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

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke up alone. I didn't feel particularly strongly about that. No, loneliness was not on my list of emotions. The cold, gnawing dread was up taking up most of my emotional bandwidth. It was so pervasive it took me a minute to realize I hadn't woken up on my own, I'd been helped along by a knock on my door. Or rather, Benny's door, Celine and Callie had switched rooms so we'd all have somewhere to stay.

"Hey man, you awake?" Asked my best friend as he came into the room with a cup of hot cocoa and a plate full of food. "I figured you could use some food.

I grunted, sitting up, and gave him a grateful nod as I took the meal. I forced myself to chew, despite my stomach being a rioting mess and the bacon tasting like ash.

Like I'd told Zeke. I didn't have cold feet. I couldn't wait to marry Callie. No, the problem was that I was terrified SHE would rethink marrying ME. This girl was way too good for me. She was smart and beautiful and perfect and I was a lazy battle junkie with daddy issues.

Benny raised a brow at me. "You certainly seem to have your head on straight. Steady as a rock. I'm surprised, you usually freak out when you're doing something big. I guess you've grown up a lot."

"What are you, fucking insane?" I snapped at him. "I'm about to puke. My heart is hammering like an automatic rifle and palms are sweating for some weird reason. How am I supposed to regulate that? What if it happens during the ceremony? What if the ring slips off and she leans down to get it and I accidentally knee her in the face and her nose breaks and she leaves me forever-"

He covered my mouth with his hand, looking appalled. "Shit man, you buried that crazy in a shallow grave. My mistake. Luckily, I come bearing more gifts than just food." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to me.

Taking it, I opened the note to find a short, succinct message. 'I love you, idiot. Calm down.' I laughed, folding it up and putting it in the pocket of my pajama pants.

"I can't believe I took the under." He said with a disgusted sigh. "Almost two years at this and you only managed a decent poker face. Bastard. Seems like that helped though. Let's try this again. Pushing down any insane panic spirals about elaborate farcical comedies of errors ruining your wedding, how are you feeling, you absolute moron?"

I patted my pocket, closing my eyes as I pictured the note again, and laughed quietly. "Sorry." I said as I opened them. "I'm good. She does know me well. Did you see her? Did she seem ok?" I reached for my bond, getting a pulse of adoration and excitement, which I returned in force, but nothing specific.

"I didn't." He said. "Celine brought me that. I love how your wedding means my girlfriend doesn't sleep in our room. If I'd know being best man meant having to bunk with your big ugly ass, I'd have let Zeke do it."

I gave him a sympathetic look. "Jealousy is such a petty emotion." I said kindly. "But don't worry, we're only nineteen. I'm sure you'll grow into your features someday. Until then, try to control your envy at my refined and glorious features." I framed my chin with a finger and a thumb like a check mark and grinned cheesily.

"No wonder you managed to form a Path so early." He said pityingly. "You've completely lost touch with reality."

Shrugging, I winked at him. "Maybe it's the air up here. It gets thin at this altitude. You wouldn't know about that though, would you?" I never let him forget my current one inch height advantage after Callie traded me an inch for a wish.

"I'll let that pass because it's your wedding." He said with narrowed eyes. "But starting tomorrow you better watch your ass."

We both laughed, and I pulled him into a huge. Benny always knew when I needed to banter and let off steam. "How about you?" I asked when I let go. "You ready? Got the ring?" I'd handed it to him last night, and if he'd lost it I was going to hyperventilate.

"I'm not an idiot." He said with an exasperated sigh. He patted his pocket. "It's right here." He froze. "Wait, where did it go?" He patted his pockets frantically. "Shit, I swear I just had it…You're not buying this at all are you?" His panicked expression gave way to a toothy grin. "I thought you might be nervous enough to believe me."

I rolled my eyes. "Luckily I know you well enough to expect your poorly timed and amateurishly executed attempts at humor. You should talk to Serah. I'm told she's the funniest angel in her whole tower."

He burst out laughing. "She does crack me up sometimes. But it's a bit hit or miss. She pulls off most of her jokes because of the deadpan delivery, and I just don't have it."

"I shudder to think what she's teaching Bethy." I said with a terrified expression.

"Speaking of, she seemed awfully excited to be a bridesmaid. It was sweet of Callie to ask her. Maria really appreciated it too."

I smiled fondly. "Yeah, she's sweet like that. Though speaking of Maria, what's up with her and Jessie. They break up or something? They haven't really seemed to be interacting much, I was expecting them to hang out once we got back."

"They were never really together." He shrugged. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder sometimes, and sometimes it just puts distance. They decided to just be friends. Jessie was telling me about it the other day. They're just doing different things with their lives. Not everyone has a fairytale romance with their first girlfriend."

I shot him a withering look. "Dude. You're dating an ACTUAL elf princess."

"She's not a princess." He said quickly. "But fair point. Anyway, they're still friends, just not pursuing anything romantic, so it won't be awkward."

"Up to them." I shrugged. "I kind of get it. Long distance is hard enough for established couples. Trying to start something that way would be rough." I stood up, grabbing the bag with my suit in it and stepping into the bathroom to change. "Man, I thought being so sure of this would mean I wouldn't be as freaked, but if anything being so committed to the idea is making the pressure heavier."

I finished changing and stepped out, cracking my neck and spreading my arms wide. "So, how do I look?"

He shrugged. "Maybe half as good as I do. Which is still ten times better than usual."

"Remind me to replace your mirrors." I said with a mock sneer. "Apparently they're all the funhouse kind that Cicero uses at the circus."

He gave me a knowing smile. "You know we're going to have to quit stalling eventually." He said in a surprisingly kind tone. "There's nothing to be scared of. She's crazy about you, and it's not like this will really change anything. You're basically newlyweds anyway, you're so into each other it's sickening."

I laughed, pulling him into another hug. "Thanks man. You're right. Let's go."

We slipped out of the room, taking a specific hallways so we didn't run into Callie and climbing into a shuttle. The ride to the venue was shockingly quick, and when I arrived, the usher led me to the gazebo where I would be waiting.

We were early, by a substantial degree. Most of the seats were empty, but my mom and Amelia were already there. "Shane!" Callie's mom said happily. "You look so handsome!" She stepped up the adjust my tux, then adjusted it back a second later before nodding in confirmation. "Are you ready?"

"A little shaky." I admitted. "I'm worried she won't show up. I mean, I know she will but what if she doesn't, what if she dec-" Benny's hand covered my mouth again.

"Let's not get him started." He said with a laugh. "He's fine, and he'll be more fine when she gets here. Is everything ready?" He turned to my mom, who was standing off to the side in an orange silk dress, beaming proudly at me.

She brushed the question off with a snort. "Obviously. "I'm not half assing my baby's wedding. Our seating is all lined up, bridal party and groomsmen are aware of their places, caterer has already delivered the food, flowers are out, gift bags are ready, cake is here, photographer is standing by, the wolves are dressed in little outfits, and we nixed the doves because we were pretty sure they would get eaten."

"Where's the ring?" Asked Jessie as she arrived. "I want to give it to Randall before the ceremony, we have his pillow all set up."

Benny fished in his pocket. "I got it. Best man holds the ring until the ring bearer gets it. Or ring bear, I guess." He shot me a reproachful look. "Was the bad pun really necessary. You could have had Callie's half brother do it."

"Randall is adorable." I said in a dignified voice. "Plus Eric is too young. That ring is worth more than this entire star cluster. Cass is out flower girl though."

Jessie beamed. "I picked out the cutest petals for her to use. They burst into flames when they touch the ground. But like…not hot flames. Orange ghost fire. It's going to be very tasteful, and not arsonisty at all."

"That's good to hear." I said dryly. "Callie was very clear about how much fire the wedding was allowed to be on. Which is none. She's against it."

"I know." Said Mel as she stepped into the gazebo, Abel following behind her. "I tried to convince her to let me do a fire dance, but she said it's too dangerous. Something about G-rankers being so flammable I might ignite them from a distance by accident. So insulting. Security is standing by." She told my mom. "The last sweep came up clean."

I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you two were helping out with that? I appreciate the assist. And thanks again for the manpower mom."

"Of course sweetie." She said happily, fixing my jacket exactly the same way Amelia had and actually messing it up worse. Her hands came up to grip my face. Or mask at least. "Look at you. I wish you're take this thing off for the ceremony. I'm surprised Calliope didn't insist."

I shrugged. "She knows it's a safety issue. Plus I think it looks good. It's my brand."

We talked for the next hour or so, double checking everything as guests began to trickle in. It was crazy seeing the mix of old friends and new, seeing powerful E-rankers we'd grown up hearing about next to people we were friends with and had fought with side by side. The whole wedding had a surreal vibe to it, without even touching on how crazy it was that I was marrying the woman of my dreams.

Eventually, Amelia, Chelsea, Mel, and my mom stepped over to where Callie's bridesmaids were waiting, and Abel joined Zeke, Gabe, Ian, and several other friends with the groomsmen. Benny stayed by me waiting at the end of the aisle.

After everyone was seated, the band started up the music, and my heart thundered in my chest as another shuttle, this one sleek and understated, landed at the end of the aisle. My eyes were locked on the exit, and I couldn't stop myself from swallowing as a figure emerged. Calliope Reynolds, the woman who was going to be my wife, started her walk down the aisle, and I'd never been so transfixed by any sight in my entire life.

 

[Mastersenseinewby]

I wouldn't mind some pictures about the various different things that happened in this story

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I felt like time was standing still. People say that all the time, and it always sounds hokey to me, but in this case, it was the only phrase that fit. It was like I got stuck between one heartbeat and the next because I literally couldn't process how perfect my fiancee, no, my WIFE (at least in a minute or two) looked at that moment.

People were talking, birds were chirping, and a thousand other things were making some kind of noise, but I couldn't really hear any of it. The world was just gone, and all I could see was the love of my life at the end of the orange carpet laid over the grass, smiling softly back at me.

She looked like an angel. No, more like a goddess, floating across the grass in a black lace ball gown studded with shining black crystals. Her hair was woven through with orange flowers, somehow blending perfectly with the rest of her look.

I stared into those bottomless blue eyes as she walked down the aisle, the music barely audible to me, until suddenly, she was in front of me, and I was drowning in love and adoration and pouring mine right back into the bond. We stared for a minute or two, until my mom finally cleared her throat. "Shane?" She said in amusement.

Blinking, I turned to where she was waiting to officiate. She'd volunteered to do it, because as a literal Saintess she was more than qualified to do the ceremony.

"What?" I said dumbly. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing at that moment.

She smirked, suppressing a chuckle. "I believe you mentioned that the two of you wanted to say your own vows. I just got to that part."

I hadn't heard her do the introductory part of the ceremony, but I'd been distracted, so I took a deep breath and turned back to Callie, taking her hands in mine as I stared into her eyes. "I guess I can go first." I said with a laugh. "But honestly I'm not sure where to start. You mean so much to me, how do I put that into words? How do I say what I've said a thousand times even more emphatically, because every time I'm with you the love I have for you only grows.

"I think." I said after a moment. "I'll start with fear. Or rather. Without it. Because that's what you give me. Ever since I first started this journey a few years ago, my life has been constantly threatened, I've been thrown from one enemy to the next and I've almost died a dozen times. But I wouldn't trade a second of it for the world."

