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

[Malcolm Tent]

Arriving on the surface of the heirworld was surprisingly simple. The drop pods were fairly cushy, and the impact wasn't too intense. We emerged into the hills of this new planet unscathed and ready for a fight…which we didn't get.


"So this is homey," said Abel slowly. "If your home is a dirt hole. Please tell me the whole planet isn't like this."


It was pretty bleak. We were standing on the side of a massive rocky hill. I would have called it a mountain if the slope had been a bit steeper or if it went a bit higher, but it was pretty clearly a hill, as were all the OTHER hills surrounding it. Beyond those hills, I could see…well, more hills. I frowned. Holding up my arm, I whistled, and there was a flash of green fire as Archie materialized.


He'd been learning how to leave Bethy's Domain on his own (as long as she allowed it, of course) and could even feel when I called him through our bond. "Hey bud," I told him casually as I scritched under his chin. "I need a bird's eye view, do me a favor and take a lap?"


He trilled, then took off into the air. As he did, I got a good look at the sky above for the first time. It looked weird. I could see the lines of fire crisscrossing the atmosphere, but there were dim and further apart than I'd expected. I frowned at them, but after a moment of thought I got it. The interior of the defenses was spatially expanded. The WHOLE planet. That was really impressive, especially since I was positive the buildings would still be enlarged.


The sky was a gorgeous unearthly purple, shot through with thin strips of red, and between those I could see planets and stars, whole galaxies spinning through space. I wasn't sure what was causing that effect, if it was the spatial expansion or just the local interstellar layout, but it was very distracting. It took me a moment to focus on Archie and push my vision through the bond so I could see through his eyes.


"So, we're in some kind of…hill range? On either side of it there seems to be empty space, almost to the horizon. But I do see what looks like trees in one direction and in the other…maybe rocks? This would be the equatorial ring, I guess. But we need to head for one of the poles and I don't know which one. Nat, spot me a scroll?"


Now that we were here, some of the prohibitions against using each other's wishes weren't as important. But at the same time, we needed to save them, because we'd be dealing with an endless number of possible wish problems and we needed wishes to counter wishes. But we needed a heading, and the most reasonable way to do that was a wish. Nat had way less stats than I did so her scrolls were less valuable. I pulled out a D-ranked chit, making a quick and easy wish, and with a flash, I was holding a compass that didn't point north.


Or it did. But only because north was the right way. I didn't actually know which way was north, I'd always been bad with directions. I shared my thoughts with my wife, and she just shrugged. "I mean, we're heading for one of the poles of the planet, so realistically, we have a fifty fifty chance of going north."


Bethy perked up. "But what if they don't even HAVE the word north here? What if we're inventing cardinal directions, and by choosing one now, we're creating north for the first time, and our actions will decide the fate of this entire planet!" Her eyes were shining and her fists were clenched tight as she got more and more excited.


My sister rolled her eyes. "Bethy, cardinal directions DO exist here. The people here are all from the WCP originally. They HAVE north in the WCP."


The vampire pouted. "Buzzkill. I was gonna be the savior of the world. Saving them from bad directions. But now im just a boring direction follower. You made me a nerd. Only nerds follow directions. Or eat broccoli."


"I'm not having this argument with you again," Chelsea said acidly. You can't JUST drink blood and eat candy. It's bad for you. It is not NERDY to ask you to eat vegetables sometimes. Or to eat them myself."


"Yuh huh," Bethy said stubbornly. "Because carrots make your eyes better, and if you eat vegetables but not carrots you're going to have bad vision and end up with glasses and that makes you a nerd. That's just science."


Benny looked up sharply. "That is NOT science. It is, in fact, the opposite of science."


"Really," Bethy said archly. "Because I thought the opposite of science was doing the same exact actions over and over again to totally random and unrepeatable results and learning nothing that impact future applications of information."


We all turned to stare at her, and Benny staggered back as if struck. "That's…shut up! It's MAD science. It's different!" He looked around at us imploringly. "Right? Tell her it's different."


I rolled my eyes, turning to orient on the arrow and then headed away from the group at a leisurely stroll. The others followed, my best friend having a minor existential crisis as he tried to explain away the complete invalidation of his entire life's work so far.


"Like it IS still science," he was saying defensively. "I have to identify what materials do and how they interact to combine them to make things. And the better I get the more control I have."


Jessie hummed in disagreement. "I mean, it's not really the same thing. You're cheating with soul strength. You're MAKING the results do a certain thing. That's not science. In fact, it's almost magic. Which IS the opposite of science."


I rolled my eyes. "Bethy, do not slowly erode Benny's sanity by exploiting information you've gathered over years of knowing him. Jessie, don't pile on. Benny, powers are bullshit, get over it. Now can we FOCUS please, because I have some concerns about our game plan going forward, and I'd like some feedback. Namely, should we let all the others out of Bethy's domain or leave them in as a last resort."


Abel snickered. "I was looking forward to watching him slowly unravel. At least it means she isn't doing it to me. But you make a good point. What are you leaning toward?"


"Keeping them in," I shrugged. It seems like a good ace in the hole. But then again, if we do we're leaving ourselves open if any other candidates landed nearby and spot us. They might target us for looking like easy prey, and honestly I'd prefer to avoid a straight conflict for as long as possible, since we don't have any of our scrolls prepped and even if we GET them prepped we'd be wasting them."


Abel hummed. "I'd say that it's probably safer to travel in force. If there are more of us, we're less likely to have to fight since we'll scare off scavengers."


"Or DRAW them," my sister pointed out archly. "More people are more noticeable. I say we keep them in and Shane cranks his Murmur domain to cover out movements." She glanced around worriedly. "I don't like being so exposed with so many enemies falling to earth possibly nearby."


"That's a good idea actually," I mused. "I didn't consider cover on top of minimizing our footprint. Everyone get in close so I can cloak us."


They all did, drawing near so I could trigger Murmur. It hummed to life easily, the domain slowly wiping all traces of us from the face of the planet as it worked. The first to go were the obvious traces, like footprints and ground disturbance, and without that, I didn't think we really needed much more obfuscation in the middle of nowhere like this.


