But a few of them having bad timing meant we might be dealing with a much bigger series of threats.


"Friends," came a smooth voice from beside us, and we all jumped, turning to see what appeared to be a floating cloak full of congealed darkness hovering in front of us. "The tower is a tranquil place, there's no need for harsh words." The figure waved an empty sleeve and another identical cloak manifested beside it. "Now, why don't you tell old Whisper what you seek?" And without another word, one of the figures led each of the groups away.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We followed the cloaked figure into a long hallway, then up a flight of stairs into an office. Most of us were led to a waiting room, with only me, Callie, Abel, and Bethy following the figure inside. "Please, come in," they said cheerfully. Walking over to a coat rack, they gestured for us to sit down.


"Sorry, let me get comfortable first," Reaching up like they were about to remove the cloak, the figure instead grabbed the darkness underneath it, pulling to reveal a human shaped blob of shadow the now empty cloak hung on the rack before drifting over to settle on a chair across from us.


"Magic cape!" squealed Bethy excitedly. "So cool! I want one. Are you like, a person stuck inside a cape? Or were you animated from cloth? Ooh, are you some kind of higher being, and you're not really a cape but our puny mortal minds can't comprehend your true form?"


I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Bethy, do you remember the conversation we had about filters? What did I say?"


"To think about any of my questions for ten whole seconds before I ask them, in case they might offend someone" she recited dutifully. "But that's pretty boring. Plus, he's a MAGIC CAPE. Do you have any siblings? Do you have a sister? Is she a MAGIC DRESS?"


The animated cloth waited patiently for her to finish, before finally interjecting calmly. "I…am a CLOAK. Capes are nonsense clothing whose only purpose is drama. Cloaks are useful and sturdy garments that provide protection from the elements and warmth during travel. I do have siblings, they are all cloaks. In fact, the branch managers of all the tranquility towers are cloaks. Except the one in the capital, that one is run by our maker."


"Alright, well, that's good to know," I said slowly. "But we're actually here for a specific reason. First, do you accept chits?"


The hood bobbed. "We do. Our organization often trades with external forces. Chits are still useful for exchanging goods with outsiders. As I'm sure you've noticed, while it is impossible to enter the Shoals after advancing beyond D-rank, items of that rank can still pass through the barrier." He gestured to my armor, which made me pause. I hadn't actually realized that.


Depositing a few D-ranked chits on the desk between us, I stared at him intently. "I'm looking for some friends of mine. I suspect those people from earlier are ALSO looking for them, and I'd prefer to find them first."


Ray, Vesper, Cavallo, Elena, Mnemosyne, and Chess had all entered together. They were among the ones I'd given wish scrolls to, but they'd mostly used them for contact. Still, there should be a few left, and I had to have faith that they would be able to use them to avoid being discovered in the short term.


His response was…well, it was hard to tell. No amount of Perception can help you read the body language of a floating curtain. But…I did have another potential avenue. I triggered Dantalion.


I kept it pretty low power, throttling the effect to prevent myself from being overwhelmed, and he didn't seem to notice the state.


When I tried to puzzle him out though, I realized I couldn't sense anything. While the cloak himself was D-rank, the power that made him up was a core of C-rank technique. Presumably his maker's energy, it was too high level for me to parse.


The floating garment sat motionless for a moment, finally responding. "I can help you. I can even prioritize your matter over theirs. My other self is currently interacting with your enemies, and I must admit I find them a bit obnoxious. They reacted with far less aplomb to the revelation of my origins, treating me with disdain. As a proud Heaven Draping Cloak, I naturally find this unacceptable.


"However," he continued, cutting off my grateful response. "This is but one small branch of the tranquility tower. I can't promise other towers won't aid your enemies based on the information I help you gather. Ultimately, we all serve the Rag King, and even he serves at the pleasure of Skartaris."


I understood what he was getting at. Any info I gave him for the search would be accessible to everyone involved with the Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower. "Would it be possible to purchase general information and keep that purchase confidential? As long as I don't ask you to conduct an active search?"


He hummed (somehow, despite having no voice box or even a skull) "Perhaps." His voice was hesitant, but not outright dismissive. "It is at my own discretion to report the distribution of local resources. Things like maps or general tips on local environments would technically fall under that umbrella. You understand, of course, that such an action would be an inherent risk, and would require more…thoughtful compensation."


In my head, I heard Callie snickering about me being extorted by a tablecloth, but I avoided reacting. He'd mentioned local resources. I'd originally wanted to ask about a map to find my friends, but chances of them having moved already were high. What I needed was someone who knew the area, and local resources should include that kind of information.


"Do you know of any local forces who might have contacts in Ashborn?" I gave him the name of the only village I knew of near where they'd vanished.


There was a whisper of paper, and a large scroll slid from an umbrella stand next to the desk and unfurled itself across the top of the surface. The cloak bowed over it, eventually nodding. "Within the domain of Ironreach, which is under the sway of Dezcarta. She's one of the higher ranked generals, probably top twenty these days, though it can get hard to keep track."


With a snap, the scroll rerolled itself and then flipped off the desk to land back in the stand. "You'll want to speak to the Ordinary Citizen. He runs the Casual Friends, a deceptively named group of extremely malevolent robbers who use a facade of harmlessness to avoid harassment by Lord Malzareth. The Citizen is, at the very least, quite open about his penchant for bribery, so getting his help shouldn't be much of an issue if you have the coin."


"Except we don't," I said bluntly. "Because we spent all our fish getting into the city. Don't suppose you convert chits to fish?"


"We can, but I don't recommend it," he said bluntly. "While fish are heavily traded among the peasantry, the elites use a slightly more functional form of currency." A drawer opened, and a small scale floated out and dropped onto the desk. "As you surely know, the fish in the dark ocean are prized for their powerful external protection. However, low rank fish actually don't condense too many decent quality scales. On an entire fish, you'll usually only get one above base quality, which equates to early D-rank."


The scale slid across the surface, and was then joined by a second, much more lustrous scale. While both were black, the second was more glossy and had a nice shine to it. "Above base quality are fine scales, which are understood to be worth about a hundred base quality scales. Your average lower D-rank fish condenses one or two of these, with the condensation accelerating as they climb the ranks."


I picked up the second scale, turning it over in my fingers. Picking up the first, I compared them, and it was clear the base quality scale had a lot less give, and was much easier to scratch. "So the more these fish progress, the more of these fine scales they condense? I assume there's a level beyond fine?"


"Well reasoned," he said cheerfully. "Yes, traditionally, the deeper a fish's territory in the sea, the more powerful they become, and the more lustrous their scales. A fish with all fine scales is a fine fish, and they have a chance to condense exotic scales, beyond exotic is the even more prized unique. Base fish scales are a single unit of currency, but are more accurately a sub unit. Similar to the concept of 'change'. Fine fish scales are ten units, exotic is one hundred, and unique scales are a thousand."


That was an interesting system. "So, the currency can be directly forged into armor? That's certainly novel. But what's the exchange rate for scales?"


"D-rank chits are formed of pure Creation stats. They are rare and difficult to find in the shoals. I'd be willing to part with a single exotic for one." I could tell from his tone that this was his bottom line, and we weren't getting any better.


But I didn't really need him to. Rather than take out the D-ranked chits I had on me, I pushed forward one of the three I'd dropped originally, and then stacked eighty one E-rank chits, my entire sub D-rank reserve, on the desk. "I'll take a hundred and eighty one fine scales. That should be enough for a decent bribe, right?"


"Indeed," he said, all three of the coins smoothly sliding into the drawer as stacks of scales poured out. They were quickly stacked up in neat piles of fifty, with an extra stack of thirty one beside them, and I swept them all into my ring. "Unique scales are rare and valuable, and are generally kept for armor. Exotics are the highest useful denomination, and paying them out in lower quality coinage is usually safer."


We didn't discuss the other party. I wasn't even sure they were going to ask anything now. They seemed to have been looking for us, so I was more concerned about being jumped as soon as we left town. I'd paid my bribe and got my info, so I stood up to leave, but before I could finish exiting the room, I stopped.


"Would it be possible," I said slowly. "For me to get you help with a little…practical joke? On those other adventurers you didn't like so much."


The hood lifted sharply. "It would depend on the joke. I can't give them false information. The reputation of the Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower is paramount. Nor can I help you poison or attack them."


"Nothing like that," I assured him. "Rather, if I give you the information about when and where we're going to leave the city, can you make sure they get it? It will be accurate."


There was a pause, and then the cloak chuckled. "I suppose as long as I believe you intend to leave the city at that time and place, it would be accurate information. Any additional knowledge left out at that point would hardly be my responsibility. To clarify, you're planning to ambush them outside city limits, yes?"


"That was my intention, yeah," I acknowledged. "You want to help?"


A dark chuckle emerged from the empty hood. "One of them just called my other self a 'glorified dishcloth'. I do believe I can be of assistance. However, I think just giving them the information would be suspicious. I'm an expert at dissemination, leave that to me. What time should they be expecting you, and which exit."


We had a general idea of the gates, but Callie had done the map, so I consulted her. After a brief discussion, we gave him a time and place, tomorrow and went on our way, heading back to meet up with the others.


Once we were out, we followed some directions that Bella had managed to chat out of a local and made our way to a reasonably safe inn called the Brutal Dullard. It wasn't fancy, but it was cheap and clean, and for the low price of thirty one fine scales we got food, drink, and lodging for the night and the next morning. Once we had a place to stay, we headed out into town to look for the Casual Friends. We still had plenty to do today before bed.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We stopped in front of the building we'd been directed to, and I couldn't help but stare. "Friendly Bar," I read aloud. "I can't tell if this person is really lazy or a recursion genius," I said with a laugh.


"Might be both," Callie said cautiously. "So be careful. Honestly the recursion might already be working on us. I feel…a bit too relaxed. Remember what the cloak said, these people are violent thieves. That's why we left most of the others behind. Honestly, I don't think we even NEEDED Abel."


"Hey," protested my teacher in an offended tone. "I resent that. Everyone needs me."


I shrugged. "He's loud and aggressive. Seemed like a good fit for the mission. And before you say it, yes Bethy is louder and more aggressive, but she's also chaotic, and we're trying to keep this relatively low key."


I chuckled, but rather than go in, I just stared at the sign for the bar. The Casual Friends were just another example of a powerful force created by a powerful person. Maybe not the same tier as someone like Zeke, but it was still a likeminded group of people. They were all dedicated to the Ordinary Citizen, to advancing his Path, and something about that…resonated.


My eyes fixed on the sign more intently, and Abel opened his mouth, only to be cut off by Callie. Inside my soul, the Ten Demons Tree spun, an indescribable energy falling on the Ten Demons Tome, strengthening it in a way I couldn't really describe.


In front of my, my Path stretched out, superimposed over the world around me, and within it, I could see more than I ever had before. Not everything, but more. Why did Ascendants create groups? Why did the candidacy require an organization? Some people might say it was just to spread fame, to use recursion, but it was more than that.


Renown had qualitative difference, and it influenced the makeup of stats. Higher ranked beings gave more renown, but more than that, even the individual units were important, their construction meaningful beyond the obvious structure of skill and form.


Culture. Context. Meaning. These things permeated the world. A dragon was just a big lizard, but because of its power and cultural significance, dragons commanded respect. Draconic recursion had effects beyond just the obvious, just like all other recursion. It wasn't just obvious things either. In some cultures, people venerated the turtle, prizing its defense, and in some they held up the monkey, which was fast and agile.


Ascension wasn't just about stacking stats, or even putting them together in new ways. It was about STORIES. Stories were inexplicably steeped in culture and context. When they told us to create our own factions, it wasn't just to gather power, it was to establish a foundation.


Even as I watched the world shift slightly, I could feel my staff emitting an almost invisible aura. It was like the skills and abilities I had were containers full of individual stats. You could increase the container size by ranking up, or you could increase the complexity and fill the container with more pieces, but eventually you would run out of room. Once you did though, you could still pour water into the container, and fill up the gaps.


Something in this revelation spoke to me, and I realized what it was. Bloodlines. Divine Skills, inborn abilities. My grandfathers purification flame was just…MORE than other skills the same level. I didn't know why. It wasn't necessarily complexity (though it WAS more complex than my own skills). Even skills which were made similarly complex seemed to fall short. It was why Zagan was so damned powerful. Why Sammael was.


That was this same energy. That culture. That context. That intangible force I'd just felt seeping into my tome. In fact, I was pretty sure that was the key to properly opening a Domain once I hit S-rank. Something about it called to me in a strange way.


And then it was over, and I was staggering to the side, winded by the experience. Callie caught me, looking concerned. "You ok?"


"Fine," I assured her. "I think…I think I just had an Enlightenment? Like you did when you first touched the Abyss. I'm pretty sure the staff helped. I don't know, I've never really experienced anything like that before. Usually my epiphanies happen during big dramatic moments with lots of power being thrown around."


Abel looked impressed. "Interesting. If I had to guess, I would say it probably noticed you were coming up to a threshold and pushed you over. There are trees and plants that can do that, help with enlightenment, and they're mostly soul related."


"Well, I don't think we have time for me to process what I learned," I laughed. "But it's not like I could forget it. I can parse what it means later, for now we have a meeting to get to. Be on your guard."


I was kind of reeling, but I adjusted quickly. That had been…intense. But it was also essential. I'd caught the edge of something vital to my progress. It was something I was sure I'd need. That force was necessary for someone like me, who wanted to open a massive Domain. I needed to figure out how to gather it, and I was pretty sure the succession war was meant to help with exactly that.


But that was a problem for another time. For the moment, I just triggered Mornax, making sure Sammeal was reinforcing my defensive ability as much as possible.Then, squaring my shoulders, I strode across the road and knocked on the door of the bar.


The door was pale, tidy wood. Well cared for and expertly maintained, the only disruption in the pristine surface aside from some low spots from probably sanding and buffing was a single nail, holding a sign that said simply 'Closed', hanging from a single rope hooked into each of the top corners.


There was a slight pause and then the door opened, showing a large, heavyset man with a thick beard and small, beady eyes. "What?" He said bluntly.


"Hello, we came for a friendly conversation," I said politely, reciting the passphrase. I was six and a half feet tall and wearing terrifying black armor, so I decided to try being nice. Being intimidating was great sometimes, but some people had adverse reactions to being afraid of someone. Normally, I wouldn't be against scaring a scumbag a little bit to speed things up, but this guy seemed like a bit of a bully. If he caved under the pressure that would be fine, but if he locked up because he thought I was trying to humiliate him it would probably have the opposite effect.


He squinted at me suspiciously, and I briefly wondered if that had been my Fatewalker intuition helping smooth the way, because he eventually nodded, opening the door to let us inside. "Right, come in then. The Citizen is in the middle of his usual friendly card game."


We entered the bar, and found it more crowded than expected. The Casual Friends were here in force, talking and drinking and shouting, all watching the card game in the middle of the room. A group of men sat around a bloodstained table, one of them was currently holding a cleaver over his outstretched hand, a manic grin on his reddened face obscured by his large mustache. "Two fingers lads! Who has the guts to pony up?"


Another man, smaller and more fine boned, slammed both hands down on the table. "Damn it, what's there to be scared of? None of these are my originals anyway. I've got some spares at home I can swap out if I need them."


I cocked my head at our guide, who just grinned. "They're playing a hand of poker," his voice ws smug. "We'll wait until they pay out before I take you over, we can just wait over here." He gestured to an empty spot next to a big table of rowdy drunks.


One of them, a sloppy looking man with mutton chops, saw us coming, and turned to grin at us. Or rather. He turned to grin at Callie. "Well aren't you a spicy little thing?" he slurred maliciously. "You looking for a seat, precious? I can share my chair."


My knuckles cracked, and I debated caving his skull in with a Mornax hardened fist, but I knew Callie could handle it, so I just waited. Sure enough, she smiled sweetly at him and said "Get lost". And then he was just…gone.


As was his chair, it took me a minute to realize what had happened, and by the time I had, everyone had stopped laughing and cheering. The whole bar got really quiet as they took in the shadow their friend had just fallen through, then turned to look at us dangerously. I ignored them, glancing at my wife. "Where'd you send him?" I asked in amusement.


"Nowhere," she said with a smile. "He's just falling in the dark. He'll pop back out once I'm out of range, but my range isn't exactly small these days. Maybe some time alone to think will help him reevaluate his manners."


The man with the knife had stood up, and he stalked over to where we stood. Despite knowing she was capable of handling it, I couldn't let that particular offense go, and I stepped between them, my wings spreading a bit to push back all the surrounding figures. The man, who I realized was seven feet tall at least, towered over me, squinting down at us menacingly. "Do you know who that was?"


"No?" I said uncertainly, expecting some diatribe about how that was his brother or something.


He deflated. "Damn, I was hoping you had some idea. I was going to kick him out, but I doubt I'll remember to find out his name." He beamed at us, hand slamming down on my shoulder and then Callie's. "A drink for our new friends lads," he crowed. "For taking out the trash!"


Everyone cheered, their drinks shoved into the air in celebration (I got the impression they were more excited to have something to celebrate than for our actual actions) and within moments we had big mugs of some kind of beer shoved into our hands as we were herded to the central table, which had been cleared off.


"Sit, sit," the Citizen said cheerfully. "Guests are always welcome at the Friendly Bar. Now, what can this humble Citizen do for you? Such a charming couple, and their dashing chaperone, of course." He winked at Abel. "I get the impression you're just our kind of man, like can recognize like you know."


Abel grinned. "Oh trust me," he said in amusement. "I know."


"We were actually hoping for some help," I cut in, deciding to interrupt their showing off. "I'm looking for some friends of mine who went missing in Ashborn. I heard you've got some connections around there."


He nodded jovially. "Aye, that I do. I've got friends all over. Always better to make friends than enemies. Of course, friends have to build strong relationships, which requires a bit o' give and take. Tell me, new friends, what exactly are you plannin' ta give? To establish this wonderful new relationship?"


I'd been expecting this. I decided to start low. "Fifty fine scales," I told him, dumping them on the table. "A welcome gift for a new friend."


He barked out a laugh. "See lads, this is the kind of friend I like to make. Smart and generous." His smile dropped. "But of course, that's a shallow basis for a friendship. To arrange passage out to Ashborn, and I presume a guide, we'd need to be much better friends than that. I trust you're not finished?"


Another fifty scales fell out, joining the first set. "An exotic," I said bluntly. "And that's as far as I'm willing to go. Now, you going to take it or leave it?" The whole bar went silent again as everyone took in my direct challenge, and the Citizen's lips split in another, darker smile. I really hoped my instincts didn't just pick right then to stop working.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, you're hoping for an intro to Dezi's territory?" asked the Citizen with a jovial grin. He tossed back a huge mug of beer, smacking his lips and pulling a small comb from his pocket to comb the foam from his glorious mustache.


I assumed "Dezi" was Dezcarta, the general in charge of Ironreach, where Ashborn was located. I had learned recently that the island chains surrounding the larger islands where the cities were located were called "domains" and were named after the city they surrounded. We were in the domain of Highhaven, and had BEEN in the domain of Highhaven since arrival. Ashborn, which was the closest village to where my friends had been last I heard from them, was in the domain of Ironreach.


"Yeah, I'm looking for someone," I confirmed. "Or, rather, a group of someones. Just a warning, there are also some people looking for ME. I'll be dealing with a few of them on the way out of town when I leave tomorrow, so if you send a guide with us they might want to hang back.:


He chuckled. "Noted. It shouldn't be a pro-" he was cut off by a violent rumble beneath our feet. The floor shook, dust fell from the ceiling, and several people fell over (albeit they were mostly pretty drunk). The Citizen's head snapped up, and he was suddenly on his feet, crossing the room to stare out the window. His face paled, and he cursed, whirling on us. "Was this your doing?" He demanded.