Pausing, I tried to force the words to express everything I felt, but it wasn't enough. I just had to keep trying until it clicked. "But when I met you, everything changed. The scary things about entering a dangerous new world melted away, and all that was left was the joy. The excitement and the adventure of being with you has made my life one of discovery and beauty. Since the first time we spoke, my life has never been the same, and I'll love you for that more and more every day of my life."

Her eyes were wet, though she was trying not to cry, and she closed them slowly, taking a deep breath before responding.

"Shane. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me." She said hoarsely. "I spent so much of my life alone. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone, like I'd just be thrown away when I wasn't convenient, and like I was just a useful tool for anyone who did invest their time."

Her eyes shone like cerulean stars as they bored into me. "But from the first time I came to get you to go to that fight club with me and you freaked out about riding on my bike, I knew you were special. You didn't care about my family, or my name, or any of that nonsense. You were fun and brave and a little silly, and I adored you for it.

"Thinking of spending the rest of my life with you doesn't scare me." She said firmly. "Because I've been doing that for months. Since before you proposed I've been spending my life with you. Because I knew you were it. You were everything I'd ever need. And getting to show everyone we love that we belong together forever makes me so happy. Getting to share how much you mean to me with everyone who is important to us means the world to me."

My mom beamed at us. "It certainly sounds like you're both very serious about this. Do you, Shane Elijah Wyndham, take this woman to be your wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, so long as you both shall live?"

I squeezed both of Callie's hands, willing her to feel my certainty. Holding hands was something Callie and I did often. It was a way to show support without speaking, to lend physical strength to each other silently. And now, it was a way for me to show her that I wouldn't ever let her go. That I'd hold onto her for the rest of our lives.

Glancing back, I found a miniaturized Randall toting a little orange pillow tied around his neck, and on it sat the ring. I picked it up, sliding it onto Callie's left ring finger as I responded. "I do."

She turned to look at Callie. "And do you, Calliope Reynolds, take this man to be your husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or for poorer, so long as you both shall live?"

"I do." She breathed, her own hand taking the ring from Jessie and sliding the black metal band onto my ring finger.

My mother smiled so widely I thought her face might freeze that way. "It's a big commitment." She said gently. "To pledge yourself to someone, especially another Ascendant. Talented young people like you can live for thousands of years, tens of thousands. To help start off your life together, members of my family have a tradition, a ceremony we perform on those we help usher into their new lives. Would you like me to perform it?"

Mom hadn't mentioned that to me, but I trusted her, and Callie did too. We both nodded, and she closed her eyes, raising her hands, allowing them to flare up with white fire.

She reached out for us, placing a hand on each of our heads, but I didn't flinch or resist. When her hand made contact, flames flowed through my body, and I felt myself heat up in a strangely cleansing way.

"Marriage is a difficult thing." My mother said, eyes still closed. "And it can test you as surely as fire tests gold. Before you enter this new phase of life, let me first cleanse your insecurities, cleanse your doubts, cleanse your worries and your fears. Be washed clean of the poisons that might taint your happiness, and emerge free of burden."

I wasn't sure if that little ceremony actually DID any of that, but I felt like it was cleansing something. Purifying my body, mind, and soul. I really did feel unburdened, and as she opened her eyes and stepped back, all I could feel in my heart or Callie's was joy and peace.

"In the name of the Red Revenant, of the Radiant Pope, and in my own name. I pronounce you man and wife. May your loves be forever intertwined, and may your love for each other carry you across a thousand oceans and through a thousand storms. You may kiss the bride."

And I did. My mask retracted like it always did and Callie threw herself into my arms, pressing her lips to mine as the bond lit up like a supernova, flooding with all the love and happiness. In fact, the light began to shift, and I felt the bond changing as it overflowed with those feelings and evolved, rising to Expert level in one step.

Callie stiffened for a second, but relaxed against me as she recognized the feeling too, and finally we pulled away from each other. Callie's eyes were overflowing with tears of joy, and she was smiling wider than I could ever remember seeing. I could feel her even more deeply now, like she was part of me, like she'd replaced the heart in my chest, and it just felt…right.

We turned to see the others, our friends and family, here with us on the most important day of our lives…and froze. Among the groomsmen and the bridesmaids, several figures had drawn weapons, pressing them against the throats of some of our friends. Cicero had a knife against Abel's throat, and Valk had gotten close enough to threaten my sister.

At the end of the aisle, looking relaxed, was the driver from the other day, the one I'd noticed before, standing in the middle of the carpet, unbothered by the multiple powerful Ascendants surrounding him. "Oh by all means." He said with a smile. "Don't let me interrupt.

My mother was glaring at him. "Who are you? How dare you threaten my daughter? I could snuff you out like a candle flame."

"I'm sure." He said without worry. "But you won't. Those knives they're using are specialty weapons. They're hooked through the edges of the soul, if they're withdrawn before being deactivated…well, bad things happen. We were very careful when arranging all this, so just be good and let me get through my speech. It's important to toast at a wedding."

I glared at him. "Who the hell are you? I feel like I recognize you from somewhere, but my Danger Sense isn't going off. Even now, when you're so close."

"Well, that would be the arrangements I mentioned. Cloaks from Delthrys, god of Secrets. I do have to thank you Shane, you've been such a busy bee. If you hadn't made such a nuisance of yourself I could never have gotten the resources to make this example of you. As for my identity…" He pouted, then ran a hand over his face. As I watched, the features melted, rearranging into a familiar visage that reminded me of betrayal and agonizing pain. "I'm hurt." Said Travis. "I thought for sure you'd figure it out once you got the first hint."

Valk's face, Cicero's face, and the faces of several other guests melted away, revealing different (though still unknown) visages.

I stared in horror at the hostages, at my mother, who didn't seem to be able to do anything, and at my wife, whose panic I could feel through the bond. "Please." I said quietly. "This isn't necessary. You want to hurt us, I get it. Make your example. There are plenty of witnesses to spread the word. I'm the most notable target. Just take me. Make a spectacle, it'll be so much more impactful."

Travis, the rat bastard translocator who had stabbed me in the back, betrayed us to Hatescream and caused Perit's death by my wife's hands, stared at me for a second. "You?" He said through his giggles. "You're not the example Shane. You're just the garnish. No, the example isn't one person, it's this whole PLANET." He slipped an object from his pocket and threw it at the ground.

There was a colossal blast of red light that obscured all vision, and when I looked up, my blood ran cold. My mom, Zeke, Callen, Felicity. Every person at the wedding above E-rank was gone. Above us, the sky began to warp, lines of light, far above the aurora, up in the atmosphere, began to arrange themselves into endless shapes of mazes. "Now." He continued in satisfaction. "We can REALLY start the fun."

 

[Vongrak]

Honestly? So glad we had that bit of extra clarification to remind us (me) what/who Travis was. Like, I did remember the betrayal and stuff but I had completely forgotten his name by this point. It's just... Travis. The great and terrible traterous translocator... Travis. I hadn't really thought he'd be relevant again for a good while perhaps? I dunno. This was very much not on my bingo card.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My entire body was locked up. Not by some effect or ability, but by indecision. My sister, my friends, they were all being threatened, and by someone I KNEW was capable of killing them in the blink of an eye. "What the hell was that?" I growled at Travis. My eyes were glued to the knife at my sister's throat. "And you have us surrounded, can you please…deactivate those knives or whatever?"

"These knives?" He asked casually, translocating his glove for the one that had been pressed against Chelsea's throat. I surged forward toward her, but Callie caught me as I realized nothing was happening. "Yeah, they're just knives."

I strained against every bone in my body, desperately wanting to attack now that I knew that, but they did still have knives on several of my friends, even if they weren't magic soul eating knives.

Travis pouted. "Aww, you didn't get all shocked at the big reveal. Ascendants can be so jaded. Still, I have to thank Delthrys for the cloaks. When no one knows what you're capable of, bluffing is so much easier. They didn't even sense my people drawing the blades, and they were RIGHT next to them. Divine work, right?"

"Where did the others go?" I demanded, trying to hold onto my last shred of rationality, at least until I knew what was happening."

He grinned. "That was a Banishment Bauble. I tuned it to this planet, and it rejects anything higher rank than the planet itself. All those pesky D-rankers and above are just kicked right off. I imagine the ship in atmosphere picked them up."

"So…what?" I asked acidly. "You just wanted to piss them off? They're gone but it'll take them seconds to get back."

"No." Said Abel grimly. "It won't." His eyes flicked up to the lines in the sky. "I recognize those patterns. I'm not sure how they're here. But I know what they do. This whole planet has been anchored in space. There's a bit of tolerance, but if anyone above E-rank by more than a few points sets foot on Callus, it'll shatter and send us plummeting into the void."

That sounded familiar. "You mean like that one guy you paid for the labyrinth? What was his name again?"

One of guests stood up dramatically, flinging away a heavy coat and hat, and yelled. "It was me! Mad Madigan!" Energetically. "Heya Abel, long time no see. You look like you got strong. Isn't this a fun reunion?"

The man looked…crazy. He was sallow and thin, with dark rings around his eyes so deep they looked like bruises, and a manic, sort of jittery energy.

"Maddy." Said Abel with a grimace. "I thought you were dead."
Madigan threw up his arms like he was sticking a gymnastics landing. "Ta-dah! I'm still here! I just got lost for a while. But I found my way into one of those cool mini worlds the gods use. They were so impressed they offered me a job! I've been helping ferry people in and out of their sealed pocket dimensions, and they've been helping me get way stronger." He flexed a bicep. "Lookit."

"So…you sealed the planet like Abel's old labyrinth." I said, focusing on Travis. "I assume you filled it with powerful E-rankers. The Wendigos were yours, I take it?"

He shrugged. "I tried a few things. We have a really good teleporter, so I've been here a while. I can't believe you didn't invite me to your wedding, Shane. We've been through so much together. Lucky for you I'm a conscientious guy. Not only did I crash, I brought presents with me anyway.

"You're kind of lucky your friends and family are all here, really." He said nonchalantly. "Because the rest of the people on this planet are NOT having a good time. Or won't be soon. Most of my friends are surrounding Wintervale right now, but hey, I made sure to leave a few buddies to invite all your favorite cities to the party. Not much of an example if we just snag the few of you."

"You're just going to kill everyone on the planet?" I demanded angrily. "Just to…what? Warn people off from interfering with your gods?"

He shrugged. "You know how Ascendants are about good press. Have to make sure they know what we can do. Your vampire buddy did a good job of rallying the rabble to your cause." He grimaced. "Hope is such an insidious thing. Some of the more hotheaded gods wanted to ambush him, but the it was decided that would do more harm than good."

I saw Bethy tense out of the corner of my eye, but ignored my friend for now. Morgan would be fine, he was a monster. But I could at least push them further in that direction. "A bunch of gods having to gang up on a mortal? That certainly wouldn't strike fear in my heart. Where's the dignity?"

"Exactly!" He said emphatically. "It's pathetic. No, we don't need the big boys mucking about in mortal business. It's beneath them. What we needed was to make an example of someone at the same level. It's more…appropriate."

I snorted. "Oh, sure. And outnumbering us, what? Twenty to one? That's totally in the spirit of fairplay. Why don't you back your bully boys off and we can settle this one on one."

"Please." He snorted. "I didn't want my gods humiliating themselves, but I'm hardly opposed to a little dirty dealing, as you well know. No, you and all your little friends are going to be part of something bigger than yourselves. Imagine it, and entire planet ritually sacrificed to our pantheon, the blood of ACTUAL gods spilled in the dirt from the veins of their descendants as their elders watch impotently from orbit." He sniffed. "I'm sorry. It's just so impressive it's making me tear up a bit."

