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

[BJJPanda]

He should trade soul healing from Benny

 

[Malcolm Tent]

He should trade soul healing from Benny

Click to shrink...

It's not actually a Skill sadly. It's an item that Benny is able to abuse through his ability.

 

[BJJPanda]

It's not actually a Skill sadly. It's an item that Benny is able to abuse through his ability.

Click to shrink...

But he can give out his attacks that come from items

 

[Malcolm Tent]

But he can give out his attacks that come from items

Click to shrink...

Oh I mean, he could probably give Spiritual Calming charges. But it's a relatively minor effect that works best held for a prolonged period of time. Not really designed for that like attacks or short term boosts. It's something to think on though.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next three months flew by. Constant combat training, soul training, and a consistent influx of rollover points mixed with some wishes had slowly sharpened and molded me. I'd spent a large amount of time working on my staff art, trying to fuse it to DS Mastery by creating unique staff moves that melded well with my subskills, to middling success, but I'd become much more skilled with my staff as a result.

At the moment, I found myself resting after a rough fight with Abel, panting and exhausted as I glared at my mentor. "Why can't I beat you?" I complained. "I keep getting stronger, but you keep being just that little bit out of reach."

He snickered. "You're not the only one getting stronger, kid. Not only do I have a bunch of stat points rolling in from that last battle same as you, I'm also fighting with you, Blake, Callie, Valk, and about a dozen other people pretty much every day. You're training and working on your soul and Skills. Learning to harness your Path, and any number of other things, all I do is fight until my knuckles crack."

"Freak." I said scathingly, though it probably would have been more biting if I wasn't collapsed in a puddle of my own
blood and sweat.

"I'm sorry." Abel said with a laugh, cupping an ear. "Did you say 'weak' because while you are pretty disappointing in combat I wouldn't go quite that far. I'm sure you can catch up eventually." He snickered at my glare. "Jokes aside kid, you're improving more quickly than most. I'm just extremely narrowly focused. Not to mention I have a lot of room to grow after recently breaking through to expert."

I groaned, but acknowledged the point, crawling across the sandy floor of the training hall to a bench with a towel and water bottle to wash and wipe down my face. I considered healing up with a heal burst, but I was running low, and my Vitality was pretty solid, so I felt like it would be better to just wait it out for the moment.

To ensure maximum training efficiency I'd taken to sparring without my armor. It didn't do much good against Abel anyway, since it wasn't particularly effective against blunt force. My mask too was sitting to one side, since wearing just the mask and normal clothes felt weird. Callie, who was lounging nearby, grinned at me. "That was pretty impressive. Your new staff technique is coming along well."

Chuckling, I pulled myself up onto the bench. "You say that, but your growth over the last few months has been absurd. Not quite as much as that first burst, but still, you've already hit the halfway point of F-rank. I'm scrambling to catch up as it is." Though her soul growth was only up to sixteen percent, the one department she couldn't quite keep up in.

She grinned proudly. "True. I AM pretty amazing. I'm so close to forming a Path, I can almost taste it. Though I don't think I'm likely to form a Solid Path like you have, at least not anytime soon."

"Killian says that's actually less useful in the early days. Makes it harder to use." I said with a shrug. "I've progressed pretty far with that theoretically, but he's seen people form a Solid Path early and get stuck because of it. People like you and Abel and Gabriel can use your path at will, while I have to try to align myself with it manually."

While Zeke was forbidden to help us too much, Killian had no such restrictions. Having an A-ranker around willing to answer questions (some questions at least, he claimed he couldn't tell us too much or it might fuck up our progress) was extremely convenient for our growth. Not to mention his son Blake had become a friend and a hell of a sparring partner.

Speaking of. "How's Benny been doing?" I gestured to where her fingers had slipped partway into the shadows, no doubt using them to keep an eye on all our friends. Callie tended to get bored and check in with everyone regularly. Benny, who had improved explosively under my nearly complete attention, had been working with some new gear and a massive bump in stats, trying to improve as the rest of us did.

His growth in the soul department was particularly impressive, having managed to grind his way up to twenty five percent of the way through orange by virtue of his Spiritual Calming belt. I'd grown a bit more than that, reaching fifty percent, but mostly because I was using my Solid Path to push me ahead.

According to Killain. Forming a Path was a necessary and important step, but most Paths started as Illusionary Paths. Illusionary Paths, like Abel's, Gabriel's, and Callie's, were much easier to use and alter, as well as being more intuitive. This particular step was considered integral to refining your path to be more closely aligned with your personality and combat style.

Solid Paths were the NEXT step in the process, creating a literal Skill for your Path. He refused to expand on the later steps of the process, saying it wasn't important, but the fact was I'd skipped some steps. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be a good thing. Instead of mapping my Path to my combat style, I was forced to map my combat style to my Path, slowly finding a way to bridge the gap and activate my Path as I fought.

The only saving grace was the my DS Mastery was my main combat Skill already, so I didn't have to completely reinvent the wheel, but I'd always used it more as a utility Skill, ignoring the underlying elements of the Fatewalker class in order to lean into my strengths. Now I was forced to learn how form a cohesive whole, and it was much harder than it would be for most people because I was feeling around in the dark instead of defining my own way.

Callie clicked her tongue. "Only you would be upset that you're somehow accidentally much further along than the rest of us. Sure you have to catch up to where you're at, but there are plenty of people who never take the step of forming an Illusionary Path, much less a Solid One. As long as you can figure out how to stick to that, you shouldn't have any problem advancing all the way to C-rank right?"

"Other than the obvious problem of actually GETTING there." I snorted. "Bit premature. Wishes are lagging behind in terms of stat buildup. I need to get my name out there the normal way too. The godslaying fight was a good start, but we all have a long way to go before we can even think about D-rank, let alone C-rank."

She leaned down to peck me on the cheek. "Can you try to enjoy yourself a bit please? All this hardcore training is making you a bit too results focused. You're missing the forest for the trees honey." Which was easy for her to say...but also fair.

I sighed. "You're right. I never wanted to become someone who cultivated just for the sake of getting stronger. I'm too wrapped up in accomplishing as much as possible. Luckily we should be approaching the Temple soon. I can relax now, because I won't be able to accomplish much before we arrive anyway."

"Close enough." She said with an eye roll. "Tell the others to slow down too. Not Abel, of course, since he's a lunatic, but the rest of the team has been hard at work following your example."

My wince at that was hard to hide. "They have been, haven't they." I sighed in frustration. "I didn't want to push them into overdoing it, I was just kind of worried. We're going to be pretty disadvantaged as it is. I know that we can't actually die in the temple but if something happens in there that wounds our souls..."

She took my hand, squeezing it gently. "I know, honey. But you've done everything you can, both individually and as a team leader. Everyone has seen how much you've been helping Benny. Celine says he's really started to buckle down. Even Cass has been trying to do her katas more rigorously because she thinks you've been so cool." She giggled at my grimace. "It's cute. Jessie's been patching her and Cark is making sure she doesn't go too far."

"I guess." I said with a sigh. "But you're right. We need to make sure everyone calms down to relax a bit. Proper rest is a key aspect of growth too, something I should probably have thought of earlier. Jessie's lifeforce can only do so much for us. How long until we get there?"

"A week." She said matter of factly. "The traffic as we approach the Temple is pretty dense apparently. Killian said he didn't expect to run into this many obstructions. In any case, as to your earlier question..." She winced. "Benny isn't doing great. He's training with Blake right now, and we all know how that ends."

That made me wince as well. Blake was Killian's son, and had inherited the Zayne family soul stitching method. He used, like I was told Killian did (I'd never seen the older man fight) ghost binding techniques. Like Zeke had sniped at Killian, they had some downsides relative to Zeke's Voltomancy, but it was essentially a quantity for quality exchange. Fighting an army of high F-ranked ghosts was obnoxious and painful.

"Well, he can heal up and come find us when he's done." I said with a shrug. "I think since we're getting close we should do like a team movie night."

She smiled sweetly. "Sounds like fun. I'll gather everybody. I think Cark took Cass to the entertainment district. We barely managed to get her to stop practicing." She turned to glare at Abel. "Which we all blame you for, Abel!" He just flipped her off and went back to doing cool down pushups.

"Ignore him." I said with a laugh. "Just tell her I'll make Pepper jack mac and cheese tonight. It's her favorite, so it should be plenty of motivation to sit still and watch a movie. Although, do we have anything good?"

Her shrug was carefree. "I'm sure one of us has something from the can box saved to a ring we can watch. If not, Cass probably saved some of her cartoons. If nothing else it'll be hilarious seeing Celine have to sit through them. She seems like the type to dislike childish antics."

Despite the teasing I knew she didn't want to really upset Celine. The two of them had gotten much closer during the time we'd been here, along with Nat, they were basically always together. Nat who had been working with Celine constantly helping her keep up with Benny. Our elven friend was writing a lot of checks her family would need to cash, which I thought was pretty hilarious.

Standing up, I helped Callie to her feet, turning to the still exercising Abel. "Hey, quit the cardio and come on, we're doing a movie. Callie already reached out to everyone." Her shadow abilities were particularly useful for carrying messages around the ship, since she could either drop off written noted or pass her mouth through to shout.

I mentioned to her as we left to invite Blake too, and Annalise if she could find her, our friends could use the downtime too. It had been a hard few months, but now that we were coming up on the end of the journey, I couldn't wait to show what I'd accomplished. We'd all gotten stronger, and those assholes at the Ruined Soul Temple would never see us coming. After killing a god, I wasn't even scared of meeting an F-rank master. We were going to train our souls to the limit and win some of those rewards, and nothing they could do would stop us.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Benny!" I greeted my best friend as he finally made he way into the manor we were staying in. "How was training?" Killian had lent it to use as our traveling accommodations, and everyone had long since gotten used to it. Callie and I were laid out on the couch waiting for everyone to get back before picking a movie, and my friend groaned and tiredly dropped into a seat nearby as he arrived.

"Painful." He said with a grimace. "But useful. Between the considerable help you've given me over the last few months and my new piece of tech, I put up a much better fight."

Callie hummed with interest. "What are your stats actually at by the way? You've been pretty secretive about the whole thing. Even Celine doesn't know. Granted, she told me she hasn't told you hers either, but that's just retaliation for being so secretive."

He shrugged. "I've been avoiding saying anything because it feels like I'll stop making progress if I talk about it. I know it's stupid, but it's like a hot streak or something. Secrecy is my lucky underwear. If we're going to slow down on training for the remainder though, might as well tell everyone. Once Cel gets here I'll share my progress, as long as you guys do the same."

We both agreed, since it wouldn't be a bad thing to let people know where we were. Some of our team members weren't at the point where they were comfortable sharing that stuff, but Jessie, Callie, Benny, and I didn't have much to hide. Probably had something to do with the drastically different environment we'd come up in compared to the others, plus the speed. Honestly whatever we shared would be out of date in a month or two anyway.

Celine, Nat, Perit, Valk, Abel, Cark, Cass and the whole rest of the team showed up, and once we all settled in, we decided to show off how awesome we were before the movie. Benny, being the one of us with the biggest change recently, went first.

Benicio Cortez- F-rank. Ability: Intermediate Mechanical Embodiment- Allows the integration of existing inventions into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them.

Might-1405
Impact-35
Fantasy-56
Vitality-141
Focus-1683
Perception-282
Creation-171
Progress to next rank: 3773/10000

soul strength: Orange 25%

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current integrated tech. 10/10. Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts. 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. 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. Heart: Illusionary double

Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Intermediate Inventing Mastery, Minor Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

Everyone just stared in shock at the numbers. I grinned, buffing my fingernails on my shirt and then blowing them clean. "After the big jump from the godslaying incident, I can do seven points per wish now. Twenty two hundred of my three thousand seven hundred and eighty total points for the last few months went to Benny. We didn't just put them into his mains either, though most of them went there. Two hundred of it was rollover from the battle, but he didn't get quite as much attention as the rest of us."

Benny grinned. "Plus my new heart device which lets me create an illusionary double. It's twice as effective because the double is technically me, which means it can access my abilities despite not being corporeal. The spider legs have physical presence because they're an effect, which means some interesting possible combinations."

Callie whistled. "Damn, you really have been putting the work in Shane." She raised an eyebrow at my friend. "The invention is neat, but it's not really the same amount of effort." He rolled his eyes and flipped her off, and she just snickered, before turning to the rest of us. "As you know, I've been making steady gains since the battle, and I've hit the halfway point, though it's starting to slow down."

Calliope Reynolds F-rank 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-1250
Impact-35
Vitality-342
Fantasy-1105
Focus-108
Perception-1875
Creation-485
Progress to next rank: 5200/1000

Soul strength- Orange-16%
Pet-Wolf named Rellia

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

"Well...a bit over half." She admitted cheerfully. "Most of it went to Perception though. My Might gains were mostly from people who were there, my stealth and Perception abilities got hyped a lot in the aftermath, apparently people are making it sound like a backstab." She didn't sound particularly upset about that, which I could understand given her truly ridiculous gains.

"Guess it's my turn then." I said with a grin. "While twenty two hundred of the wish points went to Benny, I also spent a portion of the time doing point rebalancing for some of the other people on the ship, resulting in a substantial gain for me."

Wishmaster candidate status. F-rank. Ability: Intermediate Wish- Six times a day grant an Intermediate 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.

Might-975
Impact-35
Fantasy-500
Vitality-720
Focus-720
Perception-704
Creation-260
Progress to next rank:3914/10000
Soul strength Orange-50%

Stored:7 shadow attacks, 7 shadow jump, 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 triple strength density shifted attacks (ten in reserve). 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 4 heal bursts, 4 gravity attacks, 3 shadow clone, 21 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Pet- Wolf named Jin

Skills:Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign, Minor Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Lesser Balam Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery,Lesser Paired Dueling

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

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rythym of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense

"Fifteen hundred and eighty points from that, and another five hundred from the battle over time." I said smugly. "Not to mention all the soul training from working on my Path, which has put me up to a full fifty percent. Callie may be way ahead on stats, but I'm not exactly being left in the dust." I was damned proud of my progress actually. Though it made me wonder about our last original team member. "How about you Jessie?"

She shrugged. "The complete Vitality focus left a big impression. I got about a thousand off the battle in the last few months. Plus about five hundred rollover from the Bond with Randall. My soul is up to about eighteen percent now."

Jessica Evans- F-rank. Ability: Intermediate Lifeweaving- Infuse living things with life itself and direct their actions while the users power flows through them. Control had limited effect on sapient entities. Prolonged exposure to life energy may cause lasting effects in controlled subjects.

Might-875
Impact-35
Fantasy-78
Vitality-2292
Focus-55
Perception-65
Creation-58

Progress to next rank: 3458/10000

Pet- Wolf named Lily and bear named Randall(Beginner Beast Bonding with Jessie)

soul strength: Orange- 18%

Skills: Beginner Horticulture,Beginner First Aid, Minor Herbalism, Minor Flower Arrangement, Minor Beast Taming Mastery, Beginner Beast Bonding, Intermediate Shape of the Wild

I whistled. "Benefits of hyperfocusing. That Bond is kind of bullshit too. Still, barring our resident godslayer, we're all pretty similarly far along. I admit I expected Jessie to lag a bit, I was planning to dedicate some wishes to boosting her for a while, but it seems like that won't be necessary."

She nodded. "Might from Randall aside, I'm WAY overpowered as a healer for my level, which makes a big impression. I'm not surprised a lot of those people I saved were talking about it. I've also spent the last month healing everyone who needs it on the ship, so there's been some renown from that too. Probably not much but you know what they say, ABH, always be healing."

"No one says that." Said Benny with an eyeroll.

Jessie grinned at him cheekily. "Well they'd better start if they want me to heal them next time they get their teeth kicked in by an army of ghosts." He gave conciliatory shrug at that, and the rest of us laughed. "Now I believe there was some talk of a movie being chosen?"

Cass, who had been unusually quiet (practicing her damned katas again) began to bounce with excitement. "Oooh! Let me pick!"

"No." Said Cark shortly, glaring around at all of us. Despite Cass being like a little sister to the whole team (I'd even caught Nat sneaking her candy a few times) she was Cark's ACTUAL sister, and we deferred to him when it came to making decisions for her.

"I think I should pick." Said Callie loftily. "I AM the strongest F-ranker in the group."

"In terms of stats." I said with a scoff. "I have the strongest soul." Abel cleared his throat and I rolled my eyes. "Or whatever. You know what I mean. You don't count, you're a monster."

Benny groaned. "Oh gods, can we just take a vote please? Everyone's submission counts for the same amount. Otherwise we'd have to just let Zeke pick." He shuddered. "Which would be a tragedy. He has absolutely terrible taste in movies." He glanced at me for backup. "Remember that six hour romcom marathon when we were eleven?"

I ALSO shuddered. "I don't think it was possible for me to forget that BEFORE I had seven hundred plus Focus. Voting is better."

"I like romcoms." Said Callie in an affronted voice. "They're not so bad."

Shaking my head, I corrected her emphatically. "Except he doesn't watch regular romcoms. He watches THEMED romcoms. Zombies and werewolves and aliens and shit. The production values are always awful and the writing is trash. I have no clue where he even finds them. I've never heard of half the movies I was forced to watch growing up anywhere else. It's like he conjures them or something." I shot him a suspicious look.

He just grinned. "I don't. Nor are they wish based or anything. I just have a pretty decent sized collection. Granted they're in an alternate format, so I had to have them converted into scan files, but it was all worth it. Besides, it's not my fault anyway. Your mother was the one who got me into those. Eli hated them, but Sasha would force him to watch them every time we had a movie night."

The geas didn't activate, presumably because that bit of info wasn't related to cultivation. Still, I ate up every syllable. I just couldn't picture my ice cold dad being bullied into watching bad movies. That sounded like something Callie would convince me to do. What had my parents relationship been like? I always envisioned it as like a marriage of convenience or something. Mom had left when I was too young to form many memories, so I hadn't seen them together.

It was just another in the long list of questions I had for my mom about why she left us. About why she took my sister away. I was getting really sick and tired of being in the dark about my own life. I tensed for a minute, but then forced myself to relax and enjoy the bickering from my family. I would find out the truth soon enough, for now I should live my life as it was now. No use dwelling on the past when I couldn't get the answers I wanted until later.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The movie night was a huge success. Granted, not because we found a good movie, but more because Benny (who had won the vote) had picked a terrible movie and we all spent the whole time mocking both it and him mercilessly. Even Celine got a few jabs in, and my best friend swore vengeance on all of us, saying he wold similarly excorciate or own taste when it was his turn.

And like that we decided to do seven movie nights, one for each day we had left before reaching the Temple. The next morning, I actually tracked down my Uncle in one of the entertainment districts to ask him a bit about where the Ruined Soul Temple was and what the situation there was.

