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

[Malcolm Tent]

The descent into the dark wasn't as stressful as I imagined. Climbing down into nothingness had seemed like something that would seriously freak me out, but honestly it was almost cathartic. Of course, it was hard to be worried with Bethy gleefully chattering in my ear.

"I really liked the dresses. Like the color wasn't the best, but it worked better than I thought, right? And Gabe and Chelsea looked super cute, and Jessie too of course. And I guess Benny looked ok and you were super handsome and Callie looked beautiful and Randall was so adorable in his little suit."

Chuckling at the fact that she seemed to not need to breathe and then reminding myself she was a vampire, I couldn't help but get sucked in. "Well I'm glad you liked it. Was that your first wedding?"

She shook her head quickly, hair whipping me in the face. "Oh not at all. But I'm usually not really part of them. Some of my siblings have gotten married, but I was just in the audience and the color palate was always too much black. I liked that Callie decided to break things up with a pop of color, because too much black is all sad and dour and weddings should be happy times you know?"

When I reached the ground, I dropped onto hard packed soil, setting off down a tunnel carved into the dirt and rock. "Well it sounds like you had fun. Shame we didn't get to have the reception. Callie was really excited about that cake."

Before she could respond, I came to a stop. We'd reached the entrance to the dark district. Bethy gave me a puzzled look from over my shoulder. "What's up? You see something?"

"Nope." I said as I set her down. "Just need to drop my stealth for this part. Some setup for the plan." Closing my eyes, I reached for my new form, ready to trigger it and begin the operation, though I hadn't tested it TOO thoroughly.

When considering my needs, I'd come across a few inescapable facts. First up, I needed a way to counter Travis, which, barring the ability to teleport consistently (and I didn't really have the foundation to build that since my one and only teleport was reactive for the most part) I needed to be able to be in more than one place at the same time.

That fed into my other need, exposed by the extreme damage of keeping three forms at once, the need to have greater access to my now decent sized arsenal of abilities without burning myself out.

Thus, I'd begun a grueling month of heavy research and methodical testing using what I had to create something that I could genuinely count on to fill those roles. It had taken a lot, considering the biggest factor was the ability to use forms without or with greatly reduced soul weight. I'd had to make a lot of trades, and rework the patterns about a hundred times, researching heavily in my skill construction book before I stumbled on the answer.
First off, I hadn't been able to use Afterburner this time. While a staple, it was actually TOO powerful, and had unbalanced the form. Secondly, I'd needed to use four skills as a base, and I'd needed them to produce more power than the sum of their parts, which meant I'd had to stack the stats again. This time I'd managed to incorporate two stats in the stacking, Perception and Might, something I'd only managed thanks to the book, Piece of Mind assisted research, and Callie helping out during the construction process.

I'd finally completed my new form only a few days ago. Shadow Clone, Piece of Mind, Stone Limb, and Dust Construction. It had taken some reworking to get it stable, with Stone Limb needing to be heavily retooled specifically to work with Dust Construction, but after weeks of trial and error I had finally finished it.

The sixth form of the Goetia staff art: Beelzebub. Based on the proverbial lord of the flies, it allowed me to manifest twelve copies of myself (thirteen of me total) and dispatch them to function totally independently. There was no range limit, and I could communicate remotely with them.

There WERE a few tradeoffs. They could only use a single form at a time, and I couldn't control or inhabit that many bodies at once. The parallels in those bodies were independent, even if they could check in and talk to me.

Structuring that had been hellishly difficult, and I'd only managed it by studying the Expert version of Paired Dueling and figuring out how the telepathic link worked for Callie and I. THe upsides to it were that the parallels seemed to possess either a soul of their own or at the very least some kind of amplifier, because I'd stumbled onto a way to use soul straining techniques like forms without straining my main soul.

Beelzebub itself was SLIGHTLY more strenuous than a normal form, but not enough to prevent me from using a second form at the same time. It was my crowning achievement in Skill construction to date, and without heavily abusing Piece of Mind to work at enhanced efficiency and help from Callie through the bond, I'd never have managed it.

Of course, the other me's didn't need to be told the plan. They were me. Using Bael to remain hidden, they all set off to their proper places immediately, ready to do the job.

"Wow, that was amazing." Bethy said, wide eyed. "Those all felt like real people. How did you do that? Wait…can I do that?" I was about to respond when she raised a hand and waved it, an identical Bethy appearing next to her. She put her hands on her hips and laughed cockily. "Hah! See, that's not so tough. Now there are two of me!"

Other Bethy looked at her in confusion. "Meow?" She said. She didn't actually meow, just said the word. Bethy, coughed in embarrassment and waved her hand, the clone dispersing. "Well, now that we've seen I can do it there's no need to keep another me around. One Bethy is already the perfect amount."
I had to shove down a laugh, because she wasn't wrong. "Alright, with them dispatched, we're ready to get going." I looked down past the edge of the tunnel out into the dark district, and winced. "Man this is going to suck. I can see a ton of E-rankers down there…and a lot of bodies. Attacks are dropping left and right. Even in stealth we'll need to be careful."

My Danger Sense would hopefully come in handy. I was also going to try to engage Eye of Revelation through the armor upgrade and my overlay at the same time. Combined with my early warning system I would hopefully be able to get us through unscathed.

"We're going to be moving as fast as I can without fucking up my stealth." I informed Bethy as I readied myself to run. "You ready for that?"

I'd have to keep my speed manageable to avoid the sonic booms screwing up my stealth, but as long as I didn't go over seven hundred and fifty miles per hour I would still be within tolerance. Mephisto's Waltz would have added to my movement abilities as it was made to, but sadly I was already using Beelzebub and Bael so running would have to do. Making sure we were still hidden, I breathed deeply, readying myself for the run, and then…I moved.

It felt shockingly good to just…run. State of Grace let me move more freely without the drag one would normally face at those speeds, though that was more for comfort than any real need, and my overlay combined with Eye of Revelation and Danger Sense…the three abilities kind of blurred together in one huge gestalt of movement.

My feet hit the ground like raindrops, barely touching down before the next step, and my body shifted through the line of free space like I was dancing. Sliding under blasts of energy, leaping over beasts, slipping between blades and hammers and bullets.

My Danger Sense played its warnings like a symphony, background music to the blurred lightshow of arrows and paths and attacks as I flitted through the madness, ignoring all of it, unstained by the reality of the world as I rode the music. Somewhere in my mind, I felt a click as I understood Mephisto's Waltz on a far deeper level, though the exact effects of that realization were a mystery to me at the moment.

And then…it was done. I was standing perfectly unscathed at the entrance to E-district. THe elevators were clearly out as a means of transport, but the dark districts were connected to E-district at certain spots. They were the unranked battlefields and the place where the E-rankers sent their best to win them honor and wealth.

Bethy hopped down excitedly. "Wow! That was awesome! You were like 'whoosh, whiz, fwip'. Sliding right between all those attacks!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Fwip?"

She shrugged. "When you avoided that ballista bolt covered in aquamarine acid jelly?"
That brought me up short. "Actually, that kind of was a fwip. Fair enough. Now we just have to get through this last barrier into E-district and you can let everyone out. How are you feeling by the way? Is keeping so many people in your Domain tough?"

"Not really." She said cheerfully. "It's kind of a strain, but a VERY small one for each person. Added together, less than seventy or so people is only a little tough. I'm good for a while still."

Grinning, I nodded. "Well lets not strain you more than necessary anyway. Come on, lets go."

We walked into a small, nondescript building, a bar called the 'Break of Don' and headed for the back. Abel had mentioned this place, since he'd been here before. It was old and creaky, but well cared for. It didn't take long to find the device Abel had mentioned.

The thing we were looking for was a strange multicolored music player. The top was a glass enclosure full of discs with music recorded on them (somehow, I had no idea how someone would go about engraving music on a physical medium like that, I didn't see any runes). We were supposed to press a letter and number, then another, then a third. Each one would play a song, and the three songs together were a password.

I tapped in the three that I'd been given, and the boxy device slid smoothly away from the wall, revealing yet ANOTHER ladder well. We climbed in, Bethy first and then me, and the machine slid back into place as the darkness swallowed us.

At the bottom was another tunnel, and we walked for maybe ten minutes before reaching a big metal door with a wheel release. We turned it slowly, and it opened out onto a hill in a forest.

Above us, I saw a familiar sky and grinned. E-district. It had been more than a year since I'd set eyes on this place, and it was oddly nostalgic. Bethy looked around calmly, having been much more interesting places than this.

"Alright." I said as I finished surveying the place. "I need to head to the temple all the way in the back. The Moravian lives down here apparently. He's the oldest E-ranker on the planet, and most likely the one with the most pull. If anyone can swing the others down here to our side it'll be him. Sadly I can't just take control of the WCP branch, and I really don't want to pay them all. Release the others and have them try to approach anyone they think they can sway. More motivation can't hurt."

This was technically part of the war, so chances were good convincing them would be easier than I thought, but having a representative with clout wouldn't hurt. The Moravian himself was apparently a friend of Zeke's and even knew my mom, and would be willing to hear me out for their sakes. As Bethy started releasing our people, I set off. Now it was time to go meet the oldest man in the world.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Moravian's temple wasn't hard to find. In fact, knowing where it was, I couldn't have missed it if I tried. Not because it was some big flashy palace, but because it was literally the opposite of that. The temple looked…old. Like seriously old. It was built from weathered stones stacked on top of each other in an almost crude version of a log cabin.

Externally, the building was probably fifteen feet high and ten feet wide. It looked more like a tool shed than a temple in some ways.

But in others, it was truly staggering. Impact. The building was so far past anything else on the planet I could barely process it. Not D-rank, not quite, but right on the edge of the watershed. Ninety nine points of Impact. I wondered how he'd been able to make this, what process allowed him to create this building.

Sadly, my curiosity would have to wait. I had a meeting. I walked up to the metal door of the temple, rapping on it gently.

"Enter." Came a solemn voice. I glanced around, looking for any traps just in case, but Eye of Revelation was mostly silent. Pushing open the door, I stepped into the temple proper, unsurprisingly quite a bit bigger on the inside.

Still, not a huge building, even with spatial expansion. The interior was maybe a hundred feet by a hundred feet. The layout was simple, open air, with actual waterfalls on each side creating a sort of lake moat around a single central stone island. The floor of the island was covered with a soft, spongy carpet of moss.

In the center, sitting at a rough wooden table, was an old man. He wasn't ancient, or wizened, more stout than anything. The Moravian was a large man, about seven feet tall, with iron grey hair and a close cut beard. His long locks were bound up in a simple ponytail and his clothes were roughspun cloth.

Despite the simple appearance of everything there, including his apparel, I could practically smell the enchantments coming off them. Not runes, not exactly. More like man made formations. It was like every thread was carefully chosen to create a pattern that baked magic into every inch of his clothing.

He smiled gently at me as he gestured to the table. "Please." He said serenely. "Have a seat. I'm brewing tea. I grow it myself, you know."

Not wanting to be rude, I crossed the small bridge of stones leading across the moat. The waterfall on the front wall poured down over it, the stream shattering when it hit the large stone archway, not actually touching anyone entering, but creating fractals of light as it broke outward into banks of mist that floated above the island and temple.

Reaching the island, I sat in the hand carved chair across from him, and he slowly filled a porcelain cup with tea from a clay pot. As it hit the cup, small waves of steam came up, shifting and forming into strange patterns. "You're a formation Master, I take it?"

He smiled gently. "I've always felt a pull to the mysteries of the natural world. I travelled extensively in my youth, and was lucky enough to refine my soul, severing my shackles. When I returned home and realized I could never reach D-rank here, I wasn't discouraged. I simple realized I was gifted the chance to reach beyond what I was."

"This whole place is a formation." I said without any doubt. "A Grandmaster level formation?"

The Moravian smiled. "All things are born of the world, and in their birth enter the pattern. To return to oneness, to become a part of that whole once more, that is simply a state of grace. Grace can be powerful, if you let it."

"The Impact." I said with a nod. "You're collecting it. Why? You can't reach D-rank, not without destroying the planet. I assume the same issue would apply to the temple."

"Ah, and yet, once can surpass the limit and not reach heaven in a single step. Should the building pierce the veil without reaching the next rank, what would happen?" His eyes sharpened, despite his vagaries.

I was following though. "You're saying if you pass one hundred Impact without actually breaking into D-rank it would be enough to push the planet to D-rank?"

"Perhaps not all the way." He admitted. "But momentum is a curious thing. A little goes a long way. It would begin the process, at least. But you aren't here about me, or about my power. At least not this aspect of it."

"I need backup." I admitted. "My mom and uncle say they know you. That you're good people. They said you'll help me."

He shrugged. "Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. Even one such as I doesn't reach my age in an environment like this without acting in my own interests. There may be power in grace, but there is rarely fairness. For the sake of my own goals, I cannot extend a hand in aid without expecting silver to grace my palm. So to speak."

"Yeah, you want to get paid." I said with an eye roll. "I know how my role in the WCP works. I can afford to pay, but not everyone. I don't have the cash to hire this many E-rankers, at least not long term. That's why I came to you. This isn't exactly part of the candidacy."

Sighing, the big man shook his head. "Symbolism, my boy. I seek payment not in coin, but in virtue."

"Can you talk like a normal fucking person please?" I snapped. "I'm on a schedule, and your cryptic bullshit is wasting time. Can you help me or not? And what will it cost me?"

Another sigh. "So impatient. My speech aligns with the world, as does all things. But very well. I shall be brief. This temple IS a formation. It gathers minute traces of Impact from across the planet. However, this occupation has shifted Callus into an unbalanced state. The natural formation of which this temple is a linchpin is out of balance."

"So you want me to…what? Go leave some rocks in a special place to fix it?" I asked cautiously. "Because time constraints aside I don't know formations."

He shook his head. "Unnecessary. In all Chaos there is Cosmos. What could be seen as a trial may also be an opportunity." At my impatient growl he sighed again, clarifying. "Formations are about patterns amid patterns. We are restrained. Kept captive on our own world. The planet itself is subjugated and under rule. To break free of one set of chains may symbolize freedom from another."

"You're talking about breaking through to D-rank?" I said with wide eyes. "The whole planet?"

"Even so." He nodded. "But what happens in the larger scheme must mirror the minimal. To break the shackles of E-rank is an opportunity I had thought wouldn't come for centuries yet. To seize this opportunity we must walk the path arrayed before us. Free the world and you will free the world. This is payment. Balance. Do you accept?"

"I mean…sure?" I said in confusion. "I was going to do that anyway. It's literally why I'm here."

He shook his head. "Intent is paramount. To free the world from its bonds is an act of deliberation. So too must your act of liberating us all. If you simply accomplish the goal with no intention, it lacks the trappings of ritual. Even the self begets the pattern. You must accept with knowledge. Move with purpose."

"Talking to you gives me a headache." I said bluntly. "Fine. Help me rally the rest of the E-rankers and I'll liberate the planet. Completing your little formation can only be a good thing for me. I want my loved ones to be safe." I paused. "What's going to happen when the planet breaks through, exactly?"

"The rest will follow." He said bluntly. "So many of us are on the edge of Ascension. With room to breathe we'll all reach the peak in a single exhalation. I imagine the phenomena will be quite spectacular. Perhaps not all one hundred, but certainly dozens at least. I imagine you will benefit quite immensely yourself."

I didn't doubt it. Renown was weighted by rank. A hundred fresh D-rankers pouring all their attention onto us was bound to be a big bump. Probably not enough to get me the rest of the way to D-rank, I wasn't delusional, but it would help me get closer for sure. Not just me either. Callie, Jessie, Benny, we'd all get a ton of renown off this. Hell, if we involved the cold storage crew it would be even more.

"We need you to get up into the Unity building and liberate the executives up there." I told him. "Will they accept your help?"

I was relieved by his nod. "I am not at the mercy of a faction. Unity, Palace, I simply am. I have been of great assistance ot most on this planet. Becoming part of the fabric of this world, making this temple the eye of a planetary formation, required a colossal effort of amalgamation. They know me. Will trust me. Worry not."

"Fine." I said with a sigh. "That's one thing taken care of. I'll be with you all, at least for most of it. Though we'll have to go slow. Traps and all."

Chuckling, the big man shook his head. "Traps I can deal with. As mentioned, all things are within the pattern. Disruptions are notable. To constrain me with passive defenses is beyond the skill of any on this world. Especially so close to my own seat of power. I know this corner of the world."

"Really?" I blinked. "You can just sense traps through the formation Skill? I guess Grandmaster is nothing to sneeze at." Honestly, he was kind of giving me a headache just being around him. His every movement seemed to be in harmony with nature, like he WAS a formation, and it kind of hurt to look at. I got the feeling that trying to fight him here would be a VERY bad idea, despite the lack of active or passive defenses.

Luckily, he was friendly, if a little abstruse and irritating. I supposed spending three thousand years studying naturally occurring magic in a hermit temple underground would make my social Skills rusty too.

Standing, I offered a hand. "I appreciate the help, in any case. I have to get going, we'll be heading up soon and I need to make sure my people are ready. If you could spread the word about us all leaving I'd appreciate it."

"It shall be done." He said solemnly, taking my hand. It was an odd sensation, like I suddenly became part of something larger. Then he let go and I was back to being normal me. I picked up the tea, quaffing it before I left. It was pretty good. Weirdly it seemed to kickstart my fate sense.

Once I was outside, I found Bethy waiting, alongside Abel, Gabe, and Chelsea. "We good to go?"

I explained the whole thing to them. Chelsea looked fascinated. "That's amazing. So if we can get through this the whole world will rank up?"

"Apparently." I said with a shrug. "I didn't follow all of it. He's not exactly the picture of clarity. Anyway, we have our backup. Between our own people, the people down here, and the E-rankers we have left over from mom's people, we have about a hundred even. With another twenty or so upstairs to be rescued, once we've got them we should be able to start planning the attack on Wintervale."

We just needed enough people to get into the cold storage. Luckily, gaining new people wasn't the only reason I came here. I mentally checked on my clones, grinning at the progress. If I had my way, not only would our forces grow, theirs would shrink. It would all happen in G-district. We just had to get Callie's family out first, then my grand plan could begin.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, you ready for this?" Benny asked as we regrouped near the exit. As Stella had mentioned, there was a direct connection into the Unity building through one of the secret exits that had been set up to let out into one of the temples. The Unity and the WCP had a long history on Callus, and there were plenty of friendships across the divide.

We were currently standing at the headquarters of some kind of snake based Ascendant I hadn't really heard of, one who was close with one of the local Unity executives. They'd arranged for our entry into the tower, and the layout we had gave us a general idea of where we'd end up.

"It'll be fine." I said bluntly. "I'll make sure to remain in my Bael form. They won't know I'm with the group, and the plan should draw any of them off if I'm not there."

He nodded thoughtfully. "So what IS the plan. You keep mentioning it."

"Don't worry about it." I said with a wave. "Suffice to say it involves versions of me drawing off as many of them as possible in the most obvious way. Based on what we saw in Trevally, they're under orders to prioritize me. As for where they end up…you'll see."

"You're getting much better at this stuff than I expected." Admitted my best friend. "Making plans and stuff. You're not exactly a chessmaster."

I smirked. "Tactics aren't about chess. They're about figuring out what people want and using it against them. Sort of like granting wishes. And my fatewalker build doesn't exactly hurt. Anyway, looks like its about time to head in."

Gesturing forward, I pointed to a giant snake statue. Before our eyes, its lower jaw descended, leaving behind a stone tunnel that fed down and then straight back up, the tail pointing us through the body toward the sky. Once we got to the upswing it became steep, and we started climbing rather than walking, using the stone handholds easily enough.

It went on for longer than it should have, and it became clear some spatial fuckery was at work, but finally, we reached the end of the tail. I opened a trap door, emerging from the tunnel into a cramped closet filled with towels.

Moving out of the way, I peeked out of the closet, expecting to find the place abandoned. To my shock, a small blonde woman with a ruby crown was seated daintily on a loveseat, watching what appeared to be security footage of people in various hallways. A quick comparison with Callie's map convinced me these were nearby, and as I watched, the woman hit a few buttons on a remote and an unoccupied hallway shifted, one wall coming down and another rising from the ground and clicking into place as another flooded with red gold flames.

"Dynamic movement." I said thoughtlessly. Then I remembered I'd just broken into this person's penthouse. I immediately triggered Mornax as she whirled and attacked me. I cursed myself for considering her an ally out of hand and forgetting to activate Bael as soon as I came out.

A small army of birds made of rosegold fire screeched toward me, slamming into the stone skin of my defensive form and dissolving into a series of very hot, very contained explosives. "Wait!" Shrieked a familiar voice. "Dielli! It's me! He's a friend!" The woman froze as Stella came shuffling out of the closet, holding up her hands in surrender.

"Stacy?" She scowled. "Call ahead next time. And did Asp let you in here? That emergency exit was my escape route if they got too close."

Stella nodded. "He did, but it's fine. You can still leave. In fact, we're here to get everyone out. This is a rescue mission. We even have a solid fallback position. Actually, why are you still here?"

"Paul." She said with a grimace. "He ordered the executives to take active control of the defenses. It's working for the moment, you know how well configured our defensive systems are. But they've got the bodies to just throw at us, and those Wendigos are shockingly hardy. There's no chance you're going to be able to get past them all. There's hundreds of them. Paul just doesn't want to lose the building."

Chuckling, I let Mornax fall. "I wouldn't worry about that. I'll make a hole. Can I use one of your rooms for a bit? It would be best if I had somewhere quiet to coordinate this next part." It was about time for the fun to begin. I'd gotten the messages that everything was ready, and the timing was a bit sensitive. I hadn't been expecting it to work that quickly.

She glanced at Stella questioningly, but then shrugged. "Sure, there's a guest bedroom up the stairs. If it'll help, it's yours."

Tipping my crown to her in a way I immediately regretted because it probably made me look like a moron, I turned and headed up the steps. This was going to be a risk, but if it paid off we should be able to both get everyone out of here and seriously damage their numbers. Of course, it would also most likely kill hundreds of people, which I was…less sanguine about.

But I would do what was necessary to get my friends out of this trap, even if it meant staining my hands with more blood than I'd ever imagined. They'd started this, not us.

When I found that room, I sat down on the bed, crossing my legs at the ankles and closing my eyes. Using the same mechanic as the bond, I was able to reach out and tap into the senses of some of my clones. I picked a specific one, not taking control but more using the telepathy to backseat drive a little bit.

The version of me in question was standing in a familiar tent inside the circus. He was opening a hidden compartment, removing a familiar rolled up piece of paper. The deed to the Circus, left in a very specific place due to an agreement between Abel and his brother. Cicero had the deed but had agreed not to use it unless there was an emergency. This qualified.

Clutching the paper, my clone contacted me. "Are the others in place? I managed to pick up a decent amount of stragglers. Blasting around with Mephisto's Waltz was definitely as attention grabbing as you said."

"Just about." I confirmed. "The rest of them had to hit street level and move around for a while. But between our Might and the Waltz, not to mention Danger Sense, they mostly made it fine. We lost two, but I planned for an attrition rate. Just get ready. You remember how it works?"

A mental affirmative allowed me to relax as the rest of them got in position. This wasn't a delicate operation, but it was going to need to be well times.

Back in the day, Cicero had wanted to take control of the defenses in the circus to drive out the invaders. Abel had been wary, worrying he'd use them to try to leverage his position with the other members of the district, and so he had hidden the deed inside a labyrinth made by the same guy who had sealed the planet.

I'd retrieved it as part of a contract, but Abel had come back and we'd defended the place without tapping into the defenses (or if we had it wasn't near me).

This was important, because much like the defenses on the tower, the defenses in the WCP were dynamic, and sectioned off. Burning Fist, Cark's old boss, had the rest of the district under his control, and had the deeds on him. He'd handed them over, and I'd been able to send them down to G-district with my clones, most of them taking detours on the way.

As they'd entered, they'd dragged in as many of the enemy as possible, luring them with the promise of capturing their boss's one true target. Sure, there was some confusion when they noticed there was more than one of me, but that just added to the chaos.

Now ten versions of me (two had died) were down in G-district with control of the dynamic defenses, trapped down there with several hundred Ascendants.

The defenses, interestingly, were designed to be infused with the power of the user. In this case G-rankers. They were essentially giant amplifiers that let you wield your abilities at a massive scale to overpower enemies, but only within your area of influence.

My plan was based on the rank limitation, as well as the properties of some of my attacks. Once everything was ready, I had all of my clones dismiss Mephistopheles. I'd have liked to use a combo for this, but the clones could only use one form at a time. That didn't matter too much though.

Every single clone, at my signal, shifted into Belial, and with a word, they activated the defenses. Ten different E-rankers flooded the defensive constructs of G-district with the most overpowering corrosion possible, stacking Mercy Kill, Afterburner, and any other boost possible on the attacks as they funneled them through defenses.

In the distance, I heard a colossal roar as I lost contact with all ten of my clones at the same time, the form collapsing as the other me's died. I waited a minute to confirm, then stood up and walked out, strolling through the penthouse to look out the window overlooking Rajak.

In the distance, I could see a massive pit in the city, and I grimaced. One of the two destroyed clones had been placed to evacuate before he descended into G-district, and I hoped he'd managed it.

By using the strongest possible corrosion and overloading the defenses with way too much Impact, I'd essentially detonated them like supercharged acid bombs. G-district, built from mostly G-ranked materials, hadn't stood a chance. The entire district and all the ground above it had collapsed on top of about three hundred enemy Ascendants, crushing and then presumably melting them. The districts were compartmented, so it shouldn't do anything to any of the others now that the clones had died and the corrosion had lost its effect.

Hundreds dead, just to distract the invaders and whittle down their numbers. I'd grown numb to doing what I had to in order to take down the enemy, but this was a rough one, even for me. I felt a surge of fierce pride and love through the bond, and smiled, the burden easing. Callie was always the moral compass of our relationship. If she didn't hate me over this, I should be fine.

Turning from the window, I addressed the staring crowd. "I didn't get them all." I said apologetically. "But that should be a big enough chunk to seriously throw off their operation here. Let's go get the others before they regroup. We need to be out of here before reinforcements arrive. That won't work twice."

There were still a little under seven hundred Ascendant occupiers on the planet, and barring bullshit cheating plans (which I was out of) I had zero chance of taking them on directly with my current forces.

No one argued, they just kind of stared, some of them looking out the window at the gaping hole in the city. It was certainly something to look at.

I could understand the shock. A combination of Zeke knowing the defenses incredibly well, this planet being very low tier, and the districts having a design that lent itself to this kind of attack in case of emergencies had made it possible. Still, I was pretty sure once this was over, I'd be getting a MASSIVE spike in renown.

Which was fine with me. I wanted to be as strong as possible going into this last battle. We'd need everything we had to crack the cold storage and free the others. Even once that was done, arranging the final push to get to Madigan and Travis would be a hell of a job. I was going to take my time with the planning though. I was determined to get it right.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We split up as we left the apartment. There were a ton of people here, not just executives, but staff, families, subordinates, and any number of other innocents we could and should rescue on our way out. Rajak was MUCH too big for the remaining two hundred enemy Ascendants to really crack down on after we left, but the Unity building was a prime target for focus.

That was why I'd drawn off so many of them with my clones. As the main target here, I was too good of a find to pass up, and they would have pulled as many as necessary to track me down. The thing was…I still had a bad feeling. Something was going on here. Travis had to have a plan in place for when we showed up.

My own plan had massively evened the playing field, but it didn't mean we were in the clear. Which was why we'd split up to make the best use of our time.

There were a LOT of hallways and floors to cover, and seventy E-rankers was barely enough to sweep them all in time. We'd gone with groups of three, Benny and Jessie were accompanying me, and we were heading for the top floor, where we would find Paul, Annie, and Eric.

If there was a trap, it would be up there. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would put a guard on Callie's family. Close or not, it was the common sense move.

I growled as I ducked under a spontaneous laser grid, then hopped over a pit that opened in the floor full of some kind of acid. My hand lashed out, plucking five darts from the air, my gloves preventing the poison on them from being absorbed into my skin.

Between my Eye of Revelation, Callie's trap senses, and the overlay, we were getting through the place at a steady pace, but steady wasn't fast. Stella had gone with her friend, using the pass through the defenses to get to the nearby executives, hopefully using THEIR defensive access to expand that perimeter as they went, but we were heading for the top directly so we had to go the slow way.

The stairwells were trapped to hell, but they were the only way up (lockdown had shut down the elevator) and we'd run into several Wendigos already, but we were finally up at the last floor. I was just about to open the door, when I felt my Danger Sense flare. Hard.

"Wait." I said, holding up a hand. "There's someone in here. Someone bad." This was the trap, the hook that had been set in Rajak to scoop me up. "Just like we planned. The two of you hit the next floor down. The vice guild master and her family are down there, have her help clear the rest of the floor and bring everyone you can up to help."

I'd made several contingencies for this, and rollover backup was the easiest to pull off. Midknight and Shadowthorn were inside, but Shadowthorn was F-rank last I heard, and Midknight…he wasn't on our level.

My friends didn't look happy, but they already had their orders. Mostly I was just worried about whatever trap was in here hurting them. I was versatile as hell, had my staff, and had plenty of escape measures. Benny and Jessie were far less mobile. Me being the one to check things out was the smart play.

Of course, I wasn't going to go in personally. I wasn't stupid. I conjured a clone through the bond, letting it step through the door for me while I waited outside. I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial, charging up that horrifyingly corrosive cosmic collapse.

Meanwhile, the clone stepped through the door carefully, a parallel controlling it directly so I could see everything it saw. I expected a trap, or an attack, or some kind of scene of carnage. Maybe some hostages or something. But to my surprise, the inside of the tap floor was mostly quiet, empty, and clean.

The sole concession to the situation was a man, sitting in a large chair, pleasantly waiting for me. His skin was dark metal, with rivets along the joints. He wasn't a golem like Yvette, I could just tell, he was an Ascendant. An E-ranker, but a damned powerful one.

"A Domain." I said as I peered more closely at the walls. "And a really strong one. Are you like Tartarus, gifted a Domain by a god?"

He smiled, exposing teeth of shining white metal. "You're well informed. Not quite. Tartarus was favored by his goddess above all others. I'm simply a lower initiate of the faith. It should be more than enough to deal with you, however. Welcome to my Cruel Construction. My Domain is built in the image of Stralthrem, god of Dread Fabrication. Maker of mechanical monsters."

The place didn't look like a lab or anything, just an upscale manor. But looking closer, I could see dozens of placements for possible weapons or traps.

This would have been a very bad situation for me if I'd come in directly. Domains grew in power based on the strength of the being whose story you were utilizing, as well as the number of people using that particular legend. At least the ones that you didn't create yourself, but I had no frame of reference for how a Domain founded on a real Saga worked.

Point was, this Domain came from the legend of a GOD. Sure, chances were good that given his mention of being a lower initiate this guy wasn't even close to the sole inheritor of this Domain, but still. I needed my big punch to count for something, so I needed to stall. Luckily, I had a lot of questions, so that worked out fine.

"Where is Callie's family? Did you already move them?" I glanced past him, through the domain and down the hall to a reinforced steel door.

He smiled warmly. "Not at all. Does one remove the bait from the hook before casting the line? They were smart enough to stay locked up behind their defenses. I didn't come here for them, so I left them to their own devices."

"Why are you here? And who are you?" I asked after a moment. "You seem strong, why would someone like you follow Travis?"

"My name is Nemal. Travis is one of Hatescream's direct disciples." He said with a shrug. "Those of us under the tutelage of a god try to stick together. This was a complicated plan, they sent me for cleanup in case it went wrong." He stood, waving his hand, and the ground opened up. From below, mechanical arms rose, holding bulky armored pieces. "If you have more questions ask them quickly. I don't have all day. I hope you don't mind if I put on my party clothes before the big event?"

He didn't seem to care for my answer, because as I watched, the arms affixed the bulky pieces to his body, bolting them in place. Shoulder plates, gauntlets, greaves. One piece at a time, his body was enlarged and reinforced.

The pieces were all E-rank, but I felt a sense of supreme danger from them. These were part of his Domain, something like physical techniques, and I could tell they would make his already staggering power even stronger. I'd never seen anything like this before, except…maybe I had. This was somewhat similar to Beelzebub. Solid techniques that could act independently.

Despite all that, I wasn't worried. I didn't flinch, or back down. I just waited. Behind me, power gathered. Dark armor penetrating flames mixed with corrosive poison magma, stewing together into a terrible substance that would eat through nearly any armor I could imagine. Afterburner was flowing through the attack already, as was Mercy Kill. Through the clone, I triggered Marked for Death on the armored juggernaut.

Finally, his transformation completed. Before me stood a colossal man covered head to to in high tech full body reinforcement. The only part remaining the same was his face, seemingly undersized against that giant metallic body. "You see my power. Surrender. I'll leave the others and take you to Wintervale. You can still save them."

"Yes." I said with a smile. "I can." And I triggered Double Trouble through the eyes of the clone.