"You're legitimately the worst human being I've ever met." I said bluntly. "And I helped kill a guy who stole and brainwashed children into sleeper assassins. So that's a pretty high bar. I'm absolutely going to murder you before this is over. You know that, right?"

His smirk turned cold. "It's nice to have dreams, bud. But don't get lost in your delusions. You're not leaving this clearing in any condition to ambush anyone. But don't worry. You won't die until the ceremony. Can't make any promises for your friends though. So how about you be good, and I won't have to teach any nasty lessons. Okay?"

"I could do that." I said slowly. "Or I could just leave." I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind the guy holding a knife to Chelsea's neck. Pulling him off, I tossed him away towards Bethy, who surged forward and ripped his throat out in a rage. "Bethy, Domain!"

Her eyes flared red, and the blood red moon filled the sky. At the same time, six different explosions went off, blinding everyone aside from the few of us who knew to close our eyes. Part of the security measures had been arranging escape measures with today's wishes. Just because I trusted my mom, didn't mean my paranoia wasn't still going full blast.

The seventh wish had been granted to Bethy herself. She'd pulled everyone we actually LIKED into her Domain as planned, and the escape wish shunted her out of the venue, carrying the rest of us along with her in another bright flash.

I felt the world shift, and then a crash as I landed back first on black stone. "Ow." I groaned as I rolled over. "Everyone ok? Did anyone get left behind?"

We'd chosen a place far away from the venue for the escape point, and we were lucky we had.

Part of me had considered blitzing for the entrance to the cold storage, if what Travis had said was true, we were stuck on this planet with quite a few E-rankers, and backup would be helpful…but in the end, we'd decided discretion was the better part of valor. Who knew how long it would take to recruit them if we even could, and with no wishes left today…

"Shane!" Said Nat in a panic. "Valk! They replaced Valk! Is he…do you think he's dead? I can't lose anyone else."

I did think he was dead. But right now was not the time for that conversation, so I just put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't jump to conclusions." I told her reassuringly. "They didn't kill him out in the tundra at least. We'd have noticed a body. Maybe they have him in some sort of dungeon. We can look around once we get settled."

Offering her false hope might be cruel, but I really didn't know for sure if he was gone. Nat was…we'd need her. Her hanging onto hope until we absolutely confirmed Valk was gone wasn't the worst thing in the world. I looked around, trying to find the others, the grass had receded, and we were standing on the battlements of a very large, very familiar castle.

"The necropolis?" Said Callie as she stepped up next to me. "Damn, been a while since we were last here. Not a bad hiding spot. No way anyone who isn't local would be able to find this place, much less think to look here."

I nodded. "Nat can help with that too." I nodded to where Abel and Celine had taken her aside to start working on some security wishes. "This is a fucking mess."

"It is." She said icily. "And someone is going to pay. My mother is here with us, Shane! She's pregnant." Her voice was laced with anxiety, and I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. "And she'll be fine. I promise. We slipped the noose, and we have information about what's going on. But I need you to check in up top. Talk to my mom and Zeke."

Callie looked confused for a second, then her eyes flicked to her wrist. "The Starpluck Bangle!" My wife said in excitement. "I can get up to the ship and back down. I bet they won't expect that." She frowned. "But I can't bring anyone with me. What good will that do? Plus I only get one trip there and back and then I need months to recharge."

"Because you can still bring things with you." I said maliciously. "This is enemy action, and not part of the candidacy. Which means interference is definitely on the table. Zeke and my mom are both old and powerful. They must have tons of weapons and armor we can give out to the E-rankers we DO have, and that bangle will bypass any blocks they have on this planet for sure."

Her grin was bloodthirsty. "That is an excellent point. I want to check on my mom, but once we've talked through what everyone knows I'll head up." She turned to leave and then stopped, turning back to pull my mask aside. "Oh. And I know it kind of got overshadowed by this but…we're really married now." She gave me a soft kiss. "Once we kick these bastards off our planet, I expect a hell of a honeymoon."

She headed off to find her mother, and I turned to the battlements, affixing my mask as I looked out over the necropolis we'd raided back during the scavenger hunt more than a year ago. I let the feelings hit me full force, anger, pain, frustration, even some hope and joy left over from the wedding.

Then I took all those emotions, and I tossed them away. They weren't important right now. I had work to do, civilians to protect, friends to defend. We'd been prepared enough to get away, even with everything they had done. My paranoia had paid off big time. Now though, now we had to counterattack. There was an enemy force occupying my planet. They were going to regret that by the time we were done.

 

[Quenster06]

Man, it would be hilarious to get a POV of Travis freaking out about how in the world they got away and such. Thank you for the chapter!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Before Callie left for the Necromedes, we all had a meeting about what exactly we might need. To my surprise. Benny actually shot down my plan, or at least advised an adjustment.

"Look. I get what you're going for." Said my best friend. "But more than gear, what we really need is intel. Except we've tried reaching out, and all the means of communications we can find are jammed."

It took me a second to catch up, given how keyed up I still was, but I finally caught on. "Shit. We have no eyes on pretty much anything that's happening." I turned to my wife. "Any chance your range with Abyssal Infiltration covers the whole planet?"

"Not even close." She said bluntly. "I could maybe get eyes on Valen from here if I pushed my power to work in a straight line, and even that's up in the air."

I glanced at Benny. "You want her to stay up there." I said eventually. "Act as our eye in the sky. I'm guessing you want to use the bond to bypass any communication blocks?"

The bond was…esoteric. Even in the faction games I was able to communicate with Callie on some level, and having just ranked up it was a good bet it would work even more smoothly. Actually, I was fine with the idea, but I was betting-

"The fuck you say!" Callie spat. "I'm not going up to space to eat bon bons on a high ranking space ship while my friends and family fight for their lives on an occupied planet!"

"Yes. You are." Came Amelia's voice. We all turned to see the expectant mother looking at her oldest child grimly. "Because despite how much it sucks to be useless, you'll do what you need to do end this nonsense."

Callie looked pained. "Mom. I can't just-"

"Yes you damn well can!" She snapped back. "I don't care about your pride or your reputation. I care that my daughter is safe and that it gives us the best chance of getting out of this Alice. So you get over whatever martyr complex is telling you that you need to stick around and you go do the damned job, Calliope."

I'd never heard Amelia sound so harsh before, but her eyes were hard and determined.

It was easy to forget when I was talking to her how much she'd been through. She'd been the wife of a unity branch guild master, and was an Ascendant now in her own right. She didn't seem scared of panicky at all. Hell, she was more stable than I was right now.

"I…" Callie looked pained. "I guess you're right." She looked miserable. "If this is the best way to keep everyone safe I'll do it.

I could feel her frustration and rage through the bond, but even without it I'd have known how upset she was. Her face was tight and her jaw was locked. I stepped forward to wrap my arms around her. "Hey." I said quietly in her ear. "We're lucky we have this kind of option. An eye in the sky with a direct line to my brain? We'll run circles around the idiots with your intel."

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Ok. Everyone should be safe here anyway. No one beyond E-rank is on this planet, so any wishes should be more than up to holding them off."

Unless they had more divine toys to play with, but I was pretty sure if they were sporting anything like that they'd have used it. I couldn't imagine those cloaks were easy to make, even for a god. This plan was just a basement level terror op, I doubted they had THAT much support from their gods.

Callie hugged her mom, said goodbye to Cass, gave me a kiss, then closed her eyes and focused. There was a flash from her wrist, and when it faded she was gone. The starpluck bangle had worked. I grinned smugly. No way that asshole Madigan's space barriers would interfere with something that powerful.

"Can you hear me?" Callie's voice asked in my head. "Because if not I'm coming RIGHT back to help."

I laughed, replying mentally. "I'm here, love. Sorry, you're stuck on overwatch. Find my mom and Zeke immediately, see what they have to say." We might not have them on hand, but we could still benefit from their wisdom.

"They found me." She said in amusement. "In like…fifteen seconds. Your mom is freaking out and hugging me. Zeke looks like he wants to punt someone into the sun. I'm telling them all about what's happening. Hold on." I felt a flex of the bond and Piece of Mind triggered for her. Sorry, that was really bugging me. Talking out loud and in our brains at the same time is weirdly complicated."

I rolled my eyes. "I mean, I'm glad you figured that out, but what are they saying. The bond ranked up, can we like…share senses now?"

There was another flex, and before I could blink, I was looking at my sobbing mother. "Are my babies ok?" She was asking frantically. "How about your mom? And Bethany? Did everyone get out of there alive?"

"We're fine mom." I answered reflexively. Her eyes widened, and I realized that my own voice had responded. "Oh, shit." I said in confusion. "That's super weird. I can feel Callie seeing through my eyes. She's not talking to anyone but I think she could." I shook my head, clearing it of distractions. "Sorry, focusing. Anyway, we need you to help Callie run surveillance. I have the brief beginnings of a plan, but it'll be rough."

Shockingly, my mom adjusted to my voice coming out of my wife's mouth quicker than I would have. "Intel is always a good start. Does your plan involve that cold storage you found?"

"Yes." I said with a sigh. "But those bastards are probably still surrounding Wintervale. We need more than eight or nine E-rankers. We need an army. Which means we need to do some recruiting."

She nodded. "You need information on the WCP and guild branches in the various cities so you can pad your forces. We can do that from up here. We can even help you plan your moves." Her eyes hardened. "As soon as this labyrinth is down we'll come to help. Do you know where the creator is?"

"Nope. He's an old enemy of Abel's. Or friend. Or something? It was hard to tell, he's VERY insane." I gritted my teeth. "But I don't know where he went when we bailed, and chances are good they'll hide him. The only upside is I don't THINK they know about the cold storage. There's no way any of our people told them. We all signed a contract, and I don't think any of his copies were present anyway. We have time."

"Agreed." She said slowly. "Which is good, because most towns don't have many E-rankers, if any at all. You'll need to work your way up to retaking Rajak. Luckily I know most of the Unity and WCP leadership have shelters and backup plans. Even with numbers, they aren't going to be taking this planet as easily as they might think."

Her voice was proud, and honestly, I was right there with her. It was nice to think of Callus resisting. Certainly nicer than considering all the people who were probably already dying.

She escorted Callie to one of the observation decks, having the Necromedes lock onto the planet and scan it for life signs. A holographic image of Callus appeared in the center of the room, and she circled it, observing the feedback. "Ok. There are…a lot of them. A thousand or so. I do not recommend a straight fight. You're all good, but quantity is a quality all its own."

"That's what the intel is for." I assured her. "We aren't going to fight a force of people two entire orders of magnitude larger than we are. We're going to recruit all the E-rankers on the planet and fight a force ONE order of magnitude larger. And win." My mother's face twisted in a parody of a smile, but it was obvious she couldn't manage real amusement. I pulled her into a tighter hug. "Don't worry about it. We'll be fine. We have Bethy and Gabe and Abel and even me. We're kind of monsters, if you hadn't noticed."

Snorting, she gave me a tight squeeze. "I suppose you're all decent. But don't let it go to your head. Be careful. We don't know how many E-rankers survived. My forces in Wintervale are probably mostly gone, but several of my powerful E-rankers had escape measures in place as a matter of course."

"They'd probably have gone to ground." I said with a grimace. "The tundra is a pain in the ass to track in. I can send Bethy. She's tough enough to escape even if she gets noticed. Wish we had some more people with transportation based abilities. Maybe we can find the teleporter who ran the scavenger hunt. He might be useful." I didn't remember his name, but I was sure someone would. "Oh, and keep an eye on my wife for me, will you. She's not happy about being left out, and honestly I wish I had her with me. We're stronger together, but her position up there gives us a huge strategic advantage."