Zeke had been around since we got here, but he was mostly keeping back. I think he was feeling guilty about not mentioning my sister. I still hadn't really brought that up, or even talked to him much one on one, because I knew deep down he'd have told me if he could. Asking him about it was only going to hurt him, and Zeke was the one person who had never bailed on me, regardless of the reasoning.

Despite knowing he was bound to me, I think part of me was terrified if I ever pushed him on things I'd lose him too. I almost never really dug in when I got mad at anyone, honestly. Losing my parents like I had made it way too scary to strain my relationships. It was clearly simple for people to leave me, and I couldn't take the thought of more loss. That was something I was working on, but I think even if it wasn't the case I wouldn't have called him on the omission. It wasn't his fault.

So, avoiding the elephant in the room, I plopped down across from him. I didn't bother with niceties, figuring the distraction of an actual conversation was better than awkward stammering. "So, I was curious about something. I wondered about it in the dungeon, first off, had you heard of Suvaya?"

He blew out a breath. "Nope. She was before my time. The vanished gods were gone long before I came on the scene."
"Fair. But she mentioned the six. I thought Unity was pretty young for a god." Honestly, part of me wished he hadn't been involved. We'd never really asked, but I'd always felt like the Conglomerate was just that little bit better than the other factions. Even having seen the nonsense politics and the corruption, part of me wanted to believe there were real heroes there.

"He is." Said Zeke. "Only about a thousand. I'm not familiar with Suvaya, but based on the timeline Unity wasn't there when they took her out. It was Hatescream. I wasn't around for it, but I knew people who were. Hatescream was the leader of the Blood Murder Palace, he was the fifth member of the alliance before Unity came on the scene."
I grimaced. "Blood Muder Palace? They sound like fun guys to have at a party."

"They shouldn't." Said Zeke dryly. "They were dicks. Like...all of them. Hatescream tried to install sleepers in all the other factions, presumably to eventually stage a coup and wipe them out. Clearly it didn't work, the others found out and he got killed. The Palace got wiped out after that from what I heard, though one of them pops up now and then to be a nuisance."

That was...kind of a relief. Not that terrifying murder cult that apparently used to be one of the major factions of my universe, but the fact that Unity hadn't been one of the six at the time. My ancestor still had, but then, I'd always known the WCP was morally ambiguous at best. Knowing the Conglomerate hadn't been part of that was a weirdly huge relief.
"Anyway." I said, happy with my answer and ready to change the subject. "We're a week out from the Temple. Where is it by the way?"

He chuckled, taking a pull of his beer. "No man's land. It's a small system stuck in the middle of the territories of four of the factions. The Cult, Church, Fairyland and Empire surround it, so no one faction has too much influence. As a consequences, the entire system is kind of a horrifying free for all of bandits, space pirates, and criminals who have escaped all the other territories. They leave the Temple itself alone, of course, so they don't give everyone else a reason to clean the place out."

"So...should we be worried about that? Are we in no man's land yet?" I hadn't considered we might get attacked in this ship. It was owned by an A-ranker after all, but hearing we were in some kind of lawless wasteland wasn't super comforting.

He shrugged. "Probably? Who knows. There are bandits that might try it, depends if we run into them. We're just inside the limit of no man's land, so it's possible. Most of the time I'd say we were safe, but the trials will have attracted a ton of factions large and small, chances are good that includes more dangerous bandits hoping to try their luck."

"And you guys can...handle that, right?" He didn't SEEM worried, but there was a non zero chance that Zeke wasn't capable of feeling personal fear anymore. I'd never seen him show any evidence of it, so I decided to operate on the assumption that he just didn't worry about his own mortality at all.

His shrug this time came with a wolfish. "Probably. Who knows?" He repeated. At my glare, he rolled his eyes. "Listen, don't worry about that kind of stuff."

"Why?" I said hopefully. "Because you guys have it under control?"

"Nah." He snickered. "Because if something comes along that can kill us there's nothing you could do about it anyway. No sense stressing for no reason."

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Thanks Zeke. That's comforting." I'd been expecting something a bit more reassuring.

"Look kid." Said my uncle with a sigh. "Let me tell you a secret that all Ascendants learn eventually. It's not cultivation based exactly, so I can share without repercussions, but this is a truth you'll need to accept if you want to make it in very far. Don't worry about it."

I blinked at him. "That was a lot of build up just to change your mind and rug pull me."

He rolled his eyes. "No, idiot. Don't worry about it IS the advice. Between abilities, recursion, fate sense, monsters, objects, and just random assholes doing random asshole things, our entire world is a dumpster fire of unrelenting chaos. The universe is a twenty way intersection interspersed with train tracks with no stoplights, where all the cars are made of explosives and the only speed limit is 'floor it'. If you don't learn to roll with the punches you're going to go crazy."

"So I just...what?" I said. "Accept that I could die at any second? That my friends could die at any second? What kind of life is that?"

His look made it clear he thought I was an idiot for even saying that. "Does not accepting it change anything? A random S-rank piece of space junk could punch through the hull of this ship and smash your head clean off right this second and you'd never see it coming. Does that mean it's something you should worry about? Just take things as they come, because constantly asking what if accomplishes nothing."

That actually made WAY too much sense. I'd always gotten a sort of 'devil may care vibe' from my uncle. Not like he didn't care about ME, but like everything that happened he took with the sort of casual nonchalance you would expect from someone who got slightly less than the full pound of cheese they paid for at the supermarket.

But learning about his little philosophy explained a LOT. No wonder he never seemed to freak out about anything. Because he was right, crazy shit happened to Ascendants all the time, if you got thrown by everything weird you stumbled on you'd have a nervous breakdown. Hell, worrying about what could go wrong would be a full time job.

Hell, in some ways I'd kind of already stumbled on this little pearl of wisdom on my own. I'd been trying to live in the now and not worry so much about the future for a while, I just hadn't really put it into those exact words. I could understand his point, but I honestly felt like he might be kind of overdoing it with the devil may care attitude. "Ok then." I said with an annoyed hiss. "Then when, exactly am I ALLOWED to worry. Because you can't just completely ignore all your problems can you?"

"Of course not." He said calmly. "I said take them as they come, not ignore them completely. Stay loose, keep on your toes, be ready to react to anything. It's a cultivated mind set, no pun intended. Like the ship, don't worry about whether we'll get attacked, there's people lined up to deal with that kind of thing. It's above your paygrade, so just don't worry about it."

"Like I asked earlier." I repeated. "When do I start worrying? What grand sign do I wait for that tells me that it's officially time for me to start giving a shit about my own survival." I was getting frustrated by his casual dismissal of my concerns. I understood the concept, but it was annoying to talk to someone who essentially just told you to blow everything off.

He started to shrug again, but pitched sideways suddenly, eyes narrowing with annoyance as the floor, no, the BUILDING under us rolled below our feet. He glanced down at his beer, which had spilled while he was distracted, and growled in annoyance as he put it down, sucking on his shirt so as not to waste the alcohol.

I stared at him, eyes wide in fear, and he grinned back at me, glancing up towards the ceiling. "Well, I don't know about you, but I kind of feel like THAT might have been the sort sign you were thinking of." Standing up, he offered me a hand up from where I'd been thrown against the side of the booth. "Here, come with me. Seems like we might have company on this little trip."

"And what?" I demanded, batting his hand aside to stand on my own. "You want to show them to me so I can die terrified?"

Rolling his eyes, he started out the door. "No, moron. I want to show you that worrying accomplishes nothing. If the sky falls, someone will be there to catch it. Us being attacked isn't your problem, it's Killian's and to an extent mine. So I'm going to escort you to the observation deck so you can watch us take care of business, and then maybe you can calm the hell down a bit."

"I've seen you fight before." I said with a scowl as I followed after him. "It was plenty scary, but that doesn't mean you can handle everything."

"You've seen me play around." He sneered. "Those were chump change B-rankers with almost no battle experience. I'm near the peak of B-rank kid, I can fight fucking A-rankers, and have done a time or two. You need to see a real battle between your old uncle here and some heavy hitters so you can stop underestimating me and relax."

I wasn't entirely sure he was right about that, but as we bolted through the ship toward wherever he was taking us, I had to admit I didn't care that much. I was going to see a real high ranking battle...in space. Whatever his reasoning for showing it to me I'd be an idiot to pass up the chance. I was currently scared out of my wits about the attack, but at the same time I couldn't stop my heart from pounding in anticipation. This was going to be good.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Apparently the others had noticed the huge influx of people bolting for the observation deck, because they fell into step with me as I ran. Zeke was with me, but while he was definitely moving at running SPEED, I noticed at a second glance that he was mostly just strolling with purpose.

Benny was the first person to catch up, with Callie on his heels, though neither of them was going at top speed obviously. "What the hell is going on?" Asked my best friend in a bewildered tone. "Did we hit turbulence or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "We're in space, dipshit. Turbulence is like...air currents or something. There's no air in space."

"There's no air in your skull." He grumbled. "No brain either."

I sneered at him. "Brutal comeback. You've clearly been secretly developing a repartee Skill."

"You're both equally morons." Said Callie helpfully. "Now can you please focus and tell us what's happening? Because if we're sprinting across this damned ship for no reason I'm going to kick someone in the throat." I snickered at her exasperation. She didn't really begrudge us our bickering, she just felt like she needed to keep us on task.

So I filled them in on what I knew about no man's land and how Zeke said we were probably getting attacked. Callie glared at my uncle. "You couldn't have TOLD us this before?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, not really relevant. At least until it was. Can't spend all your time worrying about what might happen." Finally we arrived at...the sky? But not the sky, a wall that looked like the sky. The edge of the section of the ship that looked like it was outdoors. Zeke help up a hand and pressed it against the wall, and a panel slid open, letting is into a large open metal hallway. This was the portion of the ship that was actually shiplike, and we'd never even been in here. "Follow the hall that way." He said, pointing to the left. "I have to go check in with Kill."

Then he was gone. Nice to know what it looked like when Zeke actually hurried. We followed his directions, and came out in a massive domed chamber where the rest of our friends and associates were waiting. "You guys!" Called Jessie, waving us over. "Glad you made it so quick. Blake was about to come look for you."

She gestured at our host's son, who cheerfully mirrored her earlier wave. I nodded back. "Ok, so Zeke said we were under attack and sent us here to the...observation deck? What actually is this place?"

Blake pointed to the wall, where I could see a shitload of stars. "Ok, so this is an A-ranked ship. I'm sure you noticed, of course, that you aren't being smashed into paste standing inside it. That's because the Impact is all being routed to various enchantments. Defensive runes, quality of life stuff, there's a whole industry for shipbuilding. Interspersed throughout the bindings engraved on every inch of the ship are millions of Perception runes, which aside from doing various tasks are also connected to this room, creating a complete 360 degree image of the space outside, though obviously not to scale."

Looking around, I saw that the dome DID have images of space on it. Lots of space, tons of tiny stars showing the area around us. Blake led us over to one of the walls after spotting movement and drew a circle before tapping it. The area inside the circle zoomed in, showing a pair of men in large grey cloaks holding bows, with a huge man standing behind them rippling with muscle, his face completely covered by a black metal helm shaped like a skull.

"Shit." Cursed Blake. "Those assholes shouldn't have messed with us." At our look, he pointed at the brothers. "Those are Valak and Carus Brightwind. Exiled A-rank elven archers from the Faerie Land. They lurk around here and hit ships as they pass by, but they shouldn't hit something as big as the Necromedes. The Zayne Clan is way out of their weight class." He pulled up a screen on his scan ring, flipping through a bunch of images.

"Ah, damn it." He threw the image he'd stopped on, projecting it up next to the circle. "That would be the reason they're willing to pick this fight. Archers aren't great at up close combat, and at A-rank that can be a long distance. That guy with them is Fabian Rayner, captain of Bone Ghost Pirates. Which means there's probably more of them around here."

Before he could go on, a booming voice rolled over the observation room. "Can you idiots not?" Asked the lazy drawl of my uncle. Blake drew another circle, and zoomed in to find Zeke and Killian standing on another asteroid, looking relaxed next to a short older man with tanned skin and black hair going grey at the temples.

"Oh shit!" Said Blake, flinching back from the image. "Grandpa sent Great Uncle Miles?" At our looks of confusion, he explained. "My Grandpa's brother is the closest person in the family to S-rank. Grandpa founded the clan, but he didn't do it alone. Great Uncle Miles is his brother and right hand, and he's in the high A-ranks. Rayner is strong, according to this but not as strong as Miles."

The skull masked figure let out a loud, rumbling laugh. "Miles Zayne." He boomed. I wasn't sure how we could even hear any of this. I guessed they were projecting their voices somehow to be heard through the vacuum of space. High level Ascendant bullshit probably. "They sending you on babysitting missions now?"

A calm, measured voice rolled across the room, somehow quiet despite its absurd volume. "Shouldn't matter, Rayner. Not if you have the sense the gods gave a rock. Who gave you the guts to try to pick a fight with a Zayne family ship? And with just a pair of ragtag point ear stick flingers?"

Rayner spread his arms wide. "And who exactly told you I JUST brought the Brightwinds?" The air behind Miles, Zeke, and Killian blurred, and a shadowy figure flashed forward, driving a dagger at my Uncle's back. A ghostly outline faded into being behind him, the form of a spectral knight, and the fire smashed into and through it. When the figure hit Zeke though, the weakest of the group, it passed right through him.

Miles hand went to his belt, drawing a sword, and a dozen ghostly blades formed around him, all superimposing on the black cleaver like monstrosity in his hand as he hacked at the shadow. There was a flicker and the figure vanished, appearing next to the skull masked pirate, holding an arm lashed open with the spectrally imbued sword.

Zeke, who was fine and not where he'd been standing a second ago, just laughed. "Morons. First rule of fighting up ranks is make sure you're never where it looks like you are. Did you idiots really think I'd just stand there to get backstabbed?"

The injured figure stepped forward, revealing a black robed man with a shining golden humanoid mask. "How did you sense me?" He hissed, his voice blasting through the room like the rustle of dead leaves over gravestones. "I should have been undetectable to a B-ranker, not to mention no illusion you made should have been that effective." He sneered Zeke's rank like it was an insult.

"Well you see, what I did was..." Zeke paused. "Oh wait, I'm not a fucking moron, so I'm not going to tell you that." Snapping his fingers, a bag appeared, and he dropped it on the asteroid, unzipping it and flicking his fingers. Ten masks rose out of the bag as he withdrew a robe, each coalescing into an identical robed figure as Zeke removed and eleventh mask and place it on his face.

The eleven figures were all completely indistinguishable from each other, and with another snap, they all vanished except the one who had been standing by the bag. Killian snickered. "Man, I don't envy you morons. I hate fighting Zeke. You never know which way is up. Even across a rank gap this is gonna be a bad time for you."

One of the archers stepped forward. Carus I think. "I'll take care of the gnat with the masks. Can the three of you handle the other two?"

His brother drew an arrow. "I've got the ghostling. You two can handle the old man together, can't you?" They didn't seem worried about being overheard, or maybe this weird projection speech only had one setting. I still had no clue how they were speaking audibly in space. Or breathing for that matter. Although I could hold my breath for a long time, so chances were good they could too. Maybe it was some kind of psychic speech.

Rayner nodded. "Miles is a tricky bastard, but Krian and I should be able to handle him two on one. He's not that much stronger than I am, and I have my own tricks."

That got a snort from Miles. "Rayner, I always heard you were Might focused, but with an imagination like that your Fantasy stat must be through the roof." He hefted his massive black cleaver sword over his shoulder, with a grin. The colossal blade was a jagged squared off hunk of dark sharpened metal lashed to a huge bone. It had a sort of awful necromantic beauty to it even without the glow from the inhabiting ghost blades.

Killing cracked his neck with a grin. "Whoever finishes first comes to help Uncle Miles. Or Zeke." He called over to the lone remaining figure. "Try not to die out there buddy."

Zeke snorted. "The day I'm in danger from some scumbag pretty boy elf with shooty shooty powers is the day I hang up my masks. Honestly, a bow? That's barely even a weapon. Might as well fling literal shit at me. How much do those arrows even cost? Because if they're A-rank they must be obscenely expensive."

Carus's face was turning purple with rage. Benny whistled next to me. "Damn Shane, no wonder you're so good at annoying people in combat. You came by that shit honest."

I snickered. "I still have a ways to go to reach that level. But hey, at least I have good examples both on and off the battlefield." He flipped me off but didn't take his eyes off the display, which was fair. Mine were glued to it too. I was actually torn between my excitement and worry for my uncle.

I'd seen people fight up ranks before. I knew percentage wise the difference in stats between someone at Zeke's level and the archer's was minimal, but still, it was a big Impact difference.

But as I stared at the screen, I paused. Why did Zeke have ten masks? I could have sworn back on Callus in the tournament he'd only had eight. Those last two (not to mention the one he was wearing, which I guess he hadn't needed before) must be newly made from the souls of those two bishops. One of them presumably had the conceptual dark skill the cult members seemed to love. I wasn't sure if it was the actual Enshrining Darkness ability Black Sorrow used or some kind of knock off, but it was damned powerful either way.

As Zeke bantered taunted the archer, I let my tense body relax. The excitement was still there, but the worry was washing away in the face of my uncle's confidence. If he was sure he could beat this guy I'd believe him. Besides, this was all just basic shit, I hadn't even seen any of them use their paths yet. Whatever was going to happen in this fight, I doubted it would be anything I was expecting. I'd just have to wait and see how it turned out. However that was, I was pretty sure I was about to see something amazing.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I watched in fascination as Zeke vanished from where he was standing. Seconds later, I saw him reappear some distance away as a massive arrow of light smashed into and vaporized the asteroid he'd been standing on. Miles and Killian had already moved to engage their own opponents, and I realized this view screen wasn't going to be good enough if we kept trying to watch everything.

"Can we make one of these circles just for Zeke?" I asked Blake. "I know you probably want to watch your dad and great uncle, but I want to see what my own uncle can do." I also wanted to make sure he didn't die horribly, but it seemed like a jinx to say it out loud.

He blinked at me. "Oh. Yeah, sorry. These are viewing portals. Watching A-rankers fight in real time is pretty much impossible, but the ship is A-rank and can keep up. It lets you watch as everything is happening. It's...my dad explained it, not slow motion, more like a kind of embedded imagery enchantment. In computer terms, you're watching normal frames per second, but each frame is a zip folder with a hundred images."

That was useful to know, but not as important as being able to watch Zeke. Blake, seeing my impatience, made another circle with his finger pushing it off to the side so we could go watch in private. He stayed behind, presumably to watch his Great Uncle Miles fight the other two. Meanwhile, when I resumed watching Zeke, I arrived just in time to catch him talking again.

"You know." He said conversationally as he poked a chunk of asteroid that floated by. "You might want to look into glasses. Eye strain can be a huge problem. Especially for snooty ass elves who have to constantly squint down at people from their high horse."

