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

[Malcolm Tent]

We arrived back at the Hermetic Hall in a hurry. Elodie, sensing our approach, appeared before us, ethereal as ever, her brow furrowed in confusion. "You're returned," she said slowly. "What can I do for you? I'm afraid if you wish to challenge again, you may not-"

"We need help!" I blurted out. Deanna was swaying on her feet, Ever since we'd emerged into the less suppressed area around the Hermetic Hall she'd been unsteady. She said that Drexel was trying to force the change back to Chloe to take over. We hadn't even known he could DO that, but gods gonna be gods, and that was the reality, so we were all kind of panicking.

Elodie blinked in surprise. "What are you talking about? What's happening?"

I blurted out the story in the most concise way possible, tripping over my own words as I spoke so fast my mouth barely kept up with my thoughts. Luckily, Elodie was an A-ranker, so she had no issues following my speech.

"The Mindplague?" she muttered worriedly. "I've never heard of it. But I don't like the sound of that at all. You were right to come here. Unfortunately, I'm not able to make the decision to help her. I'm just a keeper. The Master of this Hall is my Lord's firstborn son, Kane. He'll be the one you need to speak to."

I nodded quickly. "Understood, but can you do something to help her?" I nodded at Deanna. "If he breaks out we're screwed." I very carefully didn't say his name. I wasn't sure if I needed to be a carrier for it to transfer but it didn't seem worth taking the chance. Keeping things vague should be safer.

She frowned. "Get her inside. The Hermetic Hall is a hall of sealing. Just like it sealed your Domain before it should be able to suppress this darkness for now, at least until we can beg Kane to intercede."

Nodding, I swept Deanna up and rushed forward, carrying her into the hall at my top speed. This time, the statues didn't try to intervene, probably because we had Elodie's permission, and once we made it inside, I felt a surge of terrifying power descend from above, slamming me to my knees and shrouding both Deanna and I in bright light.

Suddenly, everything special about me just…vanished. Like someone flipping a light switch. My strength, my speed, my Domain, my connection to Callie. All of it went out like the flame of a candle in a harsh draft, and I was left gasping on the floor, feeling for all the world like a new born baby screaming my first breath. I dropped Deanna, writhing on the tile as I tried to process what was happening, and then…it was over.

I sat up gasping, my lungs heaving like great bellows, flexing with all the power of my nearly one million points of Might. It took a second, but I finally stabilized, blinked around at the others as I reestablished my equilibrium.

Staggering to my feet, I wheezed out "What the hell was THAT?" at Elodie.

"That was the Hermit's Hold," she said bluntly. "The top tier suppression of the Hermetic Hall. Otherwise how did you think we were planning to seal a god, fragment or not? You're fine, it's not permanent, obviously. It just took a second to calibrate properly. We didn't want to risk messing up the suppression. How's your friend doing?"

I grumbled in annoyance at not being warned for a second, then turned and knelt to check on Deanna. Triggering Dantalion, I scanned her as best I could, checking for any signs of either Chloe or Drexel. I got nothing. As I was checking, she groaned and her eyes fluttered open.

"Shane?" she rasped. "What happened?"

I stood, pulling her up with me. "You were almost forcibly possessed. Elodie activated the Hermetic Hall's defenses and suppressed Drexel's influence, but it's only temporary. If we want a proper seal, we need to talk to Kane, Deveskane's first born."

"I'll escort you back," Elodie said formally. "Kane doesn't guard any of the trials, he has his own chambers." Her voice sounded more…respectful, than it had before. Like she was observing a strict etiquette.

Frowning at her, I raised an eyebrow. "What are you not telling me?"

"A great many things," she said bluntly. "But I've said all I can. Are you going to follow me back or not? Payment will need to be discussed with Lord Kane himself."

"Not like I have much choice then," I sighed. "Lead on." I gestured ahead of us, allowing her to go first (not that it mattered, given the immense rank disparity). She didn't need to be told twice. Gesturing for us to follow, she led us down a long hallway, stopping in front a mural painted across the back of a rounded alcove with a statue in it. She reached up and pressed the eyes of the statue and it began to turn, the stone floor grinding as it dropped away to reveal a tight spiral staircase.

We descended, and when we reached the bottom Elodie flicked her fingers, lighting a row of torches along a long, thin corridor lined with teal engraved panels made of some kind of smooth stone. The flickering flames cast an eerie light across the engravings, creating a sort of movement effect that made it look like dark creatures were waging war across the walls, only inches away from us.

Finally, we reached the end and she gestured us forward. "He's on the other side of the mirror," she warned. "Just…be careful. He doesn't like being disrespected, so keep your comments polite. If you remember that you should be fine."