We set off, following the compass, and as we did, I started thinking out loud. "Alright. So we need to get to the C-rank area. But before that, we need to get THROUGH the D-rank area, and possibly do some local recruiting. The local forces in the different zones have connections higher up, so recruiting someone lower down is a good way to get invitations to consult with the big players."


"But that assumes we can actually connect with them easily," my wife cut in. With the C-rankers, we might have an easier time, since our forces will be there interacting with them over time building rapport. Down here we're flying blind, and we need a way to differentiate ourselves from the other candidates."


"We have exactly one of those," I said grimly. "Combat power. We've got more muscle than any other candidate. Me personally, but also Bethy, Abel, and now Callie. Not to mention the Chelsea, the Angels, Gabe, and the animals. We have a ton of top tier combat power."


Callie shook her head. "I'm not sure the difference is as big as we'd like at this level. All of these candidates have been raising their strongest fighters on a steady diet of wish juice for years. Bethy and Abel might be leagues beyond them, but they probably have people at about the same level as the rest of us. Our biggest advantage isn't Bethy or Abel though, it's YOU. You're unique among the candidates. Having two abilities makes you a force in your own right, which means you can do things they can't.


"What that means is that factions entirely predicated on martial strength will be more disposed to you, since you're both our leader AND a strong combatant," she said brightly. "We just need to find strong factions who prioritize combat and you can prove yourself in battle, winning them over for us."


I hummed in interest. "That's a good idea too. And for ones that are just pure strength without caring about leaders, we can have Abel kick their asses. But we need to FIND some of them first. I didn't see any cities or anything. This planet is big. We have a heading to the proper destination, but who knows when we'll intersect with any locals along that line. Not to mention the succession war. We're supposed to start getting tas-"


My voice cut off as a scroll, appearing in a puff of purple fire and unrolling in the air. "Ok…does everyone else see that?" I asked slowly. "Because I'm pretty used to those being invisible to everyone else, but this is…new."


"Announcement: The Mammoth Hunt Begins! All candidates will compete to see who can slay the most mountain mammoths. Mammoth kills will be tallied as points that can be put towards prizes at the end of the competition. Remember, even if you lose the war, you can still win the battle. For resources. Now onward heirs of the palace, to victory! Hint: Look down."


"Not just you," Callie confirmed. "Though I'm not sure what it means. Especially the end. What does it mean, look down?"


I shrugged. "Who knows. We need to find some mountain mamm-" I paused, a slow dread creeping into my gut. "Mountain Mammoth," I said again, chewing on the word as I slowly started backing down the hill. "Do you think the mammoth might BE a mountain, rather than be ON a mountain?"


Everyone else paled, looking down as I turned and triggered my waltz, wings extending. Callie took off in a blur, and everyone else scattered just as the ground started to shake, and the massive hills around us began to move. It wasn't all of them. Just several. But I was still blown away by how fucking BIG they were.


Everyone joined back up near me, reconvening under the Murmur domain as we watched the former hill we'd been standing on raise its giant earthen trunk to the sky and trumpet its fury. "I don't think avoiding notice will be an option," I said dryly. As the chorus of other mammoths joined in with the roar, I sighed. Fucking WCP never made things easy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Mountain Mammoth was…well, mountainous. The thing was colossal, standing easily two hundred and fifty feet high once it got up off its folded legs. Its hide was made of dark brown stone, and its eyes were magmatic orbs of burning hate that flicked desperately along the nearby horizon, looking for…something. I wasn't sure what exactly, until I noticed the small hole on its right flank.


"Fuck," I spat in annoyance. "That's why the damned thing woke up. The drop pod punched through its outer layer. We basically stabbed it. It must be pretty slow moving to take a full ten minutes after impact to wake up."


I doubted we were the only drop pod to land on a mammoth, but I also doubted many of us had. There was no need. That monstrous trumpet of rage had woken up all the rest of them.


"So…how do we do this?" I asked the others, glancing around. "They don't know we're here, but if we attack they'll figure it out. Especially if we do something big and obvious. On the upside, I was wrong about drawing attention. The big guy woke up all the others so it seems like we should blend pretty well. But I bet we'll run into problems if we don't take out all the ones nearby quick and get gone."


Abel grimaced. "I'd love to fight one head on. But I get the feeling that won't do much for our stealth."


"You have Murmur up, right? You getting any details of their anatomy or weaknesses?" Callie grimaced at the huge beast. "Because somehow, I don't think hitting them in the head a bunch is going to do the trick."


I squinted up at the Mammoth. My Murmur domain used pieces of Dantalion and Bael, so it was good at gathering intel as well as stealth. I focused on the form of the Mammoth, where I was slowly gleaning more and more information. It had a fairly pronounced rock hump on its back that had camouflage it from me when I first triggered the domain, and it had woken up before I was able to notice what it was.


"Actually…maybe it will," I said slowly. "They seem to have pretty big empty skulls, believe it or not. Very small ear canals, but only relative to the rest of them. A person could fit in one of those if they could make it past the ears." I shot a quick look at Abel. "Could you take one of these things head on? Temporarily? Just enough to pin it down and distract it."


He shrugged. "I mean, if you don't care who sees, sure. Give me a minute."


I glanced at the others. "Get ready to bolt. We're heading for the treeline in that direction," I pointed the way the compass was indicating. "We'll sortie out to hit the Mammoths that we see, but we can't roam around in the open. It's too risky."


Abel circled around, and once we were all in position, I shot off a quick flare of green fire and he engaged. Seeing the massive Ragam Blood Body expand to a size comparable to the Mammoth, I winced. That wasn't its strongest from, but it would do for now. I was reassured when I saw Bethy appear beside him and overlap her domain with the manifestation, stabilizing the huge bloody simulacrum.


The Mammoth caught sight of him almost instantly, and it trumpeted its rage. With a roar of hatred, it rushed forward. It actually moved really slow, but it had incredibly long legs even for its size, and it crossed the distance shockingly fast.