I blurred to the window, looking out to find a dome of swirling green light manifesting over the city. "Um, no…" I said slowly. "I don't even know what that is."


"It's the Skylock," he said sourly. "A method of locking down a city. Malzareth uses it at random intervals to sweep for "dissidents". Of course, there are no actual dissidents in Highhaven, but it gives him deniability. He warns those of us with friendly relations ahead of time so we can make arrangements. This is WEEKS too early."


His implication was that he didn't believe it was a coincidence, which…well it was fair. The timing was suspicious to me too. I turned to my wife. "Seems like the tower's misdirect didn't work. Maybe one of them was smarter than expected. In any case, Malzareth is clearly not friendly to us. Lucky he's not Perception focused, because if he had some method of tracking us we'd be fucked."


Abel, who was clearly expecting trouble, had shifted into his blood body, his form now composed entirely of rippling red. Callie started readying for a fight too, but I was a bit less eager to mix it up with a gang when a C-ranker was hunting for us.


"Stop," I told them sharply. "Let's think this through. We know a few things for sure. First, the cloak didn't turn on us. If they knew what we were looking for specifically, combined with what we'd been told, they'd have found us here already. They know we're in the city but not where. Second, while the Citizen looks upset, he doesn't look AFRAID, just a little nervous."


I turned to him solemnly. "You have another way out." I paused as I said that, turning to Callie. "At least assuming you can't-" Even as I spoke, the shadow on the floor across the room spat out a shaking, horrified form, and then shortly afterward a chair that smashed into him from behind. I held up a hand as she opened her mouth. "Yeah, shadows blocked, I got it. So we're back to you. I don't believe anyone who makes their living as a professional thief actually depends on the kindness of the local government to keep their business in order."


The Citizen shrugged. "Maybe I got another way out. Maybe I don't. Either way I doubt you can pay for it."


I reached into my ring, pulling mentally, and a scroll dropped into my hand. I tossed it to him. "That requires payment to function. You can pay us with safe passage for us and our people. If I die, or get captured, the payment won't be proper compensation, and it won't work. I get final say on those."


This was the backup plan. I'd been trying to avoid exposing my wish power, but at the same time, if I had it and couldn't use it there was no point. Aside from my own safety, I'd come here to rescue my friends, and getting my OTHER friends kidnapped seemed like a really stupid outcome to that. We needed locals on our side, and preferably ones who knew what they were doing.


By passing him the scroll free of charge, I essentially forced him to act within the bounds of the wish contract. He had to pay me with our freedom, or I would just turn down the wish. I could do that, though I usually had a parallel handle the interactions with the scrolls because otherwise it could distract me at key times.


He unfurled the scroll, reading over it, and his eyes widened in shock. "This is…is this real?"


"It is," I confirmed. "Not sure if you know what the Wish Curse Palace is, but that's their seal on the top corner. In fact, you get me and my friends out of this and you can have these two as well." I produced another pair and tossed them to him.


He caught them, staring down at them in shock. "I have heard of them," he admitted. "Outside forces aren't exactly common drinking topics around here, but we know the big players. If this really is a wish…yes. I'll help you. These are too valuable to pass up. If, of course, you're lying to me, I'll turn you over to Malzareth directly, and I'll keep some parts for souvenirs when I do it."


The formerly jovial tone had gone hard and cold, a permafrost razor held to our throats. I didn't mind it much, they were just doing business. We gave him the information about our inn, reasoning that since we were here, and he could just turn us in if needed, he didn't have a reason to be a threat to our people. Plus Bethy was there, and I didn't believe anyone aside from the C-ranker could pin her down, and probably not even him.


After meeting my eyes for a minute or two, he finally nodded. "Alright, Tarn, Skeller, you'll be going to get their friends. I'll need you to meet us at the bottling plant."


Two men, a red haired man with a thick beard and a large dark skinned man with a bushy mustache nodded silently and then turned to leave. Meanwhile, a muscular women with a scar on one cheek and a rangy man with a ponytail had stepped forward to grab the asshole who had been hitting on Callie, who was now staring listlessly at the wall.


"Did you, uh…test that whole falling in the dark thing before using it?" I asked her warily.


She just smirked. "Nope, didn't come up. Like I said, time to think about his manners. He's fine though, I've spent plenty of time in the shadows, it doesn't hurt you, it can just be a bit jarring if you're not ready for it."


I shrugged. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Seems fair to me."


The Citizen approached us. "My lads are fetching your friends, but you'll need to come with me. Our only hidden exit from the city is somewhat difficult to access, as you might imagine. You mind telling your rabbit friend to stop…being made of blood? It's attention grabbing, and quite honestly a bit unsettling."


"A bit unsettling?" said Abel outraged. "I'm made of BLOOD. It should be VERY unsettling. At least mildly disconcerting."


"Not the time," I told him with an eye roll. "Do me a solid and…become solid."


Scoffing, he dropped his form. I stepped up next to my wife. "Ok, after we're out of here, I want to check in with my family. You have some way of contacting my grandmother? Other than actually leaving with the bracelet?"


"She gave me a mirror that connects to one she owns," my wife said reassuringly. "We figured there might be a need for non emergency contact."


I sighed with relief. I had questions about my epiphany, and I wanted to check if they had any better understanding of the infiltrators from out there. Finding out some of them might be ranking up soon was…disturbing. If they could detect that from outside, we might be able to avoid running into one of the god world C-rankers, which I couldn't see going well.


With Abel officially powered down, we followed the Citizen to the back of the bar. He walked us into a broom closet off the kitchen, then moved a shelf to one side revealing a bare patch of floor. Pressing it in a specific spot produced a click and the floor tile popped up, exposing a ladder down into the dark.


"Man, why are secret exits always creepy ladders into dimly lit holes," complained Abel. "None of you could spring for a spiral staircase or something? Maybe a pole we could slide down?"


The Citizen shrugged. "Ladders are cheap and easy to install. Stairs take time to carve out or hammer in. More time under construction means more chances someone will see, which defeats the whole purpose of the exit. Come on."


He lowered himself down, sitting on the edge of the hole and planting his feet on the ladder before mounting it and descending. I was pretty sure he went first to reassure us this wasn't a trap, which was both thoughtful and a good idea. I held Callie back, taking up the lead position to descend. "My armor makes me the best choice for Vanguard," I told her firmly, and I didn't even need to look to see the fond eye roll.


Luckily, it was unnecessary. The ladder led down into a cramped but well maintained tunnel. The grey dirt of the Shoals has been dug out and the whole thing was reinforced with wooden braces across the top and sides, forming a series of interlocking archways that propped up the ground.


The tunnel was EXTREMELY deep, presumably to prevent anyone from easily noticing it, and I was surprised how much work must have gone into establishing it. Robbers or not, the Casual Friends were surprisingly thorough about their preparations. No wonder they were still around when the cloak told us Malzareth had gotten rid of so many other groups.


We followed the tunnel a few miles, taking several sharp turns doubling back a few times, before finally coming to a metal door set into the dirt.


The Citizen stepped forward, pulling the door open for us, and then shoved against a flat surface. It was moved away to reveal a huge stack of boxes that we had to climb over, and once we were inside, I was able to identify the new location as a cramped basement. It smelled…weird. Chemical and kind of cloying.


"This is the Happy Time Spirits Bottling Plant," he explained as he led us over to a nearby pile of crates, opening one to pull out a large amber bottle. He popped the top and took a long pull. Grimacing, he replaced the cap and the bottle vanished, presumably into a ring. "The plant is under my ownership, through a number of false faces, and the tunnel out of town is here. Your friends will meet us in the basement and then we'll leave quietly through the back. No muss, no fuss. I'll have my second, Devon, guide you to Dezi's place, and our business will be concluded."


Nodding, I held out my hand. "Your wishes will be granted, provided they're nothing to absurd. I have limits on power output, but the scroll should tell you if your wish is within my capacity. I'll make sure to confirm them for you as soon as we're safe and away, so don't make them immediately. I'm officially considering bringing us here, bringing us out, and guiding us to Ironreach each as a separate payment, that should cover you for some decent wishes."


He thanked me, and then we settled in to wait. Happily, it wasn't for long, the rest of our group showed up not long after, and we all moved a big machine aside to reveal another ladder down to an even deeper tunnel leading out of the city. We bid our goodbyes and then descended, heading out into the dark. We couldn't get out of this damned city fast enough.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We emerged on the outskirts of the island that Highhaven was in the center of. "Island" might actually have been a poor choice of words. Continent was closer, though admittedly it was a small one. Because of that, we had plenty of room to travel before we had to come up from the tunnels, with the Citizen informing us that they'd needed to end the tunnels at least a few miles from shore.


"Beyond the usual issues with moist ground holding shape, the dark force from the ocean can seep through the ground if you get too near," he said solemnly as we pushed aside the giant rock on the surface and climbed out.


"It's fine," I assured him. "Based on my calculations we've traveled…what? A hundred miles? Outside of direct line of site I'm not as worried."


I'd activated Murmur as we moved. It wasn't as impressive during mobilization, but it was still a strong domain. "We'll stay here for a bit, catch out breaths, and then head out. I have to check something."


Specifically, the mirror Callie had mentioned. I needed to consult my family about all this, with C-rankers being introduced into the equation, not just locals but godworld C-rankers, things were getting complicated, and I had a lot of questions about my epiphany. Plus the chances of them finding us dropped the longer we stayed here. C-ranker or not, I didn't think anyone could get through Murmur after I'd had time to let it cook.


The Citizen looked dubious, but eventually shrugged. I had no doubt he would bolt if we ran into trouble, but I didn't exactly begrudge him that. Of course, it would render one of those scrolls unusable, or rather, I would render one unusable, but hey, you get what you pay for.


Luckily, inside the Murmur domain I could decide what was seen and heard. I could make a shouting into the Citizen's face and he wouldn't notice. Since I wasn't a lunatic (or Bethy), I didn't do that, I just walked over and hopped up on a rock, taking the mirror out of the paired ring.


Following the instructions Callie gave me, I breathed on the glass and then wiped away the fog. Rather than my mask, the glass cleared to reveal my mother's face, creased with worry. As soon as she saw me, her expression cleared, replaced with a beaming smile. "Shan! Oh thank the gods. We just detected-"


"A breakthrough to C-rank," I finished for her with a sigh. "Yeah, that was what I was calling about. I wanted to see if you had any information on WHERE that happened, so we can steer far clear of it."


She angled the mirror, showing my grandparents and uncle. Behind them though, I saw someone else. Someone I'd never met before…hanging from the ceiling by wrist chains. He did not seem to be in particularly good shape. My mother noticed my glance. "Oh, that's one of the S-rankers we ran into. Your grandfather captured him, and my parents have been politely inquiring about the details of this trap."


"I'm not FIVE mom," I said dryly. "I can obviously tell you've been interrogating him. Are you sure you can trust his information though? Those kinds of tactics are notoriously unreliable."


As for the morality of it…I wasn't super comfortable with the idea, and wouldn't do it myself, but my grandparents were S-rankers. They knew what they were doing, and it wasn't my place to object, at least when the opponent was ANOTHER S-ranker, and one who had obviously had nefarious plans for me."


My grandfather laughed. "The damage was all from the fight," he assured me, reading my discomfort from my tone. "My flame of purification is quite a bit more advanced than your sister's, and lies are a form of impurity. We haven't hurt him for answers. If he was strong enough for that to be necessary we couldn't have taken him alive."


"Wait…you can INTERROGATE people with purification flame?" I said with interest. That gave me some interesting ideas for a new domain. I shook off the concept, I could explore that one later. "Doesn't matter. What did you find out? And did you pick up the location of that breakthrough?"


My grandmother sighed. "Void distortion makes accurately identifying hotspots like that impossible. Not within a hundred miles of you, that's all I can tell. As for information, we have some. Apparently the vanished gods have all sent their own to recover the artifacts. As we suspected, they were unaware of the handoff, most likely by my mother's design, though neither she nor they have shown themselves yet, as far as we know."


"Most of them are tied up with the Six," my mother cut in. "But Raxus is likely to be nearby. As for the people in there with you, apparently they've called for something called "A Wild Hunt". The ones who actually capture you will be heavily rewarded. The Lady's forces have mostly chosen to abstain from the contest, though the Order of Punishment are apparently in the Shoals. What you need to watch out for is the godchildren. Personal disciples of the deities raised in the godworlds."


My grandfather raised a hand, stopping her. "It should be noted that breaking through in there is a death sentence. No one with any talent would be willing to stay locked in that shithole for eternity. We're not sure exactly what they were offered, but chances are good that only the weakest and least talented disciples answered the call for the hunt, so you're not as screwed as you might have been."


I grimaced, but nodded, and they briefed me on the rest of the information, mostly just random tidbits they'd learned from the questioning. Once that was done, I drew their attention to my epiphany.


To my shock, my grandparents were the only ones who seemed to know what I was talking about, and they looked absolutely flabbergasted. My grandmother turned to my grandfather with a bewildered expression. "Is he…?"


He nodded slowly. "He's detected Mythology. I've only met a couple A-rankers who were able to perceive it. Hell, it takes a while in S-rank most of the time."


"Loving the confidence boost," I said dryly. "But what exactly is Mythology?"


"Essentially, it's stats," he said bluntly. "Except it's not. You can think of stats like molds. Mythology fills the molds, and then it solidifies. It does NOT penetrate beyond that. Mostly because the soul isn't…I guess the easiest way to describe it is that it's not porous enough. When your soul is impure, it acts like a filter, keeping the Mythology from saturating."


I considered that. "So the fact that my soul has been purified twice over means I can detect it?"


"It's the literal bare minimum you need," he corrected. "It also requires a lot of insight and a fair amount of either work or talent. Being able to detect and accrue Mythology is the prerequisite for properly establishing a Domain seed, AND for integrating a Saga and becoming a demigod."


That was interesting, but not super helpful. It also brought up a question I'd been wondering about for a long time. "How many layers of soul are there?" I asked after a moment. "Because I feel like I cleansed two…"


"Three," said my grandfather in a tone that implied I should already know the answer. "You broke two of the shackles, didn't you?"


I blinked. "Wait…Mind, Heart, and Self?" I hadn't thought about shackles in ages. "Does that mean you can't purify the third layer because of the self shackle?" Because Zeke had told me that breaking that would kill you.


"You HAVE to purify the third layer," he corrected me. "But not yet. It's a delicate process. Actually, breaking the self shackle is only dangerous if you do it too early. We tell younger Ascendants it's lethal to avoid them messing with it. After purifying your third soul layer, you have to break the third shackle to allow your soul, body, and Saga to combine."


That was a lot to process. "Ok, but what about Mythology, why is it such a big deal that I can sense it and what does it do?"


"It fills Domains," my grandmother responded. "Domains, real domains, are unfinished. Even if you have a form for one, until you saturate it with your Mythology, it can't really be condensed into a seed. Domain seeds are kind of a mold. The power of the initial Domain and the Saga decide how much the seed can hold."


I pieced together everything I knew. "So, when you hit S-rank, you have to accrue Mythology to fill your Domain?"


"No, you have to fill your SAGA. Then you integrate it, THEN establish your Domain." My grandmother corrected me. "Mythology is unique. That's what differentiates a self established Domain from one of the early half-measures some younger generations use. Without your own Mythology to saturate the Saga, a Domain won't integrate into the body."


That was why my mom had told me that people who established Domains early were crippling themselves. No Saga to use as a foundation meant they could never integrate them, which meant they would never become a Demigod. It was also why we were trained to open factions, it allowed us to create more unique Mythology in preparation for this step later on.


It was…a lot. I just kind of spaced out, but my mother comforted me. "Shane, they're only telling you all this because you came into contact with something that's well beyond your level. They wanted you to know what you were dealing with so you didn't accidentally hurt yourself by misunderstanding. You don't need to worry so much about all this until much later. For now, you need to focus on your Chronicle. Realistically, you shouldn't be able to inscribe pages until B-rank, but at this pace you might manage at C."


I wasn't sure what the benefit of that would be, but judging by her tone, there definitely was one. Sadly, I didn't get to learn it, because my grandmother interrupted. "Don't," she warned my mother. "That kid has no sense of self preservation at all. If you tell him too much he'll start doing dangerous things without thinking them through."


I…had no response to that. She wasn't wrong. My mom sighed. "You're right. Just work on your domain shards. The more you refine the ones you have, the more powerful the subsequent pseudo-domains can become. I'm not sure what exactly you're going to accomplish, but I'm sure it's going to be amazing."


"But you have to survive this first," my grandfather stressed. "It's too late to back out now even if you wanted to, but you're not completely screwed. You have good friends with you, strong people who can have your back, if you're careful."


My grandmother looked guilty. "I wouldn't have let you go if I'd known they would be willing to send peak D-rankers. Solid Paths aren't usually a dividing line. Most genius D-rankers have already completed theirs by the time they hit the peak and immediately rank up, it's not like E-rank where people linger at the top. I didn't think they would have anyone on hand who could break through on demand, much less that they would be willing to do so."


I shook my head. "This was my call," I said firmly. "I came to help my friends, and I don't regret it. You didn't do anything but do your best to help me. I appreciate the intel, you've given me a lot to think about. Love you guys." I wiped the mirror, disconnecting the call. I wasn't mad at my grandmother for letting me come here, but I was overwhelmed. I had a lot of new knowledge, and it changed…not a ton.


I couldn't use any information about Mythology for the moment. It was nice to know, but it was ultimately just a forewarning for future Shane. Present Shane…well he had other problems. Specifically, how to handle any of these godchildren if I met them. In the end, I just sighed. There shouldn't be too many C-rankers, and I could avoid them or run. And if I met a D-rank god disciple…well, that might actually be a lot of fun. At least that was something to look forward to.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once I finished my talk with my family, we left. Murmur included Dantalion, which meant I was deeply aware of exactly what was happening within the domain. Murmur not only allowed me to hide traces in increasingly detailed ways, it also allowed me to divine when someone was LOOKING for those traces.


A few people had swept the area we were in with different detection methods, but they failed, of course, and after the sweeps stopped I informed everyone else it was time to go.


We were headed for Ironreach now, with the Citizen leading the way. He was guiding us personally, which might have been nice of him, or might have been some kind of follow up to make sure he could get access to those scrolls. I didn't mind either way, he would be useful to have on our side when we arrived.


As we walked, I listened to my friends chat, and I ended up getting sucked into a conversation between Bethy and Daysia. "What I'm saying is that plants are also a kind of vampire," Bethy insisted. "They just drink water from soil with roots instead of blood from humans."


"Plants photosynthesize!" Retorted our resident dryad. "That's the OPPOSITE of vampirism."


Bethy scoffed. "You don't even know. I bet I could photosynthesize. It's just eating sunlight. Sunlight is kind of like blood. It's warm and keeps people alive. Watch." She opened her mouth, taking big long breaths and snapping her teeth. It would have been comical, except that I could sense the air pressure shifting and the energy inside the domain starting to sort of simmer.


"Alright!" Chelsea said, appearing next to Bethy and putting a hand over her mouth. "Let's not start eating energy next to the creepy monster ocean."


Daysia giggled, and it dawned on me that she was looking a lot less worried. Bethy's antics had cheered her up enough to wash away the perpetual nervousness that our newest member had felt since arriving.


Of course, seeing Bethy, Abel, and I kick ass when we'd dropped the Pale Men probably helped.


