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

[Malcolm Tent]

I was already prepared for an attack as soon as Roland reacted. I didn't manifest my full Domain, not wanting to give too much away, but I did trigger the staff, and summon an upgraded Mornax in front of me.

The air blurred, and suddenly a colossal man with long black hair, slate grey skin, and a pair of large horns manifested in between me and the slash. Crossing his arms with a growl of challenge, Mornax took the blow easily, glaring at the swordsman with hostility. Roland smiled warmly, chuckling as he me easily resolve his attack.

"See, this is why I like you, Shane," he said conversationally. "You're so much more competent than you should be. I don't know what that is, but I can feel that it's B-rank. And judging by how easily it shrugged off that blow, it would be tough for me to get through it."

Despite the unfortunate words, he didn't seem particularly worried about the situation. My face was hard. A lot of things that hadn't made sense up until now had just clicked into place.

"Derran was the one who poisoned you," I said coldly. "We were all wondering how the attacker got past the defenses on his quarters. But you didn't have to get past them at all. He let you in. Because he trusted you."

He shrugged. "Yeah, that was a shame. But it was important to control the narrative on the trial. If you'd had your pick of witnesses, things might not have been so easy to set up. With Darren dead and me 'injured', it was obvious I'd be your first pick for a witness." He grimaced. "Didn't expect the little bastard to have such a nasty card to play at the end. I really do owe you for that. I don't think I would have survived."

"Wouldn't that be tragic," I said acidly. He was being too accommodating. I didn't trust it. His hand had drifted to his belt, and I sent a quick message to Callie through the bond. As he surreptitiously drew a small stone dagger from his waist, she began to prepare an exit strategy. "What I don't understand though is…why? What was the point?

"I get the how," I continued, pacing slightly to draw his attention away from my wife as blue rolled through her hair and wings. "Devon was so certain that I did it because you told him. He had a first hand account from someone who had no reason to turn on me. I'm guessing that's why he wouldn't look at you earlier."

He grinned. "Yeah, I was his first pick for witness, obviously. But I needed to make sure that things went smoothly. Of course, in the original plan he would have died in the attack, but you ruined that. Good thing too, because if you hadn't I wouldn't have learned about your little trump card. It would have been inconvenient for me to fail at the last step because you begged your grandaddy for a favor."

"As for why…" he shrugged. "It's nothing personal. You're just in the way. When I approached the vanished gods envoys about this plan, they weren't exactly sold. Hatescream and Stralthrem were only ones willing to entertain the idea, but they weren't sure about taking on the old man. After that mess at the Heirworld, Morwenna was certainly motivated, but she was also wary."

I frowned at that, why would Morwenna be…and then it clicked. "Callie," I said slowly, my blood running cold. "The trial wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed at Callie. You were the one who suggested I call her as a witness. And you arranged this whole thing so we'd end up in The Quiet Room where no one could interfere. You were worried she'd use Gossamer to call on Atlas. That was why Morwenna wouldn't come, she's afraid of him."

"Seems kind of sad to me," he nodded. "Being scared of a dead man. But without her, the whole assault was dead in the water. Even after she managed to break through to Void God, she's too scared of Atlas to act overtly. Wouldn't assist unless I could get rid of your wife." His smile dropped. "That…that's not my favorite part of this, kid. It really isn't. But don't worry. I'll make sure you don't survive her death. I can do that for you at least."

I felt Callie doing…something. The Adherent Fire was gathering, though what she was planning I had no idea. I also felt power gathering in that knife. It was crackling on the air, spitting and hissing in a way I didn't like at all. That weapon was A-rank, and I was assuming it was designed to trigger the defenses on our souls. I had to assume it had at least two shots.

But I trusted Callie. This was a race to the finish, and I would make sure she had the time she needed. I forced myself to engage with him again. "How could you do this?" I demanded. "This is your FAMILY! Your wife's family! What about Delia?"

"I'm DOING this for Delia," he snapped. "And for Penny. This family is SICK, Shane. Parents giving their own children away, not being allowed to see them for most of their lives? The way they treat the defectives? The old man just lets it happen, the council is complicit, the whole thing needs to fucking go! Burn the rot out!" He laughed bitterly. "It was shockingly easy to arrange. No one pays attention to the B-ranker. I'm no threat to any of them, right?"

