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

[Malcolm Tent]

Elonwy and the Professor spread out, obviously planning to engage with a few of the cultists. To my surprise, the two of them picked off three each, all at the same rank, and drew them off to open up the space for us. We were still outnumbered, but I was afraid of anything but numbers. I released about a dozen tier eight demons, and just to be safe, I boosted Asmodeus to tier nine and infused its power into Callie.

"Be careful," she told me solemnly as she stepped back. Callie knew that Deveskane was my responsibility. I'd been responsible for his release, and it was my job to fix it. Not to mention he'd taken a shot at my wife, and I wasn't letting that go.

I approached slowly, staff up, waiting to see what he would do before choosing my method of combat. Several cultists intervened, and I dispatched them with short, brutal strikes when they couldn't be avoided. Finally, I reached the fallen god. He shook his head ruefully. "You're gotten yourself involved in things far beyond your reach, boy. This will not end well for you."

Snorting coldly, I reached out with my Domain, wrapping it around us as I dragged us both inside. It was a little dangerous, but with the Seal and Pillar supporting my already much more durable than average Domain, his presence shouldn't be able to damage it, and it was at the very least safer to be inside than risk getting sucker punched by some insane cultist at an inopportune moment.

Deveskane didn't resist, allowing himself to be dragged inside, and we ended up in the throneroom of my castle, surrounded by the dozens of demons who didn't follow Callie into battle. He gave me a cold smile. "I suppose the tables have turned. How fortuitous for you."

"Nope," I said as I began to limber up. "I'm not going to mob you. That's too easy."

"You realize how stupid that is?" he asked dryly. "I find people like you, who allow emotion to dictate your actions rarely have a good end."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "And I'm supposed to take advice on good ends from the broken ghost of a former god who spent untold millenia trapped in an Impact meat grinder before selling yourself to an unknowable monster who isn't even from our reality. Like if you're going to betray humanity for the Void at least make it OUR Void. You're not even rooting for the home team."

"Your juvenile attempts at mockery have no effect on me," he said in a voice that was just SLIGHTLY tighter than it had been before. "If you wish to battle, proceed with the attack. But I warn you, while I may be unable to complete the step into S-rank, I possess all my old skills with my Domain, as well as a sizable boost in power from the Void Child. I am incomparable to my past self at this point. By the time I complete my breakthrough back to divinity and then from there to Overgod, I'll be beyond the reach of any other deity. I'm not the kind of enemy a B-ranker, even one like you, can compete with."

I nodded slowly. "Maybe," I said casually. "But maybe you're underestimating me." I reached for my power, for the four forms I had prepared for this exact moment. Mephistopheles, my most powerful offensive form. Life Nova, the apex of regeneration and healing. Cosmic Waltz, a powerful wielder of spatial fire, and finally, Song of Arcadia, a champion made to stand against the Void.

"Archdemon," I intoned as I connected the timepieces mentally. "Bennu." As I did, I pushed with my staff, elevating myself to A-rank, and I felt the four colored fire wash over me, rolling through my body, pushing me beyond what should be possible for me to bear. Even with my body refinement, even with my powerful soul, even with the staff and Seal to bear the weight, it was almost too much, it almost crushed me under the sheer awful power of the new form. Almost.

I grit my teeth, letting the weight crash down on me, letting it press me into the floor as my eyes squeezed shut, letting my soul groan under the stress, and all of it just sort of…solidified. Like I was being sublimated. I felt my soul, body, and heart aligning like planets in a syzygy. Under the strain, the thirty six drops of phoenix blood inside me burst to life, catching like jet fuel, and blazed up inside me, seeming to refine and meld the disparate elements of me together under the influence of the four colored flame.

When I opened my eyes, I felt lighter than air, like I had a sun burning in my veins. The four colored fire licked around me, and not just that, but behind me. I could see, out of my peripheral vision, a pair of glorious feathered wings, in black and green and white and glassy transparent flame. Behind me, the tree near my throne groaned a bit. I knew that I wouldn't be able to achieve this state outside my Domain. Only here, in the heart of my power, could I manifest this much of my strength. Four timepieces, four bloodlines, four fires of primordial power wielded against an enemy god in the center of my being.

It was insane. The risk, the recklessness. Bringing him here, doing this, it was almost more than could be logically accepted. There were so many other ways I could have done this, so many smarter, less dangerous paths to have taken. But…none of them were me. None of them were right. This was who I was. What I was. This was the purest representation of me.

I stepped forward, vanishing into the flows of space. Cosmic Waltz had gone beyond what it had once been, especially here. Every inch of this place was mine, and I could be anywhere I desired with a thought. My staff came around, the power of the Life Nova propelling the explosive end that was Ruin as I swept the staff towards Deveskane's head, aiming to cave in his skull.