I smiled as they pulled ahead, but to my surprise, I was joined by two more figures. Winged ones. "So," said Holly cautiously. "You're an angel now."


"Only part time," I assured her. "It's one of my forms. I used some of the abilities you stored for me to figure it out, but obviously I couldn't recreate the entire racial trait." I suspected, having learned more about abilities, that the problem might be related to Mythology. The way that racial traits worked was different than most abilities, though I couldn't say how yet.


She shrugged. "I don't begrudge you the power up. It's just…weird. There aren't a lot of us.The tower is a select group. The catalyst and requirements for becoming an Angel are extremely strict. Most of us are from the Church originally, or born this way. Seeing a brand new angel just appear, especially one who is so…unique, is odd."


"When you say unique like that, I can tell you mean weird," I deadpanned.


She shrugged. "Well, you're an abomination, what do you expect?" She winked to let me know she was teasing, and we both laughed.


We were walking the walkways between two of the islands, enjoying a peaceful stroll. Despite the overwhelmingly creepy atmosphere of the misty dark water around us, the warm green light of the candles along the edges of the platforms created a tranquil and almost haunting kind of beauty.


Callie stepped up next to me, blatantly shoving herself under my arm, and I laughed as she snuggled into my side. No matter how much we went through together, she was still the same girl I fell in love with back in Callus. "How about I make us dinner tonight," I said as we stepped out onto an island. "Whenever we decide to stop. It's been a while since I cooked for you."


Her face lit up under her mask, and for a minute, I felt like we were back in Valen as we enjoyed each other's company. I thought about that first night we went on our mission to the underground fighting arena, Callie going undercover and me chewing her out about her driving skills. It seemed so far away, but at the same time like it was just yesterday. We'd come so far together, seen so much, and I knew we still had more to do.


Feeling my affection through the bond, she smiled up at me softly. "You're still the same idiot I met back at the guild. Except maybe now you wouldn't be such a baby about letting me drive."


"Nope, you're still never guiding a vehicle with me inside it," I said bluntly. "I have no clue how you have Perception and Focus at the level you do and still suck at driving, but I refuse to be a part of it."


She stuck her tongue out at me, and I laughed, enjoying the memories. Before she could respond though, my Danger Sense triggered. Without even hesitating, I triggered Double Trouble, bringing Callie with me as we appeared behind Bethy, who had been walking a ways in front of us.


Behind us, an explosion rocked the dusty hard packed earth, and I spun to find an arrow buried in the dirt. The ground underneath it was shattered, and from inside it, dark twisted brambles snapped forth, tearing at the air and rock, pretty much mulching the area. Along the edges of the thorns, I could see a tenacious and malevolent energy that was seeping into the ground, killing even the stone.


I turned to follow the line of sight, and found a cloaked figure with a drawn hood standing not far away. The figure held a black bow, built in a strange way. It was a recurve, but on the top and bottom it was also strung on the opposite side. It was so obscure it took me a second to sort through all the information on it with Dantalion. A double recurve. I'd never seen one in real life before, mostly because they were considered inferior to compound bows and most people didn't bother making them.


"Who are you," I asked the figure as I considered what we should do. I didn't believe we couldn't beat them, in fact, between me, Bethy, and Abel, the chances of us crushing this person were high, even with the frankly absurd level of damage that shot had done.


I wasn't sure exactly how strong that attack was, but I suspected this person was like me, having already condensed a Chronicle. That was actually a good thing. It meant they were monstrously strong, but it also meant this wasn't one of the disposable disciples that would be willing to rank up in here.


With a Chronicle at D-rank, this person would hit B-rank smoothly with no bottlenecks. They only needed to accumulate stats. Not even a god would waste a genius like that on a place like this.


On the downside, that meant this person was strong enough to threaten me, and honestly might be even stronger than I was. I didn't believe they were more talented, but we were at similar levels, and they might be much further into D-rank.


The figure was silent for a moment, but eventually, they reached up to push back their hood to reveal…an elf. I'd met elves before, so that wasn't strange, but this particular elf had a different vibe. Her eyes were blood red, and her teeth were sharp and jagged, like a shark's. She seemed predatory, even violent, without actually doing anything to imply she was threatening us.


"Heathen," she said in a surprisingly melodic voice. "You have stolen from the gods. You will return that which you have taken, or you will meet your end. So states the Wild Hunt."


I triggered Mornax, pushing my defense up as high as I could get it. Just in case. "Firstly, I didn't steal anything. I was invited to the Fields of Strakkenthar, and I claimed my prize there in good faith. Secondly, I don't have those items anymore, so it wouldn't matter if I HAD stolen them, because I can't give them back."


She sighed, withdrawing a small bottle from a pouch at her side. "If you must continue down this path, I can only do as I have warned."


To my surprise, Bethy stepped in front of me. "I know what you are," she said in an uncharacteristically serious tone. "Heaven Murder Elf. I heard you were extinct. You're brutal, but you have a code. Is there really no other way to settle this?"


My blood went cold. Bethy sounded…worried. Genuinely nervous even. I'd never heard of a 'Heaven Murder Elf', but then, I'd never heard of lots of things. Especially stuff related to the vanished gods, who knew how long it had been buried in the annals of history. More than my own knowledge though, I trusted Bethy's instincts, and almost as importantly, I trusted my powers.


Murmur was still active right now. A stealth ability even C-rankers couldn't punch through, this D-ranked elf had penetrated with no fanfare. In fact, it had taken me a minute to realize she was even DOING it, because she was so casual I'd forgotten the fact that she wasn't supposed to be able to see us.


The elf stared at her. "Verdyn is the initiator of the Wild Hunt. Within the laws of this chase, we, his children, are entrusted with the sacred duty of pursuit. There is no surcease. No stay of execution. We must hunt. We ARE the hunt. And you are prey. I will allow you a moment to say your goodbyes, for once the final hunt is upon you, the only outcome is death."


Bethy stared hard at her, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It took me a moment to realize what the expression on her face was. It was sadness. She empathized with this person, and didn't want to have to hurt her.


I gathered Heaven Murder Elves were rare, probably almost unique at this point. Bethy was also unique, and probably felt some kinship with another blood focused species. Because the elf STANK of blood. It wafted off her in clouds, I felt like I was suffocating in an ocean of copper scented red.


"Shane," said Bethy in an oddly detached voice. "Don't interfere. I'll handle this." She focused on the girl. "You're a hunter, so you must understand how this works. In this world, the hunter is kind and the prey's life is in their hands. So if I beat you, that means I'm the superior hunter, and so you would belong to me. Is that correct?"


There was no romantic implication behind that question, even if the wording would normally have implied one. This wasn't a matter of romance, but of pure primal might. Survival of the fittest, the winner was king.


Bethy didn't like that kind of mindset, and while she would proclaim power over enemies sometimes for her own amusement, I doubted she was excited about the idea of claiming a subordinate like this. That said, I could see where she was going with this. While under normal circumstances, this situation would be a hopeless case of kill or be killed, we had some wiggle room here.


The elf was acting as a sort of huntmaster, a dedicated participant of the Wild Hunt. She must have information on the others, and even details on the hunt. If she was with us, we could question her. Moreover, I could sense through Dantalion the almost fanatical devotion she had to the construct of this hunt. She would honor the deal if she agreed to it. Her belief would allow nothing less.


The elf stared at Bethy for a moment, then nodded. "I will. Your logic is sound. Best me, and become my master, fail, and your souls will be handed over to my master. I warn you, the horrors of such an existence are beyond your imagining. Are you sure you don't wish to simply hand over the objects? I can even spare your lives."


"Like I said," I sighed. "I don't have them."


She nodded grimly. "Very well. Defend yourself, hunter, and shoulder the fate of your friends." Her hand blurred for the quiver on her back, and Bethy exploded into a wave of bats, and the battle was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bethy's bat swarm flowed across the surface of the island like a tide of living darkness. The eyes of every bat gleamed red as blood, and the only sound they made was the silent flap of dreadful wings as they eclipsed the sky, boiling down to whirl around the elf.


The elf's own eyes were glowing a brighter red, more ruby than blood, and her hand blurred as she plucked and fired arrow after arrow, aiming for the bats.


Within the swarm, I saw Bethy partially materialize, the edges of her form blurred like a ghost, her dress trailing off into smoky shadows as she stepped gracefully across the bats like a dancer leaping across a brilliant stage. Above us, the sky changed as the dirt of the island was replaced with lush black grass, Bethy's Domain unfolding above us like the backdrop lowering on a grand play.


Arrows sang through the air, some even managing to catch the bats, but to my surprise, on impact, they dispersed into smoke. Because Murmur was overlapping the Domain, I was able to use Dantalion to puzzle out what was happening.


Bethy WAS a swarm of bats, or parts of one, but there were more bats that there should be. About two of every three bats were illusory, confusion and doubt sown into the assault to disorient and mislead. Bethy herself conducted an unnatural orchestra of wing beats and slicing arrows as she drifted between the attacks.


Her eyes, while bloody, weren't cold or calculated. My purification during our fight had helped her, giving her a firmer base from which to work.


It was the duality of her nature. The Maenad was actually the stronger of her two bloodlines. Not because it was more powerful objectively, but because her strong physical form made the straightforward madness the most direct means of attack. The Vampire, conversely, leaned more toward finesse and precision.


Because of this, the more raw power she pulled, the further she fell into the bloodlust, and vice versa. The form she took when fighting me had been stronger in a direct fight, but I was infinitely more terrified of the brutal efficiency I was seeing now.


After my purification, however, the problem had been mitigated. She could pull more overt strength while maintaining control, maximizing her use of her power.


Bethy's claws cut the air, adding a high harmony to the low thump of wings beating air, and she drifted down into a long, sweeping dive, seeming to ride the wind like an ice dancer as she spun past the archer, fingernails gleaming as the lashed out at the elf.


The hunter hissed, her bow coming up to deflect, and there was a scream of tortured metal and wood as Bethy's fingers bit deep into the arch of the bow. Snarling, the elf dove forward, her shark teeth snapping as she lunged over the bow to attempt to savage Bethy's face with her bite.


She looked terrifying, and Bethy's diminutive fangs looked almost delicate in comparison as she flashed a dazzling smile, falling backwards, swept aloft on the wings of a hundred bats and carried out of reach of the attack.


From behind, a pair of massive black shapes exploded from the grass, and I had to blint to recognize Poptarts and Donuts, who had grown and mutated into something almost unrecognizable.


I wasn't sure if this was some kind of transformation or if this was their natural form now and Bethy made them shrink when they came out, but the Night Pride had become completely different beasts. The cats, formerly close to panthers, had grown and shifted, backs hunching and limbs thickening as their mouths spawned massive jagged fangs.


In a process that looked like some kind of primordial reversion, the two cats had become something akin to dark sabertooth tigers, easily the size of a small shuttle as they fell upon the archer, snarling and slashing.


The elf didn't panic, simply glancing over her shoulder…and then she was replaced by some kind of six armed bear creature, whirling to meet the two animals with an earthshaking roar, swatting them from the sky to smash heavily into the ground. Bethy, perched atop a platform of bats, frowned coldly, and flicked her fingers before the cats hit the ground, dispersing them into shadows to prevent them from being injured.


Glaring up at the Bethy, the elf ROARED, and I felt as much as saw her body…solidify. This wasn't just a shapeshift. This was a FORM. Not quite a pseudo Domain, more like Abel's Ragam Blood Body, but it was purpose built from dangerous skills and stably sitting on a Chronicle for support.


Bethy, face calm, stared down at the bear, and the flock of bats behind her spread out, erupting into smoke that manifested into a pair of absolutely colossal EYES in the air. Familiar red eyes I recognized in an instant.


I remembered a long time ago, Bethy telling me that her specialty wasn't brute force or raw power, but mental manipulation and hypnosis. The eyes blazed red, a wave of…something, erupting across the sky, and I had to sift through it because it wasn't aimed specifically at me, focused into a sort of cone to smash into the bear. And then, she opened her mouth, and began to sing.


The sky shifted, dimming so that the eyes were the only things visible, and images began to appear, projected into our minds by the bloody gaze of those heaven spanning pupils.


Emotions rolled through me as I watched a story play out. The story of a little girl who lived alone in a big dark castle. The only person she had in her world was her mother, an erratic but caring woman who would sometimes forget that she existed for stretches of time as she became obsessed with various projects.


Her mother painted, sang, wrote, and made many kinds of wine, but the little girl's favorite hobby was sewing. When her mother would sew, she would call the little girl to her room and teach her to stitch, creating beautiful dresses and outfits together.


But the sewing episodes became fewer and fewer, and the wine making more frequent, the mother losing herself in the process and madness of her craft. Until one day, a man arrived. He told the little girl he was her father, and that he was going to take her away. He was kind to her, but she still cried, wanting her mother.


She left the grand castle and didn't see her mother for many years. Her father raised her after that, indulging her and trying to make her happy. She realized that it made him sad to see her in pain, and learned to put on a happy face. He was a dour man, and rarely took joy in anything, but she was his favorite child, though he had many, because she was the only one who worried about his happiness.


Emotions tore across the surface of my mind, terror, loneliness, desperation, sorrow. Dark feelings that I could barely process. I triggered Leviathan, and I felt the subversive thoughts and emotions melt away under the heat of the mind cleansing fire.


When my head cleared, I found myself standing amidst a sea of statues. Or rather, standing among my frozen friends. Sighing, I reached out to Callie, gently pushing her to activate the Promethean Fire Soul Body. She did, and her eyes cleared as she turned to look up at Bethy, drifting in the sky in front of those massive red eyes.


Bethy looked calm, but Callie's cheeks were drenched with tears, and I felt the jagged bite of sympathy and heartbreak through the bond. I stepped up next to her, draping an arm over her shoulder. I understood. Bethy was an absolute master of hypnosis. She'd pulled us all into her own memories, though I suspected we'd only caught the edges of that attack.


Forced to undergo the deepest heartbreaks of Bethy's life, probably amplified for the elf, even my willpower had been starting to crack. We woke the others, having them all use the soul body to defend their minds. I think Bethy expected it to work passively, which it probably would have if the others had all had time to acclimate their techniques to their own Paths properly. As it was, only once we shook them awake did their eyes start to glow with the light of their power, showing they were protected.


There was a thump, and we all turned to see the bear collapse to its knees, and then melt into the familiar form of the elf with the ruby eyes, staring down at the ground with a lost and desolate expression, tears streaming from her eyes. All signs of resistance had vanished, in fact, all signs of anything had vanished, she looked like almost an empty shell.


Bethy appeared beside her, putting her arms around the hunter in a warm hug as she dropped her bow from boneless fingers, her gaze hollow as the Domain around us faded. I kept Murmur going, covering the whole thing up from start to finish.


"It's ok," cooed Bethy as the elf wept silently. "You're ok. You're just like me aren't you? You were all alone for such a long time. But you can stay with us. Life is so much more fun when it's full of friends."


It occurred to me that if we could see Bethy's life, maybe Bethy had seen the elf's. What had she watched in this hunter's head, to be so gentle with her?


But then, maybe that was just Bethy. My friend had one of the kindest hearts of anyone I'd ever met. She could be frustrating, goofy, obtuse, and even ruthless when she needed to be, but Bethy cared about her friends more than anything. It would be just like her to accept someone into her heart like that without too much resistance.


I didn't interrupt. This was clearly a personal moment, and if this elf was going to be part of our group now, questions could wait. We would get plenty of answers soon enough.


Somehow, I got the impression that this elf was going to fit in with us just fine. After all, we had people from plenty of different factions, what was one more. Vanished god worshipper or not, she seemed like she would be a great addition to our ranks. Not to mention with a Chronicle at D-rank, I could learn a lot from her. More importantly, she didn't seem like she'd had an easy life in the godworld. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like there, though seeing Bethy holding her, I imagined my Vampire friend had an idea.


It was a touching scene, and I was so focused on it, I didn't even notice the slight disturbance in the Murmur domain. Not until it was too late. I heard a scream, and my heart turned to ice as I whirled to find…something, wrapping around my wife's ankle.


Time seemed to stand still as I triggered my waltz, vanishing in a burst of black flame and appearing right in front of Callie, my hand reaching out for my wife. But despite my speed and focus, I wasn't fast enough. I stared into Callie's eyes in pure primordial terror as she was yanked violently from her feet and dragged across the ground, the tentacle that I could now see extending from the edge of the water almost a hundred feet away pulling her across the ground like a skater across ice.


I burst forward, chasing her, but the limb was too fast, too strong. I couldn't catch up, and I could only watch in horror as she hit the shore and was dragged into the endlessly churning black water, vanishing beneath the waves. I didn't think, didn't hesitate, didn't even slow down, I triggered Leviathan and dove headfirst into that terrifying abyss, following her down into the dark.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Below the waves, it was cold and dark. Even with my Leviathan domain, warmed by the fire of life and shielded by the Promethean Fire, I was still frozen, lost and afraid. I could sense the creatures in the water around me, watching, waiting. Beneath me, I felt Callie being dragged down, and I pushed forward, exploding through the depths in bursts of black fire.


My Perception stretched out into the surrounding water, I'd shut Murmur down before diving in, but I could still sense what was around me. The ocean here was awful. It yawned around me, so empty that it seemed ready to consume me whole, yet at the same time full of horrors.


I had the sensation of being inside the mouth of a horrible beast, plummeting down its throat, but wary of being snagged on sharp, gnashing teeth. But I ignored that, pushing on.


The deeper I went, the more pressure I felt, not just on my body, but on my soul. I blocked it all out, swimming, waltzing, pushing further. My wife was just below me, and she needed me. She was terrified, almost as scared as I was, and she was screaming in my head for help. I had to get to her.


My hand finally caught hers, and I started to get dragged down. I felt the absurd power of the sea, of the creature that had caught her, a C-ranked being, dragging us both down.


I reached out with Agares, desperately searching for the land, for earth. The ocean was suffocating and horrible. I needed land. Needed hard stone and dirt. I found it, and I shaped the dirt into dust, packing it densely into stone, glowing with the heat Afterburner, and the land reached down to grab us. A colossal hand wrapped around my body, grabbing my like a can of soda, squeezing me so tightly my armor groaned.


The descent stopped. I pulled, increasing the pressure, and Callie screamed. The hand trembled, stone cracking, and I snarled, reaching into myself for something else. Anything. I found what I needed. Mornax.


Rather than use it on myself, I imbued it into the hand. Into the earth itself. The giant fist gripping me BECAME Mornax, and the two abilities merged in my head to create a brand new domain. A domain of the earth, shaping indestructible rock into massive weapons of war and immutable forms. I called it, Behemoth.


As soon as it snapped into place, I felt the hand firm, and the grip became more intense. My armor groaned again, and I groaned with it, but I ignored that. Or rather, I used it. Gluttony followed Behemoth, three different domains all weighing me down at once, but I ignored that. Annihilation Engine absorbed the power of Gluttony, feeding me raw power, strengthening my body.


The tighter the fist squeezed, the more stable I became, and the stronger I was. Sammael was boosting everything, and for a moment, those three domains were enough, holding the C-ranked monster at bay.


And then, something changed. A hand, a humongous limb of condensed blood, breached the surface of the sea and plunged down to wrap around my own. No, not just wrap around, MERGE with. It took me a second to figure it out, but as soon as I did, I opened myself up to Abel's help, and the hands blended into a single cooperative technique.


I understood Abel's Ragam Blood Body well. I'd helped him adjust the Promethean Fire Soul Body to merge with it. It was a snap to shift my Behemoth hand to integrate it, and when I did, I felt POWER flood me.


