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

[Malcolm Tent]

"How are you doing?" I asked Callie as I left Dayna to deal with my wife's new vampire twin. "That was…a lot. I know you were just starting to get used to having Atlas in your life, and now suddenly you have a sister? Speaking as an expert in suddenly having a twin sister, I can tell you the experience is a bit jarring."

She snorted at that. "I guess you'd know," she said wryly. "I'm fine. It's not like I have a reason to be upset. I just feel kind of blindsided. But this could be an opportunity too. Alara seems like an interesting person, now that she's not planning to murder us all and bathe in our blood."

"Don't be silly," I assured her. "That was never going to happen. That would be a huge waste of blood." I paused. "Unless they can absorb it through the skin. Can vampires apply blood topically? Like are their whole bodies just blood sponges? I feel like Bethy would have mentioned that."

She giggled, some of the severity leaving her face. "Never know with her. Anyway, I don't think I can stick around much longer. This clone is being weakened by the vortex here. It's actively drawing power from me to try to force itself back up to mid C-rank."

I frowned. That wasn't good news. It made sense, because Beelzebub was designed to make clones as powerful as I was. I even considered trying to fix it, but considering this was probably the only place in the universe where I was likely to run into these conditions, it didn't seem like an effective use of my time. "Alright, you go ahead and get back. I'll keep you posted, and I'll keep an eye out for your sister."

Her smile was warm and sweet, and it suddenly struck me as ludicrous I'd confused Alara for Callie for even a second. Aside from the blue highlights in her hair and the wings, Callie's whole demeanor was completely different. I knew it was a mistake I'd never make with more than a second to look. I leaned down, pulling my mask up to give my wife a soft kiss. She wrapped her arms around me, returning the favor before pulling away, giving me a quick wink and vanishing in a blaze of Heretic Fire.

I strode over to where Alara was talking with Brad and Dayna. "And there's ice cream, and pizza, and steak, and tons of other kinds of food. But not spicy stuff. That hurts."

Alara raised an eyebrow at him. "I know what steak is, that's just cow meat. The others sound interesting, however. I suppose I could allow you to be my guide to this new and fascinating world."

"Well he's less than three months old," I said dryly. "So he's probably not the most qualified. But I'm sure I can arrange for a suitable guide once we get out of here. You're aware of what we're trying to do?" Having an S-rank vampire onboard, even one who had been heavily suppressed, was a welcome addition to the team, but I needed to know she knew what she was getting into.

"My father's resurrection ritual," she agreed. "I was…somewhat aware, when I was in that terrible state." Her expression wilted. "I remember many things I wish I did not."

I winced. "Yeah, I have a friend in a similar boat. She's got that same bloodlust." Then I froze. "Oh shit. You're a vampire." She raised an eyebrow questioningly, and I explained. "Vampirism isn't…well, I don't know how common it was back in your day, but it's kind of a taboo now. The current strongest being below divine rank is a vampire. In fact, ONLY he and his children are vampires. He killed the rest of them. Literally wiped them from existence."

Lark's vampirocide had, to be fair, been a method of building a stronger Domain and funneling as much renown to himself as possible. Now that he was S-rank, there was less need for vampiric singularity, hence his many children. But still, vampirism was kind of his bottom line.

Her eyes flared red. "I am not afraid of anyone who is not a god. I am the daughter of the Heretic God. I've slain even the divine. My current state will only aid me in combat."

"That's…good to know," I said slowly. "But Lark isn't just the strongest S-ranker, he's the father of one of my best friends, who happens to be Dayna's mistress. It would be best if you two DIDN'T kill each other. There's really no upside to that fight for me. Luckily, it might not be an issue. Atlas will be coming out with us, and there's no chance Lark will try something with him around."

Morgan Lark was a monster. The kind of beast who could fight up a rank across the divine watershed of a thousand points of Impact. But he'd gotten that rep fighting BABY gods. Unity was the youngest and weakest of the six, and Lark had fought him to a draw, but Atlas wasn't a spring chicken. He'd been a god for eons, and had slain hundreds of other deities. He'd been a headhunter for the Void and there was NO S-ranker, regardless of talent, that stood a chance.

The peak of C-rank was ten million points. Peak of B was a hundred million. A was a billion, and S was ten billion. The peak of god rank was a hundred BILLION points of stats. PAST the thousand point watershed. Atlas, assuming he was at the peak of god rank, which seemed a safe bet, had ten TIMES as many points as Lark.

And being past the watershed meant that every one of those points was more valuable to Atlas than to Lark. There was a reason even a peak E-ranker needed to essentially cheat to beat a beginner D-ranker. Every multiple of ten in Impact was a qualitative change in the essential nature of a being. Being able to fight Unity, who was pretty newly advanced at the time, across that divide was ALREADY enough to make Lark invincible at the same rank.

Long story short, the chances of Lark being strong enough to even look at Atlas funny after his resurrection were vanishingly small. Even if he was hobbled and needed to recover like some of the vanished gods after rebirth, Atlas was untouchable at the same rank too. Even a newly god ranked Adam Atlas would mop the floor with Morgan Lark.

That actually made me feel better. Lark was cantankerous and occasionally stubborn, but he wasn't stupid. You don't live to be the baddest ass in the universe by being a moron and picking pointless fights. He wouldn't try to fight Atlas.

Alara, for her part, looked dangerously unimpressed with my suggestion that she hide behind her dad. I felt the need to redirect that ire somewhere else, so I dropped the other shoe. "But that's not going to be an issue if we can't get out of here. Which will be a problem if we trip over…him." I grimaced at my inability to say the same, and then filled her in on the details as best I could.

Her eyes narrowed, lips peeling back to reveal long, sharp fangs. "He DARES? In my time, even the most decrepit antique knew better than to set his sights on the property of the House of Atlas."

I blinked at that. I…hadn't actually thought through the whole name thing. I always figured Adam Atlas was some kind of title. Based on her statement, it WAS a name, and one she shared. Alara Atlas did kind of roll off the tongue. I was glad Callie was keeping my name though. Calliope Atlas didn't sound as good as Calliope Wyndham in my opinion.

"I get the impression he would have been VERY old, even in your day," I said grimly. "Also still imprisoned. Just be careful not to say his name. Thinking it appears to be fine. I don't actually know how it works, except that he can create carriers and infected hosts. It's honestly likely that I COULDN'T infect you by saying it aloud, but I'm not willing to take that risk. Getting rid of him once he gets in is no simple task, and I'd rather not go through that mess again."

She looked skeptical, but nodded anyway. "Very well. Worry not about this foolish corpse god. We stand at the edge of the deepest hollow. Here, all beings are equal. Divine abilities or no, I fear no evil."

Thinking back to the field of Asura corpses, beings described by Dayna as being roughly equivalent to the power of an archangel, I could believe that. I wasn't quite sure how overwhelming luck could make someone that powerful, but then again, I knew better than anyone that your born ability didn't have to be your strongest combat skill.

Walking over to the box, I checked through the opening to ensure the ruby still floated on its pedestal, then I slammed it shut and dropped the box into my Domain.

We headed back up the stairs. "So, what did you mean by 'the deepest hollow'? Is that the name you all gave the hole to the lower realms?" I didn't know much about the vortex aside from the small amount I'd been told by the Lady, and I had to admit I was curious.

"It is," she nodded. "Though that description is…incomplete. For every reaction, there is a reaction. For every state, a balance. Tell me, what do you know of rising and sinking realms?"

I frowned, trying to construct a summary. "Well, not much. I know that this realm caps out at god rank, and that too MANY gods would cause it to be elevated to a higher rank, and to Ascend. Similarly, there are other realms below ours that are less powerful. I imagine they're something like lower level planets."

"Somewhat," she said slowly. "But also not at all. Lower planes aren't all less powerful. You HAVE seen a lower power version of a Universe, however. God realms are the nascent form of Universes. However, to consecrate a god realm, to entrench it in reality and allow it to grow, it must be planted in fertile soil. In higher planes, there are unique hidden realms that can serve this purpose, but for a god at a level of reality like this one, the only way to do this is a process called 'the sundering'.

"It's essentially the realm equivalent of shattering a soul." she explained. "You break a realm, then drop the pieces into a deeper plane. The requirements for a realm shard to take root and grow into even a low level plane are strict and complicated. Very few gods choose to undertake the sundering.

"But because of its existence, lower realms are often littered with shards of powerful god realms." her tone was solemn. She clearly thought we should be worried about this. "And not just god realms. The requirements to pass Overgod are even more stringent, and the incidence of sundering is even higher. One a realm takes root as a lower plane, it can Ascend as any other plane, and being the main deity of a universe grants many opportunities. In fact, it is the only known way to advance from Overgod to Worldgod."

I saw what she meant. "So not all the realms below are lower planes," I clarified. "Some of them are fragments of powerful realms. So if you could retrieve objects of power or domain seeds from places like that…"

"You would have a smooth path to Overgod, or even further," she nodded. "So take care. Not all the shattered gods biding their time in this vortex are here against their will. Some are merely lying in wait for an opportunity. And those won't hesitate to destroy anything that gets in their way." With that ominous proclamation, she turned and strode up the stairs, leaving us in the dark basement. We REALLY needed to find and stop Drexel, complete the ritual and leave. I was suddenly far less secure being in this damned Chasm.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took me about twenty minutes to get my head on straight. The various secrets Alara had let slip about the nature of reality were staggering, awe inspiring even…and functionally useless to me at the moment. Getting locked in on the forest and running face first into a tree was the exact opposite of what I needed to be doing right now.

Filing away the explosive information for later, I focused on what was important. The ritual.

Unfortunately, there were some problems. First was Deveskane. I'd fulfilled my promise to him, bringing the shard here and making introductions to Atlas, but according to Alara, the ritual couldn't be used to bring him back now. The blood drop had possessed more than enough energy to be used to fuel the ritual more than once…but that was originally. After who knew how long with Alara draining it to bring herself back and strengthen herself, there was only enough left for a single pass of the ritual.

Drexel, meanwhile, didn't have even that much. I wanted to assume that he couldn't pull off the ritual given his lack of resources, but his presence implied he had some other way of getting it done. Alara didn't know what it was, but we both agreed it couldn't be allowed to happen, which meant we needed to HURRY.

Finding the ritual chamber itself was surprisingly simple, and accessing it was even easier, but upon stepping inside, I found myself frozen in wonder at the sheer opulence of the chamber.

Noticing my shock, Alara smiled grimly. "This chamber was only in the beginning phases of construction when I died. Even I, who was privy to my father's plans to construct it, find the completed product awe inspiring. This is a grand working of Formation craft from a practitioner whose skill has reached the Divine Threshold. Even in a suppressed state, this location is a work of art the likes of which this universe has scarcely seen. Welcome, to the Orrery of Creation."

She spread her hands dramatically as she spoke, the gesture encompassing the entirety of the space, and despite the melodrama of the action, I couldn't bring myself to consider it overkill. Dramatic was the only way to reveal something like that.

The Orrery of Creation was…dizzying. A massive spherical room, every inch of it was covered with complicated scrollwork and symbols, engraved into a durable, shining brass I couldn't place, but that felt powerful and deadly. Among the rippling, turbulent space within the sphere, islands of calm floated, held aloft by currents of tightly controlled power so fine that I had to concentrate to see them, even with my powerful stats.

Within the islands, I could see sparkling stars and phantom planets, a tiny galaxy overlaid on space like some kind of holographic display. "Is this a chamber for resurrection or stargazing?" I asked skeptically as I glanced around. "It looks a bit…specific."

"The Orrery is a ritual chamber with many uses," she clarified. "The Astronomer, the Formation Divinity who designed it, was quite enamored with the warp and weft of the cosmic streams. He built this chamber to take advantage of the Void's malleable nature to connect a million points of reference to powerful realspace cosmic anchors. Every ritual performed here channels the natural flow and rhythm of an entire galaxy."

Staring into the phantom stars, I could see it. Like I was looking through space itself and finally drilling down to stare at an actual celestial body. Formations that used natural energy constructs to enhance power were pretty standard. Doing more with less was what Formation Mastery was all about.

But creating what amounted to a miniaturized spatial construct that connected an entire galaxy…I froze. I'd seen something like this before. On a much smaller scale, but very similar. A room that looked like a patch of space, all the way back on Callus. "Cosmic Witchcraft," I said aloud, my voice hushed. This was just like Stella's office, but scaled WAY up.

Alara blinked in surprise. "Tangentially," she admitted. "Energy is a part of reality. Ascendants, monsters, gods, all use the same core forces to manipulate this universe. We take different paths, but as you approach the peak of those paths, they begin to converge somewhat. Witchcraft is a useful and powerful discipline. Though in truth, it's a very broad designation for a large variety of different force application techniques, all of which have some common elements."

"Thaumaturgy," I nodded. "Symbolic linking. What happens to the small happens to the big."

"Even so," she confirmed. "Formation Mastery isn't witchcraft, because it acts as a CONDUIT to representation rather than using it directly. But as I said, at higher levels, paths converge. The peak of the formation path dips into the domain of witchcraft, and vice versa." She gestured around us. "This is the pinnacle of Formation crafting below the god rank. The Astronomer, despite reaching divinity in his skill, was no god. But he was about as close as one could get to being a true formation god without true ascension."

I nodded as I took it all in. "And this can be used to bring back Atlas? This ritual will allow us to do what the vanished gods did?"

"The Orrery is a tool. A type of metacraft that can be adjusted to many uses," she clarified. "It's not the ritual itself. It just massively streamlines and refines the process, allowing for the execution of rituals that would otherwise require specialized settings, times, and preparations. That said, this particular tool has already been preconfigured for the purpose we have in mind. We need only supply a few final ingredients." She gestured towards the center of the Orrery. "Can you see the locations where our ingredients need to be places? The flows of power outline the points of input, if you know how to look."

The sheer detail of the place was mindblowing. It was currently a C-rank construct, after so long being eroded and suppressed, but the foundations were still at the peak of S-rank. It was like my Wish power. Despite being ostensibly the same rank as other abilities at C-rank, Wish was a perfected bloodline ability inherited from a god. It was quantitatively the same, but qualitatively VERY different in terms of utility.

Even suppressed to C-rank, this construct was lightyears beyond anything I had ever seen in the field of formations. Its usage of power and application of force had reached a critical extreme that shouldn't have even been POSSIBLE at C-rank. It was just like with wishes. Perfect enough power application could create exponentially greater results than the sum of its parts.

Not to mention that this place was still made of S-rank material. Power usage might have been suppressed, but the actual physical device was able to withstand usage and concepts from far beyond its apparent strength.

Following the winding strands of power creating the phantom web that made up one layer of the formation hurt my brain, but I DID manage it eventually, and was able to identify the spots I needed to interact. I could see several, actually, but most of them seemed to have already been anchored to special materials or constructs. The last two were like gaping holes in the room, waiting to be filled with the powerful materials we brought.

The first up was the Eye. The gargantuan piece of divine remains I'd harvested into my Domain when we'd passed through the mausoleum, was ready to be inserted.

Luckily, the process for doing so was pretty straightforward. This whole place was basically one big maze of spatial warping and symbolic connections, which meant it could hold substantially more material than it appeared. Despite being bigger by a large margin than the sphere we currently stood inside (we were standing on a suspended deck about midway through the room), I was easily able to reach into my Domain and pull out the eye, tossing it from my own projected Domain (much more easily accessible due to what must be shielding from the spherical room) into the indicated space.

Rather than slot into some hole or shrink, I was shocked to see the object enter the spatial turbulence and move through the warping, dropping INTO the star that had been indicated. As that happened, the rest of the room came to life, beginning to shift and move, streams of power speeding up and interweaving in a series of dizzying patterns.

"The ruby," called Alara. "Add the power source, the Orrery is redirecting the cosmic forces to the star furnace. The eye has begun refinement!"

Cursing, I streaked across the room, dropping the box and flipping it open before tossing the faceted red gem into the central point of the Orrery, a black hole that acted as a funnel for the energy. As soon as it fell in, the dark void sparked with red energy, and the flows of power through the Orrery blazed to life.

Watching the interweaving matrices of energy spin up, I could see the process go into overdrive. I reached down and picked up the box, carrying it to the center of the platform we were standing on. This object of power would be the link between the ritual and Atlas.

I was about to set it down when my Danger Sense began SCREAMING. I hurled myself aside as a slice so absurdly powerful it looked like it could split the universe crashed over and rolled harmlessly off the durable bronze of the Orrery. I whirled to find a familiar form standing not far away, holding a long sword made of some kind of toxic looking green glass, a horrible glow in his eyes.

Sneering, I climbed to my feet, calling Dayna out and tossing her the box. "Get started. I've got this."

Drexel grinned sadistically. "Oh, do you? Do you 'got this', boy? Do you think yourself the equal to a god? I've blown specks of dust off my lapels with more relevance than you. And now that I have this body, I'm going to enjoy carving that fact into your very BONES."

I smiled back just as unpleasantly. "Maybe. And maybe fighting you would be a mistake. Luckily, I'm not going to be fighting you. At least not for the most part. I don't need to. Because while you might be a god, I'm something far, far greater. Something beyond your petty understanding, something that exists above your archaic and out of date worldview." I blustered as hard as I could, hitting every annoyance button I could think of for ancient, powerful creatures. It wasn't hard, there were a lot of them.

Sure enough, Drexel's eyes narrowed in arrogant dismissal, but he didn't attack. He wanted to know what I was talking about. "Oh, and what is this ineffable, inconceivable thing that I would have no knowledge of, child?"

"Well, I'm not sure what you guys called it back in your day," I said gleefully. "But we do have a simple word for it in this time. We call it 'a distraction'."

Say what you would about Drexel, but he wasn't stupid. As soon as he processed what I'd said, he reacted, beginning to spin to check behind him…but moving far too slow. Alara, with the grace of a pouncing jaguar, erupted from the shadows behind him, landing on his back. Her head went back, baring her unreasonably sharp fangs, and then plunged down, digging them into the throat of Drexel's host.

He screamed, jerking and twitching, but he wasn't down for the count. He grabbed her by the hair, hauled her forward, and HURLED her across the room as he howled. "KILL THEM ALL!"

There was a ripple in space, and a dozen or so forms exploded onto the scene from seemingly nowhere. Tall blue forms. With three heads. And six arms. Asura. I sighed as I spun up my staff, ready for a fight. "Oh hey," I called to Alara. "I guess you didn't kill them all." And then the fight was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Asura were scary. I mean, I'd KNOWN they were scary physically, having seen them dead on the floor in the City Lord's Mansion, but a dead Asura and a living Asura were very different things. The first thing they did was surround me completely, creating a wall of blue muscle around the spot I was standing, effectively locking me in place.

Grimacing, I started calling for my demons. Mornax, Abaddon, Dom, Sam, Oz, and a half dozen others. Once I had my actual physical reinforcements on hand, I started incarnating. Belial, Leviathan, and Zagan.

Oz shot me a quizzical look, clearly not seeing where I was going with this, but I ignored him as I prepared my offensive. My staff materialized, and I accessed the power of Belial, utilizing the ability to remotely manipulate my people as my staff struck out, subtly bumping and repositioning the demons into a seamless and coherent force. As my strikes landed, Belial's power poured of me, infecting them directly…but not with toxins.

The defensive fire of Leviathan and the cleansing flame of Zagan were carried through Belial's corruption, infusing my people with each tap. Their bodies we quickly covered with webs of green flame as Belial "corrupted" them, ensconcing them in a protective barrier of defensive fire.

It was the easiest way I could think of to protect them from Drexel's influence, but more than that, it allowed their bodies to carry the power of purification. Each hit did little to help purify Drexel from the Asura…on its own. But the more punches they landed the more the corruption spread.

Unfortunately, once I finished that little infusion, I realized that I couldn't exactly stick around to help. Despite her staggering power and confidence, Alara was having problems. Drexel was wielding the green glass blade in a blurring storm of malicious murder, patterns of deadly coruscating light blending into the air around him as he all but became an aurora.

Alara was skillfully weaving around the attacks, but the range advantage of the sword was keeping her at a distance, preventing her razor sharp claws from finding purchase. Smiling unpleasantly, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind the Mindplague's host, and unleashed the most brutal Extinction Event I could condense from my current power right into the base of his fucking skull at full force.

Sadly, I wasn't able to land it clean. He sensed the attack somehow and tried to move to avoid it, but the blow still caught him behind the ear, and he stumbled forward as the cleansing and protective flames discharged into his head like an exploding grenade. He stumbled to one side, dropping the glass sword as he tried to blink away to interference. Which I had been hoping for.

Drexel the Mindplague was a very similar mechanism to Belial, at the end of the day. Belial wasn't sentient in the same way, or I guess he was because he was a demon now, but regardless, they worked a BIT differently. Still, when combined with Leviathan and Zagan, Belial's corruption had become a purifying, protective force, essentially allowing it to corrupt his corruption, interfering with his control.

Alara, true to her vampiric nature, didn't waste the chance. With a primal scream of glee she hurled herself on him, savaging the god possessed swordsman with claw and fang as she did her best to ingest as much of his blood from the source as possible.

In fact, the drain from her initial attack had already seriously weakened him. For some reason, her draining was eroding not just his stats, but his stat LIMIT. He was getting weaker as she drank. Not much, but slightly, and it was adding up.

Now I could see why she was so sure of her ability to beat him. She WAS terrifying. Even beyond the draining, her combat skills were superb, her claws weaving webs of deadly consequence and her ever seeking fangs driving him deeper into her traps as she dismantled the divine puppet.

But alas, all good things must end. Drexel managed to get his footing (metaphorically, he'd been standing still the whole time) and with a roar of fury hurled the vampire off him as he dove for the sword. My staff flashed out, smashing into the hilt and sending it spinning across the platform. He whirled on me in a rage. "Insolent GNAT!" He screamed as he dove toward me.

I activated Double Trouble again, appearing behind him as he passed harmlessly through my illusory double. I stepped forward, lunging as I unleashed another attack. This time, I decided to go for something a bit different. Extinction Event worked fine because Belial's attacks were ostensibly damaging, but they were really meant to free Clarent from his prison of flesh, or at least force Drexel to deal with him more directly.

The butt of my staff slammed into the turning head of the surprised godhost, specifically, the temple, and this time it all poured out in a single pulse of soul purifying healing as I unleashed my Genesis Burst.

Drexel went stumbling, screaming as he clutched his face. One eye blazed the purifying green of Zagan as he started to hack and cough up green flame infused blood. He glared at me hatefully, about to attack again, only for a cackling vampire to plummet from above and land on his back, bearing him down to the floor as she tore back into his neck.

It didn't take him near as long to get out of her hold this time, hurling her across the floor, and he surged to his feet with a scream of "ENOUGH!"

He threw his hands up into the air and a wave of stifling darkness erupted from his body, washing over the chamber. I could see the glow of bronze beneath us, the ritual chamber itself clearly all but ignoring the assault, but it did its job. It rendered me incapable of seeing. Cursing, I dismissed Mornax back to the Domain and activated his incarnation, reinforcing my body with the ultimate defense even as SOMETHING landed on the small of my back with a horrendous screech.

Cursing, I clutched at my armor, which had been sheared through, and felt blood dripping from the wound. Energy flooded into me from the injury, inundating my cells. I was terrified for a moment…until I felt something else. Something deep inside my body. Hunger. My bloodline's hunger for power of the same kind.

My lips peeled back into a triumphant snarl. This fucking IDIOT had the brought Cosmic Phoenix Cinder out of the tower. He was trying to use it to KILL me. I could feel his corruption of the object, clearly one of his own objects of power. The whole thing had been a trap, meant to trick me into taking his artifact with me if I somehow got away.

But while it WAS an item infused with the Mindplague, it was also a Cinder, or rather, a FEATHER, of a Cosmic Phoenix. And the Cosmic Phoenix recognized its own in me. The six drops of phoenix blood ignited, burning away the cobwebs of Mindplague corruption that had been seeping in past my defenses. Like a match being dropped in liquor, my phoenix blood BURNED.

An unearthly avian screech erupted through the chamber as I threw my head back and screamed, waves of cascading flames sending a paroxysm of agony through my body. I felt a white hot stab of pain too faint to notice, and then another, as the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art operated without direction. It took me a second to figure out what was happening, and when I did I almost laughed.