Normally I'd have made a joke about how I was always polite, but we didn't really have the time. I nodded and then stepped forward to look into the mirror. I reached up, and so did my reflection, and when we touched, things…flipped. I didn't know how to describe it, but I was inside the mirror and he was outside. Or nothing was outside? I didn't know, but I was somewhere else now.

That became even clearer as I turned and took in the complete lack of other people around me. The others didn't seem to have followed me. I assumed Deanna at least had stepped through, but maybe they'd separated us somehow.

"Huh, creepy mirror hallway," I observed. "I'm sure this will end well."

A chuckle rolled up from the depths of the darkened hall, bouncing off the walls until it sounded like an army was laughing at me. "It might, oh chosen of Atlas."

I blinked at that. "Wait…you know who Atlas is? Adam Atlas? The Heretic God?"

"I do," the voice said softly. "After all, I was one of his worshippers when I was human. He died before my ascension, so I doubt he remembers me. At one time, he was quite popular." The voice, still bouncing creepily out of the darkness, paused. "Well, are you going to come down here, or are we going to shout at each other across this hall all day?"

"Sure," I said dryly. "That's not ominous at all. I'll just head into the depths of this dark forbidding hallway where no one can hear me scream."

The voice chimed in cheerfully. "I could hear you scream."

"Not helping," I said ruefully as I strode into the dark. "But thanks for trying." The hallway seemed very similar to start, but the deeper I got the more things seemed to change. Finally I arrived at the end of the hall where a middle aged man sat sipping a cup of tea. He was sitting in an overstuffed chair sipping his drink and reading a book, and he smiled urbanely when he spotted me. A roaring fire lit the space, but one I hadn't seen until I entered the circle of light it cast. "Kane, I presume. Or should I call you by your full name, Deveskane?"

He beamed at me. "Well reasoned. Not wholly accurate, but not wholly inaccurate either. I am not Deveskane, per se, but I am a memory of him. The other memories manifested into independent beings, but I, as the first, was the most heavily imprinted with the personality of my former self. So I both am and am not Deveskane, though you may call me that, if you wish."

"Well, in the spirit of honesty I'm not Atlas's champion," I clarified. "My wife is. We have a soul bond, which is probably what you're sensing."

He hummed, nodding in understanding. "I see. That explains a few things."

"Yeah," I said, choosing to change the subject. "So, do you also know Drexel, or…" I tried to lead him back to the topic at hand.

He shook his head. "No. I got a basic understanding of the creature from the scan during my suppression, but I don't recognize it. I suspect it predated me by quite some time, and possibly Atlas himself. Hard to say. Regardless, the fragment is malicious and quite petty. You were right to bring your friend here. Had she succumbed to the possession fully there would have been no chance to save her."

I sighed in relief. "So there IS a chance. You can help?"

"I can," he nodded. "In fact, it would even benefit me to do so. Such a fragment would provide me with fascinating research material for quite some time. The question, however, is whether I CHOOSE to do so."

"I assumed you would demand a price," I sighed. "Go ahead. What do you want? Need me to steal something? That's a popular request."

He grinned. "Oh not at all. In fact, I want you to do the exact opposite. If you came here for Atlas, I assume you're heading to the Temple Mount?" I could practically hear the capital letters, but I had no idea what the term meant.

"I…guess?" I said slowly.

He snorted. "The Temple Mount was Atlas's personal mortuary. It was where he interred the corpses of the gods he killed. I assume you know why such a thing would be useful?"

"God flesh can be used in certain rituals to resurrect dead deities," I confirmed. "I've been involved with that kind of thing before. You're saying Atlas has the materials needed for his resurrection there? But you don't want me to take them?"

"Not take," he assured me. "Place. I want you to carry a fragment of Deveskane with you to the Temple Mount. As for my reasons…I couldn't tell you. I just feel that you might accomplish something. I don't know what measures he may have taken there, or how it will be useful, I just feel very strongly this is an opportunity. Divine instinct can be quite prescient, you know."

I wasn't sure either. God flesh was only one of the necessary ingredients for divine resurrection, and I didn't even think I knew what all of them WERE. The rituals the vanished gods used had involved some nasty stuff on Hatescream's part. Still, I wasn't against the idea of carrying a divine fragment with me, especially not once we headed deeper into the Chasm. It wouldn't be doing much anyway.

"Fine," I said after thinking it through. "I agree, just help me save my friend."

"Very well," he said energetically, surging to his feet and clapping his hands together. "An adventure then. What fun. I'll be keeping the fragment of the Mindplague, of course?"

"Yeah, sure," I waved him off. "I don't want it. It's all yours. When do we get Deanna in here?"

