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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Malcolm Tent, Mar 19, 2022.

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  1. Threadmarks: chapter 457
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    We didn't make it back to the mountain. We called to check in with Benny, and he gave us the next temple. Yvette knew the order, but since we had other teams showing up, we ended up hitting them out of order. Yvette had given him all the alteration patterns to pass to the other teams, and he was sending out groups of twenty just to be safe, and Bethy made sure each group was armed with a stake and one of her thralls. It was kind of a relief not to have to climb the damned mountain again at least.

    Lucky for us, the next temple wasn't actually too far away, and we made our way directly there. It was about a hundred miles, which was nothing in the greater scheme of things. When we arrived at the temple, we went about the same routine as the last time. Callie mapped the place with her shadows, and Bethy was ready to head in to take care of the cats. But to our surprise...there weren't any.

    "There's no security at all?" I said skeptically as we stared at the squat building. "Because...why wouldn't there be? It just seems like a stupid sloppy move for someone who was...what? An A-ranker?" Yvette nodded. "Yeah I just don't see how this could be anything but a trap."

    She shrugged. "I can see every inch of the place. No traps. No Night Pride. Just an open temple with none of the unnatural dark we've seen in the others."

    "And you saw the undead?" I said in disbelief. "Just...sitting there?"

    "Yes." She said with consternation. "I know it doesn't make any sense. But she was just sitting on the ground with her arms around her knees. She doesn't look shrivelled like the others we've seen. Whether that's because she was A-rank or some other reason I don't know, but she doesn't look hostile. Just sad."

    Yvette nodded. "Satala." She said solemnly. "Suvaya's daughter. She was the youngest of the priests. Perhaps that made a difference? Regardless, as her mother's only child, she was powerful. I do not know why she would allow us to approach, we should proceed with caution."

    We all nodded, it made sense to be careful, though we had to go in anyway. Yvette took up the front position, since she was the sturdiest, and we all made our way inside slowly. The inside of the temple felt barren and empty. The long stone halls echoed with the sounds of our passing, and we never let down our guard, but we finished our trip inside soon enough, and found ourselves standing at the door to the same kind of chamber.

    In the center of the room was a girl. Small, delicate, with silver hair and bright blue eyes, downcast in sorrow. She was hugging herself, and tears dripped down her cheeks. Based on the dust on her arms and legs she hadn't moved in quite a while. She twitched when we came in, but didn't look up.

    "Hello." I said, slowly. I wasn't sure what else to do. We couldn't just attack her. She wasn't offering anyone violence. She just looked sad and small and broken.

    She kept staring at the floor, tears running down her cheeks and dripping onto her arms, leaving spots in the dust. "It wasn't supposed to be like this." She said quietly. "We didn't want to hurt anyone. We were kind to our people. Mother wouldn't have wanted this. Not the real her."

    I cocked my head. "What do you mean? Suvaya is your mother, right?" She was the one who created this whole ritual."
    She let out a short, bitter laugh. "Her children were suffering. Her most loyal. Most faithful. They saw her as a danger, and so they came for her. She couldn't resist them. Not in such numbers. And my brothers and sisters, her flock, they cried out for her as she died. They lost everything. She just wanted to help them, to raise them up, to make something good out of it all. We thought it would only be you. Their heirs. Their descendants."

    Her eyes finally came up to stare at us, and they looked haunted. "But our people stayed. They raised families, and became part of this land. The ritual was flawed. The moonlight leaked, and our own began to partake of the poison. So many of them will die. My mother wouldn't want this. But there's nothing left of her. Just a ghost, obsessed with her grand work."

    I looked around, at the lack of security. At the lack of cats. "You want us to kill you." I said in realization. "You know we're trying to stop it. You're going to let us do it."

    "This is wrong." She snapped. "They don't deserve it. You don't even deserve it. Our time is over, and we should have accepted that. The hate has poisoned them. They're all so angry. It's her anger. It seeped into them. But she protected me. Even as a spirit. She always did love me best." She gave a sad smile.

    "Don't you hate us?" I said sadly. "For what our families did? They killed your mother. Ruined your lives, and for what? Fear? Power?" I felt sick. I'd never stopped to ask if the six killing off the vanished gods was the right thing to do. It was easy to paint myself as the hero, but I'd been ignoring something Zeke had been telling me for months. The universe wasn't nice, and it wasn't fair.

    She shook her head. "I'm just tired. The world is so different now. My brothers and sisters are all mad or dead. My mother raised them all from infants, even though they weren't blood, I still loved them like they were. Ralik, who would carry me on his shoulders as a girl so I could pick apples. Dara, who taught me how to braid my hair." Her tears picked up again, and she let out a choked sob.

    "No." I said stonily. "This isn't right. I'm not going to kill an innocent person." I turned to Yvette. "Can't you help her? She's willing to come peacefully. Can't you use her life force to fuel the temple and switch the runes without killing her? That might even work better, right?"

    The golem looked pensive. "Maybe." She mused aloud. "It would be quite painful, and if we tarried even a moment too long she would die. But it's possible."

    I looked at the others. "I want to try at least." I said pleadingly. "She didn't do anything wrong. If she lets us continue altering the ritual...it sounds like after the changes she'll be weakened. She won't be a threat." I looked at her. "Satala, do you want to try? As an F-ranker there's no way the gods would bother with you. You never got strong enough to bother with, they probably don't even remember."

    Not that I knew shit about the six, but this whole thing gave me the impression that they didn't really care much about the small stuff. They killed Suvaya and just...left her soul floating around. This whole thing was their fault. They wouldn't come after a former A-ranker who'd lost all her Impact. Zeke could keep an eye on her just in case.

    Callie took my hand, nodding in determination. "Please." She asked the silver haired girl. "Let us try? We want to help you. You don't deserve to die alone in a stone room."

    She could be lying to us. Could be manipulating us to get us to spare her. Maybe she would snap and attack at any second. I saw Abel ease into position for that, Gabriel taking up a stance on the other side, just in case. But I didn't change my mind. This wasn't right.

    The universe might not be fair, it might be brutal and ruthless. The gods might attack other deities because they were potential threats. But Callie and I were heroes. Or we were supposed to be. Just because something was easy didn't make it ok. Treating everyone with suspicion and trying to kill them before they killed me might be smart, but it also sounded sad.

    Callie squeezed my hand, shooting me a smile of solidarity. She felt the same way. Gabriel looked approving. Bethy looked a little in awe. Abel looked like he wanted to smack us both, and Mel's mask kept me from seeing her expression.

    Satala stared at us. "You ask me to put my life in your hands, though I have already done so. Even then...what do I have to live for? My mother is gone, and you seek to destroy what remains. My brothers and sisters are to be put down like animals, and I cannot even plead on their behalf. My very essence was drained away to fuel the ritual, and I will not recover. I assume I am to be severed from my connections to my old strength?" She aimed that at Yvette.

    The golem nodded. "The modifications to the chamber will sever the links. I may have to alter them slightly, but they will do so. You will be greatly weakened by the process, and you will not recover. You may regain your former strength through the same means you acquired it in the first place, through cultivation, but the pieces of your legend thrown away will never return."

    Oddly, that seemed to be almost a relief to her. But she still looked undecided. It was Bethy who found a response to give. "Your people are still here." She said. "Not the originals, but their descendants. Some people still worship your mother. Didn't you say you wanted to take care of them?"

    Satala might not regain her A-rank abilities, but she WAS still rocking forty Impact and a peak F-rank power level. She could make a difference here, hell, she was the same level as the king was in Ladrigan. Plus her soul was probably WAY stronger. She stared down at the ground for a minute, then nodded. "Very well. We shall attempt the process. Should I die...I suppose that is my fate."

    She didn't exactly sound HAPPY about the whole thing, but I'd take what I could get. The thought of murdering a helpless crying person in the middle of a dirty temple made me sick. That was the kind of thing the Cultists would do. Some kind of ritual sacrifice. I prepped myself to apply my healing burst if needed. I really wished we had Jessie here with us.

    Despite the terrible situation, and the risk, I found myself smiling under my mask. I'd done a lot of things I didn't really like since I became an Ascendant. This wasn't going to make up for all of it. I wasn't sure how much of it I needed to make up for really, but at the very least, this would be a chance to prove to myself that I could do the right thing sometimes. That just because I accepted what the world demanded from me that I didn't need to bend.

    I think that was the trick to being an Ascendant, really. To see the places where conventional wisdom failed and ignore them. I'd spent so much time learning to be more like all the others, learning to accept what I was supposed to do and be a better candidate. Maybe sometimes it had to be ok to say no. To decide to do things different. Maybe it was important to put down my enemies, or to be ruthless when I needed to be.

    But even if that would grow my legend, that wasn't the only kind of person I wanted to be. I didn't want to be my dad, terrifying and effective. I wanted to write my own story. And if kindness was something that other people mocked me for, then that could just be one more story everyone told. Either way, it felt pretty damned good to try.
     
  2. Mastersenseinewby

    Mastersenseinewby Know what you're doing yet?

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    As long as you are smart about it then that’s a good thing the world needs more kindness in it​
     
    Malcolm Tent likes this.
  3. Threadmarks: chapter 458
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    "You sure this will work?" Callie asked anxiously as Yvette worked on the preparations. Rather than just slot in the coffin and turn it like before, the golem was actually carving new symbols onto the coffin itself. Since we'd killed all the other conduits and would probably kill the rest, they were automatically severed from their connections to their own Impact and the people who had ingested it.

    Satala wasn't going to die (hopefully) which meant we had to manually sever the connections. That was part of why we weren't sure if she would survive. This was going to be dangerous and traumatic, and my healing bursts might not be enough to fix it, not to mention she'd be having her life force sucked out to fuel the temple.

    "No." Said Yvette flatly. "Just as I was not sure twenty minutes ago, and I will not be sure when I complete these adjustments. This was not part of my designated purpose, and I still believe it may be a foolish decision. However, I amd willing to try to aid you in this endeavor, since it will still result in the deactivation of the ritual."

    "Yeah, but we have an advantage this time don't we?" I pointed out. "Satala is willing to help deliberately. The other times we had to hurry and trigger the effects of the temple and the coffin because the dead bodies were losing energy by the second. With Satala taking an active role, we can actually study the necessary changes ahead of time and set up an efficient order and timing to get the changes over with as quickly as possible. That'll give her the best chance to survive."

    She nodded without looking up. "This is true. But I urge you not to become complacent. There is still a good chance this may end in tragedy."

    Bethy cleared her throat loudly. "She can hear you. We can ALL hear you. Come on Yvette, show a little compassion will you? You're talking about the girl's death." The Vampire had latched onto Satala and was sitting with the former A-ranker, trying to comfort her. Admittedly, Yvette's casual discussion of Satala's grizzly painful death wasn't exactly the most compassionate thing I'd ever heard.

    The golem shrugged. "She wished us to kill her. A minimal chance to live is still better than certain death."
    "It's alright." Said the silver haired girl with a wan smile. "She's right. You're doing so much for me already. I don't mind her being realistic about my chances. It means so much that you're willing to take such a risk to help me. I know that your opinion of my lineage must be abominable."

    To my surprise, Abel was the one who spoke up. "Not really. Sure, your mom did some terrible shit, but so did the six, or I guess the five at the time, I think this might have been before Unity Ascended."

    I hadn't even considered that, but he was right. If it was that long ago, it might have been pre-Unity. I didn't know why, but for some reason that made me feel a bit better. I'd never met the Unity, but the god of the conglomerate was the person I associated with the heroic organization to which I nominally belonged. The knowledge that he might not be involved in this was some small comfort.

    Callie took my hand, squeezing it gently. She could feel my unease, and the discomfort I'd felt since we learned about what had happened. The worst part was that I couldn't really say that it was shocking to me. It sounded like something the factions would do. I could see where it might even seem necessary, I doubted most of the vanished gods were as friendly as Suvaya apparently had been. But it left a bad taste in my mouth all the same.

    "It's ready." Said Yvette finally, slotting the coffin into the circle and then gesturing for Satala to get in. "Don't worry, we won't be starting just yet. I'm going to make instruction lists for the alterations. Solomon is right, we have more than enough time to do this properly, and preparation will make your survival all that much more likely."

    Satala smiled at her gratefully and climbed into the open coffin. Most of the final changes to the device had been carved on the lid, I understood precisely none of them. I'd lost my skill in Enchanting, and the little bit I did remember was nowhere close to this level of complexity.

    Yvette passed out a series of papers, each one for one of us, with a number of instructions written out on what to alter. Since we had time she was able to study what changes needed to be made and how to make them fastest. Cutting out the whole 'direction' aspect of the ritual alterations would make it MUCH faster.

    We were all powerful Ascendants with high Focus and Might. Being able to think and move so quickly meant listening for someone to manually call out the changes was highly inefficient, it just wasn't something we could help because Yvette was recalculating all the changes to the ritual from a new starting point after we'd killed two of the conduits in advance. She needed access to the actual temple to give us the altered formulas, even if most of the work was already done in advance.

    Once we had them all memorized, we each took up position near out starting points and prepared as best we could. I triggered State of Grace, and then Yvette hefted the coffin lid back up onto the coffin with Satala still inside and began to shift it into position. As soon as the light flooded the room, we started to move.

    I was almost shocked into stopping when she started screaming, but I powered through. I felt Callie's horror through the bond, but she kept focused too, following the instructions we were given in exacting detail, making sure we performed our parts at exactly the right time.

    Listening to the muffled screaming from a girl I'd just met, I suddenly felt a LOT worse about my stunt with the shield back at the fortress. Imagining Callie having to hear this from me made me feel a little sick. I didn't even know Satala and I was horrified. In movies, when people scream, it's usually just noise. Loud exhalations of surprise or fear. But screams from people who are in agony, from people suffering true torment, those sound different.

    Despite the horror my girlfriend and I were both feeling at having essentially volunteering a person to be tortured for an uncertain chance at life, we pushed on. I blurred forward. Touching a spot on the floor with each hand as the glow flared through the runes all over the temple. I shoved hard to switch the runes as I'd been instructed, then shifted my hands and swapped one of those two with another.

    Ten feet and another three or four runes, then fifteen feet. I was using my overlay to avoid banging into the others as they blurred around the room, trying to get this finished as quickly as humanly possible. In the background, the screaming began to dim, and I knew not a single person here thought that was a good thing.

    Finally, I finished, looking around and confirming that I wasn't the only one. "Everyone done?" I shouted? At the affirmatives I dove forward, kicking the coffin lid and sending it flipping off into the air as I reached in to grab Satala and pull her out. The runes began to dim as they lost their power source, and I wasted no time at all.

    Afterburner, heal burst. Five times I dumped an enhanced healing burst of life energy into the shuddering tear stained form of the silver haired girl. Her skin was waxy, eyes sunken and unfocused, and she was twitching like electric shocks were wracking her body.

    As the supercharged life energy roared through her, Bethy and Callie arrived by my side. My girlfriend was the most observant of us, and she noticed the seizure before it had a chance to really begin. She manifested a thick strap of shadows and jammed it into Satala's mouth as her jaws slammed shut, her back arching as her body became a battleground between the leaking sieve of her lost connections to her former power and massive overload of life energy I'd dumped in.

    Honestly, if she hadn't been literally about to die from energy bleedout and life consumption I would never have even tried it. Each of those charges was hundreds of points of Vitality, multipled several times over by afterburner and then stacked on top of each other. If one of those was like a healing energy drink, all five was like jump starting her heart with a regenerative car battery.

    Bethy reached out and clamped down on her wrists, keeping the silver haired girl pinned as Abel arrived and grabbed her feet with help from Gabriel. The green light bleeding from here eyes as her body seized was much more unnerving to see at this level of intensity. It took several minutes for her to stabilize, her body managing to repair the damage from the severed connections, which while not physical were more body related than soul, being stat based.

    Through it all, the Vampire talked to the silver haired girl softly, telling her it was ok, and that she would be alright, and not to worry. Meaningless nonsense that was meant to comfort her and give her something to focus on, but kindness all the same.

    Once she stopped jerking like she was being electrocuted, we were able to let her go, and Bethy cradled the still twitching girl and stroked her hair. Not in a romantic way, but just out of concern. I suspected our Vampire saw a bit of herself in the other girl's situation. What that might be I had no idea, not having a firm grasp on Bethy on my best day, but at the very least I knew empathy when I saw it.

    Finally, she was healed enough to sit up slowly, and we all helped her up. "Water." She croaked in a raspy, torn voice. Callie was closest, and called a bottle from her ring to pass the other girl, who drank it slowly with a wince. Having recently screamed so loud I'd torn my own throat during my adventures in shielding, I recognized the signs there.
    "I'm sorry." I said when she finished. "If I'd known it would be that bad..." I trailed off because I probably still would have suggested it. I hadn't wanted to murder her, or let one of my friends do it.

    She gave a tired smile. "It's a relief in some ways. Being free from the abomination that became of my mother's last desperate gambit. Being free of all the things she made me. I still love her, but the Impact and stats harvested from me were twisted up in the harming of a great many innocents. Having to start over isn't so bad, really."

