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

[Malcolm Tent]

The meeting was WAY too long. I nodded off several times, though Callie was listening intently if I needed to know what was said, and I could just check with her. Finally, it ended, and I was allowed to leave. Callie talked to a bunch of people, though she didn't actually SAY much despite chatting for quite a while.


This was a political arena, and while I was slowly improving my mindset and knowledge base in that department, I was still dipping my toes, and wasn't suited for this kind of horse trading.


Not that we had any horses. We were riding around on broomsticks and clacking rocks together to make hoof noises at this point. Nobody wanted to be associated with the potential future tyrant, and while everyone smiled and put on a pleasant face, they mostly stonwalled any discussions of alliance, much to my wife's frustration.


At the very least, they served dinner halfway through, and Callie woke me up to eat some lobster thermidor before we finally headed to the rooms they provided us to wait in before the war started.


It wasn't a long wait. Everyone was already here, so after a good night's sleep, we all gathered in some kind of exit chamber where Harrison was waiting. I was relieved, because it gave me the night to sleep and stockpile a few more scrolls bringing me up to fifteen total (eight plus the seven I had on hand for emergencies).


My dad waited until we were all gathered, then withdrew a long, dark lighter with a bone plate at the top. He flicked it and the flame…well, it didn't LIGHT exactly, more like it UNLIT. The flame created an absence in the air. Not darkness, or void, but just…emptiness. It kind of hurt to look at. But it seemed to steal the sound from our voices after they reached the people nearby. It was kind of impressive.


"Alright, advice time," he said blithely. "Listen up and listen good kids. This might save your life. First up. Passive defense. If you can, you should all use a scroll daily to isolate yourself from direct influence. There are a LOT of nasty things you can do with a wish. Curses, blights, hexes, maledictions, and about a dozen other very unpleasant experiences that you don't want to endure."


I nodded. That wasn't ideal, I had way too many people, but the core group should be coverable, especially with Nat along. Our original alliance from back in the day left room for her to help me now, and she'd shown up, Valk at her side, without even mentioning it. Celine was with them, and all three were clearly pretty firmly into D-rank.


"What about actual combat?" I asked grimly. "We've seen what that kind of thing can do. I know you said that people will be worried about cancellation and wont want to risk losing their scrolls, but I feel like we should at least consider it."


"You shouldn't," he said. "I know it's tempting, but the fact is, the wish power is TOO versatile. You can't plan for everything, and trying is going to spread you far too thin. You're going to have to keep it loose and be ready to react on the fly. Reserves can save your ass, so keeping an emergency stash in case something goes horribly wrong isn't a bad idea, but don't tie yourself in knots."


Zeke spoke up. "Your best bet, by and large, is to meet strength with strength. You know as well as we do that wishes have limited impact on higher ranked Ascendants. They can help pin them down, slow them up, or give you a minor edge, but generally, wishes lack the punch to seriously overcome a direct challenge from an overwhelming force of a higher stage."


"Crell will be invaluable too," my mom added. "Reductive meta abilities are an nightmare for the wish power. Wishes always work, but if he can counter them slightly, it'll drive the price WAY up. If you're proactive enough about it, you can push the prices up beyond the realm of reason and soft cancel some of their responses. Also, it goes without saying, but don't try to use any scrolls you find during the war."


My dad nodded emphatically. "They can and will decline wishes, and it'll screw you mid fight. Not to say they aren't useful. Keep them in stock and you can sell or trade them for favors later. Most candidates will grant a remote wish with proper payment, even if they don't know where it comes from. Profit is profit. They just won't do it during the competition."


"Why are you guys talking like we're going to get separated?" I asked worriedly. "You're coming with us, right?"


They grimaced at each other. "No," my mom said with a grimace. "There are precautions in place to prevent the higher ranked candidates from steamrolling. One of them is that the more powerful faction members are given postings to wait for their candidates. You'll be dropped into a zone commensurate with your rank, and you'll be given a task to recruit a local force to guide you to the city where your C-rankers will be waiting, then another task to find the B-rankers, and then finally us."


"The higher ranked candidates will be with you?" I asked worriedly. "Isn't that an advantage?"


"It is," she admitted. "Though not as big of one as you might expect. It takes time and effort to cultivate sources here, but the high ranked locals have a lot of animosity towards the WCP, and the high rankers are considered low profit investments. They rarely win, because it's a waste to invest the renown in them, and they're less grateful if they do. Less time in charge, less likely to take you with them when they leave. It's an uphill battle for them."


That made me feel a bit better at least. Being younger and weaker might actually be a benefit to me here, at least in some ways.