His eyes widened at the speed and strength, and he dipped back, flicking up his hands. A pair of long, dark metal manacles unwound themselves from his wrists, hanging impossibly in the air as if underwater. My staff struck them head on, and they shuddered and rattled as they wrapped around it, draining off the momentum and trying to seal my attack in place.

The power leaching though the metal was staggering, and I knew it was Deveskane's Domain. Even with his body lacking a Saga and his foundation shattered, his use of his Domain was for more elegant and precise than mine.

But despite that, I realized something fundamental as I slipped my staff from the chains, retreating. Sealing. His Domain was based around sealing.

I thought back to lessons with my parents, to my lessons on using my Domain. The essence of my Domain, at its core, was Binding. I was Solomon, and I was on the path of the Demonbinder. My connection to my demons was my strength. My Bond with my wife was my conviction. My ties to my friends and family were my reason for being.

My staff flashed, thunder crashing as it tore the very air, four colored fire exploding against black implacable chains. I was winning, barely, but that wasn't enough. I knew what I had to do. What all this had been leading to. I could see it stretching out ahead of me like a shining road, leading me to this moment, preparing me for this. I pressed my attack, burning myself at both ends to push him harder and harder, until finally, with a grimace of rage, Deveskane finally stopped being cautious.

With an unearthly roar, he pulled on his Domain, forcing it into mine, manifesting the heart of his power within my realm to assert his dominion on my space. It was exactly what I'd been waiting for.

His Domain was hideous, a world of dark chains wrapping a thousand floating coffins, dark, monstrous things slithered and writhed in the blackness beyond where the chains faded from the dim light that showed them, jagged and covered in hooks and barbs. I drove my staff forward, exploding with four colored fire. Life Nova bolstered Peaceflame and purified the darkness, Ruin eroded the connections to Deveskane himself while the Cosmic Flame solidified the Domain itself.

I barely had the strength to finish it, to push over that last Domino. Because it had all been leading to this, every bit of training and innovation and growth. I'd been heading to this spot since I first set foot on the road to the chasm and I hadn't even realized it until just now.

With the last of my willpower, I triggered my staff, boosting Brad to the next tier, and bellowed "NOW!"

A hole opened beneath Deveskane. A pit of such utter, fathomless darkness that it ate my sight just to look at it. I thought of how many coincidences had needed to happen to bring me here. Discovering Brad, learning of his pit ability against the very Ascendant Deveskane was possessing, learning to create pits in people to imbue them with power, all of it for this one moment.

With the full weight of all my power, of all my demons, of all my Domain, I threw my whole soul against Deveskane, shoving him into the pit, Domain and all. After the purification, the erosion, the stabilization, and then Brad's intervention, not to mention his suitability as a material, it was almost shocking how smoothly he slipped into the pit, vanishing forever as it snapped shut behind him.

I stood frozen in shock as I stared down at the space where Deveskane had been. Just like I had used the feather for a material for Cosmic Waltz and the Lantern Shield for Song of Arcadia, I had just used Deveskane himself as a material for my Domain. His sealing capabilities had fed my Domain, shaping and changing it, and I-

My knees buckled. Power receded from my, Bennu rolling away, only for the strength to come crashing back ten times over as the enhancement from integrating Deveskane into my Domain finally hit, carried back like the returning tide as it crashed over and through me, and out into Gehenna. The castle shuddered, expanding and widening around me. Chains snaked over and through the dark stone, space expanding, and I could feel the changes to the plains outside too.

Forty two miles of Domain became fifty, then sixty, finally stopping at a full seventy two miles. An increase of thirty, almost as much Domain as I had originally started with. I felt a slight stress in the makeup of the Domain itself, but the chains bound it together despite the natural urge to fracture under such rapid expansion, and magmatic veins of Cosmic Fire erupted from the cracks, pouring around the suture like bindings and repairing it.

I checked my stats. No change to any of my core statistics, but aside from the expanded Domain space, my physical body had massively improved. My previous five thousand point per scroll cap had DOUBLED. I could faintly sense there were other effects, but I didn't have time to dig into them. I called Zagan over, having him blast me with life fire, and closed my eyes for a moment while he replenished my power. After the upgrade, my limits were far from what they had been, and all I was lacking was energy.

With that done, I stepped from my Domain, ready to rejoin the fight. I had no idea what had just happened, mostly, or what it meant, but my wife was still in danger, and that meant I was still needed. Everything else could wait until we were safe. Once I had emerged, I summoned every tier eight demon to battle, and we waded in. No rest for the wicked, after all.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The fight was absolute chaos. I was Kronos, at the moment. The glimpse into the temporal mechanics was giving me the time and predictive abilities to operate on the needed level. With my newly enhanced body, keeping it at A-rank wasn't even hard, and I was suddenly able to process what I was seeing so much better. Whether that was my progress through my current rank bleeding over or the power boost from consuming Deveskane, I had no idea, but it was convenient.