Behind the monstrous mechanical giant, my main body appeared, staff raised as it smashed forward into the ball of black and green destruction. At the strike, a cone of ultra dense corrosion spewed out, coating the armored form, especially around the head and upper back.

Nemal screamed. His Domain was powerful, but everything about that attack was designed to boost one very specific trait. Armor destruction. His Domain was the worst possible matchup for my attack. I'd perfectly designed that technique to destroy him, and there was no way I could have more perfectly used that strike. Which was the only thing that saved me.
My Danger Sense went haywire , and I triggered Double Trouble again, this time targeting my own clone. As I reappeared behind it, I saw Nemal spin unnaturally fast, arms smashing down with so much force the building shook even through the domain as his fists cratered the floor where I'd been standing.

From that vantage, I could see the back of his head and shoulders, and I winced. The corrosion had eaten through huge chunks of armor, as well as the metallic back beneath it. Marked for Death had mostly bypassed the defenses, though the Domain partly countered the effect. It was enough to let the hyper corrosive charged attack get under the armor and start to erode the body of the champion.

He roared with pain and rage, then spun again. This time, when he charged, he was far enough out for me to see the thrusters hidden on his body push him forward. I triggered Mephisto's Waltz, blasting to the side as he blurred forward. My staff licked out, a blast of black flame striking his wrist at an angle to both boost my movement and divert his attack.

Bellowing with rage, he spun, glaring. The floor opened up again, and the arms emerged, holding tools and pieces of metal. He grunted in pain as the mechanical limbs began welding the metal to his body, cutting things free as they did their best to repair him. I raised my staff again, charging another Cosmic Collapse.

"This didn't need to be violent." He rumbled menacingly. "You could have been reasonable. Now I'm going to make it hurt. I won't just defeat you. I'll brutalize you. Beat you until no part of you is left unbroken, then drag your barely functional carcass out of this building by the ankle. I'll leave a trail of your blood streaked along the ground from here to Wintervale, a red road of carnage to mark the passage of the fool who dared to harm the scion of a god."

I shook my head. "Wow. I thought your Domain was mechanical in nature. But now I see I was wrong. Your power is something much more insidious. You're clearly a follower of the god of not shutting the fuck up. Already I can feel my willpower flagging as you slowly talk me to death."

He bared his teeth again, but this time the expression was far from a smile. "Little fool. Enjoy your false confidence while it lasts. It'll make it all the sweeter to watch the light of hope die in your eyes."

"I'm wearing a mask, dipshit." I responded kindly. "You can't see my eyes at all."

That seemed to be one insult too many. Shrugging his shoulders, he tore free of the working limbs, then charged forward at me like some giant metal battering ram. As I blasted aside, I triggered Moonlit Night, filling the Domain with fog to obscure my passage. I just needed to wait for another opening, and then the real fight could begin.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Nemal's charge was even faster than the last time. I had State of Grace active, but I knew for a fact it wouldn't be enough on its own. As usual though, techniques were the answer to my problems. Where Skills could and would let me down, techniques and my unusually developed Path were the keys to this fight, and Mephisto's Waltz traveled far more quickly than would normally be possible for someone my rank.

Combined with State of Grace, the space eating explosive power of the Waltz was at its best, and I was still using Afterburner on top of that, giving me some serious speed as I circled the mechanical monster I was fighting.

While the original armor had been blocky and dense, the repairs had shifted the suit from something like a giant robot to something more…alien. The metal was warped and twisted, almost biological in some ways, and too alien to process in others. Strange angles and shapes that weren't shapes marked the intersection of flesh and device, and as I watched, the more fleshlike metal sections actually expanded slowly, consuming Nemal.

This Domain was unusual, at least compared to the others I'd seen. Different Domains followed different stories, and from what I could tell, this was a Domain of repair and improvement. Rather than give direct combat power, it was designed to reinforce the user.

And it was…reinforcing him every second he stood still, grasping arms of mechanical artifice shooting from the ground when his advance paused. He couldn't see me exactly, but he could sense me somewhat. Imprecise as it was, it was damned dangerous. He kept getting faster and stronger, and while there had to be a limit, the Domain was constantly moving the needle.

It took five minutes before I found my opening. At the end of a lunge he'd tried to make a surprise, he spun with just the wrong timing, and the Cosmic Collapse was loosed.

This time I didn't bother with the back. I hit the one original part of his body. I detonated the attack right in his fucking face. The scream made it worse. Some of the corrosion went into his mouth, down his throat, and he choked on his own melting palate as he clawed at his face. Falling to a knee, he slammed his head into the ground, the arms rising to try to fix the damage.

I started hitting him. Nothing huge or powerful, but lots of small corrosive taps as I blurred around him, dodging attacks. The black flame acid combination of these two forms was still deadly, even without charge time, it was just slower.

Of course, he had a counter to it. His Domain repaired the damage as it spread, so it was a back and forth. Damage versus repair. Finally though, he realized what I already knew. I could keep doing this, keep stacking the attacks, and there was only so long he could maintain this Domain for.

Domains were powerful and versatile abilities, but they were also exhausting to the soul. Domain seeds like this one provided a powerful environment that boosted the Path, allowing for techniques beyond what that person's Fantasy would allow.

Nemal's Path was one of self repair and evolution, similar to Benny's in some ways. But he couldn't use it forever, and these powerful self repair techniques had to be straining him already. Aside from the limitations it put on future advancement, that strain was one of the reasons smart people with long term goals didn't create Domains early.

Much like Skills, a Domain needed to be suitable to you in order to minimize the strain. People like Bethy, who shared a racial trait with a genius who had consumed thousands of powerful Ascendants, were the lucky few. This guy definitely didn't warrant personal attention from his god, and the Domain couldn't be a good fit for him.

With the timer counting down, all he could do was to rush me, try his best to attack me. His fists blurred out, cracking the air and shaking the building as his sharp, jerky combat style covered as much ground as possible with as few openings as he could make.

It was a brutal, efficient style, obsessed with economy of motion to an absurd degree. It was like looking at an abstract painting of someone fighting. Strange poses and positions that somehow left him protected as he tried to sweep the whole Domain to take me apart, to break me before he lost this battle of attrition.

After about two minutes, I lost my ability to avoid completely. He attacked me in such wide swaths with such strange movements there was no way to dodge.

Luckily for me, that wasn't what these forms were about. I wasn't even sure that Mornax could tank this flurry of blows, but taking them on directly wasn't the name of the game. While Mephistopheles was my brute force form, Belial was not, and the two in combination gave me far more options than either did alone.

My powerful, amplified blows combined with Belial's mastery of leverage and deflection were my redoubt from the steel storm of burning writhing limbs. Each blow knocked off course by explosions of black flames as I ate up ground, shifting and moving as I dodged and wove together a dance of deflection and misdirection.

I'd spent so much time since I got here running and hiding. Holed up waiting for my chance to strike, preparing to make my move…and what had it gotten me?

Valk might be dead, Cicero might be with him. Callie was stuck in space as Travis, who had murdered our friend and broken my wife's heart, ran amok on my home planet, hurting and terrorizing MY people to his heart's content. And I was supposed to…what? Slip away again? Wait for reinforcements so I could run?

I couldn't stand it. Wouldn't allow it. This was my HOME. MY planet. These fucking heathen psychopaths couldn't just come here and push me around. The angrier I got, the more it fed into the black flames of hatred raging through me. The more the form seemed to resonate with me. I WAS Mephistopheles. Destruction made manifest.

Not just that. I was Belial. The deceiver, the lord or lies. I was never where he expected me, never did what I was supposed to. He was stronger than me, faster than me, more durable than me. Nemal was my better in every conceivable way.

I didn't give a fuck. Combat wasn't math. This wasn't some video game where I subtracted his damage output from my health points. This was my city. My planet. My world. He was just visiting, but he'd made a mistake coming here. You don't chase the devil into hell. Not if you want to keep you free will.

The more we danced, the more he fell into my Waltz, the more I could see the strings. He was like a puppet, jerking to and fro exactly as I wanted him to. My staff landed hard at ket point of his body whenever he moved, the corrosion leaking into him even more deeply, absorbing into his metallic body like water into a sponge.

Arms tried to repair, to counteract, but he couldn't sit still long enough. I felt…like a calamity. Like a force of nature. And suddenly, it clicked. I realized what had changed, what was different. All my techniques were single form moves. Some of them weren't form dependants, and I could shove two kinds of energy into them, like the cosmic collapse.

But I didn't have any DUAL form techniques. Not really. Not like this. The image was missing. Every single technique was a story. A legend of its own. And the stories of Belial and Mephistopheles weren't compatible with each other.

Except. They were. Because much like me and Benny, or me and Callie, they shared a connection. A root. A home. I felt the Waltz bridge the gap in a strange way, the dance the last little ingredient to wrap my head around what was necessary to bring all this power and emotion and intent into one crystallized concept.

"First Circle of Hell." I hissed in rage. "Limbo."

The hell of the undecided. The pit of desolation where dwell the uncertain and confused. Misdirection to shape perception, power to enforce the viewpoint. Even the Moonlight Night around us, the overlay, and the Eye of Revelation that shaped my understanding were part of it.

He sense the change, and I could almost see his mounting horror as it affected him. "Stop." Grated the invader. "Please!" His jerky alien martial art had been disrupted, his movements were growing stranger, small shifts in stance and posture, limbs jerked slightly out of line by pulses of black flame. In my Eye of Revelation a dozen spots appeared, ranging from green to dark angry red. I recognized them for what they were. Weaknesses to be exploited.

My staff smashed into the reddest spots, channeling torrents of corrosion and dark flame into the body. The arms flailed, trying to fix him, but his body shifted out of the way unwillingly. Limbo wasn't just about finding weaknesses, it was about MAKING them. I wasn't killing the invader, he was killing himself on my staff, step by step.

Limbs began to buckle and weaken, screams echoing through the fog as I slowly dissected my enemy, an alien sense of glee pervading my mind as the hatred and destruction mixed with the deception and manipulation into a dangerous cocktail of sadistic cheer at the thought of the fear and pain I was inflicting.

I was so lost in the sensation that I almost missed the alarm through the bond. Almost. My wife's fear and pleading struck me like a hammer blow, and I stopped on a dime. My staff was a split second from another strike, and as I regained my clarity, I realized that there was no more repairing going on.

Nemal was curled on the ground, twisted and broken, the Domain shattered. He wasn't screaming anymore, just whimpering. I let the fog break, washing it away as I stowed my staff in my ring.

That had been…awful. Like concentrated recursion pumping right into my brain. I'd done something wrong, something I shouldn't have done. There was no other explanation for that mental state. What exactly WAS Limbo? It wasn't a technique, not really. I'd thought it was, but something about it felt…different.

It hurt. My soul was in pain, not like the regular kind of pain from overstraining it either. I felt like I'd violated some kind of rule of the universe. Like I'd done something unnatural. Tried to flex a muscle I didn't have to lift something too heavy for me.

A hand landed on my shoulder, and I spun to attack, but froze when I saw who it was. Benny was behind me, face worried. I fell forward, and he grabbed me, hoisting me over his shoulder. He grimaced down at Nemal, then with a short, brutal motion, stomped down on the whimpering man's neck.

The body went limp, pain ceasing, and I let out a sigh of relief. I should have just cut my forms, but I wasn't sure that would have been enough. Death was kinder.

Benny carried me to the security door, pounding on it roughly. An intercom came alive, and talking ensued, but I wasn't processing. I was in my head, with Callie's presence wrapped tight around me, whispering in my mind that everything was going to be ok.

My vision started to go fuzzy after that, and it was a welcome relief. My part was done, now the evacuation would take us back to the fortress, and I could have Callie ask my mom what the actual fuck had just happened to me. Because I was terrified if I didn't find out, it would happen again, and I wasn't sure even my wife would be able to pull me back from the pit of horrible sadism I'd just been submerged in. The worries melted away as I blacked out completely. I'd have to deal with that problem when I woke up. For now, I had earned a rest.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I came back to consciousness in bed. My head was fuzzy, my body hurt, and I felt…off. Not like I had before at the Unity building. Less urgent. Like I'd wrenched my neck and every movement twinged, except in this case my neck was my soul. I groaned quietly as I sat up, and was immediately flooded with anxiety and relief.

Not MY anxiety and relief mind. Callie was in my head, her terror that I'd seriously and permanently injured myself like a jagged piece of glass in my mental eye. I couldn't think through the worry. As soon as she noticed that, she retracted the emotions, clamping down on the bond, and I sent a wave of love and comfort on the heels of her retreating panic.

"You're up." Said my best friend's voice in relief. "Good. You've been out for hours. We had no clue how to check what was wrong, and since everyone who might have been able to tell us isn't here, we were kind of stuck. Bethy seemed to have an idea what was going on though, and told us you would recover."

The vampire looked worried. "I said I was pretty sure. It seems a little like soul strain. But also recursion? You can get past both of those though. How do you feel?"

"Like someone just kicked my soul in the throat with steel toed boots on." I groaned. "But I am recovering. I'll check with Zeke and mom about this, but I don't think I can stay in Callie's head to talk to them."

The darkness in the room shifted, and I blinked in surprise as the shadow sculpted forms of my wife, mother, and uncle manifested in front of us. "You won't have to." Said Callie bluntly. "I'll handle the load for this conversation. Just let me work through your eyes, and relax, ok? Sasha came up with this workaround."

My mother's shadow form smiled worriedly at me. "How is your head, sweetheart? Are your thoughts muddled? Do you feel angry?"

"Not especially." I shrugged. "Confused and a little exasperated with myself. I take it I did something stupid."

"No stupider than usual." Said Zeke helpfully. "You just happened to run afoul of consequences this time. Apparently even your stupid luck isn't endless. You very nearly killed yourself. Or turned yourself into a lunatic. Which would have meant one of US would have had to kill you, so same thing."

My blood went cold. "So…Bethy was right? That was recursion? Why did it hit me like that?"

Zeke rolled his eyes. "See, this is why I despair for your future. You have all the information at your fingertips, but you don't put it together. Fine then, lets take it from the top. What did you do in your fight?"

I shrugged. "I made a technique. But like…not exactly. Sort of a mashup of techniques that I used to claim…ownership…of an area." I groaned. "I made a Domain."

"Nope, because if you had you would be dead." Corrected my uncle.

I flinched. "What? I know making a Domain early is bad, but it's not IMPOSSIBLE. Bethy has one."

"Bethy has a Domain based on an established legend. A Domain her father carries the weight of for her." He corrected me. "That's perfectly feasible, if a bad idea for long term growth. Your Domain wasn't like that, was it?"

I ran back over my thought process. It hadn't been. I'd even noted it while it was happening. How Mephistopheles and Belial didn't fit together. That had been part of why I had CHOSEN Mephistopheles. Zeke had implied a while ago that tapping into an established legend could help me later on. But I'd also learned that no one of consequence formed a Domain with a premade legend.

Mephistopheles was my solution to that. Introducing a disparate element meant that I was the originator of the legend of Solomon, at least the one about ME. Since the disparate thread meant I wasn't forming a Domain using the legend of the Ars Goetia… I paused. "What happens when you try to form a Domain of your own too early."

"A Path is a connection between the soul and the stats. Or more accurately, between the soul and belief of others. It allows you to leverage one with the other." My mother said patiently. "The reason Domains are formed on either a stable and realized story, or on a Saga, is because that foundation keeps that belief from affecting your soul directly." She waited for me to work through that on my own.

"So…I tried to form a Domain without a condensed Path in the form of a Chronicle or Saga and the weight fell on my soul directly, exposing it to contamination from my legend? Like…hyper concentrated recursion?" I sounded out the process in my head.

She shook her head. "No. You would be dead. Or insane. Like your uncle said. There IS a way to form something like a Domain at a lower rank. It's called a Pseudo Domain. A Chronicle would have been enough to handle that weight, but you don't have one. You formed a Pseudo Domain before forming your Chronicle."

"Even that should have killed you." Said Zeke bluntly. "But your bond let Callie leech off some of the damage, and then her influence let you shake off the recursion. Thank your wife kid, because she saved your absurdly lucky little neck."

I smiled adoringly at the shadow construct of Callie, who was staring at me in helpless grief. It took a second to tap the bond and feel what she was feeling, and less than a hundredth that time to cross the room and put my arms around her. "This is not your fault." I said sternly as I pulled back, holding her by the shoulders.

"I made you go to Rajak." She said quietly. "I knew there was a trap waiting there. We both did. It was common sense. But I guilted you into going anyway, and you almost died. I wanted to confirm my brother was safe, even if I don't care about my father and Annie, and I completely ignored your safety to do it."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh get over yourself." She blinked at me. "What? You think I wasn't going to hit Rajak anyway? The biggest concentration of E-rankers on the planet? That was the endgame no matter what. We NEED those E-rankers for the assault on Wintervale. We can't get the cold storage without them."

"But I-" She tired to interrupt, glowering at me.

"Was worried about your family." I interrupted. "I get it. And they're MY family too now. Eric is an innocent. A little kid with no sins on his head that needed help. A BLOOD relative of my wife. Annie pisses you off, but she's the mother of your half sibling, and hate him or not, your dad is still your dad. Just because he's a toxic biohazard dumpster fire of a person doesn't mean you want to know he died if you could have stopped it."

She swallowed hard, eyes misting with tears. "I don't know what I would have done if something happened to you." She whispered. "Especially if it was my fault."

"Well good thing it didn't." I said with a shrug. "I'm far too lucky and stupid to die. It's the perfect combination of traits to ensure I make it to my next disaster. You're stuck with me until I accidentally fail my way into godhood, I'm afraid."

She burst into a fit of nearly psychotic giggles. "That description does NOT help me feel better."

"I think I kind of knew what I was doing." I said slowly. "Not consciously. But the Pseudo Domain I made was a VERY small part of the whole. I made the first circle of hell, and that's only a ninth of the entire realm. Hell, maybe even less. This is MY hell after all. A brand new Domain based on my own legend. Maybe it has even more parts. Thirteen sounds good."

My fatewalker Path might have been pushing me just far enough off course to prevent me from dying or going crazy. "All I know is that I was fucked. I didn't have the power to take on that Domain. It was a god level Domain seed, and my normal tricks and techniques weren't working. I was going to die if I didn't pull out all the stops."

"You're not the first Ascendant to do something stupid and dangerous to survive." My mom admitted. "But you need to stop. Don't use that technique again. The next time you might not be so lucky. At least hold off until you form your Chronicle. That small measure of protection should be enough to make it at least survivable."
I hesitated, only to be interrupted by a shadowy hand upside the back of my head. "Your response to that request should be 'yes mother' you absolute dipshit." Spat Callie. "If you die and leave me a widow, or worse, force me to fucking KILL your rabid corpse, I am going to SUMMON you from the dead and seal your soul into a pair or fucking boots, in which I will walk through every sewer in the universe one by one until you apologize properly."

I put my hands up in surrender. "I got it." I said placatingly. "No Limbo. No pseudo domains. I still have another few forms to create anyway. I'll patch any deficiencies with those until I form my Chronicle."

"Which you shouldn't try to do until D-rank." My mother cut in. "It won't be as strong if you do it before the watershed. Not to mention you should complete and perfect all nine forms before you condense your Skill. Don't rush. Which I know is an alien concept to you, but you're FAR ahead of where you should be. Take your time."

Callie nodded approvingly. "What she said. Except with more threats. And maybe a joke or two." She pulled me against her. "I can't lose you. Not ever. And especially not now after we just committed to spending our lives together. I demand you become a god and live forever so I never have to see you die."

"That's the plan." I said with a laugh. "But you better keep up. I'll never let you live it down if I beat you to divinity."

She snorted, burying her head in my chest, and we sat there for a minute or two, just holding each other, feeling the love and support that only the bond could give us. Finally, she stepped back, letting out a long breath.

"I'll be coming back planetside before you move out. Which will NOT be soon." She said firmly. "A week at least, and I want regular checkups with Jessie and exposure to Benny. You need to be in top form for this. Until then, I'll stay here on overwatch. I want to make sure we have up to the minute information, or something close to it, for our final push."

I nodded sadly. The shadow was nice, but I missed Callie. Sleeping without her next to me made me feel off balance. I was so used to her being by my side. I could function, but it didn't feel right. I needed her back.

She took my hands, squeezing them tightly. "I know." She said softly. "Me too. But I'll be back with you soon. We'll kick the shit out of Travis, break the Labyrinth, and then have our godsdamned RECEPTION because we STILL haven't gotten to eat that fucking cake. I stashed it in my ring before we left. Shadow teleportation comes in handy at last."

I laughed, enjoying the way her face lit up at the thought of finally getting to celebrate our wedding. Plus she was right, I really wanted to try some of that fucking cake. Just one more sin Travis needed to answer for. And he was going to be paying with interest.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Things got surprisingly quiet after the big rescue. Or rather, we entered the calm before the storm. Our raid was echoing through the entire planet like thunder, and all of Callie's reports mentioned the aftereffects. Millions of tiny skirmishes, F-rankers and some of the few E-rankers we'd left in place taking any shots they could at their oppressors, more than a few managing to actually kill some of the vanished gods followers.

Of course, there was a lot more unhappy endings than happy ones. For every F-ranker who managed to take out a Wendigo, there were a dozen who got torn apart in front of their friends and allies.

Weirdly, that didn't seem to dissuade as much as enflame them. More incidents took place every day, and the number of enemies had dropped from about a thousand to something like six hundred and fifty. A colossal number of Wendigos and quite a few of their main force had been whittled away, and I'd gotten a LOT of the credit. I was more than happy to take the huge infusion of renown that might be one of the last boosts I got during this debacle.

At least…in the abstract. I was having a bit of trouble with exactly how this huge swing in popularity had come about. Namely, the absolute massacre I'd affected in G-district.

"You shouldn't let it get to you like this." Sighed Callie's voice in my head. "You know you did what you needed to do. You didn't pick this fight, they did, and they're even now hurting our people You did the right thing."

I laughed hollowly. "I know. I trust your moral compass more than my own. But it's harder to shrug off mass murder than having to put down somebody trying to actively kill me. Especially after that nightmare at the Unity building. Being in that headspace, feeling that satisfaction as I essentially tortured someone to death, that makes me sick. The justification for the massacre rings a bit hollow given how horrible that incident was."

"If anything, it should be the opposite." She sent firmly. "Those people WERE actively trying to kill you. Or at least capture you to BE killed. Every one of them followed you down there with that express intention. Killing all of them at once must feel awful, but their deaths were quick and probably mostly painless. No time to suffer. It's a stark contrast to what that…technique did to you."

"What it made me, you mean." I swallowed hard at the thought of it. "I was… I was a monster. And it felt GOOD. It's not even the fact that I did it that bothers me the most, bad as that sounds. I know he was an enemy and was straight up trying to kill me. It's that you felt that. I turned into the version of me that I fear becoming more than anything, and you had to watch that."

To my surprise, there wasn't even a flicker of doubt or disgust through the bond. "Recursion is a fickle bitch." She stated unequivocally. "I don't think worse of you for getting sucked into some supercharged version of it that made you get a little too vicious in a fight. That's what you did. Not who you are. I know who you are, Shane. Even if no one else does, I know better than anyone. You're the man who inspired hundreds of thousands of residents of this planet to stand up and take the fight to the enemy. To make a REAL difference in their own situation. You're a hero Shane. You're MY hero."

And she meant that. I knew it. Could feel it like I could feel the stone under my feet and the armor against my skin. It wasn't a cure all. I'd brushed aside what I'd done in the moment, but that was far more difficult inside the privacy of my own head. But it was enough. Another voice to counteract the one telling me I was an abomination. The only voice that really mattered.

I felt my body relax as I leaned back on the bed. I was still resting, the damage had taken about a week to fade, with nothing on my docket but wishes and resting. It had been extremely frustrating, but at least Callie had been keeping me company. We'd been similarly infuriated by our positions, and not being alone always helped.

This particular crisis of conscience had been brought on by my upcoming power boost. I had no clue exactly how much renown I'd gained after that mess, but all those points came soaked in the blood of…I forced myself to change my mental tone.

No reason to go back down the rabbit hole my wife had just pulled me out of. "Alright." I finally said. "I'm not going to take up all your time. I have some stats to process, and given the small percentage relative to my total, I'm not going to need help resisting the pressure. I'm sure you have your own boost to get to. Once you get back maybe we can download about our growth." I forced a tinge of competetiveness into my thoughts. "Maybe I was even able to keep up with the mighty godslayer."

She could feel my intention there, and of course, she played along. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it." She said condescendingly. "Even if you didn't catch up. I promise I won't let the big bad cultists hurt you." One of the upsides of the bond was that we always felt each other's intent. Even when she purposely gave the impression of taunting me, I got the aftertaste of joking affection. It was a subtext that never came with any verbal jabs, and one I appreciated.

Where that might normally have been borderline offensive to me, deep down, the teasing was comforting now. Progress wasn't worrying me anymore. Not after entering Limbo. Now I was more worried about consequences. She knew me well enough to know what was really bothering me, and I could feel the support through the bond. I wasn't going to lose it like that ever again. She wasn't going to let me.

I felt when she retreated from my head, taking a more remote view though not actually abandoning me. She was always with me when I needed her. Sighing, I got up from the bed and tried to…get ready.

It was stupid really. This influx of points wasn't somehow different or special because I got it from killing a bunch of people. Stats were stats. But it FELT different. Even without the baggage, it felt more portentous. Like it would change me, even though I knew that all stats changed me and this wouldn't be any different for that fact.

There was no downside to getting 'ready' though. I stretched, did some pushups, then realized my procrastination had become somewhat ridiculous and sat down with my legs crossed as I finally let the renown crash over me.

In the last week, I'd gotten four hundred and ninety points from wishes (mostly in Fantasy) so I had a decent scale to judge the changes I would be going through. Specifically, I'd accrued a staggering nine thousand, two hundred points receiving the adulation and revulsion of an entire planet of an entire captive planet and its captors.

Wishmaster candidate status. E-rank. Ability: Expert Wish- Seven times a day grant an Expert wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might-16,200
Impact-65
Fantasy-12,020
Vitality-12,242
Focus-11,920
Perception-13,004
Creation-10,054
Progress to next rank:75,505/100,000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body



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

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 41 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


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

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

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

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



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

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.
Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: comdensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground iself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches
Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction

Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance
Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner
Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.

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

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

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

There was so much to unpack there. Over four thousand Might, the payment for crushing hundreds of people, thousands of Focus, for pulling off a rebellion against an occupation in such a way that the average person probably thought I was a genius. And that last bit. The codification of my mistake, proof of my stupidity and short sightedness, and a lure of power I knew I couldn't follow.

I exhaled slowly. Three quarters of the way through. So close and yet so far away. I wondered how long it would be before I hit my limits. I couldn't break through here, not yet. When the formation pushed Callus over the edge though…would I be close enough to ride that wave to D-rank? And what would my life be like when I did? Without Zeke to protect and watch over me, how different would things be?"

But then…Zeke wasn't here now, was he? Hadn't been for more than a month. I'd been doing it on my own all this time, and I was still here. That thought helped center me, affirm my confidence, and steel my nerves.

Which, of course, was when the explosion rocked the fortress. I was on my feet and out the door faster than I could think, taking the nearest hallway to the parapet to figure out what was happening. When I reached the battlements, I met several of the others out there, likewise checking on the commotion.

As we looked out over the fields of several hundred Ascendants, I felt my hands curl into angry fists. "Get the civilians to the evacuation points." I ordered the nearest E-rankers. "And get me Abel and Bethy. You all know the drill." Of course, having been here for so long and reinforced so thoroughly, we naturally had plans in place for this. No rest for the wicked after all. We had a job to do.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Abel and Bethy met me up on the battlements. The rest had been sent deeper into the fortress, where we'd set up escape measures. Teleportation circles keyed to fallback positions, traps, and defensive emplacements, all courtesy of Nats (and a few my own) wishes over the last few months.

"How did they find us?" Scowled Abel. "I thought we had anti-scrying wards on this place?"

I shrugged. "Probably just tracked our movements leaving all the different cities. If anything, the fact that it took them this long is impressive. This position was never meant to last forever. We've been making too many moves. They were bound to collate all that data into a lead eventually."

Below us, dozens of Wendigos scaled the dark stone of the fortress, butcher knife sized claws slamming into the dark stone as the dragged themselves ominously up the walls. Even as we watched, waves of blue flame rolled over the walls, dislodging a few, and spears of stone skewered some more.

We'd put a LOT of work into this place. In fact, the whole fortress could be considered its own trap. This would thin their numbers even more. The best kind of trap: one the enemy couldn't ignore. After I'd taken out their heavy in Rajak, there was no way Travis could afford to leave me to my own devices for long. And the best part was, this was a minimal risk for my people. The fortress was a combination escape route and meatgrinder.

"You know the plan." I said as I stretched. "They'll send the Wendigos first. The ones who get through will hit us in waves. Take out as many as you can up here, then retreat into the hallways when they overwhelm you. We have reinforcements waiting at fallback points throughout the fortress waiting to step in when you reach them. Oh, and whichever one of you kills the most enemies gets dibs on leading the strike on Wintervale while we spring the popsicles."

Bethy cackled gleefully, waving her hands and calling her cats from the shadows and her dog from her Domain. "You're going down Alamode. This is going to be so much fun!"

Abel grinned, bouncing lightly on his toes. "Been a while since I did anything like this. Hot and cold running fodder. Fun times. You might be a monster, vampire, but with my new Solid Path, I wont lose to you and your petting zoo."

Bethy's eyes went wide. "I WANT a petting zoo!" Her head whipped over to stare at me. "Shane, do you think I could wish for a goat? Like a cute demonic one with glowing red eyes? Oh! Or maybe a panda!"

"Why are you like this?" I complained to my mentor. "You know she's not going to able to focus now. Bethy, we can talk about your petting zoo later. Kill the most Wendigos and we can discuss it." Even as I watched, the first dinner plate sized grey hand crested the battlements, knifelike talons digging in as it hefted itself up.

Without hesitation, I triggered Belial. This was a marathon, not a sprint, so I didn't double up. I could fight longer with just one form, and Belial was made for group fights.

Stepping forward, I started slowly whirling my staff to prepare for my attack, closing in on the slowly growing crowd of Wendigos as the other two spread out, taking advantage of the wide open space as best they could.

The first Wendigo attacked, and I slipped effortlessly past, tripping it with my staff as I continued the movement around to smash aside a knife clawed strike at my chest.

I lost myself in the flow of battle. I'd gotten so used to using my bag of endless tricks to win, I'd forgotten what it meant to use what I had to best effect. In this case, I was learning to parse a sense I hadn't done much with. My Danger Sense.

In the past, the sense had gone off like a storm siren during battle, making it useless for anything except warning about ambushed.

Now though, I was paying attention to the direction, intensity, and all the other miniscule bits of data I hadn't been able to process before. Much like I'd learned ro parse my Impact senses to tell how far someone was in their rank, focusing on my Danger Sense let me gather more intel from the battle.

An attack from behind, no, back and left, no back left and low. Step right and deflect downward following the arc. It was a heady sensation, being back in combat like this. Not a desperate race to try to destroy the enemy, but a chance to shake the rust off and rebalance my actual battle skills.

State of Grace gave me the speed and fluidity to act on my predictions, and since I wasn't meeting strength with strength the Might difference didn't matter as much.

I ducked under a dinner plate size hand, snapping my staff into the wrist, and watched as the corrosion seeped into the claw, using the Wendigo's own attack to drive Belial's corrupt energy into one of its fellows. I caught another on the backswing, hooking it around. I felt a line of hot pain on my thigh as my dodge was just a notch too slow to avoid a glancing blow, then dipped under a charge, taking out the Wendigo's legs and letting its horns hit the one that had caught me.

First one, then five, then ten. I tore through them, or rather, they tore through each other, Belial's control of the battlefield combining with my speed and prediction abilities perfectly.

Sadly, all good things must end, and after about twenty five of the bastards, I realized that I was starting to get overwhelmed. A missed step here, a failure to land a finisher there. The Wendigos were getting bigger and more dangerous too, apparently having burned their weakest on the first wave.

"Retreat!" I bellowed to my friends, triggering Moonlit Night. Fog filled the area, but I made sure to let sound penetrate as I slipped between several of the Wendigos to head for the entrance to the lower levels. Behy and Abel, to their credit, started making their way back as well, using the fog for cover, though they each took more than a few potshots at the confused Wendigos, trying to pad their numbers.

When we reached the stairs down, I made sure we made enough noise to lure them down the steps, though I left the fog in place even as we entered the more narrow corridor and they were funneled into a straight line as they approached.

"Fish in a barrel." Grimaced Abel as he posted up next to me. "It's not even fun at this point."

Bethy nodded solemnly. "I usually like fish." Her eyes widened in horror. "Wait, no, I mean, I'm not a cat!"

"To be fair, sometimes you're a bunch of cats." I said wryly. "What's your thing with cats anyway? Like you seem to like them, but the few times I've heard you making cat puns by accident you get super weird about it."