The end of the sentence was picked up by another chorus of voices as the ten other masked figures flickered into existence on nearby smaller floating space rocks.

Carus glared at them. "I don't know how you're doing that gnat, but mirroring your aura across all ten of those puppets won't save you. If I can't hit your copies one at a time with a single shot..." He trailed off, drawing the tall silver bow back slowly. Along its length, eleven lines of light coalesced, the points glowing like stars as Carus's eyes flickered. "I'll hit you all at once."

There was a ripple in the void around us as he spoke, his voice heavy and alien in a way I'd never experienced before. I knew without asking what this was. This was a Solid Path, at least. Probably one or two levels past that. Whatever that even was.

He released the string, and an explosive scramble of shooting stars spread out and smashed into every one of Zeke's clones, so fast that even through the weird slow motion of the viewing portals it was almost too quick to see. There was a deafening explosion and the forms of the masked figures were consumed in a conflagration of white light.

"Tsk. How gauche." Drawled my uncle's snide voice. "We were having such a nice talk. No wonder the elves kicked you and your brother out. Short tempers are a no-no for them. At least that's what my friend Alessa told me back when she ran with our little group."

Carus snarled loudly, spinning in place, clearly looking for my uncle. There was a flash of black as two of the masked figures appeared on either side of him and raised their hands. A storm of horrible conceptual dark shot through with red lightning consumed the elf, who screamed in pain. There was a series of arrows blasting free, tearing holes in the power, and it faded as the two figures vanished again.

I knew how Zeke was doing this, roughly. His mask didn't use stealth, it was an illusion effect. Probably enhanced by some other abilities, but regardless, Perception might not help as much here. The slightly ruffled and enraged elf was revealed as the darkness fell away. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" He screamed furiously. "Show yourself coward!"

Two more figures appeared, one yanking off his mask and throwing it at another. The mask slapped down on top of the first, a now bare faced Zeke vanishing as the mask glowed red, the two of them seeming to melt together. The figure gestured and the black chains we'd seen on Callus shot up, but this time the black was different. Like they were MADE of Enshrining Darkness.

Another pair of them appeared, one slapping its mask onto another as its robes fell to the rock below empty, no longer animated without a mask. The figure manifested the giant bow and arrow we'd seen him use against the bishops, but it was reinforced with red lightning. Zeke appeared next to it, smirking under his hood as he winked at the the elf. "How ironic is it that I'm going to kill you with archery?"

"That's not IRONY!" Howled the elf. "It's just a coincidence!" Zeke shrugged, snapping his fingers as a massive arrow made of red electricity barreled toward the elf. The archers eyes blazed with light again as he called his Path forward again, managing to draw his bow even with the chains taught, albeit just a bit.

A blinding arrow of light sheared through the chains and slammed into the asteroid below him, dropping him out from under the attack and into space. His foot came down as he stepped on starlight, vanishing and appearing on the other side of where Zeke and his masked alters were. He drew his bow again, a dozen arrows flashing toward my uncle, who threw up the same defensive barrier from the tournament before vanishing.

Carus was livid. "Why won't you just DIE!?" He screamed at the top of his lungs. Several places where the chains had touched his skin was blistered and cracked and his eyes were wild with pain and fear.

"Oooh, sorry!" Echoed nearly a dozen simultaneous voices. "We're all out of 'just die', perhaps I could interest you in some 'go fuck yourself'?"

The elf let a scream of incoherent rage and his hands blurred, a cosmic river of star tipped arrows blanketing the area around him. The various asteroids were reduced to powder as waves of white light consumed every inch of space within miles of the enraged A-ranker.

"That seemed uncomfortable." Noted the voice dryly. "Maybe it was something you ate?" This time, the voice was accompanied by all eleven of the figures appearing around the archer. Their hands came up, and a series of abilities harmonized together, condensing into a dark prison. A coffin like cube of dark energy manifested around the archer, red lightning playing over the prison as black chains wrapped it up securely.

Above the chain coffin, a massive bow, shining with that sharp yellow glow from last time and covered in purifying white flames. One of the figures stepped back, crossing their arms, and I saw that it was Zeke, the actual Zeke and not a copy, stroking his chin. "Is this derivative?" Then he shrugged. "Whatever, who doesn't love magic." He snapped his fingers ten times times and the bow released its arrow, redrawing and reorienting with each snap until the dark box was full of arrows.

The box began to shake unstably as the crackling red electricity built, and Zeke's eyes went wide. "Oh shit." He kicked off the empty space below him retreating fast and far enough to be clear of the blast radius when the box fucking EXPLODED in a conflagration of confusing conflicted energies.

"Huh." He said with interest. "I guess THAT'S what happens when you mix Enshrining Darkness and the Flames of Purification. Good to know. I wonder how much the other abilities amplified it though?" He was so distracted talking to himself he missed the white starlight arrow that sped out of the explosion and speared him through the chest. Zeke's eyes went wide and he stared down at the arrow, blood leaking from his lips. "Ok. Didn't see that coming."

"FINALLY!" Shrieked a livid voice from the dispersing cloud of energy. "You FINALLY shut up!" The archer looked...bad. Burns, bloody holes, but all of it was closing, albeit slowly. "I admit." Spat the enraged elf. "For a gnat, that was actually mildly alarming. But it takes more then that to kill an A-ranker, boy."

A pair of figures appeared on either side of my uncle, each grabbing an elbow. The same dark energy shield flashed into existence around the three of them, albeit not quite as close in. Zeke looked...bad. Blood was leaking from his mouth like a faucet, and his face was pale. His eyelids were fluttering weakly as if he could barely stay up, and I felt an icy claw of terror grip my heart.

"Damn." He burbled. "Really thought that would do it. I put a lot of power into that attack."

"Power?" Mocked the elf with a greasy sneer. "There wasn't even a Path in those blows. Is this the standard of a B-ranker from a major faction? I'd at least heard of you before, so I figured you might be worth something. It seems the other forces are just easily impressed."

My uncle actually looked offended at that. "Oh sure, mock me while you're punching down. Because it takes any skill at all to beat someone weaker than you. Plus you're stuck out there anyway. Is it really a defeat? I'm healing that arrow wound, albeit slowly."

Carus smirked. "Oh, is that right?" He raised his bow, and began to fire rapidly. The arrows slammed into and then stopped at the dark shield, suspended in air, but each on drove in deeper, cracks beginning to spread. He grit his teeth and shot faster, clearly winded by what he was doing. Once the shield collapsed, he stepped down once, like he was stepping on starlight, and appeared in front of Zeke.

He drew his bow again, and put a point blank arrow into Zeke, who screamed. His two constructs backed off as the elf archer approached, grabbing the fading white arrow and solidifying it just so he could twist it. Carus drew back his fist, and with a triumphant yell, punched it right through Zeke's head.

I cried out in anguish, but before I had a chance to react past that, one of the hooded figures appeared behind Carus and tapped him on the shoulder. As Carus stared in confusion at the shattered porcelain floating around his non blood covered fist, the figure flipped down his hood, revealing ZEKE'S FACE on the back of the hooded figure's head.

It reached up and tore the face of my uncle clear of its nonexistent skull, and as Carus turned around, slapped Zeke's face right on top of the elfs. The archer panicked, hands shooting up to claw at Zeke's face on his body, even as the face began to laugh. The other figures all appeared, chains lashing out to hold him still as all eight of them (not the one that had been shattered by the punch) grabbed onto the chains and pulled, yanking the elf spread eagled.

The lone remaining figure unoccupied reached up and removed his mask, revealing another Zeke, who snicked at the struggling A-ranker. "Janus is the god with two faces, moron. But thanks for letting me soften you up. How's that for a Path?" Reaching into his ring, he drew out a pair of gloves. "Now compensate me for that damn mask you pointy eared fuck."

As he drove both hands into the chest of the elf, we all stared in shock at my uncle killing an A-ranked. Callie swallowed hard, looking up at the screen in a mixture of awe and fear. "Remind me not to piss off your uncle. Like...ever." I just nodded dumbly. No shit.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We all stared in shock as Zeke ripped the soul from an A-ranker, just in time for Killian to appear next to him with a whistle. "Shit, that was brutal, you're still as terrifying as ever. Honestly I think you'd have hit A-rank before I did if you didn't keep killing all the witnesses every time you got in a tough fight."

Zeke reached over and snagged a broken mask shard from the air. "I need materials. These things always get broken in big fights." He grimaced at the thing. "Shit, this was my Piercing Metal mask. Armor penetration is always super useful." He kicked the floating elf corpse that he'd freed from the chains after the soul was removed. "Smarmy pointy eared bastard."

Killian chuckled. "Well hey, at least you got the soul. You think you even make a mask out of an A-ranker?" I couldn't remember if Zeke's power could do that either, though I knew he needed materials.

"It's fine." Said my uncle with a wave. "My Archery mask will provide a solid platform to attach it to. The soul has been fully integrated into that one and elevated the quality of the porcelain infinitely close to A-rank. I'll have to structure the enchantments carefully, but it should be more than suitable. Plus I can add his path to the arrows." He pocketed the flask containing the soul as he put away his gloves.

Killian just shrugged. "Fair. Let's go help Uncle Miles. He's going two on one, and Rayner is proving to be shockingly competent."

Zeke shook his head. "You go. I put way too much into that. The capture only worked because I channeled my whole Path into the mask at the end, plus the fake out arrows and the attack that softened him up were mind numbingly draining. Unless you need me?"

Killian shrugged. "Nah. Already killed mine, and Uncle Miles and I use similar abilities, so we can synergize easily enough. I just figured it would be fun to fight together again." Turning on his heel, he vanished, even as Zeke groaned and did the same. Assuming he probably wasn't coming right back to watch the fight with us, and assured he was ok, I walked over to join Blake at his own viewing portal, where he was watching Miles do his thing.

Much like Carus, Miles was obviously using has Path liberally. He was also using what appeared to be a weapon mastery with that sword, as a massive blade of condensed ghostly death was raining down blows on Rayner. The black masked man had condensed a manifestation of his own above himself, this one a massive version of his own body, arms made of the same dark metal as his mask.

Miles probably would have won, except he kept having to deflect dagger strikes from the rapidly appearing and vanishing gold masked man, who was emitting a concentrated air of death energy of his own. Weirdly, despite the similarities, the two auras were as different as night and day. Miles's Path was the chill of the grave and the ghostly, while the masked man seemed to be channelling the sudden ending of a life.

To my surprise, one of the daggers actually caught Miles along the ribs on the last attack, deflected too late, and the old Ascendant snarled, raising his cleaverlike blade. A dozen ghostly outlines of identical blades manifested around him, superimposing themselves on the manifestation of the blade, and the sword began to literally hum with power.

I wasn't sure at first why this seemed so different than last time, but the I spotted Killian standing to one side and realized what was happening. Those blades were made of ghosts, and Killian had just poured in his own ghost army to subsidize Miles's full power attack.

The gold masked guy didn't even bother to pretend to thing about it, he just dipped out, vanishing instantly. Rayner, frozen in fear, only had time to say "Shit." Before the colossal manifestation of that huge terrifying sword swung down like a headsmans blade and BISECTED both the construct and the pirate lord who had made it.

The two halves of him floated gently away from each other, bobbing in space, and I winced. It just went to show how easy battles could turn. It went from two to one against Miles to two to one against Rayner. That assassin was just gone the second things got bad.

"Alright, well...that was over faster than the other fight." I said in mild disappointment. I had been hoping to see another awesome display like Zeke had shown us.

Blake shrugged. "Most fights are like that. We had way more firepower and just crushed them. Granted, Great Uncle Miles is a monster, even for an A-ranker. He'd probably have ended them even sooner if that assassin wasn't directly restraining him. But once dad showed up, the assassin stopped the attack. Can't really backstab without leaving your own back open."

Killian appeared next to Miles. "Hey, you ok? Saw he got you." The words weren't echoing through the room anymore, but the viewing portal was still picking them up.

Miles coalesced a small, ghostly knife, then jammed it into the gash in his side, working it in slowly. After a second he managed to lever out a shard of dark smoking...something. "I'm fine." He grunted. "Don't get to my age without learning to deal with poison. That's a nasty one though. Hopekiller. Lucky he got me and not you, your vitality ain't near enough to suppress it."

He fished out a vial, stowing the dark smokey fragment, then put it away. "Let's get back. The assassin will be gone after losing his backup. Maybe this will be enough to dissuade any of the other. Rayner had a hell of a reputation out here, and killing him is bound to be intimidating to some." His sword vanished and he cracked his neck with a groan. "I hope so, because I could use a nap."

Killian chuckled, then turned his head, and somehow, his eyes fixed right on the viewing portal. "Why are you still watching us?" Echoed his voice through the hall, once again projecting loudly. "Tell everyone to get back to work, and let our guests move on with their day. Show's over Blake." Then he snapped his fingers and the portal disappeared, along with all the others, leaving us looking at a massive empty sky of stars.

I could just barely notice a speck in the distance if I focused, and with my Perception could probably have seen something if I looked hard, but it wasn't worth pissing off an A-ranker.

"Well." Blake said loudly. "You all heard him. Get back to work if you're a crew member, and if you're not enjoy your day." He turned to us. "I can take you to the docking bay they probably used. Zeke should be there still,I'm sure you all want to check on him."

We did, so we thanked him and he led us out of the observation dome and off down the hallway. It didn't take as long as I'd expected to come to a large open metal room with an open doorway off the ship on one side. There was a screen of green light across the doorway, and I saw Zeke slumped over a chair, taking long pulls from a very large bottle of liquor.
He finished his swallow and set the bottle down, nodding as he saw us. "Kids. I take it you enjoyed the show?" His smug tone made it clear that he knew we had. Which was fair, he had reason to be smug, it had been impressive as hell.

Abel chuckled. "You were in total control of that whole encounter for the entire fight. Every single action you took was bait for what happened next, wasn't it?" He sounded almost awed. "Would that initial arrow attack have even done anything to him if it had landed?"

"Not a thing." Zeke said casually. "Which is why it didn't. If there's one lesson I can teach you, it's that raw power isn't what decides a battle. Control is. Your enemy should never make a move you weren't expecting them to make. HOW they make the move can vary, but at the end of the day, they should be attacking when you want them to, defending when you want them to, and catching you when and if you want them to."

"So that whole thing with the copy of you getting shot?" I asked in amazement. "You knew that was going to happen? From the very beginning?"

He shrugged, taking another pull. "Of course I did. Otherwise the one who got shot might have been the real me. The same with the punch, I even framed myself up nice and perfect with a pair of masks just to make sure he was focused on the right me. The whole fight was a shell game."

"What about the mask?" I asked, putting my finger on one thing that had been confusing me. "You mentioned it was a Path ability you used. Why didn't it feel like one? When Carus used his I could sense it. Same with Miles. It like...changed reality. Like most Paths seem to do."

Zeke sneered. "Showoff nonsense. I make masks. Masks are discrete objects meant to conceal and confuse. How could my Path be the kind of noisy trash you can see at a glance. The power, much like all identifying features, lies UNDER the mask. Everything I did in that fight was in accordance with my Path, it just wasn't blatant. That last attack was definitely leaning into it pretty hard though."

"Yeah, what was with that?" I said, thinking of the crazy switch he'd pulled off. "Is that the nature of a mask too? Because I've seen your masks eat people, but that was almost like you were becoming him."

"Don't worry too much about that." He said with a wave. "Suffice to say that the concealment of a mask isn't always beneficial. I suppressed his personality. As for the mask I used, it has to do with the nature of my ability and my legend. That kind of thing isn't something you'll need to worry about until much later."

Did that mean that the next step in Path usage was to fuse your solid Path with your identity as an Ascendant? Or even an older story? I shook that off. I wasn't even finished learning to use the Path I had. Zeke was right, I had a long way to go before I needed to think about the next step.

Still, Zeke had made his point, in a way. He hadn't been lying in wait to get attacked, he'd reacted when it came. Whats more, he'd shown me that rolling with the punches didn't mean you had to constantly improvise. Plans and tactics were still useful and possible during short term engagements. I was sure part of the reason he'd done it this way was so I didn't abandon my attempts to think things through.

Zeke listened to all of our questions, deflecting most of them, and drained his bottle of what I was pretty sure was bourbon. Then, when he was finished, he bid us all goodnight and headed back to his room to sleep. I suspected he was much more exhausted than he was letting on.

I said my goodbyes to everyone and Callie and I decided to take some time to ourselves. Just walk around and digest some of what we'd seen and learned. Not training, we were still trying to take some time off, but just think things over.
Besides which, once we emerged back out into the ship, we were able to bask in the lovely scenery. Just a nice long walk with my girlfriend as we hurtled through space on a giant block of enchanted metal. My life could be pretty cool sometimes. What would it be like when I reached Zeke's level? I couldn't wait to find out.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite my insistence on not training for the week, I still used the opportunity aboard the ship to get my wishes all done. At seven points per wish and forty two per day, the week netted me a full two hundred ninety four points. I made sure they were all in Creation, evening out my weakest stat a bit. It was a nice little bump as we approached the temple, getting me just that little bit more ready.

Other than that, we just hung out. Spent time together as a group, and just generally enjoyed our last few days of prep before we arrived at the temple. One the seventh day, I got a call from Zeke and Killian, telling me and the others to meet the in the observation dome.

We all packed up and headed over there, and when we arrived, we found them both relaxing in a pair of chairs, stargazing. "Shane!" Said my uncle with a wide grin. "We just arrived. Thought you might want to see a distance view of the place you're going to be spending a significant amount of your time for the next few weeks at least." He took a long pull off the icy blue drink with the swirly straw he was sipping.

Stepping up next to him, I rolled my eyes. "And you needed to show us this lounging on beach chairs and sipping icy poolside drinks?"

"NEED to?" He said with a scoff. "I NEED to do very few things. It's one of the main perks of being me. Basically baby sitting you is the only thing I need to do. Speaking of which, look at the temple and quit interrupting my starbathing." He flopped back down, fully dressed and seemingly unconcerned that 'starbathing' wasn't a real thing.

Still, I stepped past him, gazing into the viewing portal that was already open and gaping at the site of the Ruined Soul Temple in all its majesty.

Our destination floated in space, built atop a large chunk of rock that was flat on top but looked like it had been scooped out of the ground with a spoon or something. The building was made of burnished bronze, the metal glowing with an unearthly light. Golden symbols blazed, throbbing like a beating hear, scrawled across every surface, but they weren't carved into the bronze, instead seemed to be permanently branded onto it with energy.

The temple was surprisingly small, at least the main building, and it was open enough to see that it wasn't bigger on the inside. Just a small well kept area, at the center of which sat a bronze brazier, blazing with a golden light that pulsed in time with the symbols around it. The brazier seemed to be the center point of all the symbol chains, each of them feeding into the golden flame.

Surrounding the small building was a huge web of intricate golden runes and symbols, with open spots where large circles showed the perfect image of a thousand golden lotuses.

