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

[Malcolm Tent]

The rest of the trials were in a similar vein. Puzzles, riddles, math, at one point a personality quiz that assigned us a color based on our food preferences, at which point we were forced to play a game of ten person chess against three constructs in order to pass the round. It was harder than it sounded.

Finally though, we came to the final room. We KNEW it was the final room because there was a big sign over the head of the person waiting there that said 'welcome to the final room'. Sometimes it was nice when people were direct.

The woman waiting for us was…strange. She had wide, unblinking eyes behind large round glasses, a light dusting of freckles, and wild curly hair that looked like hammered bronze more than any natural color. Her eyes were a mirrored brass color, and they shimmered with hopeful enthusiasm.

She was possibly a little TOO enthusiastic, actually, sitting at a table with a large cake and a pointed hat, multicolored decorations and paper plates surrounding her. "Congratulations!" she cheered. "You passed the test! Please, sit and have some cake!" I blinked at her in confusion, thanked her politely, and then moved to walk around her. "No, wait please!"

I paused. "Oh, sorry, was there another test?"

She slumped slightly. "No," she said desolately. "I just…don't get guests very often. There are quite a few of these testing paths, and mine isn't chosen even when we DO get trial participants. Plus when they DO come this way, they usually die. That Sphinx is an asshole. It's eaten the last eighteen people who attempted my trial path."

"Really?" I asked with a bit of surprise. "I mean, the riddles were kind of novel, but not 'kill eighteen people' novel. Nobody got them?"

She rolled her eyes. "They were easier this time. It's under review after what it did to the last party. Some of the riddles it used were weirdly ambiguous, and Elodie was suspicious it wasn't playing fair."

I frowned. That Sphinx had been pretty strong, but I was almost positive we could have taken it. I wondered if that had been part of the reason it had apparently gone easy on me. I was also pretty pissed hearing that. Those riddles had been pretty tough and I was proud of myself for figuring them out.

Looking at the sad girl in the party hat, I sighed and took a seat at the table. The others all sat down, and the girl cheered happily and started cutting slices of cake for us. "So, who exactly are you?" I asked. "Not to be too abrupt or anything."

"I'm Shayla," she said proudly. "And I'm four hundred and seventy third daughter of Deveskane!"

"Wow…" I said slowly. "That's…so many kids. You have almost five hundred siblings? And I thought my family was complicated. Not to be indelicate, but do you all have the same mother or…"

She giggled. "Not like that, silly. I'm a spirit of knowledge. My father manifested a new child every time he had a grand idea. There were eight hundred and sixty four of us total, so I'm an older sister. I am the spirit of destinium, created when my father discovered the recipe for his most prized alloy."

I blinked in fascination. "That's really cool. So were you part of his Domain? How old are you? How does your growth work?"

Something about the way she'd been born reminded me of my own Domain. I hadn't really heard of any entity manifesting creatures through the power of their Domain the same way I did, and even if he'd been a god and didn't exactly count in some ways, hearing more about someone who had taken a similar path could only be helpful.

She blushed. "I'm…not very old. It takes a long time for an idea to gestate into a living being. My brothers and sisters and I hatched from our memory crystals after our father had already passed away. I only know as much as I do because of Elodie. We were part of an experiment father performed in an attempt to use his sealing powers to store important memories to pass them on to his disciples. Sadly, the crystals were unable to transfer the memories directly, but Elodie says we were a happy accident and an even better result."

I was fascinated. The world of Ascendants was so wide and complex, so many of us had unique or unusual powers I'd never even considered before. Deveskane hadn't taken my path, but being able to create almost a thousand beings was impressive.

Azazel seemed just as interested. "I imagine so," he said eagerly. "I myself am a created entity." He jerked his head at me. "This is my king, though we don't profess any family connection, it was he who was responsible for my manifestation, as well the seventy one other demons in our court of Gehenna."

Shayla's eyes widened. "You're a progenitor?" she gasped. "At C-rank? That's fascinating. I've never heard of anyone creating life on a large scale that early before. Even many of the gods never reach progenitor status these days."

"There's a term for it?" I asked with interest. "My ancestor hadn't really heard of it before." I paused. Had he said that? I couldn't remember. Maybe he hadn't addressed it at all. He'd said Gehenna was unique, but that didn't mean he'd never seen anything SIMILAR, just that he'd never seen anything the SAME."

She nodded excitedly. "Elodie told us that father always dreamed of being a progenitor. Apparently it involves the secret of ascension to Overgod."

I froze, my heart almost stopping in my chest. "I'm sorry…to WHAT now?"