He was stabbing me. Over and over again, trying to kill me, and every thrust of the blade drove more of that power into me. The divine corruption was burned off as a fuel source, used to power my pain and impart the meaning of sacrifice as it poured into me. I could see my blood burning on the sword, and he finally noticed, screaming and dropping it to the ground in disbelief.

There was a rippling crash of soundless thunder as something inside the weapon broke, and another phoenix cry erupted from the weapon as the flames blazed up, purifying the tainted god's influence as the glass sword faded to a bright azure blue.

I was confused what had happened, until I looked around and saw the blazing stars, and almost fell over laughing. This was a COSMIC Orrery. The whole place was designed to allow access to huge areas of space for ritual purposes. Between my blood, my flames, and this place, not to mention the dimensional suppression, all the ingredients for the phoenix ember's freedom were present.

Even the transformation into a divine artifact was limited by the vortex, and at merely C-rank, it became a matter of quality. The combination of factors had conspired to cleanse the taint of the Mindplague from the ember entirely, essentially destroying the artifact I was pretty sure he planned to use for resurrection.

More than that though, the explosion of purifying force had created a shockwave that had stripped the Mindplague's influence from the chamber, or at least from the beings inside it. THe Asura, Clarent, all freed as their bodies were cleansed by the high level purifying fire.

The light flared up, and above us, cast across the vastness of space, I saw a terrible shadowy form. "You. Will. Pay." Drexel hissed, before that fragment was wiped away by the pulse of purification.

That was scary, but I didn't have time for that right now. I was overflowing with power. Seven drops. Eight. Nine. The template condensed and the power kept flooding. The first drop of the second template, the Cosmic Phoenix template, condensed on its own before the power burned itself out, leaving me gasping and twitching on the floor.

Not that I was there for long. As the first template snapped into place, I felt a was of vital energy roll through my body, soothing aching muscles and washing away pain. Vitality. The modified for my first template was here. Three times the effective Vitality. I was lucky too, because this was my Vitality suppressed to low C-rank. Adjusting here would be much easier. Still, I felt energized as I sat up, body humming with power.

Alara appeared beside me, eyebrow raised. "Did you do that on purpose?" she asked suspiciously. "Or did you just get stabbed a bunch of times and get lucky?"

"I think…both?" I said slowly. "If I hadn't been using that exact combination of powers when he got me it wouldn't have worked. I think the superposition of the demons made it possible for the cinder to count that whole thing as a ritual and channel the power from the chamber." I blinked. "Oh shit, the chamber. Did it use up the blood drop?"

She shook her head. "Not enough to matter. It only had enough for a single use, but it wasn't EXACTLY enough for a single use. There was excess, and the power withdrawal was minimal." Her eyes flicked over to the altar, where the box had started to warp and shudder in space as the star forge where the eye had ended up emitted a cloud of concentrated divine power, a fog of shimmering gold energy the likes of which I'd never seen before.

After I picked up and stashed away the Ember in my ring, we walked over to the altar to stand next to Dayna, who was standing guard. None of the Asura would dare interfere now that they were cleansed, and Clarent was gone. Drexel had almost definitely infected more than just the ones he brought, which meant he was loose now, but Atlas would be back soon, and once he was…well, he could handle the Mindplague. As the gold mist infused the black coffin shaped box, I felt my lips peel back in victorious glee. This was almost over.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, how does this work, exactly?" I asked, I asked as the golden mist soaked into the coffin. "Like I have some small grasp on how Domains work, but everyone just tells me it's advanced stuff and not to worry about it. Now that I have my OWN Domain though, I'm curious to hear where I got from here. What IS an object of power exactly, and how does it work?"

Alara hummed with interest, shooting me an assessing look. "It's simple enough. You are aware, of course, of Domain Seeds?"

I nodded. "Yeah, they're like…fragments of a Domain that can be used by weaker Ascendants to start their own. I know a few gods who used divine Domain seeds to lay their own path for future advancement." I paused. "Though how they managed that I'm not sure, since I heard taking a path already taken by a god is a dead end."

"Only if that god is still extant," she corrected. "Dead gods that have faded from memory can't soak up renown. That said, using Domain Seeds to create your Domain has other issues. But yes, your understanding is essentially correct. A Domain Seed is a crystallization of a Domain, a condensation of all the power of that Domain into a tangible shape. This process is undertaken to harvest "worldforce", a unique force native to realms that can be used to solidify a Domain into a god realm."

I nodded along. "Ok, and objects of power contain worldforce?"

"Precisely," she confirmed. "That short sword you cleansed contained worldforce, for example. However, it didn't contain very much. I assume the god who created it took the quantity approach."

That sounded familiar. "What do you mean, quantity approach?" I asked. "I was told that the less objects of power you have, the better."

She waggled a hand. "It's somewhat complicated. In order to solidify a realm, worldforce is required. The more worldforce, the better, and there are thresholds. Condensing a Domain Seed takes time, and energy, and having a more powerful Domain means you have to do it fewer times to reach the threshold of conversion. This has the added benefit of making your realm more stable. Objects of Power can also be referred to as foundational pillars. The fewer pillars, the more durable they each are, and the more difficult to destroy.

"But you can go in the other direction," she continued. "If you condense a great many foundational pillars, your realm is more stable because there are more of them. They're easier to destroy, but destroying one has much less of an effect on your realm. This is not a commonly taken path, because as mentioned, it takes time to condense a Domain Seed, and even more time to merge it into an item to create a foundational pillar. You need a LOT of foundational pillars to offset the downsides, so most people take the quality approach. Quantity is mostly for gods who possess some means of propagation. Swarm types and the like."

Which explained why Drexel would do it, and why I'd been able to cleanse that worldforce, because there was so little of it. But I was getting off track. I pointed to the coffin. "So, the worldforce in that thing is part of the ritual?"

"It is," nodded my wife's new sister. "Gods become one with their worlds, merging the foundational pillars into the Saga which has become one with the body. The process of apotheosis is complicated, but you could say that worldforce is the lifeblood of a deity. When their souls shatter and their realms are dispersed, only fragments that remain connected to foundational pillars keep their form. Those that lose connection with their pillar resume the form of divine remains, while the pillar is lost in the void."

"So, the ritual is draining the worldforce out of the object and infusing it into the divine remains to create a new divine body?" I asked, trying to put everything together. It was a complicated process. "What about the object itself, will it be destroyed?"

She shook her head. "No. The object was created to be fused with a realm. In fact, that particular object is already fused with THIS realm fragment, and is the foundation of this city. You could consider it the glue that combines soul fragments with realm fragments, reforging a divine whole. The fragment in question will need to be summoned through my sister's sword, which will be your task, using your bond."

"So, basically we're turning this city into a god world?" I puzzled out slowly. "And then…what? Atlas will move it?"

This was complicated, but I was starting to get at least a basic idea of how it all worked. To my surprise though, apparently I didn't have it ALL down. "Not immediately," she corrected. "My father will need to regain his strength. The process won't be too lengthy, given his age and experience, but this is an optimal place to perform it. With all of us suppressed to C-rank, all that matters is combat standards. Between the two of us, even an army of enemy gods or Void Children would be incapable of shaking us."

Which meant it would be some time before they could help us with the Void directly. Still, their existence meant Morwenna would be unwilling to commit to an all out war, and would probably direct most of her forces here to try to assassinate Atlas before he regained his full strength.

The golden mist started to thin, and Alara let out a slow breath. "Alright, it's time. Invoke my sister, if you would."

I did so, reaching out for Callie. I knew she'd want to be here for this, even if she couldn't stay too long. The shadows nearby coalesced into the image of my wife, and I nodded to her solemnly. "It's time," I told her.

To be honest, I'd assumed we wouldn't NEED the sword if we had the coffin, and that Atlas had switched so he wouldn't need to deprive Callie of her weapon. Now that I knew about worldforce, I was pretty sure that was PARTLY true, but we still needed Gossamer as a focal point to summon the fragment of Atlas.

Which was apparently what we'd been doing this whole time. Using the gem as a gateway to access the soul fragment. An ability Atlas had purposefully forged into the sword for just such an occasion. I hated working with gods sometimes. Their foresight often made me head hurt, and it was hard to tell how much of it was actual prediction and how much was just bullshit they made up on the fly and brute forced by being absurdly powerful.

Callie let out a loud sigh and called for Gossamer. I could have done it, like we'd discussed originally, but after the big family reunion reveal, I got the impression she wanted to be involved. I didn't mind having her here with me for this either.

Gossamer appeared in her hand, the black blade infused with blue black flame, the power shining through like a soap bubble. Reaching out with the sword, she tapped it on the coffin, and the gem in the pommel flared deeply with a dark blue light. There was a shuddering wave of energy, and the coffin lid slammed shut as the blue energy mixed with the remnants of the gold mist.

A spark erupted from the gem, traveling down the length of the blade and shooting into the coffin, the combination of mist and energy catching fire as a familiar blue black flame consumed the box.

The chamber around us shifted, stars reconfiguring as the energy of a galaxy was funneled through the blood drop, soaking the illusory night sky with an endless sea of bloody light. Then the energy was sucked into the coffin, the flames flaring into a column of black fire like someone had tossed a bottle of vodka onto it, and the box began to shake. It went on for about ten minutes, and then the blaze started to die down, slowly guttering out to leave just the box, hot enough to resemble a piece of burning coal.

Slowly, inexorably, the lid began to lift, a single, long arm pushing it open. From inside, a familiar form emerged, sitting up as if drawn by an outside force. For the first time, I could SEE Adam Atlas. Before, his eyes had drawn my gaze like black holes, sucking in my attention so I couldn't process the rest of him, but here, under the suppression of the Chasm, his true form was revealed.

He was…tall. Like unnaturally tall. Eight feet or so, at least based on what I could see of him. His body was lanky and densely muscled, and very pale, to an almost unnatural degree. His skin was covered in dark, complicated tattoos, winding themselves around him like some kind of enchantment, and they MOVED like they were alive.

His hair was pitch black, with blue undertones, like Callie's, and it was long and lank, hanging to mid back or so. The beard he sported was the same blue-black color, and it framed an angular face of harsh lines. In every other context I'd seen him in, my impression of Atlas, at least as much of an impression as I could form, was kind, but here…it was like looking at a tiger in person instead of on a screen. It looked the same, but the impression was VERY different.

Turning slowly to look at us, his keeps peeled back from perfectly straight teeth. "My children," he boomed in a baritone so deep I didn't think you would ever find the bottom if you threw in a penny. "I am returned."

Callie snorted, trying to cover her shakiness with snark as usual. "Put some pants on, you're embarrassing yourself. Honestly, grown man sitting around with no shirt on in the middle of the day."

He stared for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Apologies, Calliope, you're right." He climbed out of the coffin, revealing that yes, he WAS eight feet tall. Even I felt tiny in comparison. He was wearing a sort of loincloth that showed the tattoos on his legs, but a snap of his fingers replaced it with a magnificent suit of black glazed armor. It reminded me of Gossamer, actually. That same soap bubble blackness. "Yes, that's much better," he chuckled as he leaned back against the box.

After a slight wait, he opened his eyes. "Thank you," he told us all. "You've done splendidly. Driving off the interloper was well done. Though your release of the vessel was…unfortunate."

"Clarent?" I said in confusion. "I mean, he was just freed from D-the other one's control. He should be pretty unwilling to start trouble. I'd imagine he's probably just going to go home, I know I would after an ordeal like that."

"He might have," the ancient god nodded. "Were he in possession of his own faculties. Unfortunately, you have forgotten the first rule of vessels. When you empty one out, there is still room inside for it to be refilled, have you a substitute on hand for its contents. You brought such a substitute along on this journey, did you not?"

I blinked at him, and then my eyes widened. I checked my ring, cursing as I realized what was missing. "Deveskane," I cursed. "The fragment overheard us say we wouldn't be able to resurrect him. He took Clarent's body after we emptied it out. Can he do that?"

He sighed. "Sadly, yes. The act of hosting a deity alters the fundamental nature of a being. A true vessel is stained by their experience in a way that is not so easy to cleanse as this. The door was open, he simply needed to walk through." He waved me off. "It is not your fault. You had no way of knowing, and that one was old and clever. I am unsure of his purpose though I suspect we will become aware soon enough. Until then, let us make haste to the receiving hall," he beamed at us. "My family is united. Tonight, we FEAST!"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I was surprised to find a meal waiting for us when we arrived at the receiving hall. I'd been planning to cook myself, but apparently some of those Asura were chefs, and they'd left the hall immediately after being freed to prepare a meal for the return of their god. I eyed the three faced blue people suspiciously, not sure how well they would stack up to my cooking demon, but when I dug into the food, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

Callie, meanwhile, wasn't really here. The clone could eat, and even taste, but it wouldn't receive any of the benefits from the food, which appeared to be chock full of restorative energy that filled my body with humming power.

Luckily, I still had the connected spatial ring I'd gotten all those months ago, though it didn't see as much use lately. I stashed her food in the ring and she took manual control over the clone while eating it on her side. Just to make things more realistic she even made a shadow meal for the clone to eat. It was honestly kind of adorable, but I didn't bring it up because I knew she just relished the idea of a family dinner like this.

"Ok, this is really good," I said as I took a bite of the crimson steak on my plate. "What exactly is this?"

Atlas grinned widely. "Tarasque meat. Sadly, it wasn't kept quite as well stored as it might have been in my Heart of the Void. Under constant exposure to the maximum output of the Chasm, it's been ground down to C-rank. The flavor is still excellent, but it's a bit less nourishing than one might expect from such a creature." His eyes scanned me with interest. "You're practicing a body tempering art?"

I nodded. It wasn't surprising Atlas knew about body tempering. The old man had said it was something of a lost art, but Atlas was OLD. He nodded approvingly. "Excellent. This should help your progress. Body tempering is about cyclical creation and destruction. Proper nourishment is critical to advancing."

"Ok, but I haven't really been eating anything special and I've made it to this point fine," I pointed out. "Not that I don't appreciate the help, but where have my current nutrients been coming from? Is it just the life energy from my Life Nova flames?"

He chuckled. "You have nutrients stored in your body. Most people call them toxins, the parts of elixirs that can't be broken down. Yours are almost gone, actually, probably burned off in that big rush of advancement. I'm surprised, usually someone as strong as you at your age would have quite a bit of stored nutrients."

"I…uh, had them cleansed," I said slowly. "I was under the impression they were a bad thing?"

"To most," he acknowledged. "Any excessive dosage of cure is poison. Without a way to process them, I doubt it's desirable to have such things in the body. It's like taking vitamins to address a deficiency you don't have. You can overdo it."

The Lady had purified all my excess toxins back during my trials, but I'd taken more elixirs since then. I still had plenty of them leftover after taking my D-rank dosage. Speaking of…"I don't suppose you have access to some elixirs?" I asked hopefully. "I'm coming up on B-rank, and I'm not sure where I'd get my hands on the kind of volume we need. "

Ideally I'd get enough for Benny and Jessie, maybe Abel too, but it seemed too greedy to ask him to stock all of us. Callie was his daughter and I was his son and law, plus we just saved his ass, so I felt ok about at least bringing it up, but I didn't want to push my luck.

Fortunately, he looked pleased. "I'm sure we can scrounge something up. Do you think that'll be enough to get you all the way to B-rank?"

"It...actually might," I chuckled. "I'm at around seven and a half million. Another million will put me at eight point five million, and I wouldn't be surprised if I can net another half million when I process it all. That would put me at nine million, only one shy of the peak. I could be at B-rank any day now, it shouldn't take too much longer."

I also needed to condense a few pages of my Chronicle. I'd accomplished a few biggies here, and it would help prepare for B-rank, when I needed a hundred of the damned things to progress. Considering how long Zeke had been stuck there, I wanted to be as prepped as possible, because I had no illusions that it would be simple to get through to A. And that wasn't even considering the actual stat cost.

Callie sighed sourly. "Damn it, I need to get started making a name for myself out here. I've been doing too much training." She glared at me. "This is your fault, I'd be getting way stronger if you hadn't arranged a babysitter."

"Or you'd be dead," I pointed out cheerfully. "And you wouldn't be getting very strong at all if that happened." My smile dropped. "I'm not apologizing for wanting you safe. The war front is dangerous. I have the resources to make sure you have insurance, and I'm damned sure going to use it. Or would you be happy letting me run off to risk my neck in a war zone?"

She flinched at that. "No," she admitted. "I get it, and you're not wrong. I just…" her jaw clenched. "We're partners. We do this together. Seeing you pull ahead so fast just reminds me of how out of my depth you are. How much danger you're in where I can't reach you."

I reached across the table to take her hand, giving it a squeeze. "I need you for more than just stabbing things. And besides, we're going the same place. Even if I get there first, I'll just be waiting when you arrive. We're going to be gods together, Cal. You and me for the rest of eternity. Even if I have to rank up this godsdamned universe myself to make it easier."

Her smile was like a shot of warm sweetness injected directly into my heart. A rumbling laugh cut out moment. Atlas was grinning. "You see," he told Alara. "Look at them. I'm expecting grandchildren any day now."

"Oh don't YOU start too," Callie snapped. "I get enough of that from Sasha." She gave me a flat look. "Your mother's subtle hints have become less subtle and less hinting. I think she's worried I'm going to get killed before we can have kids. She keeps making comments about how pretty my hair would be with green eyes."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Yeah, I'll talk to her when I get back. So, Alara, what are your plans? You're going to be staying to guard Atlas while he recovers, right?"

"At LEAST call me Adam," laughed the big god. "I can't abide family being so formal. And no. Alara will be heading for the the battlefront." The vampire looked up sharply, obviously unaware of the plan. "I've just decided," he said serenely. "Your sister needs a hand, and I think Morwenna needs a reminder of exactly what an Atlas can do."

Despite the surprise, I could see a spark of eagerness in Alara's eyes. Still, I had my own concerns. "There is the matter of the current reigning S-rank champion. He doesn't play well with vampires." I'd been counting on Atlas to back him off, but if the elder god was stuck here for the time being, Alara would be on her own. I could offer her protection with the WCP, but none of the S-rankers in the Palace would cross Lark, and I REALLY didn't want to see them fight.

He chuckled. "I'll get in contact with this vampiric young man. I may not be leaving anytime soon, but I do still have methods of extending my reach. Besides, I'll be sending my agents out into the world to retrieve my other soul shards and realm fragments, not to mention my other foundational pillars. I could recover without them, or dissolve them at a distance, but this will be much faster."

Which answered the question of why the hell I'd been SENT here. The Lady was going to use the world force in the Tale of Nine Cats to reforge a piece of her realm. She must have already collected the soul shard and realm fragment she needed.

As for his agents…I glanced over at the dozen Asura stationed around the room. As far as I could tell, they were the last of their kind, but they were nothing to sneeze at. Not all of them had the full three faces, telling me they weren't fully grown into the S-rank Alara had mentioned they would become, but some of them were. Not to mention they weren't your average S-rankers. Even without him and Alara, Atlas had the makings of a peak faction in this room.

Alara turned to smile fiercely at Callie. "Don't worry little sister. I don't care how famous he is, he can't compare to being the representative of a god." Atlas cleared his throat and leaned over to mutter in her ear. She coughed and blushed slightly. "Oh. Well, still. I'll ensure your speedy rise. And you'll have those elixirs even if I need to make them myself. I was always a dab hand at alchemy." She winked. "Good luck with brewing, you know."

My wife beamed at her, and I felt a burst of warmth through the bond. She felt… safe. Cared for. By me, but also by Atlas and Alara. Callie's mom had raised her, but she'd run away from home at a young age to live on her own. She'd never really had…this. She didn't have any older siblings or even a dad really.

Having been raised by uncle and getting to meet my mom and sister as an adult, I could deeply sympathize, and I was so happy for her that she got to experience that. I nodded to both of them. "We appreciate the elixirs. Really. I'll need it if I want to get caught up on stats."

Atlas gave me an odd look. "You have that…Wish ability, yes?"

I nodded, but explained. "There's a limit to how many stats I can accept or transfer with my wishes. I need to improve myself over time to enable me to gather more per wish."

"Improve yourself…physically," he said in an insinuating tone. "Improve your bodily foundations in a way that prepares your flesh to conduct more energy, perhaps?" His smile was knowing, as if he was in on a joke that I wasn't…I froze.

"The body tempering art?" I said in a daze. "Damn it why didn't I THINK of that?" I was so used to the idea that I would gradually accrue strength that would enable to raise my wish limit. But thinking back, it wasn't the soul that needed to improve. My stats, my physical body, were the limiters on my wishes. The body tempering art was MADE to improve that. To prepare my body for fusion with my Domain and soul.

I hadn't checked on my stat cap in a while, just assuming it was the same. I'd meant to check after my big stat boost recently, but didn't have anyone on hand to trade with besides maybe Dayna.

Alara just laughed, reaching over to pat me on the shoulder. "We've all had moments of missing the obvious, little brother. Tomorrow, before you leave, I'll prepare your elixirs. We can try to get you as close to B-rank as possible. You'll need every advantage to keep up with my sister once I'm there to help." I laughed, digging back into my food to prepare for more training. Just because I wanted Callie to catch up didn't mean I wouldn't fight to keep my advantage. At least for a little while.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I wanted to take the elixirs as soon as she gave them to me, but I knew that would be a bad idea. The next morning I stockpiled the day's scrolls and we headed out. I'd already delayed my return to Mourne Kayze to come help Atlas, and the Lady was waiting for me to get back. With Atlas still trapped in the Chasm, I knew that the most important thing was to make sure Morwenna didn't get any more gods on her side.

Making our way out was easier than expected, but I was somewhat concerned about Clarent and Deveskane. The swordmaster had chased us here hoping to kill us, and while I HADN'T actually betrayed the sealing god, things hadn't gone the direction I think he was hoping for.

Despite my concerns though, he didn't show up directly. Just in case, Alara decided to escort us out directly, so I took the time to share my concerns and report everything I'd seen. My sister-in-law was clearly experienced and well educated in Ascendant matters, or at least the ones that had existed in her time. She knew a lot about gods and their abilities, and after hearing my description, she formulated her own theory about what the Hermetic Hall really was.

"It's a storage device," she clarified. "Did you wonder why Deveskane went to the trouble of traveling around and sealing the various objects, and then allowing others to undergo trials to release them?"

I nodded slowly. "I mean…I did. But I guess I just assumed he was a rare example of an altruistic god."

She snorted. "There ARE altruistic gods, but their Domains are BASED on that altruism. Always remember that gods are the manifestation of a concept. Of a path. Gods obey their NATURE in all things. They may direct and even focus that nature, but you can always predict how a god will act based on their Domain. A god of sealing will seal, this is natural, but as for the second step? The trials? What's the logic there?"

I thought for a minute, but couldn't come up with anything. "I'm not sure," I admitted. "You said it's a battery?"

"I'm almost positive," she nodded. "You see, Domains work on certain principles. Deveskane is a god of sealing, and can seal items, but he can't UNSEAL them, because he isn't a god of UNSEALING. However, he CAN alter the parameters of that sealing, to align with certain truths of ownership. Items of power can only be used by those with a connection to a god. So, by manipulating the parameters of his seal to align with this natural truth, he can create circumstances by which one can unseal those items."

That made sense, but didn't explain the battery comment. "But if that's the case, what is the battery for? What is he storing?"
"In a word? He's storing the unsealing," she clarified. "That which is can also be that which is not. He can sense and manipulate the energies of sealing, and therefore can also sense their absence. He can't manipulate the absence, but he can create it through other means, and then harvest it."

I frowned. "But…if he was harvesting that unsealing power, why would he try to get me to bring him out? Unless he was finished? That seems a little coincidental in terms of timing."

"When it comes to gods, there are no coincidences," she said bluntly. "But this, I suspect, is not an example of manipulation or precognition so much as patience. I expect he'd achieved his goal well before your arrival. Utilizing that power, which was antithetical to his Domain, probably required a physical form. When you did not provide one, he took the opportunity to acquire his own."

"What could he be trying to unseal?" I asked uneasily. "Especially here, after what Adam told us…"

She nodded. "It could be almost anything," she admitted. "I suspect we won't be aware of the exact nature of his target until he reaches it. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it when it appears. I wouldn't worry too much, however. The Chasm itself seals its contents. Anything unsealed from its depths won't remain in the Void, it'll break through to realspace directly when unleashed."