Abel didn't even flinch. His giant blood body stepped forward and seized the two fierce tusks of the mighty beast, and he planted his feet, twisting to pin it in place as best he could. It didn't work that well, at first the monster mostly just kind of…slowed down. But it was enough. He slid for about fifty feet before coming to a final stop.


I spread my wings, flying forward with a blaze of black flame as I triggered my waltz. As I did, Abel shoved back against the tusks, jerking to one side to send an ear flying up. I blitzed into the gap beneath the ear, blazing down the ear canal as I headed into the skull, searching for…the brain! I noticed my target and zoomed toward it, drawing my staff.


Whirling it a few times, I triggered Mephistopheles, firing off a series of Extinction Events into the slim chords of tissue connecting the tiny brain to the rest of the body. To my surprise, they didn't break. The black flames sunk in but they couldn't break through. I scowled, then triggered Belial. I had another idea. A better idea. An EVIL idea. Belial was about corruption, normally I couldn't use it on huge enemies like this. The bigger they were, the more corruption was needed to influence them.


Except this thing was just a huge rocky shell for a very tiny dumb brain. I jammed my staff into the base of the brain stem, pouring corruption out into it. Where the brain chords had resisted destruction, they did NOT resist corruption. I focused on my bond to Callie, letting my wife know to contact Abel and have him release the Mammoth.


Then I abandoned that train of thought, focusing entirely on corrupting the Mammoth brain. This Mammoth was D-rank, but it was VERY high in D-rank. Peak almost. It was resisting, throwing its will against me, but a quick Piece of Mind was all I needed. I slipped the parallel in through the corruption, subsuming the brain, and suddenly…I was the Mammoth.


This little trick required a lot more development in Belial than I'd had before my trip. The staff had been working overtime upgrading all my forms, and my Domains had benefited. I looked around, and I could see all the other Mammoths. They were far, but also very close. The towering legs made crossing the distance a snap. I drove the giant beast's body forward, pushing it into acceleration that would probably have injured it normally…if it had time to register that.


Enormous tusks, speared into the side of the nearest Mammoth, miles away and only a few steps. I gored the other beast, shoving it sideways, and it toppled over, dragging me down with it as the two Mammoth bodies collapsed into a pile of too large limbs and bloody wounds. Bones snapped under the combined weight of two behemoths of earth and tusk.


I snapped back to my body, grimacing as I realized where I was. I charged over to the ear canal, flapping once and shooting down the passage. I hit the ear on the way out, but I was leading with the staff and managed to bat it aside, emerging into midair with a snap of my wings and then shooting off toward my friends.


Somewhere, inside my head, I heard a pair of chimes. I knew I'd gotten credit for those kills, and I grinned as I touched down next to the other. "We gotta go!" I shouted as I dropped Belial and reasserted Murmur. Abel had resumed his normal size, and he and the others rushed to join me in the domain.


By the time we made it a few miles away and turned to look, a colossal bronze titan had plummeted from the sky, smashing into the empty space where out hill had been with a roar. He stomped and flailed and generally threw a giant sized toddler fit to approximately no avail. We made it to the trees within minutes, and when we did, we stopped and allowed Murmur to sink in, really concealing us from anything that might be watching.


"That was interesting," Abel said after a minute. "Did you just fucking POSSESS that thing?"


I waggled a hand. "Kind of. I slipped a parallel into it through the corruption after hijacking its brain. The only reason I was able to do it was because of a confluence of factors. One, those things are barely sentient. Most beasts at D-rank have consciousness, but those thing appear to just be giant pissed off mountain elephants. Second, I had literal physical access to its brain. Third it was distracted."


He nodded along. "Right, right, I get you, but you seem to be missing something. All those circumstances, they're STILL the case. You can get access to more brains. If you can hijack another one of those things, and you can bring us with you, we can try to amplify it like a giant weapon. We can use the Mammoth like a SIEGE engine, and attack more of them as we go on. Hell, imagine GABE at the helm of one of those charges."


I did…and it was fucking amazing. I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of it. I turned to Bethy. "Can you sneak us into one of those things through your domain if you turn into mist?"


She froze. "I…I think I can. In fact I know I can. They're big and stupid and won't notice me, and I can definitely bring things along in my Domain even when I change forms." She beamed at me. "This is going to be SO MUCH FUN!"


She flung open her Domain, and the rest of us were swallowed up, suddenly standing in a black field of grass under a red sky. Behind us, a towering black castle loomed, and the rest of our D-rank force was surrounding us, obviously watching the events outside with interest. Bethy had been projecting her line of sight onto the MOON, which I hadn't known she could do. As we all watched, she dissolved into bats, the viewpoint fracturing into a thousand tiny visual inputs as she swarmed across the barren space towards the nearest Mammoth, which was currently engaged with a group of people we didn't get a good look at, as she dissolved further into mist and flowed up its trunk.


I'd expected her to go in the ears, but the trunk worked fine for our purposes, and within seconds, we were being pulled from the Domain, all standing inside the large mostly empty skull with only a tiny brain and each other as company.


Without waiting for a response, I drove the staff into the base of the brainstem, triggering Belial and flooding it with corruption as I channeled my parallel inside once again. Once I had control, Callie joined me. She didn't need any physical contact, our bond was enough, and she flooded it with Heretic Fire, pouring out into the Mammoth and bolstering the power of my soul that was controlling it.


I felt a hand on my shoulder, and Abel pushed his infinite blood sea through the brain and into the circulatory system, Bethy poured her Domain in after it, reinforcing the body with powerful blood.


Chelsea put a hand on my other shoulder, and I sense the conglomeration of her powers, dark and light, as her yin yang diagram was layered over top of our working, amplifying it with pure and overwhelming power, balanced on a knife's edge. I grinned as I took control of the Mammoth, turning it away from the candidates toward another Mammoth off in the distance. "Gabriel," I said hoarsely. "You're up."