He chuckled at that. "Why, she's already here." He snapped his fingers and the fire flared, the light circle expanding and revealing a large flat ceremonial table, with Deanna lying atop on top of it, apparently unconscious. "Now then, how would you like to assist me with a bit of psychic surgery? Yes? Excellent, then let the operation begin!"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Kane escorted me over to the table where Deanna lay, gesturing for me to stand opposite him as he took up a position on one side of her. I glanced down at my friend, noting the serene expression on her face with relief. It seemed that whatever Kane was doing wasn't painful at least.

Honestly, I didn't know Deanna that well. She was our guide to get here, and she'd helped me out back at Mourne Kayze, but I was smart enough to realize there was a bit of transference going on here. I was used to traveling with my friends, taking care of my own as best I could no matter what was a reflex for me these days. I could have taken a step back, accepted reality and just left her here or something…but I didn't WANT to do that.

Deanna was one of my people. Maybe a recent one, maybe a temporary one, but that didn't matter. I was the Wishmaster, damn it, and I was already responsible for the lives and happiness of a massive intergalactic clan. If I couldn't even safeguard the friends who were actually WITH me, then what business did I have trying to run a faction?

Beyond that, I just WANTED to help. Deanna's relationship with Chloe reminded me a little bit of me and my sister. Not the overt stuff, obviously, but just the amount of care they took of each other, even when they weren't around the other. If Chelsea was in a situation like this, I'd want someone to help her as best they could. I knew how much Chloe meant to her sister, and I liked both girls too. I didn't want to see Chloe gone or Deanna suffer, much less watch either girl die.

"So, how do we do this?" I asked Kane bluntly. "And what do you need me to do?"

"The process is intensive, but not complicated," he assured me. "It can essentially be divided into five steps. Step one is isolation. We need to seal the souls inside the body individually to suppress them. Once the original occupants are sealed, we then initiate step two and UNSEAL the intruder, allowing it to become ascendant inside the body."

I blinked at him. "Your solution to them being possessed is to LET them be possessed? This is sounding less like a medical procedure and more like the insistent promises of a guy trying to sell me a moon."

He snorted. "In order to act with impunity on the invading influence, it needs to be in control. We bring it to the surface so we can act on it freely. Which brings us to step three. Preparing a secondary vessel. That'll be what I need YOUR help with. When I suppressed your abilities earlier, I got a good sense of your capabilities. Can you imbue a sphere of that crafted material with your Leviathan power?"

That was a good question. I wasn't sure. Leviathan wasn't an ACTIVE ability, exactly. Like it was, but not one I could imbue or pass on. It wasn't like Belial's toxic fire or Zagan's purifying flame. Leviathan was an internal state of protection.

Closing my eyes, I started to calculate. What would I need to do to make that happen? I'd need a physical medium, but Agares took care of that, and Agares COULD be imbued with other abilities like the Heretic Fire. Leviathan wasn't a transmissible state, but I had ways of getting around that too. Piece of Mind could imbue a copy of my mind into the sphere and then I could use Leviathan on THAT.

But Agares wasn't conjuration. I couldn't make something from nothing. I opened my eyes to look at Kane. "I need stone. Preferably ground to dust. I can handle B-rank material, but nothing stronger. I don't have the tools to work that."

"Shouldn't be an issue," he assured me. "The fragment implanted is C-rank, presumably because of the restrictions in place at the location of implantation. Otherwise it wouldn't be so simple to seal and extract it. A B-rank prison artifact will be more than acceptable. Do you have any specific material requirements beyond rank?"

I shook my head. "No, past that it doesn't matter." Whatever he gave me would be reduced to dust and reconstructed anyway. I paused. "Actually…do you think you could get me some A-rank materials. I want to try something."

Agares was a demon of construction, but his power of disintegration came from Pit of Despair, who had recently merged with BRAD. Brad who could create casual holes in VOID ROADS, which shouldn't be possible.

He shrugged, waving a hand, and there was a ripple in the air. A block of stone materialized in front of me, plummeting to the floor with a bang that shook the whole room. I nodded my thanks then called Agares to incarnate into me. Just to be safe, I also called up Brad, manifesting his power inside me at the same time, and then I triggered my staff's upgrade skill, pushing Agares to B-rank.

I focused on the stone, calling Brad's power through me, and I pushed the power of Pit of Despair to its fullest.

It took a second, then another, but slowly, ever so slowly, the A-ranked stone began to disintegrate. Bit by bit, little by little, dust flaked off it, collection on the ground beneath the block. It took ages. Minutes at a time. I had no clue why the hell Brad could do this instantly to the Void Road but it was taking me the better part of a half hour, but I wasn't complaining. Theoretically I should NOT be able to disintegrate and A-ranked stone block, no matter how overpowered my techniques or Domain were.