"And me?" I snarled. "How did you get past me? I can SMELL lies. Do you have some kind of deception Skill?"

He chuckled. "Nothing that complicated, kid. I just never lied to you. It's a habit I developed as a double agent. Too many ways to detect dishonesty. No, the trick is to tell just ENOUGH of the truth to get people where you want them to go." He paused. "Well, I lied to Devon, but he's kind of a dunce, and I only did it when we were alone."

I was frozen, wracking my brain for conversations I'd had with Roland. 'Derran is dead?' Not a statement of ignorance, a question. 'Whoever did that must be a ruthless bastard', because he was. 'I will testify, and there's nothing you can say to talk me out of it', because this was the core of his plan, and he had no other choice. He smiled at me silence. "Just starting to get it, huh? Well, glad I could help put your mind at ease before the end. Which sadly, has now arrived." He raised the knife, and the shiny black stone of the black gleamed wickedly in the dim light of the evening desert. The air around it was shuddering and flickering like the space was glitching out, and a disgusting green yellow light, like a healing bruise, surrounded it like a halo.

As he finished speaking though, something else happened. Black flame flickered to life in his eyes, rolling down his cheeks like tears, and his body began to shift. His hair lengthened and darkened, turning into black thorned lengths of stony meat, horns grew from his head, and a pair of skeletal wings tore free from his back, ropes of diseased flesh snapping from one side to the other to connect them.

From the second I saw the flames, I knew what I was looking at. I recognized them perfectly. "Apostate," I said coldly.

"Yup," he chuckled. "A little gift from Morwenna, just to make sure I finished your girl off properly. Atlas is tricky, and she wasn't taking any chances. This is her own little homebrewed mix of the original Void fire she gave him and all the nastiest corruption abilities she could find. A counterpoint to his purification. She called it the Apostate Fire, because Heretics and Apostates have so much in common."

He held up the knife. "And this…well this is a little trinket she lent me after I got in touch about your defenses. It's called the Bone Demon's Tooth. Empowered A-rank artifact. Let's see if your monster can stop THIS." Before he even finished talking, his arm had blurred, and the world just…split. Mornax dissolved into nothingness, and I was left staring at a purple glowing book hanging in the air in front of me.

The blow was suspended before the attack, but as I watched, it dissolved harmlessly…taking the book with it.

While I was reacting, he'd already lashed out again, and as I watched, Callie's defensive technique dissolved under the onslaught of the Bone Demon's Tooth. It wasn't enough to even scratch the defensive charges…but it didn't need to be. It just needed to be enough to kill us. Enough to force us to either spend the charges or die.

He raised the knife again, his smile almost apologetic, a gruesome dissonance on his new demonic visage. I triggered double trouble, arriving next to Callie, wrapping my arms around her, she was focusing, and I could feel that whatever she was doing was almost done. She just needed another second. Just a little longer. Roland nodded sadly, sighing at the sight of me next to her. "At least you get to go together. I only have three shots with this thing. But I only need one more. Nice knowing you, kid."

His hand flickered as he swung, and the world slowed down. My eyes were wide, my Danger Sense screaming at me. I grabbed for power, for protection, for anything. My Domain exploded outward, interposing itself between us, stretching the distance, buying me precious milliseconds. The slash crossed the intervening space so fast I could barely track it, sweeping through the plains, and I felt a tearing inside me as my Domain was easily torn apart.

Mornax appeared again. He was part of my Domain, and couldn't be destroyed, not unless I was, though he was diminished after his brief death. Behind him Behemoth manifested, then Leviathan, Mountain Stance, Stone Limb. One by one, my demons interposed themselves between my wife and her attempted murdered.

I screamed, my soul feeling like someone was running it through a meat grinder, and nearly collapsed, barely managing to catch myself. My Domain was coming apart, being torn through like paper. It felt like it was taking hours, but it had been maybe one second since the attack began. One second of casual disregard for my power as the demons who made up my court threw themselves on their swords to buy us any time at all. One second was long enough.