I let out a sigh of relief. That meant even if something happened before we could leave the Chasm we would be fine, and even once we left we'd still be in the Void and could avoid the problem for the moment. I had enough trouble in my life without whatever fresh hell Deveskane was planning to unleash. Part of me felt guilty for that. He'd obviously needed me to do…whatever this was, but I couldn't worry about that when I was already trying to prevent/win a war and reforge an entire clan of lunatics.

"So, you're heading to meet up with Callie after you see us out?" I asked Alara as we walked. The others were in my Domain, since Alara's luck aura could be pushed to one other person with effort but wouldn't work for more. "I already passed her those elixirs you made us, so she should have made some serious progress by the time you get there."

Between a million points and whatever renown she'd been farming at the war front, not to mention a serious bump in potential stat points per scroll and the nearly two hundred of the things I had on me, she'd be getting almost as close to B-rank as I was.

I thought of Benny and Jessie, training on Stratholme with the others, Benny learning to work with his new dragon and Jessie's reputation for immense Vitality growing with ever story told. I wondered how long it would be before THEY hit B-rank. I made a note to send over some scrolls directly as soon as Callie ranked up. It would take them a while, but I wanted to get the team back together as soon as humanly possible.

The rest of the trip out of the Chasm was surprisingly low key. The further we went, the more power Alara could use, and the better the insurance of traveling with her. To my amusement, she spent the entire time asking me questions about Callie, wanting to learn as much about her new sister as possible. It was clear that her time in the coffin had been lonely, and she was eager for some kind of human connection. With her father (the only living person she knew most likely) trapped here for the foreseeable future, Callie and I were likely her only link to the world outside. Her obvious intention to dote on my wife was endearing, and I found myself sharing plenty of funny but inconsequential stories as we traveled.

Finally, we reaching the outer ring of Void Road, and it was time to say goodbye. She escorted me up to the path we'd taken down from Mourne Kayze, but when we arrived, she had to be on her way. "Are you sure you know the path?" I asked her worriedly. "Callie isn't exactly close by."

She waved me off. "The Chasm is the deepest point of the Void. From here, you can travel almost anywhere. My father made inquiries before we left, and gave me a map I can use to reach my sister. You need not worry for me," she grinned fiercely. "I am not so easily dissuaded by outside forces."

I started to laugh, but before I could respond verbally, I felt something new. Shaking. It took me a second to realize why the nearly indestructible Void Roads SHOULDN'T be shaking, and my eyes snapped up, scanning the outline of the nearby area…before finding them drawn to the central Chasm. The massive exploding riot of colors and light had changed, roiling with large swathes of red and black as a strange circle composed of complex symbols constructed itself from the leaking excess power.

A sense of pressure erupted from the center of the Chasm, driving me and Alara both to our knees as we watched the circle begin to open. "So," I ground out. "What are the chances this ISN'T related to the sealing god I let loose in a random body?"

From inside the opening circle, something began to emerge. A spire of some kind, so immense it was hard for me to take it in even at this distance. As it rose, I was able to dial in my gaze a bit more and finally see what I was looking at. Which was…a clocktower. Just an absolutely massive clocktower with a small (relative to itself) building complex at the base. Even from this distance, it was crushing my flat in a way I couldn't really comprehend, and it wasn't until Alara whispered a single word that I understood why.

"Overgod," muttered my sister-in-law in horrified awe. "That's an Overgod ruin. How? Why? Bringing that here…what is he trying to…" her eyes widened. "Regression?" she whispered. "He's a sundered. He wasn't expecting you to resurrect him. He was planning this all along. He needed to take a new physical form to take advantage of the ruins. It's a legacy trial."

There was a burst of power as an explosive force rocked the Void, sending us both skidding away from the Chasm as the clocktower burst upwards, exploding from the Chasm like a rocket achieving liftoff.

Something in the Void CRACKED as it burst through, vanishing into what I assumed was realspace with a rumble of ominously quaking space.
We stared in awe at the space where it had been as the circle slowly closed and vanished back into the primordial soup of the Chasm. "What just happened?" I rasped to Alara. "What did he DO?"

She swallowed audibly. "He excavated a ruin…it's not…it shouldn't be possible to do that. Not a ruin like that. He must be a sundered Overgod. He descended from above for a chance to become a Worldgod." Her eyes flicked to me, large and haunted. "This is bad. Sundering is necessary to descend into the primary planes, but not to descend to this one. You can still DO it, but it's not a vital step."

I blinked at her in confusion. "Ok, but why does that matter?"

"Because Overgod inheritances are rare and precious, and if another Overgod sundered himself to find this one, it has to be something special even among them." Seeing I still didn't get it, she sighed. "That means that other forces will be interested in it. Higher forces. Forces who can now REACH the legacy trial without sundering themselves. No actual Overgods, thankfully, this plane can't hold them, but powerful gods and their offspring can descend to attempt the trial."

My blood ran cold. "You're saying that we don't need to worry about the vanished gods Ascending this plane, because the Ascended gods are going to be coming HERE?"

She hesitated. "Maybe not many of them. Not at first. If the plane Ascends, the legacy will be dragged back down. They won't risk it. Probably just a few actual gods. But below that…armies, maybe. This plane is about to see an influx of power the likes of which I've never even dreamt of."

I grimaced. I wasn't sure how this could possibly get worse for us…which was, of course, almost an invitation for my wife's voice to ring through my head. "Um…Shane?" Callie's thought speech intruded into my own panic spiral tentatively. "Judging by the timing of the spike of fear I just got from you, I'm assuming you can explain the giant clocktower that just appeared on the war front?"

My mind went blank. The legacy had entered realspace…on the frontline of the Void War. Deveskane had just thrown a stick of dynamite into the muddy waters of the God War and Void War both, and I had no clue what we were going to do about it. I closed my eyes and took a long, slow breath. This was why I didn't like going on trips. Terrible shit always happened when I wandered off on my own.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After the big shakeup, I spent the next few hours calming down my wife. Well. I say calming down, but I was mostly just convincing her not to run off on her own to try to do the trial. After explaining to her that this wasn't going to be a one or even a two person mission, I talked her into staying put until I got there, then I legged it back to Mourne Kayze at top speed.

It only took us ten days this time, in a rush as we were. We'd already made the trip before, so I didn't need a guide, and was able to keep the others in the Domain and just book it at top speed.

When I arrived, I was greeted by one of the Lady's representatives who escorted me directly to her. Unlike the last time, she didn't bother with subtlety, ordering me brought directly before her, even sending an S-ranker as my guide, a powerful member of the Order of Mercy I had never met named Savannah. She escorted us directly to the peak of the castle, to the throneroom where I'd met with the Lady last time.

To my surprise, we weren't the only ones there. Lady Gwendolyn was in attendance, looking serene as ever, though her eyes were hard and cold as arctic diamonds. The Lady nodded to me as I arrived, but didn't speak, waiting for several other people to arrive.

"Come forward," she said finally, ignoring everyone as she focused directly on me. I sensed a touch of impatience in her voice, and that one small tic made this whole situation a lot clearer. She was establishing her authority to hurry things along. Presumably she was going to propose an alliance to explore the ruins. That was fine with me.

I stepped forward, ignoring the gaze of the various S-rankers as I approached. I considered kneeling, but I was the Wishmaster. If this alliance was going to work out, I needed to be on at least somewhat equal footing with her. I nodded deeply, then reached into my Domain and withdrew the Tale of Nine Cats. I heard several inhalations of breath, and a rumbling voice echoed through the chamber. "Wait, don't-" I held out the whip and the Lady flicked her hands, the world warping as it vanished from my grip, appearing in hers.

As soon as it landed in her palm, there was a thunderous crash of sound above us, noise so loud it shook the stone of the castle, and the world shifted slightly in a way I hadn't ever experienced before.

After that, it ended. The man who had spoken, a tall, raven haired guy with a shaved head and a beard I hadn't seen before, stepped forward, eyes wide with panic.

When he saw the Lady holding the whip though, he froze, his eyes locked on the object of power. The Lady's eyes turned to him slowly. "I'm sorry, Sheridan, did you have something you wanted to say?"

He swallowed hard. "N-no, of course not, Milady. I was simply concerned for your safety. This unknown child clearly summoned a weapon in your presence."

"That's true," she said casually as she flicked the object back and forth lazily. "I can understand your concern. In fact, you've been VERY concerned with my affairs lately, haven't you? Giving your opinion on all sorts of important topics. You even arranged for our little guest here to see me in person." She gestured at Gwendolyn the Void Vessel. "Tell me, do you have any MORE concerns about my business? Maybe some good advice?"

Sheridan stepped back, or at least he tried to. As he stepped, space warped around him, cancelling the movement directly as it countered his attempt to flee. He looked around, panicked, and reached behind his back to withdraw a small, darkly stained wooden mallet.

"Of course not, your ladyship," he said as he looked around for some sort of support. When nothing was forthcoming, his face hardened. "I've said everything that needs to be said," his arm blurred as he raised the hammer to strike…but it never came down. Felicity appeared in front of him casually, so fast I was PRETTY sure she'd teleported, and flicked the Tale of Nine Cats. The space between them sort of…shimmered, and the shards of glass along the strips of leather flashed out and dug into and then through Sheridan, cleaving heavy wounds into a barely visible mirrored silhouette under his skin.

He froze, his form locking up and twitching. She didn't stop. Her arm blurred another twelve times, and his body was wracked with pain as she hit him. Clearly whatever she was doing was NOT the same thing I could do, but once she was done, she held out a hand for the hammer. He passed it to her blankly, his face smooth and empty, then strode over to her throne to stand beside it, back so straight it must have been uncomfortable.

The Lady rolled the mallet between her fingers casually as she walked back to sit on the throne casually. "Maya?" she called sweetly. Another S-ranker stepped forward. "Take the Abomination's ten sovereigns and round up these people," she flicked a finger and a scroll appeared in a flash of darkness in front of the woman who had stepped forward. "Bring them to me directly. They can attend me or their families can attend their funerals."

Her eyes moved slowly to where Gwendolyn was standing, her face a mask of horror and panic. "And you. You came here at the behest of a traitor, and you attempted to suborn me to your will." She lazily flicked the weapon in her hand, letting the glass shards jingle against each other as flecks of Sheridan's blood splattered the nearby stone.

"I…I'm a diplomat," Gwendolyn stammered. "You can't-"

Felicity flicked her fingers and the Void Vessel was flattened to the ground by an unseen force. "You will find," she said mildly. "That there are very few things I cannot do in my own Domain. That being said, you ARE a diplomat. Unlike my treacherous subordinate, I honor the oaths I make, even the ones I might not have chosen had I been given another option. You may go. You have one hour until your visitation rights are revoked, at which point, my people will surge forth like the tides of the deepest seas to consume you utterly. Good luck."

Gwendolyn's face, so solemn and elegant before, was twisted in a snarl of rage. She looked like she wanted to say something nasty…but realized she was talking to a god and decided not to risk it, just giving us all a dirty look as she turned and ran from the hall.

"Follow her out of Mourne Kayze and kill her," she said to Sheridan, who had been standing unblinking and unmoving beside her throne. "Your mess, you'll be expected to clean it up. Don't come back until she's dead." He bowed deeply and then vanished and she turned to me with amusement. "You're surprised," she said, somehow reading my expression through my mask. "Don't be. I honor my bargains. But I also repay my debts. Remember that."

It was clear that her performance had been partly for my benefit, but I didn't begrudge her the show. If I'd been betrayed by one of my closest advisors I'd be paranoid too. Her eyes pinned me in place, waiting for my response…so I ignored it and moved on. "I assume that your rejection of their diplomat means that the Void's plans of alliance are in vain? And that my continued presence means you're open to an alliance with my faction?"

She leaned back, steepling her fingers pensively. "I am," she nodded. "I take it that the timing of your return and destination wasn't a coincidence. You're familiar with recent events?"

"Intimately," I confirmed. "I can fill you in on the details later. I take it you're interested in a joint expedition?" This had been the obvious reason for her to rush things like this. I was sure she was at least mostly aware of what happened in the Chasm, even if she didn't have the details, and knowing that we were part of unsealing the ruins was obviously a check in our favor when it came to allying with us.

Honestly, the wars were probably going to be put on hold. No god would turn down a chance at possibly going further, and no one UNDER god would turn down a faster path to divinity. It wouldn't be enough to END the conflict, but even the Void Children would be idiots not to pull back on the offensive. After all, the ruins had descended on the actual battlefront, and we'd be seeing the descent of several factions from higher realms heading for that area. If someone accidentally started a fight I doubted things would go too well for any of us.

The Lady stared at me for a moment, then nodded. "We'll need to have that discussion before I commit to anything, but I am interested." Her eyes snapped up, taking in everyone else in the room. "You can go," she said bluntly.

She couldn't have cleared the room faster with actual teleportation. Once they were gone, she flicked her fingers and the doors slammed with a loud boom. Leaning back in her throne, she regarded me with interest. "Well done, my chosen. But why do I have the feeling my simple task was more complicated than it should have been?"

I blew out a breath. "We ran into some…complications." I wasn't sure how much to say, given this wasn't one of my relatives, but I decided to give the broad strokes. Drexel's existence, Atlas's resurrection, both would become obvious soon enough. I didn't go into detail about Deveskane, only mentioning Alara revealing his plan. The Lady needed the basic info on all the big threats if she was going to be an effective ally. Especially Drexel. Everyone needed to know about him in advance, even if maybe they shouldn't know EVERYTHING. I had a sneaking suspicion that tricky bastard would be making a play for the inheritance too, and if the Lady was going to be on our team she needed to prepare.

She nodded along, confirming she'd known most of that. "That aligns with my sources," she said slowly. "We've also gotten word about the entrance conditions for the Legacy. An incomplete Chronicle is necessary to make the attempt to enter. We suspect something about the Legacy itself is related to binding pages, but that's really supposition at this point. We've already begun assembling our teams, as, I'm sure, has your ancestor."

I was kind of shocked. The gods clearly had means of contact beyond what I was aware of, but given some of the things Atlas had mentioned about his state after death, that wasn't a total surprise. I wondered if they were the same means.

"Alright, that sounds good," I agreed eagerly. "You can have your team escort us back to the WCP and we'll make the trip over together."

She chuckled lightly at my enthusiasm, and I experienced for myself how annoying it was to deal with people wearing full face masks. Not having her expressions to judge her mood or intentions was like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with my eyes closed. "Not so fast, my chosen," she said in amusement. "You've completed your task wonderfully, but we aren't quite finished yet. An alliance is more than just a handshake deal. We have particulars to go over, and I have meetings to attend."

Flicking her fingers, she conjured and unfurled a long, complicated contract, letting it roll out across the floor to stop at my feet. "While I take those, you can read over this. Read carefully. I won't be responsible for anything you miss." I stared down at the tightly packed script on the scroll, then gave a long sigh and stooped to roll it up and collect it. After that, I retreated into my Domain to begin revision. I suspected it would take a while.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I had Dantalion, Azazel, and Fate Sense go over the contract. It was fairly standard. There were a few tweaks here and there, and I contacted Callie through the bond to have her check with my dad just to be sure. I was almost positive that some of the traps in the contract were left there as tests for me, but I was reasonably sure I'd passed them all. Once that was done, we finished signing the documents and The Lady invited me to stay overnight in the castle while she sent for the B-rank parties from her own realm and Verdyn's.

With that out of the way, I headed upstairs, ready to embark on the next step in my own journey. Entering the legacy ruins at C-rank would be stupid. Anyone without a complete Chronicle qualified, which meant B-rankers would be abundant. I was going to need every edge I could get in there, and so I needed to be at the top of my game.

I took out the elixirs I'd gotten from Alara. With the treaty signed, not to mention that big show in the throne room, my reputation among the locals would be soaring. It wouldn't be enough to reach B-rank, but it should get me to the nine million that I had expected, and maybe a little higher. From there, I had however long the trip was to the Legacy ruins to make that final step into B-grade in preparation for our entry.

Based on what Callie told me, the breakthrough of the clocktower had DEMOLISHED the Void on the other side of the barrier on the warfront. It was so fragmented trying to move through it was like trying to climb through a meat grinder. We'd need to take the slow way to get there, and that was going to take MONTHS. The only upside was that the fragmented space would apparently delay the descent of the higher dimensional forces.

Interestingly, the delay didn't seem to matter. The legacy trial was set up for challengers, and it required a specific number of them to be initiated. And not just ANYONE below B-rank would do. There was a test to even enter, and based on preliminary assessments, the space inside the tower was locked in some sort of stasis. Until all nine hundred and ninety nine participants had passed the challenge, anyone who entered would be held frozen in time.

It was…suspiciously convenient, really. All of it. And not something I suspected Deveskane was capable of. It made me wonder if the Overgod who owned the trial was partly responsible for any of the things we'd been through. And if so, how many? How much of my life had been steered towards this point to prepare me for entering this trial?

But worrying about that kind of thing in this universe was a good way to go insane. Whatever the reason, it gave me and my friends a chance. I had Callie get in touch with my parents and pass messages to Benny and Jessie. I didn't know if they could prepare in time, but I also didn't know what the test entailed. Maybe it wasn't pure combat. For now, I'd done all I could. All I could do now was make my own preparations.

I counted the elixirs. Ten of them, one hundred thousand points each. The potions were strange and ethereal, shadowy smoke suspended in brilliant shimmering liquid. I was PRETTY sure Alara had sourced the base from the moonlight river that was suppressing Drexel's tower. Interesting.

There were a few variants. One Might, two Vitality, three Creation, two Perception, two Fantasy. I'd tried to focus on shoring up my weak spots, leaving the beefier stats behind a bit, only getting enough points to make it to one point five mil. I was reasonably sure I'd see an influx in those naturally anyway, given the renown income. Slowly, one by one, I tossed back each elixir, preparing myself for the surge of stats that was incoming.

Staggering them helped, and then I let the excess hit afterward, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results in more ways than one.

Wishmaster status. C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Wish- Nine times a day grant a Grandmaster wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Grandmaster Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Wishmaster candidate points-1000

Might-1,832,421

Impact-155

Fantasy-1,461,238

Vitality-1,621,871 (x 3)

Focus-1,446,357

Perception-1,521,640

Creation-1,572,112

Progress to next rank:9,455,794/10,000,000

Soul strength- Tanzanite Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 10/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 1/9

Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:2- 1 Zagan, 1 Leviathan)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 288 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")

Stored: 0 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 7

2.Valtek- Tier 2

3.Cooking- Tier 7

4.Inventing- Tier 2

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 4

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 1

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 6

11.Dust Construction- Tier 5

12. Stone Limb- Tier 6

13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4

14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 6

15.Ripple Running- Tier 3

16.State of Grace- Tier 4

17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4

18.Afterburner- Tier 6

19.Pit of Despair- Tier 6

20.Mountain Stance- Tier 6

21.Heart over Body- Tier 6

22.Mercy Kill- Tier 5

23.Double Trouble- Tier 6

24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5

25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3

26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2

27.Marked for Death- Tier 4

28.False Fatality- Tier 3

29.Blood Curse- Tier 4

30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2

31.Final Strike- Tier 6

32.Overlay- Tier 4

33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3

34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2

35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6

36.Danger Sense- Tier 6

37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6

38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6

39.Belial- Tier 7

40.Abomination Engine- Tier 6

41.Mephistopheles- Tier 7

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6

44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6

45.Mornax- Tier 7

46.Zagan- Tier 7

47.Life Nova- Tier 7

48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6

49.Bael- Tier 7

50.Beelzebub- Tier 7

51.Agares- Tier 7

52.Dantalion- Tier 7

53.Sammael- Tier 7

54.Limbo- Tier 7

55.Gluttony- Tier 7

56.Wrath- Tier 6

57.Pride- Tier 7

58.Retribution- Tier 7

59.Murmur- Tier 7

60.Leviathan- Tier 7

61.Behemoth- Tier 7

62.Glory- Tier 7

63.Abaddon -Tier 7

64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 7

65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6

66.Fate Sense- Tier 7

67.Scent of Truth- Tier 6

68.Damnatio Memoriae- Tier 6

69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6

70. Asmodeus- Tier 7

71. Astaroth- Tier 7

72. Azazel- Tier 8

I was within spitting distance of B-rank now, and it wouldn't be long before I crossed the threshold, but that wasn't even what I found most exciting. No, what made me most excited was the final line of Gehenna. Azazel had reached tier eight. That meant I HAD a B-rank demon inside my soul already.

The purification and ascension of my body with the ember had also pushed the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation art up two ranks to tier four, which would cover me through my next two templates even if I didn't rank it up again anytime soon, which I sincerely doubted would be the case.

Outside the vortex, adapting to so much stat growth was exponentially more difficult, sadly. I ended up sitting perfectly still for an hour as my body finished letting me push adjust. Once that was finished, I moved on to my NEXT order of business. Contacting my wife. I'd used up all my Adherent Fire charges on the way back, and they had turned out to be extremely useful. "Hey, you have time to talk?" I asked through the bond.

Didn't take her long to respond. "Not too busy at the moment. The battles are currently at a standstill. I don't imagine that'll last. Even if the major forces cool off, there's too many scavengers loitering around here for it to stay quiet long term."

"Did your sister get there safe?" I asked with concern. She'd mentioned having a map, but that was before I knew that the Void was shattered near that area. I assumed Adam would have known though, so her map probably involved crossing into realspace before she hit the problem area.

"She did," Callie said wryly. "She was very excited to meet me. It was sweet. I'm having fun getting to know her, though I can tell she's chomping at the bit to start spreading my reputation. She MIGHT be a bit competitive."

I laughed through the bond. "Gosh, I can't imagine what that would be like. I don't know anyone competitive."

"Please," she scoffed sarcastically. "I'm so not competitive. I'm the least competitive person you've ever met. I bet you a hundred B-rank chits you can't find a person less competitive than I am. And if you can, I'll fight them. Then we'll see who's competitive."

I rolled my eyes at her bad joke. "Speaking of betting, I was hoping you could help me test something." I didn't need to explain anything, she'd been at dinner with me when Adam explained the whole body tempering connection. She knew what I was getting at immediately, and was more than happy to help me test it.

She had some scrolls on her, so she popped one open, and started making wishes. She started absurdly high, at like ten thousand points, which obviously failed, then continued downward until she found the current limit.

Nine hundred forty five points. Apparently my current physique was durable enough to convert pretty directly between millions and singles. I was only at first template completion, so that boded pretty well. My stats would continue to rise, and my ceiling for stat wishes would grow even faster. Callie got almost ten thousand points out of ten wishes and I got my ten saved Adherent Fire charges back. We could have done more but she wanted to wait and get them out of the way all at once after she started pulling in more renown from the battlefield with her sister. She had a lot of catching up to do, but she insisted she'd already closed the gap more than I might have thought possible. I couldn't wait to see how far she'd come during our time apart.

I said goodnight to my wife and settled in to sleep, knowing tomorrow was going to be busy. I had to meet all the B-rankers we'd be bringing back with us to the WCP, then we'd be setting off for home. It wouldn't be long before I'd be back with all my friends, then only a few months til I was back with my wife and we were all together again. After that, it was on to the next adventure, and I had a feeling this one was going to be a doozie.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I stocked up on scrolls as usual, bringing me to two hundred eighty seven barring the emergency fund, and headed down to meet up with Dayna and the others. Rather than stay in the Domain, since we were safe and had a place to sleep, Chloe had chosen to stay in the guest quarters, and Brad had followed suit, insisting on exploring for himself now that we were out of danger.

Still, they were all promptly on time when I arrived at the Priory, and several new faces (not to mention some old friends) had arrived alongside them to make up our party. As mentioned, The Lady had contacted Verdyn to have him send a team, and his team surprisingly included Dayna's big brother Marius, who looked incredibly enthused to see us, giving us each a big hug.

"Little sister! And friends!" he cheered. "Lovely to see you all. Isn't it a beautiful day? The sun is shining…I think. The sky is really red here. It's hard to tell. Actually, is it daytime?"

Dayna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yes, Marius, it's daytime. Are you going to introduce us to the others? I don't recognize anyone except…" she stopped, grimacing at the man standing behind the other cloaked figures. "You brought BOBBY?" she said in a tone suspiciously close to a whine. "Dear gods, WHY? This is a diplomatic mission."