Once it finished, I reached for the dust with Agares. Because Pit of Despair and Brad were one, and Pit of Despair was part of Agares, I could FEEL the dust, like a part of my body that had fallen asleep, slowly coming back to life as the power of Agares filled it.

"This isn't going to be fast," I panted. "If that's a problem tell me and I'll switch to something weaker."

"No," he said firmly. "The better the prison the easier the final two steps will be. Creating a link and then sealing the intruder would normally need to be done very precisely, but if you can construct a prison that can withstand the pressure, I can greatly improve the speed and reliability of the process." I nodded at that, and then got back to work on constructing the orb.

That took an hour. I had to manually imbue every GRAIN of dust with B-rank power over time to fill them up, like trying to use an eye dropped to fill a pitcher. But I kept at it, pushing forward, and finally all of it was saturated. I reached for Piece of Mind, manifesting a parallel inside the pile even as I slowly sculpted it into a sphere.

It wasn't a matter of just thinking about it either. When I completed the sphere, it was still rough and patchwork. I packed it all together and then had to slowly polish it, grinding away the excess space inside and purifying the gaps until finally, about three HOURS later, I had a complete sphere of A-rank material. Inside the sphere, a parallel of my mind sat, and it was child's play to reach out to it and, triggering the rank up ability of my staff again, imbue it with Leviathan.

The sphere pulsed with power, the glassy black surface flickering with arcane green light. I held it out to Kane, my eyes opening as I shakily passed it over to the former god. "How is this?"

His eyes locked on the sphere as he took it, wide with enthusiasm and awe. "That…shouldn't be possible. You just used some kind of Divine power. But not. What a strange sensation. I'm not sure what to make of that. It is, however, quite satisfactory for our purposes. You've done very well. Allow me to complete the rest of the procedure while you recover."

I nodded slumping over onto my side as I watched him begin the process. He tossed the sphere up casually, and it froze above Deanna, hanging in midair as if sitting on a pedestal. Then he gestured and that same suppressing light he'd used on my descended from above and landed on Deanna again.

As I watched, she began to squirm in place, her body moving and leaving behind a frozen, translucent outline. Then another beam of light descended and another outline was pinned in place. The body sat up with a gasp, eyes flying open, and I saw a glow I recognized from the eyes of that skull on the tower door. The head jerked to stare at me, lips peeling back, but Kane didn't give Drexel a chance to talk. Lifting a short cane, he smacked Deanna's body on the head, driving it forward to thump into the prison.

A bright light shot through the cane and her head to touch the orb, and as she drew away, a trail of light came with her.

Grinning maliciously, Kane slammed the cane on the floor and the light flooded the room. This time it didn't come from above, but from all around us. I watched it slowly close in on Deanna, and as I watched, another outline manifested over her body, this one the same suffocating darkness I'd seen in the tower.

Slowly, an inch at a time, the light surrounded her body and began to contract, condensing the darkness until it was the size of a marble, at which point it pushed the marble down the tube of light connecting her head and the sphere and into the orb, as Deanna fell back to the table, unconscious. The orb flashed, then shook, and I heard a rumble as Drexel tried his best to escape. Wordless screams of incoherent rage wracked the orb as it shuddered and leapt as if trying to escape.

Finally, the shaking stopped, the orb resuming its eerie stillness. Kane tapped his cane twice, the suppressing light shattering and drifting away in the ether. Deanna groaned, and before my eyes, melted away into the familiar form of Chloe, whose eyes fluttered as she woke up. "Owwww," she moaned, clutching her head. Kane snatched the sphere away before she could bump into it when sitting up, and she looked around blearily. "What happened?"

It was so similar to what her sister had said earlier that I couldn't help but snort out a laugh. Once I did that, it was over. I couldn't hold back anymore. I broke down cackling, leaning my cheek against the cool floor as I released all the pent up tension I'd felt on the way over here. I filled her in on what happened, and she looked frightened, but still grateful.

Suddenly, I stopped, then started cursing. Chloe frowned at me, looking confused. "What? What is it?"

"I forgot to get that fucking PHOENIX EMBER," I snapped. "I was so focused on saving you that I didn't even LOOK for it!" She stared at me for a second, then SHE started laughing, and I picked it back up. In retrospect, it actually was pretty funny.

Climbing to my feet, I stretched and then offered her my hand, helping her off the table, then I turned to Kane. He was holding the orb in one hand, spinning it on a finger like a ball. "Thank you," I told him tiredly. "So much. Now, can you bring me this fragment I'm supposed to be carrying with me. And do you happen to have some sort of MAP to the Temple Mount? Or at least a general idea of distance?" From his apologetic smile, I was guessing the answer was no, but that was fine. Guess it was back to the road for us.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"We should go back," Brad announced boldly as we followed the arrow of Heretic Fire towards what I was assuming was the Temple Mount. "We can totally get in and out without him noticing! I can make a big hole in the tower!"