"We've got her, kid." Said Zeke solemnly. "You just focus on where you're going to be recruiting. Branch managers and guild masters will be E-rank in most relatively large cities. Stella can help. She knows what's what. Oh, and kid…"

"I've got her back." I said before he could finish. "Chelsea too. And Gabe. We'll all watch out for each other."

"Good boy." Said my mom tearfully. "Oh…and tell your sister not to bother hiding her abilities anymore." Her face hardened. "Even if my mother doesn't take care of Black Sorrow, we can worry about it later. Make those sons of bitches sorry they ever tried to lay a hand on my kids."

I grinned, the feeling odd using Callie's face. "Oh she's going to love that. Zeke, any advice on combining those two powers?"

"Yeah." He said wryly. "Don't do it in an enclosed space. Corruption and purification are diametrically opposed. Enshrining Darkness doesn't play nice, even for a corruption Skill. I have no idea where Black Sorrow came up with that shit. It's like…anti reality toxic waste. Make sure Chelsea knows the ratio won't be one to one. If she mixes them it'll be more like ten parts flame to one part darkness. Otherwise the flame will be consumed, they are NOT on the same level."

I hadn't noticed him doing that back during his fight, but it was possible he'd just used really thin darkness to disguise the imbalance. Whatever he'd done, he was the expert, and I promised to pass it on. Telling my family I loved them I slipped back to my own body.

"Take care of my wife?" Callie's voice rang in my head waspishly. "Who's going to take care of YOU when I get my hands on your condescending ass?"


I smiled softly. "You will, same as always. Love you too honey. Don't worry too much. I'll be careful down here. Just give me the details I need and I promise I'll get us all out of this in one piece."


There was a long pause. "You're better. If you die down there I'm going to kill you. Be safe, Shane. I love you." The bond relaxed, still there but not so actively in use, and I turned back to go find Stella. She had info we needed, and I couldn't wait to get at it. The faster we got some more E-rankers to fill out our ranks, the faster this would be over, and my wife and I could go on our honeymoon. Hopefully without any tragedy marring our happy times.

 

[Quenster06]

I care that my daughter is safe and that it gives us the best chance of getting out of this Alice.

Click to shrink...

I believe you mean *alive* not *Alice*.

"You're better. If you die down there I'm going to kill you. Be safe, Shane. I love you."

Click to shrink...

Also *You'd* not *You're*.
Loving the chapters as always!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Alright." Said Stella after we found and talked to her. "Show me the data." I pulled out a pen and paper and started sketching out a quick map of Callus, with notations for where large gatherings of enemy Ascendants were at last update. Last update was pretty much instantaneous, because Callie and I both had parallels running through Piece of Mind communicating with each other through the bond.


She scanned my notes, nodding slowly. "Well, I think it's pretty clear Valen is a trap. That and Rajak will be the first place they expect us to hit. As much as I'd love to free my people, the actual combat will probably be more dangerous than the occupation."


"I had a similar thought." I said with a grimace. "But I don't know the rest of Callus well enough to pick a secondary target."


She stared pensively for a minute, then tapped a spot on the map. "Trevally. Dox and Revna are both lighter defended, but those might be bait. Trevally is light on manpower, but not compared to the other cities, the guild master is a teleporter, and I've been there before, so I can guide us when we arrive."


"It's a bit far though." I grimaced. "Do we have any means of transport? I guess Gabe's charger maybe?"


"I can take someone else too." Said the Adamant. "Bethy can transport people in her Domain, so if I carry her…" He trailed off, and the vampire girl lit up. It was basically the same plan we'd used to get here, but given both of their capabilities, there was a good chance of them avoiding problems as a two man team. It would damn sure be less obvious than trying to steal a shuttle or force march an army.


I glanced at the angels. "I'd be happier if he had backup just in case. Can you two fly fast enough to keep up with the charger?"


"It won't be a problem." Said Holly, cracking her neck. "This planet is so…floaty. I haven't been anywhere this low rank in my entire life. Trust me, we'll make good time. Plus, we're fast enough to provide a distraction once they get there."


Serah nodded solemnly. "We can kill two birds with one stone."


"Why would you say that?" Demanded Holly. "We have WINGS. Do you know how big of a jinx that is. If I get killed because of your bad jokes I'll haunt you for eternity."


Abel snorted. "You don't want her around for eternity, trust me. As far as I can tell that's how long she's been complaining already, so I know from experience." Holly glared at my mentor, who stuck his tongue out at her.


"Children." I said with a sigh. "Focus please? We're about to raid an occupied city on a besieged planet where everyone is looking for us. Now, Stella, who exactly are WE looking for. I assume it's not just one person."


She shook her head. "Trevally has four E-rankers. The Unity guild master, the WCP branch leader, and a pair of crime lords. The Unity rep for that city is Walker. He has an ability that lets him fold space as he moves, every step is ten miles. That might not seem like much, but given how fast Ascendants can walk, it's a huge advantage. If we get Walker, especially if we combine his ability with Mr. Brightlaw's charger, we'll have the run of the whole planet."


"What about the WCP manager?" I asked. "Is their power something that can help us?"


She shrugged. "I don't know her as well. I'm pretty sure its Whisp. Her ability is a sort of smoke transformation. Not the undisputed strongest on the planet or anything, but fairly scary to have as an enemy and nearly uncatchable. The crime lords there are Dead Eddie and Sam Slaughter. Eddie is some kind of undead, and he's nearly impossible to hurt at the same rank, and Sam gets stronger the more blood he spills. It wears off after a few weeks, but in conditions like this…I wouldn't want to screw with him."


Abel snorted. "He's a hack." We all looked at him. "Slaughter was in the Titan Twenty with us back in the day. Well, more like he was on his way out when we hit the scene. Big thug with a chip on his shoulder, always sneering at everyone." He cracked his knuckles. "If he gives you a problem I'll take care of it."


"So Abel is dealing with Savage." I said with a laugh. "I'll approach Whisp. I'm a Wyndham, and she might know Zeke. I have the best chance of getting her on side. Stella, can you recruit Walker?"


"Easily." She said with confidence. "He's notoriously pigheaded, but it's not like I don't have experience with that."


Bethy raised a hand. "I can handle Dead Eddie. Vampires have a special status among most human seeming undead. I'm not sure what species he is, but he's almost definitely heard of daddy. By the time I'm done, he'll be your loyal follower!" She gave me a big cheesy thumbs up and a fang filled grin.


"I hesitate to unleash you on Callus unchecked." I said with a laugh. "Take Gabe with you. Chelsea, you're on distraction duty with the angels. Mom says no need to hold back. You're allowed to go all out. Both abilities."


My sister's face twisted into a cold smile. "Well isn't that nice. I can't wait to get some experience with that."


"Zeke said to tell you to stick to ranged, and the mix should be one to ten dark to flame." I tried to keep the comments vague, but I knew she understood.


"Alright." I said after we went over a few more things. "We need to move before they have a chance to catch their breath. If they grind down all the resistance it'll make things that much harder. Gabe, you ready to ride?"


My friend nodded firmly. "Any time." He snapped his fingers and his starlight charger manifested next to him, glimmering like the night sky.


"Archimedes!" Squealed Bethy. She leapt onto the horse, snuggling into his lightspun mane. "I missed you so much you big good boy. Mean old Gabe wouldn't let me see you." She beamed at us. "When Gabe and I were on daddys ship he used to let me ride all the time."


The big man put a hand over his face. "Bethy, we've been over this. The horse is a construct made of my energy. He has no emotions. You can't bond with him. Or name him. Because he isn't real. And scoot back, I'm the one steering, we have to use my Path for this if we want to make the best time."


Bethy pouted, but scooted back with a sigh. Gabe rolled his eyes and climbed onto the horse. "Now. Time to go. Everybody close your eyes and count to ten…nevermind too late!" Bethy's Domain exploded out, covering Abel, Stella, Mel, my sister, me, Benny, Celine, Jessie, and Randall.


We left behind Nat and the others to guard the civilians, and it was odd seeing the world melt away as the Domain covered us.


Domains were complicated. I knew there was a spatial component from seeing Lark do his thing and restrain all those S-rankers, and we'd used it to get here, but I still didn't understand exactly how it worked.


Bethy's Domain, from what I could tell, was a 'seed domain' like the one Tartarus had used. Lark had made it for her, and it was extremely powerful because Lark had basically condensed the entire vampire mythos into his singular domain by killing and eating all the other vampires outside his family.


I wondered if the thing my dad had said about not following the same Path as a god would be a problem for Bethy. Or maybe Lark had already altered his own Domain to clear the Path for her, I couldn't imagine him sabotaging her future.


As we took off, I couldn't even see the outside of the Domain, though I could sort of feel the motion. I turned to Benny and Jessie. "Hey, you two be careful ok? Stick with Stella. Randall is a badass, so as long as you all stick together he should be able to cover for any weaknesses. But just…don't do anything stupid."

Benny snorted. "Coming from the mayor of moronville. I should be telling you that. But yeah, we'll stay low. Get in, grab the E-rankers and any of their associates and get out. Leave the fighting to the distraction team."


"Unless you see an opening." I corrected wryly. "Then take a shot. Once we're all back together I fully expect Gabe to kill a few when he's breaking the encirclement. There are ten of them in town, so we're not outnumbered much, but they have backup at plenty of nearby locations, so we can't afford to drag our feet."


He snorted, drawing his sword. "Don't underestimate me, nerd. I've been training. My Path of the Dracolich is powerful as hell. Plus it's FOCUSED, unlike your cavalcade of half assed demon forms."


"Yeah, because a dead lizard is so much scarier than infernal royalty." I sneered. "You wish you had my kind of muscle."


"You're both very tough." Said Jessie exasperatedly. "I wish Callie was here to shut you up."


I snorted. "Callie's not the boss of me!" I paused, double checking the bond to make sure she hadn't heard that. I would have noticed if she tapped into it, but better safe than sorry. "Also…please don't tell her I said that."


Benny started laughing, and I just winked. I wasn't afraid of my wife, but a little levity made the situation seem less dire.


"Don't underestimate these people, kid." Said Abel as he walked over to where we were talking. "I know it's tempting to assume that being well travelled makes us invincible, but Slaughter is a competent guy. I'm sure I can take him, but it won't be quick and easy. The only upside is I know if I beat him he'll fall in line. He's cocky, but he has a code."


I grimaced. That was just the locals, we also had all these assholes following the dark gods, and who knew what they could do.


There was a pulse of warmth, and I smiled. Callie felt my worry and had sent a flash of reassurance and love. It really did help no matter what the situation, I felt like I was drinking a warm cup of tea for my mental state.


Finally, we came to a stop. It was easy to tell once you knew what you were looking for, the moon had been turning slowly as we traveled, and now it was stopped. The Domain retracted, leaving us all standing in a warehouse in Trevally (I assumed). "We're here!" Said Bethy cheerfully. "Quick trip, huh?"


Gabe was leaning against the wall. "Quick but not easy." He wheezed. "We picked up a tail halfway, and I had to shake them. I need a minute."

The angels stepped up, bringing Chelsea with them. "We've got it. We know what to do. Go make some noise." My sister sounded eager, and I considered warning her to be careful, but surprisingly, Bethy beat me to it.