"Mama wanted him to come," he shrugged. "He's been aimless lately, nothing important going on, and she worries."

"He's been aimless because he has no FRIENDS," she hissed. "Because everyone hates him and avoids him like the plague. Because he's a scumbag who never has a nice thing to say about anyone but Mama."

The short blonde man the with ruddy face and the patchy goatee she'd been glaring at glared back. "I heard that," he called across the courtyard. "And it's not my fault you lunatics wouldn't know how to have a proper conversation if it ripped the nose off your face and spat it back in your eye. I'm not the weird one in the family. Everyone else in the lodge is INSANE! Mama is the only decent human being in the whole place."

"Sure," Dayna scathed (I literally couldn't describe the vitriol she imbued into that word as any other action). "Everyone else is the problem. You're the only reasonable person in the whole world."

"YES!" he screamed in exasperation. "I am!"

Marius sighed. "Alright you two, no fighting in front of our allies, please. Anyway, these others are the cream of the crop from the Lodge. Nasya, Drenk, Fala, Bellia, Eric, and Dan. Nasya and Bellia are twins, and god children to boot. Lord Verdyn's direct granddaughters, actually. But don't worry about them following orders, Lord Verdyn put me in charge personally, and everyone knows how crucial this mission is."

Chloe brightened. "Oh! Can I introduce ours? I know everybody. Most of them are friends or people I grew up with!"

A tall, silver haired woman smiled dotingly at her. "I think we should introduce ourselves, Chloe, I'm sure you'd rather be looking over there at that beautiful butterfly." She pointed casually and Chloe's eyes followed her finger…and she was gone. Brad sighed and followed behind her, making sure she wouldn't get into any trouble. "She means well," the woman apologized. "But I think things will go a bit faster if I make introductions. I'm Rosaline, a fellow member of the Order of Mercy. Sister Bernadette spoke quite highly of you, Mr. Mephistopheles."

I chuckled ruefully. "Please, just call me Shane." After the alliance was finalized, my identity had been officially recognized. As an honored guest, I was under The Lady's direct protection here, and given her recent return to power, no one would be stupid enough to try to take a shot while I was in her realm. She and Verdyn had also arranged S-rankers to accompany the strike team back to the WCP as an extra layer of security, even if it was unlikely anyone had time to worry about us when so much was going on up at the front lines.

"Shane, then," she nodded, her smile beatific. "My friends behind me from the Order of Mercy are Shenna and Dirk. From the Order of Abomination we have Treck and Dennan. And of course, Pardek from the Order of Punishment." She said the last like she had a bad taste in her mouth, which made sense given the Order of Mercy's antipathy for the punishers.

I nodded to everyone. "Welcome, all of you. We'll be traveling to the Wish Curse Palace in Wishworld, my home territory, and you'll all be my guests. I was led to believe there would be a couple elders coming along for security?"

Rosaline chuckled. "Father Michael will be accompanying us. He's notorious for being late to things."

"Lady Skara is going to be our escort," Marius chimed in. "She's waiting out on the Void Road. She prefers to remain out of sight, but she's dependable. She's Lord Verdyn's direct disciple, and was sent along to keep watch on the twins."

Dayne looked poleaxed. "L-Lady Skara…the Silver Sorrow?" she all but whispered the name. "I wasn't aware we'd have such a famous guardian."

"Get used to it," I grinned at her. "Don't forget, you're in the Wishmaster's circle now. We're interacting with the peak of the powers in the universe these days." I didn't make fun of her for geeking out, I'd had the same reaction to meeting some of my childhood heroes back in the conclave.

Within ten minutes Father Michael showed up and all of us were ready to set off. I couldn't help the surge of excitement at the thought of going home after such a long time traveling. I'd left to find us allies and end the war and I…kind of had. Maybe this wasn't how I'd expected things to go down, but I hadn't failed my mission either. I couldn't wait to see the faces on the council when I brought home the news of the legacy trial and set off with my cabinet to challenge the Overgod inheritance.

I was…conflicted about the results. From the perspective of the family, I had done my job, and done it well. I'd come back with THREE divine allies, not one, and the legacy ruins were an opportunity for us. Wyndham descendants all had a ton of stats, but the reason we only had a few more S-rankers than anyone else was because stats became both less and more important as you advanced.

More important in the sense that you needed exponentially more renown to move forward, but less in that you couldn't break through past D-rank without talent and ability. Your Solid Path, Chronicle, and even your Domain, were all things you decided for yourself rather than just pumping them up with wishes. With the legacy presumably geared at that form of advancement, the WCP in particular was in a position to benefit greatly from this mess. But it WAS a mess. A big one. That I caused.

The higher up I went, the murkier things got, and the less control I had over what happened around me. At this point, even the old man probably didn't know what was going on. We lived in interesting times, and that was good for growing but bad for peace.

But…was that mine to worry about? With this accomplishment under my belt, I'd be able to leverage the council to push through some of the reforms I had been thinking over. Maybe not enough to cancel the fosterage program yet, but enough that I could genuinely make things better for my relatives across the board. Was the danger of Drexel and now the legacy really too high a price to take care of the people I was responsible for?

As we made our way out onto the Void Road, I couldn't help but consider exactly where the universe was heading. I trusted the various factions to balance divine power enough to prevent universal ascension, at this point no one was going to want that. But what about AFTER this point? What about when the legacy trial closer, or was completed, or whatever would happen? Would the war just restart?

I'd bought us time, and I planned to use it wisely, but I couldn't help see the shadow of deeper things behind all this. I'd always thought that becoming stronger would give me a voice to speak and a higher vantage point, and it had, but as I swam into deeper and deeper waters, I could vaguely make out the silhouettes of great beasts swimming below. Not the sharks I had been watching for, but deeper and darker things, waiting to rise and swallow anything in their way.

Somehow, it felt like everything I did was stepping further and further down a path I didn't understand and couldn't see the end of. I was following road signs in the mist and I didn't know where I'd end up, and it was becoming increasingly clear that the people making the signs were working off an incomplete map.

My mind whirled in circles as we walked. Brad and Chloe chatted with Marius and the others joined in once in a while, but I didn't register the words. I couldn't stop thinking. Worrying. Planning. But every plan I came up with I had to just throw away. Countermeasures to threats I wasn't sure existed, contingencies for scenarios that would never happen. As I fretted though, I remembered something Zeke had told me once.

Bad things were going to happen. People were going to plot my downfall, enemies would try to kill me, and random danger would rear its head and do its best to take me out even if they didn't. But worrying about that would just be letting those forces beat me. If it was coming anyway, why double the time I spent suffering by worrying about it. I needed to be ready, but not dwell on it. React, don't anticipate.

The older I got, the more I understood my uncle, and the more I wish I didn't. This world was so dangerous, and my friends and family were in so much danger. When could I finally find some peace? Was becoming the Wishmaster not ENOUGH? Didn't that buy me even a second of breathing room?

I felt someone put a hand on my shoulder, and turned to see Dayna smiling at me sadly. "You know, you need room on your shoulders for your head. If you keep putting the weight of the world up there you're not going to have any space."

Chuckling, I said ruefully. "I was just thinking about-"

"I can guess," she cut me off. "Or at least I have a broad spectrum of guesses. But you don't need to be. This is over for now, and there's more on the horizon. Take the quiet moments when you have them. If you're waiting for the universe to stop kicking you when you're down, you'll be waiting the rest of your life. You have to MAKE your moments of peace."

That…that was true. I blinked at her in surprise. "That's surprisingly reasonable for you. Your big brother talking some sense into you?"

She snorted. "The opposite, if anything. No, that bit of wisdom was from…" she grimaced. "Bobby. He might not be completely pointless all the time. Even if he's frustrating and obnoxious."

"I have relatives like that," I laughed. "I know exactly what you mean." I glanced around us. "We're almost home. You ready to go back to working for Bethy?"

"Is anyone really READY to work for someone like Bethy?" she grinned happily. "I think it's more something you just accept. I definitely miss it though. And I'm looking forward to introducing her to my brothers. Let THEM deal with being badgered to the point of insanity." We laughed together, then settled into an easy, comfortable silence as we continued our trip. We were almost home.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Stepping through the back door into the library felt like…well, like coming home. I was half worried the old man wouldn't let us all in this way, given it was a direct line to his seat of power, but I shouldn't have been. The library WAS his seat of power, and where he spent his time personally. No S-ranker was capable of stirring up trouble in the heart of Wishworld with my ancestor standing right there.

When I entered, I found my grandfather waiting for us. Malachai nodded casually to me and then accepted the rest of the guests, offering to guide them back to the palace proper. Then he left and I was alone. I knew where to go, of course, and made my way to the old man's location.

He was sitting at a table, rifling through books as usual, and he looked up when I arrived. "I don't know whether to congratulate you or send you to your room without supper," he said dryly. "You never do things by half, do you? Well, I suppose we gave you a job and you accomplished it. So…good job?"

"Atlas contacted you?" I asked as I dropped down into a surprisingly comfortable chair across the table from him. Having met Atlas, Drexel, Deveskane, and the Lady, I found it hard to muster up much awe for the divine these days. Not to mention this was my family's old man, he wasn't going to smite me for being a little informal. In fact, I could see a shimmer of approval in his eyes as he rolled them at my behavior.

"He did," the old man confirmed. "He offered to send a few Asura along as part of the strike force. Felicity was in touch as well. Charming woman. Very…operatic."

I snorted at the description, which was admittedly extremely accurate. "And yet, you'll still want me to go over everything that happened myself, won't you?" He just smiled at me blandly. I sighed and then started recounting the whole adventure from day one. He nodded along, clearly intrigued, and finally, dismissed me, telling me to come back the next day.

Of course, I didn't need to be told twice. I thanked him and then got up to leave. I was tired. I wanted to go home and sleep. Back in my suite, back in my bed.

When I stepped out of the library though, I was amused to find that I wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon. "SHANE!" squealed an ecstatic vampire as she cannonballed through the air, slamming into me and snaking her arms and legs around me like an octopus as she made contact. "You're back!"

Cackling, I caught myself against the wall and grabbed Bethy in a headlock, reaching down to mess up her hair.

Gasping in outrage, she tried to squirm free, but I ACTUALLY managed to hold onto her for a minute before she struggled out, dancing away gracefully and pouting at me. "Why are you so STRONG?" she demanded furiously. "I'm ALWAYS stronger than you! Even with your dumb wings you're not supposed to be that strong!"

I actually wasn't. That had been extremely difficult for me to manage, but I'd done it MOSTLY by abusing my new Vitality. Sammael plus my current peak C-rank Might was BARELY enough to pull that off. The only reason I managed was that I was exerting MAXIMUM force with every ounce of my strength, using my overwhelming Vitality advantage to keep up the output. Even so, it was deeply satisfying, and I couldn't help but laugh as Bethy stomped her foot piquishly.

"Sorry," I told her in amusement. "You and Chelsea making things official means you're officially my little sister now too. You're just lucky you escaped before I could manage e noogie."

The pout intensified. "You're mean. And if your knuckles touch my scalp I'm going to bite you."

"Where is my sister, anyway?" according to Callie, Chelse hadn't ended up going to the front lines, rather, my grandparents had come HERE. Bethy, as my Master of Challenge, had needed to stick around, and Chelsea hadn't wanted to be separated from her girlfriend (she, Bethy, and Gabe were officially what Bethy called a "throuple", a word I was sure she'd invented herself). Though my parents and wife were on the battlefront, Callie had her own teachers, and my grandparents hadn't felt too much need to make an appearance, given Uncle Moon's presence.

Bethy shrugged. "I dunno. She usually has training. I've been pretty busy lately working on my new grape orchard. Did you know that as Master of Challenge, I can just TAKE property from people I don't like? I mean, the elders said I can't, but I told them to shut up and did it anyway."

I put a hand on my face, sighing deeply. "WHO did you take property from?"

"Some jerk was talking bad about Vicky behind her back, calling her a defective," she shrugged. "So I took his house."

I paused for a moment. "I'm…actually ok with that. Good work."

She preened. "I'm the BEST Master of Challenge. I've beat up tons of people for being mean. Also, Crell told me to tell you to come see him when you get back. There have been some complaints."

"Gee," I said dryly. "I wonder what about. So, you said you made an orchard? In a house?"

"No, silly," she scoffed. "I demolished the house. House materials are very nutritious for grape vines. Orchards need good bones."

I chuckled. "I don't think either of those things are true, but if you have any non-blood grapes I'd love to try them." I was a big fan of green grapes, actually, but it was hard to get them at JUST the perfect ripeness. "So, how did Dante do? He pull off the body double thing ok?"

"Yeah, no one noticed you were gone," she assured me. "He didn't need to do much, just make an occasional appearance. He spent MOST of his time in the pits fighting with Abel."

It was crazy to me that it had only been a month or so since I left. As Bethy chattered away, she made it clear that everyone had settled into their new roles pretty well. It was like I had never left. The difference in the content of their month and my month was staggering. For them, four weeks had flown by, just relaxing and living their lives, and for me, I'd ended a war, potentially started another, unleashed a Mindplague, and accidentally unsealed an Overgod inheritance.

By the time she was done talking, we'd arrived at my suite, and I was thrilled to find both my sister and my grandparents waiting for me. "Grandma, grandpa!" I said with a wide grin, taking off my mask. "I didn't expect to see you guys when I got back!" I stepped forward to hug each of them, then turned and put my arms around my twin. "You either, I heard you insisted on doing your training here to be close to your GIRLFRIEND."

"What are you, five," she huffed, pushing me away with a roll of her eyes. "And you can't mock me for having a girlfriend you half-wit, you're MARRIED. Speaking of which, I've been instructed by mom to mention grandchildren. At first I thought she just wanted a baby to dote on because she missed your childhood, but I'm starting to think she just really wants Callie's wings in the family."

Laughing, I walked over and slumped down on my couch with a groan. Even in my armor, it felt like flopping down on a fluffy cloud. Home at last. "So," my grandfather said as he sat down in a chair across from me. "Catch us up on your trip? See anything interesting?"

"Your grandfather is a big proponent of adventures," Celia said dryly. "He hasn't been free to go on many of his own since he hit S-rank. Too much responsibility in the church."

I chuckled at her dry tone. She didn't seem actually exasperated, just intent on poking fun. "Yeah, I saw a few things. You ever been to the Chaos Chasm?" I asked him with a wide grin. "It's pretty crazy down there."

His eyes widened. "What? No! It's so deep in the Void, I'd never be able to get through unnoticed. You saw it? What was it like?"

"Like a big hole in reality," I shrugged. "But there were a few weird things." I started telling them all about my trip. Unlike with the old man, I didn't report the events clinically, and I found myself focused on entirely different aspects of my journey. Things like sights I'd seen, people I'd met, foods I'd tried. I wasn't the Wishmaster reporting to a pair of S-ranked allies, I was just Shane, telling my grandparents about my month.

Sadly, all good things must end. I couldn't afford to bury the lede forever, and I finally filled them in on everything that had gone wrong.

To my surprise, Bethy was the one who got most excited. "A VAMPIRE princess?" she squealed excitedly. "Oh my gods, that makes us like sisters. And she's Callie's sister. So Callie and I are SISTERS! Now I'm everybody's sister!" She threw back her head and cackled manically. "Fools, I'm feeding on your very bloodline without taking a bite! I'm turning you all into my thralls by the transitive property!"

"That's…not how that works," I said slowly. "I think? You can't feed off people symbolically."

I was ALMOST sure that was true. Bethy just giggled, and I couldn't tell if that was because she was joking or because she WASN'T joking. I was pretty sure it was the former, but it was hard to tell with her.

Chelsea rolled her eyes. "She can't, and wouldn't if she could. She just likes being the center of attention."

I briefly wondered if Bethy could actually FEED on drama, because I was pretty sure that was a Maenad thing. It would explain so much of her behavior. I knew she still had to drink blood, but it was definitely an interesting possibility.

"Anyway," I laughed. "I appreciate the distraction. I'm going to be getting some sleep, and then I need you to gather the cabinet and all our other friends that are nearby. We have to set off for the legacy trial first thing." I was planning to bring the C-rankers with us too. If there was an internal trial system and such a vague limit for attendees, I suspected this would be an opportunity that didn't depend solely on rank. In fact, I was pretty sure Azazel was the one feeding me that information. Still, we had to actually get there. "The frontlines aren't close by, and it'll take time to arrive, even with the Acheron." I glanced at my grandmother. "Which I hope we can use?"

"Of course," she said dismissively. "I'll have my father lend some of the church's kids the use of his personal ship. He'll want our people represented. In fact, I'll need to contact mom as well. I suspect she already knows, but she'll be devastated if she knows I didn't try to involve her."

I sighed, but didn't argue. My great grandmother had been much more tolerable since my mission to Rackham. I hadn't interacted with her much (which was my preference) but we weren't on bad terms last I checked. Her people would most likely be helpful for the strike team, assuming we were even able to stick together inside, which I was hoping was the case.

Of course, we wouldn't leave RIGHT away. I needed to check in on everything, and I had a meeting with the council of elders about my trip. I was going to use the opportunity to push through some of my reforms.

But after that…it would be time to get back on the road. This time though, I wasn't nearly as exhausted by the idea. Home was nice enough, but it was just a place. I'd lived lots of places. But seeing my parents. My wife? THAT I couldn't wait for. Not to mention I suspected Benny and Jessie would be meeting us there after my messages. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, my whole team would be back together.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took us two months to make the trip in the Acheron. I'd stockpiled plenty of scrolls (eight hundred and fifty counting the five backups we kept), but Callie had decided to wait for the wishes. Luckily, once I arrived I was planning to usher in another wave of stats and finally take that last step into B-rank, reaching the same point Zeke had been at when my journey first began. Once I broke through to B-rank I would see a qualitative boost and would most likely be able to grant much more stat heavy wishes, even without another breakthrough in my body tempering.

Speaking of which, I'd been making decent progress, but the condensation of the Cosmic Phoenix blood drops were infinitely more complicated and difficult than the Life Nova. I'd discovered that the expansion effect on my Domain wouldn't begin until I completed the template, much like the three times modifier for the Life Nova, so all I could do was diligently work on my training.

I'd been stalled out at thirteen drops (four drops of Cosmic Phoenix blood) for a few weeks now, and despite a surprising improvement in the ease with which I could extend and contract my Domain, hadn't seen too much benefit from it.

Today though, I wasn't working on my training at all. I was waiting. The long trip was finally coming to an end, and I was getting ready to see my friends and family. Well, the ones that weren't already here with me. Some of whom I very much WISHED weren't here. "Are we there yet?" asked my sister blandly.

"Grandma," I gritted out. "Can I PLEASE drop her in a hole? Just for a little while. A year. Tops. I promise I'll feed her."

Brad the pit, my reincarnated demon/divine artifact spirit adjacent spirit being, had started digging one out in the Domain. Apparently sleeping aboveground had become uncomfortable for him, and he insisted on personally carving out the sheer pit with the help of Agares, who was able to condense and smooth out the stone native to the plains outside my court to create a nearly frictionless glassy finish. I'd been threatening to drop my sister into it since he got done, especially when she wouldn't stop annoying me on purpose.

"Chelsea, stop teasing your brother," my grandmother said casually. "Shane, stop threatening to drop your sister in a prison pit. It's gauche."

We both sighed, and in unison said, "Yes grandma."

My grandfather snickered quietly behind her, though he immediately shut up when she looked at him. Despite not being at demigod rank like my grandfather, my grandma Celia was definitely the boss of my moms side of the family. Given her divine pedigree, having a talent for managing others wasn't surprising, not was the sheer presence she exuded with everything she did. Grandma had been born with a mirror soul, so her starting point was exponentially higher than almost anyone else I'd ever heard of. Having benefitted from a relatively powerful soul myself, I could only imagine how easy that would have made her cultivation.

"We ARE there, by the way," my grandfather, Nicholas, cut in with a smirk. "Or near enough. You want to come see? I'm actually impressed they managed to get so much done here. I was expecting everything to be all slapdash and half finished, but each of the factions seem to have put some work in."

Chelsea and I both rushed up to where he was opening a viewing screen, eager to see the legendary war front we'd been hearing about for months now.

"That's…a lot of structures," I said slowly. "I thought this was a five faction battlefield? Are all the rest of those Void constructs?" I hadn't been expecting it all to be so…busy. There were easily a few dozen buildings floating in space on chunks of rock, orbiting the massive clocktower like a bunch of dazzlingly designed moons.

My grandfather shook his head. "Nope. Most of them are from the S-rank clans. You know there's about a hundred S-rankers, right? Well, between the six, we have about fifty total. The other fifty are independents. You met some of their descendants at the conclave. Each S-ranker mostly represents their own clan or force. Most of them are connected to one of the factions in some way, so when the war started, they got conscripted. Of course, how powerful they happen to be did a lot to decide the terms of conscription."

"That's my dad's castle!" Bethy squealed as she appeared between Chelsea and I. She was pointing at a forbidding black stone monstrosity with battlements and turrets that DID look like something Lark would build. "I didn't know he was going to be here," she pouted. "I'm so mad at him! He didn't even tell me he was fighting!"

Considering he was the most powerful S-ranker in the universe and was literally unmatched in combat, I wasn't even slightly surprised he'd been out here. I was, of course, smart enough to to SAY as much.

"That'll be the church's base," Grandma said, pointing at a large red marble building with lots of accented gold. "Looks like Absolute is the one running things out here. He always had an extreme sense of aesthetics." I knew the names of the seven popes, or at least their titles. All I know about the Absolute Pope was that he was in some kind of long running feud with the Twilight Pope, one of the only two female popes of the Red Revenant Church.

In fact, the Twilight Pope, as I had later learned, had been my grandmother's personal bodyguard and best friend growing up, and they had developed their abilities together. The Twilight Pope's shadowlight had been heavily influenced by my grandmother's ability, which was still mostly a mystery to me, barring that it had something to do with the depths of space.

I'd actually met the Twilight Pope during my visit to the Holy Domain, and the cheerful dark haired woman who insisted Callie and I call her "Aunt Nancy", definitely didn't match up to the legendarily icy pope whose shadowlight was feared throughout the five factions.

"Is he going to cause problems for you?" I asked with concern. "I know that he and Aunt Nancy aren't on good terms."

To my surprise, my grandmother, usually a calm and collected person, actually burst out laughing. She laughed for much longer than I felt was reasonable, but eventually stopped when she saw me staring at her. "Oh, you were serious," she said as she caught her breath. "Honey, internal factional politics in the Church don't reach my level. If Uncle Moon ever caught Absolute being disrespectful to me he'd skin him and make him into a pair of boots."

"Not that he would need to," my grandfather snorted. "Absolute is my master's most devoted servant. Hence the name, and the color scheme," he gestured to the garish red building. "Seeing Celia is like seeing master for him, and Absolute would skin HIMSELF before he'd insult her."

"I was wondering about that, why do you call Uncle Moon your uncle but the rest of them by name?" I asked my grandmother as I remembered a question I'd had for a while.

She shrugged. "Uncle Moon was in charge of taking care of me as a child. He has the most direct combat power. He's the second eldest of my father's disciples, after Judgement, and Judgement…no one is close to him. He's kind of abstruse. He sees the world in an odd way and is difficult to talk to. Not to mention the age gap between Uncle Moon and Rainbow, my father's third eldest disciple, is several thousand years. Uncle Moon and Judgement were with my father from the time he was mortal, but the rest were disciples he took on later."

"I'm the youngest, obviously," my grandfather noted. "But Twilight is only a few decades older than me, and Absolute and she are around the same age. I'm not actually SURE how old Daydream is. She's hard to pin down, you can never be sure if what you're seeing is real with her."

"She's about two thousand years old," my grandmother chimed in. "I asked Nancy once. Rainbow is older, but not by much."

It was hard to conceptualize the timescales they were talking about. I knew that S-rankers could live tens of thousands of years, but hearing that people I'd MET were around when the Red Revenant was human was hard to fathom. Unity had been mortal recently enough that it wouldn't be surprising to meet someone who knew him back in the day, but the Revenant and Black Sorrow were…well, they were facts of life. Part of the way things worked. Hearing about their human days was always discombobulating.

But we weren't heading for the red palace anyway. While we were using my grandmother's ship and my grandparents were mostly affiliated with the Church, we weren't here for them. We were here for me, which meant we were heading for MY command center.