"He IS the tower," I groaned. "How would he POSSIBLY not notice that? Also, we barely got out last time. We're not going back. Trust me, I WANT that cinder, but it's not worth the risk. He's too big of a threat." It took a serious effort not to say Drexel's name, but now that we were clear of him I was taking no chances.

Which was why I refused to entertain the idea of raiding the tower for that cinder. I wanted to. I wanted to do it SO bad, but I knew that it wasn't responsible. Chloe had almost died and taken Deanna with her, and I wasn't risking anyone else. Even my demons weren't safe.

"It's just not fair," he spat angrily. "You did the right thing! You cared about your friend and helped and you LOST out because of it. To have a treasure that was in your grasp snatched away like that…it's unimaginable!" His voice was almost shaking with rage, which seemed odd…until I remembered who Brad was. Brad was a pit. Specifically one that had held treasure. For him, possession was more than just an act, it was his nature, and now he was part of my Domain. I was his king, so handing over the arrowhead wasn't too big of a taboo, but the idea of someone stealing something he considered mine was anathema.

I clapped him on the shoulder gently. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm not too upset. Easy come easy go. I know about the cinder now, and I can look for another one, but I can't replace a friend so easily. People aren't like items, there's only ever one of them."

It was easy to forget Brad was essentially a newborn. The pit had gained sentience recently, and gained form even MORE recently. He had essentially only been a person for a few weeks. As his king, it was my job to teach him about life, and that included more than just showing him around and laughing when he tried spicy food for the first time (which had been hilarious).

Brad nodded seriously. "I see. So friends are a different kind of treasure."

"You could think of it that way," I nodded. "Let me put it this way. A pit isn't just a place to conceal objects, it can also be a refuge. The high walls can keep away predators, and the overhang can be used to get out of the rain. In fact, lots of defensive emplacements are built inside of pits. Cellars, bunkers, all sorts of things. You can't just think of a pit as an absence of material, you should also think of it as the presence of absence. Empty space can be used to create living areas, fortifications, all sorts of things people need in their daily life."

He bit his lip. "Presence of absence," he said slowly. "Fascinating. I feel…drawn to that idea."

"I'm not surprised," I told him. "Pit of Despair, who you merged with, is a part of Agares. In terms of seniority, you could consider Agares your big brother, and Agares's whole worldview is about construction. You should get in touch with him, I bet he could teach you a lot."

He nodded thoughtfully, strolling ahead. I hung back, watching him go with a smile. Brad might be a little odd, but he was a good kid. And it was nice having someone look up to me. Not like the demons did, that was a little uncomfortable, but like a kid brother. I'd missed a lot of sibling interaction with Chelsea growing up, and seeing Chloe and Deanna's relationship made me with I had a younger sibling like that.

After a few weeks of travel, I was getting fond of the kid, but time would tell. Dayna, meanwhile, was staring at me oddly, and I cocked my head as I settled into step next to her. "What's up?"

"You meant that," she said bluntly. "About not being worried about the cinder. About friends being more important. Despite how much power it would have brought you. I've been around you long enough to know you REALLY wanted that thing, it must be a huge opportunity, and you're just…giving it up. To keep us safe."

I laughed at that. "Of course," I said cheerfully. "Do I want that thing? Hell yeah. But don't get it twisted. Power is for protecting the things you care about, the things you care about aren't for protecting power. Getting too obsessed with how strong you are isn't a good thing. I want to gain power to live longer, to protect my loved ones, to enjoy life. I want to help my family and keep them safe, make sure innocent relatives don't get separated from their parents because of some nonsense game. That's why I became the Wishmaster."

She just blinked at me. "I…don't know how to respond to that. That's madness. You're aiming to become a GOD, right?"

"Sure, because gods are immortal. I want to achieve divinity with my wife and all my friends. Not sure if I can DO that, but I want to try." I shrugged. "That and I think growing and learning is fun and interesting. Like I won't pretend I don't LIKE being strong. Obviously if I have a chance to get better I'll take it. But you have to remember what you're fighting for. Otherwise you're not fighting at all, you're just throwing a tantrum."

She was staring at me like I was a lunatic, and I just laughed. "Look, I'm not some kind of saint. That's my mom. I'm a selfish guy. My friends make me happy. I love them. Love having them in my life. If something happened to them I'd feel like shit, so I do my best to get strong enough that it doesn't. Same with my family. I care about them, gods know WHY because they're all assholes, but I do. I want to make things better for them because it'll make ME feel better to do it."