My armor buckled, and I worried it might break. It didn't, but the sheer force of the hand was pouring power into me to the point of near collapse. I ignored that. My hand clutched Callie's, and my other one shot through the water, grabbing her shoulder. I pulled, with all the power of all my various enhancements, and she screamed again, breaking my heart.


I focused on the hand, on its connection to the earth, and on Callie's connection to me. I PULLED, shoving Mornax through the bond, and Callie's body became denser, stronger.


With her body reinforced, I was finally free to really start pulling. The hand around me squeezed mightily, and I screamed but focused on my arms, hauling with every ounce of power I could muster. Above me, I felt a new source of power pour into the hand. Something unfathomable and deep.


I realized it must be Bethy. As a Vampire, she could easily integrate into the Ragam Blood Body, and I had that reinforcing me. Slowly, ever so slowly, we began to rise. The combined strength of all three of us hauled on my body, and through me, my wife's form.


The tentacle resisted, hauling mightily, desperately trying to pull us down deeper…and that's when Callie struck. An explosion of condensed dark power erupted from her boot where it was aimed down at the horror in the depths of the sea. The anti nova, the inverted star, exploded outward with the force of the opposite of a thousand suns.


I felt as much as heard the scream from the monster below us as the technique roared out into the ocean, and the release of the pressure FLUNG us upward out of the ocean like a slingshot, hurling Callie and I up into the air like rockets as we broke the plane of the sea.


Which was probably a good thing, because Callie's anti nova…was a bit more effective than expected. Apparently some kind of synergy happened between the terrible energy in the depths of the ocean and the anti nova, because the attack lit the water up like oil, as we erupted from the ocean, a roar of cold and force accompanied us as the water was cavitated by a massive explosion, hurling us up even higher.


An earthshaking ROAR split the night, the beast from under the sea screeching in agony as it retreated. I spread my wings (a little rumpled at this point) and beat them once, swooping across the intervening distance to catch Callie gently. Once I had her, I glided smoothly down the ground, landing on the giant hand that had risen from the water and lowering us to the ground with it.


As I stepped off, I dispersed the stone, allowing it to blow away in the now whipping sea wind as it returned to dust. Callie lay in my arms, staring at the steaming water where the explosion had occurred with a dazed expression. I couldn't blame her, that explosion had been pretty jarring.


Based on my calculations, Callie couldn't possibly have managed an attack that powerful. Hell, I didn't think Abel could have managed an attack that powerful, and his instantaneous burst attacks were probably the strongest of our group. Rather, when Callie had used her anti nova, it had reacted with the energy in the water, amplifying the attack.


I waited for her to come out of it, but quickly realized that she seemed to have drifted into a special state. An epiphany. I grinned, setting her down. Closing my eyes and sitting beside her, I pulled her with me into the library, being careful not to disturb her. Once I was there, I passed her a book, and then sat down beside her to wait.


Before long, she started to write. The strokes were vague and insubstantial, like she was only half aware, but as she wrote, they deepened. She scrawled out her ability, then the Dance of the Abyssal Fairy, then the anti nova. Since she wasn't the owner of the library, she didn't have the same ability to reference other works that I did, at least not to the same extent. She had to write in all the important stuff as she went.


I wanted to let her resonate with the Ten Demons Tree, but my staff categorically refused to react to her enlightenment or even my prodding. Apparently the tree didn't connect with other people.


Still, I gave her access to Dantalion at least, hoping anything that gave her a boost might put her over the top. I was almost sure I knew what was happening, and I couldn't have been more excited. She continued to write, sketching out patterns from stats, not just writing out the details, but inscribing a detailed story. I wasn't sure whether it was Bethy's hypnosis or whatever she'd experienced down in the ocean that had triggered it, but the more I watched, the more certain I became.


Callie was forming her Solid Path. She had the accumulation. Plenty of technique research and experience, plenty of stats. She'd just needed to find something to trigger that last bit of inspiration.


When her power had reacted like that with the water, I'd known. That wasn't just a natural similarity. She'd connected to the Abyss, fundamentally changed by the energy down there, and her own Path had shifted to mirror that change. I'd have been worried about that if she wasn't in here, but I was able to help, gently correcting a few passages and removing some hidden dangers in her Path imagery as it was written.


She wrote for what felt like hours, and then, finally, she finished. But when she did, I realized that it didn't MATTER. She couldn't take the book back. Couldn't integrate a technique from the Library or directly use its power. I was a little disappointed, but she could still reference it if needed. It would provide some serious support when she was ready to form the Solid Path Herself.


Except, as I watched, she closed the book and it just vanished. The light of the tome shot forward, sinking into her head, and as it integrated, I felt something I hadn't before. The reason for this new ability.


Master Paired Duelling. I knew Callie would have the same Skill now. Our bond had been upgraded. As her face cleared, she turned to beam at me, the smile on her face radiant as she leaned forward to kiss me sweetly. My mask wasn't on at the moment, having been removed during the wait.


When she pulled back, I smiled down at her dopily. "Hey," I said dumbly.


She giggled, then leaned against me. "I formed my Solid Path," she told me proudly. "I mean, you knew that. But it's just amazing being able to see it in my stats. Path of the Abyssal Priestess. I don't…really know how to react to that."


"Something changed in the ocean," I nodded. "I don't know what, but you had some kind of breakthrough I think. You Path changed to align with the energy down there."


"Which is great," she said slowly, her face clouding. "Except I don't know WHAT exactly I'm on the path to be a priestess of. Not that…thing, I'm sure of it. But something else is down there. Something horrible and dark and vast. I could see it in my mind, staring into me. It WAS the Abyss, Shane, like empty nothingness made manifest. A yawning chasm in reality whose hunger never fades."


She was shaking, and I pulled her against me tightly. "It's fine, you're safe," I told her firmly. "You're on land, and you are absolutely NOT going near the shores again. But just to be safe, no entering the shadows here. It doesn't seem…wise."


I didn't like this new development, not at all. Something was in here with us. Something that wasn't a god. And it wanted my wife. In the Shoals, where the gods were locked out and couldn't help, we were defenseless against whatever it was. At least, in the water. Something about the candles held it at bay, kept us safe, and I was damned sure going to use that to my advantage.


As for Callie's new power…I wasn't sure what to make of it. We couldn't afford to throw away the strength she might be able to access now, but actively indulging it might be worse. I would call my grandmother in the morning to see what she thought. Until then, we retreated from the library, and I pulled my wife into my arms. She was with me, and she was safe, and that was all that mattered for now.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"That was fucking crazy," Abel gasped as he thumped down next to us. "What WAS that? It was so FAST." I couldn't tell if he was terrified or excited (though knowing Abel I was betting on the latter). Bethy was right behind him, and the as of yet unnamed elf hunter trailed behind her silently, face stoic and no sign of her former distress.


My vampire friend was scanning the waterline, clearly on the lookout for followup attacks, which I completely understood. I was still pissed I'd been taken by surprise. My Danger Sense hadn't picked anything up because the danger was aimed at Callie and not me, which was a HUGE flaw in the skill that needed to be addressed if possible.


I triggered Murmur, letting all the other domains fall away now that I was safe. With the Citizen nearby, I didn't trust my conversation not to be overheard. The others got up to give us some space, and I focused on erasing all trace of Callie and I. Once we were covered, I pulled out the mirror and breathed on the surface, wiping it clean.


My mother's face appeared almost instantly. "Shane? Are you ok? We weren't expecting to hear back so soon, did something happen?"


I sighed, then explained everything we'd just been through. There was a surprising amount to go over in such a short time, and by the time I finished, my mother's face was stormy. She looked ready to break down the spatial barrier and charge the dungeon.


Suddenly, she was gone, and I saw my grandmother in the mirror. She'd snatched the device from my mother, and her face was as calm as ever. "Shane? Put Calliope on." I shrugged, handing the mirror to my wife, and my grandmother's expression became conflicted. " Tell me in your own words exactly what you experienced. Don't hold anything back."


Callie repeated what I'd said, but she also described her own understanding of whatever was waiting in the dark water. I hadn't perceived it like she had, because I had no connection to it, but when she finished, my grandmother looked genuinely worried for maybe the first time since I'd met her.


"That's…very bad," she looked over her shoulder. "Ok, these incidents are getting out of control. I know he's thrice godspawned, but this level of fate collision is absurd. You need to talk to Judgement to see if there's a way to offset some of it."


He grimaced. "It is a bit extreme. What are the chances the dungeon would be Voidtouched? At least it's probably just a shard."


"Guys, information, we need it," I said bluntly. "Is Callie in danger?"


My grandmother waggled a hand. "Yes and no. It's not immediate, especially with your help. I imagine it was trying to force her to create a bond with it through the Solid Path. Similar to your bond with her, or Jessie's bond with Randall. She already has one though, and it seems like it shielded her. You pruned most of the influence from the Solid Path too, so it wasn't able to anchor firmly."


"WHAT wasn't able to anchor?" I demanded. "What the hell is down there."


My grandfather responded solemnly. "Void Children. Or rather, probably just the one. You know about the void, right? The negative spatial dimension that overlays our reality? Godworlds, some dungeons, pocket spaces, even spatially expanded buildings to an extent. These things are all in the void. They have stable connections to our universe, which anchors them. But not everything in the void comes from here."


"Void Children?" I asked. "Why doesn't that fill me with terror like I suspect you intended."


"Probably because you're scaling them wrong," he said bluntly. "The void is infinite and all devouring. Its spawn are equally massive. We don't actually know how or why they form, but they tend to absorb ambient recursion that seeps through the void in places with lots of spatial weight. Godworlds, for instance, often influence nearby Void Children. THey're a chaotic mishmash of powerful recursion and horribly alien material, and they are categorically insane, at least by our standards. Void Children do one thing. Consume. They're like whales, if whales were carnivorous and hated everything."


I clenched my hand around my wife's. "So why is after Callie?" I demanded. "She's a D-ranker, if this thing is some sort of immense all consuming void monster, she shouldn't even be a snack. No offense, love."


"None taken," she said dryly. "I have no interest in being appetizing to an eldritch hate monster."


"Void Children have a lot of trouble reaching into our world," my grandmother explained. "Their nature is anathema to the positive universe. It's kind of…corrosive. Turns people insane, warps the landscape, that kind of thing. In order to operate between dimensions, they often choose priests with one foot in the void. Avatars for their will and power. It can grant incredible abilities, but often comes at a steep price."


I thought about the teleporter I'd met, the one who could stride the void to reach the Godworlds directly. Was he a void priest? Did the vanished gods have some kind of arrangement with the Void Children?


Pulling the mirror out of Callie's shaking hands, I faced my grandparents, telling them about my experience. I'd mentioned most of what happened at Rackham, but the teleportation hadn't been something I focused on. I'd mentioned they had a powerful teleporter, but the void explanation had been technical jargon I hadn't felt the need to repeat.


They looked worried. My grandmother especially. "That's… I'll call my father. If there are void touched among the vanished gods' forces, he needs to know about it. Luckily my mother got her hands on that Inkstone. Her Enshrining Darkness has a suppressive effect on void entities. Speaking of which, you should think about teaching your Sammael form to Calliope, or at least some version of it. It should help negate some of the void influence from that Solid Path. Although…I don't actually know what mixing those two elements will do. I imagine it will be difficult to manage, but it might yield interesting results."


"I can…try? I guess," I said slowly. "I'm not sure she can learn it without the staff art, and teaching her the whole thing would be difficult. At least in any reasonable amount of time. Too much to focus on."


Callie looked pensive. "What if we don't?" she said slowly. "What if we use the method you used with Jessie? I could wish for a catalyst that will help me attain the Sammael racial trait. We have proof of concept for both, melding them together should be doable. Your Wish power can do anything it has the stats for, and triple your stats is…well, not the peak of D-rank, but most of the way there."


I hadn't even considered that. Normally I'd be worried, since racial traits weren't supposed to be able to reach godhood, but I knew from Bethy's example that you could do it if you built your Domain properly. It involved lots of complicated concepts I had no clue about, I was sure, but since it was doable, I was confident I could do it eventually.


"Not yet," my grandmother warned. "You need to balance the structures. You won't be able to neutralize the void influence if the two forces aren't equal. If one of them overtakes and consumes the other, it would be a disaster. Which means you need to merge them as completely equal influences. Racial traits replace abilities. Calliope only has one, which means to successfully merge the two, her Solid Path needs to be part of her ability first."


I nodded slowly. I could see what she meant. In order to form a Chronicle, you needed to merge your Solid Path with your ability. It was the next step after forming a Solid Path, usually done during late C-rank in preparation for forming your Chronicle before breaking through to B.


Originally, this would have been impossible without talent like mine, but since Callie had limited access to my library, and her Solid Path was even created there, I was sure we could manage it. That would also give me more time to increase my stats in preparation for the wish for the catalyst, and even to study Sammael and adapt Callie's Solid Path to mesh with it more stably.


I was sure that with the Wisdom of Solomon, I could create a perfect version of Sammael for Callie, one that would even surpass the original. By the time we finished with her new racial trait, she might even surpass Bethy in terms of raw power.


Which reminded me that I needed to work with Bethy on this. And the angels. I didn't know NEARLY enough about racial traits. Only the fact that I created Sammael myself made me even slightly confident in attempting this. Not creating the permanent trait, the wish power would do that, but balancing the Solid Path before integrating it.


Because my wife's life was at stake, I didn't hold back either. I peppered my grandparents with questions, exploring several aspects of technique creation I had been curious about, trying my best to shore up my lacking theoretical foundations.


I was a natural prodigy with techniques, but prodigies do things by feel and instinct. Creating a form or a pseudo Domain was one thing, but this was going to be integrated into a racial trait that would permanently change Callie in ways we couldn't predict. Sadly, it seemed like this was going to be a long term project.


Aside from the fact that Callie needed to acclimate to her Solid Path, and that I wanted to comb through it to try to double check for Void Child influence, I needed to wait for the Ten Demons Tree to recover before using the Wisdom of Solomon again.


Finally, after I had stalled and waffled so much trying to put off disconnecting that even I was becoming aware of it, I thanked my mom and grandparents and dismissed the mirror image. I sighed as I put it away, glancing at Callie worriedly.


She smiled back, unafraid. "Hey, don't look so gloomy. You better work your ass off, or when I get my new racial trait I'll leave you in the dust. Your Sammael form is pretty cool, but you don't have VOID powers." Despite her upbeat tone, I could sense worry through the bond. We had a solution to this problem, but she was still stuck in here with a Void Child who had partially influenced her path.


I swept her up in my arms, earning a squeak as I walked her purposefully away from the shore. "Don't worry about that," I winked at her. "I always come up with something. I haven't even made a domain with Sammael yet. Plus I've been thinking, and I want to try to integrate that green candle flame into Leviathan."


My soul defense form was perfect for resisting void influence, based on the interactions with the mist here. Plus, I'd been developing too quickly. Too many new powers and abilities. I needed to stop and shore up what I had. Reinforcing Leviathan, testing out Behemoth, working on Callie's Solid Path. I had a lot of catching up to do to make sure I could use my resources well given how many new tricks I had.


Callie laughed, snuggling into my chest. Not at what I'd said, but at the sensation of me getting lost in my work. She could feel where my head was, and I could feel how much she loved me for it. I was a giant nerd, but I was HER nerd.


We rejoined the others, and the Citizen gave us an odd look, which I ignored because I didn't give a shit what he thought, and we headed across the island, aiming for the next walkway. We stayed in the center, only approaching the water at the walkway entrance where the candles could cover us, and with our safety assured, we resumed the trip to Ironreach. Once we got there, I was renting a damned hotel room, and actually SLEEPING there. I fucking hated road trips.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We took the trip to Ironreach slow. I was concerned about being noticed now, not just by the godchildren, but possibly by the Void Child too. I had faith in the candles (because realistically what could I do if they didn't work?) but I decided to be cautious. Slowing down meant more time to process each area with Murmur, which meant better stealth.


While we walked, I left Callie to her own devices and hung back to talk to someone else I'd been worried about…my apprentice. Bella looked tired, if excited, but I could see a bit of fear in her eyes.


Thinking about it, Bella had been through a lot. From being a casual bandit on Rackham to storming a dangerous dungeon, the hits had just kept coming for her. I slowed down to stroll next to her, not bothering to say anything, just letting her get her thoughts in order to decide what she wanted to say, if anything.


"Is it always like this?" she eventually asked. "Being…powerful? I mean, these people are scary. Seeing you and those other two fight back at that village, I've never seen anything like that. One the one hand it's amazing, knowing I might reach that point, but on the other, I feel like this water is too deep for me, if you'll excuse the pun."


I chuckled. "You know the trick to surviving in deep water?" I asked her wryly. She shook her head. "Be a shark. Ascendants are a lot like sharks. If you don't move forward, you might not move at all. In my experience, growing as an Ascendant is about momentum. Seize the initiative, then keep it. Show you're amazing, then use the power from that demonstration to be even MORE amazing."


"Master," she said in exasperation. "No offense, but I'm not sure you can give me reasonable advice on this. You and your friends are all monsters."


"All great Ascendants are monsters," I told her bluntly. "Some of them are polite, or kind, are fun, but they're all creatures that are no longer humans. Normal people don't become high rankers. My Uncle gave me this same speech when I was younger, and I didn't really fully grasp it until now. Teaching really is the best way to learn, I guess. I thought he was warning me that becoming powerful would change me, but he was also saying I'd have to change to become powerful."


She cocked her head in confusion. "Master, you just said the same thing twice."


"No," I laughed. "It just sounded like it. What I mean isn't that normal people can't adapt to the process, it's that normal people don't even have the right state of mind to attempt it. It takes a special kind of monster to cultivate the mindset of a high ranker, and you have to have that mindset to get there. You can't think of yourself in comparison to most people, or other people. You have to compare yourself to the limits of what you can imagine.


"Don't ask 'am I as strong as this guy in front of me?', ask, 'am I as strong as the strongest guy who has ever BEEN in front of me?' Find the limit of what you think you can achieve and push past it," I continued with enthusiasm. "Because if you can surpass your limits for just a moment, and someone else hears about it, your new limit will be even further. That's the nature of being a living legend."


She looked…energized. I was happy to see my speech had helped, at least a bit. It was one of my better speeches as a teacher, I think, and I wondered if Zeke had felt the same mixture of pride and expectation when he gave me his version of this speech.


"Anyway, I want to do a bit of training while we travel," I told her cheerfully. "Nothing directly combative, just some control exercises. Want to join me? I THINK I might be able to help you learn one of my established techniques now." I was planning to try to teach her 'Extinction Event' since I had such a good grasp on it. Beyond that, I had some ideas for how to improve it myself, or at least my control over it.


Honestly, I was expanding my repertoire too damned fast. I needed to start over. Slowly refine each step of my process, and start trying to integrate them into a larger combat system. Once I did that, I could figure out what I was missing, and skew my future domains to cover those weaknesses.


My pseudo Domains were all strong, and varied, but just like I could integrate skills and techniques into the domains themselves, I should be able to integrate THEM into larger 'demi-domains'. Of course, that was just adding more complexity for the moment, I would look into it once I managed to master the abilities I currently had. I knew there was a lot of room for improvement with what I could do, especially with the staff.


Bella nodded excitedly, and I held a hand out. "This," I told her solemnly. "Is Extinction Event. It's a powerful instantaneous combat technique, relying on the principles of explosion and annihilation." I explained the mechanics and imagery of the Extinction Event. "The foundation of this move is the black flame of Mephistopheles. Since you've come into contact with that, and have the Skill for it, you should be able to use this technique, much like you were able to learn a version of my Waltz."