"Overgod," she chirped. "That's the rank after god, of course. There hasn't been an Overgod in this universe in quite some time, sadly, but father dreamed of being the first. Sadly he was destroyed before he could manage." I tried to pry a bit more into the details, but Shayla didn't seem to know any more than that. It was a shame but understandable given the subject matter.

There was a rank AFTER god? I mean, I had kind of assumed, given the desire the vanished gods had to Ascend the universe, but I hadn't heard of anyone MENTIONING it. How old was Deveskane? I knew gods didn't age, but I'd assumed he was maybe a peer of Suvaya or something. Knowing he'd been alive less than twenty thousand years ago, I'd assumed he'd been destroyed by the six like she had.

Except I'd forgotten something. This was the Void. The six had cleansed realspace of other gods in order to prevent the Ascension of the universe, but the old man made it clear that only had an effect when the god's world was connected to realspace. Hanging Lands, fragments, the hidden worlds of the vanished gods, it was clear there were a lot of ways to maintain a world in the Void without making that connection.

Deveskane could have been a god in hiding in the Void. Maybe from a time as far back as Atlas himself. The fact that Atlas's realm had ended up here showed that the Chaos Chasm was a place where various powerful fragments could end up. Hell, it was possible Deveskane had been hiding IN the Chasm. If anywhere was safe from the six and the Void Children it was here.

Which begged the question, what had killed him? Was it just a random Ascendant who had taken advantage of the suppression, or was there something really dangerous in here with us that we hadn't even thought to consider. Or maybe I was being paranoid again. I did have a tendency to do that, as earned as it might be to think that way. I decided to put it out of my mind for the moment and focus on the task at hand.

Still, even after refocusing my mind was racing, and I barely tasted the cake as I wolfed it down. I had so much new information to process. Shayla chattered away as we ate, talking to Azazel raptly, and I could tell my first minister was really enjoying the conversation, but sadly we didn't have time to chat about casual things, we had a job to do, and I had information to pass back to my family.

Before we left, Azazel passed the girl a small pad and paper. "This is a thaumaturgic tablet. The study of fate has a strong connection with linkage and connection. Basically, writing on one side of this tablet changes the destiny of the other side, which creates a corresponding text. I should function across any distance and even between realspace and the Void. After all, destiny is ever present. This way, we can keep in touch and you won't be quite so bored." He smiled at her in a way I recognized from my own face when talking to Callie, and I tried not to snicker as she lit up and snatched the paper away. Then she thanked him and gave him a hug, and we set off through the large door behind her, into the treasury of the Hermetic Hall.

Shayla, aside from waiting to have cake with us because she was absurdly lonely, had also been our guide of sorts. She'd told us exactly where to go and which item to take from the treasury. She had been EXTREMELY specific about what to do, informing is that if we tried to take something that wasn't ours, we would die horribly.

The treasury was so strict that even she couldn't enter. Only people who had successfully won the trials, and only to collect the single object that they had earned. Any deviation would mean destruction.

Upon entry, I was surprised how low key the treasury was. Based on the design and location I'd expected a huge hall with like…golden chests floating on clouds or something. But in reality, it was a small dark room with white stone pedestals on the floor. The stone was carved with faint reliefs of great battles and heroic rescues, but you had to get close to see them. The only reason they were visible at all was the bright pools of light shining down from above, casting shadows along the faint edges.

We followed Shayla's directions, turn left, down ten, turn right, up seven. We came to a stop in front of one of the pedestals, upon which lay an open wooden box with a velvet cushion inside. On top of the cushion lay a short wooden handle, nine black leather straps connected to the end, braided with the same black glass I'd seen on the Lady's throne.

I looked around to double check I was still ok, then stepped forward and reached into the light. I paused incrementally as I entered the illumination, worried something would happen, but it didn't. I withdrew the item slowly, gripping the handle tightly as I felt the energy pass out of it and into me. Along with the energy, I felt a surge of information. Tale of Nine Cats, a powerful beast taming relic. When used…

I groaned. Apparently strikes with the Tale would injure the wielder, transferring the understanding caused by that pain to the struck beast in order to form a bond. The more powerful the beast, the more lashes required. Of COURSE the Lady would invent a whip that tortured you to allow you to make friends.

Still, it WAS a powerful object. While you might theoretically need a whole bunch of strikes to tame something above your rank, you COULD still do it. If I was willing to endure the torture I could tame an S-rank dragon. It would require SO much pain, but it was possible.

Snickering, I tucked the whip into my belt, planning to drop it into Gehenna once we were outside, then turned to the others. "Alright, mission accomplished, now we're headed further into the interior. This is where the hard part begins."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Leaving the Hermetic Hall was an interesting experience. I could feel the eyes of Elodie on me. I hadn't felt anything on the way in, but now that I knew what to look for, it was clear as day. I glanced back, not having any eyes to meet but feeling something as I stared into the sky, then continued on.