    "Weird question." Said Abel. "But why aren't you like...old now? Maybe not dead, but you must be thousands of years old
    to be an A-ranker, even independent of how long you were in that coffin. Now that you're an F-ranker your lifespan should be like four thousand years."

    She giggled. "The coffins kept us in stasis, but I'm only about thirty years old aside from that. My mother was a goddess. Accruing renown and gathering resources were hardly an imposition for my family."

    I hadn't known it worked like that, but I guessed it made sense. The children of gods would be massively renowned and by that token would grow absurdly fast. A-rank in thirty years. I wondered if that was some kind of record. "Well." I said with a sigh. "Good to know we didn't waste the effort at least. Now, let's get back to base camp. I need to rest up, and then we have to figure out how we're going to help Satala." Saving her had been the easy part. Now we had to deal with the fallout.
     
    odinori, Hyperion47, BJJPanda and 7 others like this.
  4. Threadmarks: chapter 459
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    "I'm just saying I don't get why we have to tell everyone!" Said Bethy stubbornly as we approached base camp. "Why can't we just hide her or something? There's no reason to call a big meeting and put her in front of the group like she's on trial. She's so weak right now, it's a huge risk." She gestured at Satala, who was currently being pushed in a shadow construct wheelchair.

    "It's our only option." I repeated in exasperation. "We already decided as a group to minimize the involvement of the locals. The chances of there being hidden loyalists embedded is too high. Since we agreed to that, how the hell do we explain where she came from?" I pointed to the ethereal, silver haired girl. "Oh, this is my cousin Suzie, her parents sent her to study in this ISOLATED DUNGEON SPACE? Or do you think they just wouldn't notice us coming back with a new team member?"

    Callie sighed. "He's right Bethy. Besides, like we said, it's not as dangerous as it sounds. We don't just represent the thirty people on our teams, we also represent all our allies and other groups from our factions. Templeton will probably try to mobilize those opposed to try to squeeze us for resources, but there's no way the majority of people will be stupid enough to kick off a civil war amongst the only group we have that can stop the ritual."

    "The Church represents a solid third of the current outsiders." Said Gabriel soothingly. "They'll side with us, and the WCP factions and those related will side with Shane and Natalie. Shane is right. If we do it this way, we can leverage our majority to have her actually protected instead of having to hide her away. She'll ultimately be safer that way."

    We'd even discussed sending her to the locals, but the thing was, while some of them might be loyalists and willing to shelter her, most people didn't worship Suvaya anymore and would probably resent the assumption of authority. Not to mention by siding with us and helping she was effectively turning against her mother, so even the loyalists would probably want her dead. Once Suvaya was gone, we could work on smoothing things over, but at the moment we didn't have the time.

    "Bethany." Said Satala weakly. "It's alright. I owe you all so much already. If Shane and Gabriel think this is for the best I trust them. Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't let the others hurt me after going to so much trouble to save me, would you Shane?"

    "Of course not." I said with a wave. "This is all a formality, but an important one to establish a precedent we can refer to after the defenses on the dungeon collapse. This place will be crawling with high rankers trying to figure out what's going on. As the only agents on scene, the current lineup of outsiders are acting on behalf of their factions. If we get the green light from them you'll be safe from the higher ups."

    I didn't think there was any threat there, given she was effectively crippled now, but it was best to take thinking out of the equation.

    Bethy looked skeptical. "You don't honestly think the factions will honor what their heirs say? My daddy wouldn't let what I said bind him to anything." She paused. "Unless he felt like it. Then he probably would."

    "Your dad is the strongest S-ranker in the universe." I said bluntly. "He's also mostly independent, which puts him in a good spot to ignore what people think. Factions have political agendas, and lots of agreements and contracts between them. Involving this many forces mean tons of red tape, and unless the gods bother to get actively involved chances are good they'll keep this a local problem." I glanced at Callie. "At least that's my read."

    She nodded. "Agreed. Any big sweeping moves against public interest would piss off way too many people. Better to let sleeping dogs lie. This is, of course, dependent on us stopping the ritual. If a bunch of high ranking faction members get their Impact ripped out and die of soul collapse the six will probably glass this whole planet."

    Which begged the question how Suvaya planned to survive her ascension at all, but that was her problem. Mine was making sure WE survived it.

    "Templeton is our main issue." I said with a grimace. "His weird power makes him a nightmare to negotiate with. What do you think he'll try to get out of us?" I asked Gabriel, who seemed to know the most about him.

    "Anything he can." He said unhappily. "I suspect the details will depend on exactly how the sides play out. If it's close to fifty fifty in his favor he'll have more capital to squeeze us. If it swings more in our favor he'll have less leverage. He'll take a mile for every inch we give him, but less inches means less miles."

    I nodded. "Well, fair enough. We can make a binding contract for everyone to sign with a wish. I can get one from Nat or Alistair. I'm already going over some possible legalese to shield us from any of the higher ups as much as possible. I'll probably mention my mom and dad too. Having the shadow of two A-rankers behind me will probably help." I glanced at Gabriel. "You willing to back me up about my mom? Or are you still not sure."

    He shook his head. "It's not that I don't trust you. It's just that you're asking me to put my reputation on the line for hearsay. I can stay silent, which is an endorsement of its own, but I won't forswear myself. It isn't in my nature."

    "Close enough." I said with a shrug. "Now everyone put your game faces on, we're about there. This will be much more crowded than last time based on what Benny said on our call. Be prepared for an audience." I glanced at Satala cautiously. "About the other thing...are you really willing to help Yvette dismantle your mother's ritual?"

    Not approving of her mother killing off the descendants of their worshippers was one thing, but actively helping us prevent her mom from coming back...I was worried that was too much to ask.

    She smiled sadly. "My mother is already gone. Her spirit has been soaking in hatred and malice for millennia, just like my brothers and sisters. Moreso, even, because I truly believe she was shielding me from my own portion of that influence. I believe the person she was before wouldn't want to see this twisted approximation reach divinity. Not at this cost. This is my responsibility, and I will see it through."

    My heart broke for her. Not least because of my own family's role in all this. But I could tell she was being honest. My divination class, had very few tangible benefits, but I'd been able to sense honesty a time or two. Having stepped onto a Path, I was even more in tune with my role as a Fatewalker, and given the importance of Satala's help, this was very much a turning point in a great many fates.

    It felt weird, sort of like my fate sense, but like...the other hand? A secondary ability I wasn't used to using. I could feel that this was more in tune with what I should be doing with my Path, not just stabbing things.

    As we approached the base camp, I noticed the density of powerful Ascendants, and couldn't help but tense. They watched us go. Some I knew, most I didn't, but they didn't speak, didn't glare, they just waited. Templeton stood in the center of a ring of people, and he raised a brow imperiously as we approached.

    "Was it necessary to call us together like this?" He said lazily. "We've all of us important work to do if we wish to survive. Too many of our own have partaken of this poison. Now you call us away from our work for the sake of the enemy?" The attention from his side of the circle seemed to redouble, and I felt ranks close behind us. There seemed to be a line in the sand, our side versus his, and to my delight we were edging him out.

    Of course, that could change if we didn't present a strong case. Callie had been extremely clear that conclaves like this were fickle. Momentum mattered, if opinion started to swing too far to one side it could snowball, and we would be in trouble if that happened. Bethy wasn't going to let anyone hurt Satala, and neither was I. She'd trusted us, was still trusting us, and I could feel how important she would be.

    "We've come across new information." I said solemnly. "Information, and a new ally." Satala had agreed to let me talk. She had good reasons to hate the factions, and getting her involved in the politicking when someone like Templeton was arguing for the other side was a bad idea.

    I gestured to Satala, and filled them in on a simplified but still technically accurate version of events. I'd been tweaking my retelling the whole walk back, just to make sure not to give Templeton any openings. I wasn't clear on his exact relationship with truth and lies, but I suspected spewing bullshit during this little negotiation would be a mistake. Whether this was my Path, my fate sense, or just my gut I had no idea, but it didn't hurt to be careful.

    My biggest priority was making Satala sound like an asset. She was, of course, but I needed to highlight the upsides and minimize the risks. My mind wandered back to a lesson with my dad as a boy. I asked him why anyone would ever sign an uneven contract. If it wasn't fair, what was there to be gained? I knew why the person who come out on top would sign, but why would anyone sign a contract that benefited the other person more.

    He'd told me something I hadn't really remembered until recently. "Contracts are a manifestation of compromise, and compromise means both parties get what they want. The trick is to convince the other person that the things that you want are the things that they want."

    I didn't need to convince these people to help me protect Satala. I needed to convince them it was the best way to help themselves. Yvette was called up to testify as to her usefulness, and I realized that this little argument had devolved into a legitimate trial.

    That was fine. We'd considered that possibility. Templeton wanted to wring some benefits out of us, which meant he needed to put us on the defensive. We didn't need to talk to him, we needed to talk to the others.

    When I finished speaking Templeton opened his mouth again, but to my surprise, Annalise cut him off. "Enough. From both of you. This isn't some casual decision. We're not idiots. If we come to a quorum here it will represent the will of all of our factions if we all survive this. You've said your pieces. Let us talk amongst ourselves. Regardless of the decision, it's clear we'll need documentation."

    She glanced at Nat, who nodded. No one here had the contract Skill at Intermediate as far as I knew, and even if they did, a lot of the teams seemed to have partaken of the Dew. A normal Intermediate contract wouldn't work. If we were going to come to an accord here, we'd need a contract with a powerful geas. A wish was the best way to manage that.

    No one seemed put out by that, but we hadn't figured they would be. After all, we were going into battle against a goddess together for the sake of all of our survival. Having everything spelled out as a real binding agreement would put everyone at ease. This wasn't just about Satala anymore. This had just become a competition to accrue influence over who would draft the agreement that would set the stage for the rest of our time here. I groaned internally. This was why I hated fucking politics.
     
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  5. Threadmarks: chapter 460
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Of course, they didn't stick us in a corner and make us watch the others deliberate. This was a full on conclave now, and everyone was mixing and discussing, including Templeton and I. That was something to worry about, honestly, but the people here were all monsters, I was sure that they knew what the slippery bastard could do better than I did, and probably had defenses against it that I didn't.

    I was kind of lost, and wasn't sure who to appeal to. Despite the new stakes, and I could FEEL them now, this was still mainly about Satala for me. Sure, this was definitely a turning point in history, and the senses I'd been developing as a Fatewalker were buzzing like there was a swarm of bees in my brain, but that would be the case either way.

    This meeting had spiralled pretty far out of control, which meant there WAS a possibility she might end up as collateral. While we'd figured this would be a formality, the fact that the negotiations would have such huge repercussions meant there was a non zero chance they'd want to make an example of her to set the tone.

    A contract like this wasn't going to JUST set the tone for our cooperation, it would also represent one of the biggest joint undertakings anyone had ever heard of. I hadn't understood the exact scale of this kind of compact, but hearing everyone talking about it really drove home exactly what we were doing. Politically we would be setting the possible tone for interactions between the factions for our entire generation, interactions that could effect policy even in the current faction leaderships.

    Which made it important to be careful. Despite many of us being important members of our respective factions, we weren't REALLY important. Not every faction picked their leaders by trial like the WCP. Our cuckoo bird strategy was fairly novel among the big factions. The result there was that nepotism and power concentration were rampant. No one here was a core member of the younger generation of a major faction, which meant everyone from one of the big six had to represent their faction fairly and without making too many waves.

    Theoretically this freed up people from S-ranked factions and clans to be more aggressive, but not being part of a larger machine also meant they had less separation from their respective overlords. If a member of an S-ranked clan did something their family's founder disapproved of, they much just get killed.

    That said, NOT taking part would also be unacceptable. It was insane to miss out on an opportunity to network like this, not just because of missed chances to make connections, but because this would be a HISTORIC accord, and the people involved would be winning renown from their factions in general and the universe at large if it was well received. My head was hurting just listening to all the muttering, but that might just be the buzzing from my damned Path.

    Callie took my elbow deftly and walked us both casually off to one side, making sure no one could tell how much pain I was in. Path then, politics might make my head hurt, but it wasn't usually this literal. My girlfriend's steadying touch was helping though.

    "This has gotten out of hand." She said quietly. "I was expecting things to escalate a bit when we all got together, but this has turned into something bigger than I think any of us could have anticipated. We might have made a mistake."

    She was right. We'd lit a match and tossed on a pile of sticks, but we'd missed that they were soaked in gasoline. "How much of this was Templeton, do you think?" I asked in annoyance. His power was complicated and hard to understand, but it might be possible for him to pivot a large scale meeting into something like this.

    "Doesn't matter." She said with a shrug. "We need to get out there and start swaying people to our side. The final decision here is going to effect the balance of power in the actual team that helps draft the agreement. We're pretty much doubling down at this point." I knew that, I knew exactly what was happening. My Path was trying to take it all in, trying to push me slightly.

    This was what being a Fatewalker was about, even more than battle, changing the course of destiny. And suddenly, several different things about the current situation just...clicked. I didn't magically get an answer, but I felt a hard shove that aimed me right at a specific group of people.

    The devil girl I'd seen in one of the starting teams was talking to a tall, purple skinned man with curling rams horns, and I could feel that I needed to talk to him too. I started walking before I figured out what I was going to say, and talking before I finished deciding. I stopped in front of him and held out my hand, my Path pushing me to introduce myself a certain way. "Hi there, Shane Wyndham, son of Elijah."

    I knew my dad had become a devil from Zeke, though I had no clue what the circumstances were. From the widening of the purple skinned demon's slitted orange eyes, he definitely did. "Elijah...Wyndham?" He said slowly.

    "Yeah." I said with a chuckle. "I know he's got some connections in the devil world." Which wasn't true, but it was easy to assume. Not just because of the push from my ability, but because there really weren't that many A-rankers out there in the grand scheme of things, and I knew my dad had made the shift to being a devil to break our of B-rank. "You know of him I take it?"

    He adopted an inscrutable expression. "What do you know of how the devil leadership is arranged?" He was watching me intently. From what I'd seen of the devil girl, she was leaning to Templeton's side, and since they were friendly he might have been too, but he seemed to be hanging on my every word here, so it might be possible to pivot him to our camp.

    "I heard you guys are kind of like fae? Though I'm not clear on the differences." One of the fae had mentioned it to me once, but it hadn't made much sense.

    He waved me off. "It's not important. For the purposes of this conversation you can treat us as a subset of the fae. We live in a territory of the Fairyland technically speaking, but it's mostly its own area. Being the nearest god, the Fairy Queen nominally holds dominion over us, but we're ruled by a council of nine princes, all high in the S-rank and their generals, who are all A-rank."

    "And my dad is one of the generals?" I asked, seeing where this was probably going.

    "My family falls under the purview of the demon prince Adramalech, and the Wish Devil is his most recent general." He said helpfully. "He's considered a unique resource, and has been extremely helpful to the prince. As his son, you could be considered half a member of the Adramalech faction, and you have my support." He glanced at the devil girl. "Nasha, can you convince your team leader as well?"

    She nodded. "Probably. It's close enough not to have any serious repercussions either way right now." She shot me a winning smile. "Just try to mention me to your dad next time you see him."

    That was unlikely to happen anytime soon, but since I was wearing a mask my grimace went unnoticed. "Sure thing." I said lightly. I'll mention you both." I cocked my head at the taller demon. "I don't think you mentioned your name?" I wouldn't be a dick about this. I'd try to remember to mention them to my dad if I saw him, after I finished telling him what an asshole he was.

    "Markoth." He said, bowing his head slightly. "My father is Lieutenant-General in the prince's army, Malkor. It's an honor to be of assistance to the son of the Wish Devil." The way he said that made me incredibly curious exactly how much my dad had been doing in devil territory. I knew he was an A-ranker, and that meant he'd be effective, but the reverence in his voice implied a certain level of fame. Or infamy I guessed.

    To my surprise, Markoth headed off to speak to others on my behalf almost immediately, as did Nasha, and our political sway seemed to pretty much triple. Whoever Malkor was, he was clearly impressive in whatever circles he ran in. I wondered if he was considered an invincible B-ranker like Zeke. Then again, I'd already noted these weren't core members of the major factions. Maybe Markoth's dad was just local, or was well known in local circles.

    My Path didn't push me in any new or useful directions after that. In fact, it seemed to drain off after that conversation. I guessed my divination was only strong enough to influence events slightly. Hopefully that would be enough.

    Finally, after what seemed like both far too long and not nearly enough time, the conversation seemed to wind down. I couldn't have said how it happened, there was no indication, no one called things to a head, everyone just kind of...knew. Templeton took up the role of spokesperson again, once more making me suspicious he'd steered things to this point.

    With everyone already quiet, it was simple for him to make himself heard. "You've all discussed this." He said solemnly.
    "You know the importance of this decision. We are the mercy of the masses. Should we decide to put down the interloper, I will do my best to represent the interests of all of us when I craft the document on which this alliance will be built." He said it with a slight smile, as if he was discussing sunday brunch.