Or rather, Supernova Step, my mother's technique that I based it off of. But the logic held up. She could use Mephistopheles, at least momentarily, so she should be able to create the event.


"Now, beyond instinctual power release, I'm also planning to refine my control." I focused, and in my palm, an orb of annihilation the size of a pinhead appeared. I locked it down with my willpower, then started to expand and contract it. One moment it was the size of a pea, then a baseball, then a pin again. I varied the speed, the intensity, I even slightly altered the shape. I gave Bella ample time to study and perceive it as I worked.


It was hard. I hadn't expected to run into this kind of a challenge, thinking my willpower and soul were both more than up to any challenge. But it turned out while my raw power with techniques was pretty much at its peak, and kept climbing, my finesse had lagged behind. Automating the Skill with the library hadn't helped, even if it hadn't hurt as much as I might once have assumed.


This was more…technical. Like Callie had said before, it was like muscle memory, but now I was learning to control exactly how that muscle flexed when I was paying attention. I focused on the Event. Larger, smaller, shaping in patterns. Bella watched, entranced as I turned the dark sphere into a star, a pyramid, and a few other very basic geometric shapes.


It was an odd sensation. It felt draining, but not on my soul, really. At least not the same way as I usually felt soul strain. I'd experienced something like it during training once before, but it was so long ago I couldn't remember the exact instance.


After about ten minutes, Bella got a determined look on her face, coming to a stop. I did the same, though I also triggered Mornax, just in case. The others kept going for a bit, then stopped and turned around. "I think I've got it master!' Bella said solemnly. "Stand back! I'm going to use Extinction Event!"


I didn't stand back. I was in Sammael and Mornax at the same time, not to mention wearing C-rank armor. She couldn't have moved me with a D-rank forklift.


She held out her hand, palm up, and STARED. And stared. And stared. Her face turned red, cheeks puffing up and sweat beading on her forehead. Nothing happened. She growled, then removed her staff from storage and started practicing the Mephistopheles stance, moving slowly through the motions as she tried to find the headspace.


That made sense. She couldn't use the forms naturally, so needing to perform the stance in order to execute the technique was understandable.


She moved slowly, feeling it out, and then, finally, she lashed out with a thrust and yelled…and a small hayseed sized black sphere appeared at the end. My hand snapped out, wrapping around the staff as I slammed my will down on her technique. I'd created it, and the form she was using to channel it, and I could just FEEL the energy. I held it in place, then glanced up at her. "Alright, you've got it, now reel it in. Give me some more power."


Nodding tightly, she growled, eyes narrowing as she poured her will into the staff. I was holding the technique in place, something I had no idea I could DO before this, but I suspected had something to do with the library and the tome containing Extinction Event. It was something to look into later, at any rate.


I felt her will flow through the technique, and I let it, just maintaining the shape. I was pretty sure she could have wrested it away from me with almost no effort, this was only working because she was allowing it, but it was still amazingly useful.


As I watched, the hayseed sized black sphere began to grow. First to grape size. Then to a golfball, then finally to the size of a small plum. It stopped there, and I had to hold it together because Bella's will was getting shaky. Then, just like she'd seen me do, she pulled back on it, shrinking the orb.


It was slow, and irregular, and the shape wavered in a way that was obviously unintentional. But it happened. She flexed the willpower in the technique, altering it and slowly controlling it until finally, she fell backwards.


I released the technique, but not the staff, using the stick to catch her and pull her back up to her feet. She wobbled a bit, but I clapped her on the shoulder proudly. "That was fantastic Bella! You got it! Do you think you can do that again? Once you recover I mean, don't try it now. How does your soul feel?"


"Sore," she groaned, rubbing her temples as she put away the staff. "That was really hard. I saw a lot of weird stuff."


"Not surprising," I said, waving her off. "But you didn't answer. Can you do that again?"


She paused, thinking it over, then nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I think I can. It'll take a lot of practice, but I think I can do it. I think my Goetia Staff Art improved too. It didn't rank up, but it improved. Maybe that's how I'm supposed to train it? Learn to use the energy outside of the stances. Do you think I'll eventually be able to use the forms like you can?"


We walked back to join the others as we talked. "I suspect you will," I confirmed. "At the very least, there's a bunch of ranks of the staff art to go. I can't imagine at the Grandmaster rank you won't be able to tap into the forms manually."


I wondered if she could REACH that rank right now. I'd made the Skill, but it was a genuine part of the system now. Whatever that meant. If other people could learn it, could they surpass me? Or would they be stuck until I ranked up and paved the way? It was a fascinating subject, and one I'd be looking forward to studying…in the future.


But for now, I had other things to worry about. Like the giant collection of black metal towers jutting into the sky off in the distance. I'd already asked the Citizen about it, so I wasn't surprised by their appearance. We'd arrived at our destination. We'd officially made it to Ironreach.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Unlike the last city, the gate guards at Ironreach didn't make things hard for us. The Citizen was clearly well known here, and when he brought us to the gate, they let us right through. Once we entered though, I noticed things were different than expected.


Based on his descriptions and his general demeanor, I assumed Ironreach would be lively and bustling. It WAS pretty packed with people, but it wasn't loud or energetic. Everyone walked quickly and silently, eyes trained on the ground as if afraid to catch a glimpse of something they didn't want to see.


I frowned at the Citizen. "Is this how it normally is? I was expecting more…just more. This is weird and grim."


He shook his head, brow furrowed as he scanned the streets. "No. This is strange. Ironreach is a rowdy place. Something is wrong. Come on, I need to go see a friend." He paused. "Unless you think this was enough?"


"You're a guide," I said dryly. "Guide us."


He chuckled distractedly and then led us further into the city. We eventually came to a stop outside of a small building. It was a noodle shop, apparently, basically a stand with a roof and a front wall. He pushed the door open, then strode up to the counter. "I'll have a number thirteen with extra peppers, and thirty seven degree twist."


The girl behind the counter, who looked so bored I thought she might have been asleep, looked up fuzzily. "Ah, right." She hit a button and the counter popped up, opening a path into the back. We walked through the kitchen, reaching a staircase with a sign beside it. It simply said 'Inverted Heaven.'


Without pausing, the Citizen opened the door, gestured for us to go ahead, and we all piled down the stairs, coming out in some kind of…gambling parlor? Everyone was playing a strange game involving symbol covered butterflies and a remote controlled toad. Technology here wasn't exactly medieval, but it was definitely eclectic. The designs were very old fashioned, and the toad was made of dark metal with lots of gears.


The Citizen ignored it, walking through the parlor until he reached the back and knocked on a screen door. There was a pause, and then it slid open. "I'm here to see Caladwen," he told the towering mountain of muscle on the other side.


Glowering down at him for a moment, the man nodded, then slid the screen closed. After two minutes he came back, opened the screen, and stepped away.


We were escorted back to into a spacious antechamber, where a blonde woman with bright green eyes reclined on a couch, reading a book. "Tag!" She said brightly as she sat up. "So good to see you! You didn't say you were coming."


The Citizen (Tag I suppose) shrugged. "I wasn't planning on it, but things just kind of worked out this way. Sorry to disturb you Cal, but I had some questions about…well about a lot of things. What the hell is going in Ironreach? Everyone is so quiet and reserved. This can't be natural. Your sister must have some idea what's causing this, why hasn't she stopped it?"


"Dez is…busy," she said grimly. "There's been an infiltration from the Deepchild Collective. The organization isn't TECHNICALLY illegal, because no one can prove they're connected to the Pale Men, even if we all know it. One of their priests has been causing trouble, and he's here with the backing of Algenclave, so Dez can't just kill him."


He blinked in surprise. "Algenclave? I thought he was dead. Didn't he vanish like twenty years ago?"


"He did, and now he's back," she shrugged. "He killed Zelgar over in Shadowcrack and took over the city. He's been pressuring Dez for the last few months, sending his Mistwardens to "patrol" Ironreach territory, collecting taxes from our villages, and a dozen other little things he can claim are misunderstandings but everyone knows are blatant provocation."


I stepped forward. "Hi, sorry, don't mean to interrupt, but what exactly are you guys talking about? This is fascinating, don't get me wrong, but I've got things."


Tag snorted. "Sorry, where are my manners. Caladwen Renfroe is Dezcarta's sister. She's also a powerful force in the city. This is Solomon, he's looking for some friends of his in the local area. We were planning to ask Dez, but maybe you've heard something."


I gave her a detailed description of everyone, and she shook her head. "Like I said, we've been busy. I'll ask around, but Dez would probably have a better idea. I just don't know if you can get in to see her. Algenclave has been applying lots of pressure, and slipping this priest in has made it all worst. He's been ministering, doing charity, and all sorts of other things that seem harmless but are almost definitely brainwashing."


Glancing at Callie, I exchanged worried looks with my wife. I refused to believe that the 'Deepchild Collective' wasn't in some way involved with the Void Child, especially given the stated connection to the Pale Men. This priest showing up here might have something to do with Callie, or with my friends, or might just be the usual Ascendant bullshit making our lives difficult, but whatever the case, it was almost definitely going to drag us into a mess.


So I decided to be proactive. "What if we look into it for you?" I offered. "No one here knows us. I infiltrate the Deepchild Collective's organization and feed you info, and in exchange you search for my friends with your local connections."


She raised an eyebrow at me. "And what makes you qualified to do that? I don't know you, you might be a total weakling. Maybe you'll just get murdered the second you step in the door."


"Maybe," I agreed cheerfully. "But what does that have to do with you? No me means no deal, which means you don't have to investigate. And like you said, you don't know me, so it won't matter much to you if I die."


Staring at me for a minute, she burst out laughing. "Well, I suppose that's true. I like this kid. Fine. You infiltrate the Deepchild Collective, we investigate and try to find traces of your friends. You have a deal. When can you start?"


I shrugged. "Depends what I'm doing. I need to know more about them, where their bases are in the city, how they interact with people around them. If they're looking for geniuses I can just roll up and offer to join, if they're low profile I might need to wait for them to notice me. I need to know what I'm dealing with."


Actually, I was pretty sure I could find a breakthrough point just from investigating with Murmur or Dantalion, but casing places like that took a while, and I didn't have the time. Between the Void Child and the godchildren, without even mentioning the local forces, my friends were in extreme danger. And now Callie had attracted the attention of that THING in the ocean, and I wasn't able to do anything to fix it yet.


I felt like I was suffocating, surrounded by enemies on all sides. I'd been honest with Bella earlier, when I gave her that speech about being a shark, but I was also putting on a brave face for my disciple. In reality, I wasn't sure we could all get through this, and the worse it got the more afraid I was that one of the people I brought here would die and it would be all my fault.


My own life was…not irrelevant, but less important. If I died, I died. I wouldn't be around to worry about it. I'd never have let that thought pass through my head if Callie could hear it, but it was true. The danger and pain I'd been through had almost ground away my fear of death. Could dying hurt more than being burned alive with ego fire? Than the falls? The idea of being killed just couldn't move me anymore.


But watching my loved ones die. No amount of soul refinement, training, or mental polishing would ever make that anything but terrifying. If I had to see Callie killed, or Benny, or even Abel…I didn't know what I would do. I suspected it would be violent and very drastic.


So I needed to be proactive. Find the answers ahead of time. And this priest was a servant of the Void Child, so he should have information. That was the real reason I'd volunteered for this. I could see Callie staring at me, and I knew she was worrying. She would be aware of what I was doing, and while she couldn't exactly get mad that I was putting myself at risk for my own wife, I knew she wasn't happy because she would have already figured out that I couldn't let her come with me.


With her current connection to the Void Child, it would be too risky to expose her to one of its servants, even if we didn't have rock solid confirmation.


I spent the next hour talking to Caladwen while the rest of my group decided to test out the game being played in the parlor. Based on the yells and cheers the few times the door opened, Bethy was apparently really good at it, or was possibly cheating. Regardless, hearing them so carefree really helped me calm down, and the warm feelings of support through my bond with Callie didn't hurt either.


Caladawen was straightforward and helpful, of course. I was going to take care of her enemy for her, or at least give her the keys to doing it herself, so she would naturally do her best to be helpful.


Speaking of which, I wasn't sure how this would work out. Would I have to fight the priest? And if I did, would that C-ranker (I was assuming) they'd mentioned come after me. I wanted to avoid that if possible, obviously. If it WASN'T possible…well, I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, for the moment I just needed to know the exact stipulations of the agreement, so that was what I asked.


Caladwen hummed, considering the terms. "I'd say I need you to at least give me evidence of foul play. What that is, I'll leave up to you, but if you can prove he's corrupting the minds of the citizens with an ability, that should be enough. Sacrifices are also an acceptable excuse, or experimentation. I don't know what the Deepchild Collective actually DOES, just that I don't want them doing it here."


I couldn't help but laugh at that. It was nice to deal with someone who didn't mince words. Not that most of my friends did, but too many Ascendants leaned hard into the PR and reputation aspects of building their legend. People like Abel who let their fists do the talking were rare, and meeting another one was definitely a good thing.


"Anyway, your entry point will be the Broken Song Ministry. It's a shelter the priest set up in Old Town. Anyone can come there for a meal or a place to sleep. He also hires "guards" to keep the peace, but everyone knows its an excuse to recruit a private army in Ironreach without violating town law."


I nodded. "I can work with that. I doubt I'll run into anyone I know there." I couldn't seer the high and mighty godchildren stopping at a shelter, and while I would definitely investigate, I wasn't planning on causing trouble there either. I would apply to be a guard, then use Dantalion to gather info, possibly slipping into the deeper parts of the base if they existed. I assumed so, Ascendants loved secret passages and hidden chambers.


With the agreement made, I decided to get some extra insurance. I wrote out a contract and we both signed it. Once that was done, I headed out of the parlor, leaving my friends to enjoy themselves. I would be less noticeable alone, especially without my mask. I didn't plan for this to take too long, after all. No one who might be a threat to my life was going to have it easy with me looking into them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I had to borrow some clothes. Removing my mask made me stand out less, but being a baby faced six four behemoth in a thick suit of pitch black plate mail was still really attention grabbing. I snagged a set of…well, kind of old fashioned clothes from Caladwen before leaving, stowing my armor in my ring, and then set out toward the ministry.


Arriving at the ministry, I queued up for entry, but when I reached the door, I didn't follow the greeter in to be given a meal or a bed. "Hello, I'm here about the security position," I told him cheerfully. "I'm…Wayne. Wayne Shyndham."


The pause between the beginning of the sentence and my fake name wasn't long, so the greeter didn't notice it. I was relieved no one from my group was here, because that was the worst fake name I could have possibly come up with. In my defense, I hadn't ever needed a fake name outside of my costume, so I hadn't ever put much thought into it.


"Welcome!' Said the pale young man. "You certainly seem like a strapping lad, I'll take you to see Father Abraham. He'll be so happy to have another applicant. Security positions are tough to fill around here. Most of those skilled in combat choose to take the wrong path, joining thise unsavory organizations that oppress the common people. Or the city guard, of course, we would never dream of slandering Lady Dezcarta."


His tone, still cheerful, made it clear that he definitely WOULD dream of that, and was in fact doing it at this very moment, just in the politest way possible. He chattered casually to me as he escorted me down the corridor that split off from the side of the large hall where the meals were being served.


After walking for about fifteen minutes, we came to a worn wooden door. The greeter knocked, and a smooth, charismatic voice rang out. "Enter."


Pushing the door open, the greeter stuck his head inside. "Father Abraham? We have another security applicant?" He ushered me inside. "This is Mr. Wayne Shyndham, he heard about us from…" he paused. "Sorry, I was so excited I didn't ask. Who mentioned our job opening?"


"Ted," I told him vaguely. "From the shop. And just call me Wayne. Please." I tried not to sound like I was begging. I really didn't want them addressing me by my terrible spur of the moment last name. "I'm trained in martial arts. I use a club. I'm not sure if that helps or hurts me, but I wanted to be up front."


While something like a spear or sword would be incompatible with my staff art, a club should be mostly fine. I actually HAD used short wooden sticks early in my journey, so I had a bit of familiarity with them.


Father Abraham chuckled. "An honest man, what a rare commodity. Please, take a seat." He gestured to the chair across the desk from him. "I assure you, any weapon proficiency is more than expected. All I require is dedication and an open mind. Do you consider yourself open minded, Wayne?"


Father Abraham was not what I expected. He was tall and intense, with a square jaw and symmetrical, pleasant features. He looked like an honest, upbeat person, with intense amber eyes and a wide grin that invited you to smile along. Despite his clearly cultivated image of reassuring welcome, I felt my Danger Sense tingling slightly. He couldn't hurt me, but he didn't have good intentions.


"I'd say I'm open to new ideas," I hedged. Contrary to popular opinion, acting like a sycophant wasn't the best way to gain someone's trust. People valued things they had to work for. I had enough experience with infiltration to know my best move was to be cautious and let him 'win me over'.


This would also allow me to keep my guard up. I triggered my Promethean Fire Soul Body, keeping the outward signs of it suppressed so my eyes didn't start randomly glowing as I took my seat across from the priest.


"And cautious too," he said approvingly. "That's wise. People who just believe whatever they're told are wonderful parishioners, but they don't make good LEADERS. I think you've got the makings of a fine leader, Wayne. Would that be interesting to you? I can see you've had some fortunate opportunities, and I bet you're excited for your talents to be recognized."


He was talking about my Impact. I hadn't hid it, mostly because I knew being a cut above everyone else was a good in. Opportunities to boost Impact were RARE, but they existed. The Shoals was a big place, and not having seen every impressive person was natural. Obviously, Abraham was interested in recruiting someone who would always be just a bit better than everyone else.


Of course, he was also blatantly manipulating me. My great grandmother was a cult leader, so I was pretty familiar with this kind of thing. I'd done more than a bit of research on the kinds of tactics people like him used to recruit.


Still, it was as good an in as any. I hesitated, but let my face show a hint of eagerness. "You really think so? I mean, I've never led anything before. What exactly would you want me to do for this leadership position?"


"Nothing strenuous," he chuckled. "You'll be responsible for driving off unsavory elements, protecting our parishioners, that sort of thing. Of course, you'll also need to enforce internal discipline within the security force. Sometimes outsiders can be a bit…obtuse. When those outside the flock don't understand their role, a good leader knows to remind them of their place. Don't worry, I'll be happy to help you get started."


I suppressed a grimace. That sounded a lot like hazing, turned up to eleven. I suspected he was hoping that giving me power over others and pushing me to abuse it would isolate me, forcing me to rely on him more. He was clearly VERY interested in my Impact.


"That doesn't sound too hard," I said slowly. "Are you sure the lack of experience won't be a problem? I don't want to cause tension coming in unqualified. I came here for an entry level position, but being hired as a leader right out the gate might upset some people."


"The Deepchild provides opportunities for all his followers," he said serenely. "Even if yours might arrive earlier, the others need only have faith that their time will come."


I highly doubted the abomination living in that ocean gave a shit about who was 'following' him, at least aside from people like Abraham, but I nodded seriously, pretending to correct my mindset.


As he spoke, I felt…something. Some kind of gentle pressure probing my mind. Nothing as overt as a touch, but like a sort of pervasive mist coiling around me, looking for a way in. Specifically, the same mist I'd felt from the ocean outside. Except this was much fainter, and much purer. It was obviously higher quality than the stuff being driven off by the candles.


My Promethean Fire Soul Body, of course, melted it all before it got close, but I could sense him layering it into his speech in a strangely hypnotic way. I wasn't sure what Abraham's ability was, but the assumptions of brainwashing were dead on.