"I'm not sure there's a difference," she said wryly.

"Like hell there's not," I snorted. "I know people who do good just to do good. My wife is like that. Despite all the bullshit her dad put her through, Callie cares about other people. She genuinely wants to help. To make the universe a better place. She makes me a better person just by being near her, and I doubt I'd be even as concerned with people as I am without her. But that's not me. Callie is a hero. I'm just a stubborn asshole with a possessive streak."

Dayna was staring at me now, and I could see something like…awe on her face. I looked away. I didn't like that. Dayna was a friend, I didn't want her looking at me like the demons did. "I think," she said quietly. "That you give yourself too little credit. And that maybe I see what Lady Bethany sees in you."

"None of that," I said with an uncomfortable laugh. "Helping out a friend isn't some big achievement. Besides, you'll change your tune the next time you have to save me from the idiotic consequences of my own actions. It happens a lot."

I glanced back in time to see her bare her teeth in a wolfish grin, the odd look vanishing as she barked out a laugh. "Now THAT I believe. So, what did that spirit give you, anyway?"

"Kane?" I asked. "He gave me a fragment of Deveskane's soul. A very small one, from what I can tell." I reached into my Domain, withdrawing a shard of mirrored glass about the size of my palm. "It doesn't seem to be aware. Or maybe it's sleeping. He didn't tell me what to do with it though, just said he could sense I would be able to put it to use."

She stared at it in fascination. "A shard of a dead god," she muttered. "Strange."

"Very much so," I agreed. "But it's not like this is the only one we'll be running into. While he couldn't tell me where it WAS, Kane did tell me a bit more about the Temple Mount. Apparently, in order to enter, we need to pass through a place called the "Valley of the Broken Gods". It's some kind of repository for trapped fragments of the various dead gods inside. You need to pass through a gauntlet of them to enter."

She flinched. "A GAUNTLET of gods?"

"Heavily suppressed ones, I suspect," I reassured her. "Given where we're headed. And at the same level I'm not scared of anyone. It's lucky the Temple Mount is in here, because a defense mechanism like that would be impassable in the outside world. Anyway, once we're through there, we enter the outer layer of the mount, the mortuary. Beyond that, and up the slope, is the Acropolis. He's not sure what's in there, since he's never been, but he said if Atlas left behind some sort of backup plan, it would probably be in there."

That seemed to give her pause. "If you're sure," she said after a moment. "I promised Lady Bethany I wouldn't let you get yourself killed. If this was before I'd have been hesitant, but you HAVE just dealt with two different gods. I guess you know what you're doing."

"Let's not go crazy," I said wryly. "I wouldn't say all that. But I like the confidence."

We both laughed, and then we settled into a brisk walk, not bothering to talk anymore. We'd said what needed saying, and we were both fascinated by the surrounding environment of the Chaos Chasm. As we walked deeper in, the scenery changed. First a forest, then a meadow, then a canyon. The changes were dizzying, far surpassing variety you would see in a natural world, but the deeper we got the more variety there was.

More than that, I could feel the pressure mounting, the force of restriction from the vortex growing as we approached the center. By the time we spotted the mountain in the distance, it was at mid C-rank. My stats were only that high, though I made a mental note to check on that. After becoming Wishmaster I probably shouldn't wait too long between stat updates, otherwise I might end up biting off more than I could chew. My thoughts were drawn away from that concept though, by the appearance of the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount, contrary to what Kane had implied, was not ONE mountain. Rather, it was a whole RING of them. A huge wall of nearly sheer cliffs piercing the sky. Directly ahead of us, set into the side of the cliffs, a single crack extended into the depths of the mountains. Outside it, a pair of huge statues towered like silent guardians, faces long since worn away by wind and rain.

I held up the pointer. "I think we found it," I said dryly. I moved it back and forth, and sure enough, the arrow remained locked. "Alright everyone, Domain time. This part I need to do alone."

No one argued, though a few of them looked unhappy. In a blink, I was alone, and I strode forward toward the crevice with unwavering purpose. Whatever waited in there, I would get past it, I would help my friends, help Atlas, and hopefully resolve the burgeoning Void War while I was at it. Then, once everyone was at peace, we would all be able to relax and live our lives, and I could get down to the business of fixing my family. On second thought, maybe I would prefer to deal with the war after all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Stepping into the crevice that was the Valley of Broken Gods was a surreal experience. In some ways, it just looked like an empty cave, but I got a palpable sensation of otherness on entry. Or rather, several senses of otherness. Such as: a hungry beast lurking in the darkness, a shadowy presence waiting at the top of the stairs, the sensation insects crawling through my veins, and about a dozen others all unique and nearly impossible to put into words, colliding inside my brain in the worst way.