Chelsea's power was something completely unique to me. Her new Path integrated opposites, merging things together in ways that shouldn't work. Where originally purification and enshrining darkness exploded when they were superimposed, now they became…more, and they pulled in any other energy around to amplify that growth, becoming a sort of universal supercharger. It was staggeringly potent.


It was also EXACTLY what we needed. Under the influence of the diagram, all of our disparate powers melded together, becoming something pure and potent and undiluted. And when Gabe added his power, Chelsea let it sweep through and overbalance her working.


Like a match dropped into a barrel of oil, it went from being oil to being FIRE. Gabe's power converted all of the energy into itself, consuming and overtaking it as the force exploded out, and suddenly we were CHARGING.


An Adamant Mammoth, unstoppably fuelled by the combined force of the strongest group of Ascendants under C-rank. We hit that next Mammoth like a speeding train, punching into it and carrying it alone towards the next one without even slowing down. I needed to congratulate my sister after this was over. Her new Path was fucking amazing. For now though, we had elephants to smash.

 

[Bezarius]

Like a match dropped into a barrel of oil, it went from being oil to being FIRE. Gabe's power converted all of the energy into itself, consuming and overtaking it as the force exploded out, and suddenly we were CHARGING.


An Adamant Mammoth, unstoppably fuelled by the combined force of the strongest group of Ascendants under C-rank. We hit that next Mammoth like a speeding train, punching into it and carrying it alone towards the next one without even slowing down. I needed to congratulate my sister after this was over. Her new Path was fucking amazing. For now though, we had elephants to smash.

Click to shrink...

The song "Move Bitch" would be the perfect accompaniment for this Unstoppable Juggernaut of a Mammoth.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We finished a charge and I trumpeted my victory into the blazing sky. Beside me, Bethy cackled maniacally. "Good! Show them our fury Muffins!"


I stopped and turned to glared at her, letting the parallel take charge temporarily. "Bethy, this Mammoth is ME. I am not a pet, and you can NOT keep it. It's a wild animal with no sense of self and the second I release it it will try to harm us. Do not NAME our siege weapon."


"What?" she sputtered. "But he's been so helpful. And he's so cool. Like a walking fortress! I'm going to try to use my Domain to construct my castle around him and give him armor. Muffins the Murder Mammoth, scourge of the seven seas!" She clutched at my armor, eyes wide and shimmering as she painted her word picture.


"Sounds neat," I said mercilessly as I pried her hands off me. "Still no. In fact, based on the nearby skyline, I think we're about done. We should finish this one off and bail before the others realize the Mammoth population is thin and decide to gang up on us."


Bethy actually teared up, and Chelsea patted her shoulder comfortingly as she pulled her away.


"So, how many did we get total?" Callie asked as the Mammoth started its walk towards the forest. "I wasn't able to keep track so well from in here. Pouring my power into the invocation was taking up all my attention."


I beamed at her. "Fifteen. It was a good day. I don't know how the others did, but I doubt many of them managed as well as we did. Hell, we chased more than a few groups off. Part of why I was saying we should bail." I patted the black and green glowing brain fondly. "Sadly this old boy has served his purpose. Like I told Bethy. Too dangerous to keep a wild animal with no sense of self around."


"That confuses me," Jessie said grimly. "I tried to flood the brain with my own energy, hoping we could subvert it, but I'm not getting a proper response. Every time I try to connect with its consciousness I get this feeling of…nothingness."


I frowned. "Honestly, I've been wondering about it myself. D-rank is when beasts are supposed to develop a sense of self. These things aren't coherent at all. Combined with the rocky makeup of their outsides and I'm wondering if they actually ARE beasts. Between the stone construction and the mental gaps, they remind me more of golems almost. Living golems, since they can die, but I wonder if they were created instead of born."


"The placement is suspicious too," Abel piped in. "A ring of "hills" around the direct center of the planet, separating the hemispheres? That can't be natural."


"So you think it's…what?" I asked worriedly. "Some kind of security system? Separate the poles? But then why have us kill them? Is it specifically designed to be used up during the succession war?"


My sister shook her head. "No use guessing. We don't know enough about this place to glean anything solid. You almost ready to abandon ship?"


I sighed, but nodded eventually. "Yeah. We're going out the trunk. I'm going to try to use to fire us in the direction of the nearest city. I was able to get a heading through the Mammoth's eyes. Only issue is how to make sure to finish it off on the way out."


Abel cracked his neck. "I can do it. Just make sure I'm facing the brain as we leave."


My focus was only half on them, I was picking up some possible trouble incoming. I turned the Mammoth around to aim us at the city in question. I was sure we wouldn't make it all the way, but we had wings, so it wasn't like that was a problem.


"Alright, pack it up people," I said distractedly. "Bethy, you're going to be transporting. Callie and I will carry Abel out." The vampire nodded chipperly and started collecting people back into her Domain. It really was absurd how convenient that thing was. Once they were all packed up, I sent her ahead to the entrance of the trunk, which I had aimed up and pointed in the right direction.


Callie and I each grabbed ahold of Abel's coat, walking with him to the exit ourselves, and we made sure to keep clear of his arms. "Alright, now wait until I count to three to let loose. We need to time this carefully."


If he killed it before it expelled us through the trunk it would drop and we'd have to handle our own exit, which defeated the purpose. He nodded solemnly, and I saw the air around him shift as the space turned blood red. I expected to be cut off from the coat we were holding but luckily it seemed to be fine. "Alright," I said slowly. "Ready?" I glanced out through the eyes of the Mammoth and saw a colossal copper form loping toward us. I grimaced.


"Get ready!" I called loudly. "Three. Two. One!" I triggered the trumpeting of the Mammoth once again, going so far as to channel Afterburner to amplify the blast, and at the same time, Abel hauled back and PUNCHED.


The last thing I saw as we were hurled up the trunk towards the light above was a massive bloody fist vaporizing the brain as we were sent hurtling out of the Mammoth at a speed beyond almost anything I'd ever experienced.


Might was definitely their highest stat, and Afterburner combined with the sheer size and power turned the trunk into the barrel of a high velocity cannon.