Caladwen wanted evidence though. No one would be able to sense this except me, at least not unless he tried to directly influence them. If it was that easy they would have done it themselves by now. So I smiled gratefully, bowed my head, and followed the greeter (whose name was Simon) out into the hallway and further back into the ministry.


"So you can sleep here, of course," Simon chattered as we walked. "We have separate bunks for security, but we naturally supply our own people with the same opportunities we grant to others. Free food, lodging, and an additional stipend of bone coins based on performance."


I wasn't sure what 'performance' I was supposed to have. Or for that matter why they needed a whole security force to stop people from stealing basic food supplies from the needy. Whatever the excuse was, it was clearly a pretense to build a private army, but I didn't even know what the pretense itself was.


We arrived at another door, this one a metal security door bolted together with rivets. Rather than knock, Simon just pushed it open, stepping an ahead of me and clearing his throat.


The area inside looked like some kind of bunker. An arched rock ceiling, beds lining the walls, dirt floors, and not much else. When Simon entered and coughed, everyone in the beds jumped up to attention, all of them looking terrified as if they'd been caught doing something unforgivable.


"Preston, Felix, I saw you two over there reading," reproved Simon gently. "Do I need to tell the father about this?"


Two of the men went deathly pale. "No, of course not Simon!" he said quickly. "You're just joking, right? I know you always look out for us. Here, I'll give you my stipend for the month, for being such a good friend."


The other one nodded. "Of course, Preston is right, you always look out for us, you deserve a reward."


Simon, pale and fragile looking, smiled happily, his eyes looking hard and out of place as he gloated. "Well, it's nice that you realize how much I do for you. It would be rude to turn down your good intentions. I suppose I can accept your reward. But don't let me catch you doing it again. I can't protect you forever, can I?"


I could smell the dishonesty on the air with Scent of Truth. It was easy to figure out what was going on. He was blackmailing them, and he wasn't being subtle about it. I cleared my own throat. "Simon, you were going to introduce me?"


He flinched, but recovered quickly. "Ah, of course. Apologies. Everyone, this is Wayne. Wayne is going to be the new captain of your little squad. Wayne's word is as good as mine of the father's, so what he says goes." He turned to me sheepishly. "We don't allow Preston or Felix books anymore, because they were bringing in heretical material. The first time was just a warning, but after their second offense they were forbidden from having reading material."


Gesturing to the two, he held out his hand, and they withdrew a book each, setting them in his palm. "Well, I'll keep it in mind," I lied cheerfully. "But for now I think it would be best if I got to know everyone. Can you give us some time to get acquainted?"


"Of course," he beamed. "I'd be happy to. I have to get back up front anyway. Sylvia is on greeting duty, and she's dreadfully lazy. She'd better not be napping again." As if just talking about the possible infraction got him spun up, he turned and stormed off, already plotting how to punish her in his head.


I watched him go with a grimace. "What a deeply unpleasant human being," I commented to the room after he closed the door. "So, I'm Wayne, and fuck everything else that guy said. Seriously. What a dick." They'd all been watching me tensely, but at my proclamation, I saw them cautiously relax. "Look, I'm in charge of you guys now, but I'm not trying to step on toes. I'd appreciate if you could help me get settled, tell me how things work, that kind of thing."


One of them, a dark skinned guy with lots of very tight miniature braids pulled back into one long ponytail, smiled and held out a hand. "Well, how can we say no to that. I'm Daniel, nice to meet you Wayne. Now pick a bed, and I'll get started on giving you the dirty details of this place." I grinned as I followed him deeper into the room towards the empty beds. Maybe this part of things wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the security team was quick to open up about Simon. Apparently, he was a bully and a rat, and never hesitated to throw them under the bus for his own benefit. Even when he kept things to himself it was just to get leverage over the others. Everyone in the ministry hated him, but the father kept him around because he was loyal.


Of course, that was their opinion, but I wasn't so sure. Something about this place was…off. The air around us was heavy with misery and unease. I'd noticed it in the town, and even moreso here. I assumed it was a side effect of the brainwashing, but I was starting to think I was getting cause and effect mixed up.


Simon went out of his way to cause misery, to make people unhappy and stressed. Father Abraham used a mist similar to the stuff in the ocean, but somehow denser and more saturated. But the question was, saturated with what?


I'd used Dantalion a few times, though I had to wait until I was alone to avoid showing any outward signs. My analysis had shown that my suspicions were accurate. The mist didn't just brainwash, it FED on negative emotions. The more miserable the people here became, the more insidious the mist got. Simon wasn't just tormenting them for his own amusement, he was doing it on purpose.


Which made the choice of venue especially disturbing. Were they feeding on the misery of the desperate people who came here for help? The mist allowed them to slowly erode the will of those nearby, but beyond even that, it induced negative emotions. Hunger, envy, rage. The Pale Ones were basically unstoppable rage ghouls, and they CAME from the mist.


But again, this was all stuff I figured out through analysis. Most people couldn't perceive the mist at all, let alone analyze it. Besides I didn't KNOW Dezcarta. I didn't want to reveal our position in regards to the Void Child. Who knew how the local power structure interacted with it.


So I decided to look around in person. Once I finished dinner with the security team, I headed back to the bunk, vaguely mentioning turning in early. Then I went to my bed, the furthest from the door, and triggered Beelzebub. I suppressed the effect substantially, manifesting just a single clone, and then split off a parallel to control it, before having the parallel get in bed.


Once that was done, I triggered Murmur, then slipped out of the room. Once I was out, I moved slow. The longer I took, the deeper my stealth became, and I wanted the best chance of staying hidden I could get.


I slowly made my way down the hall, listening in on what was happening as I went. The first thing I came across was a pair of people in a room. Simon was talking snidely to a smaller man, one of the kitchen staff based on the calluses on his hands (Dantalion gave me the extra info). "Look Charles, I don't know what to tell you. You know we don't allow smoking here. It doesn't matter if you went outside or were on a break. The father has a zero tolerance policy. A little gift won't smooth this over, it's a very serious offense. I want your wages for the month."


"Simon, PLEASE," the small man begged. "My daughter is SICK. I need that money for medicine! I know I shouldn't smoke, but I've just been so stressed. I promise I won't do it again, just please let me off this once!"


Simon just clicked his tongue, shaking his head in faux sympathy. "It's a shame when the innocent suffer because of our actions, but rules are rules. If I let you off this time, people will think the rules don't matter. Then everyone will expect a pass, and before long, we'll have anarchy? Is that what you want, Charles? Do you want to be responsible for the ministry descending into anarchy?"


The smaller man's eyes filled with tears. "I…no, no of course not Simon. You're right of course," I saw his shoulders droop. "I can find someone to borrow the money for the medicine from. Of course you deserve to be rewarded for keeping my secret."


Simon beamed. "That's a wonderful attitude Charles. You're going places here, I just know it." He held out his hand, and the other man grimly fished out a pile of bone coins and dropped them into his palm. The last time this had happened, I hadn't noticed anything, but this time, I was in Murmur, which meant I was constantly scanning the surroundings, and I'd been here for a bit listening.


As the coins dropped into Simon's hand, there was a flash of black light across the surface of the bone. The energy around Charles, meanwhile, dropped slightly.


My eyes narrowed. Those coins came from fish in the black ocean. I hadn't really connected that to the Void Child, but now it seemed like Simon was using the coins as a CARRIER of some sort for the misery he was gathering. Were ALL the coins carriers? Did they collect misery from this place as they were circulated?


It was a disturbing thought, but I didn't have much time to think about it, because Simon said his goodbyes to Charles and walked out, strolling right past me as he made his way further into the base. He followed the hallway back, stopping before a full sized portrait of Abraham ministering to the poor. He looked around to be sure no one was watching, then hooked his fingers behind the frame of the picture and pulled. It swung away from the wall like a door, opening onto a small stone landing and a set of stairs leading down.


Stepping onto the landing, Simon started to pull the portrait shut. Cursing, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind him as the portrait clicked into place, plunging the whole landing into darkness. There was a scratch and a hiss, and Simon was holding a lit match and a candle stick, the latter of which he ignited before flicking the former into the darkness beside the staircase.


He descended the steps slowly and casually, and because they wound around, I had a lot of time for Murmur to process the chamber we were circling. We arrived at the bottom in about five minutes, and I followed him to the center of the chamber, where a pool of water sat in front of an altar made of blue green bone, with a dark metal effigy sitting atop it.


On the altar lay a tarnished silver bowl, and Simon, scooped himself a bowl full of water from the pool and then set the bowl on the altar before dropping the coins he'd collected into it. As the bone hit the water, there was a deep hiss, and the water exploded outward into the air as a plume of mist.


Simon watched serenely as the mist circled above the altar before being sucked into a small glass orb on a necklace hanging from the tentacles on the face of the black metal figure. The orb glowed with a dark light, almost sucking the brightness from the world around it somehow, and then quieted.


Leaning in, the greeter squinted at the light. "Damn, still not enough. Useless trash, can't even suffer properly. I should up the dosage of weakening agent in the food. Maybe have that new thug beat some respect into those whimpering 'guards'." His voice was cold and detached, as if everything he was saying was just a matter of course, and I thought he was talking to himself until the pool began to bubble. Simon's eyes widened, and he dropped to his knees, slamming his head against the floor so quickly it must have caused damage.


The pool emitted a strange, strangled hiss, and Simon stayed kneeling, listening until it finished, before finally responding. "Apologies, my lord. I meant no disrespect. I was simply venting my frustration about the lower beings."


A laugh sounded from above. Abraham descended the stairs, entering the field of Murmur's detection only seconds after he started laughing. "Oh Simon, how can the master listen to you whine about 'lower beings' when you yourself are simply the dregs of this world. It would be like hearing a rat sneer at a cockroach."


Simon's fingers dug into the ground in anger, but he didn't respond. Abraham walked past him like he wasn't there, kneeling in supplication, though I noted he only went down on one knee. "Master, your unworthy servant returns. We've acquired a new pawn today. He's a step beyond the mortal dross, and I believe he can be cultivated into a useful tool. Perhaps even more useful than some we already have." His tone was scathing as he flicked his gaze to where Simon was laying.


The hissing emerged again, and Abraham beamed. "Of course. I will begin his education. Once he has seen the light, I will usher him into your presence. As your father's most devoted spawn, I am sure such a paltry will can only crumble under your pressure."


Father…ok, that was…interesting. Because it implied this thing wasn't the actual Void Child. Unless the void itself was sentient and planning to kill us, but i had to believe that even MY bad luck and attraction to nonsense had limits. I would assume for now that this thing was probably the 'spawn' of the Void Child. Which was its own kind of disturbing because it meant the Void Child was BREEDING down there, potentially with the horrifying C-rank abomination in the ocean. Fantastic.


I watched them for a bit longer, and they only traded barbs as they reported to the pool. They were doing…a lot of terrible shit. Just heinous things. Poisoning, beating, stealing. Abraham had apparently arranged for multiple people to be crippled, just so they would be forced to attend the ministry.


His sermons were also specifically designed to induce nightmares and paranoia, and the people who slept in the building slept with a bone cone unknowingly hidden beneath their mattress (which was apparently designed to be uncomfortable, because I guess they decided they weren't quite evil enough). By the time they finished talking, I was ready to just straight up murder one or both of them out of sheer moral outrage.


Instead, I did the prudent thing. I went back upstairs, got my clone, and sent it back to Caladwen with a report. Sadly, apparently hearing them literally CONFESS to a fucking eldritch monstrosity wasn't evidence (I really hated the term 'hearsay'). So I was asked to stay under.


Given my progress though, I was informed the search for my friends was underway, and they would be brought to Ironreach under guard as soon as they were found. That made this a lot more palatable. I still needed to learn more about the monstrosity in the pool and the thing that spawned it, so I wasn't too upset about staying aside from the general hatred of being around these people.


I went to sleep that night under guard, with a clone under Murmur watching me sleep, and I slept in Mornax, for an added bit of protection.


When I woke up the next morning, Simon came to get me, and I resisted the urge to punt his skull off his shoulders like a ball. He chattered cheerfully as we walked, and it made me physically ill to listen to him sound so friendly when I knew what a fucking monster he was. I honestly hated him more than Camden's cousin, who had been a sociopath who murdered his own sister as a child.


He escorted me around the ministry, introducing me to workers (including poor Charles, who I planned to visit after this was over to see if I could help his sick daughter with Zagan). Finally, we ended the tour, and he brought me back to the front where the food was served. He beamed at me as we chose a seat. "Now that all the training nonsense is out of the way, you can see the real reason people come here. Father Abraham is a hell of a speaker." Somehow, I didn't doubt that at all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Father Abraham's speech was surprisingly persuasive, even with my mist resistance. He called us all together into an informal huddle in the middle of the room, dragging tables together, and sat up on one of them smiling benevolently at everyone. "Friends, you know me, you know my mission. I seek only peace between land and sea."


Some of the parishioners nodded, but a few, who must have been new, looked bewildered. One of them, a lean girl with wild eyes and braided hair scoffed. "Peace? The Pale Men come from the waves to kill and eat us. How are we supposed to have peace?"


Abraham smiled benevolently at her. "Ah, but are they the only ones who plunder? Do we not fish from their waters, killing the living things to collect their bones for their usefulness? I think you'll find that if you look back, it was we who invaded first. The depths of the sea have done their best to keep us away, releasing the mist to drive us back, seeking only their solitude. Humans are hungry, greedy creatures, it is we who insist on stealing the bounty of the waves."


She bristled. "Are you saying our lives aren't worth as much as FISH?"


"Are the lives of all living things not valuable?" he asked benevolently. "Can one put a price on a living existence? I admit, there have been grave sins on both sides, but just as someone cast the first stone, so too must someone lay down the first sword. At the Deepchild Collective, we believe that with enough time and persistence, we can reach a common understanding with those beneath the waves, and aim to create a better world together."


Another man, this one tall and tan, smiled at her encouragingly. "I know it sounds odd, but the father really believes in coexistence. Don't look at the Pale Men, who are only weapons unleashed to drive us back, many of the creatures below the ocean are wise and benevolent. The father has told us many stories, and there's a lot we can learn from them."


I was disgusted. I'd heard that thing in the pool, had seen the tentacled monstrosity in the depths. The oceans were not some benevolent undersea kingdom of misunderstood creatures. They were fucking death traps full of nightmarish abominations.


The worst part was, I UNDERSTOOD. He wasn't selling them the ocean, he was selling them hope. They'd lived their lives in this despicable cage world, trapped on the islands and constantly assaulted. The mists undoubtedly increased misery wherever they got by the candles, even when they didn't have a chance to convert anyone to a Pale Man.


Not to mention the fucking bone coins. SOMEONE in the higher ups of Skartaris the Weeper's organization had to understand what those did. There was no way they ACCIDENTALLY built their society around evil hate batteries.


Which made me think of the cloak in the Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower. He had seemed benevolent and helpful, like he was taking our side…but was he? Going out of his way to introduce us to the coins, not to mention the NAME of the tower was incredibly suspicious when taken in the context of this cult and the coins themselves.


These people were being kept in conditions approaching torture by their overlords, all of them pushed the point of mental and emotional exhaustion. Thinking about it, Malzareth's Mistwardens were ostensibly protection, but Wesley had implied they mostly bullied and extorted, making things worse, and we'd seen no signs of them when the Pale Men attacked, either.


The more I saw of this place, the angrier I got. And someone like Abraham, who had essentially abandoned humanity to side with the monsters who prayed on them, disgusted me even more. I wasn't one to put value on a nebulous concept like 'humanity', mind. I turned myself into a part time fallen angel, and some of my best friends weren't human, but there was a difference between a racial trait and becoming a toady for predatory monsters that ate people's misery.


I wondered how involved the vanished gods were in all this. Were they really just taking advantage of an opportunity? But I decided that line of thought wasn't useful. Being careful was fine, but going down a rabbit hole trying to connect unrelated issues wouldn't do anything but send me into a spiral.


Father Abraham, meanwhile, was just getting warmed up. "It's true, my child," he beamed. "Beneath waves, in the deepest parts of the world, there are great cities and civilizations, wonders and treasures and knowledge for those brave enough to seek it. The shallows are where the scum of the ocean reside, and the monsters you see breaching the surface are simply criminals and villains to the wise and benevolent sea faring races."


I had to flare my Promethean Fire Soul Body hard as he spoke. Something in my head wouldn't let GO of the image of that thing in the dark. Not even the one Callie saw, just that tentacled monstrosity that had tried to drag her down. It was like an infected splinter in my brain that wouldn't go away.


Grimacing, I made a note to spend some time in Leviathan, purifying my consciousness a bit just in case. That seemed like it might become a problem later if left unattended.


Abraham continued, speaking of shining underwater cities and wise unknowable creatures with knowledge of great art, science, and philosophy. He spoke of impartial justice systems and crafting masters, and advanced technology. It basically sounded like a dream come true, and I could see even the sceptical girl starting to be won over by his words.


I was confused as he spoke, not understanding the goal here. He was giving them hope, making them feel happy and excited and all the things that weren't useful for him. It wasn't until he finished talking and the parishioners dispersed that I realized what he'd been doing. As they left, the spell of his stories faded. In comparison to that fantastical ideal world, the current darkness seemed even bleaker, was even more unbearable.


With my Perception, I was able to see the hearts of these people breaking as they were yanked out of their beautiful dream and shoved back into the cold hard grasp of reality.


Why were they DOING this? What was the Void Child gaining. Power, I assumed, but to what end? Why create this terrible place and fill it with these suffering people. Why engineer this system to purposefully torment them. Was it trying to break out? But it must have been involved with creating the void barrier around this place. Couldn't it just go back to the void? I was missing something. Possibly a lot of somethings.


I approached Father Abraham, putting on a look of wonder. "Father, that was so amazing. Can such a wonderful place really exist?"


"It does exist," he said warmly. "I've seen it. The cities beneath the sea are wonders of the modern age. Towering monoliths are as common as cabbage and great heroes exist on every corner. Most of my flock will never have a chance to see such sights, but you, Wayne, are a bit special. Would you be interested in joining our collective? You would need to earn your place before descending, but in a few years, you too could dive beneath the waves to receive the blessings of the Deepchild."


I put on a delighted face. "That sounds amazing! I wonder though, is the Deepchild really only one being? I always assumed the Collective was mentioning multiple entities."


"Yes and no," he said, his expression turning genuinely fanatical. "The Deepchild is the origin and the truth. It descended from the higher world to save us all, and teach us the weakness and sin of this fragile mortal realm. To that end, it spread its love to the great beings in the depths of the sea, for only they could withstand its power. From these unions came the Abyssal Lords, its trueborn children, the Lords are the ones who created those great cities."


This was what I'd been looking for here. Learning more about the presence of the Void Child. It seemed like it didn't act directly very often, preferring to allow the Abyssal Lords to do the dirty work. This meshed well with what I'd seen. That tentacled thing in the deeps that had grabbed Callie must have been an Abyssal Lord, acting on its parent's behalf.


If not for Callie's connection to the Abyss I wouldn't have even known about the Void Child, and my Perception was nothing to scoff at. I briefly wondered if the thing in the pool was the same Abyssal Lord that had tried to grab my wife, but I decided it probably wasn't. We were a long way from where that happened, and it sounded like there were more than a few of these creepy things. Hopefully not TOO many, but enough that I didn't think we'd run into the same one so quickly.


"What would I need to do?" I asked hesitantly. "In the collective. I'm not good at much, I'm just ok in a fight. If you need me to do anything complicated I might not be able to help."