    Bethy was glaring at him from her place next to Satala, and as he met her burning ruby gaze, I saw him flinch a bit. It was hard not to smile at the sight of that. I looked around. "All in favor of letting our new friend aid us in this important task?" I resisted the urge to try to subtly slip in some references to how necessary she was for our survival.

    Hands went up. Lots of them. I counted slowly and let out a loud sigh of relief as I confirmed that we'd pulled out ahead. About sixty percent. Not as big a margin as I'd hoped. Templeton was more convincing than I'd given him credit for. Ignoring the snarl on the bastard's face, I turned to Satala with a smile. "Then I suppose it falls on me to welcome you to our alliance."

    Of course, Satala would have to sign the accord we came up with. Not only would this ensure her safety, it would ensure OURS. I might be optimistic and fairly sure of my abilities, but I wasn't stupid. Insurance was necessary to make certain we were all protected.

    Turning to Nat, who was waiting nearby, I grinned. "Now, since we're going to need to get started on the drafting process, I wish for a binding geas in paper form, suitable for the purpose of a large scale alliance agreement. I offer as payment first pick of the spoils upon our defeat of the goddess Suvaya." There were plenty of winces, but no one objected. This was an important step for all of us, so we should all pay. Of course, Nat was on my team, so I'd be keeping the potential windfall in the family, but the opportunity was big enough to be worth the wish at least.

    There was the usual lightshow that only we could see, and Nat passed me a piece of paper rolled up in a scroll. Nodding somberly, I turned and glanced at Annalise, Gabriel, Bethy, Markoth, and my other allies. "Now, if you might help me hammer out the terms, we can arrange a beneficial accord that will carry us through this battle and together into a brighter future." And with that, our true work began, and the drafting of the Pact of the Fist commenced.
     
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  6. Threadmarks: chapter 461
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The codification of the terms of the Pact of the Fist (Benny named it, and he'd been so helpful with all of this no one argued) took about a full day. We were short on time, but no one was willing to move forward with the missions until we'd hammered everything out. With the entire group of nearly a thousand outsiders gathered, there were too many interests represented for any of us to feel at ease leaving things to chance.

    The numerous bindings on betrayal (ostensibly for everyone) that were thrown in to make sure Satala didn't screw us took the longest. Templeton and his goons had to make them vague enough to be technically applicable to all of us but also not restrictive enough to box in anyone but her. Still, there were several provisions for protections from family and factions for all involved parties that would be useful to us as well as them.

    Finally, at about noon the next day we finished writing it all out, and everyone got in line to sign the agreement. One by one, we put our names down, and I felt the temporary draw of Impact in the same way I did when Enchanting. It wasn't just me either, everyone gave some up from the look of it.

    The paper that the geas was written on collected power as we went until finally the last signature was put down and the thing burst into purple flame. The electric current I associated a with shot out from the blaze and slammed into us all, tightly binding us to the agreement we'd just signed, and I for one felt both much better and a bit worried at the same time to have it over with.

    The geas fell heavy on us all too. Nearly a thousand F-rankers, most of whom had gotten ahold of the Dew, contributed to the binding, and the damned thing was pretty sturdy for all the help. Once it was done, we all gathered around Yvette and Satala, both whom were, while signatories, NOT involved in the crafting of the accord and had plenty of time to work on the calculations for the ritual shutdown.

    In fact, Satala was familiar enough with her mother's abilities and personality that she was able to streamline the alteration process, cutting down on the time the temples needed to be active during the changes, and making it much easier for us to manage them in the allotted time.

    It was incredibly useful, considering that based on that and her own understanding of the conduits, they were able to set up a plan for us to evenly distribute our forces and complete the alterations within one more round of missions. Satala in particular seemed pleased about this, filling us in on her reasoning without any hesitation.

    "Basically, the sooner we trigger the ritual, the less prepared my mother's spirit will be." Said the silver haired girl. "Theoretically, doing it the day before is fine, but if we can manifest her soul body weeks in advance, she'll be much less coherent and much less dangerous to all of you."

    Yvette nodded. "That isn't in doubt." She gestured to the ground, where she'd sketched a complicated diagram. "I've been able to refine my process considerably, and along with the information Satala has shared about the conduits and their names and traits, I've been able to work up guides similar to the one we used at her temple for each of them."

    "Which means we can dispatch teams to each of the conduit temples directly." I nodded. "All at once. With so many of us here, we can even assemble the teams best suited for each fight. But will that trigger her descent immediately? Because somehow I feel like that would be a mistake." Suvaya was a goddess, fallen or not, weakened or not, deprived of her body or not, she was a threat that not a single one of us would survive alone. We needed to fight her as a group.

    "Of course." Said the construct. "We've arranged things to account for that. It'll take a day for the ritual to cycle once it's been activated. The last conduit will complete the script and trigger the reroute, but we've built in buffers to slow down the process. Once you've completed your assignment you'll regroup with the rest of us outside the main temple to prepare for the final battle."

    I sighed with relief, then held out a hand for the little booklet she'd prepared for my team specifically. Honestly moving the timetable up like this was better. I hadn't been excited about spending a month sitting around picking off scary targets while checking in constantly back here. This place freaked me out, and if it wasn't the only landmark that would work from a distance I'd have been happy to avoid it.

    Which reminded me. "How did we get everyone back here for the meeting?" I asked Benny. "I get Templeton pushed for it, but did he have some method of contacting them we didn't?"

    "Alistair." Said my friend in distaste. "He doesn't seem to have the same problems with Templeton as everyone else. I'd have assumed he would be more...I don't know, loyal to the team? Isn't he like your second cousin or something? He's a relative at least."

    "Nothing that close." I said, shaking my head. "He's from another branch, which means literally the closest relative we probably share is a great-grandparent. My grandfather is branch elder for ours, and I know for a fact that there's competition. Family politics means that siding with us earlier is probably about the most support we can expect from the guy."

    Benny whistled. "I'm SO glad I'm not related to you. No offense. Your family is seriously dysfunctional. And I thought Maria's bad taste in boyfriends was family drama."

    "Yeah, I'm not a fan of all the backstabbing either." I paused. "Though I guess with the whole competition thing it's more frontstabbing. At least they're direct about it."

    Flipping open the booklet, I flipped through it. "Oh hey, nice. We've got Gabriel, Abel, and Bethy again, plus a bunch of backup. Willow is coming along, she can definitely help." The girl scared me more than Abel did, so having her on our team was pretty cool. "Twenty man team. That makes me feel a lot better about this next..." I trailed off, closing my eyes with a sigh.

    "What?" Said Benny, raising his eyebrow. "Twenty people seems...shit." He stared at the page on the booklet. S-rank. We were going after Pallax, a former high priest of Suvaya, or in the parlance of current religious organizations, a Pope. Sure, he was stripped of most of his power, but based on the serious danger we'd faced fighting the last guy...

    "Hey." I said consolingly. "At least we aren't going in blind. We don't just have a general idea of his abilities, Satala put together a whole package on him. Skills, techniques, habits, if we have to fight a complete monster at least we get to do it prepared. And with twenty people we can do a LOT of preparing. Imagine the invocations we can manage, especially with someone like Yvette acting as a focus. She's got so much Impact."

    He nodded slowly. "I could actually see that working. I mean, we have to talk to the others and get a list of their tricks, but a huge invocation would be a great way to level the playing field."

    I wasn't sure it would be QUITE that easy, but it was definitely a direction to work toward. "Hey, Abel! Bethy! Gabe!" I called three strongest members of my team verbally and reached out for Callie through our bond. She noticed immediately and headed over, plucking the booklet from Benny's hands without bothering to ask for it.

    My snicker at that might not have been the most diplomatic response, but his expression was funny. Celine also stepped up, followed by Jessie, and both of them were with us, so that worked out for the best. Callie whistled as she read the booklet. "We have a good lineup, but they sent us after a tough son of a bitch."

    "Guess that's what we get for being the best." Abel said with a shrug. "What do we have." He grabbed the booklet and flipped through it. "Gold manipulation? Transmutation too. That doesn't seem so..." He trailed off as he started reading some of the technique descriptions. "Oh. Nevermind. Well, that just seems excessive."

    He passed it to Mel, who scanned it with a visible wince, and then started passing it around. We all had pretty high Focus, so it wasn't like we needed to read it more than once. "We were talking about possible invocations to deal with the conduit. With so many people, plus Yvette coming along, we can really cut loose. She has so much Impact she should be able to leverage that much power easily."

    Gabriel nodded. "Maybe. The conduit himself will have plenty of Impact, and don't forget there are other options for dealing with attacks than just tanking them. We have to land the hit in order for it to be effective. Still, it's a good strategy for dealing with a powerful enemy."

    "I don't think we should attack." Said Callie thoughtfully. "We have functional attack methods already. His Impact is the same as the others, it's his capabilities that are a problem. We should find out if anyone on the team has binding abilities. A powerful binding would probably serve us well in this instance. If we can pin him down Gabriel, Shane, and Bethy can lay into him with their respective weapons."

    "Nasha can do that." Said a voice off to one side. I wasn't surprised to see Markoth approach. He was listed among our allies, though I didn't know how strong he was. Since the devils seemed to be considered fairly impressive on a large scale, I was hoping he'd have some useful abilities to contribute. Racial traits could be pretty scary as I'd seen with Bethy.

    The demon girl waved cheerfully, offering us a bright smile. "My main Skill is Unholy Binding. Not only should it be pretty helpful for pinning him down, it counters divine energy to an extent. Is that going to be a problem for you, Crusader?"

    Gabriel shook his head. "Unlikely, I just need to avoid being bound myself. As for the other aspects of it, while I know some members of my faith dislike your people, the devils aren't considered proscribed by our Lord. I'm happy to have you working alongside us." He offered his hand, and Markoth and Nasha shook it in turn.

    "For sure." Chirped Bethy. "Devils can be super strong. You guys work for Prince Drama right? Daddy says he has a fine understanding of the importance of presentation."

    Both of the devils flinched when she said that, and I had to hold back a laugh. Only Bethy would reference an S-ranker by the embarrassing nickname her father used for him. I doubted Adramalech was going to start a war with the Vampire over something so mundane, so I guessed she would get away with it.

    "Well then, seems like it's time for us to get started planning." I flipped back through the booklet. "Alright, I've got a list of everyone we need, you guys want to have a meeting before we go? Or we can talk while we walk. I really want to get off this fucking mountain forever as soon as possible."

    That got a laugh and a round of agreements from my friends, so we rounded up our group so we could head out. It would be a bit of a trip this time, Pallax's sub temple wasn't close, but this would be the last one. Once we finished this, we could group up and prepare for the descent of Suvaya. After that...well, I couldn't wait to get off this fucking planet.
     
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  7. Threadmarks: chapter 462
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    We made pretty good time getting to the temple, but we didn't head in immediately. "Alright." I said to Callie. "Can you scope this place out for us? Satala says this priest guy doesn't like the Night Pride, and he shouldn't have any guarding him. With her dossier on his techniques, and your information gathering ability, we can definitely avoid any casualties. Speaking of which, Bethy, you bring any of those stakes?"

    The tiny Vampire nodded cheerfully. "Yup." She withdrew a pair of them. "These are my last two. I sent some with Aida and Tracey too, just to keep them safe, but these two should be more than enough. You want to carry them? Your neat little armor bypassing trick worked really well with them last time."

    I took one, waving off her attempt to pass me the other. "Better to have two points of attack in there. Will they still work?"
    She waggled a hand. "Yes, but not as well. That guy's soul is probably monstrous, with enough soul power you can resist a lot. It won't be enough to save him, but he might be able to force himself to move still."

    "It's fine. Nasha, you ready with your binding Skill?" Her Unholy binding should keep him still long enough for us to put him down, which would save us so much trouble here. I had a plan for taking him out if we could get the shot, and it was a pretty good one, but it all depended on opportunity.

    The demoness looked troubled. "Yes, but I'll need him to stand still long enough to actually use it. We need to pin him down with attacks before I can pin him down with my Skill."

    "That won't be a problem." Said Abel confidently. "I'll make sure he keeps still. Gabe and I should be able to distract him, especially in combination with the invocation teams. I'm like...60% sure no one is going to be mummified alive in a living coffin of molten gold!"

    I winced. That particular technique had bothered me too. Nasha didn't look particularly reassured. Callie glared at our mentor. "Can you be serious for once!"

    "I am being serious." He said in a wounded voice. "I really think we might all survive this."

    Mel smacked him in the back of the head. "She's unhappy with the implication that there's a 40% chance we might NOT all survive. You're not supposed to talk about possible fatalities before a raid. It's bad for morale. No one here wants to think about all the terrible ways some of us are probably going to die!"

    I palmed the forehead of my mask with a sigh. And she winced, apologizing quickly as she decided to stop talking. "We'll be fine, guys. We're insanely prepared for this. Plus we have Yvette to leverage our power into a strong invocation."
    "Yeah, about that." Said Benny in confusion. "I thought invocations were based on soul strength, shouldn't we be letting Abel do this?"

    "Kind of." I hedged. "If you think of an invocation like a lever, the soul is the material, and Impact is the fulcrum. Better Impact lets you pull of more powerful invocations without as much soul strain. At least that's how it was explained to me. Yvette is our best bet for pulling this off. She has as much Impact as Pallax himself, so she should definitely be able to bring some serious power to bear."

    There was a loud roar as Randall, who was nearby, stood up on his back legs and crowed in triumph. Jessie, who was standing next to him, pinched the bridge of her nose. "That's not what that means Randy. It's just an expression." The bear paused, cocking its head and issuing a confused growl. "No I don't know why they phrase it that way." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, bears are very powerful."

    Bethy, who was standing nearby the two, was trying desperately to hold in her giggles. "Your teddy bear is pretty funny!" She said, grinning at Jessie. "You've gotta teach me how to train my kitties like that."

    My blonde team member nodded smugly. "I am an expert in animal training. I have tons of experience."

    "You're basically an animal puppet master." Said Benny incredulously. "You just shove life force into them and use it to make them do what you want until it sticks."

    She shrugged. "It works, doesn't it? How many giant animals have YOU trained?"

    He shot me a smirk. "Just the one. Though to be fair, yours smells better. Plus it doesn't hog all the hot water with it's absurdly long showers. I don't even think mine knows any tricks."

    I sneered at him. "Well I can do magic." I flipped him off. "Look, a bird." Callie cleared her throat over the sounds of Jessie and Bethy choking back laughter and I cleared my throat. "Anyway, Randall will be incredibly useful in this fight. Though we'll need Abel's help to get him inside. He can just ride him."

    "You want me to ride into an ancient forgotten temple to kill the high priest of a vanished god on the back of a giant supernatural bear?" Said Abel slowly.

    "Yeah, why is that a problem?" I hadn't expected him to mind, honestly.

    He reached up and pinched the skin of one of his arms. "No." He said absently. "I just needed to make sure I was awake. I legitimately have no idea when my life got THIS awesome."

    "If it helps remember that you might suffocate to death on molten gold as it boils your lungs from the inside." Said Mel helpfully. We all threw up our hands, giving her a what the fuck look, and she winced. "Oh, I said that out loud, didn't I? Right, bad for morale."

    "I thought it was informative." Said Abel charitably, and we all just rolled our eyes at their antics.

    "So, what do we have?" I asked Callie. "You get a good look at the inside of the temple? I'm betting there are some traps laid out for us."

    "You could say that." She said helplessly. "He coated the entire place with gold. Every inch of the walls and floor is plated with the stuff. If we set foot in there we'll basically be walking right into his hands. I couldn't tell exactly from the shadows, but I'm pretty sure it's all forty Impact gold. Which means it's much more durable than any normal F-rank metal, and if he turns it on us we're screwed."

    I cursed. "Not what I wanted to hear, but I guess it's better to know at least." With that bit of information, we got down to the serious business of planning a raid.

    Within an hour we had officially prepared and we moved into the temple as a group. We had several defensive ability users on the team, and by grouping them all up we'd put together a first line of defense in case Pallax tried to ambush us. Despite the preparation though, once we entered the golden halls of the temple, nothing happened. We peacefully headed into the heart of the place.

    When we arrived, we found a golden haired man sitting at a golden table, drinking tea from a golden pot. When he saw us, he smiled lightly, took one last sip from his golden cup, and then set the tea cup down. "Ah." He said warmly. "You must be the current generation sent by the false gods. I take it you're here to kill me?"

    Despite the words, Pallax seemed perfectly at ease, and I stepped forward to speak for everyone, a bit of hope kindling in my chest. Maybe this was another person like Satala, who couldn't bear to kill their own people. "We are. I'm Solomon, one of the potential heirs of the Wish Curse Palace. Are you Pallax?"

    The golden haired man smiled sadly. "I am. I'm surprised you were willing to talk. Are you hoping to resolve things peacefully?"

    "We are." I confirmed. I didn't even need to ask everyone, if we didn't have to fight the former S-ranker, we shouldn't. That just seemed like common sense. "We've already helped one of your own, Satala, break her ties to the ritual. She couldn't bear the thought of killing so many descendants of your worshippers."