As we emerged, Callie and I folded our wings against out bodies, carrying Abel as we shot up and out. The air pressure was fierce as we rose through the air, shooting up into the sky like bullets. At the apex of our arc, I spread my wings, Callie doing the same, and we just…hung there.


Catching ourselves during the hangtime between rise and fall, there was a moment of weightlessness before gravity asserted itself. The landscape of the heirworld spread out before us, a vast expanse of shifting landscape of various shades and hues. I looked back to see the copper titan hitting the Mammoth at speed, but he wasn't getting any points from that. It was already dead as could be. I smiled, then turned back towards the city in the near distance.


"WHOOO!" Bethy squealed as she reformed from bats. "This is so COOL!" She was dancing along the clouds, hopping from one to the next.


Our wings caught and we started to slowly glide forward and down, all of our momentum stolen by gravity. Abel hung between us limply, looking sullenly at Bethy as she kept pace beside us. "Can we do that again? Piggy blast!"


"Mammoths are not pigs," I called to her testily. "And how are you doing that? You're walking on clouds."


She shrugged. "Clouds are made of mist, and so am I sometimes, so I can walk on them. Duh."


"That is NOT a duh, moment," I said in exasperation as we drifted forward. "Callie tell her she's being ridiculous."


My wife nodded, calling over the surprisingly loud wind at our slow speed "He's right, they're definitely not pigs. Some kind of elephant I think. Maybe an aardvark or like an ant eater or something. Pigs don't even have trunks."


"Ok, no more of this," I groaned. "Time to dive." And we did. We pitched forward, steepening our angle, and we barreled downward, picking up velocity as we gathered momentum. I could see the city in the distance, and we aimed right at it. I felt something shatter in the air, and laughed breathlessly as the explosion of the shattered sound barrier burst out behind us. A torrent of cats with wings followed us down, Bethy somehow keeping pace.


We pulled out of the dive about three hundred feet in the air, letting our wings drag like parachutes extending behind us, spread to catch as much air as we could as we came in at a a slowly flattening angle.


I let go of Abel when we were about a hundred feet up, and he squawked in surprise, but managed to catch himself anyway. The two of us hit the ground and a casual run, and despite a bit of force on the legs, came to an easy stop in the clearing we'd chosen about a mile outside the city. Abel caught up at a jog, looking annoyed. "You guys are assholes," he spar in annoyance."


"Oh get over it," I shrugged. "It was only a hundred feet. You didn't even fall over."


Bethy appeared in midair, floating gently down on what appeared to be a parasol she'd pulled from nowhere. She landed giddily. "That was so cool. I'm sad I lost the race though."


I raised an eyebrow. "There was no race. We were just falling. Also why did you turn into cats again? I haven't seen that in a while. You usually just do bats nowadays, don't you?" It had seemed out of place even for her, so I was curious about the logic.


She gave me a baffled look. "Um, duh, to get to the ground faster. Cats fall quicker than bats, so they can land on their feet."


"That's…what?" I sputtered. "That's not how ANYTHING works."


I was almost POSITIVE she was fucking with us, but as usual her face was the picture of innocence and sincerity. I shook off the bewilderment. "Anyway, we found our first D-rank city. Now we can get the lay of the land, and hopefully find a place to stay before the others show up. I have to assume we beat the crowd with that little stunt."


Bethy nodded. "Of course, we're going to get so many points for that landing."


"No, Bethy, we aren't being graded on the fall," Callie said with a laugh. "The points were only for killing the Mammoths. But we can get some food and let the others out. It'll be easier to explore with a few hundred people than with just four. Our first job will be to find out more about this town. Name, size, that kind of thing."


"It's called Schvitz," Bethy said bluntly.


"Wait, really?" I asked suspiciously. "How do you know that?"


"Because it's on that sign over there," she said, pointing through the trees to the wooden sign plunked into the ground next to the dirt road into the city. We all froze, then looked at each other in embarrassment.


I sighed, then turned to Bethy. "Alright, well, lets start letting everyone out. I'm pretty sure it'll be less suspicious entering all at once than it would be if a few hundred people randomly showed up inside a town. Don't want to tip our hand too early that we can transport people so easy."


"Alright, just give me a bit," she chirped. Then turned and headed into the clearing to start releasing our friends out onto the surface of the planet, most of them for the first time.


I turned to my wife. "So, I think we're going to need a plan of attack for this next part. I'm not sure what we're supposed to be doing but-" I could have sworn the damned elders were WAITING for me to say things like that, because a new scroll appeared in front of us.


"Announcement: The next task begins. Part 1: the first dozen contestants to enter the city of Schvitz within the next hour will gain points. The fewer contestants who enter, the more points gained."


That brought me up short. WERE they watching? I mean, I guessed they were obviously, but were they tailoring these tasks to us individually? Or were there enough of us nearby for this to be viable. I imagined it was a bit of both. I turned to look at the others with a sigh. "I'm assuming you all got that? Well get ready, because this shit is probably going to get rough."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I grimaced as I looked through the trees. We had a split second to make the call about our strategy. First of all, did we want to go in first or last? If we waited they would fight it out among themselves and we could mop up the leftovers. Tossing out the exhausted remnants would be much easier than defending a fixed position, but at the same time, we'd also be letting them get entrenched.


Alternatively, we could blitz our way in and defend it ourselves. We had ways to make that work, and while we'd end up slapping away a lot of fresh fighters, we probably had the manpower to hold a defensive emplacement.


I posed the issue to my friends. Abel, Mel, Dom, Sable, Chelsea, Nat, Serah, Holly, Gabe, Benny, Bethy, and Jessie were all gathered around me. My core council of advisors, as it were. Which including Callie and made thirteen. That was enough for each of us to pop a scroll and still have three leftover. When I brought that up, Nat cut in.


"Use mine," she said quickly. "You can wish personally, and you're less likely to run out when you need them. This is early game, and chances are we haven't run into anyone really important yet."