There was something sacred about the building, something holy. The bronze looked old and weathered, but it was still whole, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why it was called 'Ruined'. I whistled, and Zeke chuckled from where he slumped in his chair. "Yup. It's always a pretty interesting sight. Your parents and I were in one of these trials, along with Killian and a few of our other friends."

"That's the Ruined Soul Temple?" Callie said in confusion. "Why do they call it ruined? Looks pretty well maintained to me."

Zeke shrugged. "How the hell should I know? Who has any idea why people refer to anything as anything. Ascendants are absurd sometimes. All I know is that while you can always access certain parts of the temple, the trials are only open for a limited time. We got here on schedule, so the Temple should open later today. Don't bother trying to get a position closer to the building, it doesn't really matter anyway."

I squinted at the viewing portal. If I paid close attention I could vaguely make out a tiny shape in an elaborate dress. "Is that Bethy?" I asked, pointing to the figure.

"Probably." Said Zeke with a shrug. "Lark showed up after we left, and he's bound to have faster methods of transport. An A-rank ship is impressively fast, but Lark is the kind of person who can demand teleportation services on a whim. Hell, he could have had a whole ship teleported. He probably brought his daughter straight here."

I wondered if he was still around. Despite the terror of everything I'd heard, I kind of wanted to meet him at this point, just to see if he lived up to the hype.

Everyone seemed excited that Bethy was here, at the very least. And the massive metal clad blonde figure besides her was probably Gabriel. She'd offered him a ride last time we talked, and apparently he'd decided to come along. I hoped they'd gotten Satala settled. From what I was told, The Vampire was offering her protection, so I doubted there had been much trouble, but I kind of worried about her stuck back in the Glade alone.

"So." Said Killian, cutting off my train of thought. "You'll be taking the shuttle down there, same one that brought you onboard. It'll be a quick trip, but we can't get too close with such a big ship or we might activate the Temple defenses. There's plenty of pretty terrifying destructive capabilities hidden under that fancy exterior."

I tried to glance over the symbols, seeing if I could recognize them, but no luck. Whether that was because it was some abstruse form of powerful enchanting I'd never seen, or if these were homebrewed symbols the architect threw together on the fly, I had no idea, but the whole place might well have been painted blue and covered with glitter for all the mystical understanding I gleaned from studying it.

It only took us about twenty minutes to board the shuttle and get ferried down to the base of the temple. To no surprise, Zeke didn't follow us off the ship. He waved us goodbye, telling us it was the general agreement that high ranking Ascendants stay off the platform until after the trial. No one had ever figured out how to successfully cheat in the trial that they knew of, but none of the factions wanted to be in competition when the first person did.

There were a surprising number of people here, but I didn't see anyone I would consider unusually similar looking to myself or dad. I had no clue what my sister actually even looked like. I decided to head over and talk to Gabriel and Bethy. The Crusader probably had a better chance of knowing where she was.

When we arrived, the bouncy Vampire noticed us first. She squealed with glee, hurling herself onto Callie and I. "Friends! Hey guys! It's so good to see you. I'm glad you made it. Daddy said this trial is pretty boring, and that going with friends should help."

"So is your dad sticking around?" I said, looking around. Whether to confirm he was here or that he wasn't I didn't know, but I was curious either way.

She shrugged. "Who knows. He might stay and sleep on the ship, or he might be hiding behind that pillar over there." She pointed at a pillar, but after a slight pause, she nodded seriously. "He's not behind the pillar I don't think. Now we're narrowing things down."

Callie giggled at that, and I had to smother a grin myself. Same old Bethy. I turned to Gabriel. "Hey man. So...you said the Star Queen was going to be here. And her daughter. I don't suppose you've actually MET Chelsea before? Because I could use an introduction." I offered my hand as I spoke, and he took it, shaking briefly and then pulling away.

"No." He said firmly. "She's far too important to run into someone like me. I might be an Adamant, but I'm still an F-ranker. Even the leader of my sub branch isn't higher than D-rank. Chelsea is the little princess of the Radiant Papacy, she's far more important than any of us."

Bethy gave a pointed cough and narrowed her eyes at him, pouting. "Excuse me? Speak for yourself, I'll have you know I'm very important. Maybe you're just giving your little crush too much credit."

"Please don't even joke about that." Said Gabriel warily, looking around in concern. "There are multiple juniors of the church here that would burn me alive if they even suspected I was harboring those kinds of intentions. The Judgement Pope's grandson has a well known affection for her, and his purifying flames are at the Master rank. I could probably hold my own in that fight, but I'd rather not have to do it just because you don't think I'm giving you enough credit."

For someone like Gabriel to be worried about losing to another person they must be a monster. Gabriel's Path was that of the Adamant, always charging forward and never losing. I knew that there was some selective combat mixed in there, since if he fought an E-ranker he'd lose, nevermind someone like a D-ranker. Still at his own rank it must be a scary person who could intimidate him.

The flames of purification were actually an ability I was familiar with, being one of Zeke's mask abilities. I still wasn't sure if that was the Red Revenant's actual ability or just a skillset he developed for his followers. The Church seemed to rely far less on the Revenant's specific gift than say, the Black Sorrow Cult, most of whom used at the very least a variation of their goddess's Enshrining Darkness almost universally from what I'd seen.

Regardless of the origin, being a Master at F-rank meant the guy had already undergone soul refinement the two levels possible. The peak of Green, the highest someone could reach at F-rank, was also called the Azure Soul Body. The soul solidified when you actually reached blue, and past that the only way to improve was to rank up. If you didn't reach the Azure Soul Body by F-rank reaching godhood would be impossible.

From what I'd been able to puzzle out, there were actually two soul ranks past violet, which was where the soul would naturally be in S-rank. In order to reach godhood your soul needed to have advanced those two thresholds ahead, or else you wouldn't be able to sustain the Impact needed to attain divinity, and your soul would shatter at the attempt.

People like the pope's grandson, had private heritages and training resources to help them reach their peak in time, but for the rest of us the Ruined Soul Temple was the only viable soul training mechanism. As a candidate I wasn't eligible for the WCP's heritage if it even had one. My family left me to fend for myself. But not Chelsea, at least not mom's side. I wondered what she was like?

Gabriel seemed to sense my thoughts and sighed. "I can, however, accompany you over to speak to her. I don't know if she'll meet with you, but it can't hurt to try. If she doesn't you can always try again in the temple. That is, if you think you're ready?"

I froze, but only for a second. Callie's warm hand slipped into mine, squeezing gently, and it felt like she was pushing calmness and serenity right into me. I let out a long breath. "Alright." I said firmly. "Yeah, take me over to her. The temple doesn't open for a while yet. Before that happens...I want to meet her. Introduce me."

He nodded solemnly, clapping me on the shoulder and turning to head off into the crowd nearby. Bethy, meanwhile, bounced up and down with a squeal, clapping her hands."Oh this is so exciting! Meeting a new sibling is always so much fun. I've met a bunch of mine, and they're usually super nice. Except Varis. He was mean, but daddy ate him so its ok." I winced at the casual way she mentioned that. Note to self, don't ask about Bethy's family.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Gabriel led us off around the central building, through the crowds and over the various symbols until we came to a group of young people on the other side. There were almost a dozen of them, holding court around a few central figures. Three of them exactly, actually. One girl with strange miscolored hair, intermittent locks of black and white, and the same green eyes I saw in the mirror every day.

Next to her stood a tall red haired guy about my age, with a haughty sneer on his face, absurdly gaudy red and gold robes, and amber eyes. The man on the other side had black hair and slate grey eyes and wore a somber expression over his suit of gunmetal grey armor.

"Lady Chelsea doesn't want to talk to deal with your monotonous drudgery, Vincent." Sneered red hair. "If she wanted to be bored out of her skull she wouldn't be attending the trials at all."

The dark haired guy chuckled. "I suspect any level of boredom is worth avoiding your presence Nathaniel." He said in a soft, steely voice. "But I think Lady Chelsea can speak for herself. Unless you're claiming the marriage proposals your grandfather has been sending his holiness have been accepted."

The world warped around the hands of the red haired man as white fire blazed into existence. I'd expected to be blown away by the power of Master ranked Flames of Purification, but since Zeke's were higher than that it made sense that these weren't that impressive.

In order to reach D-rank you needed to achieve a Path, but this guy had done something closer to what I had. He'd reached master rank with the flames (presumably he was on the job system so they were just a skill), so they had BECOME his Path. Just an Illusionary Path, mind you. My Skill had evolved into a Solid Path early, but still, he had already taken the step that would bring him to D-rank.

Gabriel grimaced. "That's the current youngest disciple of the Twilight Pope. Vincent Landrey. And the grandson of the Judgement Pope, Nathaniel Davies. They don't get along, and Lady Chelsea is the target of both of their affections. Don't worry though, the Saintess never sends her daughter anywhere without protection." He gestured to where a VERY large blonde man with a braided beard had stepped up behind the girl I suspected was my sister.

"The Lady." Boomed the giant, who had to be at least seven feet tall. "Chooses her own company, and she doesn't wish to entertain either of you brats. Get lost before I stomp your teeth in and wear your faces for shoes."

Gabriel actually grinned at that. "And that." He said smugly. "Is Callen Windermere. The high Crusader. Strongest F-ranker in the holy order. Technically each papacy has their own high crusader, but Callen is the Radiant High Crusader, and is generally considered the strongest of all of them. His Holiness supplies Callen with resources in exchange for his decision to halt at F-rank and wait for Lady Chelsea to Ascend."

The two puffing peacocks both looked unhappy, and I saw the redhead actually consider attacking, but apparently Callen was scary enough to make an F-ranked Master worried, because he whirled and stalked off. Chelsea pouted up at the man. "I didn't need you to do that Cal. If I don't scare them off myself they'll never stop pestering me."

The giant let out a booming laugh and reached down to tousle her hair, getting a yowl of annoyance from my sister as she batted at his hand. He ignored it as he beamed down at her. "I know, little one, but if you cripple or kill one of them it'll cause trouble for his Holiness. Best to let me play the bad guy. It's what I'm here for."

She snorted. "As long as you know I can handle myself." She stifled a small smile. "It WAS rather funny seeing them flee from you."

Callen's eyes, so full of good cheer, became chips of ice as he tensed, seeming to sense something. He looked up to see us, but his eyes stopped when he saw Gabriel. His brows furrowed, and then smoothed out at recognition hit. I took that as my chance to approach, and Gabriel nodded to the big man and to my sister in turn. "High Crusader, Lady Chelsea. Greetings to you both."

"Brightlaw." Said Callen, as if he'd just solved a puzzle. "Archbishop Julian's son. You're an Adamant. How is that going?"
Gabriel stood a bit taller. "Quite well sir. I recently returned from the incident at the Moonsong Glade. I've even been offered a spot in the Horizon Citadel after the trial if I do well."

The big man nodded. "Impressive. I hope to see you there. I'll be attending with her ladyship once she breaks through to E-rank. Why don't you introduce us to your companions. They certainly seem like interesting people." I was having some trouble getting a bead his age. He was older than us, but if the Horizon Citadel was a school he wasn't THAT much older. Most of the impression of age came from him being giant and bearded.

Gabriel nodded. "Right. This is Bethany Lark, youngest daughter of Morgan Lark. This is Nightstrike, and her boyfriend Solomo-"

"Shane." I cut him off. My eyes glued to my sister as I held out my hand. "Shane Wyndham. My dad is Elijah Wyndham."
She froze, staring at me with wide eyes. We stood there like that, for a minute, before she seemed to realize where she was and cleared her throat. "Ah, well. Nice to meet you...Shane. My name is Chelsea Anders." Her tone was a bit shy, but not hostile, and I smiled with relief as she shook my hand. I also reveled in the knowledge of what my moms last name was. I'd never actually heard her maiden name mentioned, Zeke just referred to her as Sasha.

I wanted to ask her more about herself, but when I opened my mouth her hand clamped down on mine harder. Her eyes were widened meaningfully, expression pleading with me not to say anything. I was confused, but I was willing to play along for a bit. "Of course." I said with a smile. "I've heard a lot about you."

"That's very flattering." She chirped. "But sadly I can't stay and chat. If fate wills it, we can meet again inside the trial. It's so crowded out here in any case. It's a terrible environment for getting to know someone."

Ah, she was afraid people would listen in. We could stealth, of course, but that only worked on similar levels of Ascendant or if the eavesdroppers weren't focused on you. Anyone stronger who was paying attention was more than capable of breaching our stealth with their higher Perception.

Patting me on the shoulder, she gave me another meaningful smile as she turned to walk away.

"Ouch." Hissed Benny from behind me. "That was rough man. I guess she doesn't want to talk? I'm sorry Shane, don't worry too much about it."

I cut him off, worried he might say something that tipped her hand. If she didn't want people hearing about us being related she probably had a reason. She hadn't struck me as a bitchy elitist, and her expression had contained some genuine fear. "It's fine. She was busy. I'm sure I can meet Lady Chelsea later. I didn't have any pressing business with her."

Benny hadn't been shaking her hand or standing right in front of her, so he hadn't noticed the subtext, but he wasn't stupid either. My hint was enough for him to realize what was up and shut his mouth about it.

The biggest shock for me was meeting Chelsea, and not just that, but seeing that she was the same age as me. I'd expected her to be a few years younger, maybe sixteen, but she looked to be about my age. She might just appear older, but if not, it meant Chelsea wasn't just my sister, she was my TWIN. No one had ever mentioned that, and for some reason it just made everything that much worse.

I'd always wanted a twin. It might be a weird thing to wish for, but the inherent closeness they share, the knowledge that you were essentially born with a best friend...I'd always been so jealous of that. Finding out I might have one of my own and had never been allowed to know her? I was angry, and sad, and frustrated, and a million other things that all swirled together into a miasma if misery in my gut.

Callie grabbed my hand, squeezing it. I don't think she knew exactly what I was thinking, but she could feel my pain, and she wanted me to know she was here for me. I squeezed back. Having her with me, watching over me, caring about me. It meant more than words could express. I didn't know how I'd have taken this alone, but I didn't have to find out either.

My questions could wait. They'd have to. Until then, we just had to head into the trial. Once we were in there I'd find Chelsea and finally talk to her about what was going on. Finally get a real chance to meet my sister. I glanced off the stone platform, out into the starry void. Powerful Ascendants waited, and watched, out of sight but not out of mind. They were probably the ones Chelsea had worried about tipping off. Well, some of them, because my mom was out there with them. My mom who I hadn't seen since I was a child. Who I had maybe one memory of.

Not the time for that. I'd worry about meeting mom later after I talked to Chelsea. My sister could tell me what happened when I was a kid, and there wasn't so much baggage there. I was really excited to meet her. She seemed like a fun person, and probably pretty strong based on her apparent desire to curb stomp an F-ranked Master.

Since it didn't matter where we ended up going in (that we knew of) we posted up nearby, claiming our spots. Twelve people wasn't a big crowd, but it wasn't the smallest group here either. I saw more than a few groups of one or two. Sitting down in one of the lotus circles, I looked around at my friends. "So, anyone know how this works? These are the entry circles right?"

Bethy nodded. "Yup. Daddy says these are some kind of powerful enchantment that will separate our soul and whisk it off into the trial. You can't die in there, but if your avatar gets hurt it'll cause soul damage. We also can't bring equipment in. Not really, anyway. We can bring in the images, but they don't have the same powers."

I cursed internally. That meant my staff was going to be staying out here. It didn't matter though, in the week of travel during my downtime, I'd been working on something new. The initial seeds of my own unique staff art, which would blend my Path and combat style together perfectly.

It wasn't DONE yet, obviously, but it would give me a leg up, especially since I'd already trained my soul halfway to yellow. While a lot of the elites here had gone further, there was a huge group of people. Most of them would probably be weaker than we were.

My thoughts were interrupted by a clanging sound, like a phantom bell that shook the ground we were sitting on. "It's time." Said Gabriel solemnly. "We should come in close together, but I'm not sure of anything. The rules change often, so don't take anything for granted." The brazier in the center of the building erupted in a fountain of golden flames, the energy sweeping out into the symbols and surrounding us, then the light was blotting out my vision, and we were falling.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The sensation of falling didn't let up as the light faded. When my vision cleared, I found that I WAS falling, plummeting really, through a massive and expansive cavers. A huge cylindrical shaft of stone rimmed with overgrown flora and beautiful waterfalls. They all gathered at the bottom, so far below it was hard to see, and the splashback created an impenetrable bank of mist.

Along the descent were beautiful islands full of lush greenery, linked together by rainbow bridges, and spread out like a wide staircase. My friends were nearby, but they seemed to be falling at different speeds. Abel was shooting downward faster than anyone else, I was falling the second fastest. As I fell, information was shoved into my mind, telling me exactly what was happening.

This was the trial of perseverance. I smirked internally because the powerful souls of the faction elite weren't going to help much with this. This trail pushed all of us to the bottom of the chute, and we all had to climb. The stronger your soul, the heavier the pressure weighing you down. Soul strain would press down on each of us at all times, making the journey all the more difficult for the strong.

For the moment, we were all just freefalling, though it was taking a while to get to the bottom. "Whoooo!" Squealed a familiar voice. I turned to see Bethy using a shawl she'd pulled from nowhere to catch the wind like a flying squirrel. "This is so much fun!" I remembered what she said about forms of items staying the same. I grabbed at my jacket, trying to do the same.

It...sort of worked. I looked around, trying to glide towards Callie. When I got close enough I was able to grab her hand, and was delighted to see that when I did the weight on me reduced. Of course, the weight on HER increased, but between the two of us it kind of evened out.

Despite the fact that items didn't work though, Skills still should. I reached for my overlay, looking for possible ways out of this. I noticed a few golden arrows, and grinned as I confirmed my Path had a way out. I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running. Stepping on the air, I followed the golden arrows, and the power of my Path shielded Callie and I from the pressure as I pushed off.

While there might be Masters here, there was no one else with a Solid Path that I was aware of. I had a unique advantage. Stepping off the air, I charged forward, heading for the nearest island, determined to start further up than everyone else. I wanted to bring my friends, but I couldn't reach them, I just had to trust they'd be ok. We could meet up later.

To my shock though, when my foot hit the air, I felt the weight return, slamming me down on the Ripple Running step. I gritted my teeth and took another, and the weight redoubled. I stared in desperation as the island. I had ten steps, but as far as I could tell, those steps would each double in difficulty at least. Callie had swung up onto my back, squeezing me tight, and I felt her lift some of the burden, letting me know she was with me.

I took a third step, then a fourth. My soul groaned, even with the training, but I was determined. One more step and I was halfway there. Ten steps to freedom, and I'd finished five. I pushed forward another step, and almost collapsed from the air with a scream. I refused though. This was training, good training too, my soul would improve here. I stepped again, seven down.