She sighed dramatically. "My mom likes cat puns a lot. I do it on accident sometimes, and it really freaks meow-t." She flinched, slapping herself on both cheeks and shaking her head. "No! Bad Bethy! Don't go into the darkness! Be cool like daddy!"

"Yeah." I said with smirk. "Gotta nip that in bud. I have to say though, that's quite a yarn. Are you sure you're feline okay?"

"No stop" She wailed, covering her ears. "Cut it out, cut it out, cut it out!" She hurled herself forward, ears still covered, and slammed into the first advancing Wendigo with a brutal falling axe kick, eyes squeezed tightly shut as she attacked the enemy.

Abel laughed. "Should we stop her?" He said with a grin. "I mean it's probably not safe to fight with two of your senses impaired like that."

"Be my guest." I said as my vampire friend demolished the first few Wendigos. "I'm not getting in her way. If she can't see them she can't see us. I don't want to survive all this time in an occupation just to die with a platform heel shaped dent in my skull." My face went grim. "Besides, we've taken a huge bite out of their forces. They should be running out of fodder any minute. Once the real fighters arrive, that's when the retreat begins in earnest."

"How far back until we hit the first blockade?" He asked casually. "I'll be honest, I wasn't paying that much attention when you explained."
I gestured behind us. "Around that first corner. "They'll have to trail us, one of the first defensive measures was strengthening the stone here. No chance they can punch through it in a reasonable amount of time. They're playing our game. Shit, wait, hold on." I triggered Double Trouble, grabbing Bethy and bodily swinging her around to toss her toward Abel.

I'd been wrong, she hadn't attacked me, implying she was much less impaired than we'd thought. She just yelled "Wheee!" As she sailed down the hallway, Abel catching her and turning to take off.

We could have just done that from the start, but putting up a fight and showing them the funnel made it seem like this was our whole plan. If we made it too clear this was a trap they might break pursuit. I triggered Double Trouble again, appearing just behind Abel as he turned the corner, and following him around the bend.

We leapt over the blockade, and as the horde of pursuers came around the bend, they got pinned down between our reinforcements and the traps on the wall across from the blockade itself, ten of them being torn apart in an instant.

I did some calculations. I'd taken twenty five or so, Abel about thirty and Bethy forty five, with the ten that had just gone down that was a hundred. Of course, they'd been the weakest hundred, but still, with only about seven hundred fifty E-rankers on world for Travis to tap, any evening of the odds was a win.

Based on my rough count, he'd sent two hundred fifty or so fighters, but only about fifty actual members of his crew. The other two hundred had been Wendigos. Something about that was bothering me. I suspected he might have some means of empowering them, because he was being way too liberal with their sacrifice, but that was a problem for another time.

While the reinforcements chipped away at them, I dropped the fog, letting them see me (their orders were to prioritize getting me above all else) and then we began the run and gun. Our fighting retreat ground down the monsters as we went, whittling down their numbers one by one, until we finally reached the central chamber.

In the middle of the room, a glowing circle sat below a rift in space. An escape portal (we'd kept costs down by having a pair of beacons that could be placed on either side) Benny was waiting there, with Chelsea next to him, her hands wreathed in a horrible black energy.

The twenty or so E-rankers we'd picked up along the way headed for the portal, and I saw the huge force of still living E-rank invaders enter the chamber. The fifty enemy Ascendants were all still alive, driving the Wendigos before them, and my sister unleashed a burst of Enshrining Darkness at them to drive them back as our people fled through the portal.

Once they were gone, I stepped up to the exit, smiling behind my mask at the small army of enemies. "Hey, if it's not too much trouble, can you all deliver a message?"

The leader, a large man in blood red plate male, snorted, the sneer obvious in his voice. "Sure. Why not. Wherever that goes, you'll be in our clutches soon enough. Go ahead and make things worse for yourself. Who should we deliver this 'message' to?"

I shrugged. "Oh, it doesn't matter. Just do me a favor. When you get to hell, tell whoever is the highest ranking member of your forces down there that you guys really need to stop falling for this." Chelsea vanished into the portal, and as I stepped through, I announced loudly. "Cascade!" The portal was already closed by the time the fortress imploded. Weirdly, I felt a lot less conflicted about the mass casualties this time. I guess practice makes perfect.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Whoo!" Shouted Benny as I came out, hands up in the air. "Hell yes! How many of the bastards did we get this time?" Everyone looked at him. "What? I'm from here. These assholes are keeping my entire planet hostage."

Abel snorted. "No, we get it. You're just usually less bloodthirsty than the rest of us." He smirked at Bethy. "Sometimes literally." She stuck her tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm just shocked it worked." Said Benny with a laugh. "I mean, how many buildings can we drop on them? G-district was one thing, but how did they not see it coming when they raided the fortress."

I sighed. "I think they did. Or at least they hedged their bets. Travis only sent two hundred and fifty people. Realistically, after figuring out our entrenched position, they should have dropped all seven fifty on us and completely stomped us out. Instead he sent a force consisting of mostly Wendigos that barely outnumbered us."

Gabe nodded. "Shane's right. He couldn't pass up the opportunity, but they dipped a toe in instead of stepping in the bear trap." There was a tiny roar and Randall stuck his tiny head out of the hood on Jessie's cloak. Gabe cleared his throat in embarrassment. "Sorry Randall, poor choice of words."

Reaching through the bond, I manifested a shadow double of Callie, who appeared in front of us with a wan smile. "Good to see you all made it." She said with a chuckle.

"Well, realistically, we knew they would find the fortress eventually." I said with a shrug. "Be stupid not to add any contingencies. How are the numbers?" I had a sinking suspicion, based on Travis's behavior so far.

"Seven hundred." She said with a grimace. "They pulled more Wendigos from…somewhere. Maybe they're keeping them inside a spatially altered building, or maybe they have some way to produce them, but either way, they've been spending their lives cheap, and now we know why. Which means…"

I nodded grimly. "Which means we either move up the raid on Wintervale, of we figure out exactly how and where they're producing the shock troops and shut it down. I don't like rushing into their last holdout. We've seen firsthand what kind of preparation they might have waiting. Dropping buildings on people is great, but I suspect it'll be less entertaining to be on the receiving end."

"So take out their…what? Breeding ground? Research lab? How do you make more Wendigos?" Callie asked in annoyance. "And while we can crack the spatial expansion on a building with enough time to scan through, we need to know WHICH building. Especially through this damned labyrinth. Apparently it's screwing with all the readings, and even the Necromedes is having trouble compensating."
I grimaced. "We need someone who knows the local lore. None of us were really research types when we lived here." I paused. "Callie, does Zeke know anybody planetside who might be able to give us a better idea of how Wendigos fit into the structure of Callus? I mean, we ARE Ascendants. The story is always what matters."

She nodded, and I felt a flex on the bond as she split off a parallel with Piece of Mind, leaving it to control the shadow puppet as her real body headed off to consult my uncle. Turning to the others, I gestured around us. "So, what's the update on the fallback bunker? I'm sure you all had Nat lay down the same anti-scrying wards we had on the fortress a while ago. What other measure do we have in place?"

Celine cleared her throat. "We've reinforced the shell of the mountain, and we've got several defensive lines already under construction. The usual wish based defenses are just phase one. With the successful rescue from Rajak, we've got the planet's best enchanters and scientists at our disposal. By this time tomorrow we should be even more secure here than we were in the fortress."

"It was a smart call, using this place." Said Benny wryly. "The natural assumption once we bailed would be that we would jump somewhere distant. The volcano is right next door to the necropolis, geographically speaking. Far enough not to be readily obvious from visual signs, but close enough they would never think to check here."

"That's the hope." I said with a sigh. "But who knows how well it'll actually work. This entire offensive is one big shell game, and I'm getting exhausted keeping it up. I can't wait for this to be over."

I wanted to spend time with my wife, eat dinner with my friends, laugh with my family. The longer this went on the angrier I got, and the more I hated Travis for putting us all through it. Despite the fairly dramatic power growth from running a guerilla war against a superior force, this had been one of the worst times of my life.

It would have been so easy to give into that desire, to let it push me into making stupid decisions and rushing our assault. But as much as my dad pissed me off, he'd taught me better than that. Even as a child, he'd drilled into me that letting frustration push you into hasty action was how you made mistakes.

When something blocked your progress on a puzzle, you needed to stop, evaluate, and then form a plan of attack based on logical thought and strategic insight. No one ever solved a problem by getting angry at it really hard.

Though, I supposed in the Ascendant world that might not be true. Still, when faced with a situation where you were the underdog, frustration led to painful mistakes.

Callie (or her shadow puppet at least), stepped close and pulled me into a hug. I didn't bother to resist, letting her put her head on my shoulder. The constant stress of the last few months was eroding my sense of calm, and sometimes you just really needed a hug from someone you loved.

"Wait, hold on," she said, stilling. "Sorry, just heard from Zeke. He does have a lead. He says he knows a guy in Ramistaad who can help. Bad news is Ramistaad is still under occupation, good news is that they'll never expect us to hit it because it's strategically useless. No E-rankers in the city. Unfortunately…it's relatively close to Valen."

I nodded thoughtfully. "That…might not be a dealbreaker."

"You thinking another distraction?" Said Benny eagerly? "Take Valen back from those bastards once and for all while you slip into Ramistaad?"

"No. That won't work." My tone was calm. "From what I can tell, Rajak was a secondary trap from Travis's minder. Travis himself is subtler than that, and he's done his homework. Rajak was a minefield, but Valen is going to be a shooting gallery. The only way to win there is not to play. Based on the rope a dope we saw here, chances are good he's filled every spatially expanded building in Valen with Wendigos or something. We can't risk it."

Gabe nodded. "Not to mention we're starting to show a pattern of behavior. Distractions are becoming commonplace for us. It'll be the first thing he thinks of."

"Which is why we won't use one." I said finally. "No signs at all. We're doing this quietly. With no E-rankers in the city, we've got no one to draw attention. As long as I keep myself out of sight, getting in and retrieving the target is our best bet. Bethy, you up for an undercover gig?"

Her face lit up. "Oooh! Disguises! I have so many ideas. Do you think I could pull off a mustache?"

"I…no." I said in confusion. "Not at all. You DO get that the point of a disguise is to look LESS suspicious, right?"

My sister made a noise of disagreement. "Well…sometimes." She hedged. "Ascendants are naturally flamboyant and attention grabbing. In some ways, being too understated is MORE suspicious. Not that I think the mustache is a good idea." She said, cutting off Bethy's victory cheer. "He's not wrong about that. I'm just saying less isn't always more."

Bethy pouted. "Fine. Buzzkills. I have this neon orange wig that I can wear. Your wedding gave me so many fashion ideas. Orange and black are a total fireworks show! I'm thinking of doing something with leg warmers."

Since that was objectively less ridiculous than a ballgown and what I assumed (based on actually KNOWING Bethy) would be a giant handlebar mustache.

"Is it safe for just the two of you to go though?" Chelsea asked worriedly. "Bethy can take of her self, but Shane… I know you're tough, but I'd feel better if you had more backup. Maybe take Serah and Holly with you?"

"Because nothing says 'stealth mission' like beautiful women with metallic hair and giant fucking wings." Said Abel sarcastically. "Look, I get it, really I do. He's your brother." My mentor's face went uncharacteristically solemn. "I'm worried as hell for my own brother. But the fact is that bad disguises notwithstanding, Bethy and Shane have the best chance of pulling this off."

He was right. Bethy's Domain was necessary to extract the target, and contrary to what her bombastic personality might imply, she COULD be stealthy when necessary. Of course, she preferred to bust in loudly, and I was slightly worried she might actually try to play theme music while we were sneaking in, but like my sister said, weird was standard for Ascendants.

"What about our approach?" I asked, considering the angles. "I'm assuming using Walker and Gabe's mount is off the table. They've clearly got some means of tracking those, to put together our last position."

Bethy perked up. "Oh! Why don't we rid the kitties? They're shadow cats, so they're super sneaky, and they're great with people. I've been socializing them to accept hugs and cuddles."

I took that to mean 'bullying them with affection' but it was a solid point. Animals tended to be more effective at using Might for running, four legs being a more functional base for movement. With their inborn stealth abilities, the cats could carry us through the dark silently, as long as we waited for nightfall.

"I like it." I said, nodding. "We've got our in. We'll need a heading and preferably a map, not to mention details on the target. But all in all, it sounds like we have our next move. Once we have that confirmed we can hit the Wendigo spawning grounds, wherever they happen to be. Then we'll start whittling their forces down before the assault on the cold storage."

Benny perked up. "Wait, by whittling their forces do you mean…"

"That's right." I said with a vicious grin. "Once we take out the spawner, we need to wipe out as many Wendigos as possible before Travis can recover and redistribute his forces. Once we've taken out their buildup capability, we hit them where it hurts. They won't be running into our traps anymore? Fine. We'll run right into theirs. If they want to try to eat our forces they can fucking choke on them."

Benny cheered, pumping his fist, and I saw the general morale of the others in the room spike. The thought of a real offensive after months of taking quick in and out potshots was exciting, and we certainly had the forces for it.

"I want you working with the E-rankers on battle formations." I told Gabe. "They're basically the ideal counter to brute force mobs like the Wendigos. We need to be ready for our decapitation strike." I paused. "Amputation strike? We aren't taking the head so I don't know about the terminology. Regardless, you know what I mean."

Turning to Bethy I let out a long, slow breath. "Anyway, get your disguise ready Bethy, we head out at sundown. With any luck we'll be back with our target by morning, no muss, no fuss." Happily, this time my instincts weren't warning me of any danger, but I wouldn't let my guard down. Time for my first real stealth op.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The forest was quiet. Almost too quiet. Sadly, my traveling companion was not. "I just think you're being a party pooper." Said Bethy stubbornly. "It's not like this is going to make things any harder, and you're not getting into the spirit of it."

"But we don't NEED codenames." I groaned desperately. "And they don't work if you keep changing them anyway. Plus you keep picking ones that don't make sense. Big Cheddar? Red Leader? Pineappleface? And you didn't even warn me. You just kept dropping them into conversation like I was supposed to know what they were."

Her pout intensified. "Because I was TESTING them!" She said in exasperation, throwing her hands up. "To see how they fit. But those are so five minutes ago. I'm telling you this new one is the last one. Senator Beef is absolutely the right codename for you. It's so perfect!"

"HOW?" I all but shouted. "In what possible way is Senator Beef a good codename. Or a codename at all. Not to mention we don't NEED codenames. I picked one for you because you asked, and I get it, you have a new costume on. Fine. Candycorn is thematic, it goes with your clothes."

I gestured to her 'disguise' an orange and black striped monstrosity of shirt and skirt, a bright orange wig, and red painted cheeks that made her look like a rag doll.

Sadly, I had to admit it was a good disguise. Bethy was so…bombastic, that it weirdly distracted from her appearance. When you thought about Bethy you just thought about loud madness. With the costume on, that came into play hard, because even the vague changes to her features seemed to completely morph everything about her.

I was almost positive this was vampire bullshit, but it made arguing with her that much harder, because I couldn't dismiss her points when she'd done such a good job.

Before she could continue though, I noticed something out of the corner of my Eye of Revelation. "Wait!" I hissed. "Hold on, we have movement. I told you we shouldn't have waited out here for so long."

We'd been waiting for the city to quiet, or at least for the majority of people to go to sleep. Night owls abounded everywhere, but they were always the minority. Still, there was a point of diminishing returns on waiting, and at about two in the morning we had to be approaching it.

She shook her head, red eyes (though they looked orange against the costume) becoming serious. "Not…quite…now." She broke cover as she finished, blitzing towards the city at staggering speed. I cursed, triggering Bael and following her. We made good time, reaching city limits and slipping into an overhang on one of the buildings.

When we stopped she stared calmly out into the dark. "Sorry." She said with a shrug. "There was a gap in the attention on the border. It's…vampires are sneaky. I don't know how to describe it. But we're in and no one noticed. See? Easy peasy?"

I sighed. "I'd have appreciated a heads up, but you know I trust you. Your weird vampire powers haven't failed me yet."

She clapped her hands together under her chin, beaming at me. "Shane! Did we just become best friends? That was so super sweet of you to say." Her expression wilted, becoming surprisingly nervous. "I don't…I owe you a lot. For your help."

I swung my hand through the air like I was cutting that thought off. "You don't owe me anything. Inherent payment necessity of my power aside, you ARE my friend. I'm always here for you if you need me. And you always come through for me too."

The uncertainty in her eyes was bothering me. Seeing Bethy of all people so…shaken. "It's not just that. I'm not the most stable person. I get that from my mom. It can be hard for me to focus. Not just the bloodlust, but just…keeping myself even. Easier since you helped me, but knowing you don't hold it against me. People get mad at me usually. After a while. Being friends with me is fun for a while, but I can be a bit much. They get sick of me."

I hadn't seen her this sincere in…well, almost ever. And from what she'd just said, maintaining this level of focus was tough for her. It made sense really, Bethy was always flitting from one thing to the next, and while some of that was a charade, her inconsistent level of attention was a pretty distinct part of her personality. It couldn't all be a show.

"You're my friend." I repeated. "And you've done a lot for me too. I don't abandon my people, and I don't think you do either. You're stuck with me. No matter how 'much' you happen to be. But what brought this on?"

"You've been on edge." She said sadly. "The others don't see it because you keep a calm face on, but I can tell. I know you have Callie to talk to and you guys have your bond, but I don't want you to feel alone down here." She gave me a sad smile. "You can freak out a little bit in front of me. I'm just the crazy vampire. Who's going to know?"

It broke my heart to see that smile, but I could tell she didn't want empty platitudes or reassurances, she just wanted to know that she'd helped. And oddly, she really had. Having someone acknowledge how much stress I was under was weirdly cathartic.

I stared at her. "You know, it's easy to write you off as flighty, but then you say stuff like that. I can never tell how much of what you do is an act."

She winked at me. "Only most of it. I'm pretty on the ball. But don't tell Abel. I don't want him to get too comfortable. He might actually catch up to me in a fight.."

I burst out laughing. "I knew you were screwing with him. But thanks. For saying that thing about me freaking out. It's nice to know I can let down my guard. Now let's go sneak into this city where we'll probably get caught and gruesomely murdered."
"Probably is a strong word." She said sagely. "We'll either get caught or we won't. Fifty fifty."

She strode off into the dark and I followed her quickly, extending Bael to cover her. "Wait, Bethy, don't get too far ahead. You need to stay close. That was a joke right? You know we still need to be careful. Stop speeding up! Bethy please tell me you know that's not how statistics work?"

She stayed JUST far enough a head to easily coverable with Bael (how she knew the range on that I had no idea because I sure as hell didn't) but we made decent time arriving at the building we'd been given directions to. We stopped across the street from the Arcadia hotel to surveil the entrances.

Given its nature as an erasure of Perception, stealth could be improved by careful observation. The more you watched and made note of the details, the better you could remove them from notice. Besides that, I trusted Bethy's instincts, and I wanted to double check with her before we went in.

"Are we being watched?" I'd thought this would be a quick and easy infiltration, but Bethy's episode at the city limits implied differently. They might not have a bunch of E-rankers in town waiting, but there was SOME method of observation at play. It wasn't a shock, that was what our defenses on the fortress and volcano were there to prevent, after all. Not to mention Valen was a notable trap, and we were relatively close. They might not have an active eye on the city, but clearly they weren't STUPID either.

With Bethy helping us avoid whatever they were doing to keep track of us though, we had a way better chance of pulling this off.

She shook her head. "Not right now. But I think there's…something, over the hotel." Her eyes flicked up, narrowing into the darkened sky. "Some kind of…spirit eye? I think that's what I picked up at the border. It can't be everywhere though." She pointed up and away. "Right up there. Do you see it?"

Engaging my Perception, I focused hard on the spot she indicated, Eye of Revelation focused through my crown for maximum output. "I got it." I said after a second. "Ew. It's hideous."

"Super gross." She agreed bluntly. "But I have an idea. I think if I throw really hard, I can hit it with a rock. I can go around the building and do that, then it'll look away and you can get by." She clenched her fists intensely, like she was readying for battle.

I rolled my eyes. "We don't need to throw rocks at it. It's an E-rank entity. Even focused hard on Perception, it won't be enough to break Bael. My forms are limited, but they do what they do damned well. It's why I have them. I can study its focus for a while, and once I have a lock on where its looking and can understand it a bit better, I can walk us right past it."

Honestly I could probably do it now, but haste made waste. Better to take the extra few minutes to ensure we did the job the best way possible. Bethy just pouted, though I suspected it was more because she wanted to throw a rock at an ugly ass ghost eye than because she was impatient to get going.

After a minute of observing exactly where the eye was focused, I nodded and offered Bethy my arm. "Alright we're good. Let's bounce."

Nodding seriously, she grabbed my elbow, and then proceeded to skip cheerfully alongside me as I walked unhurriedly across the street. While stealth worked fine at speed, with the time and attention to map out my route, it worked even better if I took my time to make sure all traces were erased.

To my complete lack of surprise, I could hear Bethy humming something under her breath as we walked, eyes narrowed as she took in everything around us suspiciously, head on a swivel. Honestly the humming made my job slightly harder, but not enough to matter, and it was kind of hilarious.

When we reached the front door, we stopped, and I reached out casually, focusing on my finger.

While my little accident with the pseudo Domain had been a terrible thing, it had given me a few ideas. Using overwhelming or damaging power on a smaller scale to prevent hard might not work in that case, but it could work in others.

I couldn't maintain three forms at the same time without serious soul strain, but I could take a page from Benny's book, albeit in reverse.

Focusing on one finger, I flexed my will, bringing up just the smallest fraction of my forms. The finger in question marked as the energy from Belial and Mephistopheles flooded it, Bael maintaining my stealth.

Even just the one finger almost immediately made me wince, putting immense pressure on my soul, but it was bearable. Bearable enough to take it a bit further. A Cosmic Collapse the size of the head of a pin took milliseconds to make, and it flew into the lock on the door, bursting and hollowing out the mechanism without any outward sign.

Sighing in relief, I let the finger return to normal, just under Bael, and pushed open the door. "Alright." I said with a grin. "We're in. Let's go pick up the target and get out of here."

Now that we'd made it inside we just needed to collect our guy and we could bail. We were one step closer to the raid on the spawning grounds, whatever those might be. While this little side trip hadn't been even a blip on my radar…that one was setting off my instincts like nobody's business. I had a feeling we would find something bad when we got there. I just had no idea what.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"We're back bitches!" Crowed Bethy as we rode into the caves under the volcano. "We're so fucking sneaky you don't even know!" She leapt clear of her mount, Poptarts (I was pretty sure, I could NOT tell them apart) dissolving into her shadow as Donuts faded out from under me.

I managed to catch myself before I collapsed on the ground. "Bethy! You can't just drop people wherever. Don't do that to the target-"

She wasn't listening, there was a flex of her domain as she danced through the caves, and a thin form went flying into the wall with a crash, burying in the stone as I sighed. Walking over, I grabbed a limb sticking from the rock and pulled, removing the F-ranker we'd rescued and brushing him off.

Rudy the researcher blinked owlishly at me, his oversized glasses somehow not even cracked. "I say." He said as his brain recovered.

"You say what?" Called Bethy from ahead of us.

"Go inside Bethy." I sighed. "He's just getting used to things. Your Domain is a big scary place for an F-ranker.

She just shrugged and flounced off. I turned to Rudy, who was looking a bit green. "You alright there, man? You look like you're about to vomit." I paused. "Although I admit this place doesn't smell great. We have some air filtration enchantments in the central cave complex." I couldn't smell anything, one of the wonderful side effects of my kickass mask, but it was a volcano, they smelled like sulfur.

He nodded slowly. "That place…it was so…unnatural."

I rolled my eyes. It was easy to forget how sheltered people on Callus could be. I doubted this guy had left his hometown. Ever. And he was famous for being a researcher. I doubted a Lore wonk had much experience doing anything outside his field.

I immediately felt bad for the thought. Rudy's planet was under occupation by cultists and terrifying monsters. It was probably the scariest thing that had ever happened to him, and me dismissing him as weak because I was better equipped to deal with it was petty and cruel. I forced myself to take a breath. "It can be. But you're safe now. And more than that, you can help end this occupation completely."

He raised a brow at me. "Help end the occupation? I'm not a fighter, sir. I can't help with armies of hostile invaders. I can barely defeat armies of dust bunnies when I clean my library."

"We're not putting you on the frontlines." I said as I led him through the caves toward an open chamber where most of my friends were waiting. "We need your expertise. The enemy are fielding powerful troops, and we think they're using some local phenomena to make them."
Wendigos were native to Callus. At least as native as flesh eating monsters could be. Whatever the catalyst was for the transformation could be found here. It stood to reason that whatever Travis was doing to create and empower the monsters involved whatever that catalyst was. Even if it didn't though, just taking out the catalyst meant no more Wendigos, even if it didn't stop him from empowering the extant monsters.

He looked confused, which made sense. Ramistaad hadn't really been actively occupied, just watched. I was sure, based on the empty streets and the oppressive atmosphere, that someone had been there to terrorize the occupants, but they'd been long gone when we arrived.

We reached the makeshift war room, and I gestured him inside. "Hey guys." I waved casually. "I see Bethy got here first. Did she fill you in?"

Chelsea smiled wryly. "Her story involved more onomatopoeia than I would have used, but we got the gist. You found Rudy, brought him back, and we'll be debriefing him together." She smiled at the nervous, mousy man beside me. "Welcome. Sorry for the unusual circumstances."

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well. I understand. Needs must when the devil drives and all. I still don't understand what you could possibly need from me. I'm simply a local history enthusiast. If you're looking for valuable treasure or powerful weapons, I'm afraid I can't be of much assistance. My knowledge is strictly academic."

I clapped him on the back with a laugh. "We need academic knowledge. That's the whole reason we came to get you. My uncle recommended you. You remember Harlequin?" That had been Zeke's code name while he was here, since Janus was so widely known.

His eyes widened. "The former branch leader of the Valen Wish Curse Palace?" He squeaked. "I hadn't thought he would even remember me."

"Well he did." I said with a shrug. "And he said you could help us with a project we're working on. We need to know more about Wendigos. They're covering the planet right now, and we've seen them here before. There's some kind of…item or location that creates them here, as far as we can tell."

His brow furrowed. "The Wendigo?" He said absently. "I do know a number of stories about creatures such as those. I could perhaps dig into my knowledge and try to identify an origination point. What is your timeline, might I ask?"

"Soon?" I said questioningly. "They've invaded this planet. Or rather, someone else has, and they're using the Wendigos to do it. We need to clear them out so we can spring some allies and overpower the occupying forces. If we wait too long, they'll replenish their numbers before we can attack and we'll be in a bad position."

That got a frown. "Well, I'm afraid I don't know the exact location of the phenomena you're searching for. It isn't like there's a book lying around labelled 'secret Wendigo power source'. I can perhaps collate the data from a number of sources and attempt to identify their first appearance on the planet, but that may take some time."

"Which is why I'm here to help." Said Chelsea reassuringly. "I'm an expert researcher. We're going to work through your knowledge together. We just need you to write out everything you can remember, and leave the cross referencing to us."

Rudy exhaled in relief. He was an Ascendant, and most likely one who leaned toward Focus, combined with basic physical stats, he could probably copy a whole library from memory in less than an hour or two. Especially if given decent quality paper to work with (you had to be careful about writing too fast after a certain level of Might, or the friction could set the page on fire).

"That I can be of assistance with." He beamed. "Do you want me to write out the content? Because it would most likely be faster to enter it into a scan ring."

I hadn't considered that, but it was obviously way smarter. Chelsea lit up. "Oh, that's perfect! We can share the documents among everyone, so all of us can parse the data as you type it. That'll be way more efficient!"

"You're such a nerd." I said with a sigh. "Can't you just bask in your own ignorance like us cool people."

"My brother is taller than most." She told Rudy sadly. "He felt pressure from a young age to be big dumb and smashy. It's why his entire combat style revolves around whacking people with a big stick."

I gaped at her in horror. "That….is a GROSS oversimplification."

"Now who's a nerd?" She said smugly. "Stay in your lane, thug. Leave the brain work to us intellectuals."

I turned to glare at her. "You used to be so sweet and polite. My friends are a terrible influence on you."

She stuck out her tongue at me. "Actually that was you. Sorry big brother, you're the one who taught me to stick up for myself. Can't complain when I return a serve when you're dunking on me."

"And she's mixing metaphors!" I opined, hiding my laughter poorly. "What have I done?"

The others just laughed at the back and forth, and we all got to work setting up the shared scan ring file. Once that was done, Rudy started to type. Since the holographic surface of the scan ring interface did NOT have a problem with catching fire, he was able to make much better time, hands flying over the keys as page after page of abstruse historical texts wrote themselves into existence in the file.

And so began the longest afternoon of my life. Pages appeared like drops of rain, pouring out of the surprisingly enthusiastic researched as he shared everything in his head that pertained to Wendigos.

Which was…a lot. Books and books of notes, memoirs, poetry. Some of it was even fiction, but he took us at our word and just dredged up every single document that mentioned the creatures, doing his best to make notes of the date of each bit of information, despite not taking them down in order.

Finally, after a few hours, he stopped, hands falling down with a sigh. "And that's all. Sorry I couldn't dredge up more. My ability involves information storage, but it doesn't have an organizational aspect. I'm planning to integrate that next rank."

"It's fine." Said Chelsea absently. "I've been keeping a list and trying to sort everything. Good idea using page numbers. Give me a bit, I have to check some things." She flicked open a few new pages, accessing different parts of the document at the same time. A list of page numbers sat beside her as she collated the data.

The rest of us were working on the same thing, but Benny was the only one who was any help. He pointed out several alternate locations with mentions of the same things Chelsea was looking for. Dates, locations, stories about mysterious deaths and their circumstances.

Finally, she stopped. "Get me a map." She said bluntly. "I need to check something."

We brought up a globe projection, shared access with her, and she began putting pins on the image, It took about an hour for her to completely note down every incident that seemed relevant, then she started narrowing it down by eliminating stories that had inconsistent elements and were probably just made up.

As she did the rest of us tried to piece together what exactly we were looking for based on casual mentions and obscure language. Benny was the first to crack it. "It's a spring." He said with a triumphant grin. "The only direct mentions call it the "Heart of Winter" but from what I can tell its just an arctic spring with some kind of spiritual cold trait."

"And I know where it is." My sister crowed. "Check this out." We all crowded around the projection. "The earliest incidents of Wendigos spawning on this planet were in these locations." She gestured to a grouping of dots. "It threw me because some of the early discoverers took some of the water and sold it. The next few centuries saw a spike of the damned things all over Callus. But after sifting out the memoirs and stories based on financial means and personality to exclude people who bought the water, I managed to get a radius."

On the globe, a circle of red dots surrounded a small village in the northern hemisphere of the planet. "This is Valfarden." Said my sister smugly. "And from what I can tell, the Heart of Winter is here. I don't know why or where it came from, but chances are good that its where Travis is making his super Wendigos."

It was a small out of the way place in the middle of the tundra. Far enough from Wintervale not to be too notable but close enough to make dispatching the monsters out into the blizzards more than feasible.

I grinned wolfishly at my friends from behind my mask "Alright. Well, it looks like we found the spawning ground. Bethy, get everyone together, we're going to be hitting them as soon as possible. Chelsea, keep going over the information Rudy supplied, I want us to be as prepared as possible for what we find." The first steps towards the end of this war were upon us.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We took the cats to Valfarden. It was still dark, the rescue and research having only taken about half the night, and the shadows provided perfect cover for us to move unseen. When we hit the polar regions, we discounted and I had to carry Bethy piggyback because she insisted it was the best way for Bael's stealth to affect her.

Eventually though, we reached our target, and we stopped outside the village to surveil the situation. This time, we let Chelsea out to consult after we'd dug a small snow cave to watch from, just in case of overhead watchers like we'd had last time.

Once Bethy confirmed we were unwatched, Chelsea joined us in watching the place, and was able to confirm some things.

"The Heart of Winter is there." She said, pointing to a crystal blue ice gazebo in the center of town. "That leads into a cavern beneath the snow that houses the spring. We need to find out exactly what's down there before we go in. Whatever Travis is doing, it almost definitely involves the spring somehow."

I nodded. As much as I wanted to just hit the damned thing head on, I knew that it was important to gather intel. "That's my cue. Bethy, expand the cave and let the others out. I'll do a circuit of the spring and take some recordings. I want as good an idea as possible of what they're actually DOING before we attack."

After that mess in the Aetherbright Academy, I'd learned my lesson about going off half cocked. Trying to stop some random event without knowing the details had screwed us last time, and I learned from my mistakes.

I could get info in real time from my mom and Zeke through Callie, and I was going to use that source of information.

My sister glared at me. "I don't like it." She admitted. "But I understand. Just…be careful, ok?"