Gossamer manifested as Callie raised her blade, wings flaring as I held on for dear life around them. With a scream of effort, she swung her blade, and space TORE. My Domain didn't stop it, didn't even try. She bypassed it entirely, tearing through the fabric of the world and into the void, dragging me through. The blast of horrifying energy struck even as we passed through the gap, and even the aftershock blasting through the hole in the world cracked my armor, sending us both pitching forward as the portal sealed up.

My Domain retracted, ignoring the Void entirely as it was sucked back into my soul. Which was horrifically damaged. Cracks spiderwebbed along the inside of my spirit, barely held together with willpower and habit.

Callie caught me as I pitched forward, and she was screaming something. Tears ran down her face as her mouth worked. I couldn't hear anything, just rushing in my ears as I tried to read her lips. It took me a moment to get it. My name, desperate pleas not to die, and hey, she said she loved me…that was nice. It was a pleasant final sight as my vision dissolved into blackness. As I lost consciousness, I briefly wondered if this would be the very last time. I hoped not, I'd have hated for my last sight of Callie to be her crying.

 

[AzeraTheCheshire]

"Here have these two amazingly crafted single use defensive 'tokens' to study."
Ah yes, proceed to (effectively) immediately have them used up before there's even a true chance to study them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Here have these two amazingly crafted single use defensive 'tokens' to study."
Ah yes, proceed to (effectively) immediately have them used up before there's even a true chance to study them.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, being able to survive an assassination attempt two ranks above you under ANY circumstances is pretty impressive lmao.

 

[AzeraTheCheshire]

Oh I totally get WHY they got used up but for how big a deal being able to study them seemed to be, the amount of time actually spent being able to study them was just... oof.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"Shane!" called a voice from the distance. "Shane, PLEASE wake up! Please, baby I need you to open your eyes! Why the hell isn't this WORKING? You said this would fix him!" It took me a second to process the words, and before I could work through what they meant, I registered the voice. Callie. She sounded upset. Had something happened? My eyes shot open and I sat up with a guttural, throat tearing roar of agony as my brain caught up to the soulcrushing torment I was feeling from…basically everywhere. "Oh thank the gods!"

A pair of strong arms clamped around me, and I had to choke back an agonized howl. Every inch of my skin felt like it was wrapped around something jagged. My whole body was the next best thing to a bag of broken glass and lemon juice in terms of sensation. It hurt so badly I almost vomited from the pain.

Callie hissed in panic, jerking away from me, and my body slumped as I tried to get my brain working again. Forcing my absurdly heavy eyelids open, I raised my eyes to take in my wife's tearstained face. And her hair. Which was green and on fire. I frowned. "How…?"

She glanced down at herself, then laughed. "Oh, right. Zagan. I'm acting as a host so I could heal you. Genesis Burst too. And Life Nova. Azazel said we needed all three, apparently it's a fucking MESS in there." At my confusion, she grimaced. "That last attack from Roland came VERY close to shattering your soul. Apparently Asmodeus and Leviathan stepped in at Dom's orders. Azazel took charge of things after that and has been on damage control."

"How do you know all this?" I asked fuzzily. "You shouldn't have access to my Domain, especially not now."

"Angelic Bond," she explained wryly. "Turns out because of our connection he can directly access the church in my soul space. He's been ferrying demons across to supplement my reconstruction efforts. Honestly, I'm kind of glad that I can't see inside, because Azazel says it's BAD. If you didn't have a frankly absurd amount of regenerative abilities, all of which are unusually powerful, and if you weren't wearing the seal, you would probably be dead."

I grimaced. "Yeah. I SHOULD be dead. And would be, if it wasn't for you. How did you get us to the Void? I thought this place was sealed off?"

"I didn't," she clarified. "We never entered the Void. Not exactly. More of a…shadow of realspace. That was why it took so long. I've been working on that technique for a while now, but I hadn't tested it. I though we were done for. I can't believe your Domain was able to block that."

"It absolutely did NOT," I laughed bitterly. "I didn't BLOCK shit. Blocking implies that I stopped the attack. I threw pieces of my soul in front of it in succession to create drag, and even that wasn't enough in the end." I looked around. "Where are we, actually? We're still inside The Quiet Room, I take it?"