By the time I made the tenth step, my soul was cracking, it was about to break, but to my shock, as soon as my foot hit the island, not only did the pressure vanish, but a rush of cooling power flooded me, repairing the damage and elevating my soul strength by a level.

I slumped down on the grass, panting and shuddering, but I was still thrilled. Callie looked a little let down. Since the majority of the damage had been to me, I'd had more room to absorb the cleansing energy.

"Ok." I said with a gasp as I sat up. "I get it now. The walk along the rainbow bridges or trying to fly damages the soul. The stronger your soul is the more damage it does. When you reach the islands the energy there heals you, but there's a finite amount here. I can feel it depleting. So if you take too long to climb you lose out. The system rewards people willing to push through adversity to advance."

Callie grinned. "It's also a net loss for the stronger elites. The ones whose souls have already achieved perfection as the Azure Soul Body. Since they can't advance any more, the healing will just top their souls up to their original limits. How much did yours improve?"

"Five percent." I laughed. "But it was a fluke. The ability I used was something the trial didn't approve of, the damage redoubled and stacked. It meant I was under way more pressure than I should have been. I was pretty close to permanent damage, though I don't think I'd die if my soul broke here. I'm pretty sure this is just a portion of our souls, so even shattering would just kick us out."

She sat up next to me. "Alright. Then we need to rest a bit. How high up are we exactly?" I leaned out over the edge to look, trying to gauge the distance.

"I'd say three or four islands up." I said with a grimace. "Probably best I didn't try that higher up. I don't think I'd have managed at a higher island." I squinted through the mist. "I think someone landed on one of the lower islands though. We can take a minute, but we don't have too much time."

She nodded, giving me a minute to decompress and process. While we'd both been healed by the power of the island, I'd still just been functionally tortured for a few minutes. Mentally I needed to realign. Once my brain was working better, we headed across the small island and made it to the rainbow bridge. I held out my hand, but Callie shook her head.
"No. It might help, but we should make the most of this opportunity." She cracked her neck. "I'm way behind in terms of soul power, and I want to catch up."

"Works for me." I said with a smile. "Just be careful." Each of us took a long, slow breath, then we stepped out onto the rainbow. The first step was pretty easy, the second a bit harder. Taking the path laid out made the strain more gradual than fudging it to reach the island. Callie seemed to be under the same amount of strain despite out different levels of soul refinement, which proved what we'd suspected about the adjustable difficulty.

By the time we reached the other side of the bridge, we were both in agony, pouring sweat and panting. We thumped down on the island, letting the power flow into us and heal our spirits. "So." I wheezed. "This seems like it's aimed at weaker people, right? Or is that just me?"

She shook her head. "Nope. But that makes sense. The Ruined Soul Temple was created to help people refine their souls. The trials might admit ringers, but why would they reward them?"

"I hadn't thought of it like that." I mused. "But you're right. Hell, by that logic, I'd imagine that the benefit for people with lower ranked souls would be bigger too. You see any bump in yours? After those first ten steps, not to mention that walk, you probably shot up quite a bit."

"Four percent." She said with a grin. "You?"

I checked my soul again. "Two percent for the bridge on top of the five from the first ten steps. I think I got most of the refinement from that first bit because I was taking the steps."

After a few minutes of rest, we got back to it. This was a race, and were damned if we were going to lose. As we walked, we were able to see some of the lower rainbow bridges, and I could make out small forms stepping purposefully across them. The others were on the way. I felt kind of bad I couldn't catch them too, but they would be fine. I just wanted to make it to the top before the ringers.

When we reached the next island though, I realized quickly that might not be as easy as I'd expected. Someone had beat us there. Looking closely, I realized there were multiple islands on each layer and multiple bridges connecting them. Our view had just been bad from where we were falling.

"Hello neighbor." Chirped the small, pale man with a black mask tied around his head. The mask came down of his eyes and covered his hair, with two eyeholes cut out. The rest of his outfit was light dark armor. There was a sword on his hip, and his eyes were sharp and predatory. "You made good time. I didn't think anyone else would be up this high yet."

Despite his focus and clear animosity, he wasn't moving. I was assuming he'd been pushing hard to get up here this fast and hadn't let himself fully heal yet. The longer he waited the better shape he was going to be in, but we were recovering too, and there were two of us, so I let him stall.

"Same here." I said casually. "I'm guessing you've been sprinting through the islands, figuring you would heal on the last legs once you'd already won. Why go through the trouble though. What does an individual win matter. There's a bunch of these trials right?"

He nodded. "There is. But each trial awards the winner a piece of a key. First place is a gold key, second place is silver, and third place is bronze. You manage to get a whole key and you can unlock one of the treasure rooms at the end. That's what all the Azure Souls are here for."

"I had heard there were prizes." I admitted. "But I'm just here to improve myself. I'd never dream of aiming for such valuable winnings."

He snorted. "And the Emperor's my dad. If you're going to lie to my face at least make it convincing. That's just insulting."

"Sorry." I shrugged. "Thought it was worth a try. After all, you're only having this conversation so you can heal up and try to recover before we fight."

That got a grin. "Yeah, but you're only letting me because you don't think it matters. Not a great bet, by the way." His hand blurred to his hip, rapier clearing its sheath in a fluid movement as he flashed forward to attack.

My staff came up and around smoothly, smacking the spot on the blade where all the force was collecting and knocking his hand back. I stepped forward as Callie fell into her shadow, the F-ranked replica of my Stygian Branch whipping up and around to smash into the guy's jaw.

He took the hit and went flying, and I felt pretty proud of myself until I realized he'd just rolled with the blow and thrown himself out of reach. His hands slapped the ground and he bounced up into a handspring, avoiding the scything pair of dark blades Callie had manifested when she emerged for the dark.

Grinning, he swung his rapier in a quick series of cuts, limbering up most likely. "Ok, that wasn't bad, but I'm just getting started here. Neither of you is leaving this island alive." I just grinned and spun up my staff. No risk of death here (for either party) meant I didn't have to hold back. I wanted to try out the new staff art I'd been working on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Creating my own staff art had been on my mind for a while, but I'd never been sure how to go about it. I needed a way to connect my path with my combat style. After watching Zeke fight though, I realized there was other connections I could make. Zeke's dual mask thing was a way to invoke the legend of Janus. I'd done some research on the two faced god, and I could see why he'd be aiming for that, it was a source of power and fear added onto his already massive reputation.

It also gave me ideas for what I should do with my own combat style. Being a fatewalker and connecting that to my fighting style was fine, but if I could connect that to the actual legends of Solomon, that would give me that extra little bit of buzz. So I'd sat down and dug into every story about Solomon the Demon Binder. I'd scoured every possible source, looked through every obscure book.

No one was sure where those stories came from, they were just part of the public consciousness, the massive trove of legends and myths from who knew where that floated around space. But my research had clarified some of what the stories were about, how they worked, and how I could use them.

"Goetia staff art." I said levelly. "First form: Belial." I'd built the staff art around DS Mastery, so my Path would be inextricably linked, but using my path, and especially the strength of my soul, I'd been able to do things that I never could have before.

My body changed. Blackened stone covered every inch of me, crackling with toxic fire as I became a demonic avatar of poisonous flame. Rather than depend entirely on skills like Touch of Tears or Stone Limb, the first form of my staff are made me and my weapon both creatures of pure destruction, sharpening and refining multiple skills that I'd usually have to use in succession into a stable whole I could use for much longer than five or ten minutes.

My enemy whistled. "Well...that's new." He said in appreciation. "Never seen anyone do...whatever the hell that is. Don't think it'll save you though."

He blurred forward, sword cutting the air like a thousand arrows as he lashed out with dozens of stabs to try to poke me full of holes. His blade pierced me, but I felt no pain. Belial wasn't coated in poison magma. He WAS poison magma. This was the first step on my Path, and it was strong. I triggered my overlay, letting fate guide me. A wall of arrows showed me where I was being attacked.

I turned my body slightly, not enough to dodge, but enough to avoid getting hit in any vital areas. I had no idea if I'd heal completely when I resumed my human form, and I'd rather not bleed out. My staff came up, made of the same material as I was, and spun, knocking aside countless blows so that only a few of them actually landed. As soon as I saw an opening I drove my staff forward like a striking snake, my Path and my staff art combining to create a vicious piercing attack.

The man in the mask, shoved off with a foot, sending himself backwards with the force of my blow, but was forced to strip off the jacket over his armor with a curse as my ability infected it. "Shit." He said, waving his sword to clear off the corrosive liquid magma that should have been blood. "That's unpleasant. I don-" His eyes widened and he hurled himself to the side as Callie emerged from the shadows again, daggers aimed at his throat.

My staff came down hard on the spot he was heading for, and he barely managed to block with his rapier in time to avoid taking a direct hit. Callie and I were perfectly in sync, and he was in danger from either of us. Looking around, he cursed, and without a second of hesitation hurled himself over the side of the island, plummeting down into the mist below.
I blinked. "I...didn't know he could do that." I looked at Callie. "Did you know he could do that?"

She snickered. "Never change, honey. And speaking of change, can you turn off...that." She pointed at me. I let Belial retreat, wincing at the pain of a few almost closed stab wounds. I also exhaled in relief as the soul damage from using my new ability was repaired. Belial was powerful, but it put a lot of stress on my soul. Not enough to be unusuable or distracting, but it let me milk a bit of extra energy out of the island.

We rested up for a minute while I filled her in on my new staff are. She was intrigued, but I told her I'd only managed one form so far, and I didn't want to talk about any of my other ideas in case I jinxed it. After our break, we got back to it, not wanting to get intercepted again. Finding out there was more than one entrance to each island made it much less safe to lounge around.

Mounting the rainbow bridge, we continued on our way, slowly scaling towards the heights of the shaft. I hadn't seen what was at the top very clearly, since we'd started falling partway down, but I was pretty curious.

More than that though...I was having fun. No risk of death for me or the others, no excessively political nonsense, no dead gods trying to murder us. Just a game that I was having a blast with, and one that I thought I had a real shot to win. Callie seemed to be enjoying things too. We took our time walking, looking down at the scores of people making their way up.

We'd headed into a more central portion of the ascent, so we could see the multitude of other islands better now. It let us keep an eye on our competition and make sure no one was sneaking up on us. I spotted Benny and Celine fairly low down, making their way slowly but surely. Abel was several islands up, and despite being under much more pressure than we were because of how strong his soul was, he was absolutely crushing it.

"Should have known that monster would breeze through this." I muttered. "You see Gabriel and Bethy anywhere? I can't pick them out."

We were still walking across the most recent rainbow, but talking helped take my mind off how grueling this was. People are not designed to be tortured and then healed ad infinitum. Callie grunted, shaking her head as she wobbled, and I grabbed her elbow to steady her. "Nope. They're probably behind us or something. The layout here is nuts. We'll se the- what the hell is that?"

I turned my head where she was looking and spotted what she was talking about. A jellyfish. Just floating through the air. It was orange, and it flopped harmlessly through the air, coming slowly toward us.

"So...what are the odds the mysterious floating sea creature approaching us is a good thing?" She didn't respond and I sighed. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Can you hit it from here with shadows?" I didn't want that thing getting close to me. I was sure whatever it was going to do would hurt.

Callie scoffed. "How? We're standing on a rainbow. Even if I could find a shadow here there isn't one out there, and my constructs will be under the same strain as me. I'd basically be increasing the surface area of my soul and artificially inflating the resistance. Can you reach it with your staff?"

I flicked my hand out, my staff shooting to full extension before I caught the end in a firm grip. It extended out over the abyss, but didn't even come close to the jellyfish yet. As I did that though, it started to drift sideways, like it was circling around. I blinked. "Well that's convenient. Apparently it's scared of...Callie walk faster."

Able to sense my distress, her head snapped around to where my gaze had followed the jellyfish. A swarm of orange gelatinous creatures swarmed toward us, and as they drifted over the island, their tentacles dragged over the grass. Energy sparked and played as they began to very slowly pale, going from orange towards yellow.

"Shit." I snarled as we sped up. "Soul eating jellyfish? This is bullshit!" If I had to guess it was some kind of balancing mechanic for the people pulling ahead. Whoever had designed this fucking trial was a grad A asshole. We made it to the next island, stumbling forward to collapse to our knees, and looked back at the last island. The jellyfish were still there, soaking up the soul energy as they became more and more yellow.

"Once they're done there they'll come here." I said anxiously. "I don't suspect that them touching us would be beneficial, since we're fucking MADE of soul right now. Death by soul eating jellyfish isn't a death I've considered before, but it's low on my list even so."

I let the power flow into me, breathing deeply as I tried to suck up as much as I could. Sadly, I could only take in as much as I needed, and I quickly hit capacity. Pulling Callie up by her hand I yanked her with me across the island to the next bridge. We immediately mounted the next rainbow.

"Which way should we go?" She asked worriedly as she looked back at them. "I think we're in the lead, but that's not exactly a good thing right now. We need to get up to the top, right?"

I nodded. "Unless this is a giant fuck you to everyone the test has to be passable. Maybe the jellyfish are a reaction to me using my Path to bull ahead, or maybe they're there for another reason. That masked guy was up here too, so it's not just us. Chances are good some of the ringers have run into them, or will. But yeah, the top is probably a safe zone. I don't want to fight those things, especially not after they hit yellow."

Speaking of soul strength, mine was slowing down as we went. The higher it got the more energy was needed, and the less the damage I was receiving meant in terms of percentage. It was the same difficulty, but progressing was getting harder and harder. Nonlinear improvement, swell.

When we hit the next island, we stopped again, turning back to watch the jellyfish swarm the one we'd just left. The one before it, the one we'd last seen them on, was dead and blackened, every single plant a desiccated husk. Further reinforcing my idea that I didn't want to get caught by those things. Before we could move on another person stepped onto the island.

It wasn't anyone I recognized, just a short, green haired guy, but I didn't wait for him to react to our presence. I hit him while he was recovering and I wasn't, smashing his head with my staff as Callie tied him up. Then I carried him to the other side of the island and threw him bodily off toward where the jellyfish were just leaving the last island, hoping he'd keep them occupied.

When he hit the cloud of jellyfish, his body went rigid, and he started screaming as they consumed all the power in his spirit. We didn't stay to watch, heading for the other bridge, but we saw enough. I was just glad no one actually died in here. He'd be ok on the outside, if a little pissed off. Callie grabbed my hand and squeezed it, letting me know she understood and was on my side, and we resumed the climb. I didn't know how much time we'd bought, but we needed to make the most of it.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the trip to the top wasn't so much boring as...anticlimactic. We were on edge and ready for a fight the whole way up, as well as in pain and just generally waffling between exhausted and healed up. Despite the multiple moments of weakness though, we didn't run into anyone else. We had to basically sprint to stay away from the jellyfish, so maybe that was why, but when we finally made it to the top we were definitely the first ones there.

I was still deciding which of us should go first when Callie pushed me ahead of her. At my obvious confusion, she just chuckled. "You're way ahead on the soul thing, and have a much better chance of actually winning this. I'll take the silver key fragment, you can have the gold. Besides, I already got some benefits from this. My soul is up to forty two percent of the way through orange after all that."

Mine was at sixty four, a consequence of the increased difficulty as we went. Still, we'd both made an absurd amount of progress. The first bump from that initial energy had been a huge boost, but the rest of them had really added up. I nodded to her gratefully, happy to be with someone who cared about me enough to pass up such an amazing chance.

The trip up had been pretty harrowing, and having Callie with me had certainly given me plenty of moral support, even if the trial tested us separately. Every step towards the end had been agony, and having her with me had made it possible for me to keep going, even when I was dreading the pain I would be feeling in the next second. I couldn't describe the relief of reaching the end of the line.

As we stepped onto the island, I saw a small, golden temple situated in the middle of the space. It looked peaceful and relaxing and very safe, and I just had a positive feeling from staring at it. I found myself walking forward almost unconsciously, but I wasn't worried. The temple was a good place. When I reached it I felt a soothing wash of power flow through me, cleansing the anxiety, the pain, and all the residual stress from the climb.

I was suddenly...at peace. I'd healed from the soul damage, but the mental strain had been taking its toll, and I hadn't realized how much exactly until it was all gone. There was a flash, and a small golden piece of metal was floating in front of me. I tried to take it, but as soon as I touched it, it just melted into energy and merged with my soul. I tried to find or interact with it, but there was no reaction.

Callie stepped up beside me, and I felt the cleansing through the bond before the silver fragment appeared in front of her and did the same thing. "Wow." She said with a relaxed sigh. "That is...nice. It's like a million good nights of sleep and a billion of the most soothing cups of tea ever all at once." Her voice was dreamy and serene. She was feeling the same things I was, and neither of us ever wanted it to end.

I nodded lazily, taking a seat for a minute inside the temple to process. We needed to decide our next move but I didn't see any of the others nearby, so it seemed like a good time to think. Going from terrible pain to perfect serenity in a few seconds was whiplash inducing, and I think we both needed a few minutes of down time on top of that to make sure we were in the right headspace to continue. After a few minutes of basking though, it became clear we'd waited long enough.

"So...what do we do now?" I asked. I had a decent idea, and we'd talked a bit about this, but I wasn't thrilled to consider it. Having to switch back to a normal headspace after being so relaxed certainly wasn't helping.

Callie sighed. "We move on." She said firmly. "We talked about this before we came in, if we got separated it might be necessary to split up." We'd made a few plans before coming into the temple, just contingencies for various situations, and getting separated was among those."Waiting here would be dangerous. Someone could find out we have the key fragments, not to mention no one can get seriously hurt or killed here. The others will be fine, but we can't hang around."

She was right, but I hated it. Not just because I felt like we were abandoning our friends, but because I desperately wanted to wait and talk to my sister. Sadly, Callie was right. Staying would put us at odds with everyone who came here. Judging by the way the keys melted into us, we'd need to be killed in here to retrieve them. If I died and got kicked out I might never get the chance to talk to Chelsea.

I gestured over to the doorway at the far end of the temple. Soothing golden light swirled within it, so bright it was impossible to see inside. "I'm guessing that's the entrance to the next trial. Getting a headstart will probably be helpful." I stood up, walking over to the portal slowly, trying to mentally prepare. I glanced at her. "You realize we might get separated in there too? In fact, it'll probably happen eventually."

She nodded. "I do. But hey, absence makes the heart grow fonder right? Besides, I need to get stronger on my own. My soul is way behind yours. We're both aiming for the same thing here, and if we stick together the whole time I'll be leaning on you and vice versa. It might be best to separate." She sounded nervous, and I got it. A bond like ours was habit forming. Knowing someone was there to watch your back, FEELING it.

Separating wouldn't be a big deal to most people, but losing that constant feedback would be like losing a part of me. Which...was probably all the more reason to do it. Because she was right, this place was about refining your soul, and while the normal percentage bumps were possible just by repetition, the actual transition to the next level was more involved than that. Unless you were a jellyfish, apparently. But for human beings elevating the soul to the next level was difficult.