"Damn." I said in a deadpan voice. "I was going to set off fireworks and sing the Callus planetary anthem backwards. I guess I'll just stick to stealth this time. Good thing you mentioned it."

"Don't be sarcastic." She said acidly. "You're not very good at it." She stepped forward and yanked me into a bonecrushing hug. "Be safe. Ass. I kind of like not being an only child anymore. If you make me go back to the old way I'll kick your ass."

I smiled at her warmly, even if she couldn't see it. "Love you too, sis."

"Awww!" Bethy cooed at us, clapping her hands together. "You two are just the cutest siblings ever. It reminds me of how I am with some of my brothers. Well, the ones that still talk to me. Some of them resent me because daddy likes me best. Those are the ones that don't talk to me. Well, them and Peter, but he's a whiner, he survived the fall off that cliff fine, and I apologized after."

Chelsea gave me a conflicted look. "You could be much worse. I see that now."

"Hey!" Said our vampire friend, stomping her foot. "That's mean. You're being mean. I should push YOU off a cliff. But like…a small one. I like you way better than Peter."

"I'm going to go sneak into occupied enemy territory all by myself." I said with a wave as I turned to leave. "Somehow that seems safer." I triggered Bael and vanished as I stepped out of our makeshift case. As soon as I was out, the blizzard going on around me swallowed me completely.

Wind, snow, and nothing else. I suspected something magical about the storm, because after I entered it, I lost sight of the village completely until I triggered Eye of Revelation. Once I did that, I got outlines, but nowhere near as clear as from the cave. It took a few minutes of walking (I used Ripple Running so I didn't leave footprints) to breach the town border.

As soon as I crossed inside the town line, the stealth effect vanished. It was a surprising sensation, and I was pretty sure Bethy had been responsible for me being able to see the place from the cave. I shook it off, keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of habitation.

I saw…nothing. Valfarden was empty. No people, not even tracks in the snow. The blizzard stopped around the town like some kind of spatial snowglobe, flowing in one side of a dome of empty air and out the other.

Because there were no people, I reached the gazebo quickly and without any problems. Once I did though, I finally caught sight of some guards.

Wendigos. Easily ten of them, lying in wait in the snow. Something about their dull gray skin made them blend into the environment, like chameleons. They didn't notice me, and I took a circuitous path to avoid literally tripping over them. Finally though, I reached an inner circle that I couldn't go around.

State of Grace made me lighter, and Bael kept the sound of my short leap over the guards silent as I stepped off a platform in the air, landing silently on the snow on the other side. A Double Trouble took me past the one waiting right inside the gazebo, and when I arrived, I froze (figuratively, though it was cold as hell out here) to wait and see if I'd been compromised.

I hadn't, and I set off down the stairs. The spiral steps were made of frosted ice, though they provided surprisingly good traction. Once I reached the bottom, I looked around carefully for any nearby guards.

There weren't any. Just a huge cavern full off…people. Bodies, though I could see with Eye of Revelation that they weren't dead. Only frozen.

Past the field of frozen humans was a sort of icy fountain. The fountain itself was the same crystal blue of the gazebo, but the water running through it was much different. A sickening black red energy permeated the liquid, corroding the blue fountain (which was in itself a pretty nauseating sight given the skulls and screaming people carved into it) only for it to recover almost immediately after as the energy waned.

I started my scan ring, beginning the recording process as I tried to get closer. As I did though, I stopped cold. At the edge of the pool formed by the fountain, there were a number of dark metal constructs. People were strapped down to them, hanging parallel to the water, which leapt up and burned into the struggling, screaming captives.

Two of whom I recognized. Cicero and Valk hung over the liquid, tears of corrupted blood running from their eyes as they roared in pain, veins writhing under their skin darkly.

They were alive. Clearly being…converted or something, but alive. This had just gone from vandalism to rescue mission. For the first time in a while I was genuinely happy. Nat had not been doing well. Hope kept her going, but it was fading quickly. I'd been really worried about what finding Valk dead might do to her.

Abel would be thrilled too. Granted, I had a feeling I'd need to personally purify them in a way similar to Felicity, but the process clearly wasn't complete yet. I wanted to rush in and tear apart their restraints, but I held off.

This was recon. I'd already seen what running off without a plan could do, and I refused to lose them because I was impatient. They were alive after months, which meant they were holding out better than most people would have. Though…looking closer I could see they were stronger than they had been. More Impact. E-rank.

Whatever that dark energy was, it seemed familiar. It was probably what had been letting Travis make the Wendigos strong so much faster. It reminded me a bit of that human sacrifice muck from the Ruined Soul Temple, which didn't bode well.

I forced myself to focus. Where there was life there was hope. I just needed to get as much info as I could and consult the experts. We could rescue them, take out this spawning ground, and then hit Valen before Travis could recover, seriously rebalancing the calculus of war on this planet before our final push.

Not that it would be easy. Looking past my restrained friends (well, friend, Cicero was mostly just a dick I tolerated) I could see that the 'fountain' I'd seen was just one of about two dozen pylons radiating out in concentric circles from on even larger fountain, which appeared to literally be an ice sculpture of a giant hundred foot Wendigo with sickening bracking water pouring from a gaping hole in its chest where its heart should be.

Who the actual fuck had come to this cave and found THAT and decided to drink from it? The thing was horrifying. The brackish water was flowing out in spiderweb cracks into the sub pools with the fountains, around which thirteen captives struggled.

Some were nearly converted, already with horns and greying stretched tight skin, and some were still screaming and crying black red liquid, but there were LOTS of them.

As I watched, a pair of free Wendigos approached one of the horned ones, pulled up teh black metal mechanism with a handle, then unchained it and tossed it to the ground. When it hit the cavern floor in between the pools, it screamed and writhed, reaching up to use butchers knife claws to start ripping away pieces of its flesh.

Beneath it, the grey hide of a Wendigo emerged, and within a few minutes, the creature climbed to its feet, screaming joyfully.

Walking over the field, they grabbed a frozen body, shoved it into the metal contraption, and then shoved it back down to lay parallel to the water. The red black liquid hit the ice and began to erode it, but unlike the fountains it didn't recover. Before long, the man woke up, and his own screaming began.

I swallowed hard. That was…that hadn't been easy to watch. I forced myself to stay cool, watching closely in case there was more information. I made a slow circuit around the room, double checking for any possible signs I might be able to use.

Lucky for me, this place smelled like old blood and rotting flesh, which covered for me so the Wendigos couldn't scent me even if Bael didn't prevent it. I could smell it through my mask and it was making me sick.

After I completed my rounds, I slowly removed myself from the cavern, climbing the gazebo steps and making a quick but steady retreat. I didn't stop until I got to our makeshift cave.

When I entered, I found our whole force waiting. I ignored most of them, striding up to my cousin, desperate to give her some good news. She frowned at me as I approached. "Shane? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I said happily. Then paused. "Ok, no, that place was a fucking nightmare factory, my soul is throwing up, but that's not important right now. This isn't a burn and turn raid anymore. We're going to have to do a bit more planning. This is a rescue mission. Nat…Valk is down there. And he's alive." I turned to Abel. "Cicero too. They're not HAPPY, but they're not dead. We can save them."

My cousin stared at me in shock, eyes filling with tears, and then she threw herself into my arms. I held her close as she sobbed in relief. She'd been in denial for so long now, pretending to have hope when she'd really known the truth deep down. Hearing that she'd been wrong, that her last living friend wasn't gone.

I held her as she cried, until finally, she went silent and I stepped back. "Well, if we want to get them, we need all the help we can get." I reached out through the bond, and at my request shadow figures of Callie, my mother, and Zeke appeared. "Alright." I said turning to them. "This is what I saw down there." I spun up my scan ring and projected the recording. The planning session began.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"They're alive?" My uncle asked incredulously. "I did NOT see that coming. I was positive they were both dead." Nat made a high pitched sound and everyone glared at Zeke, who cleared his throat. "I mean, glad to hear they're ok. Hopefully we can help get them out of there."

I rolled my eyes. "So based on the recordings, what the actual fuck is that place? I thought catalysts for racial traits had to be specially made."

"They do, except when they're passed directly from one person to another." My mom said bluntly. "That fountain thing is clearly the corpse of a powerful Wendigo. I did think it was weird you'd run into one of them, nevermind a pack of them."

I blinked in confusion. "So what, this is some kind of Wendigo God?"

"No." Said Zeke in exasperation. "Not everything is a god. Your experience isn't indicative of real life. It's probably an A or B-ranker. Or at least the corpse of one. Based on what you saw, it looks like it's been slowly eroding over the course of millennia."

That made sense. "So…what are the fountains?"

"Calcifications." My mom said with a shrug. "Word of the 'Heart of Winter' spread over time. Not enough to have a large scale presence in history, but the renown was enough to affect things. The red and black is lamentation liquid, like you saw before. You were right about that being how they were supercharging the Wendigos. Seems like it's fairly slow, thankfully, or at least resistable."

"So we need to hurry!" Said Nat in a panicked voice. "What if they break? We need to go get them now. Break in the front and blow the whole place sky high."

"We can't rush." I argued. "They've been down there for months. They can last a bit longer. I know seeing Valk like that was hard, but we only get one shot at this. More than two people are at stake. We cut the head off the snake, and then hit Valen like a hammer and take out as many as we can. To do that we need to minimize losses destroying the Heart. Work smarter not harder."

Chelsea raised a hand. "I might have an idea about that." My sister said hesitantly. "Given how Enshrining Darkness destabilizes Purifying Flame, maybe a sufficiently powerful purifying force could set the lamentation liquid off the same way. But just lighting off a single pool wouldn't do it."

"Well, they seem to be introducing it through those calcifications, Let me check something." I pulled the recording back up. It took me a few passes given all the distortion nearby, but I was able to identify a series of black red gems set into the base of the calcifications, pretty much underneath the water.

That explained the corrosion, the water was soaking the lamentation liquid out like a flavor crystal in some drink mix, which corrupted the water, which corroded the calcification, which I was pretty sure was speeding up the release of the water.

But I could see Chelsea's point, and I understood her idea. "I could pull that off." I said slowly. "If I hit the pylon with a Life Nova it should at least damage those gems, even if it doesn't cause them to explode, which I think I can influence by monkeying with the imagery of the technique a bit. I can use Beelzebub to hit half of them at once, then Double Trouble and hit the other half. Within seconds."

"Ok…but what is that going to do to the actual Heart?" Asked Callie worriedly. "The reaction from those two forces destabilizing will either fail to do anything or cause a BIG boom. Even if you tip it towards boom we still have to get the innocents out of there, not to mention save our people."

I frowned. She was right. If we just blew the whole chamber everyone would die. Even if we saved Valk and Cicero we'd be essentially detonating the place on hundreds of completely innocent victims who were just being used as mook fodder.

"Bethy?" I asked quietly. "Think you could sneak in and grab them up before the blast?"

She hesitated. "I don't know Shane. That's a lot of people. Not to mention they're stuck and won't have any idea what's going on. If they start straining to get out it could damage my Domain. One person resisting a Domain with their soul is one thing, hundreds at once is…something else."

"That shouldn't be an issue." Said Zeke. "They're not aware. At least not until the liquid hits them and starts the thaw. They won't be resisting, they're completely dormant."

"Well I should be able to do it then. But I'll be too busy to fight any of the Wendigos. There are a lot of them down there." She looked worried. "We'd need some sort of cover. Is there anything we can do to make a lot of noise?"

I frowned, thinking over who we had with us. If we wanted to hit Valen at full force, minimizing the involved parties was best. Beelzebub could blow all the fountains, leaving me open to help with whatever diversion we used, and they WOULD attack me, but being here was a giant red flag. If there wasn't a clear and present danger they would start looking for traps.

I stared at the giant hulking corpse with the grey water pouring from its chest hole. I frowned. That stuff was clearly bad news, even without the lamentation liquid, but combined, they were worse. I had my own secret sauce I could add to the mix. "Hey Abel." I said slowly. "Do you think you could redirect that tide of muck with a spatially lubricated tube?"

He frowned thoughtfully. "I mean…probably? Based on what they said it's not really high ranking liquid, more like the runoff of the degrading corpse. The Impact doesn't LOOK too high to be manageable."

"I have a plan." I said after a minute. "It's a bit of a long shot. Nat, you have today's wishes left? Because we're going to need a few answers to some very specific questions. I don't want to commit to this without confirming the interactions here. Not just the explosions for the lamentation gems, but how my own corrosive energy could affect the water."

She seemed almost surprised to hear my voice, and I frowned at her worriedly. "Hey, guys, talk over the details for entry with my mom and Zeke?" I said to the others. "I want to talk to Nat real quick."

Grabbing my cousin by the shoulders, I steered her over to one side of the cave, triggering Bael and shrouding us both. When we had privacy, I took off my mask so she could see my concern. "Hey, are you doing ok?" I asked softly. "I know this is rough. I can't imagine what you're going through right now."

"I'm fine." She scowled. "We don't have time for this. We need to get going. We have to-"

"No." I said flatly. "That's not how we do this. Yes, sooner is better, but we're hidden down here. They're not looking for us, they don't know where we are, and frankly, we're safer here under their nose than anywhere except the volcano, and even that's pretty close. Tell me where your head is at."

She let out a frustrated growl. "It doesn't MATTER. I just want to save Valk. Please. We can talk later, just don't let my friend die. I can't lose anyone else."

I nodded slowly. "Alright. You're in the Domain. Chelsea and Jessie will be with you. Purification and healing should help fix him up, but I bet he's going to be out of it when they cut him loose. Save him. But we're going to take a minute before we go."

"We don't have time for that!" She shouted angrily. "This is a huge waste of energy, why did you even pull me aside for this talk in the first place."

I smiled sadly at her. "Natalie. Your hands are bleeding."

She froze, then looked down slowly to see the hot drops of red dripping down her curled fingers, splattering onto the snow and send up nearly imperceptible curls of steam. "That's not…I don't-"

"Valk is going to need you to be ok." I said as I reached down and uncurled my cousin's fingers, prying her nails out of her palms. "It's not fair, but he's going to be in bad shape, and he needs you to be strong. It won't help calm him down if you're hurting yourself. So take a second, take a breath, and I'll send Jessie over here to heal your hands and make those wishes. She's our biggest nerd anyway, so she can trim the questions down to the least expensive options."

Her eyes blurred with tears. "What if I can't fix him?" She whispered. "What if this was too much and he's broken forever?"

"That's the question we all live with every day." I said sadly. "We're all nothing but the hero of our own stories. We just have to hope they aren't tragedies. But Valk has a lot of good friends, and we're all stubborn. He'll get that happy ending if we have anything to say about it. This isn't where his story ends. I can feel it."

She took a deep breath, wiped her face, and nodded, eyes hardening with determination. "You're right. We might not be competing anymore but we're still Ascendants. If this was enough to stop us we never would have made it this far. I guess I let myself forget that."

"Happens to everyone." I shrugged. "I just have the benefit of having my kickass wife in my head to smack some sense into me before I start to really spiral. Trust me, back when I was getting started I had crises of faith like…daily."

"Well sure." She said with a smirk. "You're a giant baby. But I expect better of myself little cousin. I have to set an example."

We exchanged a quick hug, and then I left her to compose herself as I sent Jessie over (she'd gotten some chits from Celine to pay for the wishes) to confirm our information before the raid. I headed over then to check on Abel.

My mentor was leaning against the cave wall staring out the exit when I approached. "Time to go?" He asked lazily.

"Not yet." I said with a shake of my head. "We're still getting confirmation. I just wanted to check on you. See if you were ok. Seeing Cicero like that was-"

"Annoying." He cut me off. "But honestly it might be good for him. My brother's reach exceeds his grasp. Having some humility tortured into him isn't the worst thing for his life expectancy. I didn't love seeing it, but he's alive. It's better than I expected. Maybe this will be enough of a push to keep him that way in the long run."

I whistled. "That's pretty fucking cold, Abel."

"What do you expect?" He said with a small smile. "We're in the tundra. Now if you'll excuse me I'm preparing myself for this clusterfuck. I'd appreciate a bit of time to myself. Come get me when it's time for us to move out." Then he turned his head away, studiously ignoring me.

It wasn't like I could make him deal with his emotions, so I just shrugged and walked away. Honestly, it was hard to tell sometimes whether Abel was emotionally stunted or just more highly evolved than the rest of us put together. I could at least tell he cared. His brother was important to him, and it was clear under the brutalist worldview he was happy he was alive.

Now we just had to keep him that way. Him. Valk, and hundreds of random frozen low rankers who were being horrifically mutated into Travis's monster army. Man, I really owed that guy a painful death. But hey, one thing at a time.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We confirmed that the plan would work easily enough. Yes no questions were simpler than digging for specific secrets, and after getting that done, we arranged some transportation formations to Valen to make sure we hit the trap with optimal timing. Callie left to get ready to meet us there, and the rest of our party was on standby just in case a rescue was needed.

With all that done though, it was up to Abel and I to move in and begin our distraction. I triggered Bael, escorting my mentor through the Wendigos and the small town and down into the cavern.

I wasn't surprised when he paused to stare at his suffering brother, but he shook it off more quickly than expected.

"Alright. Here's the plan." I said as we approached the central pool. "I'm going to corrupt the grey water, you're going to redirect it." As we watched, a dozen stone copies of me entered in their own Bael forms, taking positions to wait for the signal. "When we get to the target, I have to switch to Belial. Beelzebub is taking my other slot, so I won't be able to stealth us anymore."

He nodded. "And you want me to hold them off while you do your thing. Once the flow of water is all corrupted, I hose down all the enemies to draw attention while the other yous drop their stealth and use your purification form to torch the fountains. Then I use spatial lubrication to get us the fuck out of here before the whole place blows."

"Exactly." I said with a grin. "Meanwhile Bethy will snatch up all the statues and grab Cicero and Valk at the same time as the other mes are tossing Life Novas into those fountains."

I didn't see Bethy anywhere, but that wasn't really surprising, since I wasn't supposed to. Just to be safe we waited a few minutes, then, once the Wendigos had mostly moved away from the central position, we approached the giant creepy Wendigo statue.

As we approached, I felt the blood inside me run cold. Not just a physical chill, but a spiritual cold that seemed to sap the optimism and positivity out of my mind. Cold. Cold like the depths of a frozen sea, like the vacuum of space, like the icy peaks of the tallest mountain, but so much more.

There was darkness in the chill, monsters in the sea, horrors between the stars, ferocious beasts waiting in the snowblasted mountains.

For years I'd heard about racial traits, seen them in action, even fought against them. I had friends who had racial traits and had seen enemies take that step, but I'd never bothered to learn more about them. I knew how they worked, how they were passed down, and what they could do, but I'd never questioned the nature of that change.

Now, with the cold invading my heart, I finally grasped exactly what a catalyst really was. Recursion, concentrated and strengthened recursion, the distilled essence of the gradual madness that we all faced every day. It was in the air around this monster, seeping out of it and infecting everyone nearby. The water was the real thing, but even the vapor of the crashing fountain was enough to give me visions of what it was like to be a Wendigo.

I felt hunger and hate. Cold and anger and sadistic glee at the fumbling of weak prey through the snow. In my mind, I stalked a helpless animal through the tundra, glorying in its pain as its hot blood cooled in a trail behind it on the frozen plane. It was my art, my symphony of suffering, and it was the closest thing to sated my unending thirst for death and violence could meet.

It wasn't about the flesh, my hunger, not really. It was about the pain, the fear and the desperation invaded the meat, tenderizing and marinating it, giving it the nutrients my powerful body needed to continue, to thrive and evolve so I could stalk even more powerful prey.

And then it was gone. A protective warmth burned away the cold and I had to hold back the rising gorge of true disgust at the alien abomination I'd just been forced to experience. A wave of love and acceptance rolled through me, and every speck of that abominable frost melted off my heart as it was flooded with the protective affection my wife had sent me to combat the cold.

"Well." Said Abel with a grimace. "That was deeply unpleasant. You good?"

"Not sure that's the word I'd use." I gagged. "But I'm past whatever the fuck that was. I'm so glad we're going to blow this place the fuck up. Also, feeling a lot less morally uncertain about killing Wendigos."

He nodded. "I mean, I don't really do that kind of ethical waffling, but I think I can get actively excited about butchering those lanky fucks."

"Don't actually touch the water." I cautioned him as we approached. "Not without some way to counter the influence. My corrosion should be enough to override the cold, but be careful when you're redirecting the flow."

"Check." he said solemnly. "You about ready to start?"

Triggering Ripple Running, I walked slowly across the grey water, approaching the corpse, then I started to rise, creating stairs in the air until I was off to one side of the chest hole, which was about as tall as I was. Reaching down into myself, I triggered Belial, letting Bael fade away, and I felt the whole chamber tense around me.

I ignored it. I could vaguely hear Abel being attacked, but I tuned that out as I triggered Afterburner. With that done, I started to channel that enhanced power into a modified cosmic collapse.

The corruption was my focus, pouring my power into the hot, disintegrating degradation Belial represented. The consecration of flame was an almost sacred concept, but the touch of tears perverted and maligned it. Belial was the demon prince of the worthless and the wicked, the despicable rot that eroded the virtuous, and this technique was the distilled essence of that perversion.

I called it 'Heart of Darkness', a direct counterpoint to the Heart of Winter. Cosmic Collapse was its base form, but concentrating energy was just a template. The story that was told, the energy concentrated, that was the important part.

With a flex, I split off a parallel, then another. I needed three minds to pull this off. One to form the images, one to concentrate the energy, and one to hold the constructs I'd already created together. Ten of them, one for each charge of Afterburner. In the distance, screams and crashes seemed to become more pronounced, the fighting growing closer.

I ignored it, gathering all ten of those constructs and finally casting them into the heart hole of the corpse.

There was a sort of vacuum as they detonated, like all the air was sucked out of the room, before an explosion of horrifying corruption erupted from the chest cavity like a pressure washer of acidic muck, using the former grey water as as carrier. Around the hold in the chest, creeping magmatic corrosion started to eat away at the once frozen corpse.

"Abel!" I yelled worriedly. "Not sure how long this will last. This thing has been corroding for millenia, and it is NOT as sturdy as it used to be."

A snarl of annoyance was the response, before my mentor's voice snapped. "Damn it! Switch!"

I glanced over my shoulder, triggering Double Trouble as soon as I saw him, and I appeared behind him, letting Belial drop as Mephistopheles rose to take its place. "Go." I said, stepping past him and thrusting the butt of my staff into the screaming mouth of a Wendigo, unleashing a blast of black flame.

He didn't ask twice, heading for the giant corpse as my staff whirled up to deflect a dinner plate sized clawed hand. My staff came down like a hammer, on the overextended ankle of one of the monsters as I stepped past, and then arched up and around to smash down on the back of its neck.

I dropped one of my parallels, letting the last non main mental process track my combat as I checked on everyone else. I spotted Bethy, Nat and Chelsea outside the Domain as they took apart the metal constructs to stash away the mid conversion victims.

They were mostly done, and Chelsea was purifying who she could, though a few were too far gone and needed to die. Thankfully Valk and Cicero weren't and within a minute or two, they had officially saved who they could, the icy statues already stashed away. As I watched, a river of green black poison hosed down the cavern, burning alive Wendigos as it went.
To make sure I would survive, I dropped Mephistopheles and switched to Mornax as the others assumed the role of Zagan.

I took off running, one foot always on the ground as I headed for Bethy. The poison tide washed over me, and even protected by my most powerful defense I felt it eat away as my skin. The corruption had hijacked the potency of that dreadful liquid and turned it toward the destruction and decomposition it embodied.

When I reached Bethy, my sister and Nat were still outside, waiting for me to get close enough. I dropped Mornax, letting Chelsea blast me with some of her purifying flame to clean me off as they dragged me into the Domain, letting me fall to the dark grass in exhaustion.

The soul strain of so many techniques at once, mixed with my parallels, wasn't near enough to break me, but it definitely left me winded.

Not winded enough that I stopped paying attention, and I looked through the eyes of one of my clones, who had already dropped a Life Nova into one of the twenty four fountains and Double Troubled to another.

The venom tide was dissolving the stone, and he'd barely had enough time to drop the second charge of the purifying blast before he came apart, but barely was still enough. I checked on the others, knowing they were all just as dead, and then returned to my proper body, glancing around the Domain.

"He's here!" I called as Abel came barreling into the construct. With the arrival of our last party member Bethy took off, heading at top speed for the exit. It was shocking to see her dance across the corrosive liquid like it was solid ground, and I realized exactly how much Bethy could and did hold back around us.

As she emerged from between a pair of Wendigos and out onto the snow, she barreled toward the teleportation formations we'd set up. From inside the Domain, we could see her surroundings, like she was the center of a three hundred and sixty degree camera placement of something.

Behind us, there was a shudder as the ice began to break apart, green glowing energy pouring from the cracks and lighting up the darkness of the tundra. The last thing we saw before hitting the formation was the last of the purification and corruption energies clashing as a colossal pillar of shifting red black and green erupted from below the ice, shooting straight up into the air like a lance aimed at the stars.

The formation flashed, sending us hurtling through space, only to wind up inside a surprisingly familiar office. Zekes office, the same one I'd been in so long ago when I first realized how much more complicated my life was than I imagined.

I stumbled out of the Domain, landing on a couch nearby, and saw Bethy was bent over, hands on her knees as she panted in exhaustion. "Let them out." I said to her. "Quick, we can find the space." She nodded jerkily and started releasing the E-rankers. All I could think of as she did it though was exactly where we were. Back in Valen. Home. So far so good.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"How weird is it being back here?" Asked Benny as he slumped down next to me on the couch. "I still remember us coming here together after you got your powers. It was so huge and imposing, a whole new world. Now it seems almost pathetic compared to some of the places we've been." He put a hand on my shoulder, spiritual calming flooding into me and slowly repairing my soul.

"I feel that." I chuckled. "They finish searching the area?"

He sighed. "Looks like the WCP is completely empty. Do you think we were wrong about the trap? I was expecting to face some hard resistance when we left the office."

"I assume it's the opposite, honestly." I grimaced. "In all the other cities we hit, the Palace district was always flooded with Wendigos. Their absence here is pretty suspicious. We JUST blew up the Heart, so there shouldn't have been time to withdraw. Which means they left this place empty to herd us to another location."

He smirked at me. "Or they're afraid to run into you underground or inside a building. Maybe they're surrounding Valen, figuring they can deprive you of your biggest weapon by fighting outside."

I glared at my best friend. "First of all, fuck you. I'm not some kind of anti building armament. I HAPPEN to have collapsed a few places in the course of our resistance. It's not that's my signature move."

"Oh, but you are." He said maliciously. "Oh, but it has. Did you think all that stat income came in a vacuum? Stories abound, my friend, and they all paint you as the patron saint of blowing up buildings. On the upside, I'm pretty sure your techniques will get more effective at destroying large scale structures, on the downside I don't think you're going to have an easy time getting insurance going forward."

I rolled my eyes, perking up when my I saw my sister approaching. "Hey Chels." I said cheerfully. "How is Nat? And Valk? Everything ok? I saw you giving him and Cicero a once over with your purifying flame."

"Cicero is in bad shape." She grimaced. "Valk has a strong will and resisted being invaded by the cold. Cicero was tempted. He still held out, but it got in too deep for me to purge. You'll need to work on him. I was able to soften it up a bit though. Purifying flame vs. corrupting ice gave me a natural advantage."

"Unsurprising." I shrugged. "Cicero never struck me as strong of will. I'll work on him. Not now obviously, we have shit to do, but when I get a chance. How about you? Feeling ok? We're going to be leaning on you a bit harder during this part. You get any inspiration from watching us blow up the corpse of an ancient demon?"

My sister chuckled. "I had a few." She said with a grin. "I've been doing some research since you told me mom gave permission to use both my abilities." Holding up a hand, she focused on her palm, and a symbol slowly manifest. A black and white circle, a dot of each color the only relief in an otherwise bisected shape.

I raised a brow. "I'm not familiar with that. What is it exactly?"

"It's called a yin-yang diagram." She said excitedly. "It's a shape heavily invested in the blending of opposing forces. The implication is that all things are made of both dark and light, while each also contains a bit of the other. I've had some success stabilizing my energy when mixing it in this shape, long enough that I can actually use it as a projectile."

"That's fascinating." I said with interest. "Are you going to use it as your Path? It seems like a strong image."

She waggled her other hand. "Yes and no. I think I'm going to try to merge the concept with the idea of a star. It's kind of a family tradition, and there's a lot of powerful applications of star imagery. Imagine a yin-yang supernova. It's a perfect Path for me. I'm excited to ask mom and grandma about it." Her smile wilted. "If I can."

Reaching up, I pulled her into a hug. "Hey. I'm sure grandma is fine. She's a smart woman, no chance she would have gone to talk to her mother if she thought she would die. We're in a truce right now too."

"Do you think they can fix it?" She asked quietly. "Talk Black Sorrow into backing down so we can be a real family. Maybe dad will even come home."

"I somehow doubt that." I said wryly. "But I would like to be able to visit the Holy Dominion openly. I think they must have some kind of plan to get her to back down or they wouldn't have decided to try."

Letting her go, I stepped back. "Now, how about we search the district just to make sure there's no one lying in wait and we can get started on staging the attack. If they aren't here, the only other place that would be viable to hold an army is the guild. So once we clear the WCP we can start planning our assault."

"Hell yes we can." Said Stella bluntly as she arrived next to us. "Those horned bastards picked the wrong building to use. I have more than a few defensive redundancies in place. If we can get to my office I can seriously soften them up. Not to mention activating the lockdown protocols so we can kill them to the last man."

I grinned. "Don't suppose you and my uncle had a handy secret passage between your offices like in Rajak?"

She glared at me. "No. We did not. We were separated for years before I took over the branch. We'll have to go in the front. Or the back. Or one of the side entrances. Suffice to say we have more than a few options even without a secret tunnel."

"How about surveillance?" I asked with a frown. "Knowing where they all are, how many, and what their distribution is would be useful."

She sighed. "We don't have remote access. It's a security risk. If we can check that stuff from outside the building so can someone else. Beaker was adamant that we not leave any access from external sources. The whole security system is air gapped, not that lack of connection is a real obstacle for some people. It's better than nothing though."

"So we need to get you inside." I said with a nod. "Sounds good. Abel and I can escort you in while the others spread out and get ready to enter. No use coming in too hot and ruining our chances of tripping their trap."

Abel, who was waiting nearby, chuckled, cracking his neck. "Nice. That last workout was a little boring. Had to stay on defense and then bail. Let's get going then. If we take too long they'll withdraw."

With a sigh, I hopped to my feet, groaning a bit. I was still sore from the last fight, but my soul was in decent shape after some spiritual calming. Callie was on her way down, and we were on track to actually pull this off. This next part would be much more relaxing in some ways, just wiping out as many Wendigos as possible.

Which was why when we left the WCP, we left through the front door. Taking the elevator up into that old building, I stayed on high alert, waiting for any sign of an attack.

"It's weird there's no one down here." I muttered as we stood in the rising lift. "The WCP is never empty. I assume they let everyone flee, hoping we would go down and check and get boxed in." I smirked at the thought. "I bet they have people watching the outside waiting to spring the trap. Imagine their faces when we come OUT of there."

Abel snickered. "Always funny seeing an enemy reeling. If we're assuming they're watching, we need to head for the Unity building top speed right out the gate, right?"

I triggered Mephistopheles, letting my hair blaze up into black flame. "Hell yes." I said with a grin. "And go right through anything that tries to stop us. Stella, you good to keep up? I'm not really aware of your ability besides that it's star based. Cosmic Witchcraft, right?"

Reaching into a pouch, she pulled out a small doll that looked like her. From another pouch she pulled a recognizable can of what I knew was a high end energy drink on Callus. She poured it over the doll, which glowed the same purple as the liquid, and her eyes followed suit. "Yeah." She said nonchalantly. "I'll be fine."
"Alright." I said with a grin. "Then try to keep up. I won't be slowing down. Get ready for the Wendigo Run."

We waited together for a minute or two, until there was a ding, and the elevator doors opened. I stepped forward, vanishing in a blaze of black as Mephisto's Waltz began. I appeared at the front door, and the displaced air exploded out, the blast of wind and the sound of the sound barrier breaking shattering the glass windows at the front of the lobby.

My Eye of Revelation picked up a dozen horned forms moving, and I grinned as I stepped again. My waltz took me across the street, up the side of a building, off the skull of a Wendigo, and across the street in the opposite direction, shattering another's chest.

My staff licked out, smashing limbs and cracking skulls as I let the waltz take me, carrying me in split second flashes back and forth down the street toward the Unity building.

It felt amazing. I stepped off a piece of broken and falling debris from one of my landings, walking through that sky and up toward one of the larger Wendigos on top of of a taller building. It died in a single strike, and then I was off, back to the ground.

Our of the corner of my eye, I could see faces in the windows, people watching me work, and I felt…proud. These were my people, from my hometown, and they were seeing what I'd become, seeing me protect them from a terrible threat. It felt good, and it further reinforced my path moving forward.