    "That sounds like her." He said with a fond chuckle. "The little princess was always the kindest of us all. I can understand why she would take that path as well. I too find the thought of killing the descendants of our flock sickening. I've only recently become aware of the leakage, and I would mourn their loss."

    I let out a relieved breath. "I'm glad. I thought you might hate us for what happened. I know that malice has infected most of your fellow conduits."

    "I'm sure." He said easily. "But no. I hold no hatred in my heart for any of you. Not just you, I don't even blame your ancestors. All things must end. My brothers and sisters were always far too easily swayed. I've felt out mother's madness for centuries, I know she has strayed from her path."

    This was going perfectly. "So you'll help us put a stop to this? Make sure that no one else gets hurt? Because I have to say I'm incredibly relieved by how reasonable you're being about this."

    "No." Said the golden haired man with a sad smile. "I'm afraid that isn't the case. I'm going to finish my tea, and then I'm going to kill you all. It's nothing personal, of course, simply my duty. If you remain still I can at least make it quick. There's no reason for unnecessary suffering."

    My smile froze. "What?" I just blinked at him. "But you just said you don't hate us, that you know your goddess has gone crazy, and that the thought of your worshippers and their descendants dying is sickening to you."

    "All of that is true." Said the golden haired man. "It is also irrelevant. I am a priest. It is not my place to question, or reason, or cajole. I am not an advisor. I am an instrument of my lady's will. Her divine judgement made manifest. Madness, fear, vengeance, I act on her designs. If you hoped to negotiate with me, you've gravely misjudged this situation. I bear you no ill will, and that will continue to be true even as your lungs fill with my moongold."

    There was a slight rumble, and I watched in horror as the walls and floor began to vibrate. No, not vibrate. Superheat. The gold began to glow as he used his control over it to accelerate the kinetic energy in the substance, heating it to a molten state even as we stood inside.

    Cursing, I triggered Moonlit Night. Fog filled the room rapidly, and I felt the stealth imbued water clash against the heat and counter it slightly, steam filling the room as our defensive team triggered their invocation. A massive transparent turtle shell came into being above us, a membrane manifesting below us, and Yvette winced as the gold on the walls and floor exploded down at us in a massive omnidirectional wave.

    However, with Moonlit Night up, the attack was off center. More of the gold hit the back side of the shell than the front, and the force sent the whole defensive construct rocketing out of the mist and away from the golden deluge, revealing the normal dark stone walls of the chamber appearing before us as the gold formed into a massive serpent and shot after us, emerging from the steam and fog searching for our location.

    Which was when a fist materialized from the air and smashed right into the snake's golden face. Abel had stepped up as an alternate for the invocation teams to offset the disadvantage. The snake was made of a LOT of condensed gold, but Abel's punch was superimposed multiple times, enough to even leave a small dent. Sadly that was all it did. I had a feeling this fight wasn't going to go as smoothly as the last few.
     
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  8. Verdthandi

    Verdthandi Getting out there.

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    So setting aside the excellent buildup, my general excitement for the next chapter, and my awe at how well you’re keeping up the pace on writing this story - this is legit one of the funniest exchanges I’ve read in months.
     
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  9. Threadmarks: chapter 463
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The sight of the giant golden snake made all of us pale. This technique was one of the ones mentioned by Satala, but it was on a totally different scale. According to her briefing, it took time to transmute things into gold, and the materials used mattered. Coating the walls and floors must have taken him ages, and a not insignificant amount of soul power. By condensing the gold he made it stronger, and was able to effectively make a low level enchanted weapon.

    "Huh." Said Benny as he looked up at the serpent through the transparent turtle shell. "Guys. I think this might be a trap."
    We all turned to glare at him, and Celine pinched her nose. "Yes, love. We knew that when we came in here. Also, in case the walls made of gold didn't give it away, the whole building coming alive and trying to kill us made that quite clear."

    He shrugged. "That's fair. I wasn't really paying attention, honestly. You guys talk a lot, and I sort of drift in and out. I was working on ideas for new inventions." He squinted up at the snake. "I wonder what I could make out of that thing. Actually, I'm going to use that. Dibs."

    "You can't call DIBS on the giant golden snake weapon." I protested. "If anyone gets dibs it's Nat, we're contractually obligated to give her first pick."

    "Can you two PLEASE focus." Snapped Callie. "We're about to be eaten by a giant construct monster."

    "I don't think it's going to eat us." I said uneasily. "Look at its mouth." The snake's jaws had begun to fall open, and I saw a terrifying glow from within. That explained why he'd superheated the walls before making it. Shit. "Brace for impact!" I shouted, grabbing the team member who was making the shell and channeling Mountain Stance.

    The snake reared back and struck, not biting, but throwing its whole body forward like a whip as it vomited forth a TORRENT of glowing golden metal.

    "Oh shit!" Yelped Benny. "It can breathe molten gold? I didn't know it could do that. Did anyone ELSE know it could do that?" His voice was high and panicked, which I understood as I grimaced under the force of the blow to the turtle shell. Of course, if I was shaken, that was nothing compared to Adrian, the thin, long haired man making the shell.

    As the golden deluge hit the shield, he vomited blood, doubling over, and the shell began to crack. I could see the burning metal starting to seep through the cracks, and hear the hissing as I realized the snake had somehow made the gold fucking poisonous. Or venomous? It wasn't a real snake so I wasn't sure. Regardless it was eating through the shell and Adrian was failing fast.

    "Drop it!" Barked Abel, and I nodded to the other man, still doubled over. Adrian dropped the shield and Abel lashed out with a hand, making a waving motion and creating an arc of lubricated space the diverted the gold.

    Then he lashed out with a phantom hand and slapped the snake away. I looked around, seeing that Bethy and Gabriel had split up to hammer attacks into Pallax while Yvette held his attention. Sadly, the binding plan was on hold because the golden haired priest was VERY mobile, even while operating his fucking giant snake.

    "Does that thing look smaller to you?" I called hopefully to the others still in our group? A chunk of them had split off to help try to pin down Pallax with invocations, but we still had ten with us, counting Adrian who admittedly wasn't in great shape.

    Jessie appeared next to him, laying on hands and pumping in life energy while Benny laid one on his shoulder to channel spiritual calming. "Probably." Said our healer distractedly. "That gold had to come from somewhere, and condensing it only gets you so far." She grimaced as she stood up. "That's all I can do. Most of the damage wasn't physical. Benny will be more help for the soul stuff."

    Abel stepped up next to her. "That works. Mel is off trying to help the Vampire and the choir boy. I need a partner for this next part. I had an idea if you'll trust me. I need you to get Randall within touching distance."

    "Sure." She shrugged. Her bear companion was close by, acting as a shield against the snake that was still recovering, either from Abel's attack or from vomiting up half its mass. I was concerned the gold might have either been part of or be damaging the temple, but at a glance it was clear some of the enchantments were defensive. They did NOT want this thing broken.

    Randall shuffled back, and Abel put a hand on Jessie's shoulder, and one on Randall's flank. He grinned like a lunatic as he screamed. "BEAR WITNESS!"

    With a massive heave of power, he leveraged Ragam, pulling the other two into the invocation and leveraging his powerful soul to handle it. IN the air above them a MASSIVE image of a fucking BEAR made of green energy appeared above him, glaring right at the snake as it roared in defiance, sweeping its paws up and around to create a series of afterimages just like the six arm attack stance Abel used in combat.

    The snake froze, staring in bewilderment at the huge green animal before Abel's bear construct started raining down a torrent of slaps on the golden monster. The impact of each blow was only enough to make slight dents like before, but the rain of smacks was knocking the snake around like a sock in a windstorm.

    We all just stood there and stared at the giant green energy bear. "Well." I said faintly. "That's something you don't see every day." The bear was absolutely ruining the snake's day. Randall's massive Might, Jessie's life force to keep up the output and Ragam to tie it all in a bow. The combination of all those factors made the damned construct an absolute MACHINE of destruction.

    "They've got this!" Shouted Callie in my ear, trying to be heard over the noise. "We need to help the others with Pallax!"
    She was right, tapping the others (minus one or two people to watch their backs while they fought) we bolted over to where the battle with the priest was still going strong. Gabriel's charger was dashing in circles trying to circle around the blonde man, and Yvette was hurling herself in front of attacks to try to prevent him from smashing the others. Bethy had her cats out and was flashing back and forth trying to exploit weaknesses, using them to attack when she had him distracted and vice versa, though to minimal success.

    Pallax, for his part, looked mostly serene as he shuttled across the stone, hurling wobbling orbs and whips of molten gold to try to control the battlefield. I lashed out with a hand, triggering Pit of Despair, and he cursed as the ground dissolved into dust under him, catching himself with a golden claw.

    I made sure the ground reformed once he was free. I was surprised that even worked, but I didn't want to damage any important enchantment portions. The distraction forced him to sit still though, and Gabriel's lance smashed into his exposed shoulder with a bellow of "RUBRUM GLORIA!"

    The priest soaked the damage, being thrown backwards, and landed gracefully, glaring at the crusader. He'd finally gotten upset at the situation, but it was too late. There was a blaze of dark energy, and the ground beneath him opened up as a pair of flaming green skeletal hands reached up and snagged a wrist each. I saw Nasha sway, Markoth propping her up as a bunch of the others funneled stats into the invocation.

    "Bethy!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs. "Tee me up! On his back!" She seemed confused for a second, then looked down at her stake and realized my plan. She slashed her wrist, bleeding on the weapon as she dove at his back, slamming the stake into it and grimacing as it stopped at only a few inches in. But I didn't mind that at all. I'd expected it in fact.

    Double Trouble. Afterburner. Marked for Death. Mercy Kill. Triple strength density shifted attack. Touch of Tears. Consecration of Flame. A full power swing from my staff, and all the death energy stored in the thing. I put every ounce of power in my body into the strike as I swung my E-ranked weapon in one of the forms Willow had shown me to maximize sudden power.

    The staff came down with a terrifying force...right on top of the exposed end of the stake that Bethy had yanked her hand away from and left stuck in Pallax's back. The raw force of my blow hit the end of the stake like a hammer driving a nail into a plank of wood. The massive stacked attack drove it right through his back and into his heart, the death energy being carried through it by the power of all my subskills.

    Unfortunately for Pallax, the stake wasn't made to be smashed in with an E-rank bludgeon, and once the staff completed its arc it fucking EXPLODED in a shower of flaming green poisony death right inside his back. He threw back his head and howled, but he wasn't down for the count. I snagged my own stake from my belt and yelled. "Gabe!" As I hurled it end over end to the crusader.

    He reached up and snatched it from the air, tying it to the end of his lance in a way I suspected wouldn't have worked for any non Ascendant. Pallax roared, yanking back and forth and the skeletal hands started to crack as Nasha screamed in agony. Markoth roared. "HURRY THE HELLS UP!"

    Gabriel mounted his charger, and I could feel the air shift as his Path infused his lance, his steed, and his whole being. His eyes blazed with divine light as he blurred forward, an avalanche of unstoppable force and fury as he repeated his battle cry of "RUBRUM GLORIA!" At the top of his lungs. Path, ability, weapon, and fair merged into a gleaming comet of shining glorious death as the lance hit Pallax head on and SPEARED the stake right into him, hammering it into his heart.

    The priest threw back his head and roared in pain and despair as a torrent of white light poured out of his body, the merged attack funneled through the stake exploding inside him as blazing faith powered Adamant strength shone from eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

    Nasha released her hold with a wail and fell to the groun, Markoth catching her as Benny blurred over to help with his spiritual calming. Almost in slow motion, Pallax's body toppled to the floor, eyes charred out, limply sprawled on the dark stone as his massive snake construct lost its animating force and slammed into the ground with a crash. I triggered a pair of my heal bursts on myself, and walked over to use one more on Nasha, hoping to help with the last of my Afterburner buff.

    "Everyone alright?" I croaked as the weakness tore through me, mixing with the vital energy to create an extremely nauseating cocktail of sensations.

    Almost two dozen voices called their affirmative, and I slumped to the ground, exhausted and panting. We'd made it. Our last mission before the biggest fight of our lives and no one died in the attempt. Sadly we still had to do the real work though. I groaned and got to my feet. "Alright. Places everybody. We need to get that bastard in the coffin and adjust the ritual before all the life in his body fades." After that though, I was gonna take a fucking nap. This had been rough.
     
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  10. Threadmarks: chapter 464
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    We arrived at the rendezvous point the next morning. Most of the other teams had beaten us there, probably because they had much weaker priests to deal with and mostly larger teams. We'd been expected to make due because of the concentration of elites we had.

    Sadly, the major issue we discovered when we arrived wasn't related to our fellow outsiders, it was related to something...worse. Specifically, the MASSIVE army of undead cultists shambling around in the plane outside the central temple.

    "Ok." I said slowly. "So...I feel like considering how many of those look like they used to be local worshippers, not involving the locals was the right call. Thankfully they're zombies, because I doubt we could stop the other teams from straight up murdering them to get to that central temple. They don't look so tough though, so there's that. I'm not too worried about scything through a few thousand random corpses."

    "That's because you're not paying attention." Spat a nearby voice. I turned to find Templeton glaring down at the field of zombies. "They aren't there to slow us down, they're there to soak up damage and force us to use our energy before we reach our target. Soul strain and energy depletion might be minimal for one or two of those, but there are about twenty thousand down there. More than a dozen a piece even if we had our full complement of a thousand."

    Which made sense. Shit. "Meat shields." I sneered. "Classy." I looked around for our resident expert, who was with us by virtue of us abandoning the fist mountain for this location. I spotted her telltale silver hair and waved her over. "Satala!" I called as I made my gesture. When she got close enough I nodded down to the shambling corpses. "So any idea where these things came from?"

    She nodded. "If I had to guess probably the temple. They're most likely people that have come to try to break in over the centuries, maybe some cultists mixed in there." She frowned down at the bodies. "I can't believe my mother would disrespect her faithful in such a way. To have fallen so low. She must truly be suffering."

    I personally felt like the mass murder of tens of thousands of Ascendants throughout the known universe was a pretty good indicator of dickishness. Still, it was her mom, so I didn't say that. I just sighed. Callie stepped up beside me, staring down into the valley where the massive black stone temple was housed. It reminded me of all the sub temples, but bigger, though there was some space warping going on from what I could see of the zombies walking patterns.

    "This is going to suck." She said matter of factly. "It won't be as simple as twenty or thirty a piece. A lot of us don't have the skillset for mass carnage. We need to carve through them in the most efficient way possible, but without burning up our energy." She paused, thinking it over. "I think our best bet is physical combat. Rely on weapons to tear through them as quickly as we can."

    In the end, we decided to charge them horde and wipe them out manually on the way inside. Jessie agreed to charge everyone up as they entered, effectively erasing any physical drain and undoing the damage from the trap. Of course, this was all predicated on no one getting injured in the fight, but it wasn't like we could wait. The ritual would trigger in a few hours and we needed some time to set up.

    Yvette had some last minute alterations she wanted to make to the temple to minimize Suvaya's power when she manifested, something she hadn't expected to have time to do. Satala's information about the ritual had been invaluable to us so far.

    So, with that said, we made our way down into the horde as a group, spreading out to present a single long front with plenty of room between group so we could clean them all up. I spun my staff up as we approached. "Is it just me, or are you kind of excited about this?" I asked my girlfriend casually.

    She chuckled. "This part? Yeah. We haven't been in a real fight as a team like this in a while. The whole godslaying thing is a bit intimidating, but the coming fight should be good." As she spoke, a small subsection of the horde broke off and started to surround us.

    Offering my hand, I grinned at her. "Well then, may I have this dance?" She laid her hand daintily in mine and I pulled, spinning her into a twirl. As she slid behind me she dropped into my shadow, vanishing from the field of battle. With a bellow of joy, I waded into the melee. As a regular mechanism of her ability her shadow port didn't strain her much over short distances, so using it for positioning should be fine.

    Waiting for them to clumsily stumble into range, I saw Callie appear inside a group with her daggers. I lashed out in the low high combo move I'd learned earlier, sprawling one corpse into two other as Callie neatly severed their spines at the neck and the tendons behind their knees. A followup smash pulped their heads after she disabled them as she moved in to the next one.

    I'd forgotten how nice it was to fight like this, the bond feeding me everything I needed to know alongside my understanding of my partner, losing the flow of battle as I blended seamlessly into her combat style and she into mine. Even with the new additions to our fighting styles we had Balam as a common element and combined with the bond we were easily able to keep up with each other.

    Zombies aren't particularly smart, so we didn't need to do anything but play meat grinder. I could see Gabriel's people riding through the crowd, literally herding them toward us so we could cut them down. A few of the other groups that had proven particularly effective took up the same position, while the less slaughter oriented waited at the edges of the melee's picking off stragglers.

    Step, shift, backspin. Attack, defend, counter. The forms that Willow had shown me were useful and versatile, and stupid clumsy zombies were an ideal training mechanism to improve. One would think that trying to learn complex patterns of attack while working around my girlfriend would be tough, but in fact it made it easier for me to comprehend the style.