Leviathan's protective warmth rolled through me, melting the encroaching frost of the conflicting auras like warm sunshine blazing down over new fallen snow. I let out a long, slow breath as the conflicting energies cleared away, stepping deeper inside and looking for any visible sign of what I was sensing.

It didn't take me long. The walls of the crevice were lined with shrines. Nothing fancy, just some rectangular stone boxes with peaked rooves set into indents equidistantly along the wall. Each box had a small door made of opaque glass set into the front of it, and from behind the glass I could see various glows of different colors, shades, and intensities. The two closest were red and green respectively.

I stepped forward, and the omnipresent auras faded into the background as two of them slammed down with bonerattling force, nearly driving me to my knees. "MORTAL!" boomed a growling voice. "SUBMIT!"

Gritting my teeth, I turned to the blood red aura, which was the one that had spoken. "Bite me," I said bluntly.

This was not a god. This was a fragment. These were all fragments, which meant they were all dead and that wouldn't be changing unless I decided to change it. Which I wouldn't. I saw no reason to be polite with these things, especially not while they were actively attacking.

"YOU DARE!" howled the voice. "Do you know who I am? I am Alrax the Decimator! I am the great beast who dwells within the blood red sun! I am the unceasing ferocity of the unending chase, the screaming terror of impending doom! I am-"

"Dead," I finished for him. "For a while now. Which means you're no longer any of those things."

A ringing snicker split the air. "He's got you there, Rax. You're just a jumped up ghost with an attitude problem now."

"Like you're any better Alraune," rumbled the first voice. "The might god of insidious whispers reduced to a muttering nuisance. You're one step up from commentary section at a children's blood ritual."

I blinked. "I…a what? Nevermind. I'm going to move on if you guys don't need anyth-"

"HALT!" boomed Alrax. "Go no further, mortal! To pass through our influence, one must be worthy! You are not. To prove yourself worthy of my acknowledgement, I require a mighty warrior who has lived a live of strength and violence. You are but a suckling babe of a single score of years, I find you wanting and reject your passage!"

When I tried to continue, a wall of force smashed me down to my knees, and it became clear that I absolutely would not be bypassing this hurdle by forcing it. I glared at the red window. "Theres got to be fifty gods down here, there's no way any one person could pass all the tests, right?"

"It is possible," he intoned. "But yes, very difficult. That is why the Valley of Broken Gods has kept intruders out of the Acropolis for…hey, what are you doing? Stop that! Get back on the ground."

I grinned at him as I rose, stretching expansively with an exaggerated yawn. "Thanks for that. I had a crick in my back. I'm good now."

"Impossible!" he spat. "I just assessed you! You weren't worthy! You should be unable to pass!"

Smirking, I stepped forward, hitting another wall as the green window flared. "Interesting," said the second voice, the god Alraune apparently. "You have some means of bypassing the tests, but those means are manual and must be activated. Curious. How did you do it?"

"I have the strength of ten men because my heart is pure," I answered sarcastically. "Now what's your qualification?"

In reality, I had cheated. When he mentioned the qualification of being a lifelong warrior, it occurred to me that I HAD warriors in my court. I'd incarnated Abaddon, letting his entire life roll through my head, and it had allowed me to pass unhindered through the wall of force.

The green voice paused for a moment and then sighed. "Very well. I was Alraune, as my oafish brother already revealed, I was the god of insidious whispers. Secrets revealed in the dark and unmentionable deeds were my purview. But my true love, my most treasured pastime, was subversion. Not the secrets themselves, nor the whispers, but the extrication of that forbidden knowledge with guile and grace."

Nodding, I let the power of Abaddon fade away as I called forth Belial. Sure enough, as soon as my first form manifested in my body, the wall of force faded, and I was able to pass easily forward.

The issue was that incarnation was not a casual act. I hadn't allowed most of my court to dwell within my body, and there was a reason for that. Trying to process a whole other life, and more than that, two other lives counting Leviathan. After a slight pause, I triggered Piece of Mind, manifesting a parallel and putting it in charge of running the other selves. My main brain was immediately freed up from the quagmire, and I let out a sigh of relief as I stepped forward to stand in front of the next shrine.

Rather than bullrush through and get stopped, I just waited, and the yellow light behind the glazed glass pulsed warmly as a cheerful feminine voice all but sang. "Oh, hello! A visitor, how exciting. My name is Mara, goddess of, happiness, love and cherished kinship. Those who wish to pass through my trial must have strong and enduring affection for others and prove their regard with word and deed."