And head for it we did. It wasn't hard to spot either, because it looked EXACTLY like the actual WCP. But smaller. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Why does it look like that?"

"Harrison is running things," my grandfather explained. "Which means Aiden is in charge. He's too lazy to design an encampment personally, so he probably just had them use plans they had lying around. It's a decent design, so it's not too big a problem. Just a bit derivative, but most people haven't seen the palace anyway, so they wouldn't notice."

I watched as the palace approached, growing bigger as we began our landing process. To my surprise, there was no gate or door on this one, we just flew INTO the wall and then out the other side. We landed in a large open chamber, with lots of empty space for the ship to land. The room itself, however, was far from empty. People lined the walls, and as I climbed out, they rushed forward. Several of them actually bowed. "We greet the wishmaster!" they said in unison.

Of course, I remembered the respect people had shown Aiden back during the conclave, even Harrison had to be formal, but it was strange to get that kind of reception when I wasn't even B-rank yet. I ignored them, looking around until I found-

A blur of black and blue slammed into me, and Callie's legs wrapped around me as she kissed me roughly. I smiled into lips as my arms wrapped around her, enjoying the feel of being complete again. Our connection was unbreakable, but it wasn't the same talking through the soul as actually holding her in my arms.

"Alright you two," said an exasperated voice. "I leave you alone for a few months and you get even worse. Honestly."

I pulled back, my head snapping up to stare over at where my best friend was standing with his arms crossed. Next to him was Jessie, who shot us an enthusiastic wave, and Nat, along with Celine and a few other old friends.

Benny looked…strong. He was the same height he had been, an inch shorter than me, but he'd filled out noticeably. His shoulders were wider and his muscles were more pronounced. I wasn't sure why the changes had happened, but my best guess was something to do with that dragon he'd gotten his hands on. Regardless, I was grinning at the changes. Not just physical ones either.

"C-rank huh?" I asked him dryly. "Wasn't Sebastian training you personally? You couldn't hit B-rank? I'm just about there myself. Could rank up any day now."

He glared at me in annoyance, then glanced at Celine. "You see what I have to deal with?"

Despite the exasperated tone though, his lips were twitching. I stepped forward to pull my friend into a hug and looked around at the others. It was so nice to be back together.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Everyone wanted a meeting with me after we arrived at the WCPs forward base on the warfront, but I wasn't in the mood. I wanted to see my family, so I told them all they could wait and my wife brought my sister and I to see my parents. On the way, we checked in with everyone about how they'd been, and I asked the question that had been on my mind since we arrived.

"Are you sure Benny and Jessie are safe attempting this trial?" I asked plainly. "I know you're both strong, but you're C-rank. I'm confident in breaking through to B-rank before we enter, and Callie is probably getting close at least, but you two can't be anywhere near a breakthrough."

Callie nodded. "It's a concern, for sure, but we've been doing some scouting. We've learned a lot about the clocktower, and while it IS a trial ground, it might not be exactly like you're thinking. Basically, there are two trials, one for the combat path and one for the support. Among the support occupations, Artificer and Healer are both listed, and Benny and Jessie are planning to take the trials under those identities."

"How did you guys learn that?" I asked in confusion. "I thought once you passed you didn't come out."

"You don't," she laughed. "But you come out if you FAIL. We've had more than a few people attempt it in the last few months. The big factions are holding back, hoping to get the most training possible in before entering, but some of the smaller factions nearby have made attempts. The ones who failed sold the information about their experiences to the various factions for a sizable profit."

That was interesting. We arrived at a small room off the main corridor and Callie knocked. "Sasha," she called, holding up a finger for me to wait. When there was no response she rolled her eyes. "Mom?" she tried again.

"Calliope!" my mother said cheerfully as she opened the door quickly enough to confirm she'd been on the other side waiting to hear from her. "What can I hel-" she froze, staring at me. "MY BABY!" she shrieked yanking me into a rib cracking hug. "You went to the CHAOS CHASM? ARE YOU INSANE?" she hissed as she squeezed me. I was half convinced she was trying to kill me by crushing for a second, but she put me down and immediately started checking me over for damage.

"Nice to see you too Ma," I wheezed as I tried to realign my spine. "And I'm fine. It wasn't that big of a deal."

She rolled her eyes. "Not that big of a deal," she scoffed. "Eli, your son is home! He says not to worry and that the Chaos Chasm isn't that big of a deal." Her sarcasm was incredibly obvious, and I heard my father actually start snickering from the next room.

"He's FINE Sasha," called Zeke from the other room. "Let him come in and tell you about what happened before you bite his head off. If you flip out every time he does something interesting he'll never make it to A-rank!" My uncle's voice sounded exasperated enough that I suspected this wasn't the first time he'd made that particular observation.

She sighed, shoulders slumping. "Well obviously I'm relieved you're ok," she explained. "I just wish you wouldn't be so reckless."

"Oh trust me," I joked with a grin as I took off my mask. "There were plenty of wrecks."

That got a snort and another eyeroll, but also a half smile as she led us in. I found my Zeke and dad sitting at a table playing cards with Benny's mentor Sebastian, Uncle Moon, my Uncle Sam, and Aiden. Next to them sat a tall, gangly man with red hair and ears too big for his head, a thick beard across his jaw.

"Oh, the kids are here," Aiden said cheerfully. "Better stop for now. I'm sure everyone wants a chance to catch up."

Zeke snorted. "And I'm sure the fact that you're currently down a planet has nothing to do with it. But since I know Sasha well enough to know she's going to MAKE us stop while she checks on her baby, sure, I can let you off the hook this time. IF you agree to let me have that Arcadian Sky Diamond you showed me."

"What?" protested the former Wishmaster. "But I don't…who even knows if you won. Let me see your cards!"

My uncle raised an eyebrow. "I can do that, but if I do, you'll need to give me the planet. I'm letting you off easy to be nice, but if you want to just do this now and get it out of the way, I'm game." He held up his cards, beginning to lay them on the table.

"Shit, no!" Aiden cursed. "Fine, but only because my wife loves out summer house on that planet. She'll kill me if I lose it." He snapped his fingers, calling up a strange prismatic stone that shimmered with more colors than existed in human perception, and tossed it to Zeke, who caught it gleefully. "What did you have anyway?"

Zeke put the stone away. "Huh? Oh, pair of twos."

My dad snorted at that, covering his mouth to keep from laughing, and the others all grinned at my predecessor. Aiden just glared at him. "I hate you so much. Truly. Deeply. You are the bane of my existence."

"What?" Zeke said innocently. "I just happen to have a good poker face." He paused. "Actually I have three of them, but I only used one this time.

I shook my head and sighed. "First rule of poker night, never bet against Zeke. Everyone knows that. I'm surprised my parents didn't warn you. Well, not my dad, but I figured my mom would have said something."

"I did," she snickered. "He didn't listen. Though I did think he was starting to get it. The only ones who have managed to win a hand that Ezekial stayed in were Uncle Moon and Tim."

Now it was Zeke's turn to glare. "He CHEATED," he said, pointing fiercely at the redhead. "I don't know HOW, but I know he did it. We never should have asked him to play. I lost an A-rank mask in that last hand. He can't even USE it for anything. He's just going to hang it on his wall to gloat."

"Nuh-uh," the redhead said childishly. "I'm gonna hang it on my DOOR. So people can see it every time they come over to my house. With a little plaque under it that says "Property of Ezekial Cavendish"."

Zeke surged to his feet, a straight razor appearing in his hand. "I'll make your FACE property of Ezekial Cavendish!"

"Both of you shut up!" my mother snapped. Their mouths clacked shut. "My son is home, and we have more important things to discuss than your insipid feud. Ezekiel, you lost, get over it, Tim, stop taunting him or I'm going to make you do the next ten patrols." They hunched over, grumbling insincere apologies, and my mother turned a bright, happy smile on me. "Ok honey, now tell us about your trip. Here, sit down at the table, I'll get you something to drink. Are you hungry? Do you need a sandwich? Eli, go get the boy a sandwich!"

My dad's face went from amused to sour pretty quick, but he didn't argue. I had to fight back a smile. It felt kind of nice to have my mom worrying over me. Not that I wanted her to worry, but it was sweet she was so obviously concerned about my safety. Callie probably would have been just as agitated if she understood the Chasm well enough to know how stupid my trip was.

I was confused for a second, because I told the old man all this months ago…and then I realized I was being an idiot. The old man didn't talk to anyone except me and VERY rarely the elders. How would he have even passed word to my parents out here?

So I laid it all out for them. How we'd gone to the lodge and then through it to reach Mourne Kayze, how the lady had sent us on a mission to retrieve one of her divine artifacts, how I'd met with Atlas's oracle and been directed to the Acropolis where he'd hidden his means of resurrection. I had to explain about Drexel, the Mindplague, in order to explain Deveskane, the god of sealing who had unleashed the clocktower to begin with.

By the time I was finished, my mom had stood up and was pacing back and forth looking like she wanted to punch something, my dad looked grudgingly impressed, and Zeke was holding out a hand toward my Uncle Sam. "Pay up."

My uncle sighed, passing him a large crystal. At my confused look, he shrugged. "He bet me something horrible and dramatic would happen that none of us were expecting."

I glared at both of them, but neither looked particularly repentant. "Anyway, we got sidetracked," I brought us back to the matter at hand. "Tell me what you've all learned about the clocktower. I brought my whole Cabinet with me. And Abel. But I can't send them in until I know the situation. There's noncombat roles?"

Zeke decided to field this one. "Yup. And the whole test is based on cultivation rank as far as we can tell. We don't know what the inside is like, but given the support classes and the lack of hard cultivation requirement, we don't think it'll ALL be combat based."

"That's good," I admitted. "But also bad. The more complicated it is the longer it'll take. It sounds like whatever the legacy trial is won't be over in a short period of time."

My dad shook his head. "I don't think so, actually," he said slowly. "I've been lurking around the edges, trying to identify any clues. And based on some of the power constructs we've been seeing, I have a theory."

"What kind of theory?" I asked with interest.

"The kind I've been able to partially verify with scrolls," he chuckled. "Namely, based on the way the timestream works inside the clocktower, we've been able to suss out something interesting. When someone passes the entrance test, they don't come out, but from what we can tell, they also don't ENTER. You know this already. Based on the feedback from the scrolls and our own observations, we're pretty sure the time of those people is being HARVESTED."

I frowned at him. "In what sense?"

"In the sense that the frozen time is being stored up in some kind of battery," my mom said bluntly. "We believe it'll be activated once all nine hundred ninety nine participants have entered. Time inside the clocktower will be extended. Where currently, months out here is seconds in there, after activation, months in there will be seconds out here."

That was…a lot to process. "Understood. How many slots are left? I know there's a temporary agreement from the big forces stalling us, but I also know plenty of people have made the attempt. Do we have a way of knowing how many succeeded?"

"We do," my mother said simply. "The clocktower, as you may have noticed, has windows. Nine hundred and ninety nine windows were unlit when it arrived, and now there are seven hundred and twenty left." She paused. "But…that revealed another bit of information, or at least let us speculate." I waited, and she finally said. "There are ten thousand windows on the clocktower. And nine thousand and one were already lit when it arrived. Which we suspect means-"

My blood went cold, adding up all the information I had with what she just said. "There are nine thousand and one people already in stasis inside the clocktower waiting for the trial to begin," I whispered. That…made things a bit more complicated.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite my mother's desperate desire for family time, my dad pointed out that Callie and I hadn't seen each other in months. When she started getting annoyed, he dropped some shameless line about how sad he'd been when he had to go a long time without seeing her and she just melted. I almost tried teasing him about it, but I wasn't oblivious enough to miss the similarities in our marriages and was sure I'd never hear the end of it.

The two of them took off, and the older Ascendants scattered, so before my alone time with my wife, I took the time to summon my cabinet, Abel, and Mel so we could introduce everyone to our new arrivals.

"So you picked up another seven geniuses?" Benny asked with a sigh. "How am I supposed to show off when you do shit like that? Do you know what I went through hitting C-rank so fast?"

Callie snorted. "You? My sister has been pushing me to the breaking point trying to boost my reputation enough to hit B-rank. I'm still only three quarters of the way there, and I'm NINETY percent sure she's cheating and pretending to be me when I'm not around to speed things up. And THIS one is about to break through." She jerked a thumb at me sourly.

I sighed, turning on the stove in the small kitchen as I started cooking for us. I decided to whip up something simple and make us a chicken parm. I even asked Bethy to bring us a bottle or two of one of her new wines. I didn't like to drink, but a glass or two wasn't going to do much to someone with my stats (triple vitality past the one point five million mark) and I knew she wanted to show off.

My wife grinned triumphantly, kissing my cheek and all but dancing away to set the table. Benny snickered. "I see you two are the same as ever."

"Change, me?" I asked innocently. "I'm the same as I've ever been. Just your average early twenties pan galactic faction leader with the fates of tens of thousands of clan members riding on my every decision." I grinned at him wryly. "Should be fine though, I have you here to keep me from getting a big head."

He nodded solemnly, putting a hand on my shoulder and staring intently into my eyes. "Your hair looks stupid," he told me seriously.

I burst out laughing, swatting his hand away with an eye roll. "At least make it something true," I blustered. "It takes real skill to look this good," I ran a hand through my gravity defying sandy blond locks. "This is styled by pillow."

"I'm sorry, did you say 'styled by psycho'?" he asked sarcastically. "And not owning a comb isn't something you should be proud of."

Sneering, I pointed at his own head. "And your ponytail is the height of originality?"

He reached up to run his hand over his tightly pulled back head of dark hair. "So things don't need to be original to be earthshaking," he said dramatically. "Celine loves my ponytail."

"Hey, did you ever ask her to marry you?" I asked, deliberately raising my voice to carry across the suite. His eyes widened in terror, turning to glance out over the counter before realizing I'd sneakily established my Murmur field around us."

"You absolute bastard," he spat. "I'll get you for that."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Planning to annoy me into submission. Because I'm about to be B-rank, and you're not catching up at this rate. How far are you into C anyway?"

"A quarter," he said proudly. "Sebastian's training and my dragon have been doing a LOT for my abilities. My Inventing is at Grandmaster, albeit barely. But my biggest gains have been in Necromancy. I hit Grandmaster well before C-rank and was pretty deep into it even before breaking through. Reanimating a dracolich was a HUGE coup for the skill, and I've been learning a ton from the old man. At this rate, I'm looking at a potential breakthrough to Mythic before I hit the halfway mark in C-rank."

I whistled. That was kind of absurd. I knew he'd been growing, but knowing how MUCH he'd grown since I last saw him kind of blew me away. He might not have been the Wishmaster, but being trained by Lark's second in command and getting control of Toast the dragon was clearly doing wonders for my friend.

"What about Jessie?" I asked, glancing out at where our friend was talking animatedly with Callie and Chelsea.

"She's…she's getting SCARY," he confided, his voice more awed than afraid. "She's got the same Vitality multiplier you do now, except ALL her abilities are Vitality based, she's made a name for herself as a terrifying healer, and since she broke through to C-rank her reputation has been EXPLODING. She's at about halfway through C-rank at this point, and most of it is in Vitality. With the modifier, she's effectively healing into the B-rank level already."

That was actually terrifying. My multipliers were useful, but they were also applied to stats that were mostly even. Three times my one point six million points was impressive, but it wasn't enough that I was effectively passing the rank cap with one stat. Not to mention my build was too diverse.

Jessie did one thing, and she did it WELL. It was clear that hyperspecialization had been very good to her, and I was almost jealous. I couldn't imagine what I might have accomplished if I'd taken that path. That thought only lasted a moment though. None of the things I'd accomplished would have been possible with that strategy. I had done some crazy shit myself. But still, my friends were doing well for themselves and I was damned proud.

"I'm not waiting behind for you," I told him with a grin. "But B-rank is going to be tough to grind out, even for me, so you'll probably catch up. A hundred million stats is no joke. Not to mention once Callie catches up I can switch to cultivating you and Jessie with scrolls. Better get started saving up valuables to pay for it."

He scoffed at me. "I've been grinding CRAFTING skills," he laughed. "Do you know how much inventions from a Grandmaster SELL for? It's not like I can use all of it. Sure I decked myself out with updated versions of my old integrated necrotech, but I'm not hurting for cash. Unlike some people. Do you know how insane it is that you're the leader of a pan galactic criminal syndicate and you're somehow still dirt poor?"

"Hey, shut up," I retorted. "I'm rich in life experience!"

As we talked, I continued breading and frying the chicken and then tossed it in the pan with sauce and cheese. Rather than use the oven though, I called for both Cooking and Zagan, allowing the two demons to incarnate and take over the baking process, one with technique and the other with power. I figured using the green life flames of Zagan might improve the taste and quality of the meat.

Callie stuck her head in the kitchen as I finished putting the final touches on. "Are you almost done?" she said impatiently. "Everyone is here and we're all waiting."

"I'll be finished when I'm finished," I told her firmly. "You can't rush perfection. Even if it takes me six hours you'll all wait around and like it. I won't compromise my art for you philistines- oh wait, I'm done. Sorry, I was stalling. Tell everyone I'll be out in a minute."

She rolled her eyes, a fond smile on her lips. "You're lucky you're so cute," she said in her usual teasing tone. "I don't know HOW I put up with you?"

"Oh, is the food not worth it?" I asked sarcastically. "Maybe I should pack this up and we can have something delivered. I'm sure there's a place we could get something to eat nearby, I can ask my parents."

Her eyes widened in faux horror. "Wait, no, that's not what I meant, I'll go set the table!" She turned and ran out of the room with exaggerated haste, laughing the whole way.

"I missed you idiots," Benny said with a smile. "Both of you. You seem good. Happy. I want that. But I wanted to share it with you guys. Which is why…" he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small box. "I had to wait to get in touch with Celine's family. Despite her estrangement I know their opinion means a lot to her. She'd be heartbroken if they didn't come to the wedding. Apparently owning an ACTUAL dragon was enough to get their approval as a son in law. Barely."

"No shit?" I blinked at him. "You're gonna ask her? You know I was joking, right? You don't need to rush into anything."

"I love her," he said simply. Like that was all I needed to know. And honestly…maybe it was.

I looked out into the room, filling up with friends and loved ones, both new and old. "You gonna ask her here?"

"Too public," he denied. "I'll do it tonight. Just the two of us. Like you did."

Nodding, I picked up the pan of chicken, carrying it out of the Murmur space and into the dining room where everyone waited. Ellie, Fade, Alanna, Crell, Abel, Bethy, Chelsea, Peter, Marco, Wulf, Vicky, Dante, Celine, and a few other friends were all packed into the seats around the large dining room table. Bethy had apparently brought out the wine and popped a bottle, and everyone was drinking from crystal wine glasses, sipping the dark red liquid that was very clearly NOT blood.

To my surprise, even Alara was there, sitting primly at the table, drinking a glass with the elegance and refinement of a princess, which she basically was. No one seemed to mind, she just looked like a more stuck up version of Callie, and most of us were used to my wife. I dropped the pan on the table. "One piece per person to start," I warned. "And no going for the food until I'm seated. I'm not losing a finger to you animals."

"Hey," Jessie protested. "Rude!" She gestured up at her rounded bear ears. "I'm not taking that from you, bird boy." She held her offended expression for about thirty seconds before collapsing in peals of laughter, and her dryad girlfriend, Alyssa just sighed at our antics.

Laughing I plopped down in a chair next to my wife. "Annnd, go!" I shouted, diving forward to spear a piece with a fork.

Sadly, I was outdone. The B-rankers beat me to it, and a piece mysteriously vanished and appeared on Alara's plate in a flash. I managed to snag one anyway, since I had stipulated one per person, but I got one of the smaller ones. Not the smallest, but still, it stung my pride.

Sighing, I shoved a fork into the large pan and wound up some pasta, dropping it on my plate and starting to cut it up. I took a bite, pleasantly surprised at the flavor the vitality flame gave the meat. I felt my Cooking demon rejoice in my Domain, immediately heading for the royal kitchens in the palace with Zagan and some of the other flame demons to begin experimenting. I help in the laugh at their actions as I took in the pleased faces of my friends.

It was…wonderful. It wasn't big, or important. I wasn't being productive or efficient or really accomplishing anything. But still, it felt good. Being among friends, being where I could relax. My cabinet members took to my friends with gusto, and the others were as welcoming as I'd known they'd be. And there, at that table, for the first time in months, I didn't feel like the Wishmaster at all. I couldn't have asked for a better night.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

By the time Callie and I retired for the night, my face was almost sore from smiling. It just felt so…right, being back with my people. Despite my capabilities, I had never been a solitary person. Being able to endure something and wanting to do it were two different things, and now that we were all back together I felt real peace for the first time in a while.

"You're such a sap," Callie smiled at me wryly. "I can feel all that warm fuzzy from here, you know. What did Benny want to talk to you about?"

"He's going to ask Celine to marry him," I chuckled. "Apparently he waited to get her family's blessing. She misses them and he wanted them involved for her sake. He's still nervous, but I think he's being an idiot. If she didn't love him she wouldn't have stuck around all this time. I know he doesn't hold any of that early stuff against her."

When we'd met Celine, she'd been a double agent for her family and had turned on us to nearly disastrous results. She'd redeemed herself a hundred times since then, but I knew it had been a strain on their relationship at first.

Callie just sighed. "I know. She talked to me about it more than a few times. She's felt guilty for years, even after we forgave her. I think being together in a peaceful place so long helped. Gave them time to just settle and find each other." She grinned at me. "Not everyone can have it as easy as we do."

I took her hand, smiling warmly. Through the bond, I could feel her affection and care, and I knew she could feel mine. That was our big secret, honestly. The way we kept our relationship working even with time and distance. So many marriages and relationships fall apart because they stop communicating, and the people involved forget how much the other person cares. If you don't show someone you love them, how do they know?

With Callie, I never had that. I never doubted for even a second how she felt about me. I lived it. Breathed it. Dreamed it. We didn't live in each other's heads or anything intrusive like that. We could communicate telepathically with intent but rarely did so. Words weren't necessary. We had more. We had emotion. It was like being wrapped in a warm blanket all the time, chasing off the chill of loneliness.

"So, how have things been with you sister," I asked after a few minutes of happy silence. "Has it been as fun as you expected?"

Her face lit up. "It has," she confirmed happily. "Alara is still getting used to things here, and she's had a lot of questions, but she's a fast learner and whip smart. Honestly she's so intelligent it scares me sometimes."

Lots of people (including me early one) made the mistake of assuming Focus and intelligence were the same thing. Focus, being a measure of the max processing speed your brain could handle, certainly helped people analyze situations and form conclusions, but the actual SUBSTANCE of those conclusions was mostly a factor of their own intellect. The dumbest person in the world, with a ten billion point focus score, would just come up with ten billion dumb ways to do something. And that was without even taking into account the stresses and stagnation that could be brought on by high level recursion.

Callie, as an experience Ascendant, knew full well the differences between a smart Ascendant and one with high Focus, and her admiration for her sister made me curious to see what my new in law might be capable of.

"So," I said as we reached our room and flopped into a bed. "Seven point five million? Already?"

"Give or take," she admitted. "Obviously a million of that was the elixirs, and Adam establishing his reputation again after his resurrection is certainly helping by osmosis. Not to mention the excess fame from your own accomplishments. Speaking of, when you pulled off that madness, I don't suppose you-"

I laughed. "Three pages," I confirmed. "All bound to Zagan. The whole phoenix purification thing was a big deal, and I was determined to make the most out of it."

The process of progressing through B-rank required binding a hundred pages in my Chronicle, and I had been falling way behind. The adventure in the Chasm had been a perfect chance to make progress, so I'd taken advantage of it to select three powerful feats and bind three pages. Purifying my friends of Drexel's influence, purifying the cinder, and resurrecting Atlas (a life based accomplishment) were all extraordinarily impressive feats to use to anchor my Chronicle, and would provide a sizable advantage in terms of potential growth in the future.

Exactly how feats affected Chronicles, or even Sagas after, I wasn't quite sure, but I did know that you wanted the best feats possible. Even beyond the long term benefits, it was useful in A-rank because it meant you had less authoring to do when you altered your Chronicle to better match the vision of your future path you wanted to follow, and when you DID edit a feat, the amount of mythology it was made up of directly affected what you could do with it.