    Not only did I have my own experience and senses, our combat styles were intertwining perfectly. Through the bond I could feel her reactions to the moves I was making, and even sense her own responses before she made them, allowing me to adjust small imperfections in my combat flow. Callie's daggers worked with her Balam mastery surprisingly well too, the circular patterns of Balam not contradicting the striking maneuvers my girlfriend had learned.

    The biggest benefit of the fight though was Callie's perspective allowing me to feel out what Willow meant about leverage. Every attack, every defense, all of them were vectors of force, acting on someone or something. With my staff I had a level that could enable me to act on those forces. Not energy, at least not yet, but physical forces and forms. A stab of the staff into the ground and then a snap could redirect a zombie into another, or into the path of a blow.

    As I fought, I activated my overlay, and I felt all the disparate elements of my combat style congeal into one whole. My staff art, my stats, my experience, my instincts, as all merged into one big tapestry of information, and as I saw it, I found a Path forward. Striding through battle, slightly shifting the tide of battle for maximum effect. Fatewalker. This was possible because I was at an important point in history, granted, and even outside this battle I was involved in a historic task, but at this moment, I was ALL the way in.

    My Path shifted and so did the overlay, and suddenly it was guiding me, showing me the way. I took two steps and then slammed my staff into the dirt, leveraging a chunk of earth up into the face of a zombie as the end came up and over, splitting one's head. Then the back end slammed in reverse, smashing in the nasal bone as my next blow shattered an ankle.

    The zombie with the ankle toppled over and tripped another that fell into the backswing of my attack as Callie shredded one coming at my back without me ever needing to turn around. Callie wasn't on my Path, but she was keeping up with my movements at least. Finally though, the last blow landed, and as I turned there was no one. Gabriel called from across the field of bodies. "We're through, let's go everyone, time is wasting."

    I blinked, looking around to see that yes, we'd demolished all of them. Granted, they were garbage tier undead, but still, I'd expected it to take more than a few seconds. "Shane!" Yelled Callie as she grabbed my hand. "Come on, we need to get inside. Satala said that when we start tinkering with the ritual the shields on the central temple will go up. If we don't get there in time we'll be stuck out here while the others are left to fight Suvaya alone."

    Grinning as I came down from the weirdly charged state I'd been in, I blinked in shock as I casually checked on my progress before going in. While there was no stat gain, I realized that my soul had progressed a full FOUR percent during that fight. I was up to twenty three percent of the way through orange after that little Path experience. Granted, some of that might have been from my small Path interactions not too long ago, but still.

    I made a mental note to check with Zeke and possibly Abel about this later. If the Path was helpful to soul strengthening I needed to know about it. This wasn't like just aimlessly training, my soul didn't feel strained right now, it felt ENERGIZED. It might be hard to enter that state, but if it let me train longer and more efficiently I should definitely look into this Path thing more. It explained how Abel's was so strong too.

    There would be time for that later though, for the moment we had other things to do. Callie and I raced into the temple, finding Yvette poised outside the door to a room similar to the conduit rooms, except instead of a coffin, there was an altar in the middle of the room, underneath a skylight partially ringed by mirrors made of the rare silver we'd found in the mining complex, all aimed through a smoky and unusual lens that overlooked the room.

    Around us, the symbols on the ground glowed a blazing silver-white, and Yvette stepped forward with a grim look. "The buffers didn't last as long as calculated, we only have a short time to finish the final alterations. Everyone, I need you to do exactly as I say. If you follow instructions, we can finish this in time to prevent ourselves from being killed."

    My battle joy from earlier faded, replaced by resolve. Yvette started point out spots where we needed to be, positioning dozens of us for this one last push to prepare. As she did, those not involved took up their own positions, readying invocations to use to slow down the monstrous entity we were helping bring into the world.

    Weakened, disoriented, unprepared, we'd made sure to arrange every possible obstacle we could in Satala's path. We needed to manifest and kill her before she tapped into the energy still in the ritual to create a proper body, or worse got to the mountain and used that. If she fully manifested she could use the severed connections in the ritual to link up to everyone who had gotten any of the Moonglow Dew and then she'd be on her way back to full power and we'd be dead. But hey, no pressure, right?
     
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  11. Threadmarks: chapter 465
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    "Alright!" Called Gabriel from his position. "Is everyone in position?" We'd finished altering the final aspect of the ritual and we managed to get it done in time. Now the building power was being rerouted and was about to crescendo, and we were all tense and readying ourselves for this fight.

    Nasha called out from her spot towards the back of the temple. "Binding team one is ready!"

    "Binding team two is ready!" Shouted a voice from the back I didn't recognize. It was echoed by two more, four binding teams for four limbs. Despite her stats being roughly the same as ours, Suvaya had been a god. We had no idea what kind of beneficial effects that would bring, even without her own flesh to craft her body, her soul was bound to be freakishly powerful.

    Our only potential saving grace was that her Impact couldn't withstand a soul that was too much more powerful. Two ranks was the hard limit for base level Impact, but she'd been a god. Which meant she was likely going to be at LEAST Master Candidate level with EVERY SKILL. She would be like Abel on steroids.

    "We've got incoming!" Bellowed Bethy. I grimaced and triggered my poison fire, readying my staff. Callie drew her daggers and took up a position at my side, both of us turned slightly to protect each others blind spots. As we watched, the light from the lens condensed, shooting right down to the altar in the center of the room.

    The white, milky stone absorbed the light, beginning to glow with an unearthly radiance. As we watched, lightning began to play along the runes on the floor, jumping back and forth in short arcs. As it approached the walls and then climbed them, the runes increased in power, as did the electricity, until it hit the rim of the lens and condensed into an eye of lightning above the altar.

    A beam of condensed electricity slammed down into the glowing stone, and the power coursed through the rock, bouncing back and forth and increasing in strength. I saw a lot of the power arc off though, and it was obvious that not having her body to work from and having to use the backup was costing her most of the stats she'd saved up from the conduits.

    Despite the leakage, I saw the stone begin to flake and crumble, bits of it falling off and chipping away with each arc until it was all gone and all that remained was a female body. The electricity condensed into a set of flowing silver robes and then hair, and with an explosion of power, Suvaya, goddess of the moon, stood and took her first breath in the mortal world for thousands of years.

    Eyes still closed, she tilted her head back, exhaling the same silvery mist that condensed over the lightblooms. As she did, her skin shifted, changing to become actual flesh from the stone it had been. Her eyes opened, swirling silver orbs that seemed to focus on all of us and none of us.

    "Blood of my destroyers." She purred, her head cocking to one side like a hungry cat. "You've robbed me of my flesh." She glanced down at herself. "This form is...weak. You've killed my chosen. Or at least, most of them. Is that my own daughter I see behind you?"

    Satala flinched, but took a deep breath and pulled herself up straight. "Yes, mother. It is. This ritual was wrong. Our own people were going to be harvested. The descendants of those we swore to protect. I understand your anger, but I refuse to allow this."

    "You...understand my anger?" Said the goddess coldly. "You understand NOTHING!" Her eyes were wide with rage as she hissed at her daughter. "You accomplished nothing in your life I didn't give you. I CREATED you. And now you side with our enemies over some thin blooded descendants of the sheep who fawned over you?"

    The younger silver haired woman looked wounded. "Mother, you taught me guarding our flock was out most important duty. That we needed to protect them above all else."

    Suvaya laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "Our flock? Tell me, do you think the inhabitants of this barren rock are all the descendants of those who worshipped me? Do you think I became a goddess on the belief of a few thousand or even a few million adherents? Where are the rest, Satala? Where are the prayers, the devotions, where are the beliefs? Why are the only worshippers I sense a few hidden cultists caught in this trap of my own devising?"

    Seeing her daughter at a loss, the goddess smiled cruelly. "They're gone. All of them. Not dead, not at first. Defected. I was cast down, and they all turned their backs. Only a few of them made their way to this place when I called, before I was able to erect the distortions keeping the dungeon hidden. The rest turned their adoration to others, to the very gods that killed me. Tell me, then, what care I should show them? What duty I have?"

    "But the ones who came were your most faithful!" Protested Satala. "They stood by you through the worst. Their descendants deserve our respect and loyalty."

    "Their descendants deserve NOTHING!" Roared the maddened goddess. "Simpering cowards too weak to make their way without me. Did they speak up when the others left? Did they spread the word of their goddess? Look at the state of them. A fringe cult hidden inside a population of millions, barely any worship to speak of."

    I decided pointing out how hypocritical it was being pissed at the ones who betrayed her and the ones that didn't equally wasn't a great idea, so I kept quiet, but my hand tightened around my staff as I readied for combat.

    Satala shook her head sadly. "You've lost your way. I refuse to stand by while you do this. I won't attack you, mother, I could never, but I stand with our people. Take that as you will." Her tone was blunt and forceful and her jaw was clenched stubbornly as she spoke. It was clear she meant every word of it. Which was a good distraction for the skeletal hand that erupted from the floor to grab onto Suvaya's left arm.

    The goddess's silver eyes narrowed in rage, but before she could react, a massive root ripped out of the ground and encircled her leg up to the knee, then a golden chain encircled her other leg, while the tail of a massive ethereal fox grabbed her remaining wrist. All four binding teams had moved like a well oiled machine to lock her down.

    Bethy stepped forward, ripping open her palms and splattering her blood on the floor. As the blood touched the stone ripples of change rolled across the ground. Grass, grew, the earth shifted, and as we watched in shock and hill under a blood red sky manifested in the real world.

    Our usually jovial and flighty vampire friend was glaring at the goddess, her eyes blood red all the way through, no iris or pupil, even as blood dripped from her tear ducts. Despite the sky, there was no moon, with the red light beaming from behind the clouds and illuminating the hillside.

    "Domain." I murmured in shock. That made a bit of sense, considering all the stories about the Vampire, but it opened up so many more questions. Those would have to wait though, because it was clear Bethy couldn't hold this for long.

    Above us, a green bear with six arms roared in defiance as Abel and Jessie pulled their new trick, and several other groups triggered invocations, lashing out at the restrained former deity. Fists, blades, animals, poison, every one of us let loose at her. I triggered Double Trouble, slamming the butt of my staff into the base of her skull with Mercy Kill, Marked for Death, Flurry of Blows, and any other useful ability I could manage tacked on.

    Her head jerked forward with a hiss and she whirled to glare at me, tearing THROUGH the skeletal binding and the root as she dove for me. There was a rush of darkness and cold as Callie yanked me through my own shadow, pulling me out of the way as the goddess's fist slammed into the air where I'd been so hard that the shockwave cracked the stone. Abel's condensed green punch smashed into the back of her head, pitching her forward, even as Gabriel's lance slammed into her kidney.

    Snarling, she stomped down hard, tearing away the last two bindings with an explosion of force as she cratered the stone beneath herself and unleashed a wave of white flame that threw everyone back and off their feet. Abel, Jessie, Randall, and Benny, who were trying to recover, would have been sitting ducks for that burst except Valk erected a shield of blue gel in front of them to soak up the fire, though it started melting on contact.

    Callie hissed in distress as she looked around. "Shit!" She cursed. "We lost all four binding teams and like eight of the attack teams."

    "Gods, are they dead?" I asked in horror. "And thanks for saving me there Cal, if my head had still been there you'd have had to hose me off the walls."

    "Of course." She said with a wan smile. "And no, not dead as far as I can tell, the breaking of the bindings soaked up a lot of the damage. Unconscious though, and not in good shape. I managed to pick up which were the worst when I was in the shadows, Jessie is already on it. We need someone to pin her down while we get situated again! If we can't catch our breath we're screwed!"

    Suvaya spun in circles, staring at the blood colored light and washed out grass until she finally found Bethy. Our vampire friend was still up, though she was nursing a broken and burned leg. Yvette appeared in front of her, Satala next to to her. The goddess sneered at her daughter. "I thought you couldn't bear to harm me?"

    "I can't." Said the silver haired girl sadly. "But I can't let you hurt my friend either. Bethany has been nothing but kind to me. I can't just stand by while you harm her."

    While she stalled, I was trying to get my head on straight. This temple was big, but we'd decided early on that trying to mob her would just result in casualties. Most of the weaker members of the raid had been sorted into the teams, tens or more of them helping fuel invocations to minimize the attack vectors. Unfortunately the attack that had crushed so many of those manifestations had knocked out a ton of people.

    I caught Gabriel's eye, and he gestured for me to come over. Snagging Callie I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind him without covering the intervening space. "Ok, what the hell do we do?" I asked the crusader tensely. "This is a fucking train wreck, we've got dozens of wounded, and potentially a few dead. We planned this out to the most minute detail and it still wasn't enough."

    Looking to where Yvette had engaged Suvaya with Satala supporting defensively to protect Bethy, I grimaced at the image of them getting knocked around. Bethy's Domain was weakening the fallen goddess, and it still wasn't enough to offset the advantage. Not in raw power, but in sheer skill level.

    He grimaced, then looked to me and then Abel. He frowned slightly, then nodded. "Alright. I think I have an idea. We need to get over to where Apollyon is. We might have a way to offset her advantage, but it's going to be tough to pull off, and I'm going to need to teach you both some more about Paths." I winced. I had a feeling this was going to be tough to pull off.
     
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  12. Threadmarks: chapter 466
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    "So...you're sure this will work?" I asked Gabriel suspiciously. "Because...I feel like it probably shouldn't based on everything I've heard about Paths so far." From what I could tell, paths were a deeply personal and unique thing that made it possible for Ascendants to climb to a higher level after becoming a Master. That last bit was conjecture, of course, but it lined up with the obscure 'something else' Zeke had mentioned needing to advance to D-rank.

    "Not at all." He said bluntly. "I wouldn't even suggest trying it if we weren't both about to die and in possession of these." He held up a hand with a pair of glowing rings on it. "I took the opportunity afforded by our comrades distraction to approach Alistair and wish for the catalysts that I believe will allow us to pull this off."

    "What did you pay him for them?" I said, picking one of the rings up to marvel at the delicate craftsmanship and the surreal glowing metal.

    He gave me a flat look. "His life. I said we would save him if he gave them to me. He seemed to think it was a fair deal. Wouldn't have worked with you or Natalie, since you're friends and I planned on doing that in any case, but I find Alistair repugnant at best, and his death wouldn't be particularly sad for me."

    "Huh." I said with a nod. "Makes sense. What happens in you fail to save him though?"

    The big crusader just shrugged. "Well, we'll most likely all be dead, so probably not much. But that seems like a problem for future Gabriel."

    I laughed and slipped a ring on. "Fair enough. Let's do this then." I turned to my mentor, who had been unusually quiet. "You capable of this Abel? Honestly I wouldn't blame you if you're not. I have no clue how I access my path most of the time. These Resonance Rings will do the job, but we have to supply the fuel. I'm honestly shocked an F-ranked candidate could make something like this."

    "It's single use." Said Gabriel flatly. "They both are. They're linked to me because my Path seems to be the one best suited for this. Not that the both of you aren't going to be an important part of this."

    I waved him off. "I get it, don't sweat that part. You'll be the one to finish this, I have no issues teeing up a winning shot."
    That said, the rings were...weird. I wasn't sure how I felt about using them. Gabriel had warned us that the magic items could have some odd side effects for a bit. The necessary mechanism for pulling off the crusader's plan was going to make this deeply unpleasant to experience.

    When Abel finally nodded, now focused on losing himself in his own Path in preparation, I decided to cut the chatter too. I stepped back as Gabriel mounted his starlight charger, bringing his lance to bare. I wanted to stack a bunch of skills and abilities on it, but I knew that wasn't going to be helpful. Not for this. I'd need every ounce of soul strength I had to use these rings. Especially given they would be breaking down even as we formed the connection.

    Unfortunately, this wouldn't be a quick process, at least not based on what Gabriel said. We needed time, which meant we needed a distraction. Yvette was doing her best, but the golem wasn't up to handling Suvaya. Despite being made of magical stones like the former goddess's new body, Yvette didn't have all the overpowered Skills and the terrifying soul the moon goddess could bring to bear.

    That said, the golem was doing better than I had feared she might. Her blurring form and fluid movements allowed her to at least attempt to keep up with the silver haired beast she was fighting. Satala was trying to cut in to prevent Yvette from becoming too damaged, but she was also guarding Bethy, whose Domain was hamstringing her mother enough for any of us to survive this.

    For every blow that Suvaya took, Yvette took two, and they did more damage. Luckily for us, most of the teams were still in the game. A massive black flaming demon avatar joined manifested above Suvaya with a howl, and I saw Markoth standing over Nasha protectively with several other people joining hands to fuel his construct.

    The turtle shell we'd used to escape Pallax came into shape around Satala and Bethy, and I spotted one of the Dew users with higher Impact channeling that one, alongside what looked like a twin to share the burden, supported by a crowd of Ascendants helping power the invocation.

    Our second wind came as all the teams who hadn't been knocked flat in the first wave came together to help pin the vengeful deity while we got ready. Exhaling loudly, I closed my eyes, feeling Callie take up position next to me to protect me as I let myself drift down the connection to the ring.