I flowed over the battlefield, staff lashing out to jam up the gears, stuttering time to a stop for a split second here and there to make openings for my demons, or just tapping the fighters and spreading the flames of Ruin to them as I stepped past.

One after another they fell, taken apart by my unnatural speed and grace. It just felt…easy. Right. I felt like I belonged here, in this space between heartbeats, standing inside the breath of creation as it stopped before the exhale. I was untouchable, unstoppable, and nothing could prevent me from bringing the inevitability of my wrath to my enemies.

I was so wrapped up in it that I almost didn't notice the attack in time. Only Callie's horror through the bond was enough to break through the thrill and enable me to react. Double Trouble carried me away, even as another horned monstrosity like the one that had gored me last time charged and passed through my illusory copy. "Thanks hon," I called out to her. "That was close!"

Double Trouble flashed again and I slammed my staff into the gears behind the monster's head. The blow jammed the mechanism, stuttering it to a brief stop for an instant, then continued on and exploded against the back of its head. The monster had somehow resisted, squirming against time itself to break free, and after it caught, I leapt back, removing the staff, and all its resistance spun the gears at speed without the blockage.

The small flame of ruin was amplified, pushed forward through time, and it consumed the monster in moments, dissolving it into ash. "What the hell are all these things COMING from?" I snapped. "Did this many students die mysteriously over the years?"

"No," my wife grunted as she flicked her blades, bisecting a pair of A-ranked Void monsters. "These are spawn, not vessels. The Void Child made them, or gave the vessel the power to make them. They won't stop coming until it's put down. The Deans need to hurry!" She glanced up worriedly, confirming the fight was ongoing, then returned to her battle. She'd circled around, her back to mind, and our wings formed a buffer zone to keep the monsters clear of each other's spines.

Above us, absolute pandemonium was ongoing. Dean Harper had manifested into a huge, terrifying monster. Its features changed constantly, seeming to mutate from one moment to the next, but it was always exactly what it needed to be when it needed to be it. Chitin, claws, fangs, ephemerality, strength, speed, a dizzying blur of features and qualities rolled over the beast, whose form changed and writhed like the sea in a hurricane.

Around him, space warped, swirling and shifting as it augmented his already unbearable speed. I wouldn't have been able to even perceive it if not for the underlayer of temporal mechanics, they were moving too fast. It was terrifying to catch even the afterimages. Dean Desmond was creating pathways of warped space to increase the speed and lethality Dean Harper was bringing to bear, creating a symphony of twisted space as he conducted the battle like a master composer.

Above him, Deans Gibbons and Windermere floated in the air, dark clouds gathering between their raised hands as they called forth the power of a single, terrifying blue snowflake. The flake was…painful. It hurt to look at, like it had too many points and edges for the space it occupied, and was shredding my eyes even from a brief glance.

Beyond it, and the clouds brewing around it, I saw a sea of red, the unsealing power of the ritual, tracing out a shape in the stars and condensing into a beam that the snowflake was trying to combat even as it attempted to freeze the unbearable creature the other two deans were fighting.

It was failing. The ritual was too much, too powerful. It wasn't as qualitatively dense, but there was just so much of it.

I had no idea how I knew that. I shouldn't. I wasn't really suited for this kind of formation work, I'd never learned. Something about this one though, it spoke to me. Like I'd seen it before. Not just once, I knew it like the back of my hand. And then it hit me. Deveskane, this was why he'd been brought here. This whole thing was based on his power. Literally. That red energy was Deveskane's WORLDFORCE. Or at least an inverted form of it. Hell, maybe that was part of why he'd needed to fall from Divinity, the ability to create this new unsealing force.

And suddenly, something clicked in my head. "Callie!" I screamed for my wife. "I have a plan! But I need your help!"

She shot me a confused look as she danced under a claw swipe, eviscerating a passing cultist and flicking Oblique clean. Oblique for the cultists, Gossamer for the spawn, she was already perfecting her combat style against these things. I was damned proud. "What kind of plan?" she yelled back, deflecting a tail swipe.

"Too much to explain!" I told her bluntly. "But I need you to let me use your vault!"

"Do it!" she laughed. "And make it flashy. I want to see something really crazy! I love when yu get like this."

Laughing, I spread my wings behind me, Sammael's feathered appendages sending me bursting upwards as I flapped, the ground retreating from under me. I approached the Deans and their snowflake. "Dean Gibbons!" I yelled to him. "Can you hear me?"

"Are you stupid, boy?" he snapped. "What are you doing up here?"