"How about you?" I asked excitedly. "You bind any more pages during your time on the battlefront?"

She beamed proudly at me. "I don't know," she teased. "Why don't you see for yourself?" Snagging some paper, she traced out her stat sheet for me, presenting the page like an official presenting a commendation for valor.

Calliope Wyndham. C-rank.

Ability-: Grandmaster Trait: Heretic Archangel. An instrument of the will of a faded god. A child of the flame that burns back the heart of the Void.

Weapon:Gossamer (huge black sword housed in Callie's new soul space, a massive cathedral created when she formed her Chronicle)

Chronicle:Book of the Final Flame

Pages bound- 3: 1 (purification of apostate), 2 sword mastery

Might-1,437,012 (x 3 modifier for heretic angel trait)

Impact-155

Vitality-829,236 (x 3 modifier for heretic angel trait)

Fantasy-2,646,541 (x 3 modifier for heretic angel trait)

Focus-529,412

Perception- 1,743,186

Creation-616,043

Progress to next rank: 7,801,585/10,000,000

Soul Strength: Tanzanite Soul Body.

Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Dual Dagger Mastery, Intermediate Stealth, Intermediate Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Grandmaster Adherent Ascension, Master of the Sword

Path of the Heretic Scion- Solid. Technique: Guilt in Gossamer

I whistled at the changes. "I guess you added the modifiers for your racial trait to make it easier to keep track of? I'm jealous, three of them is pretty good."

Researching the body forging technique, I had learned a bit about racial traits. They weren't really classified into tiers. But the level of a trait could usually be summarized by how many modifiers it gave. High level traits all gave strong modifiers, and the more the better. Of course, ranking could unlock more, or improve the ones that were already there. But the modifiers were mostly based on the trait itself.

That was the major benefit of body forging, aside from being able to do it without altering your core ability. I got to choose the direction my racial trait evolved in over time, adjusting and improving it based on my needs.

"Seriously, that's an insane amount of progress. Your Fantasy is getting out of control," I commented as I read over the stats again. "Where did you invest the elixirs?"

"Perception, mostly," she admitted. "It's been falling behind. My archangel trait is very flashy and obvious, not as sneaky as my old ability. I still have some of those powers, but their use is sort of hamstrung. I invested a million into Perception to try to keep it up. Fantasy and Might kind of just came up on their own. Wings and a flaming sword will do that, I guess."

I snickered at that, grabbing her and pulling her against me as I rolled back onto the bed. "I noticed your sword master trait too, you've been putting in some work, huh?"

"More than you know," she laughed. "Gossamer is a powerful weapon, but only if I can use her well. Uncle Moon knows SO MUCH about swordsmanship. It's intimidating. He's been instructing me personally, and I feel like I haven't absorbed even a tenth of what he tried to show me. His philosophy of the sword is intense."

"What kind of philosophy?" I asked with interest, propping myself up on one arm.

She leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. "Well for one, he says swordplay isn't a battle, it's a conversation. Rather than wielding your sword, you're conversing with it. It has intention, desire, whether gravity, wind, or momentum, the sword WANTS to go places. You just need to persuade it to change that intention to suit your needs. Similarly, when an opponent attacks you, rather than try to block or deflect, you have to meet their sword's intention with yours and persuade it to change course."

That was an interesting way of looking at things, but I wasn't sure I got it completely. "So rather than having discrete moments of use like techniques or moves, it would be more accurate to say your sword is always in use, but sometimes you're just waiting to see what it does?"

"Sort of," she hedged. "More that your sword should always be in motion on the way to its intention. Even stillness is a form of motion, and even tranquility is intention. I'm still getting the hang of it."

"You learned enough to count as a Master," I pointed out with a laugh. "I think that means you have a good start."

She snorted. "I wish. You know skills scale in an inverted pyramid. Uncle Moon's sword skills are an ocean, and im trying to fill up a small bucket with a thimble. I've had some moments of inspiration, and those are another scoop of water, but I need about a million more of those to reach Grandmaster, nevermind Mythic."

I reached out and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "It'll be fine," I assured her. "You're putting in the work, and that means it's just a matter of time. How do you eat a whale?"

Rolling her eyes, she laughed at my tired axiom. "One bit at a time," she repeated dully.

"Damn straight," I told her solemnly. "Just keep at it. And hey, maybe there'll be some opportunities in the legacy. I would be shocked if there were no sword based abilities. Maybe you can surpass Uncle Moon completely with some training. Wouldn't that be fun to rub in his face?"

She giggled, snuggling up against me. "I missed you," she murmured. "Every day. I know we still talked but…"

"It's not the same," I agreed. "Nothing is. Not when I'm not with you. Things are always better when we're together. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight. Haven't had one in a while."

Sighing, she nodded against me, eyes starting to droop. "S'good," she slurred. "Sleep."

Chuckling softly, I leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. "Yeah," I said softly. "It's good to get some sleep. Sweet dreams, love. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?" she whispered, eyes never opening.

"Cross my heart," I said sincerely. She didn't answer. Her breathing had evened out, and I could tell through the bond she had fallen asleep. I watched her like that, for a moment, absolutely floored that this amazing woman was sharing my life. My home. My heart. I felt a surge of love more primal and overwhelming than I could have ever imagined before I met her, but it didn't shake me even an inch. It washed over me, buoyed me, made me feel whole.

I closed my eyes, snuggling against my wife, and let sleep take me. I drifted off into my dreams still thinking of her, and that night, I knew only peace. I'd traveled halfway across the universe to a place I'd never been, and I was right where I belonged.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I woke with a happy sigh, sitting up and stretching expansively. I felt refreshed, like I had finally exhaled after months of holding my breath. I glanced down to find Callie sleeping peacefully, and kissed her forehead as I slipped out of bed. The suite Callie was living in at the WCP encampment palace was shockingly similar to the one I slept in back at the main palace and as expected, the shower was the same as well.

Being able to stand under scalding water as it tattooed the beat a peaceful song on my skin was a balm to my soul and nerves so frayed I had forgotten what it was like not to be stressed. Sadly, all good things must end, so I only stayed in for an hour or two before stepping out and drying off. Once I got dressed, I headed for the in suite kitchen and pulled out ingredients, beginning to prepare a nice breakfast for the two of us.

I spent about twenty minutes cooking before I heard the door opened, but when I turned I found Benny, Jessie, Chelsea, and Celine rather than Callie. They all sat down at the table, staring at me expectantly, and I rolled my eyes, cracking more eggs for them.

"So," I said nonchalantly. "You guys do anything fun last night? Skydiving? Surfing? Getting engaged?"

"Subtle," Benny said dryly. "And yes, I asked."

I nodded solemnly to Celine. "Turned him down huh? Good choice. He's fine in small doses but you don't want him around all the time."

"No, she said yes, ass. And I will throw this knife at you," Benny said mildly. "I know you can dodge, but it might scratch the cabinets, and then what would you do? This is a high end suite of the WCP, if you mess up their furnishings-"

"They'll do nothing at all because I'm the boss of EVERYONE?" I grinned maliciously.

He glared at me. "I despise you. How am I supposed to keep your rampaging ego in check now. You're ACTUALLY the center of the universe. Or at least a few galaxies."

"You sure you want to sign up for a lifetime of THIS?" Chelsea asked Celine wryly. "I'm stuck with these idiots, but you can still escape. Though I guess I'm in no position to be throwing stones about eccentric significant others."

"Why am I the one getting ganged up on?" Benny complained. "This is supposed to be my special day."

The door to my room opened, my wife padding out in a heavy pair of pajamas. She glared at our guests. "You people are so loud. Hasn't anyone ever told you that it's not polite to speak words before noon?"

"Morning hon," I told her as I kissed her cheek and handed her a plate. "Benny was just telling me about the proposal."

"Don't care," she grunted. "Too early. Eat now. Talk later."

We all laughed but left her to her meal as she dug in with the single minded determination you usually saw from particularly motivated alligators. I turned to Benny and raised my eyebrow. "So, if we're all going in together I'm gonna need to know your stats. Jessie you too, let's see what you guys are working with. Been a while, can't wait to see how much you've grown."

He snorted at me, scooping up a forkful of eggs and stuffing them in his mouth. He stared me down as he ate them as slowly as possible, defiantly extending his mastication as long as possible, and I rolled my eyes and waited. Finally, he swallowed, proudly took out a piece of paper, and copied down his stats, passing them to me smugly.

Benicio Cortez- C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Necrotech Integration- Allows the integration of existing artifacts into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them, three items per placement. Allows the integration of souls into created technology.

Bonded Companion: Toast (Dracolich)

Might-615,044

Impact-155

Fantasy-323,486

Vitality-426,441

Focus-720,141

Perception-343,582

Creation-263,471

Progress to next rank: 2,692,320/ 1,000,000

Soul strength: Tanzanite Soul Body

Current integrated tech. 17/30.

Torso: C-ranked intangibility for short bursts, Three times multiplication of Might for ten minutes.

Right fist: triple punch, right infinite edge axe blade.

Left forearm: C-ranked energy barrier or variable shape, space ring.

Left fist: master slow acting tranquilizer effect, left infinite edge axe blade.

Right foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps.

Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly.

Head: slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time, Three times multiplication of Focus for ten minutes.

Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage.

Chest: Pair of golden D-rank spider legs that arch up from the shoulders.

Waist: Belt of spiritual calming, Three times Multiplication of Perception for ten minutes. Heart: Illusionary double, Three times Multiplication of Vitality for ten minutes.

Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Grandmastery of Inventing, Grandmastery of Necromantic Engineering, Grandmaster Path of the Dracolich, Lesser Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

Path of the Dracolich-Solid. Proto Technique: sword art, Dance of the Dracolich

I whistled at the changes. Honestly, the biggest shock was how LITTLE a quarter of the way to B-rank ended up being. He didn't have a single stat over one million. Which made sense, since he and Jessie had broken through not long ago. He was actually doing incredibly well, but still, I'd been expecting bigger numbers, especially after I'd seen Callie's crazy growth. In a way, I was actually glad to know Benny was taking his time. Callie had our bond to help with recursion, but Benny would have to deal with that himself.

Most impressive was the comprehensive upgrade to his tech. All the D-rank artifacts had been updated, which must have taken an IMMENSE amount of work, given the semi-random nature of inventing. Even if he gained control as he ranked up the skill, it couldn't have been easy. Not to mention the multiplier items had been replaced, since not only did they work at his current rank, the timeline had been extended to double what it had been before.

Beyond that, the rank up had expanded his capacity to three items per slot, meaning he had effectively half his slots open for use. Now that he'd caught up with replacing all his items, he could start working on new ones. I was about to suggest he fill them now, but considering the contents of the test, the legacy might teach him some new ways to improve, so I'd let him handle it on his own. Still, he'd done well, and I let the others check it out as I processed.

Jessie was leaning over my shoulder, peeking with interest at the various stat values. "Oh wow nice. Your Focus is almost three quarters of a million. And you have two Grandmaster crafting skills, I'm jealous. I got Beast taming and Lifeweaving to Grandmaster, but only because I cheated with my trait." She pulled out a piece of paper, writing everything down. "Got a few new masteries too, but that's all on Alyssa. She's been SO patient helping me learn about plants and nature." Her smile was wide and happy as she talked about her girlfriend, and I was so happy for her, knowing how it felt to find someone who meant that much to you. She passed us the paper, and we all leaned over to peruse.

Jessica Evans- C-rank. Ability- Grandmaster Trait: Undying Lifestorm Thirionad. A spirit of the wild, bonded deeply with the Undying Lifestorm Ursa Randall. The beginning of a line.

Might-1,355,625 (x 2 effective multiplier from racial trait)

Impact-155

Fantasy-222,758

Vitality-3,409,587 (x 3 effective multiplier from racial trait)

Focus-219,755

Perception-225,765

Creation-123,958

Progress to next rank: 5,557,603/10,000,000

Pathath of the Green Sun- Solid

Lifebound partner: Undying Lifestorm Ursa- Randall

Soul strength: Tanzanite Soul Body

Skills: Grandmastery of Lifeweaving, Intermediate Horticulture, Mastery of First Aid, Mastery of Herbalism, Expert Flower Arrangement, Grandmastery of Beast Taming, Grandmaster Path of the Green Sun

That one surprised me less. Benny had undershot her total development by a bit, but not much. She was about halfway through C-rank, and her Vitality was effectively into the B-rank range on its own. I couldn't help but glance up at her in shock. "Damn, you stayed VERY focused. Your whole rep is feeding into Vitality. Though it looks like you still have Might creeping up behind, side effects of Randall being your bond I'm guessing. Speaking of, how is he?" Randall had already been C-rank last time I'd seen him, and I doubted he'd already broken through again, but I doubted he was lagging too far behind.

Grinning, Jessie reached into a two sided pocket of her hoodie tucked around he belly and presented the miniaturized bear, still shrunk as usual with the device Jessie had wished for back at the ruined soul temple. "He hungry?" I asked with a laugh. "I did make extras."

She snorted. "Don't tempt him. He'll clean your whole kitchen out. He can eat his weight in food even in this form. His ACTUAL weight. Plus he's been hungry. Alyssa has decided he's going to try to go vegetarian. She's had him on a strict diet of fruit and nuts. She says it's for his own good, but I'm pretty sure it's because he ate the goat she was raising. She can be petty like that."

"Is that healthy?" I asked worriedly. "Aren't bears carnivores?"

She shook her head. "Bears are Omnivorous. Even if he was a normal animal it wouldn't hurt him. Besides, he's a Lifestorm Ursa. Between his own Vitality and our bond he could survive or rocks and twigs for the next hundred years. But don't worry. She's over it by this point and is mostly just messing with him. She's planning to slow cook a whole cow for him for his next birthday." She grinned down at the soundly sleeping bear. "He has no idea, and he's been pouting for a month about it."

I probably should have been outraged about the bullying, but Randall could be a bit of a diva, and the fact that Alyssa had found a punishment that was so obviously effective while not having a real downside made me smile.

"So," I turned to Celine. "What about you? You hit C-rank? I'm not prying, I know stats are personal for most people, but are you going to try the legacy trial with us? The noncombat route?" I wasn't sure what professions were available, but Celine was an expert at woodcraft and forestry, and if she'd hit C-rank I was sure she'd be up for the challenge."

"I have," she smiled happily. "Thanks to the stipend I receive from the Empire from governing your territory. As for the legacy, there is a ranger trial apparently, according to some of the rejected applicants, and I'm going to at least attempt it. I'm just not sure of the results."

That made two of us. Even beyond actually passing, there was more to consider. How would the legacy trial work if the trial had non-combatants. I'd expected it to be similar to the ruined soul temple, lots of competitions for rankings with rewards at the end. It still might be like that, but that would mean that there would be separate tracks for the two types of professions, and that didn't feel right.

Whatever was going to happen, I was excited to find out what it would be like. We'd be going in together this time, and my gut was telling me we'd be able to stay teamed up. It would be a nice change of pace from my semi solo adventure in the Void.

All of us fell into deep thought about the coming challenges, returning to our meals, and I tried my best to rouse myself from the reverie and focus on the food and the company. There would always be another crisis, but moments like these, a good breakfast with my best friends…those were hard to come by, and I suspected they'd get harder still in the not too distant future.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Once my time with my friends was over, it was time for politics. Harrison was running things on the war front with Aiden supporting, but as the current Wishmaster, I was technically the highest ranking official at the base. That meant I was now in charge of said base, and would be expected to at least pretend to participate in the day to day, even if it was just to pay lip service to the plans of whoever I had actually running things.

It ALSO meant that I was expected to meet with the lords and ladies of the various nearby clans who had been in talks for or already entered into truces. Joy.

And so, I was escorted deep into the base, into a throne room that had apparently never been used before, and plopped on a throne to sit and look pretty (or intimidating) while people cycled through the room to kiss my boots. While I was sure that would sound entertaining to some, I definitely wasn't on that list. I hated all the formal ass kissing aspects of my job.

Callie, happily, had a seat right beside me, so we could at least entertain each other with chatter while we waited for new visitors to show up.

It was inconvenient, but I had decided to hold off on my breakthrough to B-rank until after holding court. The more people who saw me at C-rank, the less concerned people were likely to be about me. While C-rankers with Chronicles HAPPENED, they weren't so common as to be expected. Since a Chronicle was a requirement to hit B-rank, me being at peak C-rank and not breaking through would imply that I lacked the ability to do so.

Of course, plenty of people knew about my Domain, but they were mostly internal. Being underestimated by outsiders was unlikely to be a bad thing in any scenario I could imagine.

But before we got to the outsiders, we had to get through the insiders, and that meant listening to Harrison debrief us. About everything. Every. Single. Thing. He talked about the current force limits, about the premises, about the fucking PLUMBING. Logistics, supply chains, VENDOR CONTRACTS. It had been a straight hour since he arrived, his mouth hadn't stopped moving, and I had internalized literally zero useful information.

My cabinet, standing behind me, listened intently to relevant sections of the report, but as for myself, I barely heard a word that came out of his mouth. I was so bored that I didn't even notice he had stopped talking until Callie reached over and pinched me, at which point I turned slowly to regard the elder. He looked resigned. "I was asking, my lord, if you had any questions regarding the arrangements on the warfront. May I take your silence as a no?"

"You may," I said, not letting any chagrin into my voice. "I'm meeting with the local clans and factions we already have treaties with now, right?"

He nodded. "Your first meeting is with the Extreme Emptiness Mansion. Their current Patriarch has some concerns about the troop distribution on the western flank. He feels he's being targeted unfairly by factions inside the palace."

"Is he?" I asked bluntly.

"Possibly," he admitted. "Carnas Dellifer is a powerful S-ranker in his own right, and his sister Lilah married Warren Wyndham shortly before his appointment to the position of Wishmaster. During her tenure as first lady of the palace, Lilah was known to favor her brother's organization. Carnas is a deadly warrior, so most overlooked the nepotism, but there were a few vassal organizations that might have felt slighted, and during my son's tenure as Wishmaster, he didn't bother upholding many of Warren's rulings when they were challenged."

I sighed. "So it's possible some of his rivals ended up in a position to pressure the officer in charge of whatever our dispersal looks like. Who was that?"

"Dominic," he said politely. "A second cousin of yours, my lord. He has a natural gift for tactics. My son uses him to arrange the troops when he can't be bothered. Would you like me to call him before the seat?"

I shook my head. "Sure, he can sit in during my meeting with Carnas. I'll be able to smell if he's lying anyway. Send them both in."

He nodded solemnly, gesturing for the nearby guards to summon the two parties involved.

First into the room was Carnas Dellifer. Carnas was…big. A lot of Ascendants were tall. I suspected it was a recursion thing based on us seeming so larger than life, but Carnas was easily the tallest person I'd seen aside from my recently resurrected father in law. Seven and a half feet with piercing blue eyes and blood red hair that erupted around his head like a lions man, fading into an equally untamed beard. He met my eyes, nodding deeply but never breaking contact. "Your excellency," he said, in a deeply accented brogue I couldn't place.

"Lord Dellifer," I responded respectfully. "I hear you have worries about the safety of your men on the front lines. Would you be so kind as to share your concerns?"

"Of course," he said cordially. "As you know, the majority of the major factions have agreed to a temporary truce, but this has mostly affected the upper ranks. C and D-ranked parties and legions have been sortying out to do battle semi regularly in an effort to keep the stationed armies from getting too…boisterous. Supporting a force of S or even A-rankers requires exponentially larger numbers of weaker Ascendants for supply and logistics positions, among other things. Keeping our high rankers quiet is simple, given their lifespans and limited numbers, but entertaining the tens or hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers was…a concern."

I nodded. That was why Callie had been able to continue her combat training. The lower ranked soldiers from the major factions, not to mention smaller factions that weren't as concerned with the legacy trial as the rest of us. I'd noted the continued skirmishes from the latter, and the former's activities had been explained during the briefing, even if I'd only been half listening.

"Naturally," I confirmed. "The problem lies with one of your C-rank legions?"

"The Favored Sons," he confirmed. "A C-rank unit commanded by my youngest great grandchild, Edmund. He's an excitable lad, but he's got a good head on his shoulders. He'd taken control of our section of the western flank, coordinating with several units nearby. He arranged a brilliant pincer formation attack on an incoming raid force from the Dead Cavern Marauders, but at the last second, one of the prongs of his pincer broke off to engage the Demons of the Setting Sun."

"A necessary departure," came a crisp voice as another man entered the room. "Considering the collapse of the Dawn Hierarchy on the eastern front. Their defense folded, and the Demons spearheaded right through our front line. If they'd broken through entirely they'd have been fully behind our lines and free to unleash hell on our back lines."

Carnas snarled at him. "The Fourteenth Pax Demonica regiment was stationed on that front. Your dispatch of the Blood Pact Raiders was an unnecessary excess!"

The shorter but still sizable man who had entered looked…like a Wyndham. Sandy hair, green eyes. The standard family template. He was also lying. Not through all of it. But I knew enough about what it sounded like when people avoided the truth on purpose to have a pretty good idea. I also had no desire to mince words. "Dominic," I cut off his defense. "Yes or no, the dispatch of pincer forces was an absolute necessity that was in no way related to Lord Dellifer's identity?"

He froze, clearly uncomfortable. I could see him consider lying, but eventually he just sighed. "I can't say it was in NO way related," he hedged. "There were other regiments that could have been sent to support, but they would have been less…politically neutral choices."

I sighed deeply. "You lose anyone?" I asked Carnas.

"We did," he said immediately. Then added grudgingly. "But…no more than usual. We were forced to give ground, but there weren't any more deaths than the average engagement." He glared at Dominic. "We're willing to accept compensation."

I turned to Dominic. "What are you willing to offer to make this right?"

"My lord," he protested. "I was simply following the wishes of the commanders in the field. Tactical deployment is a complex and nuanced field that involves a great many interests. It's my job to make sure that the various vassal forces intermingle seamlessly and avoid potential friction!"

I frowned, because that had been a digression, but not a lie. He wasn't saying everything. "You mean that if you'd allowed the pincer attack to continue you had reason to believe someone might have attacked Lord Dellifer's people?"

"Perhaps," he shrugged. "Or perhaps through inaction allowed them to come to harm. The Fourteenth Pax Demonica is the personal force of Delroy Camlan. Delroy's brother Matthew recently married Lady Elara Phelod, who brother is-"

"Revan Phelod," spat Carnas. "I wasn't aware of the marriage. How did you hear about it?"

Dominic raised an eyebrow. "Lord Dellifer, it is my JOB to hear about such matters. Knowing the facts, do you still believe I targeted you unfairly?"

"No," he sighed. "I killed Revan Phelod's brother in a duel three hundred years ago. He's almost pathologically devoted to the deaths of myself and all my blood relatives. Nothing Revan does that could harm the Extreme Emptiness Mansion is a coincidence. You were right to suspect treachery, and inconvenience aside I appreciate your foresight."

How did these people all have so much FREE TIME? I was so fucking busy every day even before I became the Wishmaster. Who the hell had time for three hundred year blood feuds and political treachery marriages and troop maneuvers. The two men shook hands and left, and I just glared at Harrison. "Exactly how many of these meetings are going to be entirely pointless and have a completely net zero result?"

His smile was practically vulpine. "Oh, most of them, my lord. Welcome to leadership. Isn't it grand?"

Closing my eyes, I counted to ten. "So, I take it that particular meeting happened for a reason? His grandson will be accompanying us into the trial then?" It was the only reason I could think of that any of that would have been necessary.

That got a pleased nod. "Indeed, my Lord," he said encouragingly. "From our research up to this point, we've become aware that once you've all passed the trials and entered the legacy, there will be a chance to regroup. The larger your faction within the legacy the safer you'll be. Your guards will, of course, be afforded the chance to attempt the entry trial as well."

Fade, Alanna, and Ellie then. I'd planned to bring them with me anyway. Still, he seemed hesitant to continue, which didn't bode well. "What are you not saying?" I asked grimly.

"As a member of your cabinet, Lady Lark will, of course, accompany you," he said slowly. "However, her father has expressed concerns for her safety. As such, he's sending two of her siblings to act as personal protection. We tried to inform him that it was unnecessary, but apparently he doesn't care what we think."

"Ok…" I said slowly. "Missing the bad part."