It was why outside of a place like this temple you could only go up one soul rank. Abel had reached the peak of orange at G-rank, and was now peak of yellow after rank up, but he couldn't break through to green without help. He'd told me a bit about what he'd needed to do to hit orange in the first place, and it was going to require serious willpower. Any weaknesses might screw us both over.

Leaning down, I removed my mask, pulling my girlfriend into a long kiss. When I was done, I squeezed her in a tight hug. "You be careful ok? I won't be there to watch your back this time."

She snorted, a suspiciously wet noise that made me suspect she was crying, though I didn't mention it. "Shut up. I'm stronger than you, I should be worried about you getting killed in here. If I make it to the end and you fail out after I gave up that gold key piece I'm gonna be super pissed. I better see you again before we reach the end of this." I nodded, kissing her on the forehead. Then I turned and walked through the portal, letting the gold light consume me again.

When my vision cleared. I was alone, and in a completely new place. A serene and peaceful forest surrounded me, mist blanketing the ground to my knees and giving the place a transcendant, ineffable appearance. It wasn't spooky, it was too pleasant for that, but it looked surreal and unnatural.

I triggered Eye of Revelation, looking for...anything. Nearby humans, animals, hell, I'd take some particularly chatty plants. Sadly, there were no sentient beings nearby that I could sense. Within a minute or two I felt the information I'd been expecting drop into my head, at least what there was of it.

Second trial. The Tranquil Forest. Callie and I had been right to split up, the forest would have separated us anyway. Maybe fate sense pushed us that way, but regardless, everyone who entered came in here alone.

Where the first trial tested determination and willingness to endure, the second trial tested something completely different. While exciting and dangerous evolution was an important part of refining the soul, peace was needed as well as war. So many Ascendants couldn't handle the quiet contemplation of true solitude. Unstable thrill seekers were a dime a dozen among powerful Ascendants, but among those who could advance past the limits of the soul, that wasn't enough.

This trial was unintentionally kind of a hot button issue for me, because being alone was something I had a lot of trouble with. I was almost never alone. I was with Benny, or with Callie, or spending time with Zeke. My training was alone sometimes, but my friends were always nearby, always a shout away. Being here like this, in total solitude...this was something I had no experience with. Especially not long term.

But if it was just solitary meditation there wouldn't be a forest, there would just be a room. There had to be more to this test. So I started walking, into the depths of the forest, through the mist, and tried my hardest to understand the trial here. To understand what the temple wanted from me.

The deeper I went, the higher the mist rose. I could feel the trees around me, so I didn't bump into them, but the world itself began to be consumed by stifling white vapor, occluding itself from my view, isolating me even further. And that was when I understood what was happening.

There are levels to being alone. Not conscious ones, not really. But they exist. A person in a crowd can be lonely, and a person alone in a room can be with friends. But that lonely person alone in a room will be more deeply alone than the other person. It's another level of lonesomeness, another tier of solitude.

Being alone in the forest was a first tier, and as I walked deeper, I became more alone. I was sure this would continue as I got deeper. There must be a central area to this place. A finish line like the last place had, and in order to pass through I needed to reach it. I needed to keep walking through the loneliness.

But I doubted it would be that easy. There was no jellyfish here, no other people to fight. This was a trial of the self. Of the heart as much as the soul. I stopped, taking a deep breath and letting my uneasiness fade a bit. I didn't like this place, not at all. I needed a second to catch my breath and shake off some of the fear.

This trial was the worst one I could think of for me. The most primal weakness I could think of. Which was why I was now determined to complete it. This was a way for me to grow stronger. Not with stats, but mentally. I was confident that because of my issues I would get more out of this trial than anyone else.

I started walking again, the mist getting thicker. This would be my test for myself, more than anything. I had a nice head start here. I could get through this faster than anyone. It was a shame my soul wasn't strengthening here, otherwise I'd have been hoping to use this opportunity to break through to yellow. Oh well, I could do that on the next trial.

 

[Mandabar]

If you have KU it'll be up Tuesday on there. Sorry about that.

Click to shrink...

KU might not be available where they live.

Where is Kindle Unlimited available?

Kindle Unlimited memberships are available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Brazil, Japan, India, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia.

Click to shrink...

Congrats on getting it puplished, I got to around chapter 75 and went to continue it but it was gone lol. Sadly its $20 here and I can't afford it but I'll check out your other stories.

Click to shrink...

I'll give you a PM.
Edit: Actually I can't, your profile is limiting who can view it. Can't PM you via link.
Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo - Figured out to do it the hard way, but I still can't send you a PM. Might want to fix your account Venomcreeper... Possibly a barely used account issue (minimum activity required) thing?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The mist became thicker as I walked. It muffled sounds, not just my feet, but even my breathing. I was in silence, complete nothingness. The deeper I walked the harder my heart pounded, but I kept at it. I kept walking, progressing further and further into the mist.

It should have been absurd, me being afraid of mist. Moonlit Night was all about the mist. I lived in this stuff. But it was still making me nervous.

Sometimes when you walk alone at night, you listen for sounds that mean nothing, and a primal part of you feels fear, that something waits for you in the dark, coming to swallow you whole. Even as an Ascendant that part of you lives on, at least at my level. But as I walked into the mist, I knew for certain that I would not be attacked. That nothing waited for me in the depths of the fog. And that was so much worse.

Because beyond the fear of creatures in the dark, for me at least, there was something deeper. That there was nothing at all. No people. No friends. No family. That I was alone and would stay alone. Forever. And the deeper I got the more the fog started to fade from pea soup to something so thick it blocked even light. First it was dim, then dark, then so black I felt like I was standing in the depths of starless space.

After the fog came the dark, and somehow, the loneliness got deeper. I wasn't just by myself. There was no one here now. Not even me. The sensation of standing somewhere even I wasn't was something completely new and awful to me. I felt panic as I had the sudden urge to look for me, the paradoxical feeling that I was lost, not from my own point of view, but like I needed to find myself or I'd be lost forever, like I'd ran away from me.

That feeling seemed like it would be the worst this would get. That I'd reached the peak of the solitude this place could inflict...and then my friends started to vanish. Not from around me, but from my heart. I knew them, could remember them, but one by one they disappeared from me, in a way so permanent I couldn't recognize the feeling they gave me as anything close to even recognition.

First was Jessie. My friend and teammate. Someone with whom I shared a promise to help her bring back her brother. Someone who had been there for me, who had saved my life. Someone who made me smile and comforted me when I was sad and who I could always count on. I kept every memory of her, every detail of our time knowing each other, but the emotions were just gone. She was a stranger.

Then I lost Benny. My best friend. The person I counted on most in the world, and who I would die for. I remembered playing games together, meeting him as a kid, time hanging out at the park or going camping or just talking bullshit. I remembered him leaving his life behind to follow me into the unknown, and how easily he did it, and how I'd promised myself deep down I'd make sure it was worth it to him. I didn't feel a thing.

Next was Callie. Who I adored. The strongest, most intelligent, most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. The person whose love I felt like a pillar of strength and support every day through our bond. The person who made me happier than I'd been in my entire life. She was gone.

Finally I lost Zeke. My uncle. My dad in every way that mattered. The drunk irresponsible frustrating impossible man who had supported me through every terrible thing that had ever happened to me. I didn't know why mom left, or even why dad did more than in passing, but Zeke stayed. He'd always been there. Keeping me safe and watching out for me, even when I didn't know it. Now he was nowhere.

There were more. More friends that vanished, more acquaintances who just...disconnected from my heart. I still remembered them, still knew the facts, but they vanished from me all the same, and I could feel the hole they used to fill growing darker and deeper.

My body shook. My eyes filled with tears, and I began to weep there, in the pitch black, as everything I'd ever loved or cared about was stripped away, leaving me empty. Not a healthy, rational kind of empty. A yawning abyss inside that howled for me to fill it, to find some way to stop the nothing from growing before it consumed everything and I just ceased to exist.

I'd always been afraid of being abandoned. Of being left behind by more than just my parents. And now I had. I'd been abandoned by everything. Everyone. They were gone in the most fundamental and profound way that I could imagine. I felt like I'd never get them back. Never be happy or safe or content again.

The feat stretched on, stoking itself into terror, and continued to deepen along with the nothingness. I fell into myself, into a bottomless well of existential dread. I kept falling... but nothing else happened. I didn't die, or feel any more pain, or suffer. I didn't bleed or die or scream. The fear was suffocating, it was consuming me, but there were no consequences to it.

I thought of Jessie. Of my friend who was so completely gone from me now. I thought of how knowing her had changed me. How she showed me that I could move past the bad things and focus on joy in my life, how she taught me to be strong even when I was hurting, like she had when her brother died.

I thought of Benny. Who had always been around, who had watched my back and supported me. Who had given everything to be my friend and follow me off Callus. Who was such a fundamental part of who I was that imagining never having met him turned me into someone I didn't even recognize.

I thought about Callie. Who showed me I was worth caring about even if some people left. Who taught me what it was like to truly love someone for the first time in my life and made my whole world ironically brighter. Who trusted me enough to convince me to take over as leader even though deep down part of her needed that to feel like she mattered, and was happy for me when I did.

I thought of Zeke. Who had supported and cared about me. Who had given up his whole life to sit on a backwater planet and watch some kid grow up, geas or not, because he cared about me. Who had sacrificed almost two decades of life as a titan of power in the universe to sit at home and listen to me whine about my day, or get me soup when I was sick, or get me out of trouble.

I thought about myself. Shane. The person that was the sum total of all those experiences, who was the being made of the memories I still had. I wasn't gone. I was still here. I'd been here the whole time, and when I realized that, suddenly, I was back. I could feel myself again, and I wasn't lost. I was just alone.

But being alone didn't change me. Not at all. Despite not being able to feel the feelings my friends and family inspired in me, the effect that had on me was still there. Even when they were gone, I was the same person. I was Zeke's nephew. Callie's boyfriend. Jessie's friend. Benny's brother, in every way that mattered.

And as I came to these realizations they came back. Jessie was standing next to me in the dark, smiling. Benny was behind me, guarding my back, Callie was by my side, holding my hand, and Zeke was watching over me from afar, keeping me safe and proud of what I was doing.

The emotions came back, one by one, and as they did, the fear receded. Because I realized that even if I lost them, gods forbid, and there was no one else. I'd never really be alone. The person that I was carried them with me. Carried them in my heart and even in my soul.

Solitude wasn't loneliness, it wasn't emptiness or isolation. It was just being by myself. The people I cared about were never gone. Not my dad. Not my mom. Nobody. They were with me wherever I went, and I didn't have to be afraid to be by myself, because that couldn't hurt me, no matter how afraid I was.

My tears dried, and my muscles eased, and the gnawing pit in my stomach filled in. Not just to where it had been before, but even more. That underlying terror of being left alone that I'd always had was gone. I'd faced the deepest, darkest pits of my abandonment issues, and realized they had no control over me.

The dark began to recede, though I didn't mind it so much anymore. I strolled confidently and happily through the blackness, and then out into the fog. I didn't know when it would finally end, but I didn't need to. I was just enjoying the quiet, and a little time to myself. There was really no big rush.

The sound came back first. The crunch of my boots on gravel and twigs. Then my sight started to return, and I was walking through a pleasant, tranquil forest. Whereas before there had been some underlying hint of threat to the peaceful tranquility, now it was just pretty scenery. I was happy to be here, to enjoy this walk through the trees.

But all good things must end. Eventually I came to a clearing, and in the center was a small golden building. A temple just like one after the first trial. As I entered, there was a flash of light, and a golden piece of metal appeared. I reached out to take it and it melded with me just like the last one had.

Part of me was surprised I'd made it out first. I wasn't sure how long I'd been in there. it had felt like eternity, or maybe a few seconds. But I'd kept walking, step by step, and I was the first one in, so I suppose I shouldn't be too shocked. I turned around, looking back at the forest I'd just walked through, and took a long, deep breath of the crisp air.

I thought I might miss the place when I left. I hoped the others had a nice time in there. Once you got past the first part it wasn't so scary. Maybe I'd come back some day. For now though, I had to move on. I turned and walked through the temple, heading for the golden doorway again, and the next step in my journey.

The trials worried me less now. I felt whole. In a way I hadn't before. There had been so much nonsense, so many little things going on. I'd felt so scattered and overwhelmed, and now I was just complete. Like my soul had sublimated and become more cohesive. It felt nice to be so much more... solid. Like anything anyone threw at me I could handle, if I needed to.

My worries weren't completely gone. i still felt them, they just seemed like they were less important now. Like I had a new perspective. I took one last deep breath of clean forest air before walking into the doorway. As the light consumed me, I smiled. I was ready for what came next, whatever that might be. I was going to win this, and no one could stop me.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

When the golden light faded, I was standing alone in a dark stone hall. The room expanded out in every direction, and along the walls I could see portraits and furniture and sconces with candles. The floor of the hall had a long strip of red carpet running down it, and upon turning around I found myself standing in front of a throne. The golden chair had a single white cushion each on the base and the back, lined with golden leaves.

Figuring this had to do with the trial, I tried to approach, but as I walked toward it the space between the throne and me seemed to elongate. The red carpet gave the illusion of an endless path, and that illusion was definitely fulfilled when I tried to get closer. So I turned and walked the other way, and managed to make my way to the door out of the hall with ease. When I pushed it open, I saw the hallway was heavily shadowed, lacking the light from the crystal chandelier I hadn't noticed in the chamber.

Once I stepped out, the door slammed shut behind me of its own accord, and I glanced around carefully, just to make sure I wasn't about to get eaten or something.

I wasn't too worried right now. After my recent soul tempering experience I just didn't have the emotional capacity to feel fear in this situation. I'd already been through worse recently, and all my fear would have been just another aspect of my fear of loneliness. I was perfectly comfortable walking these halls by myself. Possibly too comfortable, not that there was much I could do about that.

The knowledge that I SHOULD be afraid was at least enough to motivate me to be extra vigilant. As I strolled down the stone corridor, I kept an eye out for anything that might be a threat. I passed a few slit windows letting cold moonlight into the hallway, but I didn't see any objects or people until I reached the first large room in the hallway. When I did, I stumbled on a strange sight.

A lone suit of armor standing in the middle of the room, facing the entrance I'd just used. The armor was pitch black plate mail, and it held a huge halberd. I could see orange fire rolling behind the visor, like eldritch eyes watching me, and as I entered the room, the head very slightly shifted to focus on me.

My cheerful fearlessness was somewhat muted under an understandable bit of caution. The last time I'd seen an orange glowing thing here it had been a jellyfish that wanted to eat my soul. Still, the slam of the door behind me made it clear the only way out was through. Through an ominous suit of armor. Joy.

I spun up my staff, and figured this was a good chance to train up Belial a bit. I shifted into my first stance, my view filling with arrows as my body shifted into toxic magma stone.

Rather than just attack all out though, I took the time to really feel out my situation. There were lots of arrows that showed me possible attacks, even the gold ones that guided me down the path of the Fatewalker were numerous, but more than that, they weren't specific. They showed me where to attack but not how, and I'd been thinking over the first form and how I could improve it.

Activating state of grace and ripple running, I glided forward, staff slowly rotating as I came. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. I repeated something I'd heard at the pavilion in my head. I'd been so excited to bust out my new move last time I'd completely ignored how to best use it. I'd been too focused on the form part of the staff form and ignored the staff part.

Each of my Goetia forms should and would function as an independent style. Because they had different abilities (or would eventually). Belial was toxic and destructive, but it showed its usefulness in lots of little attacks rather than a single large one. I stepped off the air, surprised to see the Ripple Running platform beging to crackle as I left a toxic stain in the air under my foot.

Pushing off the platform my staff licked out, deceptively lazy in its arc, and without any particular force behind it. The attack only grazed the armor before I stepped again on the air, bouncing off a spot on the opposite side and repeating. I leapt casually and lightly around the armor, tapping and grazing it as I went, enjoying the sight of my demonic corruption (what I'd decided to call Belial's toxic energy) slowly covering the dark metal.

As a Path attack, Belial was much more destructive than the normal toxic fire I used, and much harder to get rid of. Granted, the armor was pretty much a solid hunk of metal, so it didn't show too much obvious sign of wear, but it was still being damaged.

By never committing too much to any one attack and staying mobile, I was able to move quickly and easily. The armor tried to spear me on the pike head of his halberd and when he missed he switched to wide swings, but he couldn't lay a hand on me.

As the fight progressed, I could hear the groans and creaks begin to issue from the armor as my corrosion slowly chewed through the metal. My Fatewalker Path guided me towards the most deadly striking areas, and I learned more about my staff form as I worked, dismantling the armor and sending it to its final fate.

I saw the change in the arrows as things ended, before the armor even gave out, and landed lightly behind it, dismissing Belial without even looking as the plate of the armor finally gave out and the whole suit collapsed to the ground in a noisy heap.

To my surprise, once it dropped, the fire inside didn't go out, it swirled through the air above me and then dove into my soul body. I felt myself become stronger, my soul purifying and reaching further along the path to yellow. Of course, this far in it was only a slight bump, only a percent, but I understood what was going on.

If my guess was right, the trials were set up in such a way that they alternated between pure power gain and soul refinement. The first trial let us gain power as we went, then the second forced us to face complete solitude. The third trial was clearly more in the vein of the first. An opportunity to grow more powerful.

Once the armor was destroyed, the archway behind it lit up on either side, clearly welcoming me to move on. I left my staff out just in case, wishing it was the actual E-rank Stygian Branch instead of a shoddy F-ranked knock off. When I reached the next room, I stopped inside and winced at what I saw.

Armors. Plural. Two of them. Beating one hadn't been too difficult, but beating two meant turning my back on one at any given time. Still, this would be a great opportunity to train Belial more, and it wasn't like I could just ignore the chance to improve my soul.

Triggering Belial again, I studied the arrows in front of me. Based on what happened last time, the armors wouldn't attack until I did. The mess off arrows was complicated and difficult to sort through. Not because I was short on option but because I had too many. Same as last time, I needed to find a road through this that both corresponded to Belial's form and allowed me to walk further in my Path.

I studied a few different moves I could make, and once I picked the best one, I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running again. Light and subtle. I also internalized more of what Willow taught me. Her use of leverage was perfect for Belial. Dashing forward, I stepped off the air, once and then twice.

The first step took me toward the armor on the right, the second took me clear of the blow from the left armor that it aimed at me as I came in. I sailed gently over the attack as it slammed into and shattered the corruption hanging in the air where I'd stepped, then pushed off a third time. As the right hand armor swung it's halberd around, my staff licked out and smacked gently into a spot about three quarters of the way up the haft.

My attack hit the halberd at a balance point, diverting it away, and slid down the length of the weapon as it was deflected down into the left hand armor. There was a crash as the right armor's corrupted weapon split the shoulder plate on the left armor, spreading my attack through the metal.