"It's not enough, right?" I asked him quickly. "The unsealing is proceeding and its undoing the seal of the moment, right?"

Dean Windermere nodded. "It is," she confirmed. "At this rate…we'll need to take extreme measures. Clara must have spent centuries perfecting this design. The Worldforce they used is unusually pervasive and temporally resistant."

"I can help with that," I said bluntly. "I need you to focus on holding back the ritual for a moment. Leave the Void Child to the others. I have an idea that should help a LOT. Not enough to matter alone, but it should give you the chance to push this over the top." I tried to put as much feeling and confidence into my voice as possible. These were Overgods and I wasn't even a real A-ranker yet. They would be insane to listen to me, but I had to hope they were.

Dean Gibbons looked at me…oddly. His eyes seemed to flicker with the reflection of a thousand shattered moments, just for a split second, and then they were back to normal. He nodded. "Alright, we'll do it. But don't take too long."

Dean Windermere didn't argue, just following his lead. Their hands snapped up and around, the downward pressure of their sweeping arms inverting as if they were holding up the sky. The black clouds pushed away the red light, and it enabled me to fly up between them. I closed my eyes, flickering into my Domain, and appeared in the throne room. "Brad!" I called. "Angelic Bond, I need you both!"

They appeared, and I nodded. "Bond, I want a door, open it right here. Straight into Callie's Vault, she knows it's coming. Brad, you go through it. Wait for my signal." Stepping back outside, I reached for my power again, this time projecting the throne room itself into reality, up there sitting on the black clouds.

Turning, I checked and found the door, I nodded and then reached for my newfound power. The chains shot out, winding over the frame of the door and then through it, climbing off the walls and into the Vault to bind my Domain and my wife's together. With the Bond as a foundation, the integration was seamless. We were already basically one in spirit, and this was just an extension of that.

"Alright!" I bellowed down to the Deans. "Let it DROP!" The black clouds receded from above me, allowing the pillar of descending red to plummet down upon my throne room. I should have been afraid, should have been terrified…but I wasnt.

This might be unsealing Worldforce, but it was crafted by Deveskane on the properties of his original. It was just backwards. I was still able to steer it, push it along, and I did, sending it right through the door and into Callie's Vault. "BRAD NOW!" I pushed with my staff, feeding every ounce of power and intention to my demon, and he HEAVED, opening a hole in the air from the Vault's position in the sky to right above the snowflake the Deans were controlling.

As the power funneled through me, I grit my teeth and groaned. I wasn't moving it, barely nudging, but this was so far beyond what I should be capable of. The chains holding me together and Deveskane's sealing power within my Domain were offsetting the damage, but I didn't know how long I could hold.

Luckily since I was the one nudging, Callie wasn't actually interacting with the power beyond changing it as it went through. It funneled along the Vault, entering as red unsealing energy and shifting as it went. It took a second to process, and for that moment, I felt my stomach clench into knots…

But the tension released as a waterfall of pure BLUE energy erupted from the hole Brad had opened. As it descended, it hit the snowflake, and the icy energy inside it caught like a high grade propellant with a match dropped in. The clouds darkened, expanded, and the blue energy EXPLODED down onto the battlefield.

Everywhere it passed, enemy fighters froze. Literally froze in time. The storm of blue glowing particles were like a wash of snow as they swept over and around, encircling the Void Child. Everywhere it made contact it began to freeze, sealing rapidly as it struggled. It let out a horrible scream, writhing and fighting to escape, but in the end, it couldn't manage. The very sealing energy that had been freeing it, once inverted, began to not only seal it again, but to convert the remnant unsealing energy inside, creating a sort of extra strong hybrid energy it couldn't escape from.

Red and blue met and the creature was subsumed in purple ice within about five minutes. As soon as it was done, I triggered Double Trouble, letting my projection drop as I appeared out of its path. The Deans caught the descending pillar of force much easier this time, and I almost fell out of the sky, only caught because Callie appeared where I was plummeting to scoop me up.

She beamed at me wildly, peeling off my mask and smashing her lips into mine. "That was INSANE!" she bellowed in my ear, laughing so hard tears ran from her eyes. "Do it again and I'll kill you."

"You'd have to kill US," I corrected. "Team effort love. Couldn't have done it without you!" I was laughing and crying a little myself, and as we touched down, I wrapped my arms around her tightly, clinging to her with everything I was. We did it. We'd survived, and I'd even managed to actually HELP with the big fight. I'd better get a ton of contribution points for that shit.

Laying my forehead against hers, I just let the laughter take me as relief drained every ounce of strength from my body. It was over. We'd all lived. Now all we needed to do was cleanup. And graduate. Which I was GOING to do without taking any more of the final. They owed me that much.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"That was the dumbest thing I've ever seen," Professor Hawkins informed me cheerfully. "Truly, categorically, cosmically stupid to an extent never before witnessed by either man or beast. You should teach a class."