The Hermetic Hall had been functioning in the Chasm for millennia, and I was pretty sure, based on what Shayla had told us, that it was MUCH better defended than it looked. I'd thought them collecting god artifacts was some kind of holy mission at first, and that might be true, but I was pretty sure it was something else, too. Bait. Under the suppression of the chasm, no one above A-rank could exert power this deep into the ring continent. Given the sheer numbers and Elodie's power, the Hermetic Hall was basically unassailable.

I wondered how many people had attacked the hall hoping to steal god artifacts. How many forces had gathered and smashed themselves on the rocks of Deveskane's fortress unknowingly. I had a feeling the number wasn't small. I doubted there were many factions capable of challenging the hall at all, though I also doubted any groups that had been around very long were willing to try it at this point.

Fishing it the blaze of heretic fire that I'd been given at the temple, I set our heading, then settled in to check on my friends. Chloe, Brad, and Dayna were all out with me on the road, and I was concerned I'd been ignoring them all in favor of the mission. This was a stressful place to be, and I wanted to touch base at least.

Brad and Chloe were, unsurprisingly, fine, but Dayna was acting odd. I fell back to walk beside her, curious what was going on. "You alright?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "This entire trip is…complicated. First I thought I was betraying Verdyn by working with you, and I made peace with that, then I found out I WASN'T betraying him, and I kind of made peace with that. But after a certain point, the back and forth kind of underlines an issue I'd been avoiding thinking about."

"Your freedom," I nodded. "But you work for Bethy, right?"

"I do," sighed the elf. "And I can never repay her for her kindness. But the thing is, she doesn't WANT me to repay her. She just wants me to LIVE. And that's the one thing I'm not entirely sure I know how to do. It was easy to write that off when I was just your tour guide, but returning to the Lodge, taking a stance, talking to Mama. It makes me wonder if I can't have more. Be more. And then I feel disloyal for thinking that and then I feel disloyal for feeling disloyal because I know Lady Bethany WANTS that for me and then I feel disloyal for THAT because part of me still feels like a supplicant to Lord Verdyn."

Whistling, I shook my head. "That sounds like a lot. Trying to be one thing while feeling like you should be trying to be something else. Maybe you should just…stop trying? Just be. See where it takes you."

She seemed thoughtful, which I thought was a good sign, but I wasn't able to follow up because I suddenly felt a MASSIVE surge of fearful warning. I froze in place, my eyes darting around as I scanned the area. Danger Sense was going INSANE. Ever since Gehenna, my Danger Sense, as an actual living being, had been able to filter out the minor annoyances more than it previously had, and I only really got hit with blasts of actual Danger.

This was more than that thought. Something terrible was here. I glanced around, searching for any possible danger and finding nothing. Waving a hand, I pulled the others into my Domain, then incarnated Sammael, Mephisto's Waltz, and Azazel, wincing at the extra strain. Three incarnations was a LOT, even if I only planned on it being momentary.

Without hesitation, I beat my wings, vanishing in a blaze as I flashed forward through space…and the area I'd just been standing was consumed in a rain of cutting energy.

Flapping again, I pushed myself further away even as I glanced back to see…"Oh come on!" I bellowed in outrage. "How is it YOU again?" I vanished again in another burst of fire, snarling in fury as I took in the implacable form of CLARENT, the swordmaster from the shallowing where we'd gotten the damned arrowhead.

Unfortunately, rather than answer he just tried to cut me in half again, forcing me to dodge. I cursed. He was strong, I'd forgotten HOW strong. I could tank those cuts with Mornax, but that would leave me a sitting duck, and I wasn't confident in my ability to resist long term.

I was in shock. Clarent had plummeted into the void a few weeks ago, and I hadn't expected to see him again anytime soon. How had he gotten here? How had he found his way out of the far reaches of the Void at all? I'd been led to believe it would take him ages to get back. And I couldn't recreate what we'd done last time and even harder to beat him any other way. Brad had done away with him easily out on the Void Roads, but without access to those circumstances, it was going to be tough to beat him in a straight fight.

Luckily, I had another option. We'd been making our way inward, heading deeper towards the vortex, and the deeper we got the more the suppression affected us. All of us. I was a C-ranker, which meant at our current depth, where A-rankers were barely functional, only a B-ranker could threaten me. Clarent, of course, WAS a B-ranker, and rather than risk my life and my Domain fighting him head on, I was determined to lose him and make my way deep enough into the ring continent that no one above my own rank would be able to exert power.