    It was...weird. The sensation of being two people and also one person and then suddenly three people when Abel joined was strange. This had been the plan, the Resonance Rings were unique as far as we knew, and if they hadn't been single use and basically disposable quality trash they probably would have been to expensive to wish for.

    The ones we'd gotten left us to do the heavy lifting, but that was fine. I felt my place in our shared head, Gabriel's head, and Abel's as well. Gabriel was the momentum, the power and the force. I was the understanding, the guiding hand that lit the way, and Abel was the determination, the unflinching force of will.

    Gabriel was a brilliant fighter with a lot of momentum, but he wasn't Abel. Being invincible might be good for confidence, but Abel's personality was tough as diamond. The combination, guided by my Fatewalker instincts and the overlay, would be a winning one, if we could pull this off.

    The world in front of me superimposed itself as my mind joined with his and Abel's. I saw the temple from atop a starlight charger, staring down at my enemies from my invincible perch. Pushing with my soul, I triggered my overlay, and I saw the world resolve into a series of golden arrows. As we focused, I also felt a deep upwelling of fierce violent determination, like blood welling up from a puncture, and Abel was there besides us.

    We had to adjust for a second, three souls weren't meant to exist in one body. I felt my soul begin to groan under the pressure as the ring on my hand cracked and spat, coming apart violently as it threatened to drag me back into my own head. I pushed myself back down the link, despite the blood I could feel leaking from my eyes, ears and nose.

    I made a mental note. Just because wishes CAN let you do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. This wasn't natural. It was wrong and it was killing me. Still, it was already happening, and I shoved the damage and pain to the side, just as Abel did. Gabriel was mostly fine, thankfully, so the host body was holding up.

    As one, the three of us threw back our head, roaring out in defiance. "RUBRUM GLORIA!" And we charged. The sound of starlight hooves on black stone was like thunder carrying us to victory, the lance shone with a blinding golden light, and the full weight of all three of us propelled us to glory. An Invincible spear, guided by Fate, and propelled by Blood, slammed into the formerly stone body of the goddess and sent her into a spin as we rode past.

    Swinging around at the end of our charge, we saw the damage it had done, blood gushing from the hole in her shoulder as she glared at us. "Insipid children!" She hissed. "What is this abomination? You're tearing yourselves apart. To pervert the natural order in such a way is blasphemy."

    We didn't bother responding. We charged. The feeling of being spurred on by the momentum of every victory, like a snowball rolling downhill and gathering speed, was intoxicating, and pushing it forward was the unbreakable will to do battle at any cost, my mentor's lust for blood and combat accelerating us. Three Paths superimposed on top of each other, and I could feel my soul about to collapse with the sheer power of it.

    She was right, this was unnatural. But I didn't care. I wasn't going to let her hurt my friends, wasn't going to let her take anyone I loved from me. I'd had enough of ineffable forces snatching away people I loved without my permission. The WCP waves a hand and my dad leaves, my dad decides she should go and my mom leaves. I wasn't letting someone take away anyone else. Not Benny, not Jessie, and CERTAINLY not Callie.

    The second pass slammed right into her chest, the glowing lance crashing into her sternum, lifting her off the ground and carrying her back. She howled in rage, hands going up and conjuring a giant spectral moon behind her, bringing it slamming down on our heads like a boulder.

    Before it could hit though, a swarm of bats flooded the air above us, overwhelming the image and holding it back. Not just bats though. Silver bats. I glanced over at Bethy (with my own normal bloody eyes somehow) and saw her latched onto Satala, drinking from her wrist with her eyes blazing the same blood red, except this time with silver irises.

    I was jarred back to the present by the impact against the wall as the lance slammed THROUGH Suvaya's chest and heart, pinning her against the black stone. She was snarling in rage, and she started to actually PULL herself down the lance an inch at a time trying to get to us.

    My soul was cracked and nearing shattering, I had nothing left in me, and the damned overlay faded but the rings were still holding on, leaving me trapped in Gabriel's body. I wasn't sure what would happen to us if we got killed in here, but I doubted it'd be good. Gabriel couldn't move, having channeled too much power himself tapping into the Paths all at once, and Abel had nothing left in him.

    I watched the made face of the enraged goddess draw closer and closer to us, teeth pulled back in a rictus of hate as she reached for us with deceptively small hands, ready to crush us into pulp. And then a black staff smashed down on her head with a crack. I felt my bond with Callie manifest more strongly as I realized she'd taken my staff and was using our connection to wield it.

    There was no style to it, no form or martial arts. Just rage and frustration as she hauled off like she was beating a pinata and slammed the staff down on Suvaya's skull over and over again. "Don't." Slam. "Touch." Slam. "My." Slam. "FUCKING BOYFRIEND!" That last smash included every ounce of death energy stored up in the staff since the fight with Pallax, including all the energy it had just harvested from Suvaya herself.

    By the time she was done, the goddess's skull was shattered and her head was basically pulp, the E-ranked staff having completely decimated the formerly stone head. Callie was standing over her, panting as she gripped the staff and stared down at the body of the fallen goddess.

    I grinned in my normal body as the ring finally shattered, catapulting me back into my body along with Abel. Callie, who had stepped into the shadows as she felt me revert through the bond, caught me and lowered me to the ground as she appeared behind me, and I smiled up at her in relief. I was still smiling as the world faded to black. It was all over.
     
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  13. Threadmarks: chapter 467
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    I woke up with my head killing me. Which was pretty nostalgic, because I'd managed to avoid knocking myself out from overexertion for quite some time. "Did anyone get the number of that planet sized truck that hit me?" I groaned without opening my eyes.

    "Pretty sure that was just the feeling of being blindsided by your own stupidity." Drawled a familiar voice that I hadn't heard in what felt like forever.

    I shot bolt upright in bed, eyes flying open as I twisted to find my uncle draped across a couch, quaffing a relatively large bottle of liquor. "Zeke!" I said with delight. "You're here! That must mean..."

    "The distortion is gone? Definitely. It collapsed when the moon cracked. You missed quite a show." He scanned me over, obviously checking for damage. "Though you put a pretty decent one on yourself. That was pretty shocking. I was almost impressed."

    My grin was smug. "Because I killed a god? I bet you've never done that. Well...Callie killed a god actually. Is she ok? She must be worried sick, I tried to keep the damage isolated from her."

    "I'm impressed." He said with a smirk. "That you managed to accidentally stumble upon the stupidest and most dangerous possible way to get yourself out of that situation. Did it not occur to you that there might be a REASON people don't Path Stack?"

    "I...thought we invented it?" I said with a wince. "Plus it was so damned useful. We never could have beat her without it."

    He pinched his nose. "You may have homebrewed your Skill and stumbled on a Path early, but you're a ways off from reinventing the wheel, kid. Path Stacking is a known phenomena, it's just considered reckless and dangerous and no one does it. Dying is the BEST of the possible bad outcomes. I've heard of path stackers fracturing their souls in such a way that they all mix. Becoming a distorted mashup soul with qualities from all three and no sense of self."

    "Oh." I said faintly. "I...was not aware that was a possibility." Note to self, no more Path Stacking.

    That got me an eye roll. "The things you don't know could fill a planet of libraries. But it worked out. Smart using a wish as a buffer. They can pull off some crazy shit. Speaking of crazy shit, how's your soul doing? Bet you got quite a bump off a stunt like that."

    Closing my eyes, I focused inward, blinking in surprise. "Thirty three percent of the way through Orange. That's a ten percent bump." The shield had given me a decent boost, but not THAT decent, and the further you refined a soul the harder it was to effect it, at least based on my observations.

    "Very nice." He said appreciatively. "Bet you got plenty of stats incoming too. This mess isn't quite sorted, so the points are delayed, but you made a big difference in that fight. Of course, you didn't FINISH it, so you won't be getting most of the credit. Your girl is in for a hell of a boost."

    I grinned at that. "I'm glad. She saved our asses out there. I thought Suvaya was going to kill us for a second." It also might help Callie pull further ahead and let her feel like more of an asset to the team. I was more worried about her downtrodden mood lately than getting credit for godslaying. I could always get the points through wishes later. Besides, she deserved to be treated like a hero, she really had come through in a big way. Even on the verge of death Suvaya was a massive threat. No one else had the guts to take the final shot. I was proud of her.

    Zeke, who knew me better than anyone, just rolled his eyes. "Anyway. With all this over several VERY powerful people are on the way. Luckily the contract you all signed will act as a template for this interaction. Smart move getting them all locked into an agreement in those circumstances. Given their positions they all had emergency powers that make that kind of thing feasible."

    That actually reminded me. "What about Satala?" I was worried they might decide to just ignore the contract and kill her just in case.

    "You're concerned they might just ignore the terms and do whatever they want?" He asked archly. At my nod, his expression became a grin. "As well you should be. If one of the gods showed up any agreement you made would have fallen apart. In the end, power is the only real currency in our universe. Luckily for your tinsel topped project, the baby vampire got attached. Lark is on his way apparently, and no one is going to tangle with his baby girl over a crippled former A-ranker."

    "The Vampire is coming HERE?" I said in shock. "Are we going to meet him?"

    "What are you, stupid?" Asked my uncle in horror. "No we aren't going to MEET him. We're fucking leaving. He's not the only S-ranker coming, and we aren't going to be here when they all arrive. This planet is their problem now. Though it would be a good idea to pick up as much Dew as we can before we leave. With Suvaya dead the mechanism to condense it is gone, but Impact doesn't just vanish. All the Dew already on the planet is still here and after a quick once over has been confirmed to be safe."

    "Nat should be able to pick some up for us." I said in relief. "Part of the terms of the contract when we wished for the document we all signed."

    "I saw." He said with a smirk. "You did a decent job on that thing. Eli would be proud. However much Dew you can get, I would do so. It's a nonrenewable resource. Still, don't spend too much time on haggling or searching. Like I said, I want to be gone when all those terrifying geezers hit the atmosphere. Shouldn't be more than a day or two, so do with that what you will. Once this is done we'll head for the Ruined Soul Temple."

    I wasn't sure how long it would be until the trials, I didn't remember getting an exact date, but Zeke was the expert so I'd leave the travel arrangements to him if I could get away with it. As I had that thought, the door opened and Callie came blurring in, tackling me onto the bed. "Ow. Ow. Ribs!" I croaked as she squeezed me.

    "Oh my gods." She said in dismay. "Did your ribs get injured in the battle?"

    "No." I said with a chuckle. "Just when you squeezed me like an old tube of toothpaste. You're a godslayer now, honey, you'll need to be careful with all that muscle."

    She rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked into a smile. "Oh please, I haven't even gotten my points yet. Seems like it'll be delayed a bit until the meeting. We're doing the ceremony thing again. Still not sure how that works, but Bethy knows how to delay the stats until they can hit all at once."

    "Still." I said happily. "You're going to be famous for sure. No way it isn't going to get out. The first godslayer in...what? Centuries?"

    Zeke nodded. "At least. Probably longer. Closest we got recently was the Vampire's fight with Unity. I hear that was a hell of a dust up. Still, even then it didn't actually devolve too close to a deathmatch. There's a big difference between a mortal and a god." He grinned at Callie. "You're going places, kid. I'd start preparing for the stat drop, because it's going to be ROUGH."

    Her face went slack. "Oh gods, I forgot about the pain from bulk stat gains. It's percentage based right? What do you think I'll be getting? A few hundred? Like a fifty percent bump tops probably right?"

    We both gave her a pitying look, and she slumped against me. I smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I'll try to offset some of the pain with the bond. I played a big part but I didn't finish her off. Plus my stats are crazy evenly distributed so chances are good I won't have too much in one spot."

    "Alright, enough of your cuddling." Said my uncle with a laugh. "You can gaze lovingly into each other's eyes later. None of the rest of us have time for that. Besides which, you have visitors, Shane."

    Raising an eyebrow, I looked up to see Cass barrel into the room and throw herself bodily at Callie and I. We caught the little girl easily enough, and she dissolved into giggles as we did. Cark stepped in with a laugh. "Cass, you're supposed to be gentle with sick people, not smash into them at terminal velocity."

    "She's fine." I said with a wave. "It's good to see you guys. Hope your time up there wasn't too boring? Was Zeke able to teach you anything?"

    Cass completely ignored where I was looking, chirping. "Tony got beat up a whole bunch! It was really funny. I did all my froms just like Master taught me before he left. Why are you so sick, Shane? Didn't you eat something bad? You don't look like you got hurt so I think that must be it."

    Zeke groaned. "It's FORMS Cassidy, and I told you not to call that brat Master. He isn't even close."

    "Hey!" Said Abel from the door, where he was leaning against the frame looking nearly dead. "I'm definitively close. I'm an Expert. Don't be a snob you washed up theater kid."

    Zeke rolled his eyes. "I'm being mocked by babies now. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Shouldn't you be in bed like he is?"
    Mel, who was standing behind her boyfriend anxiously, nodded. "Yes, he SHOULD. Unfortunately along with common sense and taste in music, he completely lacks any self preservation instincts. Exhibit A." She gestured between the two of them and then smiled at Callie and I as Cass jumped down and ran over to tackle hug Abel, who apparently she hadn't gotten to see yet. "Good to see you two up and awake. Plenty of people have been hoping to talk to you."

    "Me?" I said with a laugh. "I think you mean HER? I was just riding shotgun with Abel and Gabe. I didn't put Suvaya down for good."

    "You LITERALLY staked her out for me to kill." Callie said in annoyance. "I refused to talk to anyone until you woke up. Still pretty sure it'll trigger the stat gains. Zeke said not to do it before you woke up. The soul strain this time was bad. He was worried dumping stats on it might kill you."

    I nodded in understanding. "Good call. I'm firmly against my own death. I'm surprised you aren't berating me for the risk to be honest."

    She rolled her eyes. "I'm not insane. We all would have died if it wasn't for you three. I'm against you taking stupid risks when you don't think them through. This wasn't a stupid risk, it was a necessary one, so I'm not going to complain." She buried her head in my chest. "I'm just...so glad you're ok."

    I squeezed her tight. "Only thanks to you, Cal. She'd have killed us for sure. In any case, I'm awake now, so lets get the meeting shit out of the way. I want to get the stats and get to collecting as much Dew as possible before we have to leave. We have to be gone before all the S-rankers show up." I was just glad they were taking their time getting here. Then again, this whole mess was still a bit below their level. Callie grinned and hopped off the bed, pulling me to my feet and throwing my arm over her shoulder. I wondered how many of the others were waiting. I hoped it wasn't all of them.
     
  14. Threadmarks: chapter 468
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    "Shane!" Benny said as he barreled into me, lifting me into a crushing hug. "You're up. I'm so glad you didn't scramble your egg by accident. Also, I want priority on wishes for a while, seriously between Jessie's bond with Randall and now all this shit, I'm lagging behind."

    "Thanks for your concern, ass." I said with a chuckle. "But I'll see what I can do." I looked around spotting Gabriel, Bethy, Satala, Markoth and a bunch of the other people from the raid. "Hey guys, thanks for waiting, I heard we have a meeting to attend. We don't have to do this up on the mountain do we?"

    Abel snorted. "Like they would leave that where it was. The first wave of seniors from the various factions snatched that up. Not sure who got it, but it's long gone."

    "Valak Dante." Said Zeke with a grimace. "A-ranker from the Labyrinth Lord's clan. Sneaky fucker. I'd have fought him for it if it wasn't so slippery." That was a stark reminder that Zeke wasn't a normal B-ranker, I was guessing this Dante guy wasn't a combat focused A-ranker though. I'd been getting a clear lesson on how rough it was trying to punch up.

    To my relief, the meeting happened to be in a nearby clearing, apparently someone had texted everyone when I woke up, because the whole crew was there when I arrived. Well, the ones who were left. Which was apparently about eight hundred and fifty of us. I looked around, and the only person missing I knew was Chad, the team leader I'd met at the party back at the Bazaar.

    It was rough to realize we'd lost so many people. I thought we'd all made it. Apparently some of those unconscious people had never woken up. It was a stark reminder of the kind of danger we'd all been in.

    Once we arrived, Callie got called up to address the group. She made a nice speech about using the contract we'd signed as a foundation for future cooperation, some comments that implied she might try to recruit some of them into my faction, and then officially called the task of defeating Suvaya to a close.

    I'd positioned myself behind her as she did, and when she collapsed, I caught her easily. Or at least, I WOULD have, if my own brain wasn't basically imploding from the pain. Not just my own pain either, but her pain as well. She was getting it much worse than I was and I was glad I'd been able to offset some of the agony for her. Once it was done, I lowered her to the ground, vision blurry, as I checked my own stats.

    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-475
    Impact-33
    Fantasy-500
    Vitality-220
    Focus-220
    Perception-204
    Creation-180
    Progress to next rank:1832/10000
    Soul strength Orange-33%


    Stored:7 shadow attacks, 7 shadow jump, 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks,0 triple strenth tranq blows, 5 triple strength density shifted attacks. 9 spider leg attacks, 10 heal bursts(10 in reserve), 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, Lesser 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

    Two hundred points of Might and two hundred points of Fantasy. That had been rough. The pain was based on percentage, and luckily I hadn't doubled either stat, so I wasn't QUITE fried out of my head, but Callie's boost had been MUCH bigger than mine, and she'd gotten it bad. I rested her head on my lap, cleaning the blood off her nose and waiting for her to wake up. "Hey." I said with a smile as she eventually came around. "How are you feeling?"