I shrugged. "I'm only tangentially aware of what the hell just happened, to be honest," I admitted. "My soul hurts, my Domain is cracked, and my head feels like someone detonated a depth charge behind my nasal cavity. But sure, if it ever comes up again I'd love to teach people how to be so stupid you save the universe."

Dean Windermere and Dean Gibbons both touched down, the moment nowhere to be seen. "He's not wrong," she said warmly. "That was a phenomenal bit of ingenuity, stupid as it was. And unlike Alden, I DO understand what you did. It was an inspired bit of improvised Mythcrafting, though I believe part of your education has been to AVOID such off the cuff solutions. In this case, I suppose you can be forgiven your impetuousness. Just this once."

"Forgiveness is great," Callie said archly. "Contributions points are better. I believe my husband just contributed heavily to your personal pet research project. By any measurable qualification, he's earned a tidy sum."

"Not just me," I corrected in a firm tone. "Callie's Vault was the only reason that worked at all. I wanted her to get part of the credit. In fact, I want her to get MOST of the credit. She's just entered B-rank, and I'm almost through. I'll hit A-rank sooner than later, but she's a ways out. The more contribution she's reported as having here the better. At least, I assume you have some internal mechanism for spreading impressive feats?"

Ascendant culture functioned off things like that, and academies especially were giant PR machines. Of course, they both nodded, but Callie, knowing me better than anyone, cut in again. "Also we want an automatic pass on the final exam."

Dean Gibbons laughed. "Deal, though I have to clarify that you can't win the prize pool that way. Are you prepared to forfeit the credits?"

"Considering the number of contribution points we should be looking at," my wife said slyly. "I think we can let someone else try for those. We can use those points to get anything we want, right? Including all the ascension theses from the various majors?"

"You may," he said grandly. "But remember that your contribution points are finite. Wasting them on something as pedestrian as an ascension thesis may seem like a small expenditure, given it only costs a single point, but the value of contribution points is exponentially beyond anything you may access with credit points."

I blanched. "Wait, the credit to contribution ratio is one hundred THOUSAND to one?" I sputtered. "How much did we SPEND on that lab equipment?"

"Oh don't worry about that," the Overgod said in a comforting tone. "Alden pays a premium because of his involvement in crafting that particular construct. You only paid ten percent. But yes, that ten percent would have required approximately ten million credit points were you to pay out of pocket."

"So how much are we getting this time," Callie asked suspiciously. "I mean, we basically saved your lives. That's got to be worth at least…ten thousand. Each."

Dean Windermere snorted. "Nice try, dear, but most tenured Professors haven't amassed that much after millenia of working for us. You've done us a great service. We'd be willing to go as far as five hundred apiece."

"Just for this?" I cut in. "Because we were also part of Professor Saunders plan to defeat Dean Temple. Without me there, you might not have even gotten to this fight in time."

Dean Gibbons scowled at that. "Fifteen hundred total," he countered. "You contributed to that incident, but your wife did not. Five hundred for her for her part in the Void Child's defeat, a thousand for you, and we'll make sure to spin the narrative to give her the lion's share of the credit for the Overgod's defeat."

"And we can access the exchanges from all the majors?" I asked warily. "Professor Hawkins told us that there aren't really provisions for students to spend contribution points directly. If we're getting that many I need access."

"We'll assign Elonwy to you," Dean Windermere said with a warm smile. "She's an employee of the exchange in her major and can be granted access. She'll act as your personal shopper, in a sense."

Dean Gibbons frowned, but finally relented. "Very well. Because you contributed so heavily. Your rewards will, of course, be limited to what we discussed here today. Access to the exchanges through Elonwy, fifteen hundred contribution points, and our assistance with your renown generation. Are these terms agreeable?"

I could tell from his general demeanor that he wasn't really asking. This was the most we were getting, and any attempts to push further would alienate the Overgods we'd just gotten on good terms with.

"Agreed," I said quickly after a quick discussion with Callie through the bond. I turned to Elonwy. "Though we'll need to trouble you to drive us around a bit before we get into any purchasing. We need to pick up our friends and make sure they're ok, then figure out what everyone needs before we leave."

If anything, the sheer windfall we'd just stumbled on was going to be DIFFICULT to turn into useful resources in the short time we had left here. I had some ideas, but talking things over with Benny and the others definitely wouldn't hurt.

She nodded tiredly. "Of course," she said grimly. "That was…I don't know what that was. But I don't think any of us are doing quite as well as we'd like right now." She grimaced, putting a hand to her side. I frowned as I realized she'd been injured. She noticed my attention and smiled wryly. "I'm fine, just a flesh wound."