She nodded. "I couldn't really take us too far. But now that we're away, my Adherent Fire and my old Stealth Skills are more than up to snuff to hide us. Roland won't be able to track us down for a while." She bit her lip. "I'm just worried you won't recover in time."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about that. We knew this trip might be dangerous, so I made some preparations." Holding out my hand, a tightly wrapped, innocuous looking scroll appeared. "I had my dad make this for me. Payment is going to be annoying, but as far as trump cards go, an A-ranked wish scroll seemed like a safe bet."

While I'd tried my best to prep for this mess with Azazel and the others, I wasn't willing to trust my safety (or my wife's) to something as nebulous as luck. Unfortunately, I had absolutely ZERO chance of being able to successfully pay off an A-ranked wish, so using it directly was out of the question. Luckily, my dad's ability wasn't the same as the rest of the family. The Wish Devil, in exchange for the loss of his three times modifier, had obtained the ability to create incredibly one sided and even unwanted deals.

This particular scroll fell mostly into the first category. Or rather, it still had to be paid off, but the method of doing so was much less stringent. The scroll had been modified to absorb energy. With a two rank gap in power, the actual AMOUNT of the stuff that was needed was pretty staggering, but given a few hours of charge time, quantity could make up the quality.

I explained all of this to my wife, and she almost collapsed from relief. "Oh thank the gods. I take it Azazel didn't know?"

"No time," I shrugged. "He passed it to me right before we went inside. Or rather, he had Crell do it." I grimaced. "I wish I'd had time to charge the damned thing, we could have used it to tank that last hit from Roland. But things went wrong too fast. I can use it for my recovery though. Unlike the standard Wish power, my dad's ability has a much easier time interacting with souls, as you might have noticed when we saw him ripping them out of A-rankers."

She snorted. "Burying the lead there, hon, but yeah I get it." She reached down, gingerly taking the scroll, and the green faded from her hair, leaving her with the blue of the Adherent Archangel. Frowning, she started channeling energy into the scroll, her hands catching fire. "I'm surprised you're allowed to have this, actually."

"My dad isn't a member of the palace," I chuckled. "Nothing he does really counts as violating any mandates. Between his position as an outsider and the unique setup of his power, this was pretty much all he could do."

"Seems like it'll be enough," she smiled worriedly. "The main question is, though, what do we do AFTER? Like once you're fixed up we're still stuck in here with multiple B-rankers who want to kill us. Taking out Roland might be doable, but even if you can fight him head to head, that leaves me fighting three on one. Our plans with Azazel were all predicated on even odds. We were counting on Roland helping us."

I shook my head with a frown. "We were counting on that because of a prediction Azazel made. But I think we might have misinterpreted that. I mean, yes, we could have just been wrong, but I don't think so. We're in here with three enemies…but possibly not four."

She stared at me for a moment and then groaned. "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me. You want to try to flip Devon, don't you?"

"I mean, I don't think flip is the right term," I corrected. "More like inform. Devon isn't the asshole we thought he was. He's just an egotistical moron. Roland played right into his blind spot, but then, he did the same thing to us, so I can't really throw stones. Now that we know who was poisoning the well, though, we can correct his misunderstandings."

"I'm not sure trading a B-ranked sword genius in for your brat cousin is the strategic coup you think it is," she pointed out sourly.

I rolled my eyes. "Obviously this isn't an ideal situation. But he SHOULD be able hold his own. He was reasonably confident in his chances as a candidate, and even if we assume he was massively overestimating himself, lots of people were of the opinion that he could pull something off in the succession war. Also…" I hesitated. "I don't want him to die. I don't want my uncle to have to go through what my aunt did. Devon and Percy are assholes, but they don't deserve that."

She reached out with the hand that wasn't funneling power into the scroll, lacing her fingers in mine. "You think we can help him?" She asked sadly. "I mean, he knew the price for initiating the trial…"

"Except he didn't initiate it," I pointed out. "Roland did. He just used Devon as a cat's paw. He admitted as much to us directly. Sure, it's a technicality, but this is the Wish Curse Palace. We live for technical bullshit. Especially since given Roland's confession, we can directly dismiss the charges, and my position as heir will be secure. I have enough power to forcibly substitute one execution for another."