The left armor gave an impression of fury as it began raining down attacks on me, and the right hand armor pulled its weapon free and resumed the attack as well.

I moved like a dancer, following the arrows I felt lined up best with my Path. I felt my soul almost glow as the Path took me forward. I wasn't just walking the road of fate, I was guiding it. This was the exact link between my form and Path that I needed to maximize my growth.

Between the Ripple Running platforms, my staff, and the overlay, I moved through the attacks like a fish through water. My staff flicked out lazily a dozen times, not enough to do serious damage even with the corruption, but it didn't need to be. By hitting the exact right spots, I could change the fate of a blow, redirecting it from myself towards another enemy. The corruption built in their weapons as they tore each other apart from the inside, all while trying to kill me.

This was what Belial was for. Crowds. Tearing an enemy unit apart with its own attacks. I landed my last blow and the two armors finally collapsed. The two waves of orange flame consumed me, both of them stronger this time because I was still on my Path. Another five percent soul progress total filled my body, and I exhaled with relish.

I didn't bother dismissing Belial this time, just kept it active as I walked to the next room, and when I found the expected three suits of armor, I just attacked them directly. Three was harder, and I deduced that I was starting to reach my limit with Belial for the moment. I needed to train.

In order to take full advantage, I slowed down a bit, getting a better handle on my timing and speed as I worked on my newest form. The Ripple Running steps were added in, used as land mines in the air to corrupt weapons. Every move became a step in the Path, ever little twitch shifted the tides of fate, and I felt almost invincible under the effects of Belial.

Not that I was. I knew that the feeling was just a side effect of being in ideal conditions. Multiple slightly weaker enemies was pretty much heaven for me right now. Belial made me an army buster if I was willing to put in the time. Sadly, it wouldn't be nearly as useful against single opponents. Sure, a bunch of light taps would add up, but anyone sufficiently powerful would just muscle me.

After I finished the three and got ANOTHER five percent progress toward my soul. I moved on, but the next room wasn't just some random hall filled with armor. This one was a more open space with multiple doors. Through all but one of the four passageways came a person, myself and two others. When I saw them, I sighed deeply. I'd been hoping for more armors, but these weren't them, or even people I knew. Well, time to see what the others had to say.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The two strangers in the room looked as wary of me as I was of them. Of course, I was made of green magma and the ground was smoking and bubbling under my feet, so I couldn't really blame them for being a bit unsettled. "So." I said cheerfully. "I'm guessing we beat each other with sticks now?" I held up my staff. "Because I feel like if that's where this is going, I have sort of a home field advantage."

One of the other two guys, a short dark haired man with incredibly wide shoulders, a goatee, and huge muscles, laughed at that. "Well you're certainly direct. I like that in a...whatever you are. No need for things to escalate, Mr. Poisonous Lava Monster."

"That's Doctor Poisonous Lava Monster, thank you very much." I said with a grin. "I didn't spend six years in Poisonous Lava Monster medical school to be called Mr." Seeing that they weren't attacking, I chuckled and dropped Belial. I could bring it back up nearly instantly, and it seemed like these guys might not want to fight. Still, I made sure my overlay remained active.

He sighed with relief. "I'll be honest. I feel way more comfortable talking to you when you don't look a modern art piece someone pulled out of a toxic waste dump. I'm Vinnie, by the way. Vincent Barder to my enemies."

"Solomon." I said with a wave. "Wish Curse Palace. Which faction are you with?" I glanced at the other guy, a tall blonde man with telltale pointed ears. "Either of you, actually. I'm a candidate, so I'm not really too familiar with the larger factions outside the six. Don't be offended if I've never heard of you."

The blonde smiled slightly. "I'm from the Ostwallen family. We're elven nobility in the Faerieland. My grandfather, Bartholomew Ostwallen, is part of the Queen's council. My name is Simon."

Vinnie nodded. "Heard of you. The Barder family are Imperial. My gramps is a king. The WCP huh? I didn't realize they sent anyone this time. Lot of Churchies, a few Cultists, and the usual mix of Empire and Faerieland, but the Palace having people here is pretty interesting."

"Not to be like...indelicate, or anything. But does this mean we're not going to fight? Because if so, I'd love to sit down while we talk." Using Belial didn't strain my soul too much, but it was still effort to maintain. Some downtime would be appreciated, and might take the edge of my headache. It was so mild I barely noticed it, but it was definitely there. Plus I could learn some more about the other contestants.

Simon laughed and gestured to the center of the room. "Why not. This isn't a race like the first trial. And it's not like we can get the gold key fragments. I'm not sure who got first in the first two trials, but last I heard, Adrian of the Fist God Temple got the second silver fragment. Personally, I think that for those of us who don't already have an Azure Soul Body, it's more beneficial to take our time and get as much as we can out of the trials."

Despite having claimed the first two key fragments, I nodded. He was right. I was in no rush. If anyone wanted to assemble the gold key they'd need to go through me anyway. It seemed like people couldn't tell who had a key piece, and neither of these guys felt confident in getting to the end. I left the overlay up to warn me in case of attacks, but I headed to the center of the room and sat down in a chair I pulled from my spatial ring.

Weirdly enough, the chair came out just fine. Apparently everything here was made of the same of simulated material. It was pretty damned realistic, and I could barely tell it wasn't a real chair. I hadn't expected our spatial rings would be mimicked by the temple too.

The others grabbed their own chairs and sat down. Since we were hanging out, I decided to provide snacks. I had some jerky in my ring, and a few bottles of craft soda from back on Callus I'd been holding onto. Sadly my stock of Black Cherry was gone, but I had a few bottles of melon soda. I passed one to each of them with some jerky, and they both nodded their appreciation.

My food and drink were pretty low level, so I wasn't expecting them to flip out, and they didn't but both seemed at least pleasantly surprised. "This is pretty good jerky." Said Vinnie as he snacked. "Desert will be on me." He withdrew a small table and some plates, and then started cutting slices of cake for us both.

"So." I said as we ate. "This Adrian guy. He famous? I've never heard of him, but like I said, I'm a candidate so I'm a bit out of the loop."

Simon nodded. "He's a Master ranked boxer. Fist god boxing is pretty famous in terms of unarmed martial arts, and Adrian is considered the most talented student the temple master has ever had. He already has an Azure Soul Body. The Temple is part of the Empire, and rumor has it the temple master is friends with one of the princes. He got his student access to their heritage."

I whistled. "Lucky bastard. What's with the Fist god thing? Is the Fist god one of the vanished gods or something? You'd think the other factions wouldn't approve of that kind of naming sense."

"Nah." Said Vinnie with a wave. "There's no actual Fist god. It's some philosophical bullshit. Anyway, the six don't care who or what you worship. They don't allow new gods to show up, but it takes a lot to get to that level. It's not something that's quiet or easy to accomplish. There's even more than a few Demigods around."

I hadn't know there WERE Demigods, but I didn't want to sound too ignorant of common sense stuff. I'd ask Zeke or Killian about Demigods later. "So." I asked the others. "If this isn't a race, what is it exactly?" I hadn't seen any signs of a test or task besides beating armors. Which was nice, but if there was some overarching goal I'd rather know what it is.

"Pretty straight forward." Said Vinnie. "Just fight and progress. The key is hidden somewhere among the armors. There's no specific end point. Once someone finds it the door to the next trial will open behind the throne. We just have to backtrack once that happens. It might be a while though." He gestured around. "As you can see, there's not always a fight in every room. They tend to be randomized numbers, though the deeper you go the more there are. The first few were one, two, and three for me."

I nodded. "Same. So we just keep fighting until it ends. What about rooms like this?" I glanced uneasily at them. "Are we expected to fight?"

Simon shook his head. "No expected to. Some people will. I'd be on your guard. Of course, some people will simply sit and talk, exchange information and such. The trial isn't just about winning. Like I said, it's also about growing. Most of us are people without the connections to access the heritages that let people like Adrian reach Master so early."

I felt a bit relieved. They'd told me they wouldn't attack, and the overlay was bearing that out so far, but paranoia was a healthy thing in my world. It was nice to be able to make actual friends in here though, even casual ones. "So, Simon. I have a friend from the Faerieland, she's an elf too. She can control trees and stuff, I guess she's a wood elf noble? Are you the same kind of elf?"

He shook his head. "I'm a high elf. We tend to be born with light based abilities. Often healing or other types of support roles. We get along well with the Red Revenant church, actually. Quite a few of my relatives have entered the clergy. I don't know many wood elves, but I know several prominent families of them number among the council."

I nodded. "Of course. I met a Naiad too. Apparently those are rare around where Celine's family hangs their hat. You ever run into any?" I hadn't known about other variations of elves until I met Anna-Marie, and I was interested in how many there might be, but I wanted to feel out Simon's reaction. 'List all the different kinds of elf' seemed like it might be an annoying conversation for him.

He seemed surprised though, when I mentioned meeting a Naiad. "Really? That's a shock. They're incredibly rare. I think aside from dark elves, sea elves are the least commonly seen among our peoples. There's actually several variations of them. Naiads tend to be more comfortable in shallower waters. They're also called river elves and lake elves."

Before we could get too deep into the elfy stuff, Vinnie cut us off. "We can talk about that later. Have you seen anyone here that might be a problem later on? I haven't run into anyone that stuck around, but it's nice to be forewarned about running into some nutcase."

"I don't know anyone involved." I said with a laugh. "I did meet a guy in a weird black bandana mask and armor. He tried to kick the shit out of me and my girlfriend, but we ended up throwing him off one of those islands back in the first trial."
Vinnie looked amused. "Sounds like Kelix. He's with the Robber Barons. They're a thief faction, roaming pirate fleet and all that. He's a tricky guy to deal with. More power to you for the win. I'd watch out for him though. Robber Barons are notorious for being vindictive assholes. He'll definitely have it out of you if he made it this far."

I just shrugged. "Let him try. It's not like I die in real life if I die here. Not much point staying in the trials if I'm going to back out at the slightest sign of fake danger."

That got a barking laugh from Vinnie. "Well said. If you get got, you weren't meant to be here to begin with. Might as well give it your all and see how far you make it." Finishing up his cake, he put his chair away and stood up, stretching. "In the meantime, I think it's time for me be to hitting the road. It was great meeting you guys, glad it was under these circumstances."

He turned and headed in the direction Simon had come from, and the elf smiled as he saw me cock my head. "The rooms are different for each of us. Except multiple entry rooms like this where we can meet." He paused. "I wonder if this is the trial trying to get us to interact more peacefully? Or hey, maybe it's just trying to confuse us. I'll be going. See you soon."
He headed out the door I came in through, which left me with two options. The one Simon came from or the one on the opposite side of the hall that was left over. As I walked toward the door, I let Belial take me, my face splitting into a grin as I drew my staff.

It felt good. Being the hunter. Being able to stand on my own two feet and challenge anything that came my way. After the trial of solitude, I was able to just enjoy the journey more than I had been before. I didn't feel so conflicted or lost. Of course, I did miss my friends, but I'd see them when I saw them. Until then, I had training to do, and the more armor I destroyed the stronger my soul got. I spun up my staff as I stepped through the door I'd chosen. Time to play can opener.

 

[BJJPanda]

So where is his soul rn?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

So where is his soul rn?

Click to shrink...

This was twenty chapters ago for me so I have no idea. Should mention it in the next chapter or two lol.

 

[Quenster06]

So where is his soul rn?

Click to shrink...

His soul is in trial 3 of the Soul Temple.

 

[BJJPanda]

His soul is in trial 3 of the Soul Temple.

Click to shrink...

I meant percentage wise

 

[Quenster06]

I meant percentage wise

Click to shrink...

Ah, it has been a few chapters since that was mentioned, and I'm bad with numbers, so I usually just ignore them until they're presented to me. 64 was the last number we were given, +1 for first Armour, +5 for the next two, +5 for the next three gets us to 75%. So 75% in addition to whatever happened in the previous trial, whether that was a quality or adjustment or something isn't outright stated but it seems like it was more reflective than outright upgrading.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My next two rooms were cakewalks. The more armors added in, the easier the group was to take apart. My danger sense combined with my overlay made the mid combat portions of my Belial form incredibly simple, and the more I trained them the more I honed those reflexive moves. I realized after I finished the third, however (which was a bit more challenging) that I'd run into a slight problem. My soul had finished its refinement in orange, but I had no clue how to break through to yellow.

After my experience in the forest, I felt like my soul had sublimated, but apparently whatever had happened wasn't the necessary trigger to jump to the next rank. I sat for a while in my third room, meditating on the potential methods I could think of to break through. Unfortunately, it wasn't a problem I felt particularly equipped to handle. It was like trying to flex a muscle you didn't know you had. You could think about it all you wanted, but the actual mechanics were just...a mystery.

I sat like that for about an hour, eventually getting bored and deciding that there was no way to break through here. At the very least, I could still train my Belial form. I'd been getting substantially better with it. As a technical subskill of DS Mastery, it was folded into that Skill, and I was pretty thrilled with the progress. I'd even started work on my second form, though it was still in development.

Eventually though, I acknowledged that I needed to move on, and stood up to head through the door to the next chamber. As I entered, two others stepped inside. I was preparing to meet some new people, but to my shock, I found that I knew both of them. Sadly, only one of them was a friend.

"You!" Shouted Kellix, the masked man from the first trial. Apparently falling off the island didn't kill you. After he yelled, he drew his rapier and lunged at me, blurring across the room to try to kill me. Sadly for him, a massive fist manifestation hit him like an oncoming bus and slammed him bodily into the now closed door he'd come out of.

I nodded casually to the other figure. "Hey Abel." My mentor was looking as amused as ever, and waved at me as he strolled over. I found my eyes drawn to the seriously injured form of Kellix, bashed literally THROUGH the door. "Damn. You didn't pull that punch, did you?"

Abel shrugged. "Reflex. Years of people screaming 'you!' at me in an accusatory manner. By the time I figured out he was pointing at you and not me it was already over. Environmental conditioning."

That drew a sharp laugh from me. "Why do I not find that hard to believe. Surprised you aren't with Mel. You guys split up for the duration too?" Their teamwork was even better than mine and Callie's. I wasn't sure why Abel would feel the need to split up, unless it was just to enjoy himself rampaging solo.

"I hit a wall." He said with a shrug. "Peak of yellow, about to break into green. Breaking the second soul shackle is much harder than the first though. Now I understand why you need access to a heritage or this temple to break through more than one."

I nodded. "I wanted to ask you about the first...soul shackle? Are we good to talk, or do we have to worry about this idiot attacking us from behind?" I pointed to the damaged but still functional body of Kellix. We can just kill him before he picks himself up if you want."

Abel chuckled and shook his head. "Nah. He won't bother us again." He let his Path leak out, bloodlust and violence permeating the air. "Will you?" Kellix made a low whining sound and jerked his head side to side. "See." Abel said, jerking his thumb toward the immobile form. "What a great guy. Plus the more we leave alive the more fun we get to have later. Elimination games are so boring."

"That sounds more like you." I laughed. I was impressed again by his Path. That weird oppression he used. I wondered if that was unique to his path or if I could learn it too. That was a bit personal though. I decided to stick with the more important question as we sat down. Or at least the more urgent. "So, what can you tell me about the soul shackle? I knew there was a barrier of some kind, but not what it does or how to get past it."

He shrugged. "The soul shackle is hard to explain. The body is connected to the soul. When you rank up, your soul goes along with it. You know this, it's why I'm at the peak of yellow. But the body's connection to the soul isn't all positive. It uplifts but also limits. You have three soul shackles. The first shackle binds the mind. Break the heart shackle and your soul can ascend to the next rank. The heart shackle is different for everyone, so I can't give you specifics."

"How did you learn all this?" I asked incredulously. "Aren't you from the same backwater I am?"

He snorted. "Sure, which is why I spent the three months on the ship when I wasn't training asking around about soul refinement. I'd already broken the mind shackle, and it was a...weird experience. I'd hoped learning more about souls would help me understand what I went through."

I blinked at that. "Oh. That...makes sense. Now I feel stupid, I should have done that. What about the other two shackles. I imagine the second shackle is what lets you get your soul to the required two levels above. What about the third? What do you become if you break the third shackle?"

"A corpse." He said with a snicker. "Mind, heart, and self. The shackles tether your soul to your body. Break one and you can reach the next level of soul refinement, break two and you go two above, break the third and your soul loses its connection to your body and floats away. You become an empty shell. Luckily, you have to actively try to break shackles, and no one is stupid enough to make the attempt on number three."

That made sense, but it didn't answer the biggest question. "How did you break your mind shackle though? How am I supposed to break it? And why can you only break the first one without the temple?"

For probably the first time since I'd met him, Abel hesitated. He seemed almost afraid to speak. "I can't say much. It might make breaking it harder for you. But I can tell you something that will explain the why of your last question. The mind shackle is a binding you place on yourself, and the heart shackle is a binding placed on you by others. Internal and external. You can overcome the influence you have on your own thoughts, but overcoming the place others have in your heart is different. I'm guessing you got that during the second trial."

I nodded slowly, considering his point. "You're right. I could see how that would be different. So, you said everyone's is different. What was your mind shackle?"

"Fear." He said bluntly. "Fear of failure. I used to be much different. I was always talented, and strong, but for a long time the constant expectation of victory spurred me forward. I probably would have ended up becoming an Adamant myself if I'd stayed on that path. But when I spent all that time on my own, leaving behind everyone else...there wasn't much I could call that but losing."

He looked unusually philosophical as he continued. "I was depressed for a long time. Pinned under the weight of guilt and the fear that I would let someone down again, but eventually, I came to realize that losing wasn't the end of the world. Hell, it was the best part of fighting. Losing means you found something you can't beat. It means you have something that challenges you to grow."

That explained so much about Abel. But part of me also worried about it. "That sounds like a big change. Almost like you lost an important part of yourself. Are you sure we're SUPPOSED to break the soul shackles?"

"Ascending is the process of releasing your humanity, kid." He said with a smile. "You can't get something for nothing. Not even in a world like this. Ascendants are both more and less than the humans we used to be. You need to give up a part of yourself to progress. Sure, you could ignore the shackles, get stuck at S-rank and try to hold onto who you were. But here's the thing. People change. The you who was here yesterday is dead. And today's you is going to die too. You can't stop that, and clinging to who you are won't change it."

Zeke had told me something similar once. I understood their point, and I agreed with them mostly. That fear of evolving was natural. I'd changed too much too fast. It made sense that there was still parts of the old me left. But the problem was that I didn't know what my mind shackle was. A restraint I imposed on myself? That could be so many things.
"Do you regret it?" I asked quietly. "Losing that part of yourself. Losing more of your humanity? Faster than you had to I mean."