"Speaking of wounds," Dean Windermere said coldly. "We need to go, Simon. Theodora and Corey are still most likely locked in combat with Kell and Wendy. This isn't quite over."

Dean Desmond, still catching his breath beside Dean Harper, nodded tiredly. "Of course," he said with a sigh. "Give me a moment and we'll be off. Well done, students. Miss Wyndham, your application of spatial control is excellent, but there's room for improvement. I suggest you look into the personal tutoring option I offer. It is expensive but well worth the cost."

And with that, the four Deans all just…vanished. Between one blink and the next they simply ceased being where they were. Professor Hawkins rolled his eyes. "Melodramatic bastard."

"Well, I mean he IS an Overgod," I said wryly. "Comes with the territory. You doing ok Prof? Injured at all?" I couldn't see any damage, but it was obvious that the injuries sustained by a god fragment in combat would be different from the ones any of us got physically.

He waved me off. "I'm fine, kid. Let's just get out of this hellhole. Go pick up your friends."

We all headed out of the canyon. I was shocked to find Elonwy's car waiting outside for us. Professor Hawkins just grinned. "What, you thought they'd strand us?"

The car had been left behind on the mountain when Dean Desmond transported us, but apparently he'd brought it along without our notice or maybe gone back for it. We all piled in and Elonwy started up the car, taking a moment to adjust her seat before pulling out.

Rather than close my eyes, given all the changes to my ability to process temporal energy, I decided to actually watch as we drove through the fourth dimension. It made me a little nauseous, but beyond that it was a fascinating thing to witness. I expected to be watching for just a moment given the relative speed of rides when I closed my eyes, but to my surprise it lasted for what felt like an hour.

When we finally pulled to a stop, we were parked outside of a large, gabled manor that looked like it might have been haunted. "This is Bethy's dorm?" I asked in disbelief. "Did she REQUEST this or did they just assign it to her?"

Callie just snorted. "I give it even odds. Come on, let's check in on everyone. I want to make sure they're all ok."

We arrived at the front door of the dorms, knocking and being let in by what appeared to be an actual Gorgon, and followed the directions up to Bethy's room. I knocked, and there was a slight wait before the door opened to reveal my sister.


Chelsea's eyes were red, tear streaks down her pale face, and when she saw me, she let out a shriek of relief and threw her arms around me. "Shane you asshole!" she sobbed. "What the hell am I supposed to tell mom and dad if you die? Honestly, can you NOT be the center of attention for five minutes you showboating ass!"

I glanced at Bethy, who was waiting nearby looking relieved. "We just heard about your fight," she explained.

"What?" I said in disbelief. "How? It's been like five minutes since it happened."

Elonwy chuckled. "The Deans are really good at PR. But I thought they were going to give Callie the credit."

"They did," Chelsea shrugged. "But Callie is a sensible person. She only does crazy shit when my idiot brother needs to be pulled out of the fire. If she did something dramatic, it's only because Shane did something worse."

"That is BLATANT favoritism!" I sputtered. "And also only partially correct. I saved the universe. Or like…this tower at least."

My sister rolled her eyes. "You always do. But I'm relieved you're both ok."

"Excuse me," Benny said wryly from behind her. "Some of us are waiting to berate and congratulate our idiots. Good work and also you're both morons, and I'm telling your parents when we get back. Both sets."

I tried to imagine Atlas's reaction to this, and could only imagine he'd be thrilled, but Amelia was bound to be less than enthused by the whole ordeal. Hopefully he was just bluffing, because she didn't really need all that stress. Either way, I was glad he was taking this so well, and I pulled him into a fierce hug. "Thanks for worrying," I told him sincerely. "Also, good luck on the finals, and you're going to need to find a pair of new teammates."

He sputtered as he pulled away. "What? What do you mean we need new teammates? What the hell?"

We explained what happened, all the details of the various betrayals and conflicts and how it all ended. We ALSO explained our rewards, and they all looked pretty damned offended by us being allowed to skip the finals, but I didn't really care.

"So…you're going to be buying everyone elixirs, right?" Crell said bluntly. "Because this is one of the few places we can get all the variants we need in this kind of bulk. It seems like way too big an opportunity to pass up."

I nodded. "At least. And I'll probably pick up the A-rank sets for myself and maybe Callie in advance, considering how much renown she's going to be getting soon."

No one seemed bothered by that, but that didn't mean they didn't have opinions. Soon enough, everyone was weighing in, telling me their ideas for how to spend the windfall, and I shot my wife a rueful glance. She just chuckled fondly, smiling at me and our friends in absolute adoration as everyone talked over each other, bickering incessantly.