"Hey, this is important ok?" Bethy said gently. "So don't rush it. Get in position and just do what you need to do. After I finish with Dead Eddie we'll come and help out, ok?" Chelsea gave her a grateful smile, and we all headed out to accomplish our assignments.


I stepped out into the street, doing my best to stay out of sight. Liberal use of Double Trouble let me skip wide open spaces, and my Eye of Revelation helped me avoid any concealed watchers. I followed the directions my parallel fed me from Callie, and finally arrived at my destination, the entrance to the Trevally WCP branch.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The entrance to the WCP was familiar. In fact, I was shocked to see that it was nearly identical to the back in Valen. It took me a while to sort through my ring to find some of my older gear, and dig out the black card I hadn't touched in so long. I ran my fingers over innocuous card, not feeling much except the smoothness I'd expected.

Swiping it in the card reader, I stepped onto the elevator. It felt…surreal. Hundreds of miles and years of time separated me from my old self, from the wide eyed newbie who had taken an identical elevator down into the depths of the Valen branch only to find out the branch manager was my drunk of an uncle.

Now I was in another city, heading to meet one of the masters of Callus, someone who was the same rank I was, after having been chased out of my own wedding.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened, letting me out onto a familiar catwalk. Rather than actually descend though, I headed off to one side and took up a spot out of sight of whoever might be down there.

Despite spending the last few months relaxing, I'd been thinking long and hard about my needs. I had forms for attack, deflection, healing, and defense. What I needed still though, among other things, was a way to move undetected. My Moonlit Night was an effective and powerful skill, but it was also obvious as hell.

I'd been considering a new form for quite some time, and I'd come up with some ideas on how to make it work. It was a tall order. Moonlit Night itself couldn't act as a proper base, I needed at least three different skills to build it. One of them would be Afterburner, since it boosted effectiveness qualitatively. I always included it in my forms.

It had taken me quite a while to figure out what other pieces I could use to build it. I'd considered stealth, but that was a part of Moonlit Night and I didn't want to overbalance it. But after studying my skill book for quite some time, I realized there was another way to do it. Specifically, I could invert the skill I needed to create something new.

It only worked because of the way stealth functioned. As a Perception based ability, one needed to be able to detect the traces of something and then erase those traces to create stealth.

By inverting Eye of Revelation and using Afterburner to multiply the effectiveness of both that and Moonlit Night, I was able create an exponentially more powerful stealth ability, one that detected and erased its own traces, using the fog as a cover and then erasing the fog to provide double layered stealth with each layer having multiplied effectiveness.

I started constructing the ability, using my crown and Eye of Revelation to slowly and meticulously weave the stats together to create a flawless construct that would channel all the power I needed. "Goetia Staff Art. Fifth form." I intoned. "Bael."

Looking down, I saw myself…vanish. Fog covered me and then dissolved, whisking away all traces of my body. Multiplied effectiveness. It wasn't the same as stacking, creating a skill that was more than the sum of its parts was a mark of how much I'd grown as a skill creator.

All my forms had Afterburner, and other meta skills that amplified them, but this was different. The skill wasn't just amplified by Afterburner, the layers amplified each other. The total effectiveness of my stealth was worth something like seven to ten times my ACTUAL perception, which was pretty damned impressive.

It wasn't even close to what my ancestor had done, of course. THe wish ability tripled the effectiveness of EVERY stat, including Impact, which was just…monstrous. I still had no clue how the hell he'd managed. That wasn't just "more than the sum of its parts" it was making something out of nothing, and I had a long way to go until I reached that point.

Bael, however, I could still manage. Specifically because the multiplicative effect was only using one stat, which was fairly limited. I couldn't have added a second, which severely compromised the variety of forms I could make at this level.

Still, it was a step in the right direction. The more proficient I got at constructing skills, the closer I got to making my chronicle later on down the line and creating a more perfect foundation.

Now that I was all finished with my form though, I was confident in pulling this off. Rather than take the steps down, I vaulted the railing of the catwalk, letting State of Grace slow my descent, with the occasional Ripple Running platform to alter my direction.

I landed in a back alley, out of view of the street, and slipped quietly to the edge to peek out. I was careful, but I didn't honestly expect it to be necessary. With Bael active, my effective Perception for the purposes of stealth was over seventy thousand. I was confident nobody in E-rank would be able to detect me, barring some hyper focused monster who only used that stat.

The streets were empty for the most part, but my Eye of Revelation picked up signs of a struggle, and a few bloodstains on top of that. I could see plenty of barriers on the surrounding shops, locks and gates and door bars. There were people here, but they were hiding.

I ignored them for now. Flicker could help me coax them out when we finished talking, but I was guessing if there was blood the enemy was already down here.

Slowly creeping down the street, I watched for any sign of occupiers, ready to attack at a moment's notice. I had my staff out and in position, and even activated Mephistopheles alongside Bael, slowly condensing dark fire into a cosmic collapse for a powerful finishing move.

As I came around a corner, I stumbled on a group of creepy looking guys in patchwork leather armor. They had a variety of (suspiciously human looking) skin cloaks hanging over their shoulders and bone jewelry, eyes flickering from side to side as if scanning for prey.

All three were pale and tall, with overly long arms and lank hair in a variety of earth tone colors, like a pile of leaves on a forest floor. The one in the middle, the shortest of them, froze in place, sniffing the air. "Do you smell that?" I rolled my eyes, triggered Double Trouble, and smashed the cosmic collapse into the back of his skull.

Moonlit Night had a damage boost on attacks made from stealth, and the cosmic collapse was already a powerful technique, the staff penetrated into the base of the skull and the explosion of flame consumed the brain, exploding out from the eyes, nose and mouth.

My staff whipped over, planning to use the element of surprise to kill a second one, but my eyes widened and I was forced to trigger Double Trouble again to avoid a dinner plate sized hand tipped with claws like butcher knives.

The distended grey form of the wendigo howled in fury as it and its friend tried to pursue my. I stepped off the air twice, coming up over the edge of a building. As soon as I broke line of site I triggered Bael again.

While my new form WAS powerful, using that backstab trick forced me out of it. I'd assumed it wouldn't matter, given one was dead and the second was on his way, but clearly I was wrong.

"Fun fact." I sent to Callie through the bond. "Wendigos can take human form. Probably some vanished gods bullshit. Still, something to note." I saw the hideous horned heads of the Wendigos emerge from over the lip of the roof. They scanned around, sniffing heavily, and they seemed to fixate on my for a second.

I was getting ready for another charge when I noticed something odd. Smoke. There were curlicues of smoke wafting up from the building below, the Wendigos seemed to notice it as I did, and they glanced down, confused.

The curlicues coalesced into the form of a woman as soon as they averted their eyes. She grabbed a set of antlers and jerked them to the side, snapping the neck of the Wendigo and swinging it bodily into its companion, knocking them both off the roof. I triggered Pit of Despair below the building, racing to the edge to see the result.

The Wendigo backflopped on the melted stone, body crushed by his dead companion, and started sinking into the ground immediately. I dissolved my skill, letting the ground harden, and the monster ended up half submerged in rock, tangled up with the corpse of his buddy and hissing for release.

"Nice reflexes." Came the raspy voice of the person I assumed was Flicker. "And I like the mask. Familiar style of craftsmanship, that."

I glanced over to focus more on her. Flicker was short and muscular, with a dark mantle and hood. Her own mask was one of those pointy beaked ones you see in old timey video games, and the eyes were a blazing ruby red. She looked ominous as hell.

"Shane Wyndham." I introduced myself directly. "My uncle is Ezekial Cavendish, formerly the branch managed in Valen. And your mask looks pretty familiar too." Specifically because I remembered Zeke making it when I was eleven. That thing had given me nightmares for weeks. It had this creepy living avian vibe, like it hated everyone around it.

She stared for a moment, eventually nodding. "You're here about the invasion." She guessed, though I suppose it was actually pretty obvious.

"Followers of the vanished gods." I confirmed. "I'm not sure how much you know, considering how recently things went down. They're looking for me and mine, and are planning to mass sacrifice everyone on the planet to make an example. We're looking for powerful locals to join up. We have a plan, but we need more muscle."

She turned, flicking her finger, and a spear of smoke arced down and smashed through the skull of the still screaming Wendigo. "Sorry." She growled. "That was getting annoying. If you're a Wyndham, you know how this works. We can't do anything for you without payment."

I sighed, I'd been afraid of that. Luckily there was more than one way to skin a cat (a deeply disturbing saying whose origin I had always wondered about) . I stepped off the edge of the building, floated down to where the entwined Wendigos lay immobilized, and ripped an antler off of the one I'd immobilized.

Tossing it from one hand to the other, I grabbed hold and bent it slightly, nodding in satisfaction. "This would probably go for about ten E-grade chits. Two per head, and undoubtedly plenty of wendigos to go around. You help us, and I'll let you keep them all. Even the ones we kill."

She cocked her head. "That's…an interesting offer. I suppose I'd be forced to intervene personally in any case." She mulled it over before finally sighing. "I accept. I suppose you have some sort of means of enforcing loyalty?"

I grinned, pulling out a piece of paper I'd worked up on the ride over. I left plenty of room for it to hold multiple signatures. She leapt down and I passed it to her. Reading it over once, she nodded, then pulled out a pen and scribbled her name. "There. Now that I'm onboard, what exactly is our next move?"

Spinning my staff lazily, I grinned at her from behind my mask. "Oh that's simple. Now we go and help the others. We still have a bunch more new friends to pick up. We can take care of the stragglers down here first, though. Grab the antlers and get ready to go. You can bring anyone you like, but have them wait at the entrance down here. Up top will be dangerous."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Cleaning up the rest of the enemy occupiers was shockingly easy. Flicker had more firepower than I'd expected, and combined with my control skills, we'd made pretty short work of them…for the most part. We'd rolled up all the stragglers, but we were currently surveilling some kind of dance hall, where the last group was camped out.

They weren't all Wendigos, there were a few of the actual invaders, and this last spot was where the leader was waiting, sent to deal with Flicker specifically. "So, what do you know about this guy?" We hadn't had time to do much recon here, and even if we had the guy was staying put without doing much, so we couldn't get a good measure.

"Not much." She said grimly (although realistically, Flicker hadn't exactly been a ball of sunshine when she'd said anything else either) "I've been watching them since they entered, taking their measure. But that one hasn't moved much. He posted up here and let the others run rampant. I've spent most of my time moving my people out of harm's way, so I wasn't close enough for him to take a swing."

Less than ideal, but I had a workaround. "It's fine." I said after some consideration. "I can send a clone in to take a look."

Sadly, while my clones were versatile and could use my Skills, my forms weren't so easy to utilize through borrowed abilities. Especially since the forms had been perfected and were so much more powerful now. I was working on a clone based form that would fix that issue, but at the moment I only had borrowed clones I could use via stored attack or through the bond.

Closing my eyes, I used one of my stored clone charges to create a shadowy version of me. It nodded mutely, then slipped off the roof we were stationed on to surveil the dance hall and vanished. At least, it vanished to Flicker. I'd used Piece of Mind to slip in a parallel, so I was more than aware of what the clone was doing.

I had the clone slip up to the side of the building, circling around to find a back entrance. There was no second door, but he did find a window about ten feet up the side of the wall in the alley. Ripple Running made the trip up to the window easy, and once he made it in, he stuck to the shadows, blending in with the darkness as he made his way around the edge of the building, trying to find the target.