"So how do we enter?" I asked slowly. "They're not going to have us all go in together, are they? That sounds like a bloodbath waiting to happen. Although, given the D-rankers we have, that might not go too poorly for us."


Ironically, because of the effort we put into finding them we had almost as many C as D-rankers. We were at two hundred and fifty or so D-rankers total for the final drop team. Bethy had them all waiting inside her Domain, so our group looked a lot smaller and less threatening than any of the others, and I was actually looking forward to some idiot trying to take advantage.


"Nothing so gauche," my mother said with a snicker. "They're going to load you all into orbital drop pods and randomly toss you into orbit. Where you end up is almost entirely a matter of luck."


I opened my mouth, but my dad cut me off. "And no, you won't be able to use wishes to influence your landing site. The planetary gravity is intense, and the drop pods are very high rank. They did it that way to prevent tampering. Not to say no one can do it, but your abilities won't be enough, and none of the high rankers are going to be randomly dropped, so it won't be an issue at this stage."


That brought to mind something else though. "What about their wishes?" I asked worriedly. "An A-rank wish would be able to do some serious damage, and the D-rankers who are going to be going in for the high rankers will have access to those through scrolls."


"It's a concern," he admitted. "We can counter any direct application, and wasting scrolls like that would be absurd, but there are ways to exploit that gap. I'd expect to see artifacts or buildings popping up out of nowhere, for instance. Still, it'll be limited by payment. Remember D-rankers don't have the assets to compensate for A-rank wishes. And giving them money directly would make it unfair compensation and invalidate the wish. It's definitely an advantage, but mostly only enough of one to offset the fact that no one wants to work with them."


"Not to mention there aren't many of them," Zeke added. "According to our information, there's only three A-rank and five B-rank candidates in this war. Out of hundreds of potential enemies and hundreds of thousands of miles, you're not likely to run into their forces early on."


I nodded slowly. "So how are they going to distribute us? And how are we supposed to find you all?"


"Hemisphere style," my dad said with a shrug. "Basically, each half of the planet is a curved disc, starting with a D-rank zone and condensing into an A-rank zone at the center. Think of it like a target. The outer ring is where the D-rank territory is, and the local D-rank forces live there. That's the biggest area, a large belt along the equator. You'll start there, and you'll pick a direction and head for the poles, where the A-rankers will be waiting."


That DID leave a large area for us to work in. Absurdly large. But it also brought up a pretty worrying issue. "What if we can't find you?" I asked slowly. "If he head for the wrong pole we're fucked."


"You have scrolls," my dad said dismissively. "Use them. Come on, don't get lazy on me. If you can't even think for yourself you have no shot here. Regardless, you'll be given tasks to accomplish in each zone, and points can be earned. The points can be redeemed for advantages, including springing locals when you leave, so the more you have and are willing to spend the better you do. If you win, you can bring anyone you want out, since you're the Wishmaster, but that's easier said than done."


My mother elbowed him in the ribs. "What your father MEANS," she said acidly. "Is that he's worried about you, and that you need to take care of each other." She stepped forward and pulled Chelsea and I into a tight hug. "You two be safe, alright? All of you should." She stepped back, and then after a brief moment of indecision, pulled Callie into a hug too. "Take care of my babies, ok?"


My wife smiled warmly. "Of course. That's what I'm here for." She winked at my mother. "Don't worry, I'll get him through this in one piece."


I laughed, leaving them to their moment, and turned to Zeke. "So," I said with a sigh. "All this time, and we're finally getting to the big show. Thanks for, you know…not letting me die and all that. Plus the mask is pretty cool."


"Well I was getting tired of looking at your face," he said lazily. "So it was really more of a gift for me."


I burst out laughing and leaned forward to wrap him in a tight hug. "Take care of my parents, you dick. Mostly my mom. The old man could use a beating or two. Maybe let him lose a limb. We can always grow it back later."


He laughed, squeezing me back, then stepped away. "Take care of yourself kid. And take care of your people. They were always going to be your way out of this."


Nodding, I turned to look at my friends. They all looked steady, strong, and powerful. Just like I knew they would. I let out a long breath, then turned to my dad. "Alright, so, where is this drop pod we're supposed to be using? I don't want to get stuck with the shitty one."


I was practically vibrating with tension and worry, but at the same time, the excitement was palpable. This was it. The moment I'd been preparing for since I first became an Ascendant. The real test of everything I'd learned and been through. The next step in my path and the only way I could make a meaningful difference in the universe. It was all riding on this. But hey, no pressure, right?

 

[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.

 

[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."