I had a feeling this would be a long conversation, and with so many involved, even the fifteen hundred contribution points we had wasn't going to be quite as excessive as I'd been hoping. Laughing to myself, I sat down on the nearest bed as my friends all bickered, thinking over my options. Best to have a plan before they finished talking.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The bickering went on for longer than expected. I think everyone was just excited to have something positive to focus on after the fear and danger. Granted, most of them hadn't been in quite as MUCH danger, but still, it was obviously a stressful night for everyone.

One person more than anyone, though. I could feel a burning coal of unease through the bond, slowly growing as everyone spoke, and I frowned in concern at my wife as her nervousness built and built. Eventually, I just smiled and waved off the others, telling them to continue as I grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out into the hallway.

"Ok, what's up?" I asked her with a worried attempt at a smile. "You're freaking me out a little. Is everything alright?"

She flinched, obviously not aware she'd been letting on quite as much as she was. "I…yes," she said slowly. "Everything is fine. It's going to be fine. It's fine. Now it's fine. It's just…I'm afraid if I tell you what I'm about to tell you, after the night we had, you'll freak out. And I don't want you to freak out, because I'm not freaked out. I'm happy. So I was going to wait. But you're thinking about spending all those points and what if we could use them for…the thing I'm afraid to tell you about."

I frowned, taking her hands in mine. "Hey, whoa. You never have to be afraid to tell me anything. I love you more than anything in the damned universe. You could tell me you were secretly a face eating zombie spider piloting a shrunk down giant robot and I wouldn't care."

"You aren't allowed to watch horror movies with Benny anymore," she said with a snort. "That was absurd."

"That one I watched with Jessie," I said proudly. "We've corrupted her. But you're dissembling. Come on Cal, what's this about. I'm not going to be upset about whatever you have to tell me just because we were in a little dang-"

"I'm pregnant," she all but shouted, closing her eyes.

I froze. Almost literally. My blood chilled so hard it almost felt like my veins were turning to ice. "I…I…huh?"

"I figured it out before Dean Desmond picked me up, but I knew if I told you you wouldn't let me come with you for the fight and I was so scared you would die and we'd be alone and the baby would never meet their daddy and it turned out to be a good idea because you ended up needing me but I'm scared you'll hate me because I put us at risk but what if there's something in the exchange that can make the baby safer so I can't wait an-"

I put my hand over her mouth, laughing as I stopped her babbling by hand. "PLEASE stop talking," I begged. "I'm honestly worried you might suffocate. Just…give me a second. I'm not upset. I'm just…confused." She nodded mutely, eyes terrified, and I pulled her against me in a tight hug. "Hey, confused isn't bad," I told her immediately. "Just…I'm feeling a whole lot of things and trying to process. But they're not bad things. They're good things. I'm…holy shit Cal, we're going to be PARENTS. I don't even know what to do with that."

Her laugh was a little ragged this time. "Trust me, I know. I've been freaking out for hours, and I was doing it while trying to make sure neither of us died. You're not mad I was fighting?"

"I mean, you saved my ass," I said wryly. "Not to mention if we'd failed we'd have all been screwed anyway. So you being there to fight was probably better in the long run. Sure, I'm retroactively terrified of you or the baby being hurt, but that's no reason t-" Her lips crashed against mine as she kissed me senseless, and I was left blinking in confusion as she pulled back. "What was that for?"

"If you don't know," she said wryly. "It would take too long to explain it. But thank you."

Laughing, I shook my head. "I mean, I AM freaking out, just not about that. We're in our early twenties. Should we be worried about having kids?

"It's not like age makes you more qualified," she said wryly. "Have you MET our dads?"

"You know, I really wish that wasn't such a good point," I said with a laugh. "Though speaking of parents, my mom is going to be THRILLED. She's been making veiled and not so veiled comments about grandkids for a while now. Also holy shit, our kid is going to be SO cute! I bet they'll inherit the four parts of my current phoenix bloodline and your archangel bloodline both. The wings are going to be adorable."

She giggled, leaning her head against me. "Ok, yeah, that's true. And they're going to have so many aunts and uncles to spoil them rotten. And all our relatives." Her eyes hardened. "If Black Sorrow tries to lay a hand on my baby-"

"She won't," I assured her. "I mean, she might visit. But Atlas would turn her into a pretzel if she tried anything, not to mention what my grandmother would do. I expect she's selectively forgotten every bad thing she ever did to use and will expect grandmama visits. We can deal with that when it comes up. Do you know if it'll be a boy or a girl?"

Her eyes rolled so hard I was worried they might dislodge. "Shane I JUST found out. I'm not even showing yet. How would I possibly know that?"