I frowned, not sure which demon to manifest, but before I could decide, the voice continued. "I see you are a caring and affectionate person, and you are welcome to pass. Be safe along your journey, and please feel free to come by again and visit. It does get a bit monotonous down here."

"Thanks," I said slowly. "I just…pass? Like I'm allowed through right away? No hoops?"

"I'm not sure what a hoop is," she said happily. "But it sounds delicious. And yes, you're free to pass. You're a wonderful person, from what I can tell, and I wish you luck and wisdom on your journey."

"Well, thank you," I said lamely. "That's very nice. I was expecting more pushback on that."

I nodded gratefully to the shrine and then moved on, approaching the next shrine, a sky blue glow flickering behind the window. "Halt," intoned a gravelly voice. "You stand before the great got Durrus, lord of earth and stone, master of stoic protection. Only staunch defenders may pass my trial, those who remain implacable against unrelenting force."

This time I did hit the wall, and I admitted that was fair. Luckily I had this covered. Mornax made an appearance, and the life of my most durable defensive form was an easy pass for Durras's trial.

I couldn't help but feel a little in awe of Atlas's security features on this place. I assumed there was some kind of back way or alternate route to get in since there was no way having twenty legendary heroes on hand to get you past this every time was sustainable, but this was SO perfectly suited to me that it blew my mind.

Had he foreseen I'd be here? Had he influenced my choices to make this happen? Was it just a crazy coincidence like so many things involving gods? Was it somehow all three of those things? I genuinely had no idea, but I completely understood why I would be the one who needed to come to this place to access whatever plans he'd left behind. The only way through this place if you weren't ME was a huge team of incredibly specific people with very focused personalities.

The next shrine was a bit more ominous. Darkness. Not like an absence of light, but like tangible black energy clinging to the inside of the window. The voice that spoke this time was dull and distant, like the whisper of dead leaves over a cold grave. "Mortal," it whispered. "What is it you seek?"

"I mean…this is a hallway," I pointed out. "And I'm already partway down it. I'm not sure how much clearer I could make my intentions."

The voice laughed darkly. "That isn't what I asked. I asked what you SEEK. What is your deepest desire?" I frowned at that. It sounded…familiar. I stepped forward, and the voice spoke up. "You never ans-hm?" It stopped, trailing off. "I sense the power of the wish. You are worthy to pass. How interesting. Your divine blood, from whence does it come?"

"My ancestor is Alistair Wyndham," I said without bothering to conceal anything. Either this thing wasn't a problem or it WAS and I didn't want to piss it off. "They call him the Wishmaster."

"A boastful moniker," it sneered. "Ill suited to a creature of subtlety."

I shrugged. "Not sure I'd call him that. Guessing you don't know him. Was wondering if you were like…my grandcestor or something."

"Your blood smells of familiar power," it said slowly. "Child, know this. You stand before the last remnants of Rylant, god of poison desire. Should you wish to explore your gifts, to understand the heights to which the power of the wish can be polished, return to this place. Your bloodline is novel, but its might pales in comparison to the true force that can be unleashed by the desires of the heart."

That should have been an interesting concept, and I might have been tempted, but before I could respond, I got…almost a premonition. A flash of insight so strong that it nearly drove me to the ground.

Rylant's wish power was fundamentally opposed to my nature. The god of poisoned desire stood as the antithesis to my ancestor's concept of the wish. Fairness, balance, technical perfection. The principal that both parties benefit and making those benefits more than the sum of their parts.

My ancestor was kind of a dick, but he was a FAIR dick. He did his best to remain impartial and to give people what they wanted, as long as he got something out of it. Rylant was different. Rylant was like those genies from the old stories. His entire purpose was to twist and subvert the desires of others, to use their wishes for his own ends. He was closer to someone like my dad than the old man.

"I'll keep it in mind," I said slowly. I wouldn't, not personally, but I wasn't against letting my dad know about this place and this particular god. I suspected he could use the information for something, and if he could, that meant I could extract payment from HIM, which had already come in handy a few times. His more flexible wishes had helped me out of a couple jams.

Rylant went silent, no longer deigning to speak to me now that he'd said his piece, and I moved onto the next shrine. One by one, I passed through them, using the incarnations to bypass each individual requirement, until finally, after one or two dozen of the damned things, I emerged from the crevice, from the Valley of Broken Gods, into a massive…place.

I didn't have words to describe the hollow in the ring of mountains, its sheer size beggaring my imagination, but I DID recognize some of the smaller mountains inside the ring. The corpses of gods. I sighed as I glanced around. Now what the hell was I supposed to do NEXT? Then I paused. Actually, I didn't need to figure that out. I had access to a primary source. Time to contact Callie and have her wake up her old man. I had some questions for Adam Atlas, and I wasn't going to be ignored this time.