I nodded solemnly. "Alright, how many do you have on hand?"


"Fifty," she beamed. "I've been saving them. Figured they'd come in handy, given you were likely to be blitzing through yours. How many do you need?"


I frowned, thinking it over. "One a piece." I decided. "Thirteen. We need to save some for the next engagement, like you said, these aren't going to be the cream of the crop, just the ones who landed locally. Do we know how many we're going to run into?"


"There are a few hundred candidates, but they all came with hundreds of their own retainers." She explained. "Some of the candidates were higher ranked, and they're at the C-rank area or higher, with their retainers being out on their own. They probably still have scrolls, mind you, but there's no candidate with them, so those groups are at a disadvantage."


We watched through the trees as shadowy forms began to emerge. I called everyone from our side close, extending Murmur over the whole group. Luckily it was a distance thing and didn't require too much extra effort with higher population.


I'd expected it to be a problem actually, but since Dantalion had to analyze and render everything within the radius it was barely a difference from analyzing rocks to people, given they were all within my range of Impact. Under the aegis of my domain, we were all completely untraceable, and the longer we remained in this spot the more undetectable we became. With no C-rankers, even my initial stealth was unbreakable here, so I wasn't worried about being noticed.


"I really wish Argaunt was here," I said in annoyance. "Actually…" I looked around. "We have a bunch of Verdyn followers here. Any archers in the crowd? Snipers work too."


A bunch of people raised their hands. "Huh, ok, I assume at least some of you can charge shots?" About half kept them up. "Perfect, and how many of you can aim well enough not to kill when you're charged up?" Abel cocked his head at me and I shrugged. "Look, some of these people are my relatives. I'm not going to hesitate if I'm in a life or death battle, but firing from perfect stealth with elite archers we have the luxury of shooting to wound.


I grinned at him. "Besides, you leave bodies behind, but wounded need to be cared for and moved. Worst case they burn scrolls bringing them back up to fighting fit and we avoid dealing with them in the future, best case they don't and they're temporarily forced to retreat to do triage."


"Kill them with kindness," Callie beamed. "That's my boy. Just like we learned back in the army. Military forces function on logistics, and none of them ever have enough healers."


I glanced at Bethy. "Once suppressive fire starts, I want you and the cats out there causing chaos. Pop out and shred them then retreat. Don't stay in one place for too long, don't get pinned down, and don't let them SEE you unless entirely necessary. I want them paranoid and freaking out.


"Jessie, Daysia, Celine, Alyssa I need a network of vines spread across the forest ahead of us. I'll cover them as far as I can with Murmur, once you're clear of that, move slow and let the archers and Bethy's strike force act as cover." I gestured towards the adjacent clearing where everyone was starting to gather, or at least to take sides. "Once they're off balance, I'm going to spread Belial through the vines and use the corruption to take control of as many of them as possible. If this goes well, we can minimize scroll conflict by forcing them to burn their stock on their own people."


Jessie grimaced. "I can TRY. I'm not great with Vines anymore. My abilities are so synonymous with beasts and healing people that my plant control has kind of fallen to the wayside."


"I've got us," Celine said kindly, putting a hand on our friend's shoulder. "My forestcraft is pretty much perfect for this, and we have two ACTUAL dryad tree singers here to help. We couldn't DESIGN a better team for this."


Alyssa beamed at her girlfriend. "She's right, Jess. This is what tree singing is best at. We're not moving the trees themselves, so we don't need any dancers. Just growing some vines is well within our wheelhouse. We'll handle the motion, you just give us all a heaping helping of supercharged life fire."


"Archie," I called to my companion. He'd been perched on a tree branch at the edge of my Murmur domain, but at the sound of my voice he trilled and then swept down to land on Jessie's arm, giving me a firm nod. "Thanks bud, knew I could count on you."


Archie had learned from me how to snipe and bicker. I was pretty sure he picked up a lot more through our bond than I did, and even more than I was even aware of. He was just a baby, and he'd picked up so much of what he knew by osmosis it seemed like. I'd have to watch out for that in the future. But I was proud of how he was handling himself now. He knew when things were serious and what to do when that time came.


I focused on Bethy. "I'm going to set you up with a shield. Any preferences?"


She frowned. "I don't need one, but I mean, I guess just make it a pretty color? I don't want you to ruin my outfit with some dumb olive drab force field."


"First of all," I said in disbelief. "WHEN have you seen an "olive drab" forcefield? Second of all, this a STEALTH mission, so I will obviously be making it transparent. If I made it colors that would defeat the entire purpose of you BEING in stealth."


She gave me a scathing look. "That's dumb. It's MOST important to look good in stealth. Because then you get to feel smug that they can't even see the kickass outfit you have on. It's way better than being invisible in ugly clothes. That's not being sneaky, it's just being embarrassed and having to hide."


"I…" I trailed off. "I don't know how to respond to that. I fell like it's wrong, but I can't figure out WHY." I looked at Callie worriedly. "Why is Bethy making sense to me? What have I become?"


She patted me on the shoulder consolingly. "Just focus on the battle, honey. Some things we mere mortals weren't meant to know. Bethy's logic is strange and insidious." Her face went pale. "We can never let Crell teach her the doubt Skill. No one would ever be able to stop her."


I physically shuddered at the mental image, and turned to see Bethy pouting at us. "You guys are so mean. I expect that from Abromawitz, but not from you."


Abel threw his hands in the air. "What do I have to do with this? And how did I know you were talking about me? I'm answering to any A name you say now. And they're getting more and more ridiculous."


Bethy squinted at him. "You didn't say anything, Alfalfa, but you were thinking it."


He turned and stalked away, muttering curses under his breath. I just laughed and turned to the others. "Alright, everyone in position. We need to wait for the fighting to kick off. We're fishing in muddied waters here, and the more chaos they cause on their own the easier it'll be to confuse them."


Just because they couldn't see our archers didn't mean they couldn't figure out where we were by tracking the shots. But if we fired into a melee and picked our positions, we could mix the arrows into the gestalt. They would fall apart searching, leaving Bethy her opening, and leaving the ground clear for the girls to expand the vines I'd need for Belial.