It didn't take long, with my Perception, it was easy enough to locate them even in a tiny building. Stealth through the bond mixed with his shadowy nature meant getting caught was unlikely provided he didn't get too close.

"They're dying out there, you know?" Said a voice as I closed in. "We're not supposed to let too many of them die. They're a pain to replace with our resources cut off."

The speaker was a tall, thin woman with copper skin and an elaborate series of brains in her hair. She had a nose ring and a leather vest, and her green eyes shone like frozen venom, poisonous and cold.

The two men with her were dramatically different. One short and pale with silver hair and purple eyes, and one tall and hulking with green skin and a thick beard to go with his long dark hair. The pale man had pointed ears studded with silver rings, and he looked relaxed, reclining against a wall from his perch on top of some kind of work bench.

"Relax." He said lazily. "They're just locals, and not even useful ones. Wendigos are rabid, even in human form. No point keeping them around. They're consumables, we don't have to worry about consuming them. Besides, our surveillance has made good use of their deaths."

She shook her head. "I don't like it. They keep vanishing. We don't even know where they are right now. They could be here listening to us."

I tensed, worried they might have noticed something, but they hadn't, a shadow hiding in shadows was a tough thing to spot, especially with stealth active. The lazy elf snorted. "I'd have noticed anyone entering. You know how my Domain works. I've claimed this place as my own. The only thing in here is us." He paused. "Well, and some furniture, bugs, that kind of shit. Nothing that doesn't belong. Though they do have a rat problem."

The woman shuddered. "I hate rats. Creepy little things. Always scurrying around and staring with their beady little eyes."

"That's rich." Said the third guy in a gravelly voice. "Coming from the girl with the spider powers."

She sneered at him. "How cliche, being afraid of spiders. You're an Ascendant Hamilton, grow up. My lovelies are sweet and gentle, and they're artists. Nature's greatest weavers. Unlike RATS, who only spread pestilence and decay."

"Rats do not spread DECAY." Said the leader with an eyeroll. "Any more than any other animal that can kill with a bite. They aren't zombies."

"Some of them are zombies." Cut in the big guy, Hamilton. "I've seen zombie rats before. They're gross. Rotting little bags of pus with yellowed teeth and beady red eyes." He grinned maliciously at the woman. "And the smell. It's unbearable."

The leader groaned and hopped to his feet. "Oh for the love of the gods. I can't sit through any more of this. Any of the mutts left?" At the woman's head shake leader guy nodded. "Time to bait the trap. Go get me one of the hostages, and activate the transmission feature on the cameras. Branch leader can't watch a bunch of her people get murdered, now can she?"

They nodded so deeply it was almost a bow, suddenly serious, and then headed out. I weighed my options. The other two were gone, and this was just a clone, no need to hold back. I triggered Double Trouble, shoving my staff as hard as I could into the base of his skull, unleashing a mercy kill enhanced strike at his head.

It was a pitiful strike. No poison fire in case it gave me away, no stealth bonus from Bael, just my normal strength amplified by Mercy Kill.

Because of those factors, I wasn't at all surprised when leader guy tensed as I emerged from stealth, and vanished where he was standing, appearing ten feet away facing toward me. "Oh?" He said with interest. "I suppose that rat problem was worse than I knew. How are you here without tripping my senses? A shadow? That makes some sense."

There was a pulse of…something, and my clone just stopped existing. I cursed as the parallel ended forcibly. I hadn't been able to tell exactly what had done it from that point of view, but luckily my main body has Eye of Revelation locked onto the leader.

"Domain user." I said clinically. "Nothing crazy. Something about wires and wind maybe?"

Flicker grunted. "Veddo Dunfrey. Haven't heard that story in years. Kid made a pair of wings out of spider silk to sneak out of his house. Bribed a spider to teach him to weave, but he never paid up. The spider left his education half finished and when he tried to fly out the window, the wings came apart. It was windy outside, and the wind swept up the threads and carried them down to an outdoor banquet, shredding all the guests. Killed his whole family."

I grimaced. "What a charming story. Where did you hear this?"

"My parents." She said dryly. "They used to tell it to us at bedtime. It's a common WCP children's story. Moral of the story is to always pay your debts."

"Of course it is." I laughed. No wonder my dad had wanted me raised topside among the Conglomerate. "Anyway, I don't know the story well. Is there some sort of like…weakness we can exploit?"

She paused, thinking it over. "Veddo met the spider when he destroyed its web. Knocked a glass of water on it and it dissolved. The threads were strong as steel, but not so good with moisture. You have anything water based in your arsenal? Because I'm fresh out I'm sad to say. Smoke and fire and what have you."

I wracked my brain. "Maybe." I said finally. I started charging cosmic collapse. Moonlit Night was based on Mistwalking, which conjured mist from the moisture in the air. It had been modified, but should still work. I conjured another clone, sending it in the same way. As it entered, I triggered Moonlit Night, flooding the whole chamber with obscuring mist. Of course, my clone could see perfectly, and I used its line of sight to trigger Double Trouble.
As soon as I landed, I activated Mornax. Unlike the clones, I could use my forms fine. THere was a whisper of something in the air, and I felt some small scratches on my stone shell, but they were barely noticeable. Moonlit Night had mostly dissolved the wires, and my extra defense had been unnecessary.

Despite that victory, though, the leader elf dove forward out of the path of my cosmic collapse. I tried to alter the trajectory, but sadly that wasn't to be. I caught a hand in the larger radius, but he got away with just that injury.

Of course, I followed up, my staff smashing out, black flames licking as Mephistopheles emitted my most dangerous destructive power. I wanted to chase with the Waltz, but it couldn't be used with Mornax. Too much movement and time off the ground. Luckily I wasn't alone. I'd tweaked Moonlit Night to allow Flicker to see like I did. Among the mist, it was impossible to see the smoke, and the leader didn't even notice himself inhaling clouds of it.

His escape stopped, freezing in place as he clutched his chest, then he threw up blood and toppled over.

A cloud of smoke emerged from his mouth, coalescing into Flicker, who gave me a lazy wave before becoming smoke again and flashing off. I heard a few screams within the next couple minutes, and when she returned, she had a dozen civilians with her.

I chuckled at the brutal efficiency, but mostly just ignored it as I knelt beside the leader. I reached down, picking up a necklace that had fallen out of his shirt when he fell. It seemed…important. Something about it spoke to me, so I ripped it off, slipping it into my ring. Standing, I turned to Flicker and the others. "Everyone good to go?" I asked, mostly aiming the question at the civvies.

Getting a bunch of nods, I smiled and turned to lead them back to the crowd of survivors we'd already gathered. They would be waiting down here while we went up to deal with the rest of the city, Bethy could transport plenty of people, but until they got into her Domain they would be sitting ducks.

Once we had them all gathered up, we gave them instructions on where to wait, and the two of us headed back up the elevator to involve ourselves in some of the action up top.

As we rode up, I reached out to my wife. "Cal," I sent mentally. "I need a location on one of the other groups. Preferably not Abel or Bethy. So…not one of the other groups. Just specifically Benny's group."

I could literally FEEL the eyeroll through the bond as she sent me the information, and I returned it with a burst of gratitude. When we emerged from the elevator, I triggered Bael, letting just my voice emerge as I told Flicker where we were headed. Then I activated Mephistopheles again and triggered my waltz, blazing off into the distance towards my friends. Once we helped them get our target, we'd be out of here and back to base. I wanted to look into that necklace. I had a feeling it might be important.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The streets of Trevally were much emptier than I'd expected. We were stealthed, but it didn't turn out to be that necessary. We passed a few wandering enemies but made it to the Unity building otherwise without incident. While the WCP branch had been nearly identical to the one in Valen, the Unity branch was very different, a strange bronze building with faceless hat wearing men kneeling to hold up the roof instead of columns.

"Well, this is…interesting." I said from across the street as I faded back into view. Flicker was next to me, staring down at the construction, and for the first time I heard her chuckle ruefully.

"That's the Hall of Hats." She said with a amusement. "Haberdasher was the first Unity guild leader of Trevally and had…eclectic tastes. Admittedly his style of doing things worked, because almost any native Trevallian can tell you at least a vague history of that building, even those of us who grew up more in the WCP."

Another one like Jerks then. "Fair enough. I don't suppose you happen to know the entire layout too?"

She shook her head. "Haberdasher is a local legend. I'm sure wherever you're from had some famous founder everyone knew about too. But it's just cursory stuff who he was, what his costume looked like. That kind of thing. As for an entrance, I've never really been to the Hall of Hats, I was never Unity."

I could have gone in the huge entrance with the double doors, but since Stella and the others hadn't come out, I needed to assume the guild had traps of some kind that made a slow entrance necessary. In fact, I could check that myself. Triggering Eye of Revelation I focused hard on the entrance and side walls, tapping into Callie's trap Skill.

Several places on and around the hall lit up in my vision, and I grimaced. Sure enough, the defenses were activated. Stella would have ways around that, but as backup I hadn't needed to know them. Which meant I was going to need to slip us by them.

Luckily, this planet was pseudo D-rank, which meant we didn't have access to Master Level trap builders, especially not in smaller cities. The building was weird, but it was also going to be easier to break into as an E-ranker. I decided to send in a clone, conjuring one through the bond from shadow and sliding in a parallel. Then, with my main body on overwatch, I sent it into the maze of traps surrounding the place.

I got about halfway in before the clone died. Wincing, I made another, then another. Integrating Callie's trap skill with Eye of Revelation took a lot of effort, and wasn't working as well as I'd have liked. To support, I triggered Song of the Soil, letting me get a better look underground, and that yielded better fruit.

My next clone got to the door, then finally got inside. "Alright, follow that path." I said to Flicker. "I'm taking the quick way." Focusing on the clone's vision, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind a smaller stone statue inside. As soon as I arrived, my Danger Sense went off, and I had to dive sideways as a literal whip of magma carved through the statue. I landed and triggered Mornax, letting the whip slam into my body on the second strike and then grabbing it firmly.

The attacker, a short man with dark shin and long red hair, yelped in surprise as I wrapped it around my hands and tried to haul him off his feet, but he was able to stop me once he realized what I was doing.

Mornax made me very stable, but it didn't make me stronger, and my Might wasn't as high as this person's so we ended up in a bit of a deadlock. At least until my clone came up behind him and smashed a Mercy Kill empowered blow into the side of his knee. There was a loud crack and he screamed, losing his footing and flying towards me.

I stomp kicked the flying form in the face, letting his own momentum do most of the work as he hit my (as far as he was concerned) nigh-invulnerable shell.

His nose broke, and he dropped to the ground screaming. Reaching into my ring, I pulled out some rope, tying him up securely. It took a bit of wrestling, but a few stomps on his face from my clone proved a sufficient distraction.

Flicker coalesced from smoke next to me, looking impressed. "That was a good takedown." She said approvingly. "Most Wyndhams aren't quite so handy in a pinch. Good to see you're not one of the layabouts."

I nodded. "I do what I can. I figure we could question this one. He seems like part of the main invasion force, so maybe he knows details of what's going on."

The captive cackled. "Fools!" He said acidly. "I'll never talk. You can peel off my skin and drown me in boiling oil, feed me to an ant colony, pluck out my eyeballs, I'm prepared for any form of torture."

I blinked at him oddly. "I mean…I was just going to ask you and then move on." I glanced at Flicker. "Those sounded really persuasive though. Should we try them?" I obviously wasn't going to torture him, aside from not even having time, I found the idea morally repugnant…but he didn't have to know that.