Bethy sighed from behind me. "The bad part is that the only two siblings I have that haven't completely authored their Chronicles who would be USEFUL as protection are Will and Tamsin, and they're both huge jerks."

I raised an eyebrow. "I doubt Harrison is worried about your siblings being jerks," I reassured her.

"No, she's right," he clarified. "That's exactly what I'm worried about. However, I think Lady Lark might be somewhat understating the issue. My worry is less about them being "jerks" and more about them being cannibalistic lunatics who have been known to go blood mad and eat their teammates." My jaw fell open and I turned to stare at him in horror. Yeah…that seemed about right.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After sitting through about two dozen meetings, I was finally able to get away from the throne room. Callie trailed behind me, obviously trying not to laugh at my sour disposition. "What?' I demanded. "I hate politics. You know that."

"Oh I know," she said with a laugh. "Everyone knows. I think the other council members know and they're not even in the same galaxy. How you managed to radiate an AURA of pure discontent that profound while completely silent and wearing a full face mask and suit of armor I have no idea. It was like performance art."

I did not pout. I may have made a slightly unhappy face behind my mask, but I didn't pout, no matter what strongly amused assumptions I could feel through the bond. "I might have been a bit impatient," I finally admitted. "After all, I'm preparing for my rank up. B-rank is…a big deal.

B-rank. It didn't seem like that big of a change, honestly. I had my Chronicle and Domain already, it was just another rank. But in a lot of ways, it really wasn't. B-rank was the beginning of the upper tiers of power. There was a reason my guardian back when I had unlocked my powers was a B-ranker, and why B-rankers had enough reputation to be known intergalactically. People had HEARD of Zeke, even in a nowhere backwater like Callus.

The upper three ranks of Ascendance before godhood were the collective instruments the five factions used to wage their wars. Once you hit D-rank, you were relevant, but once you hit B-rank, you were respected. It was an accomplishment, a rite of passage.

And it was finally time. I was graduating from being a nobody for real. Even after becoming the Wishmaster, I hadn't really FELT like I was a power player. I felt like the jr. boss, like a CEO's kid or something. I wasn't actively dangerous in a way most people would respect. Not before. But this would change all that.

"You've really got to stop hyping yourself up about this," my wife chuckled wryly. "Not that it's not a big accomplishment, it obviously is and I'm proud. But you won't feel any different in an hour than you do now. This isn't a real watershed. Just a moment of emotional catharsis. If you blow it out of proportion you're just going to be disappointed."

Laughing, I stepped into the suite behind her. "Alright, give me some space. Been a while since I've done this. And never with a Domain."

"Oh, good point," she frowned. "Not sure how that'll affect things." Stepping back, she let me head to the center of the room so I'd have some clearance. Then I reached into myself, flexing my soul, and allowed the flood of renown to enter.

I'd expected drama, suppression, maybe some kind of pressure like normal. This time though, it felt…relaxing. Rather than having the Impact poured into me and overflow, forcibly expanding me, this time when it overflowed it seemed to pour out into my Domain. It was like water seeping into the thirsty sand of the plains outside Gehenna, soaking deep into my soul through the Domain without needing to put so much strain on my spirit.

My body began to change, as usual, but this was smoother, more gradual, almost pleasant. I felt like my consciousness was a network of plants waiting under the sand and the Impact had watered and germinated them, unleashing my inner growth. Once it ended, I pulled up my stats, half convinced I'd failed somehow, but sure enough…it was done.

Wishmaster status. B-rank. Ability: Legendary Wish- Ten times a day grant a Legendary wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Legendary Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Wishmaster candidate points-1000

Might-2,641,421

Impact-215

Fantasy-1,823,568

Vitality-1,921,871 ()

Focus-1,724,853

Perception-1,641,640

Creation-1,981,143

Progress to next rank:11,734,711/100,000,000

Soul strength- Obsidian Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 13/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 1/9

Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:5- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 845 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")

Stored: 10 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 8

2.Valtek- Tier 2

3.Cooking- Tier 7

4.Inventing- Tier 2

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 4

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 1

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 7

11.Dust Construction- Tier 5

12. Stone Limb- Tier 6

13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4

14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 6

15.Ripple Running- Tier 3

16.State of Grace- Tier 4

17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4

18.Afterburner- Tier 6

19.Pit of Despair- Tier 6

20.Mountain Stance- Tier 6

21.Heart over Body- Tier 6

22.Mercy Kill- Tier 5

23.Double Trouble- Tier 6

24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5

25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3

26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2

27.Marked for Death- Tier 4

28.False Fatality- Tier 3

29.Blood Curse- Tier 4

30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2

31.Final Strike- Tier 6

32.Overlay- Tier 4

33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3

34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2

35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6

36.Danger Sense- Tier 6

37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6

38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6

39.Belial- Tier 7

40.Abomination Engine- Tier 6

41.Mephistopheles- Tier 7

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6

44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6

45.Mornax- Tier 7

46.Zagan- Tier 7

47.Life Nova- Tier 8

48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6

49.Bael- Tier 7

50.Beelzebub- Tier 7

51.Agares- Tier 7

52.Dantalion- Tier 7

53.Sammael- Tier 8

54.Limbo- Tier 7

55.Gluttony- Tier 7

56.Wrath- Tier 6

57.Pride- Tier 7

58.Retribution- Tier 7

59.Murmur- Tier 7

60.Leviathan- Tier 7

61.Behemoth- Tier 7

62.Glory- Tier 7

63.Abaddon -Tier 7

64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 7

65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6

66.Fate Sense- Tier 7

67.Scent of Truth- Tier 6

68.Damnatio Memoriae- Tier 6

69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6

70. Asmodeus- Tier 7

71. Astaroth- Tier 7

72. Azazel- Tier 8

It was…beautiful. Obviously the stat gain was nice, and Sammael, Doom Sovereign, and Life Nova all ranking up was excellent, but more than that…it was my soul. The Obsidian Soul Body. The final state of a soul before the ascension to Mercury and Mirror. The last mortal soul stage. And now I was there. It wasn't the end, but it was such a huge step.

Even the stat requirement didn't seem so bad anymore. I was already a tenth of the way there. Eleven million plus. I just felt so…strong. And the ability. Legendary. It felt so much more solid than grandmaster. And I was up to ten wishes now. It was all just so consequential in a lot of strange ways that barely made sense to me.

When I opened my eyes, Callie was grinning at me. "That was less dramatic than expected," she said cheerfully. "Think it'll be that easy for me?"

"It might," I said slowly. "If you open your Domain. I think…I think ranking up is supposed to BE like projecting a Domain. That dropping in of Impact, the overflow, the way it pours into you. It's all…it's not supposed to hurt or feel uncomfortable. It's supposed to prepare your body. And now that my Domain has been condensed, the level just pours into it like it's supposed to. I'm truly ready for the next rank for the first time since this whole thing started."

Looking inward, I could see that my Domain had changed. It wasn't bigger, but after the influx of Impact, it felt more…real. Like something vital and precious had been added to a painting that had elevated it from a work of art to something closer to a photo or even a window to another place. I also felt a lot more comfortable now. I could feel the spots where the Tier 8 demons had been putting stress on my soul, and now that minor strain was completely vanished.

Callie listened raptly, feeling the sensations as I did through the bond even as I described them. She nodded slowly. "I really need to consider my Domain," she said after a moment. "I have a Chronicle condensed, and I have my own soul weapon I can use to help the process. Maybe not quite the same way yours did, but I have faith Gossamer can help me establish a unique Domain that's all my own. Something to do with my Adherent Fire, maybe."

I nodded, but I had to admit I didn't envy her the attempt. Domains were complicated, serious business. I had built mine step by step, but it had been mostly unconscious. The Ten Demons Tree had been watered and fed on my actions and progress, and bloomed into Gehenna through our connection to each other. If someone had asked me to try to condense my OWN Domain, I would have no clue where to start. Which meant my experiences wouldn't be any help to her at all.

Luckily, I wasn't the only one here. My own experience of Domain projection might be atypical, but my parents, my uncle, my grandparents, and even Callie's sister had all condensed theirs the normal way, and would have plenty of insight into the process to share with her.

Of course, she understood all this too, but she didn't seem to mind. She just enjoyed my own reaction to my Ascension, happy for my contentment. Pulling me over to the bed she flopped down and cuddled against me happily. "Tomorrow we can do some wishes," I told her emphatically. I knew she wasn't upset or anything, but I still felt bad breaking through without her. At the very least, once I'd completed my rank up, my Wishes should be even MORE effective in terms of stat gain.

She laughed. "It's FINE, Shane," she assured me. "I knew you'd break through before me. Given how large a chasm B-rank is, I'm not worried about catching up. Besides, I'm actually glad I won't be up to B-rank when we enter. We know we'll all rejoin each other after the entry trial, but we don't know how long that'll take or what form. As a C-ranker, I have a better chance of getting back to Benny and Jessie sooner, and I'll be able to look out for them until we're all reunited."

That…was a good point. However people were separated, there had to be some rank component. Everything Ascendants did had rank components. Maybe her being C-rank would be a good thing after all.

"Fine," I sighed. "But still, wishes tomorrow. I want you to at the very least be the strongest C-ranker possible." She rolled her eyes, but I felt a surge of warmth through the bond as she nodded her head. Then the two of us curled up and closed our eyes, settling down for bed after a long day. I'd never slept so soundly in my life.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

After my rank-up, I called a meeting of my closest allies. My cabinet, my close friends, my bodyguards, my parents, everyone who was relevant to my future plans. They all filed into the meeting room I'd borrowed, then took their places at the massive wooden table. I sat down, admiring the dark, heavy wood. I knocked on it lightly, and there was a small click. Several round sections of table lowered, one in front of each person, and when they raised back up they each had an ice cold drink on them.

"Does this table have a built in drink dispenser?" I asked in wonder. "How did they even know I was going to knock on it?"

"It's wood," my wife pointed out. "What else would you do with it?"

Picking up the drink, I took a long, slow pull, humming with joy at the lovely vanilla undertones of the sweet and fizzy root beer. "Fantastic," I said cheerfully. "I love this table. Remind me to get one of these."

"You can just keep this one," my mom said with a shrug. "It IS WCP property. But now probably isn't the time. Let's talk about the mission. You realize going in there is dangerous?"

"Not going in there is MORE dangerous," I fired back. "We don't know what's inside, but we DO know it's valuable enough that we're going to see forces from higher planes descending to enter. Hell, some of them might have already gotten inside, it's not like we know exactly who is on those other trial chambers. Which means we need to get in there and see who and what we're dealing with. Not to mention that Deveskane thought this place was important enough to his eventual Ascension to World God that he chose to possess a B-ranker and sacrifice a shot at resurrection to enter."

It had become clear in retrospect that Deveskane never expected me to bring him back. There were plenty of things he could have done to streamline the process if he had, but he didn't bother. He'd been aiming for exactly the result he got. Which was both scary and worrying, for a whole bunch of different reasons.

Alara nodded. "He's right," she confirmed. "Missing this opportunity would be the height of foolishness."

"Agreed," Zeke said solemnly. "But going in underprepared would be just as bad. Which is why we're not proposing you skip the trial. We're proposing something a little more…prepatory. We want to put you kids through a training camp. Especially you, Shane. B-rank is a whole new ballgame. You need to learn to apply your abilities more…finely."

I nodded slowly. "I did notice that I've never seen you manifest your Domain before," I admitted. "I mean, even fighting A-rankers, you were using Path attacks. I don't even know what your Domain is."

"There's a certain amount of risk with Domain projection," he confirmed. "Same reason your parents don't usually use theirs. The Path is the lever between the soul and the Domain, and using it to exert force is one of the more economical ways to achieve combat in the higher ranks. I can teach you that, though I think that the unique nature of YOUR Domain and your connection to your soul weapon mean that direct projection is a more stable option for you."

"Speaking of," I nodded to Callie. "A training camp might be just what the doctor ordered. Callie has been thinking of trying to condense her Domain, but given the off the wall nature of mine, I have no clue what advice to give her. We were hoping you might be able to offer some advice on the subject."

My mom smiled warmly at Callie. "Of course we can," she said cheerfully. "Calliope is family. In fact, we can help Jessica and Benicio as well. It's a bit early for Domain condensation, but both of them could benefit from access to a Chronicle early on in their path."

I beamed at her. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. Callie still needed to get those wishes out of the way, but we could start her training easily enough tomorrow. As for mine…I was curious to see what kind of Path related shenanigans I could get upto without needing to use my actual Domain. Granted, my demons probably counted, since some of them were techniques, but I was pretty sure I could figure out some fun uses for my Legendary Path of the Demonbinder.

On top of that, I was excited to finally get a potential look at Zeke and my parent's Domains. I had no illusions about being able to actually keep UP with them, given that they were all A-rankers and my parents had been there for a while, but I was only one rank down now, and while I couldn't beat them, I was betting I could give them at least a show. I couldn't wait to try.

The rest of the meeting was a bit of a blur. I was so excited about the training camp it was hard to focus on what anyone was saying, despite Callie pinching me a few times to get me to focus. Finally, after twenty minutes of my distraction, my mother noticed and decided to call the meeting to an early end. "Alright," she sighed. "I can see you're all too agitated for a drawn out discussion. Meet at the west training hall tomorrow at eight AM sharp."

I hissed through my teeth. "Ooooh, eight is BAD for us," I explained. "Callie doesn't like to be awake before ten. Can we do it…not then?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's training, Shane, not a visit to a day spa. We don't do reservations. Set an alarm and get there on time, or we'll come GET you. I'm sure Calliope is more than up to an early morning."

Based on the simmering discontentment coming through the bond, I was much LESS sure of that than she seemed to be, but it wasn't like I could say that.

I grabbed Callie's hand and all but sprinted from the room, ready to get started on preparing for my big training opportunity. I'd done some training with my mom back in the day, but that had been with a much bigger gap separating us. Training with Zeke, my mom, my dad, and even Aiden as a B-ranker meant I needed to put my best foot forward. Which meant I needed a trump card. Luckily, I had EXACTLY the card I needed in mind, and my wife was the perfect person to help me.

Callie was laughing as I pulled her along, and when we stepped into the suite, she pulled her hand free as I all but stumbled to a stop. "Whoa there!' she cackled. "What's got you in such a hurry?"

"Wishes!" I said with a grin. "I had an idea. An AMAZING idea. You down to pay with your wishes with attacks again?"

"I assumed I would," she said slowly. "Why? What is this about?"

I waved a hand, and a colossal man appeared beside us. Huge and imposing with curved horns and a body made of dense stone, Abaddon towered over both of us. "This," I introduced her. "Is Abaddon. Abaddon's whole powerset is converting energy sources to physical power. I normally pair him with Zagan because he has the highest energy conversion ratio, especially combined with Beelzebub to ramp up the numbers. But I was thinking, YOU'VE got an absurd amount of energy flowing through those Adherent flames of yours. Probably more than I've ever seen in an attack."

Her lips peeled back in a sharklike smile. "You want me to pay for my wishes with power and pump it all into Abaddon here. What do you think it'll do?"

"Honestly," I said confidently. "I THINK it'll rank him up. It wouldn't be possible with any of the other demons, but Abaddon's entire power set it about converting energy. His progress is directly tied to his physical strength in a way that's unique among my demons, and having one my tier 8 up my sleeve will be a game changer in training." I turned to the massive demon. "Do you think that'll work?"

He stood there, unblinking, eyes locked on the wall. After what felt like an hour but was probably closer to thirty seconds, he nodded pensively. "It may," he boomed in a voice deeper than the Chaos Chasm.

I waited. "Oh, that was it," I noted after no more was forthcoming. "Noted. How about you, you ready for this?" I asked Callie without really worrying about it. After my rank up, my limit for stat wishes should have spiked. I couldn't be SURE, but I was pretty positive it was around twenty five hundred. With eight hundred fifty four scrolls, we were looking at over two MILLION points. But it wouldn't be cheap. There wouldn't be any multi payment wishes here. It would be one to one, which meant we'd need to pace ourselves.

I was just glad that while I couldn't tell people what to wish for unless it was stat for stat, asking for specific payments was still considered a legitimate transaction. At Callie's nod, I gestured to the titanic form of my demonic friend. "Alright Abe, get ready. This is going to be a long process."

Fishing out a scroll, I tossed it to my wife. She popped up, and I immediately saw the familiar rush of violet flame across my eyes. A wish request. I accept, and there was a flare of energy as the powerful burst of flames infused Abaddon. She broke open another scroll, and another line of fire appeared.

One by one, we worked through the whole stockpile. I was glad I'd ranked up, because besides having to grant almost a thousand wishes, I had also needed to summon Zagan to pour energy into Callie to keep her going through the process. Eight hundred and fifty four full strength energy bursts was taxing to even an Archangel, and we needed to stop multiple times to let her catch her breath even with Zagan's help.

Finally, after about nine hours, we finished up the last scroll. I slumped back, panting, and Callie groaned and slipped limply to the floor. Abaddon was all but vibrating with his enhanced power, and sure enough, he HAD reached tier 8, and gone a decent way into that tier besides. More than that, he'd become infused with Adherent Fire through the rank up. Not enough to be able to generate the stuff, but I should be able to tap him for a few uses in an emergency, at least until he burned it all off.

Callie, meanwhile, looked radiant. She was exhausted, but I could tell how proud she was of the effort she put in, and how excited she was by her growth. Two million one hundred thirty five thousand points. All of it poured directly into Vitality, to take advantage of her three times modifier in the stat.

Almost three million Vitality, and only about seventy thousand short of B-rank. I'd wanted to get her to the peak of her rank before entry, and I'd damn well pulled it off. I helped her up. "You sure you don't want to hit B-rank?" I asked worriedly. "You're so close. You could do it in a few days with the right push."

"No," she said firmly. "You were right. We're almost definitely going to be separated. Better I can stick with the others to protect them. I can always break through inside. It'll work better this way. Besides, I'm planning to establish my Domain first. Based on what you said, it makes the breakthrough process a lot easier."

That was true. It would probably be to her benefit to do it how I had. It seemed like the earlier you formed a Domain, the more refined it became through the introduction of Impact. Considering the requirements for forming a Saga and becoming a god, that made sense in retrospect. I knew that most people couldn't form a proper Domain as early as I had and took shortcuts that hamstrung them, but doing it the right way early clearly had benefits nobody was talking about. Laughing, I pulled her into my arms, lifting her into a princess carry. "Alright, then lets head to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow." There was a lot of work to be done.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning we were up and ready by six AM. After stockpiling my scrolls (ten now, which was a lot more pleasing to look at than nine) we headed for the training hall to meet up with everyone for our training camp.

When I arrived, I was excited to get started. The energy was flooding through my body, wings tucked behind my back and horns curling on my head. Abaddon and Sammael seemed like the best possible combo going into this little assessment. Raw unfiltered physical power was easily the most useful application of my powers for frontal combat.

Of course, I might have been assuming that I'd be engaging in frontal combat, but in my experience, Ascendant training usually involved hitting things with a big stick.

When we arrived, we found my parents and Zeke lined up at the edge of the room, standing outside the perimeter of some kind of huge complicated obstacle course they appeared to have built from scratch. Towers, bridges, spinning logs, blades, ropes, it was all in constant motion and all of it was set up with the same suppression mechanism I remembered from training equipment back on Callus in our early days.

My friends had all arrived, gathered opposite my folks and all looking ready to work out. Close cropped pants and sleeveless shorts, the occasional pair of shorts or compression tee, everyone was in their workout best, and they were mostly warming up to get started.

Bethy was flitting back and forth, shadow boxing so fast she was almost teleporting. Benny was doing pushups while Randall sprawled on his back, sleeping and so big he was about to fall off. Jessie was jumping rope, Abel was sparring with Dante, and everyone else was paired or grouped off chattering excitedly about what was coming.

As soon as we arrived, all motion stopped, and I rolled my eyes at the silence. "You all just HAD to show up even earlier than we did, huh? I made a point to come in well before go time, and you STILL made me look bad."

"Shane, you're here!" Bethy cheered. "This is gonna be so fun. We're gonna get in shape. Get fit or get bit, WHOO!"

"Honey, you can't bite anyone who slacks," Chelsea said gently. "We discussed this. Mindnumbing agony is not a motivational tool, no matter what your dad says. We use verbal encouragement and positive verbal messaging. Torture is low down the list."

Bethy pouted. "I wasn't going to SNACK on anyone. Just a nibble. It's not even real agony. Just a twinge of discomfort. Like a shot. Or two shots. In the neck. That inject liquid fire directly into your veins. Daddy says it's important to set realistic expectations. I don't want to hurt any friends, but if you hold back during training it can get people killed in real life."

"That's a valid concern," my mom says as she strolled over to join the conversation. She had her long blonde hair up in a tight ponytail, framing her face in a more severe cast than I'd ever seen it. My usually warm and enthusiastic mother looked positively icy, and it really underscored how serious she was about this training. "But you don't need to worry about that here Bethany. We'll be handling motivation and difficulty scaling. All you need to worry about is getting the most out of this experience. Can you do that for me?"

Bethy clapped excitedly. "Of COURSE! This is gonna be so fun! Can I go first? I want to set the record!"

My mom finally cracked a smile, even her new somber demeanor unable to withstand Bethy's exuberance. "You may. Follow me and I'll explain how it works." She led us over to the entrance to the obstacle course. "This is The Gauntlet. It's a special course we designed personally. It suppresses your parameters to the absolute limit. Namely, one point in each stat. The Gauntlet, coincidentally, is set to be functionally impossible with a single stat point. Can you guess why we would do this?"

"Because you're training us to use our Paths more," Bethy said excitedly. "Without stats, the only thing we can rely on is finding a way to make our Paths affect the world around us to bridge the gap."

"Correct," my mother nodded. "And your Paths will be at their absolute weakest. With only a single point of Impact and no stats to empower your will, even the strongest soul will have difficulty mobilizing much power. This kind of resistance training is critical for learning fine control of your Paths for combat. Shane, I would ask that you not manifest your Domain or any of your demons directly during the exercise. We're teaching you an alternative combat method."

I nodded slowly. I could understand why they would want me to have another option in battle. Thinking back to the Quiet Room during my trial, Roland had all but shattered my Domain. Without my dad's backup plan, I'd have taken months to heal that kind of damage. Not many things could cause that kind of harm to my Domain, especially after my rank up, but if there was a way to directly attack while minimizing the risk to Gehenna, it was definitely worth learning, just to have the option.

Honestly, it felt almost nostalgic. It had been quite some time since I'd worked on any direct Path techniques. I had some demons based on ones I'd created, but I'd been using forms and pseudo Domains since well before I condensed my Chronicle. It would be interesting to see what my Legendary Path could do.

Of course, I'd need to wait my turn. First, Bethy was up. I got in line to go second, but I didn't argue with the chance to see what the course was like before I took my turn.

Stepping over the starting line, Bethy took up a position inside the course. The beginning was a low, smooth path leading towards a vaulting horse, up onto a balance beam with an overhanging construct that swung sharp blades are regular intervals. My mom counted it down, and I saw Bethy's body relax, her face smoothing as all the enthusiasm and sunny energy drained away, leaving her still and empty, a predator on the hunt. My mom called for her to start, and Bethy took off like a shot.

It was, honestly, awe inspiring. Bethy's initial launch was picture perfect. So fast and leaning so far forward she was almost parallel to the ground. She hit the vaulting horse and whipper her legs, her feet all but floating off the ground as she snapped her body into a picture perfect gainer, corkscrewing in the air between the blades.

Her form blurred slightly, becoming insubstantial as she flowed across the beam, then up onto a series of handholds along a mostly sheer rock wall over a large pit. She scaled it like a spider, her limbs twisting almost unnaturally, and I saw a slight crimson glow emanate from her eyes as she took the course one obstacle at a time, pushing herself beyond what should have been possible, tapping into the Path of vampirism even with almost no power at her disposal.

Frankly, it was mesmerizing to watch. Like watching someone paint a masterpiece with the EXACT right amount of paint. Not a drop left over. Perfect economy of power, motion, and intent. It was like performance art.

When she reached the end, she landed, silently, not moving of even breathing as she stood stone still. There was a beat, then, slowly, we all started clapping. My mother was the first, then Chelsea, then the rest of us. It had been a performance worthy of applause. "That was absolutely breathtaking," my mom said enthusiastically. "Your application of intent through your Path was flawless. Just enough to affect your body and the world around you with no wasted energy."