He just shook his head. "You're focusing too much on the past. Let me put it to you this way. The soul Ascends as we do.
To rise in power and quality, it sheds parts of what it was. Well, sublimates them, but they get crushed by the sublimation, so sheds still works in a sense. When a person ranks up, their being becomes much bigger in a sense, and stats are used to fill that in. It's why only strong willed people overcome recursion, the core of their being has to be strong enough not to get diluted and swallowed up."

"I know that part." I said in annoyance. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Abel rolled his eyes. "The soul of a higher ranked Ascendant isn't like the soul of a lower ranked. It changes. Which means to sublimate your soul early, you need to undergo that change early. You need to sever part of what makes you what you are so you can become something else. You don't break the shackle to rank up, you rank up because you break the shackle."

Put that way, it seemed less...scary. It was something I'd be doing eventually. Refusing to break it wouldn't make me more human, it would just put off the change. I blinked. "Wait, is that why we need to complete going up two ranks before we hit Master?"

"Yup." He said with a shrug. "Something weird happens at Master rank, the shackles become part of your soul. You can't break them anymore. Not sure what exactly. Something to do with Paths I expect. Who knows what ranking up to D-rank actually requires. Anyway. I should be moving on kid, and so should you. I kind of want to see if I run into anyone stronger than me."

I laughed at that then stood and headed for the next room. Personally I wanted to run into my sister more than anything. I had a lot I still wanted to know about her. Maybe talking to her would help me break my mind shackle, but even if it didn't I was still buzzing with excitement. As I stepped into the next room, I froze. Ten suits of armor, nine of them black one of them glowing a brilliant gold. I rolled my eyes at the temple. "Subtle." And then the fight was on.

 

[Quenster06]

Thank you for the chapter!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The fight with the gold armor started off the same as the others, but quickly devolved. First off, though all of the armors came at me at once, when they got in close, the dark ones split off to surround me while the gold one attacked me head on. The armor had a massive spiked golden mace, and despite being bigger than the others, it seemed to be much faster.

State of Grace, Ripple Running. I bounded out of the way, letting my danger sense tip me off and using my staff as a pole vault to leap over the crowd of armor trying to literally axe murder me. As I came up, my staff shot out behind me, slightly shifting the course of multiple halberds as they attacked, redirecting and infecting.

As each weapon slammed into the gold armor, they left behind a slight groove in the metal and the usual corrosive damage. Despite that though, the damage was barely spreading. The golden material of the armor was just exponentially more durable than the rest of them. It might only be F-rank, but it was clearly an impressive metal. F-rank copper and F-rank titanium were not the same level of hardness, and this stuff was definitely high end.

I could feel the Impact from the gold armor, and it felt like a normal thirty two points rather than some obscene value like forty. My extra three points of Impact gave me a serious advantage against mediocre F-rankers, but this armor didn't seem particularly inconvenienced when I struck out with a few probing shots. Which meant I had to focus on using the other suits of armor. Their Might seemed much higher than mine.

Still, this was going to call for something a bit more...delicate. I triggered Moonlit Night, flooding the room with concealing fog. Moonlit Night actually wasn't perfectly suited to the Belial form. Belial was all about misdirection and feints, and Moonlit Night was pure stealth. You can't misdirect someone who can't see or hear you.

Luckily, I could tweak my skills, especially give my beefy new soul, so allowing sound to filter through the fog was easy enough. I stalked forward, keeping low, and as I drew close to goldie I let the but of my staff drag the ground slightly, creating a low scraping noise.

The armors pounced on me like wolves, all their halberds headed for me. Sadly for them, I'd picked this spot on purpose. I was already low, and slipping under the attacks was easy. I ended up on my back on the ground, and my staff flicked out, hitting balance points and centers of gravity on the axes as I imbued them with corrosion yet again. They all slammed into the gold suit.

This time, however, the armors couldn't see what they were hitting. They felt the impact and went crazy, wailing on the gold suit full force, desperately trying to kill it with repeated blows. The gold armor didn't seem thrilled with this little development, and it swung its massive mace in a wide arc, trying to destroy its attackers.

Which it did. Or one of them at least. Sadly as I was at my limit the orange flame joining with me from its death didn't improve me. It DID, however, have a similar refreshing effect to the islands in the first trial. Doing so much was a slight strain, but now even that was gone. I felt energized and alert, it was like the soul version of Jessie's life force infusion.
The killing blow on the armor had apparently tipped goldie off though, because it stopped attacking, slamming its mace down on the ground in some sort of signal that had the rest of them breaking off to circle again.

I didn't think the same trick would work again, but luckily, I had other tricks. It's easy to ignore fake danger, and much harder to ignore real danger. I rushed one of the closest armors and attacks, my staff flashing out in a blur to tag a series of spots on the dark metal. Feeling that I was actually attacking it repeatedly and presumably noticing the weapon was not a halberd or mace, the armor reacted on instinct, coming after me.

My overlay did its job. I saw the incoming the arrows, and combined with my danger sense I was able to nimbly avoid every blow as it frantically came toward me. I made sure to make noise as I moved, though only loud enough to be picked up close by. As it committed more and more, I slowly led it to the next suit, and, with a particularly well timed dodge, let the armor hit one of the other suits.

The dark armor stumbled, slamming into another who was pretty close, and all three came after me. Ripple Running let me step off the air, leaping over them and landing silently off to one side before making a noise and letting them all realize where I was. A stampede of metal rushed me, just as I'd expected, and the three of them slammed right into another two armors I'd positioned behind me, even as I jumped over their heads again.

Meanwhile, goldie was carefully monitoring its surroundings, trying to find me without hitting its teammates. Not that it was having much success, but the complete stillness was almost jarring.

I continued my game of cats and mouse, drawing the last three into the melee, and between the stealth and the damage from the corrosive weapons, I started to worry I might accidentally kill some more of them before I could finish the boss. I started leading them toward goldie, preparing to engage it in combat.

As I got close, the armor seemed to sense me, a massive swing of the mace aimed right at my skull. Luckily my danger sense warned me well before the attack would have landed, and I could see fine anyway, I slipped under it and the blow slapped one of the halberds, knocking its wielder into the crowd of other armors and eliciting an enraged reaction (as much as armor can be enraged) from the one who had been hit.

They swarmed at me, and at goldie behind me, but I slid under the golden armor, out between its legs, and came up behind it. As they all attacked, I lashed out with a series of light taps on the weapons, reinforcing the corrosion, but also using some of my stored triple strength density shifted attacks. I had ten of them from various wishes over the three month break, and there were eight of the armors left, and another ten in reserve.

Every single one of the halberds smashed into goldie like a freight train, not just the density of the weapons, but the multiple stacks of corrosion from Belial were augmented. Rents and tears in the metal were torn open from eight directions as the attacks landed, ripping holes all over the gleaming golden armor.

I was pumped. This was all going according to plan...until it wasn't. With the sound of tearing metal, the faceplate of the golden armor tore open, a jagged rent like metal teeth revealing itself as it threw back its head and roared in outrage. It hefted its club and the object began to glow with golden light as it brought it swinging around in a flurry of terrifying smashes.

Being close by to arrange the hits, I was in the strike zone, I used Pit of Despair, creating a ten foot circle of fine dust that I dropped into, avoiding the strikes. Partway down I stepped off one of my Ripple Running platforms and catapulted myself up and out, another attack was coming at me unintentionally, but I slammed my staff down on another platform and vaulted over it midair.

Landing about twenty feet away, I made sure to make noise. The golden armor roared again, ignoring the eight suits of crushed armor he'd left behind, and turned to come after me. It dropped right into the pit, roaring and thrashing as the eight orange flames merged with me, repairing some of the damage done by maintaining so many different skills on top of Belial.

The monster was covered in tears and rents and its whole body was being invaded by corrosion energy, but it kept thrashing, trying to stay above the dust as the substance pouring into the empty armor, dragging it down. I groaned in annoyance. No more patsies, which meant Belial was going to be way less effective. My next form was going to be based on single combat.

I hauled back, slamming the staff down on his head, unleashing the simulated death energy (much less effective without the rank advantage) along with a triple stacked density boost and a gravity attack from Alden. I was running low on those, and couldn't get more, but despite being a rank below me, the combination with the empowering boost gave it enough kick to push the armor further down.

Once its arms were partly submerged, I cancelled Pit of Despair, and left the thing literally fused into the ground. Its elbows were stuck, meaning no arm movement, and it snarled at me impotently as it struggled to get free. Didn't work. I wasn't sure what these floors were made of, but it was sturdy as fuck without some sort of skill to soften it up like I had.

I considered using Flurry of Blows, but since it couldn't move, in the end I just settled on beating it viciously about the head and shoulder with my staff. Took me about eighty whacks to get the job done, but eventually the corrosion built up enough to let me cave in the helmet, and it FINALLY died.

The rush of orange fire this time came with a third golden key piece, and I let my Belial form fade away in relief as my soul was healed and soothed. I was doing quite a few things at once just then, and it was really taking a toll. Reaching out, I grabbed the key piece, completely unsurprised when it merged into my body. I let out a sigh of relief, but I was surprised out of my state of relaxation by an odd noise.

As all the armors vanished and the floors repaired themselves, the doors on both sides of the room opened up. More than that, two NEW doors appeared on either side of me. I could see other rooms through them. Empty rooms in some cases, and in some rooms with people in them. Turning on my heel, I thanked the gods State of Grace didn't run out until the timer ended.

I sprinted through the door I'd come through, remembering which way I'd taken through each room. I actually didn't know why I was running. Everyone else was running, I could see them, but I had the key fragments, so getting there earlier wasn't a huge advantage. Even if someone else got the next one I could just take it off their corpse at the end. Still, it was fun, so I kept sprinting, at least until I came to the first junction room where I'd met Simon and Vinnie.

When I arrived there, I froze. A familiar head of black and white hair was in front of me. As she heard me enter, my sister turned to look and spotted me. She stared back, neither of sure what to do, until some asshole on a green hoodie bolted through the door next to her, shoved her aside and screamed "Victory to the mountebanks!" At the top of his lungs as he dove through the door we'd both been headed to.

Neither of us knew what to do for a second, but finally we broke down laughing as I walked up to her and put out a hand. "So...this seems like an ALMOST decent place to talk without being overheard. Might be a good idea to give it a few minutes though." I said with a grin. "After that...I have some questions." And they were a long time coming.

 

[Lone-sith]

Can't wait forntomorrow

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once everyone had gone, I started talking first. I used Stealth just in case, but we could see the rooms for quite a ways around, and I didn't notice anyone. "So." I said casually. "I'm guessing do you know who I am? Did you know right away or...?"

Chelsea sighed. "Not right away. All the pictures mom has of you are old. You don't look exactly like dad either. The resemblance is there, but the bones in your face are softer, more like mom. I figured it out when you told me your name." She swallowed hard. "It's nice to meet you, Shane."

"You too." I said. My voice rough with emotion. "Are we twins? I didn't even know you existed until recently, but we should be around the same age, right?"

She nodded, smiling slightly. Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out a word and beaten up picture. She passed it to me, and I almost dropped it as a wave of...something, tore through me. Frustration, sadness, rage, love, longing, and about a hundred other things trampled each other for the honor of gut punching me as I looked down at a picture of my family. My WHOLE family.

Dad stood behind us, looking somber, while mom crouched down holding us both up. We were too young to really stand on our own, so it was hard to clearly identify us. Well, me anyway. I just looked like a blonde kid. Chelsea was pretty noticeable, given her black and white hair color.

I passed it back. "I guess so. You can keep it, I won't be able to take it out of here anyway. Soul stuff. Do you mind if we sit down? This is really a lot."

"Of course." She said quickly, seeming as nervous as I did. She pulled out a pair of chairs, setting them down in a corner, out of the way of all the doors. "So...how was it? Living with dad? I never met him really. Not that I remember at least. He doesn't come around. Grandpa doesn't like him."

"Shocker." I said with a smirk. "He's a devil now, and I somehow doubt the Radiant Pope approves of his daughter being married to a literal creature of darkness. What's he like Anyway? I've heard some crazy things. Does he treat you ok? You and mom?"

She snorted. "Mom has grandpa wrapped around her little finger. She's his only daughter, and one of his most impressive children. Not to mention all our uncles were from his first marriage. Mom is his only kid with his current wife." She trailed off at that, like there was something she wasn't saying. "The point is, mom and I are treated very well. Some of the stories about grandpa are blown out of proportion."

I didn't mention the whole 'killing a planet' legend. I was sure she'd heard it, and she knew the guy better than me. I had a million other questions, but in the end, I was only able to come up with one. Everything I wanted to ask just dissolved on my tongue, and I ended up blurting out. "Why did mom leave?"

Chelsea looked away. "Because of me. I was born with two abilities. I'm sure you've heard of it happening?"

"Yeah, Aidan, the current Wishmaster has two." I said with a nod. "Why is that a reason to leave? I would think dad would have been thrilled, hell, mom too. Having two abilities is pretty great."

She shook her head. "There's something wrong with one of them. I can't really go into it. But I shouldn't have one of the abilities I do, and if someone found out they might come after me, and you. At least, if they knew who my dad was. By taking me away and raising me on my own, they were able to pretend it was some big secret. It was to protect me, and also to protect you."

"I don't understand." I said in frustration. "How does being born with an ability matter? How did they even know? And what about dad?"

She looked away guiltily. "They knew because of a wish. And the ability I was born with is a bloodline. I wasn't supposed to have it, and its existence gave away some kind of family secret. I can't say more, please don't ask. I'm begging. As for dad. When he found out mom had to go, he was furious apparently. I was too young to remember any of it, but from what mom said, he refused to let her leave."

"That seems to have worked out well." I spat. "Seems like he really stood his ground there."

"She made a wish." Said Chelsea sadly. "As a way to keep the secret. That's how she got her second ability. She thought having it would make it easier to explain mine. It wouldn't have worked, probably, but she paid with the most valuable thing that she had. Your ability. Kept under lock and key until your eighteenth birthday. Another layer of separation between us."

My head was spinning. I'd always wondered about the strange way I'd gotten my ability. Most people just developed it, but mine came in a scroll on my birthday. Mom had done that? Dad had helped? I could have been an early bloomer like Callie. I could have been a fucking B-ranker like Zeke by now. Whose bloodline ability did Chelsea have that prompted all this? I didn't know nearly enough about bloodlines to figure it out.

Plus...she'd asked me not to try. She wanted me to let it go. Despite how PISSED I was at mom and dad (less so at mom than I had been, though that didn't let dad off the hook for the way I grew up) I didn't blame Chelsea for any of it, and I could tell from her face that she expected me to.

You'd think that would have made it harder, in some ways. To just...drop it. But it didn't. The realizations from the forest came back to me. Mom and dad weren't here, but that didn't change the impact they had on me. Neither would finding out the truth. It might hurt my sister though, and she didn't deserve it. This wasn't her fault. I leaned forward awkwardly in my chair and hugged her.

Chelsea stiffened at the contact, clearly expecting me to be upset and lashing out, but once she realized what was happening she hugged me back. "Family secret bullshit or not, you got something wrong. This didn't happen because of you. It happened TO you. None of this was your fault." I pulled away. "Now, tell me a bit more about your life. I want to know what growing up as the Radiant Princess is like."

I still had so many emotions tangled up inside. I was still reeling. And honestly, I should have been angry. That she got the childhood I didn't, that she was with mom being adored and fussed over while I was stuck on some backwater nowhere hellhole. But...I wasn't. Any of those things. Forget dad. I'd had Zeke growing up. And Benny. I loved my life, and I didn't need to fantasize about growing up being pampered by strangers.

She groaned at the nickname, chuckling wetly as she wiped her eyes. "Please don't call me that. it's so lame. But really, it's not as crazy as you might be thinking. Mom keeps me out of the limelight when possible. Which can be hard. It's why I had to come to the trial to begin with. She didn't want me using the Church's heritage in case something about my second power leaked."

"How is she?" I finally asked. I'd been avoiding it, but I couldn't help myself. I hadn't seen my mother for so long that my only memory of her was a single glimpse of her face.

"Quiet." She said sadly. "She misses you. A lot. Part of the contract she signed with dad is that she can't seek you out. She did it that way on purpose, so that she wouldn't be tempted and put both of us in danger. She hates herself for it though. I still catch her crying sometimes."

Contract. She'd said wish before, which made me think it was both. My dad was a wish devil, after all, he granted wishes through contracts now. That was basically ALL I knew about him these days. "Does that mean I can't see her?"

"Nope." She beamed at me. "Contract says she can't seek you out, doesn't say anything about the other way around. I think she'd love to see you. We'd have to be a bit creative about it, and it would have to be after the trials. If you want to see her, I mean." Her smile wilted. "I'd understand if you didn't."

"I do." I stated firmly. "I still have questions, but even if she can't or won't answer them...she's still my mom. Knowing she did all this to keep us safe makes it a lot easier to deal with."

Her smile this time was enough to light up the room. "Well, what about you? I noticed you came here with friends." Her tone took on a teasing lilt. "And a girl. It must be serious if you're traveling together. You going to bring her with you to meet mom?"

"Probably." I said without flinching. "I've met hers. And yeah, it's pretty serious. My friends are all from my home planet.
Mom ever tell you anything about Callus?" I wasn't actually sure mom had BEEN to Callus, actually. My memory of her didn't come with context or location details. It was possible it had been before I'd moved to the psuedo-D ranked planet.
Chelsea shook her head. "Not that I remember. I's love to hear about it though. Mom said you were raised by dad's best friend?"

I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled forth as I tried to think of how to describe Zeke. "Yeah. He's...he's a hard guy to explain. But he's taken care of me my whole life, and always been there when I needed him. I think you'd like the old drunk. What about your protector? I heard he's a big shot for his level, but he's been keeping his rank down so he can stick around and protect you."

"Callen has his own reasons for remaining at F-rank." She giggled. "But he's definitely kept me safe for most of my life. He's my guard for places higher ranking Ascendants can't go. You'd be surprised how often that comes up." She gestured off into the temple. "He's around somewhere. We got separated in the second trial, of course. I'm sure he's looking for me everywhere, but it's a big place and there are a lot of people."

I shrugged. "Not a huge issue though, right? If you die in here you just get kicked out. It's a safe place for you to do some exploring on your own. What's the power you can use, by the way, since the other one is a secret."

She held up a hand, and an ivory, crystalline flame flickered into existence. It looked weird, like an animated opal statue of fire. "Purifying flame." She said proudly. "It's grandpa's bloodline, though he uses it a bit weird, so most people don't know that." I was kind of curious what that even meant, but I decided there'd be time for that later.

I changed the subject, asking her more about her childhood, and she asked about mine again. I shared stories, embarrassing incidents, and just stupid things I'd done, and she did the same. We got to know each other, sitting there in that stone room and catching up with our lives. The rest of them got further ahead in the next trial, but I didn't care. i was finally getting to know my sister, learning more about my family, and that was plenty for me.

 

[Lone-sith]

Good soup