His bravado faltered. "Wait, no shit, don't do that." His expression was haunted. "That's just like…a saying. I didn't mean it. I don't want to boil alive in oil. That sounds horrible."

I was glad I had a mask on, because watching him talk himself into confessing was making it hard not to grin and give away the game. Instead I just stayed quiet. This guy was questioning himself way better than I ever could. My implacable wooden face was probably helping, so I just waited.

"You don't have to boil me alive." He babbled. "You could just beat me, I mean wait, don't beat me, you can throw me in prison, but I don't want to go to prison, shit." He looked ready to cry, and finally he let out a groan of mental anguish and wailed. "Fine, you got me, I'll talk, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, just don't do any of those horrible things to me!"

Holding back gales of laughter was tough, but knowing my friends might need help made it easier. "Who did they send to take Walker? Can't be easy to pin down someone like him. Must be someone strong."

He nodded quickly. "Definitely!" He said "They sent Bon Voyage. He's super fast. Impossible to catch! Even Walker won't be able to get away."

We spent the next ten minutes trying to sort relevant details from the word vomit of Marshall's (his real name, though apparently he went by Fire Marshall when in costume) life. He shared WAY more than we needed to know, and was seemingly unable to stop talking. By the time we left to help the others we'd officially learned enough of his life story to write a biography, but we had the info we needed.

Walker was in here, but having figured out what Bon Voyage could do, rather than face him head on, he'd retreated and activated the defenses. Super speed was less useful with no room to move around. He'd been sending people to try to root out the guild master, but wasn't having much luck. When Jessie, Benny, and the others showed up things just got more complicated and our friends had decided to look for their target rather than start a fight, which was the smart call.

Since the person who built this place had also been insane, he'd honeycombed the whole thing with secret tunnels and passageway, some of which the enemy had found but most of which were eluding them. Stella seemed to know them though, which gave them a big advantage over everyone but Walker, who had evacuated everyone else. In fact, his power was perfectly suited to using the passages against the enemy, and he'd been picking off stragglers while he avoided Bon Voyage until our team showed up.

I'd tried calling them, but I hadn't been able to get through. What I HAD been able to do was extract (for some value of that word) the last location they'd been from the prisoner.

Once we arrived, I used Eye of Revelation to pin down the location of the passage entrance and then opened it up to follow them into the passageway.

With Benny's trail (not to mention Randall's) I was able to track them with my skill easily enough, and it only took about twenty minutes to reach the end of the road. As I opened the entrance, I felt a twinge of Danger Sense, but it immediately faded as Benny's voice shouted. "Wait!"

My staff was up and flickering to life with poison fire, but at his words I froze, as did the man with the top hat and the umbrella poised to spear me through the eye. And I mean VERY poised. I'd gone into Mornax as soon as my Danger Sense triggered so it wouldn't have killed me, but I'd never taken a blow to eyeball in my defensive form, it might have actually done some damage. The guy was FAST. "Walker, I assume." I said dryly as Benny explained who I was. We stepped forward into the passage, the wall closing behind us.

The inside of the passageway had glowing stones set into the top that kicked on when the light from outside cut off, so we could all still see. Stelle stood behind Benny, holding a pint sized Randall while Jessie waited behind her. With a sigh of relief Jessie launched herself forward to hug me. "Shane!" She said happily. "You're alright. There were way more of them than we expected. The speedster actually carried some reinforcements into the city at the last second."

I winced. We hadn't considered that option, though we should have, since it was basically the same as our plain, albeit way less well thought out. "Well it's fine." I said with a wave. "We have enough people to fight our way out, and we might not need to, this place has escape tunnels right? We can go meet up with Abel and Bethy."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." Said Walker calmly. "The exit tunnels have been collapsed. Some of the interlopers attempted to follow my people out and they were forced to respond. We only had the one escape route, and it was designed to be collapsible in case of just such an emergency."

Cursing, I let out a loud sigh. I'd mentioned fighting our way out, but I'd hoped that would involve all of our people. We couldn't even count on Callie's overwatch because this building was in an enlarged space. Views from outside were meaningless when you went past a certain level of spatial enlargement.

None of the other buildings in the city were at that level, but the branch headquarters were the most advanced premises in town, despite being so old. They kept these places up to code, weird construction or not.

"Alright." I said after a minute. "Then we'll need to break out of here by force. Walker, is there a way to see what's going on in the hallways without leaving the passages?" If I had been building passages like this I'd have made spy holes or something.

Smirking, the dapper man nodded. "But of course. Follow me." He turned setting off at a casual stroll in a seemingly random direction, and we all followed. Finally we came to a large chamber between tunnels, the walls lines with mirrors showing various points in the building. "Do you mean something like this?" I grinned viciously behind my mask. This would do perfectly.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Asked Benny anxiously as we stopped outside the exit to the passages. The others were behind us, but they'd wordlessly agreed to hang back so my best friend could try to talk some sense into me.

"That depends." I said with a smile, looking over my shoulder. "Hey, Walker." I called loudly. "You sure this is the exit closest to the speedster?"

He nodded. "When last we checked. This should be the nearest to his position."

"Then, yeah, I'm about fifty percent sure." I told Benny brightly. "Pretty good odds. It's as good as a coin flip. Fifty fifty."

He threw up his hands. "That's a failing grade in literally every feasible grading metric! Fifty fifty is terrible!" He turned and started pacing. "You're going to die. And then I'm going to die. Or worse, you'll die and I'll live and your wife will murder me. Slowly!"

"It's true." I admitted. "She'd make you suffer for decades."

"You're not helping!" He hissed angrily.

I put a hand to my chest in shock. "Oh no! Am I not being considerate of how hard your part in this plan is? I could see how having to risk your life like this would be stressful, oh wait, no, that's me, so shut up and go stand in the corner like a good little rescuee."

He glared. "You are not RESCUING me. You're helping. We could totally do this on out own we-" He yelped as something smacked into the back of his head, shooting Celine a betrayed look.

"Sorry." She said without a hint of remorse. "Callie says when the two of you spend too long bickering it needs to be interrupted or you'll banter for hours."

He rubbed his head, glaring at me. "Your wife is a terrible influence." He said acidly.

I shrugged. "She's not wrong." I reached out and tapped him on the shoulder lightly with a fist. "I'm good man, seriously. I put a lot of thought into this plan, did the scouting, measured everything. I can do this. Just be ready to leg it when phase one ends."

Blowing out a breath, he nodded. "I got it. Just be careful. Seriously, aside from being super sad, my life will be hell if you die on my watch. Forget Callie, your mom scares the shit out of me."

"That's probably a smart position to take." I admitted. "I'll try my best not to leave you hanging."

Smiling reassuringly, I turned to the passage and opened it, stepping outside, we left it cracked so I could see in, part of the plan.. I had State of Grace pushed to its limits and was paying close attention my surroundings. I even triggered Piece of Mind so I could dedicate a whole parallel to executing my task flawlessly. My plan was rough, but I had the tools to pull it off. I'd crunched the numbers, I just needed to pull of this first phase and we were golden.

It only took a moment or two. I'd counted on them having some way of monitoring the hallways, and sure enough, they did. I felt my Danger Sense go off and used my parallel to trigger a pair of skills at once.

As I felt the attack coming, I triggered Double Trouble, targeting Benny inside the passage, and Pit of Despair on the wall next to where I was standing. Dust Construction kept it looking like a wall as I vanished, replaced by an illusion. Even with my speed enhanced, an entire other mind working the problem, and forewarning, I BARELY managed to move out of the way. But manage I did.

The speedster had been nearby, and when notified of my presence had come right for me, as I expected. While the other E-rankers were important, I was the main target on Callus, and I knew there would be standing orders to prioritize my capture.

My plan's first phase went off perfectly as the speedster passed through the illusionary double and hit the wall, smashing face first into a Pit of Despair and driving himself deep into the wall.

I let the skill drop, entombing him in rock, and shouted to go, the rest of us booking it out of the passages and down the hall. We'd gone over the path we had to take ahead of time, and all of us moved at top speed. Walker actually carried Benny and Jessie, while Jessie carried Randall (mini form) and Celine hung around his neck.

His ability let him move faster than any of the rest of us, and between my waltz and her stats Stella and I made the trip fast.

We were around the corner and in the next hall when there was an echoing crash, but I was already in motion. My Danger Sense had gone off again, and warned me of the return of Bon Voyage, and I was already in a combination of Mephistopheles and Belial, my staff flashing out to slam into the ground and open up a pair of Pits of Despair infused with Belial's corrosion.

As soon as they were down, I raised my staff and started charging cosmic collapse with the black fire and corrosion energy combined, pushing myself further than I ever had before as I activated Mornax, a third form stacking on top of the other two.

Even my soul, so powerful for my rank, screamed in distress under the weight of using all three forms and a technique at the same time. Only Callie's silent support and intervention, shouldering half the burden, left me functional as I launched my cosmic collapse.

With my parallels going, this entire sequence of events had taken place in a fraction of a second, my warning from Danger Sense letting me move before the speedster even broke free. As he came around the corner he ran into my pits of acidic despair and had to pause so he didn't fall in, then readjust to use the singular path I'd left between the pits.

The cosmic collapse detonated as he was right about to reach me, less than a foot away, and he didn't have time to dodge it at all. The explosion of black fire was infused with corrosive green flame, and the combination sprayed the hall in a cone, sticking to every surface like corrosive napalm.

Bon Voyage had taken it full in the face, and I let Mephistopheles and and my parallels drop as I adjusted my stance, Mornax and Belial still going, but the strain easing as I pulled back from crossing my limits.

The speedster had stumbled back, screaming and clawing at his body, burning with a terrible flame that wouldn't go out, the toxic fire eating through his flesh, mixing the horrible corrosive strength of Belial with Mephistopheles' armor piercing properties. It was WAY more damaging than expected, and it would have been enough to put any normal person out of commission.

But luckily, I didn't make plans to deal with normal people. I'd been studying tactics, learning how to make best use of my abilities, and while this particular plan was mostly just 'apply extra hard brute force here', I'd learned enough about making plans to know you should always expect to need overkill.

The speedster screamed, an inhuman sound of pure rage, and rushed me at top speed, obviously trying to use some combination of the fire and his momentum to smash me into mincemeat and end hopefully and the skill.

Which, considering I still had Mornax active, didn't work out so well. He hit me at top speed and stopped like a bug hitting a windshield, albeit with less explosive results. He was still burning but the most the impact did was break some bones. Of course, it also STOPPED him, and I wrapped my arms around him in a big bear hug, holding onto him tightly.

Belials's corrosion still coated my body, and it started seeping into him, even through the flames. My fire didn't hurt me at all through the combination of my defenses and current corrosive nature, and I felt him stiffen and start to panic.

His fists came up, and he started wailing on me, arms blurring as he smashed his hands into me faster than my eyes could see. I just took it, letting him poison his shattering fists as he pounded fruitlessly at my extremely durable exterior. To my shock, I started to feel the blows cracking my implacable stone hide, pain eating away at me.

Speed was a factor of Might, and someone like this had to be absurdly specialized. The strength he was using was unbelievable, and he was hitting fast enough to damage even my nearly unbreakable defense. At the end of thh day though, it wasn't enough. I'd put him in the worst position someone like him could be in.

He stopped struggling after about five minutes (an eternity to me) and I stumbled back, letting all my skills and forms drop as I keeled over. Benny caught me, Jessie there to support, and I felt my healer friend's power surge into me, even as Benny's spiritual calming helped repair the soul damage to my cracked and aching spirit.