Callie looked at me worriedly. "You say that like you're going to carry out the sentence yourself. Despite what an asshole he is, you considered him a friend until not long ago. Can you really do that?" I glanced at her, and she held up her hands. "This isn't a judgement thing, I'm a hundred percent in your corner here. I'm asking you literally. CAN you do that? Are you capable of destroying the soul of someone you cared about not long ago."

My voice hardened, becoming cold. "Roland betrayed us. Tried to kill you. DID kill Derran. He confessed directly. With this trial under false pretenses, my position is secure. The rules about killing people in here are void, at least in this scenario." I held up a hand to cut her off. "And yes, I know that isn't what you meant. And the answer is…yes. Yes I can kill him. Really. Completely. I've killed before. Even destroyed a soul. I can do it again."

It made me sick to say it. Not because he didn't deserve it, but because it was a line I'd only crossed once. Killing Travis had been easy. I hadn't liked him. Hadn't cared about him. And honestly…he wasn't RIGHT. Because Roland was. At least somewhat. His anger at the system that had caused the death of his wife was understandable. The way he was handling it was obviously awful, but he didn't have that many options.

Despite knowing that though, despite having been his friend, I knew it wouldn't matter. Because he'd killed Derran. Because he's tried to kill me. But honestly either of those I could have probably forgiven. Or at least understood. No, his big mistake was targeting Callie. This had all been about her. Destroying her so that he could inflict Morwenna on my whole family.

Callie's hand squeezed mine, and I winced at the sensation of the bones in my hands grinding together. Everything still hurt. Not just in terms of soul damage, either. I'd tanked the aftershocks of that A-rank attack. The Seal had soaked a lot of it, but I still took the hit. Actually, I turned to check on the condition of my armor. I had to twist painfully to check the back, but what I saw made me sigh in relief.

It wasn't GOOD. Cracks spiderwebbed the back of my armor in a serious way. But they were mostly surface level. It had been a glancing blow, and apparently the A-ranked base material of my armor had survived the damage mostly intact. I'd have to get it repaired, but it should hold up for a few more engagements, which meant it would last until we got out of here, at least.

We sat like that for a while, just being together in silence. Callie funneled power into the scroll while I let Azazel and the others work on repairing my soul from the inside. It was slow going on both fronts, but eventually, the scroll reached capacity. There was a flash as the seal on holding it closed flashed, signifying the completion of the charge. I reached out and took it, cut the seal with my thumb nail, then unrolled it. A quick wish, and I settled into heal. Despite having such a convenient method to recover, I was still worried about recovering in time. I just hoped we could get to Devon before they realized he wasn't necessary anymore.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I groaned in relief as the last of the incredibly dense soul restoration energy was burned off. It felt familiar, like a much denser version of the belt of spiritual calming Benny had made all those years ago. Of course, even the wish wouldn't have been enough to quickly repair all the soul damage on its own. But luckily, it didn't need to.

My Ten Demons Tree had originally been a reincarnation tree, a special tree of the soul attribute. Combined with the abilities of Genesis Burst and Life Nova, it was able to quickly absorb and then distribute the power throughout my Domain. The phantom tree above my throne wasn't just an illusion, its roots were the connecting fibers that had helped my Domain condense, and they spread throughout its entirety.

"How are you feeling?" Callie asked worriedly as I stood and stretched. "Is there any permanent damage?"

I shook my head. "Nope. As expected of an A-rank wish. I have to thank you for charging it though. I hadn't expected to need it so soon, and given my condition I was absolutely not going to be able to do it myself." I looked at my back with a grimace. "I just wish it was able to fix my armor, too. I don't like walking around with it cracked like this. Makes me feel exposed."

She nodded, looking around worriedly. "I don't think that's just the armor. We should really go. Roland will be looking for us, and if he finds us before we run into Devon, he might delay us too long to save him."