    She groaned. "I don't think this can be considered pain anymore. I need to invent a new word. I feel like bees made of molten bleach are colonizing my brain stem. My eyebrows hurt." I laughed and helped her up. "How about you? I know you took some of that for me. How are you still so...lucid?"

    I shrugged. "My brain is pretty used to pain by this point. The Path Stacking was pretty much just as bad. So? How did you make out? I got four hundred points across two stats. Surprised it was so focused, but I guess my main impression was Might and Fantasy. Crazy impressive lightshow and big stabbing."

    She giggled, then winced. "Ow. Stop making me laugh. Laughing hurts. Anyway, I think I did ok. Honestly better than ok. I'm blown away."

    Calliope Reynolds F-rank. Ability: 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-1050
    Impact-33
    Vitality-342
    Fantasy-550
    Focus-108
    Perception-875
    Creation-485


    Progress to next rank: 3443/10000

    Soul strength- Orange-14%
    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


    "Holy Shit!" I gaped at her. "That's...so fucking many stat points. Eight hundred and two might? Five hundred Perception? Three hundred Creation? I know you killed a god but damn. No wonder it hurt so fucking much. Over two thousand points. You almost literally tripled your total. And congrats on the increase in your soul strength. I know you've been working on that. Five percent is a nice jump." The bump to Focus was probably just the natural drift from her being higher ranked. Lagging stats tended to creep up naturally.

    "Your staff Mastery jumped up a rank though." She pointed out brightly. "And your soul is WAY more advanced."
    "Hey I'm not complaining." I said with a grin. "I'm used to chasing after you. I just need to step up my game a bit. You're pulling ahead again." I frowned. "I'm honestly surprised it was only this much. For slaying a god I'd have figured you'd have hit E-rank or something."

    "Not a chance." Zeke said with a laugh. "There are limits to bulk drops of renown. She'll get a steady income over time for this, but remember, just like you need stats to withstand Impact bestowal on rank up, you need Impact to withstand mass stat dumps. It's cyclical and builds on itself. That's why we improve one step at a time. Don't worry though, the story is only just getting started disseminating. She's bound to keep riding that rocket through F-rank at least. Probably further."

    I grinned at her. "See! You're in the fast lane. Now I'm going to be playing catchup." She squealed and reached up to wrap her arms around me, but Zeke caught her.

    "Whoa there." He said sternly. "Lets not pulp the nephew. Your Might just pretty much quadrupled. You need time to adjust so you don't accidentally murder people when patting them on the back. one of the downsides to fast growth. We'll have plenty of time for you to train on the way to the Ruined Soul Temple. We're taking the long way, since we have some time. Which is good, you'll all need some serious training before the trials."

    "After we pick up some more Dew." I said firmly. "An Impact advantage isn't something we can give up. But before we do that, I want to check with everyone else. I bet they got some pretty solid boosts."

    I stood on shaky legs, helping Callie up, and we made our way over to Gabriel and Bethy, who were seated with legs
    crossed, having apparently been way better prepared for this than we had. Why hadn't I decided to sit down? Rookie mistake.

    Gabriel nodded as we approached. "Shane, Callie. You look like you had decent returns. Especially you, Callie. I imagine as the final victor you've gotten quite a boost. Your condition certainly suggests that."

    Bethy nodded cheerfully. "He's right! You look terrible! I did pretty well I think. My Domain helped out a lot, and people saw me tank that moon attack for you guys at the end. Still, I think aside from Callie you three are the big winners. I bet you'll get some more points off this over time."

    Gabriel shrugged. "I'm approaching E-rank, and once I cross the dividing line, those trickling stats will be far less of a benefit. As big of an ordeal as this has been, its still just an unusual dungeon run. It's a big universe, and strange things happen every day. I doubt this will carry us as far as you might expect."

    "Boo! Hiss!" Bethy jeered, literally saying the word hiss instead of hissing. "Don't be such a buzz kill Gabe. Don't you know frowning ages you. Speaking of, you guys totally have to meet my daddy when he shows up! He'll be so excited to meet my friends!"

    We all flinched, and Callie offered her a weak smile. "Oh, sorry Bethy, we can't stick around. We have those trials in the Ruined Soul Temple coming up. Have to head out so we can make it on time. We're taking the long way apparently." I had zero idea what the long way even WAS, but I didn't let that stop me from using it as an excuse. having seen Bethy in full vamp mode, I didn't want to meet her dad, who was the person who CREATED that state of being.

    She pouted. "Oh fine." Then her face lit up. "OOH I can come to the trials too! Daddy says its really important to reach the peak of green soul in F-rank. If you wait longer you'll be behind once your soul solidifies at D-rank. He says achieving that edge of blue soul quality is called the 'Azure Soul Body' and that it's a necessity for anyone who wants to become a god."

    I hadn't known about the name, though I knew the rest of it. Still, scary dad aside I welcomed Bethy. The more friends we had in the trials the better, probably. I still wasn't sure what they were exactly, but I wasn't complaining either way. Before we headed off to search for Dew though, I pulled Gabriel aside. "Alright. You were being vague earlier, faction secrets, whatever. But you know something about my mom, and I want to know what it is."

    He stared at me with a complicated expression for a minute, then nodded. "You're right. We've been through quite a bit together. I've seen into your soul from a certain viewpoint, and I trust you. This isn't common knowledge, so I hesitated to speak on it. I only know about it because I met her. It concerns the reason that the Star Queen will be at the Ruined Soul Temple to begin with."

    "Actually." I said with a frown. "That's a good point. Why is an elite A-ranker being sent to babysit a bunch of kids. Important or not, that seems like it would be beneath her."

    "It would." Said Gabriel, his face blank. "Except for one small factor. The Star Queen isn't going to the Temple to babysit a bunch of kids. She's going there to babysit her own. She's attending the trials in order to bring along her daughter." He gave me a sympathetic look. "I don't suppose you knew about it, based on your earlier comments, but I suppose I'll be the first to inform you. Apparently you have a sister."
     
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  15. Bezarius

    Bezarius Not too sore, are you?

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    Is it a parent trap situation where one parent get one kid or did Shane's mom get together with another guy?
     
  16. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The former. They're twins. But I won't say anymore because it would be spoilers.
     
  17. BJJPanda

    BJJPanda I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    For some reason the reader mode is fuck up on pages 13/14. Also, it honestly feels like Shane didn't get enough of a boost
     
  18. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    That's the nature of a power system based on reputation and stories. People focus on the protag. Not only did Shane not land the final blow, he didn't even physically land the second to last blow. To everyone else it looked like he fainted. People who were there might have known how it went down to some extent, but when you're telling the story he isn't exactly front and center lol.

    As for the fuck up on page 13 I'll check it out. I had to take down the volume two chapters, but idk if that had an effect.
    Edit: I have no clue what that's about. Probably a glitch from all the QQ system updates.
     
  19. Lone-sith

    Lone-sith Know what you're doing yet?

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    One of the sweetest romances in fiction, and it’s from a litrpg. How the turna tables
     
  20. VenomCreeper

    VenomCreeper Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

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    Why is the story missing around 100 chapters?
     
  21. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    First book was published in August, second one comes out on Tuesday. Amazon makes you take them down when you publish. Only the chapters that are actually being sold though, which is why the rest of it is here lol.
     
  22. VenomCreeper

    VenomCreeper Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

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    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.
     
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  23. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    If you have KU it'll be up Tuesday on there. Sorry about that.
     
  24. Threadmarks: chapter 469
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    I admit, my mind was a mess after finding out about my sister. My mom had another kid. Was she dad's? Did mom have a new family? Was that why she left us? But what role did dad play in that? I'd come to the conclusion from things Zeke hadn't said that dad had chased mom off, or at least was involved in her leaving.

    Callie sat next to me, holding my hand and looking worried. I appreciated the concern, but I forced down the bad feelings. I was going to see my mom soon. I could ask her this in person. I wasn't going to let it ruin my time with my friends. Family drama could wait. I looked up at Benny, who was nearby, waiting quietly with Celine. Clearing my throat, I forcibly changed the subject. "So, Ben, how did you do? During the meeting."

    Gabriel had long since left, and we'd retreated so I could get me head on straight, grouping up in a clearing. My best friend looked surprised, but also relieved to have the out. "Pretty well, honestly. I was kind of worried since I didn't play a big part in the final battle, but I guess all the calculations and mapping I did during the hunt for the conduits left an impression, even after Yvette showed up."

    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. insignia is a half gear in the shape of a C

    Might-405
    Impact-32
    Fantasy-56
    Vitality-41
    Focus-683
    Perception-82
    Creation-71


    Progress to next rank: 1370/10000
    soul strength: Orange 19%
    Pet- Wolf named Rolf


    Current integrated tech. 9/10. 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

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

    "Not a massive bump compared to you guys." He said after sharing. "But two hundred twenty one points in Focus as well as some natural creep in most of my other stats isn't bad at all." He glanced over at our resident healer, who had been extremely quiet, clearly as worried about me as the others. "How about you, Jess? Bet you did pretty well, considering not only did you heal most of the wounded, you also helped Abel make that crazy bear construct."

    She brightened a bit, looking excited. "Yeah, that helped a ton I think. As usual, technically everything I do leans mostly to Vitality. I got a bit of creep, and some Might, but I got a LOT of Vitality."

    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-375
    Impact-32
    Fantasy-78
    Vitality-1292
    Focus-55
    Perception-65
    Creation-58


    Progress to next rank: 1955/10000
    Pet- Wolf named Lily and bear named Randall(Beginner Beast Bonding with Jessie)
    soul strength: Orange- 14%


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

    "Five hundred points of Vitality, two hundred of Might, plus various bumps to lower stats." She said proudly. "I'm right on the edge of two thousand total. Plus my soul is up to fourteen percent. Benny's got his spiritual calming so he jumped higher there, but my bond with Randall is a steady and consistent stress on my soul. I think it's really helping."

    Seeing it laid out like that, I realized Benny was right. He was lagging behind. Sure his Focus was a huge help here, but he hadn't been in the fight as directly. He needed my focus for the next few months until we could catch him up. Not to mention his soul improving at the temple meant he might be able to push up to Expert in Inventing, and exert more control over what he made.

    "Well, sounds like we all made some progress." I said cheerfully. "Now, why don't we talk about getting some more Dew before we leave. Now that Satala is gone its just free floating impact. Think we can buy some off Ladrigan or some of the other outsiders? We still have plenty of things worth trading for. The metals from the mining complex, the spellbooks we got from the wizards tower."

    "You want to trade those?" Said Callie in shock. "I thought for sure the thought of learning magic would have been too big a temptation to pass up."

    I shrugged. "It normally would, but in the end, more Skills are just going to pull focus. Sure I could merge them into my DS Mastery, but honestly I need to learn to use the Skill as it is, complicating it more won't help. Meanwhile Impact is a method to pull ahead of our competitors and keep ourselves safe. It's kind of a no brainer."

    She shrugged. "You're not wrong. It's a solid plan, I was just surprised. I can call up Anna-Marie and set a meeting if you want. There must have been other teams that arrived after we left, at least before this whole mess, plus they had native forces searching. With the dungeon open to the world again, Impact is going to be less valuable to the locals than support from larger organizations."

    I nodded. "I could see that. Any random E-ranker should be able to take on the king, and if not one, then two. Being exposed to the whole universe like this, they're better off finding a backer. No way they can hoard all that Impact for themselves, if they don't sell to us chances are good someone less pleasant will just take it by force."

    "That's a good point." She said with a wince. "In the meantime we should definitely talk to some of the others. Gabriel mentioned finding some Dew didn't he? I'm not sure he'd trade it normally, but the spellbooks we found are rare and hard to get too. I'd bet we have some options that would fit well with some of his people." She grimaced. "I wish we could just ask Zeke to find the stuff for us, but that would definitely violate his geas."

    "True." I said with a nod. "But with so many people showing up, I'd bet we could arrange for some Dew another way." I glanced over at Nat. "Twelve wishes. Think we can get some of the teams from the other factions to do our work for us?" Between the wishes, the metals, the spellbooks, and Nat's first dibs on materials, I was betting we could scrounge up enough of the stuff to get some for everyone.

    Her eyes sparkled. "That's a fantastic idea. Most of the smaller time faction members won't be able to hold onto their Dew anyway when the big boys start arriving. Better to sell it off for something as incredibly valuable as a wish. I'll go talk to some of the other teams about the wishes and the spellbooks while Callie reaches out to the locals." She gave me an encouraging smile. "You just buck up ok?"

    My groan of exasperation got a chuckle from my best friend as the scattered, Jessie heading off to try to feel out some of the people she healed while Celine went with Nat. Abel was around somewhere, probably nursing a headache after the soul damage plus the stats. I sighed, looking at Benny. "You gonna give me the 'it's ok pal' treatment too?"

    He shrugged. "Honestly, I don't think it's as bad as it seems to you right now. Sure, it's not ideal, but you and Maria always got along great. Doesn't it seem like it might be kind of cool having a sister? Sure you don't know her, but you can change that. Did Gabriel tell you her name?"

    "Chelsea." I said matter of factly. "Her name is Chelsea and she's sixteen. I can't help but note my mom left when I was pretty young. Maybe it's because she was having another baby. She clearly cares a lot about her, since she's taking up the chaperone position on this trial. Based on what I've heard, she isn't the type to babysit. She's supposed to be my grandfather's iron fist."

    I tried not to be jealous, but the thought of my sister living the life I could have had. Raised by mom, considered a princess by the Church and taken care of with the best of her generation...well, it was difficult not to resent that a bit. Benny nodded sympathetically. "Maybe so. Have you talked to Zeke about all this?"

    "What's the point?" I asked with a shrug. "He can't tell me anything. I'd imagine the reason the geas tightens up so much when my mom comes up is specifically because my dad didn't want me to know about my sister. Gods only know why, but then, who knows why my dad does anything."

    He shook his head. "Your family is a mess, man. But hey, at least you've got Nat and Zeke. Plus your sister might be cool, and you can still try to talk things out with your mom."

    "I will. For now, let's go check in with Bethy and Satala, see how they're doing after all this." The silver haired girl had been present for her mother's gruesome death, so I wanted to make sure she was ok. Plus Bethy was going to be leaving much later than the rest of us since she was waiting for her dad, I wanted to say goodbye at least.

    We found her easily enough, she had Donuts and Poptarts both out, and they seemed ok. Whatever damage being out of her shadow had done to Donuts at the beginning apparently it could be staved off under the right circumstances. When she saw us she squealed and clapped her hands. "Shane! Benny! It's good to see you guys. I was just helping Tala pick her new clothes. She's decided to stay one as one of my thralls!"

    She gestured grandly to where the former A-ranker was standing shyly, wearing a pair of dark blue pants covered in buckles, a white tank top with a silver snow flake on it, and some lilac sleeves that weren't attached to anything. The finishing touch was a dark blue beret sitting askew on her head. She seemed...better than I expected, a bit lost, but not as upset as I'd have figured.

    Despite that, I could see Bethy was trying hard to distract her, and of the course the vampire fashionista had decided to dress her new thrall up. I smiled and waved at her. "Hey Satala, haven't seen you since the fight, hope things are ok."

    "Of COURSE they are!" Squealed Bethy energetically. "Tala is going to stay and keep an eye on this place. Daddy says he's going to claim it and give it to me as a present. It's only F-rank so no one is going to fight him too much on it, though he says he's going to have to let them take some of the Dew. Cost of doing business and all."

    I just gaped at her, having not expected THAT even if I probably should have. Then I chuckled, shaking my head, and Benny and I sat down to catch up with the both of them. Good for Bethy, it was nice to know this place would be taken care of at least. Satala obviously cared about it a lot. Until then, I'd leave the others to work on sourcing that Dew, if they couldn't get enough we could ask Bethy for some before we left. For now I'd just enjoy spending time with friends.
     
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  25. Threadmarks: chapter 470
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    "Alright, so how did we do?" I asked my group as everyone gathered up to submit all the Dew they'd gathered. "Remember Zeke wants us gone before the Vampire gets here, so to be safe this is our last day on planet. Nat and I managed to gather thirty six drops total between us, three per wish. Plus another twenty seven on her part gathered as first dibs." Thankfully we'd already used some, so the subjective value was lower.

    Callie grinned. "Between the metals and the spellbooks we managed to swing fifty two." She seemed pretty happy with the haul. "Anna-Marie came around to our way of thinking easily enough. Since there was little chance they could keep any stockpiled drops, they figured it was a better idea to trade it for future favors and wring as much value out of it as possible, especially since the king has already reached full saturation."