Abel, meanwhile, was smashing through the monsters I left behind (I wasn't getting all of them) with massive bloody fist images, while Stella blurred through the wreckage in a purple streak, not really engaging with the monsters.

That was fine, it meant she made good time, and when we touched down in front of the Unity building, we were all there at about the same time. Around us, dozens of antlered forms gathered, barely visible in the dark if not for my Eye of Revelation, most likely using some kind of native stealth ability.

The Unity building looked empty from where we stood, and we had an unobstructed path inside, which of course confirmed the trap.

"We ready?" I asked Stella, who was panting slightly. She nodded, straightening with a firm look, and we all strode into the building. Once we were inside, the monsters tried to follow, and we let them. Stella couldn't trigger lockdowns yet, we needed to make sure the others made it in.

With that in mind, we walked deeper into the trap, letting them box us in, but none of us were particularly worried. In the back of my head, I could feel Callie getting closer. Since the fortress was gone, she couldn't use the bangle to come back, and was taking a shuttle in from the atmosphere.

Being E-rank she was able to enter easily enough without damaging the labyrinth construct. I grinned to myself as I felt the malicious presences at my back. She'd better hurry up, or there wasn't going to be any enemies left for her.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Why aren't they attacking?" I said casually as we strolled through the halls. "I expected to be ass deep in Wendigo by this point. Although I have to admit, watching Abel twitch every time they move is kind of funny." I ignored the middle finger my teacher shot me, keeping most of my attention on my Danger Sense.

It was going off like a storm siren, obviously, but I was trying to track the intensity for forewarning of an attack. Nothing was pinging right now, so I split off a parallel to keep track so I could relax a little.

"I suspect they're waiting for backup." Stella said worriedly. "There are more and more of them spilling in. They're supposed to take you alive, right?"

I shrugged. "Who knows. Travis is probably pissed about all the losses." I smirked to myself. "I wish I could have seen the look on his face when we blew up the Heart. For all I know he'll just kill me and sacrifice my body or something. Or maybe they can do that weird grey ice thing like the ones at the Heart. Kick my ass and freeze me just before I die."

Despite the grim nature of the topic, I didn't let the possibilities bother me. This was pretty much ideal for our purposes. The more that came in the more we could trap in here with the others, and the less chance our forces would be noticed.

Abel snorted, saying in a deadpan voice. "With this many nearby, it might not be impossible. Even your advantages have limits."

"Yes. They outnumber us so heavily. We are truly beyond all help." I answered just as flatly. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then we both burst out laughing, nearly doubling over as we were wracked by that muscle cramping, full body laugh you get when you get sucked into laughing about something and just can't stop, even though it isn't really funny.

Stella just glared at us both, then turned the full force of her disapproval on Abel. "He used to be normal, you know. You're a terrible influence."

"You take that back!" I said, aghast. "I was NEVER normal."

She just rolled her eyes. "My mistake. What could I have been thinking." Finally we came to the top of the staircase I'd first walked so long ago after my intake. "My office." She said unnecessarily. "I'm going to go check some things like we discussed. Make sure I'm not disturbed."

We nodded solemnly as she headed inside, then stood motionless and waited. Sure enough, after she'd been out of sight for about thirty seconds, the Wendigos hit their limits and attacked.

Black flames roared under my feet as I began to Waltz, vanishing straight up as I bounced off either side of the staircase until my back was flat against the ceiling. With the vantage point, I found the furthest one back and triggered Double Trouble, then went to work bashing my way into the crowd of monsters from the back as Abel smashed into them from the front. More flooded in from behind me, sadly, the ones who had been accumulating on the walk.

I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial, then started painting the area around me with black demonic corrosion. Which…turned out to be a big mistake.

My eyes widened as the ground melted out from under us, and I stepped off the air, dropping Belial and reaching out with Dust Construction.

It was tough to grab hold of the melted rock, but it was close enough to the dust that I was able to force it to work, and I managed to jam enough of it back into the expanding cracks to create a very basic makeshift brace that kept the building from collapsing on top of us.

"Can you please NOT!" Bellowed Abel from higher up the steps.

"Well it wasn't INTENTIONAL!" I howled back. "I forgot how fucking flimsy everything here is. Even Rajak was sturdy enough not to just fall apart." I should have considered the problem when I shattered those windows at the WCP building. Valen was essentially a mortal city, and almost nothing here was made of Ascendant material.

It was even more shocking the Wendigos could function, they were animalistic nutcases one and all. I was surprised their feet weren't punching into the rock. It was so annoying when bad guys were competent, even the really basic kind.

Still, I had plenty of easy options. I triggered Ripple Running and just avoided the ground in general, though I had to adjust my combat style to something more physical. Collapsing the building on us wouldn't kill us…but it also wouldn't kill them. What it WOULD do was make our forces harder to gather.

Once they showed up we could have Bethy pull them all into her Domain and fight it out inside. Until then, I just lashed out back and forth with my staff.

It almost felt nostalgic. No forms or special abilities, just creacking them over the heads with a big ass stick like I'd done when I got started. I snarled in pain as a pair of antlers slammed into my back, but my armor took most of the damage.

Lashing out behind me with a brutal thrust, the staff smashed into the creature's sternum, eliciting a horrific crack as the monster stumbled back. Another one was coming at me head on, but I used its eye as a reflective surface, triggering Double Trouble on the injured one behind me.

In an instant I was up on its head, using its antlers as handlebars as I stomped down on its ugly face as hard and fast as I could. As it sank to its knees, I wrenched the head around with the full weight of my body, interposing the antler in my left hand between myself and the one that had just realized it was only attacking an illusion.

There was so many of them, and so much happening. I triggered Piece of Mind, splitting off a parallel even as I called for Beelzebub. Twelve other versions of me appeared around me, immediately going to work, and I grimaced at the strain.

I only had two forms active, but I'd been going for a while now. My soul wasn't in agony or anything, but I had a throbbing pain behind my eyes that reminded me of an ice cream headache. I was used to overdoing it all at once and being struck dumb with agony, so the gradual build from constant on and off use was easy enough to push through for now.

The fight dragged on, and I killed a bunch more Wendigos (though less than I'd have liked because they kept getting between me and the wounded before I could finish them). I was about to stomp one's face in when there was a low hum and a flash as the walls and floor glowed blue.

"I think that was the lockdown!" I called as I kicked off the air to avoid being speared on a particularly sharp pair of antlers. When I touched down though, I had time to check out the materials for a second, and was shocked to note that I felt Impact in them now. Not anything up to my standards, but like…F-rank maybe?

"Did these rocks just get more durable?" Called Abel.

I just laughed, calling back. "Seems like the lockdown reinforces the building. Which makes sense because it's not much of a lockdown if you can just walk through the wall. Still, that'll make things way easier."

That train of thought was cut off by the scream of my danger sense and I threw myself sideways as a small orb of condensed black and white energy streaked past me, hit a crowd of Wendigos, and then fucking EXPLODED.

"Sorry!" Called the embarrassed voice of my sister. "I'm still figuring out how to aim that! It pulls to the left!"

I grinned as I turned around, seeing our entire force converging, more than a hundred and fifty E-rankers sweeping down the hallways, tearing apart the straggling Wendigos that were trying desperately to escape them.

"Is that all of them?" I called with a laugh. "It's hard to tell, they all have that same grey hide and the antlers."

Chelsea arrived next to me with a grin. "I'm pretty sure. We're getting conflicting reports of a few dozen staying outside, but not enough to really turn the tides. We're grinding them down easily enough. We have a numbers advantage AND a skill advantage. I don't think the stragglers are going to be an iss-" She cut off as Stella came barreling out of her office frantically. "DOWN!" She screamed, jumping into the hole I'd left with my corrosion. Without questioning it, we all disengaged, and anyone who couldn't get back down the hall jumped into the hole.

There was a colossal boom, and dust and rock rained down from above us as something hit the building.

We'd all landed just one floor below, and as the smoke cleared, I could make out something huge moving through the obscuring cloud. Something grey, tipped with knifelike talons on a hand the size of a small fucking house.

As I watched, a pair of massive dark columns recognizable as horns sheared through the stone of the Unity building and a hideous warped face shoved itself into the hole the arm had left, hateful red eyes glaring down at us from sockets as tall as we were.

"What the actual fuck is THAT?" I screamed in a manly and not at all high pitched voice.

Abel groaned. "Invocation of some kind? Technically the transformation IS an ability. Maybe all of the stragglers did it at the same time. Either way. Doesn't matter much, does it?" Hauling back, he threw a colossal punch with his right hand, and above us, a bloody manifestation of his closed fist coalesced, tearing through the air and smashing into the massive demon head.

It stumbled back, and I stepped off the air to follow it up, landing on a rock ledge inside the hole it torn in the side of the building. The construction was clearly getting destabilized, and the blue glow of the lockdown protocols was flickering and about to go out, at which point the whole place would probably collapse.

Despite all that, I wasn't worried about it. I just stood there casually, staring up at the massive monster. Abel and Chelsea hopped up next to me, the others below trying to hunt down the fleeing Wendigos as they scattered.

"You don't seem worried." My sister commented. "Shouldn't we be getting ready for a huge fight?"

I just laughed. "Nope. It's already taken care of." I'd been waiting for something for a while now, and I could feel it coming from a ways out. I wouldn't need to lift a finger, though I was definitely going to be helping.

"Really?" She said worriedly. "Because I don't see how that's possible. What exactly is going to take care of that giant monster."

Grinning, I pointed up at the sky behind the monster. Through the bond, I could feel the flex of two of my forms, forms that wouldn't have been usable before the rank up. One of them wouldn't have been usable even after, except that we were cheating a little bit.

"What is that?" She said, squinting. I didn't blame her for not knowing what she was looking at. With my feet planted, Mornax was working through the bond (a fun new trick considering it had only originally been usable on solid ground) , but the curled up form of my Callie wasn't easily visible, wreathed in black fire as she was from the collecting strength of Mephistopheles.

The giant super Wendigo seemed to notice at the last minute and turned to look at what was coming. Callie had jumped from a shuttle just below orbit, and with Mornax increasing her density and Mephistopheles supercharging her force she was basically a living mortar shell. It was a shame it had turned though, I'd have loved to see its face when she crashed into and vaporized its entire upper torso. My wife certainly knew how to make an entrance.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Valen…was in pretty bad shape. Callie had aimed herself at the Unity building, but the lockdown reinforcement had faded, and she'd gone through the building, into the WCP, and hit the underground district hard. The city wasn't going to COLLAPSE, but it was getting a little creaky.

Luckily, there was a ton of rubble around, and a modified use of Pit of Despair turned it all into Dust that I was able to work into a series of pillars to hold everything up. Song of the Soil helped me get a decent idea of the weak spots, and considering I was working mortal materials, even the amounts of Dust I was using was literally effortless.

Callie had arrived by the time I was done, and we piled into Bethy's Domain together. I was grinning ear to ear as she threw herself into my arms and we just…held each other, letting the world move around us as we reveled in the presence of the person we loved most.

"I missed you." I breathed as she squeezed me. "So much. Like a ridiculous amount. Fighting without you makes me feel so unbalanced, and trying to defend our own home while I knew you couldn't be there sucked. I'm so happy you're back. That was a hell of an attack, by the way. Serious power there."

"It was your attack." She said with a laugh as she pulled away. "I just borrowed it. Granted, my much higher Might helped me get the most out of it, but still."

I laughed, and we both sat on the grass. Jessie, Celine, and Benny came over, followed by my sister, and then Gabe, Abel, and Mel. "Thank the gods you're back." My best friend moaned as he slumped down. "He's been in the worst mood. No matter how I try to cheer him up. I made him breakfast last week and he nearly bit my head off."

"You kicked open my door, screamed 'BAGEL' and then hurled one at my face while I was asleep!" I spat acidly.

He snorted. "You weren't asleep by the time it hit you. You woke up because of the screaming."

Celine glared at him. "You told me you wanted to have a heart to heart with him about taking on too much."

"I DID have a heart to heart with him." He said innocently. "In our hearts, there is only bread violence. And he got me back like right after. He Pit of Despaired the ground under my foot as I turned to run. I smacked my head into a door handle as I went down."

"Which did NOTHING to you and irreparable damage to my door!" I raged. "So if anything you owe me twice for that!"

Callie shot Celine a pitying look. "I'm so sorry you had to put up with this the whole time I was gone."

"It wasn't that bad." The elf girl laughed. "Honestly it's a relief to see them so carefree. Shane really has been on edge, and Benny was worried. Of course, he SHOWED that worry in a ridiculous way, but that's just their relationship."

"Speaking of worry." Said Jessie hesitantly. "Do we need to worry about Travis mass murdering people out of frustration? Or to try to mess with our heads? I'm kind of shocked he hasn't been doing that already. I get he wants to mass sacrifice all the Ascendants as a show of force, but they've been leaving the mortals totally alone."

Chelsea grimaced. "If I had to guess, it's because killing them hasn't even occurred to him. People like friends and family would have been targets if they weren't at the wedding, but most Ascended like Travis…they consider mortals to be basically livestock. It literally isn't worth the effort to kill them in large numbers as far as they're concerned."

That was…depressing. It was good for our purposes, but hearing that the other side of this war (and some of our own side based on her tone) literally considered more than 98% of the universe not to be human was…dark.

"Anyway." I said, desperate to change the subject. "We're headed back to the volcano, and we'll be staying there a while. I considered continuing this party on to Wintervale, but after experiencing that raid and the exhaustion from consistent power use like that, I decided to wait."

"But won't we need to worry about Travis being ready for us?" Asked Jessie worriedly.

"I think the opposite." I said with a shrug. "The longer we wait the bigger our advantage. We took a huge chunk out of his forces, made a big splash doing it, and destroyed his only means of expansion. The longer we wait the stronger we get, and he can't stay on guard twenty four seven indefinitely. Let him waste his energy on defense while we recover, then hit him when his guard drops."

I'd been leaning toward taking the fight to him as soon as possible, but Valen had changed my mind. The patience they'd shown with that trap, mixed with my own growing exhaustion, had illuminated a better path forward. Plus I wanted to spend some time with my wife. We'd rescued everyone we knew, and with Travis shoring up his defenses we had some breathing room. I needed to breathe.

Callie reached down, taking my hand in the grass and twining her fingers through mine. I didn't look at her, but I didn't need to. Touching her after so long apart was relief enough in itself.

We weren't DONE with the occupation, but we had certainly turned things around. "I say we give it a month." I said eventually. "Between wishes and normal growth, it should be more than enough for us to at least scrape up against D-rank. Well, Callie and I. We can ride the planetary rank up when we finish liberating Callus."

I was honestly torn about becoming D-rank. I couldn't imagine what that was going to be like, and I'd be losing Zeke's protection. I was confident enough to survive without it, but I was going to seriously miss him, even without the additional worries that losing the defense of my guardian would drop on my head. Still, I'd had a lot of practice lately, between this incident and the Glade.

A month wasn't a short time, but I suspected Travis would be on his guard for a WHILE. Four weeks should be enough time for even the most paranoid defender to relax, and when we hit him, we'd be much more powerful than we were now.

More than that though…we were tired. Not just me, but all of us. We'd been running from siege to siege, blowing up buildings and dropping districts on people. The odd break for recovery wasn't the same as actual downtime, and if we tried to go into this fight half cocked people were going to die.

The Wendigos had ferocity and power, but they were ultimately animals. Too much instinct and not enough thinking. The enemy Ascendants were mostly thugs and bullies, most likely sent along because they were more trouble back at the base than dead. I'd definitely killed more than a few legitimate threats, but they wouldn't have been wasting their best.

Now though, the shoe was on the other foot. The longer we waited the better shape we'd be in, and the worse shape they would. Staying at one hundred percent alert for a few days was tough, doing it for a MONTH would have any sane human being, Ascendant or not, ready to snap.

Granted, we were living under a volcano, so our own people were likely to get stir crazy after a while too. But we could still do raids on claimed cities to free high rankers, assuming Travis didn't call them all back to Wintervale to dig in.

The more I thought about the situation, the more I became convinced that this was the worst possible outcome for him. If the labyrinth dropped, the high rankers would storm the planet and he'd be fucked. The only thing I could imagine saving him would be a god, and he'd made it clear that he didn't exactly have one on hand.

His plan was considered a low risk attempt that didn't waste anything important. Their gods had given him a few trinkets, but the basic concept was that he would create a big fuss without needing to waste a ton of time and energy from powerful Ascendants on their side. It was supposed to be a morale blow.

My instincts told me that his way out of this involved the sacrifice. Maybe some kind of summoning or something, or an emergency beacon. Whatever the case, he needed a way out from under the nose of a bunch of A-rankers, and if he couldn't manage the sacrifice, I doubted he'd have one.

He was going to get antsy as this dragged out. Honestly we'd gotten lucky with his whole outlook on mortals, but it would probably start looking like a viable option eventually. Which meant we needed a way to keep him locked up in Wintervale once his people got back.

I pointed that out to Callie through the bond, and she paused, looking thoughtful, then nodded. "I might have an idea." She said after a minute of consideration. "Give me a bit."

She came back looking excited. "Alright. I think supplemental wishes will help, but we've got a decent plan. Frostbite thinks she can work with Tempest to rig up a massive blizzard. An invocation with a few other powerful abilities poured in, some enchanting to anchor it, and some wishes to smooth out the problems."

Frostbite herself, who I hadn't seen in quite a while, appeared shortly afterward, with Bethy following behind her. "Hey" I greeted her warmly. "Heard you have an idea that might solve our problem.

"Hell yes I do." She grinned. "In fact, I have a much better one than I did a minute ago. I was talking with your vampire about her Domain, expressing some interest in how it worked, and she made a comment that gave me an idea. We have enchanters here. Formation masters, ice ability users spatial users, and a dozen other types of powerful Ascendants. Not to mention the layout of that place is set up specifically for formations, right?"

I nodded. "Pretty much, there's a huge on there already, that's what the aurora is. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because, the terrain, the possible formation applications, and the layout of that area all happen to resemble something extremely relevant to our situation." Holding out a hand, a sphere of ice manifested, and inside of it I could see a mini snowstorm.

I froze. "A snowglobe." I said slowly. "You want to use a formation supported by over a hundred E-rankers to turn the entire city of Wintervale into a SNOWGLOBE?"

"I mean, we'll need plenty of support, and it won't last forever, but it should keep them from burning down the whole planet out of revenge. Melissa from the Beast Lord Garden is into it, and she's going to need plenty of support from you and your cousin, but in theory we SHOULD be able to pull it off."

"We'd have to make it permeable from outside." I said slowly. "Let us and the other enemy forces in but not let anything out. Once we finish them off we can drop it. Is Moravian here? Bring him in on this. He's a Formation Grandmaster, and if anyone can pull it off its him."

I was getting excited. If we pulled this off, we could seriously limit the damage Travis and co could do, AND hopefully Moravian could use this whole idea as the step he needed to springboard his planetary formation into the rank up. At least if my understanding of formations and symbolism was right.

This was the closest thing to a solid plan for ending the occupation I'd had so far. The other plans were more reactionary than anything, but if we did this right, we could completely crush the enemy forces. I couldn't help but grin. Time to see how Travis liked being stuck in a bubble.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So can you do it?" I asked excitedly as I stared down at the Moravian. The Grandmaster of Formations was sitting cross legged in an empty volcanic chamber, eyes closed as he pondered…something. Might have been the truths of the universe, might have been a recipe for Paiea. Whatever he was doing, he'd made about a dozen minute changes to the cavern and had set up some kind of formation already.

He inhaled deeply, then blew out the breath in a slow cadence before opening his eyes. "Can? What is truth but the conviction of a possibility? Is my truth enough to sway this jaded world? Perhaps. Only time will tell."

"Oh, you're right." Said Callie from right next to me., "That's super annoying. I think he said yes though?"

The old man smiled. "Impatience. Ever the folly of youth. The answer, as is almost always the case, is more complex than it might appear. I can create a formation such as the one you request, though I cannot confirm it's effectiveness, as I said. What I CAN confirm is that it will require the use of resources I've saved."

"The Impact." I said with a nod. "I thought of that. My sister had an idea though. Could we reinvest the stored Impact into the spell THROUGH the snowglobe? Make it part of the process and then refine the triggering conditions? We're going to not only liberate the popsicles, but also break the labyrinth and liberate the planet, and then finally break the snowglobe as a final act of liberation. Symbolism is a big thing in formations, right?"

He put on a pensive expression. "That…may work. A pivot in the investment for a larger result." He stood, somehow managing to become one with the room as he moved, and the motion made my head spin. It was like one of those old stop motion flip books I'd made with Benny back in childcare, but somehow not. "Come along. Let's have a look. Do we have some sort of representation of the surrounding area?"

We did, actually, it had been one of the first things we'd gotten Nat and Celine on. We were doing this with or without Moravian.

We took him up into the cavern proper, into the room where we'd been planning raids. In the center, floating above the ground, was an actual physical model of the entire tundra. The towering old man approached the model, eyes gleaming. "What a marvelous representation. Wishcrafted goods always have such a unique feel to them. Technically perfect but spiritually empty. In this case an asset, as a model is meant to represent only itself. No lingering impressions to disturb my calculations."

He stepped up to the model, placing his hands above it and slowly running them just over the surface like he was trying to feel its body heat or something.

Benny stepped up next to me. "I know he's a Grandmaster and this is going to be really impressive, but the actual process looks ridiculous. He's just fondling an ice field and humming, abilities are weird sometimes."

"Formations are an incredibly esoteric art." Came a voice from behind us. We turned to find Melissa, the Beast Queen of the Beast Lord Palace, watching intently. "Seeing Moravian work is a revelation. Grandmaster is height beyond what many people on this planet will ever reach. I myself have only reached Mastery in the Skill, and even that just barely."

I blinked at her. "I didn't know you'd broken a shackle."

"It's not something I advertise. But past Mastery, having the room to improve isn't the same as being capable of doing so. Reaching Grandmaster status is a staggering undertaking." She glanced at where my sister was studying the older man's actions. "I think at least one of you recognizes the challenge."

"Well, Chelsea has more context for it." I shrugged. "Aside from being well versed in formations herself, she's from a larger faction where she comes into contact with more Grandmasters. All the Grandmasters I've met are actual C-rankers, and they tend to seem…less impressive, compared to other Ascendants I've met."

It was kind of funny how quickly running into B and A-rankers became the norm for me in terms of real power. I knew academically that D and C-rankers were a threat to me, but having rubbed elbows with S-rankers and spending all my time around A-rankers had given me kind of a skewed sense of normality.

Melissa raised a brow at me and chuckled. "You must have seen some seriously amazing things to have a point of view like that. I can't say it's one I share, but I do get what you mean in the abstract. Still, don't forget that a Grandmaster Skill makes you nearly unrivaled at E-rank. I wouldn't want to fight Moravian. Even if I had a whole army of E-rankers with me."

That was an interesting point. I knew Master ranked abilities and Skills could offset some of the Impact and Path differences. I'd run into powerful enemies on the Tricorn who had been able to hurt me for just that reason. It made sense a Grandmaster would be capable of flattening me and my friends, despite our many same rank advantages.

I wondered about Moravian's Path, and if he had one. You couldn't rank up without a Path, but I had no idea what the requirements were for going past Master with a Skill.

The older Ascendant turned to beam at us. "A truly fascinating display. I wonder if I might get a list of our assets. Abilities, relevant Skills, materials. I can make do with a bit more or less of one of the three, but an undertaking such as this will be a true masterwork. It is integral I have a thorough understanding of the elements from which I must craft this grand construction."

"Does anyone have a list of the people here?" I called. "I swear somebody made one for the formation training."

My sister rolled her eyes. "I've got a notebook with the various powers and Skills. I thought it might come in handy. In order to properly harness those, we need to let them out into the atmosphere, right?"

Moravian nodded. "Precisely. Formations are the art of using the native magic in the environment to shape power. Some feel that direct human intervention goes against the spirit of the Skill, but that's shortsighted. Humans are part of the environment and elements of the world just as much as rocks or trees. By placing our resources in certain positions and having them deploy their Skills and abilities in certain ways, they too become part of the formation."

"But we don't have enough people for some of this." I said worriedly. I'd been thinking about it for a while, and the main structure of the snowglobe needed to be spatial power. Spatial abilities were really rare, and Abel was one of the few people I knew on Callus who had one.

He shook his head. "The formation is made up of its component parts. Part of the value of such an arrangement is that the formation can be any and all of the things that comprise it. Spatial power is rare, but as long as it's part of the formation, it is among our resources."

"So it's like…one big invocation, but of all the things that make it up at the same time?" I said, impressed. "That seems pretty damned powerful. Why don't formations get used more if they're so effective?"

"All paths lead to the top of the mountain." He said with a shrug. "Some must simply be walked further."

My sister chuckled at me expression. "He just means that pretty much every Skill gets powerful at C-rank. Deep and profound Skills like Formation Mastery have an especially high learning curve, but are even more effective for it. Alchemy, invention, basically any of the major crafting Skills can accomplish terrible and awe inspiring things by the time you reach Grandmastery."

"About that." I asked. "Are you on a pure Formation Path? Because I know that multiple people can't reach divinity on the same Path, and even S-rank can be challenging."

"My Path is my own." He said with a laugh. "One of an infinite variety of tributaries that lead to the sea of formations. Don't worry about my advancements, I have them well in hand. Once we complete my grand work I will ascend to D-rank, and with the foundation of my higher self, reach the heights of Legend in my chosen field."

My eyes widened. "You're on the edge of Legendary?" I gaped. "I knew you'd been working at it for a few millennia, but I hadn't realized you were not only a Grandmaster, but a peak Grandmaster."
What really threw me off was that his actual ability was going to be stuck at Master rank. He wouldn't be able to integrate a Skill that was so far ahead into his ability in a way that would make it part of his Solid Path. Maybe that was what he meant by not being worried about his Path being overcrowded. Whatever his Path was had to be geared toward his ability rather than the Formation Skill.

I shook off the mental tangent. Just because I wasn't the one doing the formation didn't mean I didn't need to pay attention, I had to plan our assault, and though the whole point of this was to make sure I had time to do that, knowing how the formation worked would be key to taking best advantage of our forces for the final assault.

"So, how are we going to do this then?" I asked as he finished paging through Chelsea's notebook.

"Well, the flows of power in the northern regions are dense and cold." He said with deliberation. "We need to make sure to properly balance that. Luckily your spatial Ascendant's power set is lubrication as a base. We want slowing spacial thickness, which is an inversion of his power. That pairs well with the cold aspects of the tundra. Absence of motion, inversion of activity."

He pointed to a few key points. "We'll be using subformations in these locations, they'll harvest the flows of energy incoming from outside the region and can be used to conduct the Impact from my temple. An invocation that covers the area will be threaded through the entirety of the formation, supported and boosted by those of us without necessary abilities.

"As mentioned, the formation itself is both an invocation and a multi state structure, so we can broadcast the various abilities while minimizing individual strain on users. Everyone is equally supporting and conducting." He poked a few spots. "The ket is making sure that each of the broadcasters are positioned along the energy flows. Here, here, and here. The broadcast structure will flow naturally along the energy pathways, carrying the Impact and converting it as it goes as we activate each stage."

He flipped to a clean notebook page and stared writing a series of weird graphs and formuli, asking questions about altitude, time zone, sun placement, planetary alignment, and even plugging in some numbers he clarified were continental drift and tectonic plate movement. Finally, when he finished, he started his work for real.

With several fascinating looking tools, he began carving into the ice, creating pathways, placing down small models of what looked like trees and bushes, and even placing small houses and animal enclosures throughout the tundra. Once he was done, he pointed out a series of small subformations he'd carved out.

"This should be about what we need for the final layout." He gestured to small circles inside the formations. "Placement of our people, and we'll have several artisans and craftsmen busy arranging the plants and buildings. Once that's done…I'd say maybe a day. We can begin our preparations for the formation. A partial sphere of slow, surrounded by a powerful shield, with extraordinary cold magic seeping through it to maintain the temporal effects of the formation. Slowed time inside the area of the formation. One month and three days. That's all the time you'll have. I hope it is enough." I nodded slowly. One month and three days. It was enough. It would have to be. In just over four weeks, we would end this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Everyone is in position, right?" I asked my friends carefully as we stood out among the tundra. "Because we need Bethy and Gabe's formation in place to blunt any attempts to fuck with the formation. I'm talking sight range of Wintervale. Bethy is more than capable of detecting anyone trying to slip by, I'm sure."

Callie nodded confidently. "On top of that, those portable bulwark things Celine wished for should be enough to slow down any assaults. Benny really came through with that design. Seven of them should hold for long enough to get this running. Moravian says the actual formation will activate over the span of a few minutes. Setup is where most of the time needs to be spent."

"No shit." i said with a laugh. "Exhibit A." I gestured around us, specifically to the teams of Ascendants digging in the snow and planting bushes, flowers, herbs, and trees. Several were building small structures, and Moravian was guiding another team in stringing brightly colored silk ribbons between the various objects, along the same lines as the carved trails on the model.

I glanced across the field of snow at our work crews. "So…any of this mean anything to you? Because it seems basically random to me at first glance. The plants are all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Those buildings don't appear to be a cohesive style of architecture, and I think I saw someone drop an old toilet into a hole in the dirt over there."

"That's how it is with formations." She shrugged. "Different compositions of stats have different effects on ambient energy. So you set them up in patterns and as the energy passes through the formation it changes and reroutes in the way you want it to."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You realize you didn't actually just say anything, right?"

"My mistake." She said sweetly. "I meant 'shut up honey and do what I tell you' does that explain everything?"

"Perfectly." I said with a snicker. "It's nice to know that neither of us has any idea what's going on. Wait, hold on-" I checked the notebook in my hands. "Ephram!" I bellowed to a yellow clad man with a heavy handlebar mustache who was carrying a shed over one shoulder. "That shed is supposed to have ram's horns on the door, not deer antlers. And Rico, if you hammer in those tent stakes with a fur coat on you're going to catch fire." I stopped, rechecking the notebook. "Wait, no, you're going to BE fired. Still, no coat Rico."

Callie frowned at me, taking the notebook. "Why is that even in the notes? That's so specific. Most of these are pretty open ended, he just assigned specific people to do the tasks, but some of it. The person who handles the fifth ginseng from the leftmost hemisphere of the Zangada constellationary strata must be pure of the ingestion of spiced meats and fermented cheeses and…lefted of hand? Is that even a real phrase?'

"Who knows. But Drevorn the Bloodless is a left handed vegan, so we gave the job to him. Believe it or not, the Moravian had to make a bunch of adjustments based on our roster." I said with a sigh. "Apparently his original calculations called for a red haired school teacher with one green eye and one blue born on the third wednesday of the ninth month. Since we were short one of those he had to extend the formation a quarter mile and add a water slide."

Her head snapped up. "Wait, what? You're kidding me. Where?"

I pointed off to the left. "Over there. It hasn't gone up yet. It's supposed to be erected after the pinwheels but before the tent made of bearskin rugs."

"You ever get the feeling he's just fucking with us to see what he can talk us into doing?" She asked with narrowed eyes. "I swear that half of this is just bullshit pranks he's pulling because he knows we're desperate."

"I honestly don't care anymore." I said with a shrug. "If he can really seal them up for a month he can paint my face like a baboon and wrap me in flypaper. We have so much to do. I mean, downtime is important, but once we've got them contained we need to help do repairs on the various cities, let the E-rankers go home to check in, get a tally of the dead. So much depressing shit."

She took my hand. "And we're having our reception." She said firmly. "I know that things have been bad, but that's exactly why we need to do this. People need to feel something besides exhaustion, fear, and anger."

I smiled, pulling her close to me, inhaling deeply and enjoying the sensation of being back with the person I loved most. "You're right. I said softly. Being with people you care about and having a moment of joy makes a big difference. Plus you can't promise people cake and then back out. There's some things too evil to be allowed to stand."

She giggled at that, then glanced down at the notebook. "Strega!' She called over my shoulder. "You have to stand on one leg when you hammer in the giant pinwheel. And make sure you spin it counter clockwise the first time!"

"Thanks." I said with a laugh as I pulled away. "And thanks for your badass entrance. That was looking like a rough fight."

"Please." She snorted. "Like I was going to let some giant winter beast beat up my man. To have and to hold remember. I don't remember agreeing to anything about 'to allow to be cannibalized'."

I just laughed. "I love you too, honey. Now I think this section is done. We move in to the next area." I check the notebook. "Southwest point four miles and then due west for another five."

That got a grin, and she went up on her tip toes to kiss my cheek before she took off over the snow. "Bet I can get there first!"

I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind her, then tripped her with my staff and took off past her. "You're on!" I shouted back without looking.

I laughed as I sprinted over the ice, my feet finding easy purchase atop the snow as I used Ripple Running to maximize traction without sinking in. It was a pointless gesture, Callie and I weren't running full bore, we'd have damaged the environment with our passage. But it was still fun to run together, even keeping our speeds to manageable levels, and the sure footedness gave me that tiny bit of an edge.