"Women's intuition?" I said hopefully. "I mean, the baby is deeply conn-"

"BABY!?" shrieked an ear piercing, familiar, TERRIFYING voice from behind us. "You two are having a baby! Guys, come quick, Callie and Shane are having a baby! I can't believe you're pregnant, that's so COOL! Can I be the godmother, am I allowed to be a godmother? Can vampires do that?" I'd seen Bethy enthusiastic, but I'd never seen her THIS excited.

"What? A baby?" Chelsea squeaked as she pushed past her girlfriend. "That's AMAZING, oh my gods mom is going to be so excited! I'm so excited! I'm going to be an aunt! But I'm so young. You're so young. You guys must be terrified."

I sighed tiredly. "Yes, we're terrified," I confirmed. "We were just talking that over, if you could leave us to do that."

"I mean, the universe is so dangerous, things go wrong everywhere we go, how are you going to protect the baby?" she babbled worriedly, clearly not filtering her words AT ALL. I grimaced as she vomited up all the terrifying things I was trying not to think about.

To my absolute and utter shock, a hand clamped over her mouth like I'd done to Callie earlier. BETHY of all people shot me an apologetic smile. "Sorry, she's excited. She didn't mean that. She's very happy for you."

Chelsea, who had been struggling to get away, froze, shooting me an embarrassed wince. "Sorry Shane, I didn't mean to freak you out. I'm so happy for you. And excited."

I shook my head with a wry chuckle. "Yeah, I get it. I'm still dealing with it too. Though Callie and I were just talking about how cute the baby is going to be. I bet they're going to inherit one or both of our wings. I wonder which."

"I mean, given our respective family trees, you'll probably have twins," she said casually. Callie and I froze, remembering a joke that had been made about that years ago.

"Chelsea, maybe you should let the rest of us congratulate them," Benny said with a grin as he shouldered past. "If your foot goes any deeper into your mouth you'll leave bootprints on your lungs."

I rolled my eyes. "It's fine, Benny. Like you'll do any better."

"Well I can't exactly do much worse," he joked, stepping up to hug me. "But seriously, I'm happy for you, man. You've grown up a lot these last few years. You're gonna be a great dad."

My throat tightened, eyes swimming a bit as that hit me right where I lived. Coming from Benny, who had grown up right next to me, that meant a lot. And it felt good for someone to say that, even if everyone else's existential terror was probably more realistic. "Come back inside," Chelsea said warmly. "We can talk about whatever you want. You were wondering about whether to use those points for the baby, right? Or babies, I guess, sorry to be the one to bring that up." Her tone was sheepish, but supportive.

I turned to Elonwy, who had just come out of the room. "Well, you're our key to the wonderful world of the exchange. Anything that would help with the baby's future?"

I let my friends lead me back into the dorm, mentally berating myself for not bothering to use Murmur earlier.

As we stepped back inside, I glanced over at Elonwy. "Alright, so do we have options here? I've never done research on this kind of thing even back home."

"A few," she admitted. "Bloodline purification, prenatal stat boosts, soul enhancement, there are several possibilities. But personally, if it was me, I would probably want to go with a blessing from the Deans. Overgod sanctification can purify the spirit and increase talent. It involves cleansing the body with Overgod worldforce. You can have the process performed on yourself, but I heard pregnant mothers pass on a large amount of the benefits to their baby."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "And that's…safe? Because it sounds like a lot."

"Overgods have a powerful amount of fine control," she confirmed. "Granted, with the mess after the fight, you won't be getting all twelve, but nine is still a very solid number. Other than that, I would suggest buying a defensive token from one of the Deans for Callie. Having an extra life on hand for emergencies is never a bad thing."

That was true, and I hadn't considered it. The token I'd gotten from the Lady had saved my life and Callie's both during the succession war. And that was just from a normal god. An Overgod defense would be a perfect last resort if the Void managed to get past everyone to take a shot at my wife. She kept going, filling us in on the other options, but the more she talked, the more my head hurt.

I was still in pain from the fight, and this wasn't helping. I'd been expecting this to distract me and be fun, but the addition of finding I was going to be a dad was making me spiral. It was just so much pressure to deal with.

Admittedly, we were safe now as far as I knew. With the Void Child sealed, our last few weeks here at the academy should be peaceful, but that just substituted the immediate danger (which I was good at), with the creeping existential dread of fatherhood. I was trying not to think about it but I was terrified.

"I think that's enough," Callie said suddenly, reaching down to take my hand. "We've all been through a lot. Shane needs rest, and so do I. We can reconvene in the morning to spend the points, until then, we'll have to say goodnight."

Several people looked ready to argue, but when they saw her face they backed down. Callie arranged to borrow a dorm room, then led me inside and pulled me to the bed to lay down. I rested my chin on her head, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her close. As I closed my eyes, I let sleep take me, carrying me down into the dark where my dreams could help me make sense of all these changes. I was sure I'd be in better shape tomorrow, and then I could address all this big news head on.