At the same level, I wasn't afraid of anyone, so I doubled down, flapping my wings like crazy and letting Azazel guide me, pulling me toward specific spots in the sky as I flashed forward at my fastest pace, flickering back and forth in bursts of dark fire.

I made a note to consider Mephisto's Waltz as my second template. Sure, it was technically just a specific application of Mephistopheles destructive fire, but Life Nova was a subskill too. More mobility couldn't hurt at least. I was so wrapped up in the thought that I almost missed a dodge, and I cursed in pain as a sword slash tore a hole in one of my wings. As soon as it did, I went into a spin, my flight interrupted as I spiraled down towards the ground.

Another flash of Black Flame had me on the ground, and I folded my wings as I started to run, spamming the waltz every step as I bolted deeper into the continent. I could feel the suppression increase, and I was pretty sure we'd entered B-rank limit territory, but that wasn't enough to help. Azazel was whispering in my ear, guiding me along, and I cursed and followed his path until I came to a massive cliff. I stopped at the edge, looking down. "Are you fucking high?" I demanded of my first minister, despite him being inside my head right now. "I can't even see the bottom of that thing!"

The canyon in front of me was DEEP. So deep. Deep enough that all I saw at the bottom was blackness. Looking closer, I could catch a slight strip of shining light, but I had no idea what it was. I didn't have time to wonder though, because I got an intense warning from my Danger Sense. Cursing, I dove forward, turning in mid-air as I plummeted into the canyon to watch Clarent stop at the edge and stare after me. I watched him for a moment or two, then turned and aimed into the canyon, putting my hands out like a diver to increase my speed.

I felt another warning and waltzed again to avoid a slash, but before long, I'd gone so deep I was sure he couldn't see me. The darkness around me as I fell got deeper and heavier in a way that couldn't be natural.

Below me, in the distance, I started to catch sight of a thin strip of glowing light. It looked like a hair almost. But as I fell, it got bigger, and closer, and wider. And I realized that it wasn't a hair. It wasn't even thin. It was a HUGE glowing river. Some kind of massive waterway formed of what looked like liquid moonlight. As I fell, it got closer and closer, and I realized that it had looked small because it was SO far away. In reality, it was less of a river and more of a big strip of sea.

Grimacing, I turned my attention to one side, triggering the waltz again, and tried to spread my wings to steer. The big hole in one of them made it tough, but between the two movement techniques I managed to reach the wall of the cliff below where I'd jumped. I clung to the almost sheer black rock face, squinting down at the water below suspiciously.

I felt something from it. Something dangerous. Almost like heat, except it wasn't physical. I had a strong suspicion I didn't want to fall into that stuff. I was also half expecting Clarent to follow me down, he didn't seem like the type to give up easy. I was watching so closely, getting so lost in the whirl of the moonlight water, I almost missed the shadow. Almost. I managed to trigger the waltz and move aside at the last second as a colossal B-rank dolphin erupted from the river, razor sharp muzzle slashing open the cliff where I'd been hanging seconds before.

Staring at the cliff, I barely managed to pick up traces of vibration. Glancing up, I couldn't see through the darkness, but a brief flash of Dantalion let me get a vague impression of what was happening on the wall. Blades. Clarent was using swords to scale the wall, stabbing his way down. And I was in an even worse position now than I had been up there. If he reached me I'd be a sitting duck, and I didn't think Gehenna would do much good down here.

I stared at the wall where the slash sat. That was a nasty cut. Very nasty. These were sturdy cliffs. I reached down into my belt and withdrew the Tale of Nine Cats. I gritted my teeth, watched the water, and waited.

A shadow loomed, then exploded out, and I dodged, whipping my arm back to bring the lash down. I grit my teeth as the pain scored my back, and I felt a vague connection form. But not enough. Rinse. Repeat. Dodge and lash. It hurt. It hurt SO much. But I kept going. I heard the clang of the swords in the cliff getting closer, but I ignored it. Dodge and lash.

Finally, the connection solidified. The dolphin poked its head from the water, eyeing me suspiciously. I held out a hand and it rose closer, then, after it confirmed I wasn't going to try to attack it again it offered me its nose. I climbed out onto it, getting down to wrap my arms around it, and then released the hold on Sammael, Azazel, and the waltz. I focused entirely on Mornax, and on Leviathan to be safe, and then called them both.

The last thing I saw as the dolphin turned and dove into the water, carrying me away, was Clarent dropping the last few hundred feet toward me, eyes hard, sword drawn. Then the massive river sea swept me and my new companion away, and all I could see was blinding moonlight.

 

[Tiny_Dragon]

Here is my late reaction to learning about Overgod. "Muhuhahahaha! The path to ascension will never end! All hail the Holy Grind!"

Clarent is giving me T-1000 vibes