My grin was triumphant as I threw back my head to whoop in victory…and promptly took a tumble as my wife tackled my legs out from under me, scrambling over top of my rolling body to bolt the extra fifty feet and then jumping up in the air triumphantly, pumping her fists in victorious excitement.

"You TACKLED me?" I squealed indignantly. "Who TACKLES a person during a race? I demand a recount, a do-over, I want a formal inquisition!"

She giggled musically, and I felt warmth flood me as I watched her face light up. THis wasn't from the bond, just my own happiness at seeing her so upbeat. "Sorry honey, looks like I'm the winner. Get used to eating my dust-" She squawked and dropped into the Pit of Despair I opened right under her.

"Sorry?" I said smugly. "What was that? I can't hear you through all that dust. You know you're not supposed to get that in your mouth, right?" I was cracking up still when the shadows grabbed my feet and yanked me off them, my back slamming into the snow as she dragged me into the pit after her.

I grabbed her around the waist and catapulted us both out, letting the ground resume its former solidity as we collapsed in the snow, cackling with laugh as we curled against each other.

"Okay." She said breathlessly. "That was kind of funny. I set you up for that I guess."

Laughing, I pulled her against me. "I missed you." I said breathlessly. "So much. I know we were still talking, but it wasn't the same."

"It wasn't." She agreed sadly. "And I missed you too. Sitting up there watching you do dangerous things while I couldn't help was a fun and exciting new form of torture. I'm glad you're ok. And thank you for getting Annie and Eric to safety. I suppose she's been avoiding my mother?"

"I've had Gabe keeping them out of the way." I assured her. "I don't want her, or gods forbid your dad, running into Amelia. Plus I think Alexander might kill him if he upset her, and I figure if anyone deserves to kill your dad it's probably you."

She snickered at that. "Don't tempt me. But he's not worth it. I'm already stronger than he is. I honestly wouldn't mind if I never see him again. With time, a lot of the anger faded, and now…he's just a disappointment."

"You sure you don't want to punch him in the throat. Punching deadbeat dads in the throat is the best therapy for abandonment issues. Ten out of ten Solomons recommend it." I winked at her, though she couldn't see it through the mask. She sensed it through the bond though, I could tell because I could see her dimple when she smirked.

"Didn't you break your hand punching your dad in the throat?" She asked wryly.

I shrugged. "No pain no gain. It was worth it. Plus your dad is way weaker than mine. If anything his throat would break. Though I guess that's really just murder."

She was giggling up a storm as I casually played out the scenario. She rolled out of my arms and up to her feet, brushing herself off. "I think its safer if I just keep my hands to myself. I appreciate the thought, but my anger tends to involve far less fantasies about throat punching. I think I'm good with the cold shoulder."

"We could have one of the bunnies curse him." I said helpfully. "Was it Sydney or Megan who has the bad luck power?"

"Sydney I think." She said with a frown. "But it's hard to keep track. And no thanks. Though…I did have an idea. What do you think about having Camden escort my mom and Alex back to Stratholme? To live in the village with Nat and Valk. They'll be safe in our territory, and if we get them citizenship in the empire they'll improve faster."

For people who didn't get up to all of our shenanigans, the imperial tithe system might actually be a benefit. "I mean…could they even handle it? It's a C-ranked planet. It might be safer to try to set them up on the Necromedes. Slower growth, but less strain."

I stood up, and we continued our discussion as we walked the last couple of feet to where we could best stage this stretch of the formation.

Having Callie back was…freeing. I'd been worried sick about her, even if that made no sense since she'd been safe in orbit while I was in danger. It just felt right being with her, especially just after our wedding.

Despite that, I felt a cold sense of foreboding. Not about Travis or any of his ilk, but something…hazier. Something big and scary had its eye on me, and it was waiting to make its move. I didn't think it would interfere in the final raid, or elevating the planet. But something deep in my gut told me that once we'd passed this hurdle, I'd have another coming my way.

I forced the feeling down, ignoring it for now as we got to work on the rest of the formation prep. We were so close to done, and I couldn't wait to see the results of all this work. A giant spatio-temporal snowglobe sounded pretty fucking cool.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once we finished the setup, it was time for the main event. We all retreated to the edges of the formation, except the people that were actively involved. We left the defensive emplacements up as cover, but our advance team booked it out of the tundra at top speed. When we finally reached the edge, we found Moravian standing near one of the connections that hooked the formation up to the rest of the world.

"Is everything in place?" He asked me solemnly. When I nodded, he smiled. "Excellent. Begin the rite."

The signal went out, hitting multiple scan rings, and the pockets of Ascendants situation along the path of the formation began their work. Everything affected the formation, people, places, things. Moravian had put all of his considerable skill calculating this construct, and I could FEEL the world shift beneath my feet as it came alive.

First was Abel, closest to the edge. He raised his hands above his head, and between then a small cloud of warped space flickered into existence. Not his normal spatial lubrication, but the inverted form of it that he'd created through his own ingenious experimentation.

Nearby, in their subcircles, the others assigned to boost him closed their eyes and began the invocation. The powers of their souls and wills flooded out into him. I expected him to stagger at the sheer mass of it, but it landed on the formation instead of him. In my Eye of Revelation I watched it drop down like a train car onto tracks, entering the cloud of space without pressuring its master.

It was hard to conceive, really, processing what was going on was strange. My Eye of Revelation was a visual sense, but I was using it for something else now. Like it was boosting my sense of Impact, and the sight and tough feedbacks in my brain were mixing into something I couldn't define.

The train departed, carrying that impact forward. As it moved, it changed, between one inch and the next. Not in any obvious way, it was like…the sound of the way color smelled? I was extremely confused, but I COULD track it.

Spatial energy grew, but more than that, it shifted. The first pass took it by some shrubs, then a shack, and the ambient energy of the objects were sucked up into the wake of the thing, melding with and changing it, and speeding it up as they went. All along the line, key figures manifested their power, and others poured in their Impact. Even I was doing it, standing on the edge of the formation where I'd been told.

Momentum gathered, thundering along the formation, building up speed and force as it absorbed more, not just our power, but the ambient energy, twisted by all the seemingly random elements we'd taken into account.

My mind…expanded. I could sense not just the parts we'd put in place, but the external too, the stars in the sky, the mountains around us, the heartbeat of the very world of callus, all being sucked into the formation, a gathering storm of significance and meaning as the train made it back to the station and then…burst.

That bomb of still mutating energy exploded, set off at just the right time, and it rode the lines of the formation, funneling all that power, even now changing as its path was altered by the trappings of the working we'd all built.

In front of me, a translucent film began to rise from the ground, creeping upwards as a circle of blue flashed, creating a shield around the formation that I knew couldn't be passed through by anyone aside from the people who had helped create it.

Everyone had been involved, had been given a part to play, because that was how they left. Watching the formation come up was…transformative. The way the energy shifted and moved and transformed, it was poetry. I had no idea how it was happening, it wasn't like an enchantment, or an invention, or any of those things.

The way it happened was so subtle and natural. Like an accident. A flow of power running out of momentum just short of another as it crossed its path. It was like watching a series of marbles someone had spilled flow over a slick surface and perfectly stop in the pattern of a beautiful work of art.

This was all just part of the will of the world, and I was so mesmerized I almost missed the rising bubble of space closing above us as it reached its apex. As soon as that happened, the next step initiated, and I realized all of our people were gone. They'd run as soon as the train detonated, and we were all watching the power expand together.

At the center of the working (not exactly above wintervale, more adjacent), a spark of something glinted in the sky. Ice, a prism of crystalline winter that hung heavy on the air, somehow larger and more profound than the simple cage of clear stone it appeared to be. Silver flickered, flashing through facets, cold lightning and starlight caught in amber, mixing together into a howling cacophony of sensation.

The feeling became bigger and bigger until finally it burst, overflowing the stone and exploding out, shattering the crystal and letting loose a cloud of silvery snow that blanketed the inside of the bubble, melding into the warped space like water leaching into thirsty dirt.

Cold. All I saw and felt was cold. Not the same cold as the Heart though. That cold was a wicked and pervasive cold. The suffering chill of eternal silence and the death of self. This was something new, a cold of cessation, not of endings but of a complete lack of motion, a single leaf balanced on a precipice over and endless ravine forevermore, never falling, caught like the last gleam of light across a-

I rocked back. Callie had smacked me upside the head, and I blinked, taking long, shallow breaths. "You back with us?" She said worriedly.

Nodding, I closed my eyes, trying not to think about what I'd just been watching. Moravian chuckled. "It can be quite overwhelming, watching the full majesty of the natural world work its will with unlimited resources. Had I known your intention to watch the proceedings, I may have warned you of such an outcome."

I glared at him for a minute…but he wasn't wrong. Staring a massive working of Ascendant power as it went off with my super special energy vision cranked up to eleven by my crown was maybe not my smartest plan.

Since I had Eye of Revelation off, I turned to take in the completed formation, and my breath caught in my throat all over again. Even without peering into the deeper mysteries, it was an amazing sight. A colossal bubble of warped space with silver snow flowing to and fro like cold syrup sliding over ice.

The aurora was inside the bubble, which was a shame, but Moravian had been adamant it was necessary. Apparently the thing was already hooked up to the entire planet's energy. He hadn't managed to actually crack it, but after studying the way it interacted with the surroundings he'd been at least capable of mitigating its influence on OUR formation.

"So." I said as I stared up at it. "Time is paused inside? I saw…something like that. Hard to describe. The cold is strange, a complete stop but not an end."

He nodded. "An end is not complete cessation. Entropy is a force, and by definition that which degrades is not truly still. For the true ceasing of all motion, even the motion itself must be halted. Stored for a later date. When the cold thaws, motion will resume. Of course, we don't have the strength to stop time inside of a bubble that large. But even the slowing we've invoked has afterimages of true stillness."

"It worries me that the first half of that explanation made sense." I said slowly. "I think watching that fried my brain. No wonder formation masters were so hard to talk to. Conceptualizing the entirety of the energy ecosystem of even a small area was mindblowing, I couldn't imagine how Moravian stayed in that headspace for centuries, mapping the pathways and patterns of a whole world.

Without him, this wouldn't have been possible. His knowledge and understanding of this world was second to none. Not only was he a Grandmaster, he was THE Grandmaster of this world. A pseudo D-rank planet he'd religiously mapped out of generations.

Keeping my face calm, I bowed to him at the waist. "Thank you, Grandmaster Moravian. For helping us. I realize this wouldn't have been possible without your expertise. I know I've been a bit…impatient with your methods, but know that you have my utmost gratitude and respect for everything you're doing to help save our planet."

He smiled warmly. "I am humbled by your praise. I hold no ill feelings toward your impatience. It is the prerogative of youth to cast there gaze on the more immediate, forgoing the longer view, and it is the prerogative of old age to understand and teach that which their eyes do not take note of."

"I'm glad you think so." I said with a wry chuckle. "Because talking to you still kind of gives me a headache. But now I understand a bit more why that is. Your words and actions are in tune with nature. You're part of the tapestry of the world, and all of the things you do moves you through that tapestry to your desired outcome."

He barked out a laugh. "We are all part of the tapestry of the world, and I think perhaps you give me too much credit in regards to the scope of my grasp on it. But I appreciate your understanding all the same. I hope the things you've learned today will aid you in your journey."

I was sure they would, though I wasn't sure HOW. I considered the possibilities of a form or Skill that harmonized with the world, but it would be a lot of effort for something that could only work under very important circumstances. By their very nature formations were an abstruse and hard to conceive discipline at the best of times.

Maybe something about my divination could help? Only time would tell. I turned back to the bubble as the others surrounded me. "Damn." Said Benny in admiration. "That was really cool. If it hadn't taken over a hundred E-rankers working together and tapping the resources of an entire planet to pull it off I'd be so down to learn more about formations."

"It's certainly not for the faint of heart." Said Celine slowly. "But I wonder if it might be just what we need on Stratholme." She turned to Moravian. "I don't suppose you have any plans after you push the planet to D-rank and Ascend yourself. If you're looking for a new place to build a temple and explore the mysteries, I happen to have a very old C-rank planet with endless mysteries that would love to host you."

"Well, you have a territory." I corrected with a laugh. "But yeah, any place would be lucky to have a Legendary Formation master."

He looked intrigued. "I think…I may take you up on that. I suspect after this incident, I may have completely plumbed the depths of what Callus has to offer. Though I would like to study that cold storage formation. That might be the push I need to truly reach the Legendary sphere once I Ascend."

I laughed as Chelsea started chatting to him about formations, putting an arm around Callie as I grinned at our grand work. This would hold for the month we needed, let us get closer to D-rank, and then head in to attack on our terms. Travis couldn't possibly have seen it coming. I wasn't counting on an easy fight, once we entered again we'd be under similar restrictions and their slowed state would seem normal to us, but one thing at a time. For now, we had our reprieve. The first thing we needed to do? Help put right some of the damage these bastards had done to our planet.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Rebuilding Velan was my first pick of assignment. Well…assignment was a loaded word. I just kind of said what I wanted and people did it. Word was already spreading as the E-rankers returned to their cities, clearing out stragglers and beginning the rebuilding process. I went back to my city, to fix the damage that had been done.


Pit of Despair was so overpowered in this environment I was able to push it further out than I could have imagined. A mile of building and rubble reduced to ultra fine dust with a thought, and the same amount of dust captured with my Dust Construction, slowly reworking the buildings as I'd been told.


I had a parallel running to check over the blueprints, correcting any issues, and because of that, I had a lot of time to think.


Callie came with me. She looked worried, and I didn't blame her. Now that things had temporarily settled, I was finally decompressing, and the wounds my emotional adrenaline had been concealing were starting to burn.


"What did you do to yourself?" My wife asked me as she finally had a chance to take a good look at me through the bond. "You feel…fractured."


"I am." I said tiredly. The weariness wasn't from the manual labor, that actually helped, it was more from everything else. The emotional toll of commanding my troops, the mental exhaustion of being ON for such a long time, sure. But more than that, it was the recursion I'd been through.


The cold hate of the Wendigo, the sadistic glee of Limbo, the final frost of the formation. Normal recursion was fine. It was gradual and spread out over my soul. Like a coating of water that froze on layer at a time, making me bigger and bigger as it was applied.


But the things I'd been through since I came to Callus were different. When you flash freeze a person, the water in their blood turns to icicles, it perforates their cells, the uneven freeze pincushioning them from inside out.


This was like that. A few spots where I'd been flash frozen at different times and temperatures, and parts of me were torn apart by the ice.


Callie tapped into the bond, took control over the Dust Construction Skill, and created a parallel to run it, then she walked over and took my hands and led me over to a building nearby. She pushed me down so I was leaned against the wall and sat down next to me, curling up to my side.


"My big brave idiot." She said, her voice rough with pain. "How many times have you taken on the weight of the world because you were too stupid to be careful?" She removed my mask, taking my face in her hands as she set it beside us.
Then she reached through the bond and called forth Zagan. Her beautiful black hair cascaded into an emerald flame, her blue eyes lightning verdant green, and I felt a powerful tide of soothing, purifying peace enter my head through her hands. "You don't have to hold it alone." She murmured. "Not ever again. I won't let you. We're in this together."


Genesis Burst flooded through me. I'd never had the ability used on me before. I'd used it on Felicity dozens of times, but I'd never felt it from this side.


It hurt. Not just physically, although, yes, very much, but emotionally. It felt like my pain was a friend, like it was a part of me and it was dying. I felt my eyes well with tears as the various frozen pieces began to thaw, exposing open wounds and then starting the slow process of knitting them together.


Felicity wasn't very expressive. She'd never told me much about what she experienced when I used this technique on her, or hell, maybe she didn't feel this. Maybe the damage to her soul was so severe she'd lost the capacity to experience this.


If so, she was lucky. The flame from Genesis Burst finished the last of the thaw, and when it was finally done, when my wounds were all on the way to healing…they ignited. Fire blazed up inside and burned away the impurities, the damage, the pain, the emotions and sensation, they acted like kindling. No, like accelerant. I was burning alive, lit on fire by a cleansing blaze that felt like it would never go out.


My mouth was screaming, I think. I couldn't tell, except Callie's eyes were closed and she was sobbing and I could feel a distant echo of self loathing for torturing me like this. I didn't care. I couldn't. Caring was a feeling, and the pain was overstimulating my emotions so heavily it felt like my skin was an open wound and someone had pushed me into a pool of bleach and lemon juice and dried me off with a bundle of salt covered razor wire.


By the time I came back to myself, I was lying in her lap. She was crying and holding me, making small shushing noises as she smoothed my hair.


I blinked away the tears, realizing my vision was blurry and wiping my face to find blood. I wasn't in pain anymore, so the burst must have healed it, but I had been bleeding. "Sorry." I Croaked through dry lips. "That was probably loud."


"I kept it quiet with stealth." She rasped. "I didn't think you'd want people to hear."


Chuckling, I sat up with a groan. "That was…something. Holy shit, does Felicity go through that every time?"


She shook her head. "I think it was because we did it all at once. Felicity is still having the damage cleansed. We got rid of yours all at once, and it turned into like…fuel for the healing process. But in a bad way. I'm so sorry."
I cracked my neck. "It's fine." I said, life coming back to my voice. "Well, actually no. It sucked hard. But it was the good kind of suck. Like cleaning out a cut with alcohol. It hurts like a bitch, but you feel better when it's done." I shot her an appraising look. "I hadn't considered Genesis Burst to fix the damage. I just kind of took for granted it would be a long term thing."


"You're not used to me being able to use your forms." She shrugged. "It's one of the most useful things that came from the bond reaching Expert, I think. I'm glad I could help though. The thought of you being like that forever…"


I grinned. "Zeke once told me something. It was back during our trip to the Tricorn. He said 'Despite what some may tell you, there are very few things that cannot be undone. Unfortunately, the process of undoing them is often worse than having them done in the first place.' This situation kind of shows me what he meant."


She giggled wetly. "That sounds like him, all right. Are you really ok? I didn't…I thought Genesis Burst was supposed to be helpful. I know Felicity is different, but I hadn't realized HOW different until now."


"Yeah." I said slowly. "I might need to tinker with that one. But still, I owe you one. Those instances of forced recursion weren't just damaging my soul. I'm pretty sure they were causing corruption in my stats. If they'd been allowed to fester, my next rank up might have been…dangerous."


I'd never heard of anything like that before, but then again, forced recursion like that wasn't common. Or I guess it was, just not in a way I was aware of. Technically I'd gone through three different catalyzing incidents for a racial trait, but only partway. Thinking about it like that it was no wonder I'd been so fucked up.


"You took one look at me and knew." I said with a smile. "I had my guard up before and didn't even realize myself, but as soon as I relaxed you saw it and fixed it."


She snorted. "Obviously. In sickness and in health, remember? But please don't do that to me again. Fixing you…" She shuddered, eyes haunted. "Gods, Shane, I could feel it while it was happening. You were there in my head like normal, but you couldn't hear me, all you could do was scream. I felt the agony in my bones."


"Yeah. I'll give that a pass. No more monkeying with anything Domain related until D-rank." Because that had been what had happened. The damage was all Domain related. The Wendigo's Domain had been part of it, integrated early maybe, and a Domain was just a fledgeling world, so seeing the truth of Callus had been like brushing up against one.


Only I could find so many ways to scar myself in a fashion that should be borderline impossible at my current level. I laughed, climbing to my feet. Looking around, I marveled at the buildings. "Damn, you finished while I was out? How long was I unconscious."
"An hour." She shrugged. "I was already working on the Dust Construction thing, so I figured I'd take it off your plate."


"That has been your habit with most things." I nodded solemnly. "Even when you have your own plate." I let out a loud cough that sounded suspiciously like 'french fries', and bent to pick up my mask, slipping it back on. Callie had some of the highest Perception on Callus most likely, so the Stealth didn't worry me, but I felt naked without it.


Laughing at my jab, she strode over and tucked herself under my arm. To an outsider it would look like affection, but I suspect she'd seen the slight tremor when I straightened up. I squeezed her with one arm, letting my gratitude flood the bond.


We stood like that for a minute, letting my sore and exhausted body readjust. My soul and mind were feeling fine, if not actually good, but my body had spent the last hour seizing up and screaming myself hoarse, so my muscles were feeling like shit. Once I was doing ok, we went to go check on the other nearby construction projects, to see what we could do to help.


On the way, I took Callie on a walk. We'd both grown up in Valen, but she'd been in a different social strata then I had. She'd never been to some of the places Benny and I had hung out. This hot dog stand, that park. Some of them had been crushed and were under construction, but some were still there and doing fine.


With the lingering damage from the Domain exposures going, I could actually enjoy the sensation of just…going for a walk with my wife. It was shockingly nice to just do nothing for a while. We stopped a few times when we did find construction that needed a hand, but it never took long.


By the time it was dark, we were ready to head home. We'd decided to stick with the cavern base, since we'd put so many wishes into reinforcing it. We figured people would stay more combat ready if we kept the base around, too. Though of course we approved missions home to do repairs and just decompress. We needed everyone at their best for the fight.


We piled into a shuttle at dusk to head back to the volcano, and Callie curled up against me as we watched the night sky. Even through the trails of labyrinth, the stars were beautiful as they started to peek out in the sky as the light of day faded.


Despite how rough things had been only an hour earlier, i counted this as one of the best days I'd had in quite a while. Despite all that, the sense of foreboding never faded. Something was still coming, and when it got here…I wasn't sure what would happen. Whatever it was though, I knew one thing. I wouldn't be facing it alone.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next month was surprisingly peaceful. I spent it relaxing with Callie, repairing the planet, hanging with Benny and Chelsea, and just generally taking some time to get my head right after the pressure cooker of tension and nightmares that was running an active opposition to a planetary occupation.


Of course, I still did my wishes every day, and I focused most of it on Fantasy again. Sadly, the majority of my point gain was from renown, and most of that probably ended up going into Focus and Might.


Callie and I had decided to take in our gains together out of the public eye, so we were down in the caverns, in an offshoot that was out of the way of any of the passages in consistent use.


"You ready for this?" I asked her with a laugh. "I haven't seen your numbers in like…half a year. Never had a chance to check in after the trip, and we've been down here for months. I'm looking forward to seeing how far ahead of me you are. And with you on the streets for the last month helping with repairs, your profile down here is as high as mine. Maybe more, what with Valen trumpeting your victorious return."


She grinned at me. "Well I need all the help I can get. With you putting all your wishes into progressing, it's tough to keep up."


I laughed. The truth was we were both on the express train. Between the wedding, the occupation, and our big victory, we were practically bathing in renown. Smiling over at her, I took in a deep breath and let it out. "So. You ready? I'm going first."



Wishmaster candidate status. E-rank. Ability: Expert Wish- Seven times a day grant an Expert wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.


Might-21,200
Impact-65
Fantasy-14,020
Vitality-12,674
Focus-15,920
Perception-15,004
Creation-14,054
Progress to next rank:92,937/100,000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body



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


Pet- Wolf named Jin


Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 42 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


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


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


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


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



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

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.
Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: comdensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground iself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches
Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction

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

Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner
Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.



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

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


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


The difference was…staggering. My Vitality hadn't gone up by much, only a bit under five hundred, probably since it was already faily high. Might had skyrocketed, which I supposed happened when you started dropping districts on people. My Focus had spiked up by another four thousand points, and the power leveling of all the other stats had dragged Creation up by a few thousand as part of the package.


All in all, it was a colossal month. Seventeen thousand four hundred and thirty two points. I was less than eight thousand points from reaching D-rank. My wedding, this occupation, it was the perfect storm of renown. Not just on planet, there was no way word of the siege wasn't getting out, and the fact that we hadn't been ritually sacrificed yet must be making the vanished gods look like idiots.


Travis had poured a ton of resources and time into this plan to tank our morale, and I was betting it was having the opposite effect. It was almost enough to make this whole thing worth it. Callie took the paper I'd written out my information on and whistled. "Damn. You HAVE been busy. You ready to see mine?" He grin was challenging and I knew she'd made similar amounts of progress, if not more.


She let her own stats hit her, relaxing her soul and letting a torrent of power pour into her. When she opened her eyes, she had an odd look on her face. "Oh." She said shortly. "I guess we've been so busy I hadn't checked. It makes sense, but I wasn't really expecting it." She glanced at me almost shyly, blushing slightly, which wasn't really like her at all. She scrawled out her stats for me, passing it over and averting her eyes, and it took me a second to realize what she meant.


Calliope Wyndham. E-rank. Ability: Expert Abyssal Infiltration. 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-25,550
Impact-65
Vitality-9,742
Fantasy-17,520
Focus-7,908
Perception-22,375
Creation-14,485
Progress to next rank: 97,645/100000
Soul strength- Sapphire 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: Shadowed Glide


Putting aside the MASSIVE nearly fifty thousand point jump (I'd made an even bigger one, but I had wishes to fall back on) the thing that really stuck out to me was right at the beginning. It was clearly what had thrown Callie off so badly, and I couldn't really blame her. I hadn't expected the swap myself, though I suppose we both probably should have.


"Calliope Wyndham." I said with a grin. "It sounds good, don't you think? I mean I knew you were planning to take my name, but I didn't know it would change in your stat sheet. I guess that means you've really internalized it."


She smirked. "That's your whole takeaway. Twenty thousand points in Might and you're focused on my name change?"


I shrugged. "Godslayer. Plus you literally fell from the sky like a flaming meteor and decimated a giant Wendigo that was about to destroy a city. You have to figure that gave you a bump. It is a lot though."


"Less than it seems." She chuckled. "You were way further behind me not long ago. I was just holding back showing you my progress so I could drop all the big numbers on you at once." She winked at me. "Still, I AM ahead by about five thousand points."


I swallowed, staring at the paper. "Do you think we'll hit D-rank when we unseal the planet?" I asked after a minute.


"Probably." She admitted. "We're already damned close. Elevating Callus to D-rank should bridge the gap. It's going to be a huge operation, not to mention the E-rankers that'll be there with us. We should be able to ride the event into Mastery. Why do I feel like you're more worried than excited?"


"This foreboding feeling I'm having." I tried to articulate. "It feels…close. Not in the next few days, not the fight with Travis. This feels bigger, more unstoppable. Something is coming, and I can't help but feel being D-rank might be what's bringing it. D-rank is when we really step into the higher orders of Ascendant culture. It's when we become real players."


She smiled knowingly. "And when we say goodbye to our safety net."


"That too." I conceded. "I do worry about life without Zeke. I've gotten used to watching my own back, but it still feels…dangerous."


"Oh I get it." She said emphatically. "I've been terrified. I've been talking to your mother about it. But I think you've overlooked a few things."


I cocked my head. "Like what?"


"Well for one, when you lose your guardian, it's not just sacrificing protection. It's breaking the moratorium on external help. At least in part. Once you hit D-rank as a candidate, you're officially under the protection of the WCP. Maybe no as personally as with Zeke, but messing with you means messing with your whole family." She sounded triumphant, and I could see why.


I had been worried about being undefended, so that was good to hear. "I'll be able to create wish scrolls too." I said with a slow nod. "That means I won't need to use my wishes on the spot every day. I can stockpile them. That'll be useful when I'm not around anyone useful enough to worth wasting one on."


"Exactly." She beamed. "As for this foreboding feeling…we'll handle it. Together. As a family. Once the labyrinth breaks and we ascend to D-rank, we'll have your mom, Zeke, Andrew, and all their backup here with us. I'd like to SEE who can come snatch you out from under that kind of entourage."


I laughed, letting my body relax, but deep down inside my stomach churned. She was right, I knew she was, but I couldn't shake this undercurrent of dread. I DIDN'T want to see who could come take me. I didn't want that at all. Because whatever the answer was, it would be someone too powerful to even consider fighting back against.


For now though, I was home, I was strong, and I was ready. Only two more days before we set off on our final raid. I still needed to check in with Jessie and Benny about their stats (and Jessie's Path) before we left. Helping my wife up, I offered her my arm, and she took it with a wink and a warm smile, and we headed off into the cavern in search of our friends.


It was almost ever. We were almost free, and then we could finally have our reception with all our family and friends and put all this nastiness behind us. After that, who knew? We had a year or so before the competition for the Wishmaster position came due. I was sure we could find some trouble to get into before then.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Well if it isn't the lovebirds." Said Benny as we walked into his room with Jessie on our heels. He was leaning back in his chair, and Celine had her feet in his lap, which he was rubbing. Her head was tilted back, and she was snoring lightly, but when he spoke she snapped awake, falling off the couch they were sitting on with a mortified squeak.

Benny laughed, then groaned as she punched him in the leg with a scowl. Scrambling to her feet, she fixed her…I didn't actually know what to call her clothes. Some kind of green tunic dress. It was very elfin, but I hadn't seen her wear it before. Then again, I wasn't exactly the king of noticing people's wardrobes.

"Benicio and I were just decompressing after a long day." She said loftily, cheeks red as Jessie whistled suggestively. It was kind of hilarious to see graceful, steady Celine so out of sorts.

Callie giggled at her, gripping me arm as she leaned around me. "You're ALLOWED to sleep, Cel. Or do other things. We promise we won't tell your mom." She winked and the elf girl turned such a bright red I was briefly worried about her head exploding. My wife took pity on her though, and turned to Benny. "We wanted to check in on our bestest buddies and see how they've been progressing. It's been like half a year since we checked."

I doubted either of them hit Callie levels of stat gain, nevermind mine, but six months was bound to be a big windfall.

Benny shrugged modestly. "I did alright. A little better than Jessie but also substantially less concentrated, obviously."

Our healer friend blew on her nails, buffing them on her cloak. "Everybody loves the healer."

Laughing, we all headed out to a side chamber. They had some built up points from their own efforts helping out around Callus. Benny in particular was very popular, given his parents connections. He'd been much more involved in the local social scene than I had growing up, just by virtue of being dragged to so many parties by his mom.

"I'm not even close to D-rank." He cautioned. "But I think I've definitely grown a ton compared to your average joe. With the residual fame from helping kill a D-ranker, even obliquely, and all the renown from our repair efforts and helping liberate the planet, or close enough, I've been sailing through E-rank."

I could see the shift in his posture when he allowed the renown to hit him. It wasn't much, he didn't really stockpile like I did. He shuddered theatrically when it was done, then pulled out some paper and copied his stats. "And here you are." He said smugly. "Check that out."

Benicio Cortez- E-rank. Ability: Expert Body of Inspiration- Allows the integration of existing artifacts into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them, two items per placement. insignia is a half gear in the shape of a C

Might-20,044
Impact-65
Fantasy-3486
Vitality-2441
Focus-18,141
Perception-3582
Creation-5471
Progress to next rank: 53,230/100,000


Soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current integrated tech. 14/20. Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts, Three times multiplication of Might for five minutes. Right fist: triple punch. Left forearm: F-ranked energy barrier or variable shape. Left fist: minor slow acting tranquilizer effect. Right foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps. Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly. Head: slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time, Three times multiplication of Focus for five minutes. Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage. Chest: Pair of golden G rank spider legs that arch up from the shoulders. Waist: Belt of spiritual calming, Three times Multiplication of Perception for five minutes. Heart: Illusionary double, Three times Multiplication of Vitality for five minutes.


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

Path of the Dracolich-Illusory. Proto Technique: sword art, Dance of the Dracolich


I let out a low whistle. "Holy shit man, that's not bad at all. I know it's been a while, but you really bulked up. Your Might is almost as high as mine. Really focused growth too. Like you got some buzz on your other stats, Creation and Fantasy especially, which makes sense given your Path and your hobby, but still you really kept your renown locked in."

He shrugged. "I have to manage my legend a bit more carefully than you, since I don't have the wish thing to fall back on. Cel acts as kind of a PR person for me. She's excellent at managing perception because of all the political training." He smiled at his girlfriend. "I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Starve, presumably." She said with a soft smile. "Or possibly decompose from wearing old unwashed clothes." She shot Callie a wry grin. "Does yours have problems with cleanliness too?"

I barked out a laugh. "Me? She's the biggest slob I've ever met. Besides maybe Jessie. I think Randall cleans up her room these days. Apparently even wild animals aren't comfortable in the environment she lives in."

My blonde friend scowled at me. "That is a hateful lie! I'm as clean and graceful as a princess. My room is the height of organization. I can find anything in there. Just last week I found a whole chicken I wasn't even looking for. I'd just left it there-" She trailed off. "Shit, that might have been a counterproductive story."

I just laughed, unable to resist reaching over to ruffle her hair. "It's fine, Jess, we love you anyway. And hey, at least you can drive."

"Excuse me!" Said my wife in an offended tone. "I'm an EXCELLENT driver! You're just a big scaredy cat who's afraid of a little vigorous space redistribution. Vehicles are specifically made to withstand dents."

I threw my hands in the air. "Vigorous space redistribution isn't a thing! It's called rear-ending, and it's ILLEGAL and DANGEROUS. And vehicles are made to withstand dents when they HAVE to. Your crash test safety rating is not a fucking MANA bar in a video game you can spend to make your trip faster!"