    "More than a hundred then." I said with a grin. "We'll give the excess to the group members who didn't get any before, fully distributed we should be looking at enough to get us each to about thirty five Impact. It's not forty, but that was never going to happen on a large scale." I glanced over at Zeke. "You sure we can't stay and compete for more?"

    "Nope." He said cheerfully. "I'va already arranged our ride out of here. Cashed in a favor with an old friend and caught passage on a transport ship. Like I said, we're taking the long way to the temple. The trial won't be starting for a few months still, and sitting around there waiting won't accomplish much. Better to spend the time improving and getting used to your new abilities."

    That made sense. "So, where is this ship then? Do we need to find a way back up to the Bazaar to get on?" I was kind of excited. Teleporting was great, but I was going to be getting on an actual spaceship. Flying through actual space. Despite having crossed a galaxy, I hadn't really had a chance to enjoy that kind of travel. Now I was going to become a real citizen of the universe.

    He shook his head. "They're coming to pick up some of their own kids, so they'll be providing a shuttle. The ship itself is too big, so it'll be parked in orbit. The shuttle should arrive in a few hours, so take the time to say your goodbyes and use up that Dew. Carrying it onto a huge ship full of strangers would be pretty stupid."

    I nodded. He was right about that. We distributed the Dew, and each of us secluded ourselves to take it, prepared for the insanity to come and wanting to minimize exposure. As for goodbyes, we really only had a few friends here. Bethy and Gabriel were both planning to attend the trials (the Crusader was going to be hitching a ride) so we'd see them there. We hadn't gotten close to anyone else.

    Satala would be staying to govern the planet in Bethy's stead, so we would need to say our farewells to her, and Yvette was sticking around to help her, so that was one more person to see us off. We also had to visit Anna-Marie and wish her well, she'd been a good friend to us since we'd been here.

    Despite how busy we were, the time flew by surprisingly fast. I took the drops slowly, letting my soul process them since I was still a bit injured. With the improvement though, it wasn't too big of a problem. Still, I was pretty sure given my friends soul strength thirty five Impact was the limit of what they could handle anyway. I could probably have managed thirty seven if we'd had the Dew for it, but it was more important to get all of us on a similar level.

    Once everyone had gotten caught up and said their goodbyes where needed, we all filed out to a large open field to wait for the shuttle. To my surprise, the 'kids' that were getting picked up were Annalise and her team, and we waved to the fae girl as we settled in to wait.

    It didn't take long before the shuttle descended. A monstrous open sided thing made of black iron and burning with runework. The enchantments were tiny but carved in groupings that created spiraling designs that enhanced the ferocious image of the shuttle, making the jagged dark edges look even more imposing.

    Callie tugged bumped me with her elbow. "We totally need to get one of those! I bet I could even imbue it with shadow energy!"

    Normally I worried about her driving, but since the sky was basically infinite, if she could literally merge into the shadows it should be fine. Actually given her ability to view things through the dark, I was betting with access to a shadow imbued vehicle she's be a flawless driver now, or at least much better able to avoid accidents. Still, in my head I couldn't shake the image of all the dings on her bike. Best to let Jessie do the driving.

    I made a noncommital noise as we headed for the shuttle, and got a suspicious glare as she picked up my emotions through the bond. Once we were on board we sat down on the padded leather couch, taking advantage of the spacious interior (bigger on the inside) while we settled in to wait for the trip to be over.

    My own mind was kind of blown when no doors or anything closed, the shields kept the air inside, and we got to watch in real time as the shuttle began to rise, the ground falling away as we watched the planet start to recede. I gave a bittersweet smile as I looked down at the place.

    I'd been through a lot since becoming an Ascendant, but the Moonsong Glade had been a special experience. No Zeke, no family nonsense really, just crazy Ascendant bullshit I hadn't expected and had to adapt to. We'd made friends, fought battles, and established even more of a reputation than we'd had before. Now we were heading back out into the universe, stronger than we'd ever been and ready to take on whatever came next.

    Even more incredible was when the jungle of the core, the massive mountain range of the ring, and the rest of the Glade fell away and we were staring out into the perfect dark of outer fucking space. I could see stars out in the distance, but I put an arm around Callie and just stared in awe and wonder at the emptiness of space firsthand. The Bazaar had been huge, so it had just been like looking at the night sky, but actually being out here was...amazing.

    "It's so...dark." Said Callie in a daze. "I've seen dark before, but that's nothing compared to this. Shadow is only the absence of light, but this...it's like it's swallowing everything. Like a bottomless Abyss." Her tone was soft and shocked, like she was being hypnotized. I could feel through the bond she was in a weird state, but before I could shake her out of it, Zeke put a hand on my shoulder.

    "Whoa kid, hold up. She's gaining enlightenment." He seemed genuinely amazed. "That's extremely rare, especially at lower ranks. Might be because of all the renown she's gained recently pushing her forward. She might be on the edge of discovering a Path, or at least the nascent version of one."

    "Is that a big deal?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. "I mean, Abel and I both have a Path, and so does Gabriel. I mean, it's good that she might step onto one, but it's not like it's some crazy thing."

    Zeke rolled his eyes. "Kid, you need a Path to advance to D-rank. It's one of the requirements for Mastery. Plenty of people NEVER develop one, and the ones who do usually do it at the peak of E when their souls are notably higher quality and they have a lot more raw stats to stack up for it. Abel is a freak, and so is that Gabriel kid, and you just happened to get stupidly lucky."

    I'd kind of figured that D-rank thing out from what he'd said about it before, but it was nice to have confirmation. Since it was a rare chance I went ahead and left Callie to contemplate her possible path and went back to staring out at the vast expanse of nothingness in front of us.

    At least...it was nothing to start. Then we reached the right height and turned, and suddenly my vision was absolutely filled with a metal behemoth of a vehicle. Expansive dark metal plating engraved that I was sure would be engraved with runes, but that even I couldn't get a good look at from this distance, sprawling for miles below us as it loomed over the Moonsong Glade like a specter of death.

    "That." Said Zeke with a grin. "Is the Necromedes. The current flagship of Killian Zayne, the Black Arbiter. Kill and I go way back. His father was actually the one who taught me the Soul Dissection Skill that I used to create my Voltomancy ability. He and Eli and I went on plenty of adventures together. He was the second of our little group to hit A-rank actually. But I don't count it because the Zayne clan is old as dirt." He cut off with a wince.

    I was fascinated by the idea that my parents had once been in a group like mine. I could see from his expression as he stopped talking though that Zeke had run up against his geas again. Still, that meant that Killian Zayne might know more about my mom and dad too. I'd definitely ask him about it if I got the chance.

    As we approached the ship, the form of the Necromedes loomed larger in my sight, consuming the whole of my view as we approached a small open bay that seemed to be protected by a similar shield to the one keeping us all from being sucked out into space.

    Touching down, I turned to check on Callie, who was still in a bit of a daze. Taking her her arm in mine, I led her off the shuttle leaving her to process whatever she'd gained from the view. The whole thing made me incredibly curious about how things like renown and the soul played into Path formation. It made sense it would all be intertwined, but I wasn't sure how.

    The bay around us was completely empty, with only some other shuttles around. Zeke gave a whistle. "Man, Kill's taste is as bad as ever. These things look like they were hammered together out of scrap."

    "At least I don't paint porcelain masks like a wierdo" Bit out a voice from behind us. Turning, we saw a tall, thin man, his pale chest exposed by his long red velvet coat, which lay open down to the ankles of his leather pants. His eyes were a swirling mix of red and black and his hair was black and white, split right down the middle. It should have been too much honestly, lots of colors, but weirdly he pulled it off.

    Zeke grinned at him. "You might want to invest. Your face is pretty terrifying, a few nice masks to put people at ease could only help. I can't imagine the scare you get when you look in the mirror."

    The tall man laughed, stepping up to hug my uncle, clapping him on the back before pulling away to nod at us. "This is Eli and Sasha's kid huh?" He said with interest. "Poor kid takes after his dad far too much. Oh well, welcome to the Necromedes everyone. I guess I should probably show you around." And with that, he turned and strode off, leaving us all to stare after him for a second before following. Man, why were all the high rankers I knew so weird?
     
  26. Threadmarks: chapter 471
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The Necromedes was both huge and fascinating. As expected, it was bigger on the inside, but aside from the outer layers where the docking bay had been, the interior was wide and open, like a floating city. There was even a sky, presumably made through enchantments.

    Rather than being all dark and depressing, the interior felt like we were standing on a mountain peak, cold, chill air wrapping around us. Killian looked pretty proud to show everything off. "We tend to use the flagship for VIP transport when possible. The favors and payments we extract are always useful, and unlike most clans, the Zayne's have no stable location to defend. We're spacefaring, so don't need to worry about being attacked so easily. It's a win win."

    "I still say it's not the same." Disagreed Zeke. "Something about having real, hard dirt under your feet is just...different. Fake it as well as you want, but I'll take planetary living any day of the week."

    Killian shrugged. "Yeah, but you're a snobby artist. I still can't believe you took my family's soul stitching skill and turned it into arts and crafts. My ghost binding talent is so much more useful, which is obvious since you still haven't hit A-rank with your ridiculous clown faces."

    "Empty shells." Sneered Zeke. "They keep their stats but lose their ability. What's the difference between that and using golems? Sure you can have way more of them, but an army of generic ghosts can't compete with my ability to use more than a dozen different abilities."

    This sounded like an old argument, so I jumped in, cutting them off before they could get sucked in. "So your whole family lives in space?"

    Killian refocused on me. "Oh sure. My son Blake is around here somewhere. And my wife Cara. My whole branch is on this ship." That didn't fit with what I knew of branches, and my confusion seemed to be easily visible, even behind my mask, because he laughed an elaborated. "S-rankers start branches of god factions, or their own clans, but S-ranked clans with only one S-ranker can benefit from branches as well. In those cases A-rankers are allowed to branch off."

    "Forgive me for saying so, but you don't...seem like an A-ranker." I'd half expected him to be a hundred feet tall and breath fire, considering what A-rankers were capable of.

    He just chuckled. "I consider that a compliment. Only weaklings and incompetents flex their power unconsciously. Restraint is an important component to success. I'm sure you've long since realized that Zeke doesn't let out most of his strength when he's around you. It would be massively inconvenient to smash everyone you meet into gibbering paste just by your sheer presence."

    We chatted for a while as we walked, learning more about the Zayne family and the Necromedes itself, until we finally came to a wide open area with a massive white stone building. Killian stopped. "This is our training hall. Lots of cutting edge equipment in there. Some high Impact exercise gear for training, targets for practicing dangerous abilities, and even sparring golems that can be set to variable levels or both combat skill and raw power."

    Zeke sniffed. "It's a bit low tech, but it's not like we can't make do." He kept his haughty expression for a second, then winked. "Kidding, thanks for the help." His eyes drifted to me. "This is already as close to overt help as I can give you on this. Technically speaking I just happened to ask a friend for a ride to ensure our safety, his allowing you to use his training hall is a coincidence. That said, I won't be able to do anything to help directly."

    "It's fine." I said with a chuckle. "I'm grateful you managed to find us a place to improve. We've probably got a lot more points coming in the next few months, and having somewhere to acclimate and work on our combat abilities will be important if we want to do well at the trials. Speaking of which, what ARE the trials? Like do you have any hints you can give on passing them?" I glanced at Killain. "Either of you?"

    They shook their heads, our host answering for both of them. "Nope. We THINK they change, but it's not possible to tell really. The trials don't take place on the physical plane. The Ruined Soul Temple is a spiritual space, and almost all of the memories you make there get left behind when you emerge. I've been myself, and so has Zeke, but we only have a vague understanding of what's there."

    I cursed. "Damn, well thanks for telling me what you could at least. How about the timeframe? How long do we have on here? Zeke said we're taking the long way."

    "Yup. Lady Valsara, the fae who contracted us for the pickup of her daughter Annalise, is also planning to do some training before arriving at the temple." He winked at me. "We get paid more this way, so I don't mind. It'll be about three months. If I were you I'd use it on soul tempering. Having a higher soul will give you a huge advantage in the temple. The better your soul the higher your starting point, even if we forgot most of it that much is easy to remember."

    Abel grinned at that. His soul was at the peak of yellow, having been boosted a full grade on rank up just like the rest of ours, and having already reached the peak of orange in G-rank. Training the soul past one full rank ahead (Master Candidate status) required special resources and techniques, or places like the Ruined Soul Temple. Hearing that he's have an advantage in the trials had to be pleasant for him.

    Of course, I was better there would be plenty of other Master Candidates showing up to this if that was the case, and probably even monsters whose souls had advanced to a level close to the two grade higher limit. Since the Ruined Soul Temple trials gave prizes, some of those clan heirs who had trained on their family's own inheritance would probably make an appearance to try to sweep the rewards.

    The thought of fighting more people like Abel was...kind of exciting. And I had three full months of training against Abel himself to hone those skills. My mentor had beaten me before, but that had been a while ago. And I'd come damned close to winning. I'd advanced quite a bit since then in terms of combat fundamentals.

    I felt Callie start next to me and glanced over to check on her. She looked pretty intense, glancing around wide eyed as if she had no idea where she was, but I could tell from the bond that she was excited. Apparently she'd had some success with whatever comprehension of her Path she was working on. I wanted to ask about it, but now definitely wasn't the time.

    So we followed Killian, enjoying the tour and listening to his stories for an hour or two, until finally the A-ranker was called away for some business or something and left us to head to the dining hall to grab something to eat. It had been most of the day since my last meal, so I for one was pretty damned hungry.

    Sitting down at a table, we all ordered food from one of the waiters they apparently had on staff here full time, and then I gave my girlfriend a curious glance. She shook her head, giving me a quick 'later' gesture, and then asked me to fill her in on what she'd missed during her downtime.

    "Huh. This place is pretty cool." She said in wonder, glancing around the dining hall to try to see something interesting. Of course, we were in a building so she didn't see anything but tables and food, but for my girlfriend, the latter would always be the most important thing in the room. "Also those steaks smell AMAZING." She grinned at me. "Honey..."

    "No." I said flatly. "You got an eighteen ounce ribeye and like four sides. I'm not sharing.

    "But I'm so HUNGRY." She moaned, letting her head slump to the table dramatically. "I used so much energy on my epiphany, I need sustenance."

    I glanced at her suspiciously, then over to Zeke. "Is that actually a thing? Do epiphanies make you hungry?"

    "I'm pretty sure BREATHING makes her hungry." He said wryly. "But I guess it's possible soul strain from working on a potential Path would drain stamina? Theoretically? Seems like a stretch, but you might as well just give up on your steak and order another one."

    I rolled my eyes with a sigh, nodding my head and eliciting a squeal of delight from Callie, who threw herself on me in a crushing hug. I smiled under my mask where no one could see, closing my eyes and enjoying the warmth of us all being together. In the background, Cass, who been unusually quiet from her spot riding on Randall, started to chatter excitedly to Jessie, who laughed as she entertained the smaller girl.

    Selka was haranguing my cousin, asking her rapid fire questions since she had only been allowed to join up with us at the last minute. I thought Nat's guardian being so worried was sweet, but my cousin mostly just seemed annoyed. Benny was sitting next to me, and as the food arrived and I gave mine to Callie and ordered more, he rolled his eyes and cut half a steak and dropped it on my plate.

    "Thanks." I said with a solemn nod, which he returned. I wasn't just talking about the food, and he knew it. Benny had been there through the whole dungeon mess, often relegated to the back line, and he'd come through for us every time it mattered. He'd been patient and helpful if slightly annoying, ready to do anything he could to turn things around.

    Jessie and Callie were both mostly taken care of in terms of growth, and that left Benny to help out. I owed him, not just for being there during this but for my whole life, and I was going to pay it back ten fold. Three months of stats was enough to explosively boost his abilities, and since I should be getting some rollover renown from the godslaying (if not as much as Callie would) I could dedicate most of my wishes to that.

    Some of them would go to improving my own power, of course, but Benny had some great attacks to pay with, and I knew I'd be using them consistently in training, so that was a win win. A hand closed around mine, Callie grasping my fingers and giving them a light squeeze as she speared a steak with a fork and started chomping into it from one side, much to my amusement.

    I felt a surge of warmth from her through the bond, and I returned it wholeheartedly as I looked around. Family. I was going to look for my mom, meet my sister, and eventually get answers from my dad. I was going to change the way kids grew up in the family, and make my name ring through the whole universe. I was going to do that for family. Not just my parents or relatives, but this family, the one I'd made.

    I'd taken a step with this whole dungeon episode, a step out onto the wider stage. People would be hearing my name, would know who I was. I'd officially joined the wider universe, even if, based on what Zeke said, I was competing with enough ridiculous shit that I wasn't likely to stand out at first. It was still progress, still a story that other people would tell. I'd written the first chapter of my legend, of OUR legend, and I couldn't wait to write the next.
     
    odinori, meloa789, Thorq and 8 others like this.
  27. BJJPanda

    BJJPanda I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    He should trade soul healing from Benny
     
  28. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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

    BJJPanda I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    But he can give out his attacks that come from items
     
  30. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    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.
     
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