He clapped me on the shoulder. "Not at all. In fact, you'll be perfect for what we have in mind. See, sometimes when we help the less fortunate, people take advantage of our hospitality. They steal from us, hoard supplies, and drain our resources. Most of these people are despicable liars who will never admit what they've done. Even in their last moments they claim to be the victims, trying to invert good and evil and frame us."


I had a bad feeling about this, but I gave him a 'puzzled' frown. "There are such people?"


"Far too many of them," he sighed with an air of faux melancholy. "And that's why we need a big strong lad like you. We need you to track these villains down and take back the things they stole from us. A smart boy like you won't be swayed by their insidious lies or their false pleas. By helping us take back what belongs to us you'll ensure that we have enough resources to help the others in the ministry, undoing the despicable wrongs perpetrated by these heinous thieves."


So…he wanted me to rob a bunch of poor people. Classy. I could already see where this was going. He's send me to 'repossess' some of these so called stolen goods, push me to beat these people and rob them, then soak in the suffering as I unknowingly destroyed their lives, all the while twisting my mind until I slowly came to agree with his way of doing things. I wondered if Simon had started out like this. Genuinely optimistic and wanting to do good. How many people had this monster ruined?


But if you have to manipulate and brainwash someone, a demon is a bad choice, even if only one in spirit. I could play vicious games too.


Pretending to be unsettled, I chewed my lip, before finally nodding slowly. "I can try. But I don't know if I can bring myself to resist someone pleading like that, even if I know its false. Can you come with me the first time, Father? With you there to reassure me I'm on a righteous path, I'm sure I can harden my heart to do the right thing."


I saw the smugness in his eyes, the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, and the excited clench of his fists. I wasn't surprised. With the mist, he should be able to manipulate the target to basically confess, setting up a perfect first outing to begin my corruption.


Of course, I was just as smug. Providing evidence of him actively participating in robbery and assault would be more than enough reason to evict him from the city, or worse. I would tip off Caladwen and then help her capture him. Once that was done…well, I could question him under Dantalion to learn anything else I needed to know about the Void Child. I couldn't live with myself if I let this scum walk these streets another day. It was finally time to act.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I followed Father Abraham into town, and as we left, I reached out to Callie to have her tip off Caladwen about what was coming. I hadn't been out in Ironreach much since coming here, though I wasn't expecting to see much that differentiated it from Highhaven. Sure enough, the city layouts were very similar, though obviously not identical.


The streets were cobbled, sort of, but rather than being uneven and rough like most cobblestone roads I'd heard of, the stones were smoothed out and provided an even surface for walking or driving.


Speaking of driving, there WERE cars here, though they weren't particularly advanced. Very simplistic designs, four wheels propelled by enchantments, with sconces anchored onto the frames for candles. The wheels were large and suspended on springs, making them look more like all terrain vehicles than a normal car, presumably for travel between cities.


They weren't prevalent, and I could tell from the Impact of the material that the process for creating them was probably pretty involved. I considered whether I should try to get one, but I didn't know how much travel I'd be doing while I was here, or whether it would be cost effective.


I decided to look into trading one for a wish if I had a chance, being short of one wouldn't hurt. I had eight more scrolls today, leaving me sixteen total so dropping one would still leave me with fifteen, a nice round number. My thoughts drifted off to logistics, not bothering to engage with Father Abraham personally. I left a parallel in charge to talk to the scumbag, but my main thought processes were dragged back to the present as we entered a new area.


Well, NEW implied that it was modern or up to date. It was new to ME, but it definitely wasn't new. In fact, it might have been the oldest and most run down residential space I'd seen since arriving, and that INCLUDED the village that had been basically a collection of rickety shacks.


This place wasn't even made of actual buildings, more lean-tos constructed from flat metal sheets or spare pieces of wood. The wood was uneven and obviously salvaged from other things. Despite the limited materials, the makeshift buildings were creative and clearly made wit extreme care. The people who built these put time and effort into them, personalising their dwellings with painted designs on the metal and carvings on the wooden supports.


My already low opinion of Abraham somehow got even lower. I'd known he was bringing me to do something horrible, and I wasn't planning to go through with it, but seeing the conditions of the people he was planning to make me rob…I was seriously considering just crushing his skull with my staff right now.


He sneered at the houses. "Disgusting. Parasites like this can't do anything but live of the blood and sweat of others."


I frowned at him. "I thought the ministry was all about helping those who are less fortunate."


"Those who wish for help," he corrected. "If these people were really interested in bettering themselves, they would have come to the ministry by now. Only a few of these leeches bother to show themselves at our premises, and the ones who do are dishonest and cunning like the thief we're here to apprehend."


I wondered how he thought he could reconcile those two points of view. It seemed like hypocrisy to me, but then again, I knew he was a fucking monster, so that might just be my inherent bias. I didn't think so though. I liked to think that even if I hadn't already seen his true face, this would have shown me what a bastard he was. I was certainly sure that I'd never have participated in anything like this, regardless of what he'd tried to tell me it accomplished.


Dantalion flared, and I felt the world around me. People were approaching, lots of them. Some were my friends, others I didn't know, but I assumed they were either Caladwen or Dezcatra's people.


They didn't actually engage. They were waiting. I prepared myself for this next part, splitting off a clone with Beelzebub and shifting it into Bael. The clone ranged ahead, getting into position to provide protection for whoever Abraham thought we were here to harass. I wouldn't have allowed this to happen if I thought I'd be putting an innocent person in danger. My clone could protect then while the rest of us dealt with Abraham.


We stopped at the end of a street in front of a corner dwelling. It was mostly metal sheets, with lots of complex painted designs of roses and animals across the surface. A small, well worn welcome mat was laid out in front of the flimsy metal door, clearly old and well cared for.


"Damon Skwell!" Bellowed Abraham. "Reveal yourself, coward! You've stolen from the ministry of the Deepchild Collective, and you are owed retribution!"


There was a slight pause, then a man came out. He was older, with salt and pepper stubble and laugh lines at the corner of his eyes. He was pale and gaunt, obviously underfed, but he had a kind face. "Father Abraham?" He asked, confused. "What's going on? I'm sorry I couldn't work today, but my daughter had a bad fall yesterday and broke her arm. I just need a day or two to take care of her until we can take her to the alchemist."


"Still not admitting it?" sneered the corrupt priest. "Do you deny that you stole several loaves of bread from the kitchens?"


Damon flinched. "What? No, I would never do that! Simon told me I could take home a few extra. He said you knew I was having a hard time and that I was getting extra food to bring back for my family."


He was telling the truth. I could smell it. Abraham, however, didn't know about my Scent of Truth ability. He laughed coldly. "Theft and defamation. What a despicable cur you are, to blame your crimes on poor, humble Simon." He shot me a faux desolate look. "You see, Wayne. This is the kind of perfidy we are up against. Scum like this makes it impossible to help righteous, deserving believers. I know it's heartbreaking, but you need to be willing to educate the masses by smiting the wicked in any form. This will be your first lesson."


I stared at him. I could agree. Draw things out. I could wait for him to show even more of his true colors and put on a show…but I didn't want to. That little speech, combined with the obvious fact that poor Damon didn't do anything, made his current actions basically indefensible. It would be enough to raid the ministry and question Simon for sure, and I could guide them to the altar.


So I didn't respond with my words. I just hit him really hard with a stick. My staff appeared in my hand, and a quick, brutal thrust smashed it into his perfectly sculpted nose, smashing the bridge and sending him stumbling back in shock and horror as he covered his nose, trying to stanch the explosive bleeding.


"What…what did you just do?" he howled. "Where did you get that? How could you….heretic! Non-believer! Abomination!" His voice got higher pitched and more insane as he went on, and by the end he was screeching so loud I was expecting dogs to bard.


"You're a scumbag," I told him bluntly, spinning my staff between my fingers. "You're a monster, and a psychopath. You torment decent people to feed the sick fish freak you worship, and you don't even feel bad about it. The people in charge of this city know who you are, I've been gathering evidence, and I can provide them with the concrete proof to kick you out of this place, even with the backing of that C-ranker you're sucking up to."


His eyes bulged. "You're…what? You didn't even see anything! I kept you isolated in those fucking barracks. How could you know about the altar? About the Abyssal Lord I serve?"


I'd been talking about the city lord actually, but the Abyssal Lord WAS a C-ranker he was sucking up to, so I got the confusion. It didn't matter though. Abraham roared, charging forward, and a WAVE of mist erupted from him. Behind his form, I could see a massive effigy of a horrible creature, the mist twisting and weaving into the form of a tentacled monstrosity with glowing red eyes.


As it drew closer, I felt a wash of dread slam into me. It didn't shake my mind at all, but it was increasing in pressure as he approached. So I stopped bothering with token resistance and triggered Leviathan. My hair blazed up in green fire and the flames that subsumed me melted away the cold mist without a hint of suspense.


My staff flicked out, smashing into an ankle and he toppled forward. I vanished in a blaze of black fire, reappearing standing on his back, where I jammed my staff into the base of his skull. I didn't kill him, just pressed it into his neck so he could feel how close he was to death, and he froze.


"People like you are so pathetic," I told him conversationally. "Bullies get so wrapped up in their own perception of power that they forget what real power is. You're too pitiful to gain any actual strength, so you sold your soul to that fish freak so you could feel bigger than others. But without the disgusting tricks you learned from that monster, you're not actually any good for anything are you?"


"You can't!" He screamed, squirming under me, face ground into the dirt. "You can't DO THIS! My master is the true ruler of this world! You will respect me! You will debase yourself! You will release me!"


I pulled the staff back an inch and then smashed it into the base of his skull, and he slumped. "How about your just fuck off to dreamland and imagine I did," I said as I hopped down from his unconscious body.


I turned to the side where I could sense Caladwen. "Openly inciting me to attack an innocent person, ritual torture, pretty much admitting to theft, is that enough to drive him out?"


The city lord (lady?)'s sister appeared from nowhere, smirking down at him. "Oh that's plenty. It's more games than legality, really. We need a pretense more than we need hard evidence. It just needs to be a solid pretense. If you had been the only one here it would have been pointless, but since I was a witness…this asshole has got to GO."


"Kind of want to throw him in the ocean," I said maliciously. "I bet his bosses don't love failures. But that's your call. As long as you don't let him hurt anyone else. Also make sure you scoop up Simon. He's some kind of junior priest or something. Now, about my payment."


Her face fell. "That's…complicated. We found traces of your friends. But their location is a bit precarious. We can give it to you, but we aren't sure it'll be USEFUL to you. They appear to have been taken to Shadowcrack. Algenclave has them in the dungeons of the city lord estate. They're being guarded by a few powerful D-rankers no one has heard of before, and by Algenclave himself, of course."


I froze. That…that was the worst case scenario. Literally. My friends being captured by a hostile C-ranker and presumably at least some of the godchildren. We had no chance agains t a C-ranker. Not one with literally any time in that rank. A new C-ranker would be almost impossible to kill without a trick like I'd used last time, but we could pin them down. For someone further into the rank though…we had no shot.


Closing my eyes, I exhaled slowly. We needed to change the game. We needed backup of our own. I lifted my head as I opened them, focusing on Caladwen. "I'd like an audience with your sister. Can you arrange it?" Guess I needed to make someone else's wish come true.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Dezcarta lived in a castle. This was absolutely zero surprise to literally any of us. As the city lord, she had plenty of access to the best resources, and I wasn't sure why anyone would choose NOT to have a castle if given the choice.


We were led to the entrance hall and left to wait, and I waited with bated breath, my armor and mask back in place. I'd tried to use Dantalion to scan the place, but the castle was made of C-ranked materials, and I couldn't get a decent read. I ignored that, pacing back and forth as I considered my options, but I was stopped after a minute when a familiar hand caught mine, pulling me to a halt.


"Shane," Callie said softly. "This isn't on you. We came to help them, and we still will. Getting snatched up by this C-ranker was just bad luck."


Bethy chimed in. "She's right, you know. C-rankers do whatever to weaker Ascendants. No guarantee they would have been safe if they didn't know you. Actually, maybe the opposite. Chances are good that they're only alive now because they provide leverage. Knowing you probably saved them."


I just shook my head. "I get your point, but they wouldn't BE here if I hadn't painted a target on them to begin with."


"Yeah," said Abel lazily. "They might just be dead. We have no idea how your interaction helped or changed them, or how far reaching the effects are. Welcome to being alive. We're all just exploding balls of chaos bouncing off each other and careening into walls of random chance. Any person you've ever met might have been better off without you, or they might be a corpse now. No way to tell, and worrying about it is an exercise in pointless self pity."


I snorted in amusement. "Tell me how you really feel Abel, no need to sugar coat it."


"That WAS sugar coating it," he said dryly. "I didn't make loud sniffling baby noises at you or point and laugh. That was about the nicest way I could have said that."


My sister giggled at that, and I turned to glare at her, but she just stuck her tongue out. I smiled a bit, about to get into some relaxing bickering with my twin, but sadly my catharsis was cut off by Caladwen's return. The Citizen was gone, apparently having headed back once he finished his task, and she was our only real contact here. I made a note to pay her back for her help how I could.


"Alright," she said as she entered the room. "You've got ten minutes. I'm not sure exactly what you've got to offer, but if you're asking for what I think you are, I hope it's a lot. Dez isn't afraid of Algenclave, but challenging any of the generals is a stupid idea if you aren't SURE you'll win easily. It's usually best to team up with someone else who hates them, and she doesn't have any backup she would trust with an operation like that."


I nodded, unsurprised that it would be a hard sell, but I was pretty confident in my wares. Wish scrolls were extremely versatile, and would be indescribably tempting to anyone stuck at the peak of what a world could withstand. Within the same rank, skills and techniques were key to raising combat potential. Just like Abel, Bethy, Callie, and I could fight across our rank because of our powerful techniques and Skills, Dezcarta could theoretically go from a middling C-ranker to being nearly unbeatable at the same rank with a few wishes.


Most of the time, Ascendant power structures came down to two things, advancement or entrenchment. The two schools of thought were either to move forward as quickly as possible, relying on higher Impact and rapid core improvement to compete, or to firm up your foundations at the same level, making yourself unbeatable.


Ninety percent of Ascendants who HAD this choice (much like myself) chose the former, because no matter how powerful you got, at higher ranks, tier barriers were nearly impassable.


But in places with a power ceiling, entrenchment became a much more viable strategy. Since no one was behind a tier barrier, developing yourself to the extreme wasn't just NOT a pointless timesink, it was an integral part of the development process. Wishes were exponentially more effective to people in this situation, because rather than use them to advance like we did, they could use them to improve and integrate new techniques and Skills.


I was still thinking about the dichotomy when Caladwen led us into the throne room, where a red haired woman with an eye patch lounged on a giant iron chair that could NOT have been comfortable. She didn't even glance up from the book she was reading as we entered.


"Heard you helped me get rid of that shitbag priest," she drawled lazily. "As a reward, I'll hear you out. You've got five minutes, go."


"I'm Shane Wyndham, I'm a member of the Wyndham family of the Wish Curse Palace, and I can grant wishes. If you help us, I'll grant some of yours." I didn't hedge, didn't hold back. She might turn on us, but I had ways to escape if she did. She might be a C-ranker, but I had items and abilities that could let my friends get us clear. If I chose to use them.


She went still, her eye raising slowly to look at me, a predatory gleam in the single amber iris. "Well," she purred. "Isn't THAT interesting." In a blink, she was standing WAY too close, her face decidedly in my personal space as she stared into my mask. "Wishes, is it? How novel."


"I want your help rescuing my friends," I told her bluntly. "In exchange, I'll help YOU deal with the D-rankers Algenclave is working with. I suspect they're here for me anyway. I'll even supply you with the wishes ahead of time so you can use them in the fight. One of my wishes can be EXTREMELY devastating in combat. Bindings, suppression, direct attacks. So many possibilities."


Dezcarta looked…well, hungry was the best word I could come up with. Like she was a cat and I'd just let a mouse loose in front of her. I wasn't sure about the relationship between the generals, but I suspected that it wasn't positive. She'd been extremely keen to remove that priest, not because of his damage to the city, but because he was related to Algenclave. She must really want him dead, and I was giving her a surefire way to do that.


"You want my help to save your friends," she reiterated slowly. "It's possible, but how many of these 'wishes' will I get? If it's just the ones I need to destroy Algenclave, I won't gain much from them, will I?"


I chuckled. "Wishes need to be paid for with fair compensation. It's a requirement of my power and can't be changed. I can give ten, but you should know that you can only use the promise of aid to pay for a few of them at most. The rest you'll need to pay for out of pocket, and I can't do anything about that."


Sometimes I wondered if my ancestor had worked in such rigorous compensation rules just to justify not having to help every random person who arrived looking for a wish. The cost requirements certainly served a balancing purpose that enabled him to reach the heights of perfection required for that three times bonus, but they also made interactions regarding wishes much easier to deal with. No questions about freebies, it's impossible, pay up or get lost.


Knowing what I did about techniques, mythology, and domains, I wondered if this reflected a core mindset trait of the Wishmaster. Or maybe it had CAUSED that mindset trait, you never knew with Ascendants. Whatever the case, he clearly didn't mind the trait, since he didn't bother to erase it when authoring his Chronicle.


Once I explained how things worked, I took out ten scrolls. These were two thirds of my total non emergency scroll stash, but I wasn't going to be stingy with them. Aside from wanting to help my friends, like I'd told her already, it wasn't like she could get anything for free from them.


Picking one up, she examined it, then unfolded it and read over the scroll itself. The physical vessel of the scrolls wasn't super important, but it was still anchored in a specific way. Scrolls were the form I could use, and if it was possible to use anything else I wasn't aware of how. I didn't care much though, scroll, book, monogrammed cookie, it didn't matter what form it took as long as it worked.


She frowned at it as she read…something, I wasn't seeing what she did, though I probably could have if I tried.


"So you're saying I can use the agreement to help your friends as payment for one of these?" her voice was cautious, but optimistic. "Or was it more than one? How would that work? Would I have to make all the wishes up front?"


I shrugged. "Possibly, but it would be easier to break the task into multiple steps and pay for each one with a wish. In this case. Escort us to Shadowcrack and help us enter safely, delay or defeat Algenclave, then help us retreat safely with my friends in tow, to the best of your ability. Those terms sound reasonable?"


While I couldn't tell her what to wish for because it would have violated the spirit of 'fair compensation' I could tell her what kind of payment I wanted. That was just common sense. Otherwise my power would be useless.


She nodded slowly. "I can probably work with that. I have some followup questions though. What do you consider safely, when does my role in your entrance end and when does my role in your escape begin? What level of responsibility do I have for your experience inside as I delay Algenclave, at least as it regards to fallout or to his helpers?"


"Once we enter the building that houses the dungeons they're locked up in, your infiltration help will be concluded," I said after a moment. "Once we successfully leave the building your exfiltration duties will begin. We just need to get AWAY, it doesn't need to be perfect. As long as we can lost them initially, I have ways of disappearing."


Not to mention once we had my friends I could have Callie contact my grandmother to get us out. She'd been able to create an entrance for us when we arrived, and she was more than capable of extracting us, even through the spatial issues. She just needed an anchor point inside the Dungeon where she knew we could be found to make that connection. It was part of why Callie had the Starpluck Bangle on standby.


Dezcarta looked intrigued, and finally, after a bit more negotiation, she grinned and hopped down from her chair, ambling over to shake my hand. "Fantastic. Now I just need to figure out what to use these wishes for before we go, so, do you have any suggestions for me?"