"Agreed," I said as we set off in a seemingly random direction. Once the repairs were done, I'd consulted Azazel and had him do some divination. While he couldn't exactly divine Devon's whereabouts here, he COULD divine which direction was most likely to lead to us running into him. This kind of yes or no query was one of the most effective types of divining, so even in a place like The Quiet Room it wasn't hindered much.

The spot we'd landed was secluded and remote, but once we set off, we lost all semblance of cover. Within about ten minutes we'd shifted terrains, arriving in a series of flat plains dotted with strange purple flowers. The faces of the plans had strange evil smiles on them, and their eyes were sharp and mocking. It was really disconcerting. Especially since they started to whisper as we entered the area, releasing clouds of incredibly thin powder that made my head a little fuzzy.

A quick burst of Zagan and tapping into Leviathan erased the effects, and Callie's Heretic Fire had enough purification energy to wipe her clean, so we weren't in DANGER, the environment was just really creepy.

"Hoo!" came a menacing cry. I spun, jerking back with a yelp as an owl appeared right in my face, talons extended. I dodged easily, but as soon as I lost sight of it…it vanished. I stood back up, looking around suspiciously. Nothing. No birds, no animals at all, actually. The flowers were the most sentient thing we'd seen since we arrived in this place.

I squinted around, turning to look for the- "Oh fuck!" I shouted, stumbling back as the owl once again appeared from nowhere with a screech, razor sharp talons heading for my face.

"What is the deal with this OWL?" I snapped, spinning to look for it after it once again vanished. Then I paused. "Actually…what IS the deal with this owl?" I glanced at Callie. "Have you seen any other living creatures here? Not plants, but actually thinking animals? Because we've been walking for a while and I didn't notice any."

She frowned. "I…no, I haven't seen any. Why is there an owl here then?"

A shriek echoed over the plain, and I turned to see the owl flapping its wings lazily above the flowers. "Hoo!" it chanted mockingly.

I took a step forward, and it tilted gracefully, falling backwards and flapping once, coasting backwards away from us. "Oh come on!" I snapped. "That's not even how WINGS work! You can't glide on your back like that!"

"Hoo!" it repeated. I had no idea how it was managing to pack so much scorn into such a short, clipped syllable, but it was doing a great job.

"I think it wants us to follow it," Callie said, her eyes wide and excited as she stared at the animal. Callie liked birds, and while I was predisposed to MY bird, I knew enough about owls to know that this one was probably a huge dick. Still, she wasn't wrong, so I suppressed a sigh and trailed after it.

While it led us on a mostly parallel path at first, the owl turned and headed off in a slightly different direction several times, adjusting our course. I frowned as I followed it. Nothing was supposed to be able to get in here, especially not an animal, so what was this thing? It seemed to be leading us towards my cousin, but could we trust it?

The answer, apparently, was yes. Within thirty minutes we arrive at a cliff, looking down on a familiar trio of people. Devon was in bad shape. He'd been beaten mercilessly, carved up enough that there wasn't much clothing left unstained, and was currently trapped inside of some kind of shimmering glass bear trap.

"Why are you DOING this?" he asked desperately. "We're on the same side! You want to bring my cousin to justice as much as I do! I know it!"

Callisted burst out laughing. "Justice? You're talking to US about justice? Do you even know why my business went under? Do you really think a B-rank crafter was SO incompetent that he accidentally shipped out goods so defective they were DANGEROUS?"

Devon frowned. "I…assumed it was an experimental formulation. You said it took a few months for it to settle."

The sallow faced youth sneered. "Of course I did. After all, accusing a bloodline descendant of malfeasance without proof is a punishable offense. The palace is Wyndham territory. How dare any of us lowly hangers on aspire to better ourselves? I was politely informed that my business plan was interfering with the aspirations of one of the branch head's grandchildren. When I wouldn't back down, my product was sabotaged, and that same grandchild arranged to buy my company for pennies. I don't even remember his name. Little moron got bored and abandoned the business within a month."

My cousin flinched. "That's…I didn't know that. If you'd told me I'd have helped you seek restitution." His eyes flickered to Franklin, tone pleading. "And what about you? With your reputation I'm sure you don't have any grievance against the family? We've treated you well, yes? You even proved yourself against a legendary figure."