She just shrugged. "Agree to disagree."

"I don't think that phrase means what you think it means." I said flatly. "But fine. In any case. Jess, you were going to do yours? I'm curious what you got, though I can probably imagine where most of your points went."

Our healer grinned at me. "Hell yes you can!" She cheered with a fist pump. She reached into the air and whipped out a piece of paper. "Read it and weep, nerds!"

"You asshole!" Scolded Callie. "You were supposed to wait like the rest of us! When did you let yout stats in."

"On the way here." Shrugged Jessie. "You guys bore me." She winked to take the sting out of it, but we all grumbled as we reached for the paper. Benny and I went for it, but Callie snatched it first, then smacked out hands away when we tried to grab it.

She nodded sagely, stroking her chin in a ridiculous imitation of a wise old man with a beard. "Very curious."

"Yes." I said flatly. "We ARE very curious. Now spill, or I'll drop you in the Pit of Despair and fish the page out." I waggled my fingers at her. "My control of the Dust is not of this world. BEWARE!"

"I'll eat it if you try." She threatened. "You may no believe me but-"

We all shook our heads, putting up our hands in surrender. "We believe you." I said bluntly. "You'll eat anything. Paper isn't a stretch."

"Hey!" She shrieked in outrage. "I have a VERY discerning palate. You can't just- SHIT!" She whirled as Benny dipped back, clutching the paper he'd snatched from her distracted hands. I just grinned. Having the old team back together like this on Callus…it was like the last few months never happened. I felt so at peace here.

Benny read over the paper and then handed it to me. It was about what I had expected, honestly.

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

Might-3625
Impact-65
Fantasy-2758
Vitality-37,256
Focus-1755
Perception-1765
Creation-2958
Progress to next rank: 50,182/100,000

Pathath of the Green Sun

Pet- Wolf named Lily and Undying Lifestorm Ursa named Randall(Intermediate Beast Bonding with Jessie)

soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body

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

I clicked my tongue. "Damn, your VItality is out of this world. Highest stat in the whole damned party. You think you'll hit fifty thousand before D-rank?"

"I do." She said excitedly. "And I'm pretty sure my ability will upgrade if I do. You know that specific milestones can influence changes on rank up. Honestly I'm not even sure what it'll turn into. I'm about to be a Master, who knows what that'll look like." The anticipation in her voice was heartwarming.

She had a point too. Her power was already absurdly strong, most likely BECAUSE of how hyperfocused her stat distribution was. Master was a watershed, and I was seriously looking forward to what her lifeweaving was going to become.

More important than that though, was the entry I hadn't noticed until my second glance. "You created a Path!" I said excitedly. "It's…weird sounding. What is the green sun?"

She grinned widely. "It's my own creation. I actually started telling stories about it recently. During cleanup. It helps me cement the image in my head. Like I'm creating a new mythology. People seem to like hearing about it. The green sun is native to a planet called Mercuria. It's a harsh world, and large, and as it turns in place, the suns travel across the surface, meaning there are nine 'days' happening there at a time.

"Each sun does something unique. The green sun is the sun of life. It burns with the fires of creation and Vitality, and its light causes plants to grow and wounds to heal." She sounded so animated I almost got sucked into the story myself, forgetting she'd made it up. "Animals grow fast and large under the green sun, their bodies imbued with strength"

We listened as she went on and on, filling us in on the other suns, the native flora and fauna. It all came bursting out, and it occurred to me that Jessie hadn't just been resting on her laurels while we were all pulling ahead. She knew she needed a Path, and she was doing her best to make an amazing one. I couldn't wait to see what it was capable of.

After Jessie filled us in, we all headed to one of the empty caverns, and I cooked for us. So much of my interactions with my team were based on food and the sense of community that came from sharing a meal, and cooking for them all after months without my wife and then a month of cleanup was…peaceful.

We'd had some downtime together during the month off, but nothing quite like this. Maybe because it was the eve of battle, so to speak, but this felt…different. Like old times. I loved it. By the time the night wound down my face hurt from smiling so much, and I had to carry Callie to bed because she'd worn herself out doing shadow puppet theater (in three dimensions) of HER favorite movies, as revenge for making her watch soul puppet. Tomorrow we'd begin preparations for the final battle, but for now it was just the five of us, the old gang plus one, and it was all I needed to enjoy my night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"No." I said bluntly. I stared across the room at Bethy, who had come up with a last minute 'plan' to hide our entry into the snowglobe for the attack.

"But it's FOOLPROOF!" She yelled in frustration. "Look how convincing it is." She gestured manically to…what could generously be described as a hooded cloak made of Wendigo skil with antlers on top.

It was not convincing. It was way too long, had no limbs, and was weirdly stiff in places. There were little bits of meat still clinging to it in random spots too, like she'd skinned it herself and didn't know how to do it well. "Bethy. No." I said with a sigh. "We don't even NEED them. I'm going to stealth is in again. Why do we need disguises?"

"Because that's BORING!" She wailed, throwing up her hands in despair. "We keep being all sneaky and boring all the time! It's going to skew all of our points into Perception, and I have SO MANY points in Perception already."

I paused. That was…actually kind of a good point. I'd been thinking about how to win fights and minimize losses, which was a good way to run a war, but not as good of a way to run an Ascendant war. That said, Bethy was taking that stance from a position of overwhelming strength. We were still going to be heavily outnumbered, two to one once we sprung the popsicles. It wasn't a risk I was willing to take in these conditions.

Surprisingly, when I explained that, Bethy nodded absently. "Yeah, that's fair. Daddy says that you have to consider how squishy your thralls are. Not that you guys are thralls, but daddy doesn't have a lot of weak friends, so it's kinda the same, right?"

"Sure." I said, not at all qualified to comment on the thought processes of millennia old Vampires who fought gods for fun. "Anyway, we're heading out soon, can you go gather up the others and get them ready? Stealth is easier when it's just you."

She agreed and happily headed off to find our hundred and fifty strong army of Ascendants. A hundred would be joining me in the initial siege, while fifty would be heading off to enter the cold storage and spring our reinforcements.

Since Zagan and Eye of Revelation were necessities for entering and freeing them, Callie would be leading the second team. Bethy, Mel, Chelsea, and Gabe would be with her, while Abel and I led our ground forces in a decapitation strike to take out Madigan and Travis. We were expecting lots of resistance and some tricks, hence the split, but I'd stacked Callie's team as high as I could with badasses to offset their lower numbers and I'd have to trust that was enough.

Speaking of my wife, she slipped out of the shadows next to me. "Is she gone?" She asked warily.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you and Bethy fighting or something?" I hadn't thought they were on bad terms, Bethy was a hard person to dislike for more than a few minutes, and only then when she did something thoughtless.

She cleared her throat. "Not exactly. I lost a bet to her and I have to let her be my stylist for the next week. There was discussion about neon green fabrics and leg warmers. I'm hiding until after the battle, when it won't matter what I wear."

"I think she was messing with you." I laughed. "She isn't usually the neon green type…" I paused. "Although her disguise during the siege was bright orange. Maybe she's experimenting with niche color palettes. Probably safer not to risk it."

She grinned, leaning up to kiss my mask. "See, this is why I married you. You're such an enabler."

"I thought you married me because I'm handsome and charming and an inch taller than Benny." I said in a faux shocked voice. "It's just because I let you get away with shenanigans? I am shocked, shocked I tell you."

"You're also a pretty decent cook." She said seriously. "Had to lock that down before you took your culinary skills on the road and hooked some five faction floozy."

I grinned, pulling up my mask and leaning down to give her a peck on the lips. "I haven't seen another girl since the first day I met you face to face." I said with a soft smile. "And I'll never see another one besides you. So be careful out there, ok? If you need power you take it, no hesitation. Mornax should keep you safe."

She put a hand on my cheek tenderly. "I'll be fine. I'll have an army backing me. Plus your powers. Plus MY powers. Plus all the contingency wishes that we managed to cobble together from you and Nat the last three days."

"Those should help." I admitted. "Though some of them are pretty niche. Escape wishes and a bit of luck nudging will be the most overtly useful. Don't take it as an excuse not to pay attention." Celine had paid us in D-rank chits (I was up to 45), for our fallback wishes, and they should help us out of any REAL crazy traps Travis tried.

Trying to think of every possible freak trump card had been an exercise in annoying headaches, but we'd spread our bets pretty evenly and it should be enough.

Travis…Travis was going to be a problem. He was smart and nasty and vicious. I'd be the one fighting him, and I wasn't sure if he'd stack the deck hard to make sure I was outnumbered or try to ensure he could fight me alone. Killing me in front of Zeke and mom might not be the sacrifice he wanted, but it would be a hell of a blow to morale on his way out.

It didn't matter. He was a dead man. He'd done far too much to be allowed to walk away. I knew exactly how to counter him, and no matter how many bullshit tricks he pulled, he wasn't going to see it coming. I'd specifically crafted my last two forms for this fight, and the synergy would nullify his one big advantage perfectly.

We heard someone coming, so Callie pulled me into a tight hug and I readjusted my mask to cover my face. It turned out not to be super necessary, because it was Bethy, but still. Safety first.

To my surprise, she wasn't alone. I'd expected everyone to be in her Domain, but my sister was with her, flanked by two winged forms. She was ALSO holding a very familiar shape I hadn't seen in ages. "Is that Chalk?" I asked in confusion. "Has your rabbit been here the whole time? Where the hell were you keeping it?"

She scratched the monstrous asshole behind his floppy ears. "Oh, Bethy was watching him. She keeps him in Domain and lets him play with her cats."

"Poptarts and Donuts just LOVE chalk!" The vampire said enthusiastically. "They play this funny game where they run away from him real fast. It's so cute seeing the little guy hop off after them. They really need the exercise."

I said a silent prayer for the cats, but chose to move past what I believe was a PROFOUND mischaracterization of their relationship. "What's with the powwow?" I asked. "And why are Holly and Serah here. They should be going with Callie."

"Nope." Said my sister firmly. "I'm going with Callie, as is Bethy, as is Gabe. You need SOMEONE besides Abel to have your back. The girls will be your bodyguards."

Serah nodded mechanically. "Yes. You will simply need to…bear with it."

I stared at her for a second, then turned to Chelsea. "So I take it Jessie is going with me too? Because that sounded like a pun attempt. If so, I want Benny with you."

"This isn't some kind of trading card game." Protested my wife from beside me. When I shot her a dismayed look she shrugged. "I think you're not being safe. You're sending our heaviest hitters with you. I'm not letting you just randomly sub out whoever you want."

"Benny and Celine." I said mutinously. "And if you say no I include Abel."

She growled up at me. "Insufferable moron. Fine. IF you take the girls as backup, AND Abel, I'll take Benny and Celine. Jessie and Randall will be with you. Having a healer is more important for the larger force anyway. And Randall is well practiced at killing Wendigos."

Laughing, I reached down to hug her. "Fine." I said as I pulled back. "But only because I think it's cute when you worry."

"It's not." She said in annoyance. "I should know, because you make me do it all the fucking time. If you get injured because you took a stupid risk I'm going make you visit every city on Valen for political meet and greets…and I'll DRIVE."

I flinched in horror, and she smirked at me, then turned and sauntered over to Bethy, who flexed her Domain enough to let her through.

The angels both nodded seriously, since everyone was in the Domain waiting to stage the attack, and then my sister followed them in, only stopping to give me a hug. Which left just me and Bethy.

The vampire was beaming, excited to be heading into the action, despite her earlier complaints. I sighed, then gestured for her to go ahead, and the two of us left the volcano, taking a nearby shuttle that had been left out for just such an occasion to the edge of the snowglobe. When we landed, Bethy was practically bouncing in excitement.

"This will be so fun!" She squealed happily. "We're gonna sneak right up on them, and be like 'rargh, time to die' and they'll be like 'oh no it's Bethy!' and I'll be like 'bow before me snack boys', and they won't even see you about to whack them with a stick!"

"I thought you were anti stealth?" I said with amusement. "Starting to come around to sneaking in and ambushing them?"

She shrugged. "Well it's just to start. Your plans always end up being big knock down fights. Plus, chances are good you'll blow up some kind of building. I'm just sad I have to leave and go thaw out those lame icicles instead of seeing you beat the bad guy."

"Honestly…me too." I said with a shrug. "I'd feel better if you were there."

She looked at me with big starry eyes. "Oh my god, I KNEW it! We're besties! Benny is going to be so jealous. You totally traded up."

I laughed, then turned and offered to let her climb on my back. "I'll be sure to tell him he's been replaced. Now let's go." I paused. "And can you…can you keep an eye out for Callie?" I whispered, invoking my Bael stealth to cover the question, hopefully preventing my wife from hearing.

She gave a solemn nod. "Bodyguard Bethy is on the case." She said seriously. The effect was somewhat ruined when I looked over my shoulder and saw that she'd somehow pulled a pair of sunglasses from somewhere and put them on, her blank face made even more serious with the big dark shades.

I couldn't help it, I cracked up. Bethy always knew how to lighten a mood. She climbed on my back, and with a joyful cry telling me to 'giddyup', I covered us both with Bael and set off into the snowglobe.

As I entered, I felt things slow down. Time in here was distorted, and there was no way to dispel that without breaking the globe, which it was too soon for. Luckily our enemies were just as slowed down. We would be perfectly fine to engage. I felt myself tense in anticipation. This was so close to being over. Just one more fight to win and the planet would be saved. No pressure, right?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It was time. I felt my hands tingle as I clenched and unclenched my fists. A hundred people with me. Callie was gone, taking her fifty along. The angels, Abel, Jessie, Randall, and dozens of others were standing behind me, and all of us were stationed right outside the canon where Wintervale was situated.

"Go." I said shortly, and we went. The formation training had been useful, helping us maintain a cohesive assault force, but Ascendant tactics were kind of paradoxical in that they prioritized being the best individual team player. Our movements were in synch, but very individual, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I triggered Beelzebub, letting my clones move out to attend their own tasks, and then Mephistopheles, before blitzing over the canyon cliff with Mephisto's Waltz. Ripple running came to my like divine providence and my feet tapped the air in a mesmerizing cascade of shifting movement as I flickered across the open space toward…an army.

Travis had set his people out in rows, and it took me an activation of Eye of Revelation to see WHY. A Path. Travis had a Path, and he was using a very large and scary technique. The fighters were laid out like a giant chess board, with the Wendigos as pawns and his own people in the back as power pieces. Travis himself was the King, and I could see his smug smirk as he watched me descend from the sky, my forces behind me.

Three hundred. Three to one odds. That meant two hundred were waiting for Callie and the others, four to one, and I hated that ideas, but I couldn't let it break my focus. They needed us to make enough noise to potentially pull in their reinforcements, and damned if we weren't going to.

We hit Travis's lines like the fist of an angry god, and I slammed down my staff in a brutal Cosmic Collapse, setting off a wave of black flame. Abel's bloody fist manifestations rained down, the angels manifested their metallic light powers, and Randall expanded with a roar of horrifying bloodthirst as Jessie saty on his back, channeling a torrent of green energy into him.

The other worked the formations we gave them, maximizing their abilities in the context of smaller group while sticking to the plan, and for a second I thought we might win this easily…but that wasn't happening.

Abel's fist hit a massive wall of dark iron and rebounded, his body suddenly wrapped in a labyrinth of energy as he tried to slip away with his spatial powers, the angels were attacked by some kind of dark liquid mass, and Randall hit a pair of very large Wendigos that operated as a unit more effectively than I'd seen.

All over the battlefield, people were suddenly matched against their perfect counters, and I snarled as I watched Travis flicking his hands like a conductor, transporting his attackers this way and that, swapping out the worst possible enemy for each and every one of my people. This chess technique was letting him dictate the pace of the battle, suck us into his tempo, and his translocation was letting him perfectly counter our every move.

But I could transport too. I triggered Double Trouble, my staff licking out at him, and he vanished in a blink, the blow crushing the skull of an unsuspecting swordsman that had previously been matched against an ice used we'd brought along. I reoriented, found him again, and repeated. He glared at me from afar, flickering constantly as I matched him beat for beat, a run and gun battle across the chessboard.

Left and right, I left broken and dead enemies, his people plucked from wherever he could find them and unprepared for an assault with my most powerful offensive form.

As we moved, the technique started to break down, dissolving at the edges as I forced him to snatch pieces from wherever he could to survive. I had him on the back foot, but he was far too smart not to have a backup plan.

After my tenth kill, he glanced off in a seemingly random direction, and vanished…replaced by Mad Madigan. I felt my Danger Sense scream and, kicked off the air as the other man gestured dramatically. The labyrinth slammed down across the board, twisting lines of energy coruscating around us as they spatially separated the squares, locking all of our people into individual battles manipulated by Travis.

I prepared myself for the fight. I hadn't been planning to fight Madigan, he was supposed to be Abel's prey, but I could figure that out later. Or at least, I would have, if not for the colossal crimson fist that smashed through the spatial warping to one side of us, carrying the battered form of Travis, who had apparently ended up in a square WITH Abel, and had regretted it.

The translocator rolled off the momentum, coming up to his feet with a snarl as he glared at both of us. "You know." He said with frustration. "The whole rabbit out of a hat thing goes from cute to annoying REALLY fast. Can't you just fucking die like you're supposed to?"

Without waiting for me to answer, he switched with a piece of rock behind me, ready to cave my skull in with a wicked looking black mace…and not at all ready for the staff that came down unseen on his ankle. He blinked out, appearing across the enclosure created by the two labyrinthine chess squares we now inhabited since Abel had collapsed a wall.

He glared at me. "What the fuck was that?"

I smiled unpleasantly. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. You were just about to backstab me again, right? Please, be my guest. I'll wait."

His eyes narrowed, and he scanned the area. Off to one side, Abel had engaged Madigan, and their fight was kind of hurting my head. The crazy labyrinth architect was using some kind of short range hand to hand style that warped space inside his guard, and Abel was bashing through and around it with spatial lubrication and his Path.

Try as he might though, Travis couldn't see anything around us that could have attacked him. He was favoring his ankle and he had no idea what to do next.

Last time we'd fought, Travis had backstabbed me. His battlefield control was unassailable, and he had a nearly limitless number of options for how to attack. Predicting him was too reactive, and I wouldn't be able to keep it up. I'd burn energy dodging and slow down the more we fought.

When I was a kid, I'd had these weird little colored blocks. They were tiny and had bumps that locked together, and they were infamous among parents in our childcare. Kids would leave them out and parents would step on them in the dark, and they were apparently INCREDIBLY painful. Zeke never seemed to care, but he was a B-ranker, so that made sense.

The thing was, those blocks were basically impossible to avoid, because they were small and blended into the carpet, especially in the dark.

Moral of the story: invisible obstacles could really fuck you up.

Secondary moral of the story: invisible CLONES of the person you're fighting scattered across the battlefield in perfect stealth waiting to attack no matter where you landed could fuck you up even more.

I'd put a LOT of thought into beating Travis. My issue came down to the fact that he could just go anywhere, and if he went somewhere I wasn't, I'd still be in the same spot. I couldn't be in two places at once. Well, fuck that. I'd be in two places. I'd be in ALL the places. If he wanted to hop around the battlefield like a menace, I'd be there waiting every time.

He had no clue what was happening, because the clones (which had been marking me and following my trail as I Double Troubled around the battlefield waiting for him to do THIS exact thing) were all using their one form to lurk around in Bael, waiting to see where he went.

There was a lot of debris around (because Abel was not a precision instrument) and he was trying to figure out what was going on. He blinked around a few times, assessing the battlefield.

My clones had good reach, especially with staves in hand, and the layout of their positioning meant he basically couldn't get within a hundred plus feet of me. He wasn't coming in close though, just sort of circling, trying to suss out not only where his limits were, but exactly what was happening.

Sadly for him, that wasn't going to work. I triggered my overlay, as did the others, and a parallel Piece of Mind was activated to track and sort all the data as I rushed toward him. He froze for a second, but then appeared off to one side of me, swinging his mace down at an angle to cripple a leg.

It was deflected, one of my clones knocking at aside as another swung at his head. I drove forward, explosions of black flame erupting as my staff blurred in a series of short, brutal thrusts. He deflected it with his mace as best he could, wheeling backward in panic, he tried to swap out with something nearby, but another clone tripped him, and the entire dozen of us just dogpiled on the bastard.

An explosion from above dragged my attention away from my enemy long enough to look up and see the rainbow manifestation of the formation above the snowglobe shatter, a cascade of falling fragments of colored light sprinkling down like rainbow glitter snow.

Unfortunately, that was when things started to go wrong. The snowglobe had been woven into the formation, at least as far as was necessary. Releasing the popsicles shouldn't have broken the cold storage, which meant something ELSE had done it, but with the cold storage gone the snowglobe was falling.

Seeing his chance to escape, Travis bellowed. "DROP THE MAZE!" And the separating labyrinth keeping the squares of the chess board dissolved even as the technique itself fell apart.

It. Was. Chaos. Formerly separated groups of clashing enemies unleashed into a single large area, reinforcements from both sides falling from the fucking skies as the now unleashed E-rankers from both our team of fifty and the cold storage battled the two hundred soldiers (mostly Wendigos) Travis had position to block them.

They hadn't gotten INSIDE, obviously, but the bastards had been waiting on the rainbow paths, and now the pandemonium of the falling battle was mixing with the chess board battle and no one knew which way was fucking up.

I glared at Travis as he blinked away, but I triggered a skill with one of my clones as it tapped him with a grazing blow. Marked for Death. It mostly worked to bypass armor, but it WAS a mark, and I could track it.

I left Abel to handle Madigan (breaking the labyrinth was the last step to elevating the planet and letting the high rankers back in) and took off after Travis, my feet blurring as I blinked across the sky in bursts of black fire.

He was a pain in the ass to follow. Fighting he'd been tough, but running he was a menace. Constant switches with random people, sometimes friends sometimes foes, and always in an erratic direction and distance, made him a nightmare to close in on. But I didn't care.

Travis had done all of this to hurt me. To hurt Callie. Killing my friends and family and even my wife had been his main goal, just to make a statement for his gods.

Well I had a fucking statement to make two. I'd make it with his shattered corpse. He wasn't getting away again. My clones were following behind me, but not able to keep up because they weren't in Mephistopheles, but I ignored that. They'd get there eventually, and I wasn't giving up my chance at revenge because of a slightly more even fight. Travis died tonight.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

He stopped running about twenty miles from Wintervale. I wasn't surprised. He was trying to get away from the situation more than me. I suspect he'd partially figured out what I was doing, and had brought me out here to counter it. The little flurries of snow on the tundra would stick to my clones even in stealth. They could hide still, but there would be disturbances.


To my amusement, he looked enraged when I caught up. "Do you know how much effort I had to put in to make this happen?" He asked in a voice as cold as the hard packed snow around us. "How much influence I burned, how many favors I had to both use and promise? This was my shot. My big break. And you've turned it all to fucking DUST."


His breath was billowing in the air, like he was literally steaming at the injustice. I laughed. "Am I supposed to feel bad?"


"Do you think I give a fuck how you FEEL?" He spat. "I had goals. Plans. I WORKED for this. I didn't just have some divine bloodline fall into my lap. I dedicated my fucking life to the vanished gods, I sacrificed, I waited. And when I finally pulled off that double cross at the academy, I took full advantage. And now all of it is gone, wasted because of some little godspawn dilettante."


"If you were someone I liked, I might argue." I said after a moment. "I might go on about how I've worked hard too, about how much time I put in making my own Path instead of just relying on my wish power. But you know what? I'm not going to do that."


I made sure he could hear my vindictive grin in my voice. I was buying time for my clones to arrive. I couldn't let them get too close because of the snow, but I could still use them as an early warning system.


"I'm not going to argue, because I want you to feel humiliated." I continued talking, eyes tracking him. "I want this to HURT. You're a failure. A waste of meat. You ruined the only thing of consequence you've ever tried to do, and I'm proud to have played a part in it. You're going to die alone and embarrassed and ridiculed. I'm going to spread the word. For the rest of eternity people on this planet will remember you and what you tried to do, and remember that you fucked it up."


He looked ready to attack me, but I saw his eyes darting around, still worried about the clones. So he didn't know exactly what was up then. Good. "Fuck you." He spat.


"No Travis. Fuck YOU." I shot back hotly. "Forever. I'm going to fucking ENSHRINE your failure in the legends of Callus. In every planet I ever get control of, in the whole fucking WCP if I can. There will be holidays where people walk around dressed like you and get pelted with rotten fruit. People will burn you in effigy on cold nights, I'll hold FESTIVALS where people will compete to see who can create the most humiliating Travis costume. Stories of your pathetic waste of a life will echo across the fucking universe. You'll be such a laughing stock people will never use the name Travis for another child, because they'll be so ashamed to have it associated with you!"

I was panting now. I MIGHT have gotten a little overly emotional there, but I was just so angry. Killing Perit, stabbing me in the back, ruining my wedding, almost breaking my cousin's heart. He'd done so much to me, and I HATED him for it. I'd never felt anything like it before. Not really. I'd never felt real, pure, undying hatred for anyone. Not until now.


He stared at me, rage flaring in his eyes, and then he vanished. I could have attacked from behind, had my clones move in, but that felt…impersonal. I left them there, watching from a dozen angles so he couldn't sneak up on me, and when he appeared, my elbow flashed up and shattered his fucking nose as I sidestepped the mace.


I spun, following up, and he blinked again, using bits of snow to swap places with. I didn't panic, didn't rush. I lashed out with a kick, and when he vanished again I waited. He tried to get behind me again, and Danger Sense told me before he even appeared. I let myself fade into the rhythm of the fight, opening my mind to try to forge the clones perspectives into one whole.


The obvious choice was using the overlay, and I did, and the Danger Sense, all the clones, and the predictive lines sort of blended together into a song of perfect violence.


I took hits, but just glancing ones, giving ground to slow him down enough to grab hold, and I realized I wasn't holding my staff anymore. Black flames licked my knuckles as I beat him into the snow, slapping aside mace shots where I didn't need to tank them and sinking my fists hard into his ribs, throat, face.


Eventually, he stopped teleporting himself, letting his rage take over as he matched me blow for blow. With the explosive power from Mephistopheles and my enhanced Impact I was able to match him despite his obviously higher Might stat.


It wasn't fluid, or pretty, it was brutal and nasty and stupid. We weren't in battle, we were just fucking BEATING each other. It was more of a brawl than anything, and blood flecked the snow as we bashed each other about, my nose broken by my mask, his eye swollen shut as his own nostrils dripped blood.


I could have healed, could have done a thousand things, but I didn't. I didn't want to stop. Every thought, every breath, was dedicated to HURTING Travis. Any time my knuckles weren't mashing into his flesh was unconscionable.


After about ten minutes one of us slipped, and it took me a second to realize it was him as I bore down on him, raining my fists down on him from above as he turtled up under me, trying to get one arm in the way as the other smashed into my ribs and side. But it wasn't enough. Not enough pain. Not enough damage.


I triggered Steam Arrow, firing a black flame imbued projectile of superheated water into his eyes at point blank range, and he screamed, clutching his face as I get my hands around his throat and started to squeeze.

He roared in pain and confusion, but managed to translocate away, and I dropped into the snow, scrambling to my feet from hands and knees as he appeared beside me, crying blood and face burned, but still able to see as he planted his knee into my gut and started slamming his fist into my from below.


I stomped on his instep, and he screamed, stumbling back, and I tackled him down to the ground again, my hands going to his face as my thumbs forced themselves into his mostly burned eyes. His grip shot to my wrists and he screamed in agony, and I poured black flame through my hands, into his eye sockets and across his face.


He screamed, beyond words or coherent thought, and I took the distraction as the perfect time to finish him. With a colossal heave I jerked his head up and to the side, snapping his neck, and the screaming just…stopped.


I slumped over onto my side dismissing my clones and letting Mephistopheles fade as I breathed heavily into the arctic air. I was in shock. I'd never been in a fight like that, where both parties just…gave in. That hadn't bee Limbo or recursion. That had been me, my hate, my own pure loathing coming to the forefront.


I stared at the corpse, wondering if I'd done something horrible, but I didn't feel bad. That had been messy and brutal and hateful, but it had also felt right. He deserved that, and the only thing in the pit in my stomach right now was cold satisfaction. Also probably blood. I was almost positive I was bleeding internally.


A quick scan heal to quantify my injuries confirmed that, and I was a bit confused how he'd managed to injure me so badly, until I checked his body and found the D-rank knuckle dusters he'd been beating me with. I'd been so lost in rage I hadn't even noticed the heavier blows. Presumably part of that had been my armor.


I was in bad shape. Not critical, just REALLY fucked up. Broken bones, shredded muscles, I'd torn my rotator cuff somehow, I had a vague memory of an arm bar at some point during the melee. I triggered Zagan, then fell back in the snow as I let the healing energy flood my body, focusing entirely on recovering.


No one approached me for a while, and my Danger Sense was functioning fine, so I was able to just lie there and breathe for a bit.


I was on my back, staring up at the sky, when the labyrinth shattered at last, and I felt…the world SHIFT slightly. I considered triggering Eye of Revelation, but it felt like a reckless risk to watch something so massive with my third eye, so I just waited, staring up at the sky as a torrent of meaning smashed into the planet from above.


The sensation of the Impact flowing into the planet was staggering, and the overflow permeated the air, creating an atmosphere crackling with power. I relaxed my soul, knowing it was time, and the renown crashed over me, skyrocketing me up past mm breaking point, and the Impact in the air was flowing into ME as my rank up crashed through me. I'd never really bothered ranking up hurt before, but I felt my body being rebuilt as it Ascended, as the new flesh and bone and blood replaced the old, creating something far more than I had been before.


I let Zagan drop, and I rode out the power as it detonated inside my body unlike anything I'd ever felt before. This wasn't just a quantitative bump in state of being, I was being remade, becoming something completely new, something prepared to be the vessel of great cosmic forces. A foundation was being set for my power, my story, and I knew right then that I'd never be the same.


My eyes were rolling back in a combination of pain and any number of other sensations. I wasn't sure it even hurt, it was just so MUCH. I heard something beside me, and I turned to find Callie on her knees next to me, eyes clenched tight as her body was wracked with overwhelming surges of feeling. I opened the bond, not realizing I'd closed it, and she collapsed onto me, arms going around me as we clung to each other through our rank up to Mastery.


It felt like forever. Like it would never end and had never started and like we'd always been like this, lost in an endless cascade of noise and fury and power. And then it ended. And we were lying in the snow, panting and twitching as we processed what had just happened.


I glanced around me, and was shocked to see my mom and Zeke standing not too far away, standing guard over us. Chelsea was nearby too, though she was handling the upgrade better than we had, just on her hands and knees groaning.


Slumping down, I grinned up into the sky in triumph and relief. Travis was dead, I was D-rank, I was married, my family was here. The process had been rough, but I felt the weight of sorrow and hardship just dissolve from my shoulders as I took in the results. Things weren't perfect, a lot of damage was done that would take years to fix…but for now, this was pretty great.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Being a D-ranker was…surreal. Literally, reality felt different to me. A qualitative shift in my perception of the world. It was hard to describe, but I finally pinned down the sensation, and once I did it made way too much sense. It was my sense of Impact. It had always been there, useful for keeping track of other Ascendants and detecting threats. I still remembered Abel teaching me to fine tune it beyond just detecting rank.

But not it was so much more. I could do more than sense Impact. I could smell it, taste it, feel it on my skin. I could even kind of see it if I squinted, though it was hard to describe in that context. Synesthesia, the phenomena where sensory input becomes entangled.

The weirdest part was that nothing had actually changed. Well, a lot had changed around us, but that wasn't what I meant. My body had shifted as it usually did with rank ups, and quite a bit too, but I was still…me. I was just more of me. It was extremely difficult to put into words, but I realized why D-rank was considered such a watershed. I was much greater than the sum of my parts, in a way that no rank up had ever brought me close to being before.

"I feel like…" Callie paused for a minute. "Like I'm drunk on minutes and I just threw up my sense of equilibrium."

Zeke burst out laughing. "Yeah. That happens. I've never heard it described like that, but it fits. It's called 'the Blinks'. It wears off pretty fast." He looked around with interest. "I can't believe Moravian's ridiculous formation actually worked. I always kind of assumed it was a pipe dream. Grandmaster or not, it takes a LOT to rank up a planet.

"Legendary Formation Master." Corrected a smug voice. "If you please." We all turned to see the huge form of Moravian standing nearby. It…kind of hurt to look at him. My new altered senses detected that same weird oneness I had seen before, but moreso. Every movement, breath, eye blink was one with nature. Which was still deeply in flux around us. It was really weird, lots of slight adjustments too fast and minimal for me to track.

"Rave." Said my uncle with a nod. "I owe you a blue dwarf star." He admitted. "I'm TEMPTED to claim it doesn't count because this was an unforeseeable freak accident. But you changed tactics on the fly and you helped my nephew, so I'll pay up."