Of course, I didn't. I couldn't tell her what to wish for, because if I was involved my bias toward the wish would make any payment similar to being paid twice. Luckily, I had other options. I grinned at her, even if she couldn't see it behind my mask. "Not personally, no. But lucky for you, I brought an expert at working with me on getting the most out of wishes. Allow me to introduce you to my wife." I put an arm around Callie, dragging her forward, and Dezcarta eyed her like a hungry wolf. I was too distracted by the upcoming mission to pay too much attention to Callie's groan of irritation. It was almost time to save my friends.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Man, this place is kind of a dump," said Bethy as we stared off into the distance at Shadowcrack. "It had such a cool name, but now I'm just disappointed." She clicked her tongue at the jagged rocks barely peeking out over the surface of the terrain distastefully.


I turned to Dezcarta. "So…not to be that guy, but that place is made of black rocks and mostly underground, your city is made of metal and it's really tall. Who named these towns? Because whoever it was didn't exactly strain anything coming up with something creative. Not the point, I know, but I am curious."


Holly snorted. "I mean, this place is secretly run by cultists, right? They're not exactly known for creativity."


"We don't KNOW that," disagreed Chelsea. "I mean, clearly they have some involvement in the local power structure, what with the money thing, but we can't say for sure it's RUN by cultists. Maybe they've just deeply infiltrated the government."


"That's probably not better," Callie said with a sigh. "Anyway, so what's the plan here? Will they see us coming? Do you have a tunnel into this place like the Citizen had one out of Highhaven?"


The C-ranker shook her head. "No, nothing like that. I'm going to blow my way in and engage Algenclave directly. Caladwen and Derrick will lead her people in behind me, and their defensive formation will cover me for D-rank attacks. GIven how strong most of these people are supposed to be, I'm a bit worried they might have one or two burst attacks that are too much for me. That's why I arranged the secondary defensive wishes that I did, not to mention the escape."


Abel grinned. "Don't worry about the D-rankers. Bethy and I will be going in with you. No one is getting past us."


My sister cleared her throat. "ALL of us. Gabe will be leading the charge against the D-rankers, and given his path he should break ranks easily enough. Serah and Holly will harry from above, Sable will provide cover with her root puppets, Dom will be with Bethy and Able in the core group, and Dyasia, Bella, and I will be in the back providing long range support."


Bella frowned dismally. "I can't even do that. I know you're just coddling me because Master doesn't think I can handle this."


"Oh, good," I said kindly. "I thought we were being too subtle. Be good and stay out of the way."


"I want the Dryad with me though," Sable interrupted. "Her tree powers will help boost my witchcraft by a substantial amount. Imagine how much she can enhance my root puppets."


I nodded to her. "Agreed, Daysia should be able to help a lot. Bella…jokes aside, I need you to stay safe. You'll benefit from this battle immensely, just by being around, but I don't want to risk you while you're still learning. There will be time later for you to join battle directly. For now you're not on the same level as the rest of us."


"I like how you pretend it's just one level," Chelsea said dryly. "Because I think we all know Abel and Bethy are on a whole other plane. I mean, admittedly, you're probably close because you're so stupidly versatile, and Callie has been working on that new-"


My wife cleared her throat, cutting her off. "I haven't even come close to finishing making that work. Honestly, I've been too worried about starting. I think I'm going to wait for my new racial trait before I attempt it. Celia says she can shield me from the negative effects of the scythe with her energy, but I'd like a second layer of protection, just in case." With Dezcarta around, she kept it vague, but we all knew what she wasn't saying. The power of a god was nothing to mess around with.


Which was fair. She hadn't spoken much about the scythe or what they were doing with it, but I was glad she was being cautious. I wasn't at a level to mess with anything involving that scythe, be it technique, skill, or even a physical object. My grandmother would have a much better idea what to do with something like that.


I shook my head. "It's fine. We've got more than enough firepower. Bella, Chelsea, Daysia, you each have one of the emergency scrolls, right? Keep some chits handy in case you need to pay something off."


They all nodded, and I relaxed a bit. That would mitigate a lot of the danger. Callie squeezed my hand tightly, showing me she was there, and then stared at the city. "With so many shadows around, I'll go with Shane. My current Solid Path should make me uniquely suited to pushing away the abyssal darkness that permeates the shadow in this place. As long as we don't actually enter it'll be fine."


"Murmur will cover us otherwise," I agreed. "We'll be infiltrating directly while the lot of you play decoy. Anyone bothered by that?"


No one was. Dezcarta watched us in amusement, then pulled out a small glass orb and broke it. In the distance I heard revving sounds. As we watched, a wave of those weird candle cars broke through the mist at the edge of the island, coming off the walkway two at a time. They fanned out, and Dezcarta nodded to us all and then turned. Bending her knees, she crouched down and JUMPED.


The C-ranker's form shot up into the air at an angle, plummeting toward the city as the wave of cars approached the edges of the crack. Dezcarta flung out her hands and a massive cloud of metal dust erupted into the air around her. She jerked both hands down and the cloud condensed into a RAIN of swords, all of them rocketing down towards the city.


"DEZCARTA!" boomed an enraged voice. "HOW DARE YOU!?" There was a rumble and the ground split, an eruption of magma exploding from the earth and condensing into a single spread hand, intercepting the majority of the swords.


"Alright, go!" I told the others. I grabbed Callie's hand and triggered Murmur, the two of us bolting towards the city. After a few steps, I triggered my Waltz, the two of us vanishing in a blaze of black flame. The scenery flickered as we blinked across it. Flash, empty dirt, flash, magma, flash, the edge of a cliff, then finally one last flash and we appeared in a dark street overlooked by the clifftop.


We stopped as soon as we landed, and Callie flicked out a hand. She drove all the darkness from the space around us, cleansing it from my domain as Murmur got to work on the world around us, analyzing.


There was a decent chance that we wouldn't have been noticed because of the darkness anyway, but it obviously possessed a trait that I couldn't really identify. Having Callie push it away ensured the Abyssal Lords couldn't use it to track us, or worse, the Void Child itself. I hoped.


After about a minute, I'd eliminated all traces of us well enough not to worry about any D-rankers we might meet. Once that was done, I started walking slowly forward, Callie and I working together to keep the Domain clear. "Alright, Dez is going to be watching out for us in case she needs to step in. Unless she sees someone attacking an empty space though, she won't be able to spot us once Murmur has had time to sink in."


This was still within the bounds of our agreement, since it was my idea, and Callie nodded along as we walked. We didn't exactly run, but we were hurrying, and we made it to the city lord's manor quickly enough. Rather than a castle, this one was carved right into the cliff face, sort of a cave mansion. That meant there was only one entrance and sneaking in would have been much more difficult…if we weren't undetectable.


Just to be safe, we cased out the entrance for a few minutes, giving Murmur time to really excavate as much detail as possible before we slipped past the admittedly already distracted guards.


The descent down into the dungeon was surprisingly uneventful, and I was riding high when we finally reached the lowest levels. When we did though, I was brought up short by the terrible conditions my friends were being kept in. All of them were alive, thankfully, but they'd been beaten badly and they looked hungry and dirty, trapped inside steel cages with thick metal bars.


I scanned the area with Murmur, then dropped the domain, letting them see me as I rushed to check on them. Elena noticed me first, her head jerking up. "Fist!" she said anxiously. "You can't be here! This is a trap!"


Nodding, I knelt down, examining the floor. Sure enough, the bars were only set into the rock. I focused hard, triggered Wrath in a small area directly under the metal. I infused the ground with black fire, pouring in the destructive energy, then triggered Agares, shifting the dust away to reveal an empty space. It wasn't enough, so I did it a few more times, widening the hole until she could slip out under the bars.


Once that was done, I freed Desria, Cavallo, Vesper, Chester and Ray. Making sure everyone was ok. Once that was done, I sighed in relief. "Alright, now that you're out, we need to go. Elena's right, this is definitely a trap. We avoided being noticed coming in, but there's no way they aren't going to check on you. We aren't being watched right now, or I'd have picked up on it with Murmur, but that could change at any ti-" I cut off my sentence, vanishing in a burst of flame as an bullet streaked through the space where I'd been standing, smashing into an through the stone of the wall.


I stared at the incredibly deep hole, warily glancing back at the shooter. It had taken a powerful domain and a LOT of effort for me to dissolve that stone, and that domain was MADE to dissolve stone. That bullet had punched through it like paper.


"You missed," said a dainty voice as a pair of people appeared in the open doorway. The voice came from a small girl with two braided plaits of hair, dressed in a complicated old fashioned dress. Her eyes appeared to be SEWN open, and her lips were stitched in an incredibly wide grin that somehow didn't affect her ability to talk.


The guy with her was dressed in a beige coat and pants, thick leather boots and a wide brimmed beige hat with one edge bent up. He had a thick mustache and a monocle, and was holding an incredibly large and threatening C-rank rifle as he stared at us thoughtfully. "This one has excellent instincts," he said approvingly. "T'will be a princely hunt. A hunter must be patient above all, Rulka."


"Yes, I've listened to your speeches Thaddeus," said the girl in a bored tone that belied her forced cheerful expression. "I don't care how you kill them, as long as I can keep the bodies. Their skins look exquisite. Imagine the dresses I can make."


I very carefully did NOT examine what her current dress was made of after she said that. I didn't want to now. I triggered Mornax, stepping forward in front of my friends as I silently instructed Callie to prepare to flee. I was going to have to make an opening here, but I was confident I could manage.


Opening my hand, I called up my staff, whirling it around my fingers defensively, building up momentum to prepare. "I don't know kind of idioms where you're from, but where I grew up, we have a saying about counting chickens before them hatch."


Rulka brightened. "Oh! Where we're from, the saying is 'don't cook your piglets before you slaughter them'. It toughens the meat."


Thaddeus rolled his eyes, shouldering his rifle and taking aim. "Enough chitchat Rulka. The hunt is on." He pulled the trigger, and this time I wasn't too distracted to hear the low boom that followed the bullet as it sped toward me. I couldn't teleport away because my friends were behind me, so I triggered Belial, my staff flicking up to deflect the bullet slightly while it was still a few feet out, allowing it to slice harmlessly through the air over my shoulder. Rulka, none too pleased, snarled, and then she rushed me and the fight was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My reaction to Rulka's attack was slow and deliberate. I sunk down in my stance, triggered Mornax and Belial, and faced her head on. Mentally, I told Callie to take the others and get out. If she could get outside to Dez she would be safe. In the meantime, Rulka was already halfway to me, and my staff whirled out to meet the claws that sprouted as she shifted into a werewolf.


Dantalion flickered out to give me an idea of what was going on, and with that information, I began to deflect.


Belial was my first form, and I had always known there was untapped potential in that ability. Not just the acid, which could be improved when I had the time or inclination, but in the basic principles of the staff art.


I had based Belial on the principles of deflection and leverage, using minimum force applied perfectly to nullify or offset power. It was a useful and extensive potential area of study, but I had moved on quickly to the raw power of Mephistopheles. I'd ignored the potential of my very first staff form for far too long, and now that I was focused on it, with Dantalion as a support, I could finally apply the leverage at maximum efficacy.


Callie was running, knowing I could leave when I wanted with Double Trouble or my Waltz, so I was able to take my time and get a feel for this combat style. With Mornax keeping me safe, I was able to test and experiment, and that was what I did.


I started basic. Normal deflection, moving the attacks slightly aside. Not strikes, but gentle guidance applied at EXACTLY the right place. A sweeping tap at the wrist joint combined with a planted butt cap in the dirt, a swipe to the back of the leg, and trip or a jab at the feet.


Rulka attacked ferociously, but when she realized she wasn't making any headway she retreated. As I watched, she reached up and grabbed her fur, screaming as she tore the pelt right off, revealing her own human form underneath. She threw the still corroding pelt to one side, then flicked her wrists and a long sheet of skin appeared. Swirling it like a cloak, she wrapped it around her dress clad form and it melted into her, vanishing into her skin and clothes like an invisible film.


I cursed. Skinwalker. It was a branch of witchcraft, using skins to act as totems to allow the use of other powers. It was a bit like Zeke's masks (which actually were NOT witchcraft, interestingly enough, because he literally sealed the soul into the mask instead of creating a thaumaturgical link). Skinwalkers were considered unusually horrible even by dark Ascendant standards, because due to the nature of witchcraft they had to keep the beings they skinned ALIVE to tap into their powers.


This particular skin was apparently a harpy. Skinwalkers had to use the skin of people with racial traits, because otherwise the ability doesn't become part of the body until S-rank when an Ascendant combines with their sagas. It was highly illegal in the Fairieland for this reason, though it was an ability that admittedly fit in well with Verdyn's whole vibe.


Rulka, now with wings and sharp talons, rushed forward, screeching as her claws wheeled and struck. As she attacked, Theddeus took aim, readying his rifle as he searched for a perfect opportunity to attack. Unfortunately for him, I had Dantalion active, and I was even now working on the next step up from my normal deflection stance. Specifically, control.


Deflection was useful and powerful, but the true power of leverage wasn't just moving or avoiding things. It was controlling more powerful things with inferior force. My staff snapped out, the claws clanging off the end caps and the sapsteel wrapping the shaft, and my deflections moved the claws (and the harpy attached to them) not just out of the path to attack me, but INTO the path of Thaddeus's attacks.


Every deflection altered the flow of the battle, but with Dantalion, I was able to take advantage of my knowledge of the area and of Thaddeus's movements to put Rulka in exactly the wrong place every time he was about to fire. My feet started to move, not enough to disrupt Mornax but enough to expand my range of motion, slowly controlling more and more of the floor.


It was ALMOST like a domain, but I didn't allow it to become one. I wasn't trying to make a new power, I was trying to master my old one. I slowly expanded my range, taking up more of the room, controlling more of the space. Despite being easily twenty feet away, even Thaddeus was wrapped up in the effect.


I wasn't just using my staff to apply leverage to Rulka's movements, I was using RULKA to apply leverage to Thaddeus. The longer we fought, the more seamless it became, she became my weapon as much as the Ten Demons Tree was, and with every strike, the energy of Belial infected and corrupted her.


That was when I finally came to the conclusion I should have reached ages ago. I'd been severely limiting myself with this form. I used the staff infused with corruption to burn and trap and manipulate, but now Rulka was infused with that same acidic fire. She wasn't just a metaphorical weapon. She was a LITERAL weapon through which I could channel my form. As she fell further and further under my sway, I was able to control more and more of her movements, not just with strikes and leverage, but with the form itself.


She slowly moved back, matching my movements still, but now there was no deflection, no back and forth, there was just a give and take, a dance where I was in control. When I got her backed far enough up I moved slightly to one side, pulling her into an attack, then pushed her with my mind to adjust. Her clawed foot swept past my face, continuing the arc to lash out at Thaddeus.


The hunter stumbled back in shock, his gun imposed between them, his face twisted in confusion. "Rulka? What are you doing?"


The Skinwalker, her eyes now burning green-black, didn't respond, darting forward to attack as I moved fluidly around the other side to assault him from the opposite position. His eyes widened in panic and he started firing his gun. I knew the bullet was absurdly powerful, with Dantalion active, I could see the secrets of the gun after being around it for long enough. The entire barrel was lined with incomplete formations. When the bullet spun along the rifling it completed each formation, gathering power until it exploded out of the end of the barrel to tear apart whatever it struck.


I could deflect it, of course, but it was difficult and involved basically stacking a lot of really cheap abilities to barely manage to offset the damage, so instead, I just maneuvered Rulka into the path of the shots. We spun around him, Rulka's body jerking at the bullet impacts but continuing the movements I'd pushed her into.


My control was improving as I went. Corruption, manipulation, I'd always had this ability, always had this potential. Belial was made for this kind of combat. I'd even seen it a bit when I was creating Limbo. My original form of that domain had been similar to this, but I'd reworked it into its current much more powerful form. Now the vision I'd seen back then had become clearer, and it was something I didn't even need a domain to accomplish.


Sadly, almost immediately after that thought, my control slipped slightly. My corruption was mainly meant for damaging others. The extra corrosion from the acid had actually damaged my control abailities. During one of the bullet impacts the overwhelming damage overloaded the corruption and Rulka broke free, turning and rushing me in an attempt to kill me.


Deciding I'd stalled long enough, I triggered Double Trouble, then used my Waltz to escape. It took them a split second to discover the illusion, and by then I'd broken line of sight, dropped all my forms and entered Murmur. I'd already scanned most of the hallways so I was able to conceal myself perfectly as I slipped away. I saw the two D-rankers run past, calling for others who appeared to search, but none of them were even close to finding me.


I found them all waiting for me outside. Once they'd exited, Callie had been able to tap into Bael and combined it with her shadow manipulation to conceal them. When she saw me, she beamed. "Thank the gods, I was getting worried."


Glancing up, I studied the sky above us. Dez was still in combat, her rain of swords tearing apart the giant magma hand as fast as Algenclave could reform it. Taking out a small glass orb she'd given me, I broke it, and I was relieved to see a slight hitch in the fight as she detected it, ready to come and get us.


We waited for a minute, and then there was a pulse of energy. From the sky, chains of golden light lashed down, whipping around Algenclave's magma armored form. He'd emerged from the city in person to assume better control while we were inside, and now he was wide open for the binding spell Dez had wished for. I could hear his scream of outrage as he hauled on the chains, trying to break free, but for a short period of time, those chains were basically unbreakable.


Dez flicked her hands, another cloud of steel appearing around her, and this time she condensed it into one sword. An absolutely gigantic sword with a razor sharp point obviously intended for thrusting. With a tremendous cry of effort, she sent the sword spearing forward, and the point jammed into the magmatic chest of her target. With all his defenses suppressed by the chains, he stood no chance. The blade speared him through the torso, the rest of the edge splitting him in half heightwise as it went.


Crowing victoriously, Dez swept down, showing me blade wings I hadn't seen before as she dove down to our location. "You all ready?" she asked eagerly. "We've got to get out of here!"


Before I could respond, I felt something SHIFT around us. Something I'd felt before. The suppression of someone actively flexing their soul at me. Not just one someone either. Multiple someones.


Dez's head snapped up. "FUCK!" she spat. "Selvarin, Dramin, Escurta? I don't know the fourth or fifth one, but those three are powerful generals. How did they get here so fast?"


Grimacing, I glanced up in the air where a series of forms were floating out over the city toward us. "Bethy!" I called for my vampire friend. When Dez had killed Algenclave the rest of my group had headed here. "You know the drill. Get us into the Domain!" With her Domain we could all be moved by a single ability. I'd considered how to properly apply this little boost, and I'd realized it would be best to use it in conjunction with Callie's Starpluck Bangle.


My wife pulled off the bangle, tossing it to Bethy as she appeared, and all of us were pulled into her Domain as she prepared to trigger the bangle, letting us all escape this fucking dungeon.


And that was when things went wrong. There was some kind of…breakage. Some kind of force striking something beyond the normal world. Behind reality, i felt a ripple as something cracked, and Callie's eyes widened in horror. "Void Shattering! Bethy wait, don't-" But it was too late. Bethy had triggered the Bangle, which I could only assume utilized the void to travel.


There was a sensation like I was being sucked through a straw full of microscopic razor blades on a spin cycle, and I screamed as I was deconstructed, reconstructed, then deconstructed again and put back together out of order. By the time it ended, I was barely coherent, and all of us were lying on hard stone, staring up a swirling red purple bubble of energy that blotted out the whole sky. "Well…" I said slowly as I sat up. "That could have gone better. Now anyone know where the fuck we actually are?" Because wherever it was, I couldn't imagine being there was a good thing.