"Proved myself," the big man said bitterly. "I didn't prove anything. That old man took a dive. His employer didn't like the idea of one of his tools achieving success he hadn't achieved himself. He made Craven offer his life up as payment for his…sponsorship of me. Of course, he was kind enough to let me do the deed myself. Who doesn't want to kill their own grandfather, right?" His tone was cold and sarcastic, but I could see real anger in his eyes. And I didn't blame him.

Devon just looked…devestated. "That's not right," he said weakly. "There are so many opportunities for those outside the bloodline. Even some of the branch heads aren't relatives."

My stomach was churning. Roland. Callister. Franklin. It was easy to be angry at them for participating in this. To hate them for trying to hurt someone I loved. But it was also easy to understand why they were doing this. Roland had lost his wife, Callister had his life ruined, Franklin had to murder his own grandfather. And all of it was because of us. Because of my family.

Even if I assumed that it hadn't been family leadership behind those decisions, it still stemmed from the same general lack of responsibility and care that characterized the Wishmaster position. Aiden had no interest in the day to day running of the family, the elders were concerned with games and one upmanship over everything else, and the old man couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the life or death of his own descendants.

I'd always known what kind of place the WCP was. Always known it was cold, and brutal, but I also knew that it was a place where people could climb higher. Could find opportunity if they were willing to risk.

At its core, my impression of the family and our faction had been…fair. Not nice. But fair. The kind of brutal fairness of a hungry lion stalking a gazelle, maybe. But not this. Not casual cruelty and pointless spite. Not nepotism and incompetence and childish greed destroying people's lives.

And the worst part was that in the end…it didn't matter. I was going to stop them. Maybe kill them. Because what they were doing, no matter how justified, was wrong. Killing Derran, trying to kill Callie, trying to kill all of us really. They were in pain, but I couldn't let them inflict that same agony on the rest of us.

Callie took my hand, and I felt her voice in my mind. "It's not right," she agreed with my strong emotions, without even needing to ask. "But you knew that things weren't right. This doesn't change anything for you. Your responsibility was always to make things better. Now you know more about where to start."

I nodded solemnly. She was right. I sighed. "Get ready to intervene," I told her after a moment. "We need to hit Franklin hard. He's out of our weight class, at least without prep, but he's not expecting an attack. If we hit him hard enough we can scare him off. Priority is extracting Devon and healing him up."

When I got her ok, I turned to stare down at the bigger man. I reached for my Domain, extending it out over the pair as I called for my demons to dwell within my body. Sammael, Abaddon.

Wings expanded behind me as power flooded my body. Inside the palace off in the distance, Zagan, Mephistopheles, and several other high energy demons poured their strength into Abaddon, empowering my physical body. I triggered my staff, boosting the strength based demon to Tier 8, and used Double Trouble as I called my weapon to my hand.

I didn't do anything fancy. Didn't, twirl or wind up. I hauled back, my grip choked up on the staff, and swung it like a club at the back of Franklin's head with every ounce of power in my body.

Despite my perfect timing, the use of my Domain, and the overwhelming force in my body, Franklin somehow sensed it coming. He shifted slightly, tilting his head and bending a knee, turning the solid full force blow into a glancing shot, which he rolled with to escape my range.

Unfortunately for him, my staff was no club, no matter how I used it, and I had only been swinging from about half length. I loosened my grip, letting the haft of the weapon slide up to extend my reach as I swung again, my staff tearing the air as I let out a blurring combination of attacks.

Franklin dodged calmly, but his eyes widened and he tried to turn last second. Too slow. A black shimmering sword, filled with blue black flames, drove itself through his shoulder, and he roared with discomfort, swinging a fist and driving Callie back. She withdrew the blade as she retreated.

"Frankie!" Callister shouted in panic. His hands flew up and a torrent of paper cranes erupted from his sleeves. I stepped back, swatting them away, but they swirled around us, interrupting my sight line. By the time they cleared, the pair was gone, and I was scowling over at an injured Devon. With a sigh, I dismissed the incarnations, called up Zagan, and headed over to help him. I hoped he was at least grateful this time.