My mom rolled her eyes. "Idiots." She said fondly. "But thank you, Moravian. For helping my son. I won't forget it."

He gave a regal nod, then turned and loped away. He looked kind of stop motion in the shuddering Impact of the still Ascending planet. It was weird. I stepped forward, pulling my mom and then my uncle into tight hugs. "I'm glad you're both here. I don't think we would have gotten hurt while ranking up, but it doesn't hurt to be safe."

"For sure." My uncle nodded. "And congrats on D-rank. Saving a planet is always a nice bump. I remember my first planetary siege." He grimaced a bit. "Did not go nearly as well. We sank a continent. Pulled it off in the end though. I think there's a statue of your dad in some sunken city on Rattfeld still. Their princess was a sculptor and she was REAL into him." At my mom's look, he shrugged. "What? This was way before we met you. Plus she wasn't his type. Too slithery."

Deciding I had no desire to ask what THAT meant, I changed the subject. "So…I should probably check my stats after my rank up right?" I grinned at Callie. "Do you want me to go first again?"

"You earned it." She laughed. "You really kicked his ass in that fight." She glanced at Travis's body. "I would normally be a little annoyed you felt you needed to 'defend my honor' but since we're married I think you get a pass."

My mom nodded. "It's in the rules. A certain amount of overprotectiveness is allowed after they put a ring on it. It's mutual though, and if he's anything like his father you'll need to bail him out of more than enough scrapes to make you even. Don't even get me STARTED on the mess Elijah got into on our honeymoon."

Rolling my eyes and internally promising myself to ask more about my parents past after things settled down, I closed my eyes and focused, letting the purple flames of my status screen roll across my vision.

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

Might-26,200
Impact-105
Fantasy-14,020
Vitality-12,674
Focus-20,920
Perception-15,004
Creation-14,054
Progress to next rank:102,977/1,000,000
Soul strength- Amethyst Soul Body

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

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 45 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)


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


I didn't bother copying down the whole thing. Aside from a change in my Skills to reflect my upgraded Path, there wasn't anything really different aside from the stats, so I didn't need to rewrite all the subskills and forms and techniques. Five thousand Might and five thousand Focus. Ten thousand points was such an innocuous difference at this level, but it was like night and day.

The biggest change was my Impact though. A hundred and five. It was staggering to see it in the triple digits, even being able to feel it in my bones now.
Callie read over it, beaming as she took in the differences.

"We did it." She whispered. "We really did it. I mean, I knew I did it, and I knew you did it. But like…WE did it." She snatched some paper from the air and copied down her own stats, passing it to me excitedly.


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-30,550
Impact-105
Vitality-9,742
Fantasy-20,520
Focus-7,908
Perception-22,375
Creation-14,485
Progress to next rank: 105,685/1,000,000



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 blinked at the last line. "What is the 'Dance of the Abyssal Fairy'?" I asked with interest. That wasn't on there last time I saw your sheet." Which had been like, a few days ago.

She grinned. "I was doing some training up on the Necromedes. Your mom and I were trying to figure out a movement technique based on a combination of her Supernova Step and my Path of the Abyss. I hadn't quite gotten it down when I arrived back on Callus, but it clicked during the fight. I ended up working Balam into the technique a bit. I'll show you later, it's pretty cool."

I laughed at that, sweeping her up into my arms and spinning her around out of sheer…joy. We were together, we were safe, the planet was ok and none of our friends had died. Sure, Valk was probably traumatized, but I could fix that eventually, like I was with Felicity.

Who wasn't here, actually. I wondered if she was helping with cleanup. I glanced back at Wintervale. "So…I'm guessing the wedding venue is going to have to change. Think anyone will mind if we have it back in Valen?"

"Who cares if they do." Shrugged Zeke. "You guys have been through a lot. And you saved this whole planet. Anyone with a problem can fuck right off."

"Crude language aside, Ezekial is right." Said my mom enthusiastically. "And the ceremony is already done, so now it's just the party. Anyone who doesn't want to come doesn't have to. It's not like we have any reason to force them to come eat free cake." She whirled on Callie excitedly. "Speaking of which, I couldn't help but notice the name on your stat sheet. Welcome to the family!"

She mirrored my actions from earlier, sweeping Callie up into a tight hug. My wife just laughed, hugging her back, and Zeke reached out and patted her on the head a few times condescendingly, which got a sort of pouty glare that reminded me of a cat during bath time, and that made all of us burst out laughing, even Callie after a second.

We headed back to Wintervale after the Blinks wore off, and it was a heady experience. We weren't one with the world like Moravian, but we'd definitely become more entwined with the universe. A distinction without a difference before I'd made the change, but now I could see the line easily.

Benny was waiting when I arrived, along with Jessie, Chelsea, Bethy, Gabe, Mel, and Abel. My teammates had been nowhere close to D-rank, sadly, but the rest of my crew had ridden the wave of the Ascension event and their role in it up into Mastery, and it was gratifying to see them standing around looking so powerful and sure of themselves.

Behind them, I could see many D-rankers actually. Probably a hundred of our original hundred and fifty (though we seemed to have had some minor losses, which I tried not to dwell on) and the entire hundred from the cold storage had ranked up, contributing heavily to the swirl of ambient Impact on Callus.

I wasn't sure exactly what would happen, but Zeke informed me that places with dense ambient Impact like this tended to give birth to more Ascendants, people, places, and things. It seeped into otherwise mortal things and pushed them over the threshold if they were close. It wouldn't directly strengthen established Ascendants though. That wasn't really how Impact worked in an ambient form.

Everyone was excited about the changes, chattering and patting each other on the back and filling each other in on our battles. I told everyone in broad strokes about my fight and rank up, listening to all the stories, but eventually we all decided to head out.

Wintervale was wrecked, and while we could probably have found a reasonably intact room at the lodge, no one was really feeling like staying here. We moved to Valen, where I'd helped them rebuild well enough that there were plenty of places to sleep, and rented out one of the local hotels for all of our guests, both new and old.

By the time Callie and I made it to bed, we were both too exhausted to even speak to each other, not physically, but mentally drained from the day's events. We communicated through the bond until we fell asleep, talking about our reception and what we were going to do. I wanted it to be more than just a day, maybe a festival or something to commemorate the wedding and the end of the siege all at once. I even had a few ideas for festival games. I'd made Travis a promise, after all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"And Shane informed me that he didn't want to get 'caught up in the rat race'." Zeke said with a wide grin. "When I asked him where he heard that term, he said a bunch of the boys on the sixth floor were racing rats and they kept making everyone bet their lunch money."

The crowd around us burst into gales of laughter, and I sulked a little bit, because I'd been TEN and had no idea that phrase had another meaning.

"You were so CUTE." Cooed Callie from the other side of me. We were all seated around a huge table in a park in Valen, and all around us people were dancing, eating, and competing (there was a lot of overlap between those three things, and I gaped at the sight of Jessie demolishing a fifty scoop sunday while Abel desperately struggled to catch up). Our reception, months late but still happening.

Benny shook his head. "I remember those guys, Shane was right, they were dicks. They tried to get me involved in that race every time I came over."

"At first." I pointed out. "But once they realized you could afford to just keep going double or nothing until you won, they stopped. You lost like five times that first day you agreed, but number six cleaned them out. Then you just left."

He shrugged. "Like I said, they were dicks. I was lucky I won too, because I lifted those credits from my dads wallet. I did NOT have that kind of cash on hand when I was ten. I returned it though, and I had a bunch of extra money for the next few months. We ate SO MANY moonbeam pops."

Amber, Benny's mother, glared at him from across the table. "Theft and GAMBLING?" She said reproachfully. "These are not the kinds of stories I enjoy hearing about my ten year old son."

"Sorry ma." He grinned shamelessly. "People want to know about my rise to power."

"I think it's sweet." My mom said with a laugh. "He was defending his friend. Admittedly, they BOTH could have used a bit more oversight." She stared at Zeke, who was leaning back in his chair sipping a bottle of some kind of beer as Stella listened to the stories.

My uncle just sipped unapologetically. "He turned out fine. No need to coddle the boy. I was keeping an eye out, and they handled it well. Though I did have to have a word with that Kyle kid's dad. He seemed pretty intent on insisting Benny and Shane pay his son back. Something about rich bastards cheating salt of the earth folks like him."

"Wait, what?" I blinked in surprise. "I didn't know about that."

"You didn't need to." He smirked. "He and I had a casual and forthright discussion about boundaries, and he made the calm and rational decision not to pursue the matter any more. Just a mature discussion between grown adults where no one dropped anyone else in a pit full of snakes."

We just stared at him, but he didn't even bother to look at us, just smugly sipping his drink and staring off into the middle distance. There was a brief lull in the discussion, everyone at a loss for what to say, until finally, Amelia cracked up. Her laughter set the rest of us off, and even Amber laughed a bit.

Benny's dad, Hector, grinned at him. "I have to say Zeke, I like your style. I'm sad we didn't get to know each other better when the boys were growing up."

"Yeah, work kept me pretty busy." He shrugged. "Working on my projects, running things at the local branch."

Stella nodded. "He's shockingly reliable if you catch him RIGHT in the strike zone of things he actually cares about. Otherwise he's a lazy good for nothing with a drinking problem." She winked at him, and he just snickered as everyone else laughed. Zeke wasn't the type of person to be bothered by a little shit talking, he was easily one of the most self confident people I knew.

My mom laughed along with everyone else, but it was kind of forced. Not in a sad way, but in an impatient way, like she was desperate to hear more stories. She'd been really intense about listening to the ones everyone had been telling, and I got the impression she was trying to make up for lost time a bit, or at least experience my childhood secondhand.

Chelsea was at the table with us too, but she seemed content to just go along with the flow of the conversation, listening politely and asking questions. She looked like she was having fun, but it was less…aggressive than mom's attention.

"So, Amelia." I finally asked. "You said you think the baby will be a boy? Any of these stories putting you off the idea? There's still time to change your mind. Not that it would do much, but still, at least you won't feel complicit. Though if you do have a son, Shane is a very strong and dignified name for a baby boy." I winked, and everyone laughed, though Amelia rolled her eyes as she did.

I was joking, but Callie cut that line of thought off immediately. "Nope." She said bluntly. "No Shane's in the family until at least the generation after next. That sounds like a one way trip to tons of annoying misunderstandings."

"We could just give him a nickname." I protested, getting into it despite having no real stake in this. "Like…" I paused. "Fuck, how did I never notice that there aren't any good nicknames for Shane." I glanced at Benny. "Did you notice that? Someone has to have called me by a nickname at some point."

He shrugged. "Well in our third year of childcare they called you-" I lunged across the table, hand clamping over his mouth.

"I will tell EVERYONE about your most humiliating memories." I hissed. "That bird attack, the time you tried to adopt that scorpion, the LANYARD incident! If I go down, you're going down with me." I released his mouth, slowly backing off the table to take my seat like nothing happened.

Benny cleared his throat. "They called you Shane. Because that's your name. The only name you've ever had and the only thing I would ever call you." His tone was robotic, but his eyes were darting side to side desperately.

"Ok, as intriguing as THAT was." Said my mother with a laugh. "Maybe we should change the subject. Shane, Callie, have you considered where you're going to take your honeymoon? There's a LOVELY paradise planet in the Holy Dominion I could get you into. The clouds are edible, and there are waterfalls of delicious fruit juices. Plus there are unicorns."

Chelsea clapped her hands. "Oh, you mean Obvium! I love that place, you guys have to go. The animals there are all so sweet and cuddly, and the fruits and vegetables are delicious. There's no hunting, obviously, but you're free to bring meat with you. It's a favorite planet for cooking enthusiasts."

"I'm enthusiastic about cooking!" Cheered Callie. "Mostly Shane's cooking, but it still counts."

"I love cooking for you." I laughed. "And anything described as a paradise planet definitely sounds like my kind of place. Is it like…super high ranked or something?"

My mom shrugged. "B-rank." She said cheerfully. "Now that the two of you have passed your Mastery Milestone there are far more places open to you. If you had any other locations in mind you can ask about those too. We can drop you off and hang around in orbit for a few weeks. The Necromedes is an excellent place to post up and enjoy some relaxation time."

And so the topic switched to honeymoon destinations. My mom and Zeke took turns trying to one up each other's suggestions while Chelsea chimed in occasionally. Bethy actually made a few declarations of her own, but her idea of fun tended to be a bit more…energetic than we had been hoping for.

Finally, it started to get dark, and it was time to cut the cake. Callie, excited as I'd ever seen her, manifested a giant carving knife out of shadow and stared at the thing from across the party. "I'm gonna cut it up so good." She said emphatically. "And we get the first piece." She turned to glare at me. "And if you smash it in my face instead of letting me actually eat it, we're getting the world's fastest divorce."

"You are severely underestimating how quickly people get divorced." Said Benny bluntly. At our look he coughed lightly. "Not you guys though, you guys will be together forever. I know that was just a joke."

Callie glared a bit longer at him, then got up, dragging me by the hand to stand next to the cake. She gave a little speech thanking our friends and family for coming, then she cut the cake, and the two of us each took a bit of the first piece before everyone swarmed the table. It was fantastic, of course.

"Hey who saved the cake when the invasion happened?" I asked as we headed back to the now mostly empty table. "I didn't think to grab it, did you?"

Off in the distance, as the sun set completely, a fire sparked up, and I was amused to see a familiar shape set alight. Travis, burning in effigy on the first night of the new festival we were starting to celebrate…well a bunch of stuff honestly.

"I grabbed it on the way out." Callie said in an embarrassed tone. "It's been in my ring. I was just looking forward to it so much."

I laughed, then gave her a quick kiss. "Come on." I said, pulling her hand before we reached the table. "We should dance. We ARE the guests of honor." She giggled and I spun her onto the dance floor, where we slow danced despite the quick beat of the song.

The rest of the night went by in a flash, and then it was time to head home. We'd be back tomorrow, and I told everyone I'd catch up as I ran back to the main tent to get my mask, which I hadn't been wearing during the festivities. It wasn't like it could get lost or anything, tracking was part of the enchantments.

When I entered the tent though, I found a girl sitting inside. I stopped as I saw her examining the mask.

She was…odd. Supernaturally good looking, as was common with Ascendants, but kind of scary. Her features were symmetrical and sharp, kind of like a razor blade, and she had this aura of icy contempt around her, though that was the only aura. I realized that I couldn't feel any Impact from her at all.

"Excuse me." I said as I stepped closer. "That's mine. And the party is over, maybe you can come back tomorrow."

She glanced up at me, and as I met her eyes, I realized I recognized them. The same icy blue as my mother. My blood ran cold in my veins. I was pretty sure my grandmother would have introduced herself if she was visiting. She seemed to notice as I figured it out, because her lips peeled back, exposing bright white teeth that were just a BIT too sharp.

"Whats the matter?" She asked in a voice like a cyanide popsicle, cold and sweet and poisonous. "Can't a goddess visit her own great grandson's wedding celebration?"

I went still, like a deer in headlights, as I stared into the eyes of one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. "Of course." I told Black Sorrow, goddess of the Enshrining Darkness, mother of Drowning Shade and wife (or ex wife maybe) of the Red Revenant. "You're welcome here great-grandmother. To what do I owe the pleasure." I felt the weight of fate slam down on me, catching my like a rat in a trap, and I knew this was the coming disaster I'd been sensing. Gee, thanks fate sense, real fucking helpful.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

She stared at me expectantly. For a minute. Then two. Finally she sighed. "I was hoping you might run away screaming. Or attack me. You must have a lot of frustration aimed in my direction? You have a perfect opportunity to cave my skull in. I won't even resist, you can just take your shot."

"You're a god." I said bluntly. "Attacking you would be the LITERAL definition of hubris. I'm not stupid. You could kill me with a particularly emphatic thought."

She snickered. "I wouldn't need much emphasis, truth be told. But fair enough. How about the other way around, you could suck up to me. Tell me how amazing and powerful I am and how you've always wanted to meet me. I don't much care about Alistair's little game. You could ask me for anything. Power, money, protection."

"Not to be offensive." I said in a measured tone. "But I'm not a huge fan of yours. You've tried to have me killed several times."

"Boy, if I wanted you killed you would be dead." She said with a laugh. "I merely ignored some of my more…ambitious supplicants as they made efforts to end your abominable existence. Imagine, my darling girl SPAWNING with one of Samuel's little sycophants." Her cheek twitched, and something changed subtly.

The darkness around us got deeper, more hostile, and something in the air became heavy and cold. Not icy, but more spiritually cold, like the Wendigos.

She closed her eyes when she noticed me shaking slightly, taking a deep breath. "Apologies. I forget how fragile you little things can be. My Celia has shown herself to me again, and begged intercession on your behalf." She studied me coldly. "You're not…unsalvageable, I suppose. But I'm not convinced you represent a sound investment."

"Well, like you said, if you wanted me dead I'd be dead." I pointed out. "So you're not here to kill me. Which means you want something. I'm just having trouble getting a handle on what that might be."

She smiled like I was a cute little dog who had done a funny trick. "Perhaps you CAN be taught. Celia was adamant about your potential. Which is good for you, because if I thought your sycophant grandfather tainted my little girl and produced inferior offspring, I would be compelled to annihilate all trace of such a disgrace. It just so happens, however, that I've recently become aware of an…opportunity, you may be of some help with."

Her casual mention of murdering my S-ranked grandfather and then eradicating the rest of my bloodline was far from comforting, but a task was a good thing. It meant wiggle room. I wasn't an idiot though, I wasn't just taking it on faith. "So, you need my help. How do I know grandma isn't already dead? What if I come back from this mission and everyone I love is dead. Not to mention the reason you need me to begin with. You're a goddess, you have plenty of your own 'sycophants', don't you?"

Her eyes narrowed and that cold feeling came back. "I'll ignore the implication that I would harm a hair on my perfect angel's head. My daughter is a fucking MIRACLE. She was born with a mirror soul body. I may have been angry about her running around with that jumped up little nobody of a disciple, but I would never hurt her."

"You don't think killing her family members would hurt her?" I asked incredulously. "Her DAUGHTER? Have you even spoken to my mom?"

She snorted. "Putting down her little abomination would be a favor in the long run. The girl has promise, your sister. I'm on the fence about you. But given the current political climate, I've been pushed to find a more…diplomatic, solution. It just so happens that you're in a position to help me retrieve something important from somewhere no one else can go."

I thought about it. She didn't need to lie to me. She could literally snuff me out with a light breath. I'd panicked a bit when she mentioned killing my loved ones, but I was still pretty sure helping her was the best way to get out of this. "What do you need?" I asked slowly. "And keep in mind I want EVERYONE in my family safe from you. Including my wife and her relatives."

"Of course." She said cheerfully. "Personally, I like you two together. She seems sweet. As for my job, that's a bit complex. What do you know about Domain seeds?"

"I know using one basically hard caps you at S-rank. Tops." I said bluntly. "At least unless you get one from somebody who has pretty much never shared their domain with anyone else and who is very suited to you." Bethy's Domain seed was like that, specially prepared for her by Lark not to prevent her from growing.

She nodded. "Usually correct." She said with a smile. "But not always. Domain seeds from DEAD gods still work fine. Nothing to split the renown. They have to be added later, much like a normal Domain, but if you merge a Domain seed from a deceased deity into your Domain at S-rank you can use them to massively boost your potential. It's a complicated procedure and it requires a very specially aligned Path, but it's doable."

"Ok…" I said slowly. "Interesting bit of info, I appreciate the heads up. What does that have to do with me?"

"Simple." She said bluntly. "I used a Domain seed. Well, Samuel and I both did." Based on context she was talking about the Red Revenant, and I was pretty blown away by that little bit of information. It did explain why Black Sorrow and the Revenant had managed to Ascend where so many had failed.

I stared at her. "Why tell me this?" I asked slowly. "That seems like private information."
"It would be." She shrugged. "Except I've recently been made aware of something interesting. I aligned my Path with a dead god and used a shard of their Domain to establish mine. This means were I to FIND that Domain, or the world that was created from it, I could incorporate that into MY Domain fairly easily. The reason this is so intriguing, is that the daughter of the god whose Domain I captured, Strakkenthar, happens to be a member of the enemy faction of gods. The Lady of Lamentation."

That actually WAS interesting. Or at least it was until I thought through the rest of what she'd been saying. "So what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Chirped the insane death goddess that was my great grandmother. "I need someone to approach the Lady of Lamentation as an outside contractor and get close. It needs to be someone decently powerful, which means five factions, and someone only recently into Mastery, so no one has heard of them, and someone who has an alternative powerset that isn't immediately recognizable as belonging to someone of means."

The blood drained from my face. "You want me to…approach one of the vanished gods and try to WORK for her?"

"Exactly! It's so nice to talk to someone reasonable." She practically crowed. "There are a limited number of worlds in their possession. Strakkenthar's world will most likely be practically barren of intelligent life, but not using it is a waste. She'll most likely farm it for beasts and materials. Resource worlds like that are plentiful, but manual labor is too pathetic for powerful Ascendants. If you approach them and manage to distinguish yourself, becoming an herb picked should be JUST about your limit."

I considered her proposal. Separating from my friends, approaching the vanished gods, fighting to get their attention. "They'll notice me." I said after a minute. "There's no way they won't be able to tell what I am."

"There aren't as many Perception focused gods as you'd expect." She said with a sigh. "The god of secrets won't be anywhere near the Lady of Lamentation. They're all scattered across the universe right now, trying to influence the battlefield. But to make sure you aren't noticed, I have a gift for you."

She held up my mask. My strong, faithful mask that was one of the first things I'd gotten as an ascendant, and sort of…flexed. The world cracked, shifting in her hands, pure elemental darkness warping the space between her palms in a way that made me want to throw up and cry at the same time. Then it stopped, and she tossed it to me.

My hands moved without thinking, snatching the object from the air, and I stared down a twisted mask of gleaming obsidian, a hideous death's head grin carved into the bottom. "You'll want to change your outfit." She said lazily. "But that should keep them from noticing your origins. Use that corrosive attack form combination of yours. The psudo domain was interesting. They'll think you're a defected cultist."

I just stared at it. My mask. I'd had it for…it had to be years now. It was always with me, my second skin, my identity. And she'd just changed it like it meant nothing. I wanted to yell, and scream, and curse. But I knew it wouldn't do any good.

She didn't care about my feelings. Not about this or about her task. She wouldn't care if I died trying to attempt it, and would only care a bit if she had to kill me herself for refusing. I wasn't anything to her. Just a tool, a speck of dust. This was how I was to all the gods. Some of them might take a bit more interest, but as long as I was weak, this was how the world would work.

"Fine." I said after a moment. "I'll take your job. I'll need information before we go in but-"

"Oh not we." She said quickly. "Just you. The new mask and your niche power set might keep you from being discovered, but if you go in with your wife or your friends, someone will put two and two together. They've had too many dealings with you. I'll get you the information, but you won't be taking anyone with you."

I blinked at her dumbly. She was sending me into enemy territory ALONE? No friends, no backup, no protection? I'd known I'd lose Zeke's defense when I reached D-rank, but this was way more than that.

"Give me a week." I finally said. "To say goodbye to my family. To make sure they'll be safe."

She shrugged. "I suppose seven days isn't too much to ask. I'll have Celia talk you through the intel. I dislike being in this part of the universe. It's so…gauche. Unity has no sense of style or aesthetic." Hopping to her feet, she beamed at me. "Well, kisses great grandson. So nice to see you're reasonable. Accomplish this task and your family is free of my ire, don't…well, you'll probably be too dead to care."

And then she was gone, vanished in a blink as she turned to shadow and scattered. It took me a second to process. Seconds later, the tent flap burst open and my mother rushed in, eyes blazing and body glowing with a terrifying white light. When she realized I was alone, she scoured the tent, but eventually relaxed, then turned to me in concern.

"Shane? What happened? Are you alright?" She grabbed my shoulders, looking panicked.

Before I could respond, a new voice cut in. "Don't crowd the boy, Sasha. Give him a moment. My mother isn't exactly the easiest person to talk to."

My mom spun, staring at a woman who looked uncannily like the one who had just left, but maybe with a little bit of my mom around the eyes. My mother gaped at the dark haired lady in the formal gown, her eyes wide with shock. "Mother?" She asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?" I sighed. This was going to be an annoying story, I could just feel it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"This is bullshit!" Snapped Callie as she paced back and forth inside the tent. She'd felt my distress through bond and rushed back, though apparently Black Sorrow had somehow delayed the sensation until she left. "She can't just DECIDE you need to go on some suicidal mission to the war front or she'll kill us all."

"Actually, she can and definitely has done that." I said with a grimace. "I know it sucks, but honestly, the idea of being out from under her death sentence and free to be an actual family sounds AMAZING." I turned to my grandmother, who was sitting primly at the table sipping…tea, I think, though I had no clue where she'd gotten it. "Though I feel like she wasn't that committed to us dying. Like she knew I existed but wasn't really pushing for my execution?"

Drowning Shade, also known as Celia Anders, shrugged lightly. "My mother is a god. Her attention span is…odd. She can be both incredibly patient and incredibly impatient, depending on the circumstances. In any case, her lifespan means time passes differently to her. The idea of waiting a few years for you to die wouldn't bother her."

"Don't talk about my son's murder like it's a day at the fish market, mother!" Snapped my mom. "This situation is bad!"

"Less than you might think." Celia said with a shake of her head. "I wasn't at all certain my mother would listen to me. My attempts to use the war to pressure her were a long shot, at best. I expected her to extract HARSH concessions, perhaps separating me from our family for the rest of my life. This mission, while dangerous, is an opportunity." She glanced at me intently. "Your boy has a strong fate, Sasha. For things to move in such a way."

I wondered if my Path was helping. Fatewalker was a class and not the Path itself. Did it even matter anymore?

"So, what am I supposed to be doing." I said tiredly. "She said you'd have the details. She mostly just showed up, mocked me a bit, and then vanished. I was expecting her to be more…unstable, based on what I've heard."

She sighed. "You need to understand that gods are a PART of their Domain. To become a deity is to become one with a concept, to become part of a legend. All your stats, your soul, are dispersed into your Domain and become permanently fused. Becoming human again, or at least creating a physical form, is taxing and requires concentration anywhere OUTSIDE that Domain. Like being in two places at once, and doing the world's most complex puzzle in one of them."

I tried to imagine that kind of strain. It had to be tens or hundreds of times more exhausting than normal soul weight from a technique or Skill. I could see how someone might be erratic if they were under that kind of stress whenever they were physically present in the real world.

There was kind of an implication that divine worlds didn't really move. Like they seemed to be pretty stable in terms of real space. Or maybe I was making assumptions where it wasn't warranted, but I added it tentatively to the structure of cultivation I was building in my mind. "So…" I said sadly to Callie. "On a scale of one to ten how pissed are you I'm going to miss our honeymoon."

"One fucking MILLION!" She spat. "But not at you. If she wasn't a god…"

I laughed. "Yeah, but she is, and I'm too young to be a widower, so how about we don't shit talk the divine being who might still be nearby. I still have a week to finish the festival and say goodbye to everyone." I turned to Celia. "I assume you guys have a LEAD on the Lady of Lamentation's forces for me to follow, instead of just blindly showing up at a random event and hoping she decides to give me some responsibility."

"We do." She chuckled. "I consulted the Judgement Pope, hoping to get his support for this journey. He's given us a direction, and we were able to narrow down exactly where you need to go." She flicked her fingers, and a sphere of textured darkness appeared in front of her. "This is Rackham. A small planet at the edge of the Unity galaxy, near church territory. Unity is the youngest of the gods, and the least capable of policing his galaxy. We believe some sort of examination will be held there."

Chelsea, who had been unusually quiet since she arrived with Callie, looked drawn and upset. "This is bullshit." She echoed my wife, but her voice was weak. "Why would she send Shane. I could have done this, could have helped, and you could have enjoyed your honeymoon."

"Because I'm expendable." I shrugged. "She thinks you have potential, having her ability AND grandpa's is interesting to her. I'm just a candidate, and she won't lose anything if I die." Callie made a scared noise, and I smiled at her warmly. "Which I don't intend to do. She's underestimating me."

Probably. Or she genuinely didn't care. This little mission cost her nothing, and potentially gained her a lot of power. I honestly worried about giving her more power, but then I considered she was already a god and could kill me effortlessly. It would be like trying to lift a whale instead of an elephant as a mortal. It wasn't going anywhere either way.

"You really think so?" Asked Callie hesitantly. She could feel my relative certainty in my own abilities, mostly because I was projecting it at her so she wouldn't notice the crippling terror.

Oddly, under THAT I was kind of excited. Sure this was terrifying and kind of shitty, but it was also amazing. I was going to be going on a solo mission for pretty much the first time as an Ascendant. A solo mission as D-ranker. I would be able to keep in touch with Callie and my friends through the bond, but I'd be on my own. I could finally prove to myself what I was capable of.

Speaking of capabilities though, I turned my mind to my Path. Doom Sovereign had yielded new skills again on my rank up, and I'd been so busy I hadn't really had a chance to check them out. I figured that might distract my wife from her worrying, so I mentioned it to all the members of my family, and mom, Chelsea, and Callie seemed really excited to hear what I'd gotten.

First was a finishing blow. I got those every other rank, and I'd been quickly approaching one that I'd been waiting on for quite a while. Blood Curse. It was a nasty little Rogue trick that let me attach an attack to a sample of someone's blood and use it as a medium to attack them from a distance. It might not sound like a finisher, but it was particularly effective on sleeping targets, and nearly impossible to block (certain defensive abilities in the game could deflect it, and given how absurd Ascendant abilities could get real life was probably the same).

Next was a water based Monk ability called Dark Reflection, which bounced back spells at a certain level of power (usually weaker ones) and a very useful divination called Scent of Truth, which let me smell lies (it was exactly as weird as it sounded). Which really rounded out a lot of my skills. And of course, another poison skill called Creeping Darkness, which allowed me to use air as a medium for my corruption by literally poisoning parts of the sky.

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

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality, Blood Curse, Creeping Darkness

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

I noted with a wince I'd pretty much never used False Fatality, and that I now had a staff that did the same thing. It made sense the Monk and Rogue classes might overlap a bit, but it sucked knowing that I was letting abilities go to waste. I glance at my staff with interest. Maybe I could make a damage reflection form. It would be great mixed with Mornax, I put a pin in that for future consideration.

"So, as you can see, I have plenty of new tricks up my sleeves." I smirked. Then paused. "Speaking of, I need new sleeves. BS said I needed new gear for my 'new and improved' mask." I sneered, holding up the obsidian monstrosity that had become of my sleek and well crafted classic wooden mask.

"Oh hey." Callie said cheerfully. "It's the face in the mirror in all of my childhood nightmares. Dear gods, did she TRY to make it a waking nightmare?"

Celia snorted. "Knowing her, probably. And I wouldn't refer to my mother as 'BS' outside of current company. If it gets back to her she might turn you inside out in outrage. Or buy you a pony. You can never tell with her."

"Pass on both." I said bluntly. "I don't do horses. I don't trust any means of transportation that can think for itself."

My mother burst out laughing, and I raised a brow at her. She was gasping a little when she finally calmed down enough to talk. "I'm sorry. It's just most of the time you take after me or act like Ezekial, but now and then you do something so catastrophically ELI that it just sends me reeling. Your father used to say that exact thing, word for word."

I frowned, trying to remember when I'd started saying that and where I'd heard it. "Anyway." I said with a shake of my head. "I was going to ask. Since I'm going to be done, I was wondering if grandma could maybe help Callie out with training. If she wants I mean. If both of them want. I'd just feel a lot better knowing Callie was working with someone with a similar Path."

My grandmother chuckled. "An S-rank tutor for your new bride. You inherited your grandfather's flare for the dramatic. She's family, I would love to help. If she's interested. I was going to work with Chelsea a bit now anyway. Since she's no longer operating under restriction, I think it's time for her to learn how to wield the Enshrining Darkness."

Chelsea's head snapped up. "Wait…what? I thought that pass was just for this incident. I didn't even use my full powers anyway. We can still keep it secret."

"It's fine." Celia said with a laugh. "We've engaged directly with my mother. As long as we accomplish her request, her enmity will be dissolved. That won't be an easy task, but we're safe during the war in any case, so it's not like we're rushed. As for the new gear you need." She pursed her lips at me. "I can arrange that. This mission isn't related to the competition, so it shouldn't be a problem for me to pitch in. Plus I owe you twenty years of birthday presents."

It was odd, because this whole conversation had been so formal and she'd been so austere, but when she said that, it was like a dam broke. We all started laughing, and she smiled broadly, stepping forward to hug me, and then Chelsea, and then Callie.

Suddenly, this was a tent full of family for real, and it was amazing feeling so surrounded by warmth. I tried to savor the sensation, and would do the same throughout the festival. I had a feeling it would be kind of lonely on my own in enemy territory. I would make it though, and then I'd meet up with the others in time for the beginning of the candidate selection, whatever that may entail. If I had my way, this time next year I'd be the next wishmaster.