"I hate super speed." I rasped. "I hate it so much."

Benny snorted. "I can't believe that worked. How the hell did you know what he would do so accurately?"

I shrugged, ignoring the agony it sent through my repairing body as they hefted me up onto a now expanded Randall. I wouldn't be walking for a while, and the bear would make a good protector as well as a mount. "It wasn't too hard to predict his path. The tough part was knowing if I'd be fast enough to react. State of Grace and my armor helped with that. Otherwise I'd have been screwed."

"Speaking of your armor." Said Jessie in a worried tone. "How did he bypass it and do so much damage to your body?"

"Blunt force." I grimaced. "Plus I was in a stone form, and extra vulnerable to that kind ot thing. The vibrations were basically tearing me apart. Never come up before because almost nothing our rank can get through my defense. That guy was hyper focused on Might, and his speed ability clearly gave him some kind of modifier for it too."

I mentally sent a question to Callie, checking on her, and she sent back a tired, pained affirmative. She'd helped a lot, but I'd been handling most of it. She was going to be fine, she just needed some rest. "Alright." I said tiredly. "Let's go meet up with the others. We need to get the hell out of here. Walker, you ready for your part?"

The dapper guild master nodded. "I'll be applying my ability to this 'starlight charger' to enable us to travel vast distances nearly instantly."

We made our way out of the building. We ran into a few baddies, but the others handled them, mostly just wendigos. Randall apparently remembered the first one, because he seemed to take great pleasure in tearing them apart.

Once we got outside, Callie was able to direct me to the others, still cognizant enough to keep watch, and we met up with them quick as could be. Dead Eddie and Sam Slaughter were with them, the former seeming almost cheerful and the latter looking suspiciously beaten up.

Bethy took us all into her Domain, and she, Gabe, and Walker climbed on the charger (it was a bit cramped but the horse was big) and we were off. The speed of the horse, Gabe's Path, and Walker's ability was just as potent a combo as we'd expected, and we literally made it back to the fortress in less than ten minutes, a staggering pace. When we were safely back, I stumbled up into the castle, finding a room, and promptly passed out on the bed. Mission successful, now I needed to get some fucking sleep.

 

[Quenster06]

Oh man, that fight between Shane and Bon Voyage gave me Momonga vs Clementine vibes. I mean, if Momonga wasn't hard sand bagging and they were actually even. Thanks for another great chapter!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke with a pounding headache. On checking my scan ring I confirmed it had been about eighteen hours, taking me firmly into the next day. It was crazy to think my wedding had been just yesterday, given everything that had happened. Focusing on that, I sent a quick message to Callie. "Good morning, and I love you."

She seemed to be busy, but I got a rush of warmth and love in return and smiled. Sadly, the giddiness was quickly overwhelmed by other concerns, and I rolled out of bed, groaning as my head rang a little.

To my surprise, it was shockingly light damage for the amount of soul strain I'd been under. Super speed was counterable with precognition and area denial, but using all those skills and techniques at once had been rough. I still had my limits, and thet were clearer than ever right now.

On the upside, my techniques had taken my original combination form (Belial plus Mephistopheles) and massively amplified its combat potential. That corrosive armor breaking cosmic collapse was probably the most devastating attack I had access to right now.

"Oh hey, you're still alive." Grumbled a sardonic voice off to one side. I turned to see my best friend slouched in a chair. "What part of 'don't die on me you moron' was unclear? Because shattering your soul would definitely count. I've been pumping out spiritual calming all night at point blank range and there's STILL damage. And I imagine Callie was helping too."

Benny looked like shit. Dark circles around his eyes, glazed expression, just generally exhausted and in pain.

"That fight wasn't one we had a good shot at winning." I said bluntly. "None of us were a good matchup for that guy. Mobility powers are a bitch to fight against, and that particular ability was absurdly powerful. Either that or he was REALLY focused on Might. Those punches actually hurt me in my Mornax form. Nothing in E-rank should be able to do that, which means-"

He grimaced. "Which means someone past traditional limits."

Being over the limit in E-rank was complicated. Much like earlier ranks, there were people whose power had qualitatively surpassed their rank. However, because of the watershed at D-rank, those people could NOT punch up ranks. Barring bullshit like we'd pulled with Callen, it was functionally impossible to beat a D-ranker at E-rank.

Bon Voyage, based on the damage he'd done, was something more like a 'Post E-ranker'. Someone who had passed what should have been the cap for the Expert level, but wasn't quite at the level of a true Master. Purely in terms of stats of course. You couldn't rank up an ability past your current rank, and I was sure Bon Voyage's speed was an ability.

Benny looked annoyed, but finally just sighed, waving it off. "It's fine. I get it. If Callie isn't berating you over it I don't have a leg to stand on, and she doesn't seem to be based on your demeanor."

I laughed. "She does worry, but she knows some things are necessary. I didn't get any flack for this one. She doesn't get angry unless I take unnecessary risks." I paused. "Well, she doesn't get angry with ME. She's not super pleased with the situation, and I think she might try to tear out Travis's spine and beat him to death with it."

"I'll hold him down." He said darkly. "It wasn't enough to turn on us back in the imperial academy? He had to follow us home to twist the knife?"

Surprisingly, I didn't seethe, or curse, or spit with rage. I was pissed, or course, but it was a calm fury. A certainty. "Don't worry about Travis. He's run out of chances. He's not leaving Callus alive. Not after this. I'll make damned sure of it."

Benny grimaced. "I don't know Shane. Travis was pretty scary back at the academy, and he pulled off a big coup. I get the feeling he isn't going to be a pushover. Having already reached E-rank without access to you. I mean being an infamous traitor probably helped, even if I know the factions tried to suppress the rumors, but…"

"But he's probably been personally instructed by some scary people." I finished. "Maybe a god. I know that's what most people would want as a reward for enabling their return. I felt a sense of power from him when we met. I have no doubt killing him won't be easy. But it's fine. I've been working on a new form specially for him. I know his ability, even if it might get countered.

"Then you'd better rest and heal." He said firmly. "Coming along with us for this run made sense, but now we've got Flicker on the team as a rep, and with Bethy, Gabe, and Walker our mobility is through the roof. Hell, even I'm probably just slowing them down. I'll be staying hear to help you heal."

That was a big sacrifice, and it kind of blew my complaints out of the water. If Benny was willing to get sidelined to sit around and play soul recovery aid, then I had no reason to bitch about not being able to go out.

If anything, he was right. If I wanted to lead the raid on Wintervale, I needed to be back in tip top shape. Which meant all the smaller runs to collect assets would need to be left to the rest of our crew.

I clenched my teeth in annoyance at the realization, but finally sighed and nodded. "Fine. But I'm going on the run to Rajak. Callie is worried about her little brother. Honestly, she isn't saying it, but I think she's even a LITTLE worried about her dad. She may hate the bastard, but she doesn't want him or Annie to get ritually sacrificed to dark gods and leave Eric without parents."

Honestly, I could understand. I wanted to stomp on her dad's hands and feet until they popped like bubblewrap, but I knew wishing him dead was a whole other ballgame. My wife hadn't asked me to help them, but she didn't have to. That said, if Paul were to be 'accidentally' injured during our escape, I suspected no one would be too broken up about it. I couldn't be expected to pull everything off perfectly.

"Done." He said with a relieved sigh. "And you can take over the planning here. Nat's been standing in, but she doesn't have as much up to date experience with our capabilities, and she's been kind of freezing up. That's fine when no one is going out, but she hasn't been sending rescue parties and we need to start dispatching soon. As for Rajak…I'm a bit worried. At this rate it'll be weeks before we can stage an assault. Will there be anything left?"

I snorted. "I imagine the occupiers are thinking the same thing, but they're overestimating themselves. We saw from this little raid into Trevally that there are upsides to being stuck at the same rank for millennia. Countermeasures in place, contingencies that have had centuries worth of resources and refinement poured into them. Rajak is the capital, and home to the biggest and baddest Callus has to offer. I doubt Travis has enough divine gear to go tossing it at every problem. Rajak will be a tough pill to swallow."

Callie had all but confirmed that from overwatch. She'd been keeping apprised, and the progress in the capital was anything but rapid. The defenses in the WCP were created for just such an occasion, and Cicero wouldn't have poured so much effort into regaining control of his deed back in the day if they weren't potent. She couldn't see the situation perfectly because of how deep underground they were, but plenty of enemy soldiers were being carried out in buckets and bags.

"So we take our time." He said with a sigh. "Do it right. And use yours and nats wishes to shore up defenses so if they DO find us, they'll pay in blood for every step they take into this damned cave.:"

I laughed. "Hell yes we do. Speaking of which, I assume yesterday's wishes went over alright? What did Celine end up paying for?"

"Anonymizers, Anti-detection wards, dimensional isolators, pretty much anything she could think of to prevent us from being picked up with Perception Skills or abilities. We're lucky that you invited Beaker to the wedding. He's been insanely helpful. We wouldn't have been able to set up the defenses half as well without him. A lot of the stuff she was going to wish for would have degraded the efficiency of some of the other measures. Setting up stationary defenses is shockingly complicated."

I laughed. "Beaker is here? I'm glad he made it out. He wasn't in the wedding party, so he kind of got lost in the crowd for me. How is everyone else?"

"Cass is terrified. Cark is angry." He shuddered. "Abel is…well, he's acting the same as usual, but there's an edge to his demeanor that no one is really comfortable with. We don't know if Cicero or Valk are alive. He and Mel are sticking with Nat while they're here, I think that's helping him keep his mind off it. Honestly Jessie is holding it together best out of all of us locals. Girl has iron in her veins when the chips are down."

I laughed. "Don't I know it. The two of you saved my ass back there. Without you to rely on there's no way i could have pulled that off." Sure, them helping was part of the plan, but I only felt comfortable pushing my soul to that extent because I had the healing and soul recovery powers at their disposal to make up for it, not to mention Randall to stand guard.

My best friend rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was pleased. We'd been pulling ahead of Jessie and Benny for a while, though they were catching up fast. They'd gotten a decent chunk
of points on the trip over, though I hadn't checked in about specifics yet. But this was Callus, they not only knew the place well, between Benny's Path and Jessie's absurdly specialized ability and stats, they were up to the task of taking on most E-rankers.

With Callie out of commission on the sip, my team was coming together to back me up, and they were doing a hell of a job. Speaking of. "How are your folks and Maria?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Dad is stressed and angry, mom is trying to figure out a way to spin this mess to her advantage, Maria is worried about her friends. They're all glad they came to the wedding, but Valen is home. Not being able to go back is hard."

Sighing, I rubbed the bridge of my nose, realizing my mask was on the night stand next to the bed I was in. I slipped it back on, realizing I must have been even more out of it than expected if I'd taken it off before bed. "Alright. Well, since I had a nap, I suppose it's time to go talk to everyone. We need to get moving on the rescues."

Eighteen hours would be plenty of downtime. We needed to get back to finding E-rankers to bolster our forces. One or two runs a day was probably the limit, and we'd have to mix it up so they couldn't ambush us. Within a week or two we should be ready for the raid on Rajak.

Despite the confidence with which I'd reassured Benny, I was still worried. I hoped we'd be fast enough to get to the capital before too many people died. Whatever happened, I would at least make good on the threat I'd made earlier. One way or another Travis was going to die for this. With that in mind I headed up to talk to everyone. Once the next rescue party went out, I could get to work on my next form. Like I told Benny, I was creating it special.