I waved to the archers, twelve of them total, and dispatched them to the edge of my Murmur domain to begin charging their shots.


We watched, we waited, and we observed. The enemy was divided into about fifteen groups. Their clearing was the one right outside of Schvitz, they were arguing, several people having arrived late and joined in. I saw one form I recognized. He was smaller now, but it was definitely the same giant who had crushed those Mammoths in a fit of rage. I stepped up next to one of my archers, a slight girl named Whisper, and nodded to him. "You're the strongest, right? Burst damage?"


"Yes sir," she acknowledged. She was blonde and blue eyes, with elfin features that made her look like someone's kid sister, but those blue orbs were icy and flat. It was like she'd swapped them with the eyes of a bird of prey. "You want me to target the metal one?"


I nodded. "Soft tissue, if you can. I want real damage. He's tough enough to survive a little maiming, and I don't want to take chances."


From what I'd seen, that one was strong. Bethy could handle him, but it was my job to make sure she didn't have to. Even vampires weren't invincible, if she got pinned down among that many enemies she could get hurt. I confirmed with Whisper and headed back over to where Bethy was waiting. I withdrew some of the scrolls that Nat gave me, and I started making wishes.


First thing I did was describe my ideal shield. Size, properties, functions. I designed the perfect defensive structure, with all the bells and whistles. Then I dialed back the durability until it was within Nats limits, and then I adjust it a bit lower and made it modular. Then I wished for the same shield again, and again, and I layered them on top of each other. Five times. I paid with D-ranked chits, and by the time it was done, Bethy was under a five layer translucent bell shape.


Once she was taken care of. I returned to the adge of the clearing where the girls were waiting, ready to do tree stuff. I looked out at the clearing full of enemies, seeing them finally snap and charge across the space. I smiled. "NOW!"


A dozen arrows exploded from a dozen bows, tearing through the air to smash into ten different targets. Two of them missed, no fault of their own, the targets had been swatted aside by their opponents, but ten out of twelve wasn't bad.


As they went down, Callie flicked her wrist and a portal of shadow opened on the ground, Bethy dove inside, her cats on her tail, and vanished into the dark. I triggered Belial and pressed my staff to the vines, beginning the spread of corruption. It was almost time for my part, and then they would see what we could really do.

 

[Xyl]

It's unfortunate. I saw this promising story, read 3 chapters then there is a big hole, and it's now a useless post.
I guess it's now a proof of concept.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It's unfortunate. I saw this promising story, read 3 chapters then there is a big hole, and it's now a useless post.
I guess it's now a proof of concept.

Click to shrink...

There's a note on the last of the early chapters, the first eight books were published to amazon, and they don't allow books to exist on other sites. You can read those on kindle unlimited.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Belial was my very first form. It had changed, of course. Evolved. But it was my root. My origin. And I was most familiar with it out of any of my forms. Channeling it through my staff, I was able to push that even further, elevating the form itself to a C-rank ability for a short time, and my control of it reached a supreme state of pinpoint accuracy, especially when I let Dantalion unfold through the vines alongside it.


As they wove and twisted through the still growing vines, I was able to perceive more of the battlefield, to see more of what I was doing, and what I saw gave me a clear grasp on some very important information.


Firstly, my archers were a fucking menace. Especially from perfect cover. Whisper's arrow had blown a chunk out of the titan's thigh, and none of the other arrows that had hit had done any less. Feet blown off, kneecaps severed, one guy had a hole the size of a grapefruit through his shoulder, and it appeared to have VAPORIZED the ball and socket joint at the top of his arm. That one made me wince.


By the time Belial reached them through the vines, everything was in chaos. No one noticed the slight tinge of green and black creeping up through their shoes, and I waited and watched as Bethy tore into them from seemingly a dozen angles at once, appearing and disappearing alongside Donuts and Poptarts.


The cats were holding their own much better than expected. The Night Pride were born in darkness, and had a natural power similar to Callie's. They were ALSO thralls. Bethy fed on her pets as an emergency food source, and I knew that becoming a thrall had certain benefits to the recipient.


Because of the combination, the cats were putting on almost as good a show as their mistress, and it was more than enough for the distraction I needed to complete the corruption of one of the enemy, a completely unassuming man with bottle green hair and bronze skin holding a strange combination sword and shield the size of a door. As soon as I assumed control, he became my weapon, and another fulcrum for me to bring my power to bear against the battlefield.


His giant sword spread the corruption even faster, and I was able to easily direct him into a series of spinning slashes that carried the huge weapon through large crowds of enemies, speeding up the corruption of multiple enemy warriors.


Within about two minutes, I'd corrupted fifteen or twenty more people, and was using them to surgically dismantle any attempt being made to establish order. "Abel, Mel, Dom, Sable, Dastan, Gabe, Serah, and Holly." I called sharply. "You're up, Callie is going to mark your targets. I'm stopping them from putting together a proper resistance, but some of them are building small groups I can't crack. Shatter them."


My mentor cackled with delight. "FINALLY!" he crowed as he strode forward, his body shimmering as he became a living blood warrior. He was quickly surpassed by Dastan as the werewolf transformed and loped forward into battle with a joyful howl.


The battlefield was in complete disarray. My controlled fighters were tearing into any alliances they could get to, and with random fighters turning on friends for seemingly no reason, cohesion was shot. When Abel hit the first group, they barely noticed he was coming until a train sized fist bulldozed them all.


Dastan fell upon the copper titan, fangs gleaming and jaws slavering as he tore into the metallic flesh with savage glee. The titan tried to grow, but as soon as his size started to shift, Bethy appeared like a ghost from behind him, her teeth flashing as she bit into his neck. His strength drained away, accompanied by the soul crushing agony of being fed on without being a thrall, screaming as his stats were siphoned away.


Leaving him to the vampire, Dastan bounded off the giant man (who was about ten feet tall at this point) and landed on a nearby minotaur, bearing him to the ground with reckless abandon.


Randall appeared, the D-rank bear glowing with the powerful enhancement of his mistress, smashing through a huge group of mid level flunkies to get to what appeared to be an actual rhinoceros someone had pulled from SOMEWHERE.


Then things changed. There was a buzz in the air, the world started to shift, and dark clouds gathered above us. I recognized what was happening, and pulled out a few scrolls. One after another, I wished, grinding away at the gathering power of the wish above us. Because thats what it was. A wish. I could see the flickers of purple lightning playing across the clouds. That wasn't a scroll. There was a candidate granting a combat wish right here.


I searched through the vines. Wishes varied in difficulty and time based on how powerful the candidate was, how powerful the wish was, and what the person actually asked for. This one was probably something really complicated that only targeted enemies and needed time to ramp up, and the scrolls were dragging it out.


I couldn't stop the wish. If it had been paid for it was coming, but I COULD take down the candidate who was granting it before they got another one off. Above me, the clouds rumbled ominously. I'd just dropped five D-rank chits on five wishes to nullify that attack, and they were struggling. The candidate in question was clearly much stronger than Nat. Finally, I found him. A short young looking guy with floppy brown hair and mismatched eyes. I could see purple light glowing in his eyes, and I knew this was the right one.


Focusing on the nearest corrupted, I turned his attention to the candidate, and I urged him into a lunging attack with his long spear. Before he could arrive, an armored woman with a severe ponytail appeared from behind the candidate, a short sword batting the spear aside before she blurred forward to try to slit his throat.


My control wavered for a moment as he became terrified for his life, which I hadn't realized was a thing, and he jerked free to hurl himself aside and avoid having his carotid artery opened by the severe looking girl.


She was younger than I'd thought, closer to my age, but then again, age was impossible to measure accurately for Ascendants, so maybe she was a thousand. Either way, she was dangerous, and her eyes were tracking everything nearby. "Dravus, what the fuck is wrong with you?" she spat in disgust. "How could you attack Hadrian?"


My former corrupted coughed, staggering to his feet with a look of terror. "I…I don't know Dara. I couldn't control my body. It was like someone was moving me, but I didn't even realize it was happening until I'd already attacked. You almost killed me!"


She sneered. "Don't be insipid. Bleeding out wouldn't be enough to end you. Not that I'd have shed a tear for the death of a traitor. Help me find what's going on. If someone is controlling people we need to figure out who. Something is wrong with this battle. At least they took Kordax out of the fight. That giant metal bastard is a nightmare to defend against."


Well, I had a name for the copper titan now, I was pretty sure. I scowled. This woman was really competent, and getting by her would be a mess, which meant getting rid of the candidate was going to be tough.


Then I smiled. I didn't need to fight him. I had the vines stretching out to under his feet. I reached through them, and with a slight effort of will, triggered Pit of Despair.


Dara spun in horror at the strangled scream from her boss, shocked to see him falling through a pool of super fine dust and INTO the ground. I smirked, withdrawing the power, and the ground returned to stone. He'd get out of there soon enough, but it would be a good distraction. I turned to Callie. "We're heading in. It's time to hit the town, we need to be one of those winners. Tell everyone else to keep up the good work, but turn this into a moving battle. Stay within Murmur."


I started us forward, but I used one of the corrupted to pass a message to Bethy, who I asked to pass it on to the others so they would know to open us a path.


Sure enough, within seconds, a bloody fist smashed through the chaotic lines, opening up a passage, and the space warped slightly as Abel did his thing, lubricating the space between use and the gate.


I grinned, stepping forward, and we entered the altered space, shooting through the battle at high speeds, so fast that I almost dropped Murmur. The vines disconnected, sadly, once I was too far away to use them, and our plant team was unable to reconnect because of the move, but that didn't matter. Gabe had joined us for the approach, and I was thrilled to see his lance come out as we emerged from the spatial tunnel, smashing into the gate with all of his Adamant power.


There was a thunderous BOOM as we struck the gate, and I sighed, dropping Murmur. Between the destruction of the entryway and the noise, I hadn't been able to cover that. No reason to waste the power, because they were all going to know what was up now.


Luckily I'd given the order to retreat after we made it in, so my forces outside were already headed back. To cover them, I had the archers start up a volley, then turned to my other D-rankers. "Anyone with a shield or main defensive Skill, front and center!" I pulled out some more scrolls. I had used ten so far, and I triggered three more for a clever bit of wishcrafting.


First up, I wish for every one of the defensive warriors to be connected, specifically to focus all of their accrued damage on the largest and most durable of them, a man wearing C-rank armor a lot like mine. Then I wished for HIS incoming damage to be shared across all of them as a group. Then I wished for a fifty percent reduction in any damage applied to him for the rest of the battle.


Three more D-ranked chits gone (I was running low at twenty nine) and the scrolls triggered. Just as I'd planned, any incoming damage to anyone in the group was redirected to the big guy, halved, and then applied evenly across the entire force. Each person was only taking a fraction of the damage from attacks, which they were easily able to deal with. Abel and the others made it back seconds later, and I triggered Behemoth, erecting a series of fortifications to help our people hold the area.


We weren't the only ones inside, some opportunists had slipped inside ahead of us, ignoring the battle, but they weren't worried about us, given there was a horde of other candidates and retainers incoming.


There was a chime of a bell, and a series of golden gates slammed down outside the perimeter. I turned to look and found another candidate standing on the wall, her red hair in a long braid and her green eyes severe. She saw me looking and nodded casually, before turning and heading back into the city.


The gates held. I wasn't sure how strong she was, but I was guessing she was pretty Might focused, given the physical power of those gates.


Sighing, I turned to my wife. "Alright, let's go find somewhere to sleep. This is going to last a while. Nat can supply the others with scrolls if needed, but I think the main thrust of the battle is done with." I put and arm over her shoulder and we headed into Schvitz. My first battle of the succession war was over. I had a feeling this was nothing compared to what was coming.

 

[Lone-sith]

I love his progress, he's a fucking beast now