Bethy took a deep bow, beaming as she raised her head to show that she was back to normal. "Thanks, Mrs. W! Or should I call you mom?"

"I'd like that," my mother laughed. "I tried to get Calliope to do it, but she never quite took to the term." She winked at my wife to show she didn't mean anything by it. "Now, Shane, I believe you're next? Care to show us what you've got?"

I nodded, stepping over the line. Once I was within the course, I felt like someone dropped an anvil on my head. All my power, my strength, my Impact, it was all….gone. I was just a human being again. Just a person. My wings and horns dissolved, and I realized I might have made some assumptions. I was sure it would come in handy later, but for now, none of my powers except my Path mattered here.

I didn't start. Instead, I took mental stock of my assets. I was strong. Well trained, muscular, physically active. The fact that I'd done most of my training with stats didn't change that my body had been forged in combat and repaired with power and regeneration beyond what most people ever saw. Especially with my bloodline.

Taking a deep breath, I considered my options, then I took off. I hit the path at a run, launching myself forward at top speed, taking advantage of my long legs. My palms hit the vaulting horse and I sprang up into the air toward the balance beam at top speed, all in one smooth motion.

I wasn't Bethy. I wasn't super graceful or inhumanly elegant. I was just in good shape and had a lot of practice moving my body. My incarnations helped quite a bit, but it wasn't enough to offset that "impossible with these stats" difference. Which was where my Path came in. I focused as I flew, eyes narrowing as I brought my soul and will to bear through the Path of the Demonbinder.

Binding. It was a simple concept. Too simple in some ways. But it was widely applicable and endlessly useful. Binding could mean many things. Subjugation, suppression, even just waylaying.

My soul brought the concept of the Demonbinder into the world, manifesting my will as I bound the path of the swinging blades. It didn't work too well, just barely causing a hiccup in the movement, but it DID work. Enough for me to slip between the blades and hit the beam running, bouncing around to avoid the rest of the attacks.

I kept running, but it wasn't right. That had been too…overt. It wasn't enough to strain my soul much, but not much was still a bit. That had been hamfisted. My next attempt was more subtle. Rather than bind the world, I bound myself. As I leapt up onto the rock face, I treated myself as a demon, binding my hands more securely to the stone.

This one was easier, allowing me to scale the pit more easily and avoid any slips as I climbed across. I gained confidence, applying those lessons to my next obstacle. Each one pushed me a little further, made me strain a bit more. Not just my soul, but my imagination. I was learning how to embody the Path of the Demonbinder in ways beyond just smashing people with my Domain, and I was sure this would come in handy.

I considered the applications combined with my demons too. The demonbinder didn't just bind and command. He was the perfect master of demonkind. Making the best use of my demons was the true and ultimate use of this Path, even without using my Domain directly, and I knew I could put this training to use that way.

But that was for later. For now I needed to complete my course. So I focused up, poured on the speed, and put my ass in gear. I didn't beat Bethy's time (seven minutes and three seconds), but I did pretty well (eight minutes and ten seconds). Well enough to be pretty proud of myself as I slumped down on the ground to watch the others take their turns. I was looking forward to seeing what they could all do. Not to mention resting up a bit. Today was definitely nowhere close to over.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I spent the rest of the day repeating that course, trying to improve my time. It felt…terrible. Exhausting, painful, straining to the soul after a long enough period. But I didn't stop. If normal soul strain was lifting heavy weights, this was more like lifting light weights for a very long time. Rather than teach me how to output more energy, this was refining my fine control over my Path.

Beyond that, it was also improving my ability to interact with my Domain. Pulling things in and out, accessing the powers of my demons, I was learning as I went. After hours of constant training though, I was starting to flag, and I decided to take a break to sit in on Callie's training session.

I wandered into the room where my parents, Zeke, and Alara were discussing the details of Domain condensation with her.

"So, how does this work exactly?" I asked as I flopped down on a chair I pulled from my space ring. "Mine just kind of…happened. How does one condense a Domain the normal way? I assume based on my own experiences that having a soul space helps?"

Soul spaces were…odd. I had learned early on that most people didn't have them. Not the way Callie and I did. Mine was spawned from my Great Book Heavenly Library. Which was…I wasn't sure, really. It was hard to categorize that power. It wasn't an ability, a technique, a skill, anything that showed up on my stat sheet. It seemed related to my Domain, and my dad had been very clear how vital it was to maximizing my progress. His claims had certainly been confirmed by how easily Gehenna was established, but that didn't explain what it WAS.

Seeing my uncertainty, my mom chimed in. "It does. The soul space is…well not unique, but difficult to condense. You can think of it as a pseudo Domain Seed. There are certain processes and coincidental encounters that can lead to their formation, and they act as a sort of roadmap to Domain condensation. Calliope's soul space is what gives her the possibility of forming her Domain before attempting the legacy trial at all. If she didn't have it, I would have no hope for her accomplishing something like this in such a short time."

Domains were a complicated concept. My mother had explained ages ago that having a Domain too early was a bad thing. That was because it was impossible for lower ranked Ascendants to condense their own Domains. Even I couldn't have done it before getting my Chronicle, which meant any Domain you integrated before that point would be someone else's.

In order to properly integrate a Domain Seed, you needed to have the soul strength to withstand doing so. To make it part of you. While you could bind a Domain Seed to you without going through that process, the Domain wouldn't be yours, and would prevent the later formation of a personal Domain, and in most cases, the Chronicle itself, if not a Solid Path in general. Even then, if the source of your Domain Seed was still active, their larger mythological footprint would soak up too much of your renown and prevent you from being able to progress.

There were a few caveats to that rule, of course. Dead gods weren't a drain on renown because they didn't exist to pull focus anymore. A Domain Seed that was custom designed for the person by a more powerful Ascendant seemed to be POSSIBLE (like Bethy had), but I had no idea how or why it worked, and I suspected Lark had cheated somehow to make it possible.

Which begged the obvious question. "If the Great Book Heavenly Library can help someone condense a pseudo Domain Seed, why doesn't the old man TEACH it to people?"

"Because he can't," my mother explained. "Your father's ability to pass that on had a lot of requirements. Firstly he had to basically reconstruct it, secondly he had to prepare you to be able to use it. Without your absurd talent for techniques it wouldn't be possible, and if you remember you paid with eighteen years of bloodline access for that. Without Elijah's wish devil abilities none of it would have worked."

"Well what about Callie?" I protested. "Clearly Atlas was able to create something similar."

Zeke snorted. "It would probably be a good idea not to base your assessments on what is and isn't possible on things that Atlas does. From what Alara's told us, he's VERY old, and knows more about being a god than anyone I can name. Beyond that, he used a fragment of one of his objects of power when he was creating that sword, and the sword is connected to the soul space. I don't know what the process for it was, but if you tried to tell me it wasn't related, I wouldn't believe you."

That did make sense. The gem was one of his foundational pillars, and they could be used to make shallowings, which were sort of proto void realms. Soul spaces were proto domains, so maybe Atlas really had taken a shortcut.

"Alright, so how does the soul space help?" I said after a minute or two of thought. "You said it's a pseudo Domain Seed? So how does she make it grow?"

I considered having her interface with the staff, but it wouldn't work as well for her I didn't think. In fact, it might not work at all. I'd needed to water the tree with all my experiences. My Domain condensation had actually been a deeply involved and complicated process, I just hadn't been doing the complicated part.

Callie's head snapped up. "Wait…that's it!" we all turned to look at her. "The center of the soul space is the soul weapon. At least for me. The soul space was created to house Gossamer. Normally that wouldn't help me much, but my Adherent form gives me other options. I should be able to…no, that won't work. It won't stabilize. Unless…" her eyes shot to me. "Come with me!" she said excitedly, then closed her eyes.

Knowing what she meant, I followed her into the cathedral, arriving among the pews with interest. She sprinted down the aisle, snatching up Gossamer, and her wings and hair blazed blue as she accessed her Adherent form.

The inside of the sword began to glow. Gossamer was named what it was because it reminded us of a soap bubble. It was a dark crystalline exterior with an empty inside that could be filled with flame. And that's what Callie was doing. Filling it with flame. Not a little bit either. A LOT of flame. Her practice yesterday outputting fire constantly to empower Abaddon was clearly coming in handy.

"Mind explaining this to me?" I asked wryly. "Because I can tell you have some crazy idea, but I don't know what it is."

"Shallowings," she said excitedly. "The pseudo Domain Seed reminds me of a shallowing."

I nodded. "Yeah, I got there too. It's a similar concept, but I don't see how it's useful in this scenario."

"Because I can CREATE shallowings," she stated bluntly. "Or something like them. I can open space in the Void directly with my Adherent Fire. Like that shadow area I created in The Quiet Room. I can expand space with my flames by casting shadows on the Void itself. They aren't actual Void areas or real worlds, but they're Void adjacent, just like a Domain."

I blinked at her. "I…well I guess they are. So you're planning to what? Rip open your soul space around the edges to try to expand it by force? Because that sounds REALLY dangerous."

"It would be," she acknowledged. "If I was doing it alone. There's no catalyst to bridge the gap between the imaginary space and the actual Void aside from me personally, and I don't think that would work. I need a secondary energy source that counters what I'm doing with my Adherent Fire, and for this particular use, my Heretic Fire won't work. It's more adjacent than opposite. We need a different energy. Something designed for the purpose of stabilizing space."

My eyes widened as I realized what she had in mind. I grinned at her. "It won't be fast. I can't bring the ember in here. I've condensed a few drops of bloodline, and I can use those to channel the flame, but I'll have to stop and wait for it to recover every time."

The Cosmic Phoenix Fire. It was perfect for this. The whole point of it was to expand the Domain by stabilizing space. Of course, Callie wasn't using an actual Domain, but the imaginary space she could create by using her Adherent Fire should work as a base, especially built on top of the soul space Atlas had designed specifically to house the sword.

After about twenty minutes, the sword was shuddering. Callie had been pouring in power since we arrived, and even Gossamer was starting to strain to contain it all. Her Adherent Fire, as I'd mentioned when she helped me rank up Abaddon, was one of the highest energy abilities I'd ever seen. "Alright, are you ready?" she asked me, voice tight with strain. "Because if you don't fix this as soon as I finish, I have a feeling something very bad will happen."

"Wait, what, no don't-" I yelped as I realized she wasn't going to wait for use to make a more detailed plan. Sadly, I was too late. Callie spun on her heel, whipping her sword first one way then the other, cutting an X shape in the air and neatly quadrisecting the wall.

I stared in horror at my wife, then at the wall, which was slowly being consumed by blue black fire. On the other side of the wall was…nothing. A huge sucking void (lowercase v). Yelping, I surged forward, reaching into my body to ignite the four drops of Cosmic Phoenix bloodline I had sleeping inside me. Slamming my hands down, I poured it out through my hands, burning my blood to channel that stabilizing phoenix flame in a way that I had only done in body tempering up to this point.

A wall of flames erupted from my palms, pouring out into the dark and melting away the lack of light as the fire stabilized the imaginary space, refining the nothingness into the same form as the initial soul space…a church.

It took me about thirty minutes, and by the time I finished, I could barely breathe. "Can you NOT?" I demanded as I collapsed against the wall. "I need some damn warning Cal. What the shit? You can't just-" My words were cut off by her lips mashing against mine fiercely as she wrapped herself around me. I stopped complaining. Or thinking at all really. By the time she pulled back to grin up at me I couldn't remember what I'd been complaining about. "What's happening?"

She gestured to the massive new open space in the church. "It WORKED," she crowed. "It worked perfectly."

"It worked a LITTLE," I corrected her. "It was increasing in difficulty as I went along. I won't be able to stabilize this much next time. The bigger it gets the harder it'll be to expand. If we switch sides we can probably start over, but we're going to run out of room soon."

"Doesn't matter," she said confidently. "It'll be enough. I can feel it. This is working. This is my Domain. We're carving it out one cut at a time. It's perfect. Just what a proper swordmistress needs." She kissed me again fiercely. Her eyes were alight with fiery passion and determination so bright and alive I felt like I was cooking in the heat of it. Her lips peeled back as she grinned up at me with the most brilliant smile I'd ever seen. "Rest up babe, we've got some renovations to do."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I spent HOURS reinforcing Callie's Domain. Over and over, I burned my blood, slowly refining my body as I went. It wasn't particularly quick work, considering how little power I was using and how little pain I was in, but it was something. Enough that my count of blood drops rose from four to five, bringing me to a grand total of fourteen.

Once I'd helped expand each wall as far out as it could go, my work was sadly at an end. Callie informed me that I needed to leave after that so she could infuse every inch of the Domain with her heretic fire. We'd opened up the space, but now she needed to water the ground. The process seemed similar to the natural enhancement to Domain's that Impact gave on rank ups, and I suspected hearing about my experiences had inspired her.

When I opened my eyes, I found my parents, Zeke, and Alara all watching me intently, clearly waiting for one of us to awaken. "So?" my mom demanded excitedly. "How did she do?"

"No way to be sure," I admitted. "But I think she did it. We'll have to wait and see."

Aside from condensing the Domain, the next big hurdle was projection. Once Callie completed the melding process and infused her whole Domain with the Adherent Fire, it would quickly become obvious how things had gone. I removed my mask as I sat back to wait, considering what might be coming.

I was particularly interested to see how it ended up. Domains were deeply personal and important things, and they revealed a lot about a person. Mine was a reflection of my diverse skillset and my dogged pursuit of power as I attempted to become the Wishmaster. There were other factors, but mostly that was the core reason. Despite knowing my wife better than anyone, I wouldn't have dreamed of trying to guess what her Domain would be. People were too complicated.

We waited for about two more hours. None of us spoke, or even fidgeted. It felt…wrong. This moment seemed special. Sacred. I didn't even know why I felt that way, I hadn't really during my own Domain condensation, but Callie's was different. I'd just tripped into mine, but my wife had forged hers with her own hands. She'd used her unique advantages to make something totally new. Maybe it wouldn't be as dramatically unusual as Gehenna, but she was walking a path that belonged only to her. I was damned proud.

After the second hour ticked down, I felt a change in the bond. The connection between my wife and I was always warm and reassuring, but it was JUST warm. Calming. Soothing. But bearable. Now though, something changed. That ethereal connection between us ignited. Flames roared down the bond, calling out for power from the bloodline in my body even as my burgeoning trait cried out for the strength of my wife's angelic flame.

Around us, the room began to twist and warp, reality shifting as the Domain inside my wife's soul began to project itself out into reality. A ring of flames exploded from Callie's body expanding out to cover the whole room, burning away reality itself until the room had dissolved into a completely new sight.

I blinked at the changes as I looked around, and after a brief glance, I started laughing. "Of COURSE," I teased as I turned to see my wife open her eyes. "Of COURSE your Domain would be based on loot."

"It is not BASED on loot," she said acidly. "It's based on my abilities. Welcome, one and all…to the Shadowvault!" She stood, gesturing grandly around the room to demonstrate her new Domain. "The crystallization of my path up to this point. It's pretty, right?" She beamed around the room, and I followed her gaze, taking it all in.

It was pretty. I noticed a few things about Callie's Domain right off the bat. First, it was small. That wasn't bad, exactly, and it might even be preferable. She had Gossamer to bear some of the weight, but Gossamer wasn't my staff. It wasn't a living being in the same way. Smaller would make it easier for her to mobilize her power.

Aside from the size, the second thing I noticed was the wealth. Callie's entire collection of items was inside the vault. Piles of assorted artifacts, metals, objects, furniture, and anything else I could imagine, neatly stacked and sorted into special areas to make them easier to find and display. She must have been scavenging on the front lines, because there was far more wealth in here than I'd expected.

Surrounding the wealth were the walls. Towering bulwarks of marble, the veins crackling with the blue flame of the Adherent fire, pulsing like a beating heart. There were two entrances to the vault, and each was guarded by a statue. One was Callie in her Heretic form, the other Adherent Callie. Each gate had a unique pattern, and I knew exactly what would happen if anything passed through them.

I'd been wondering what my wife would do with her Domain, what unique or special ability she would choose. The Domain provided a tangible and manifestable boost to whatever power it was based on. Most weren't so scattershot as mine, either. If she'd chosen to base her Domain on her Heretic Fire, it would have been a powerful anti-Void Domain. If she'd based it on her Adherent Fire it would have had strong spatial properties.

Callie had gone in another direction though. The Shadowvault included both of those aspects, but they weren't its core. Instead, Callie had created something wholly her own. She'd based the Vault on the conceptual shadow ability she'd used to CREATE her Adherent form.

The Shadowvault was a place of duality. The Adherent Flame, the Heretic Fire, these things were opposites, contradictory elements that shouldn't exist in the same place, and the Shadowvault was a testament to that. It was a place of quantum uncertainty. Anything removed from the vault would emerge not from one gate, but from BOTH. One in its primary state, and one in a shadow form that was its exact opposite.

The Shadowvault was the ultimate expression of my wife's nature. Not just her power, but her love for treasure too. She grinned at me as she flicked both hands out, and there was a powerful flash.

A pair of blades appeared in her hands, the wings of the two guardian statues spreading as the gates flared to life. The blades themselves were particularly eye catching. One was familiar. Pitch black, containing roiling flame that flickered inside like light trapped in a soap bubble. The second was brilliant azure blue, a crystalline blade of deep sapphire with a vein of the darkest night shot right through the middle. The blades danced around her as she spun, bringing them to bear with deadly precision as she got accustomed to her new dual wielded weapons. Weapons plural.

Because thanks to her Domain, my wife had created a DUPLICATE of her soul weapon. A powerful blade she shouldn't have been capable of recreating at all, and not only that, she'd changed its essential nature. "This," she said smugly. "Is Oblique. My new sword."

We all stared at her, and she dismissed the blades smugly. "And that's just the most obvious advantage." She snapped her fingers and the vault dissolved. Once it was gone, she flicked her fingers, and a pair of miniature gates appeared over each shoulder. One spat out a black spear I'd seen lying around in the vault, emitting some kind of corrosive gas, and the other was a shining white javelin that let off a feeling of solidity.

Both were real. Of course, they couldn't be maintained long term. The items inside the vault could only be duplicated as long as they BELONGED to the vault. She could take them out, but they needed to be put back eventually.

Flicking her fingers again, the gates closed, spears vanishing, and she raised her chin smugly. "What do you think of THAT?"

I let my head tip back as laughter erupted from me. Deep, happy, enthusiastic belly laughter as I stepped forward and swept her up into a twirling kiss before I set her down gently, turning to grin at my parents. "Well? She asked a question."

My mother rolled her eyes, smiling at my cocksure attitude. "It's very impressive," she said with a smile. "I'm especially impressed at your decision to lean into your natural gifts, Calliope. It would have been very easy to try to capitalize on the advantages your father gave you, but ultimately, the path to divinity is one you need to walk yourself. If you follow in someone else's footsteps you'll never reach the peak and become a god."

To my surprise, Alara nodded. "It's a fascinating power. One I hope to see you explore at length. I'm also excited to see your next rank up. Given the intermingling of your Heretic trait with the Domain, and the changes you've made, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw a mutation in your archangel nature."

Callie looked a little surprised. "I…hadn't considered that. You're not mad at the possibility?"

"Animals go mad, people get UPSET," Alara corrected her with amusement. "But of course not. You are my sister. I wish you power and adventure. Contrary to what some might suspect, father had no intention of hamstringing your growth when he gifted you that trait. Rather, I believe it was a vote of confidence. Unearned power of that magnitude could easily ruin the path of a lesser Ascendant, but he obviously had faith you would be able to find your way despite the shortcut. It is clear to me that his confidence was well placed. I believe today I have seen the birth of a mighty force."

I…hadn't actually thought of it like that. Seeing what Callie had become firsthand, I had always been impressed and maybe even a bit jealous. She'd had strength handed to her more than once, and for a while, it had seemed like it might define her completely. In retrospect, that had been a hidden danger I'd never even considered, and I could see how taking the wrong step at any point could have potentially ruined her future.

That did a bit to explain how Atlas had managed to shower her with so much power seemingly without cost. In my experience, power came at a price. It was the core tenant of the Wish ability, but more than that, it was a fact of nature that I believed was universal.

Now that I thought about it though, part of the price for Callie's extensive power was the test inherent in that gift. How to use it. How to grow past it. It said so much about who my wife was as a person that she hadn't taken it for granted, that she'd been driven to find her own way to advance.

I leaned down and kissed her again, letting the warmth of my adoration flow through the bond. Her own love and affection answered in kind, and we smiled at each other happily.

This was a big step. Not just for her, but for us. We were BOTH Domain users now. Both of us having embarked on the true path that would lead to divinity. Callie's advancement to B-rank would be smooth as glass now, and I doubted she would have much problem reaching A-rank after that.

"Alright you two," Zeke said with an eyeroll. "I'm not sitting around while you make moon eyes at each other, I get enough of that nonsense from Eli and Sasha. Get your asses up. I'm taking everyone out to dinner to celebrate. My treat." He stood, clapping a hand on each of our shoulders, and I grinned at him happily. I couldn't think of anything I'd like more in that moment, and through the bond, I could feel Callie felt the same way. There was nothing more enjoyable after a big triumph than time with friends and family, and this was one of our biggest.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I stepped back smoothly, staff flicking up to deflect a swing at my head, then whirling back around to knock aside another with the other end. "CUT HIS HEAD OFF!" howled a gleeful voice from the stands. I rolled my eyes and stepped under a scything cut, sweeping my staff behind my opponents ankles to drop her flat on her back with cough of air as the wind was knocked out of her.

"You want to be next?" I demanded as I wheeled to glare at my sister. "Because I somehow doubt you're going to do quite as well as Callie has!"

Chelsea just snickered, and I rolled my eyes to turn and pull my wife up to her feet by one arm. "Nice workout," I grinned at her. "How's it feeling? Using your Domain like that?" My eyes flicked down to the twin greatswords in her hands.

Callie's Shadowvault ability let her make duplicates of the opposite alignment of any item she summoned out of it. Based on what I could tell, in fact, BOTH items were duplicates, with the real blade being safely tucked inside her Domain, but that wasn't important to her combat ability, so I didn't bring it up.

"Well, like your parents said, I'm avoiding projection," she said as she dismissed the blades. "Luckily, my Domain seems more normal than yours. I can access it in easy to digest ways like summoning the blades and calling for weapons. I'm just sad this place is so tiny, I've been dreaming about flying around above the heads of my enemies raining down weapon duplicates like a hail of terrible death."

Apparently, projecting your Domain fully out like I did to mine was dangerous for most people. My staff and demons made it feasible for me, but most Ascendants didn't have Domains like mine, so they avoided projection, leveraging their Domain in subtler ways. That was part of what I'd been leaning on the obstacle course in training, but it seemed like it was actually easier for Callie than doing it my way. Guess Gehenna wasn't ALL upside.

In response to her comment, I rolled my eyes. "Gossamer is the only B-rank item you have on you," I pointed out. "You're going to need to fill that vault up with more items if you want to take advantage of it." I grimaced, glancing down at my staff where small scuffs and nicks were visible. "Speaking of, my own gear is starting to fall behind now." I shot a glance over at Bethy. "How would you feel about brewing up a little wine for my staff? It shouldn't be too far from ranking up at this point."

The Ten Demons Tree was planted in my soul, and in my Domain. It was part of me, but also part of all my demons. All their growth, all their renown, it all fed the tree, which gave it a steady way to accrue power even beyond my own growth, which definitely fed it.

Bethy surged to her feet, clapping gleefully. "Oooh yes! I have the perfect brew! It's called Malevolent Muse, and it's made from special grapes that I've been growing with my own blood! Plants love it! Or explode. But only like…ten percent."

"Ten percent of the time it makes plants explode?" I asked warily.

She giggled. "Don't be silly, of course not. That would be terrible. One hundred percent of the time ten percent of the PLANT explodes."

"How is that useful?" I demanded with exasperation.

"Because the REST of the plant gets ten percent more powerful. Qualitatively," she grinned viciously. "I've been using it on my grape vines. Plus, it imbues them with vampiric powers, so they can drink blood directly!"

"I don't WANT it to drink blood," I said in exasperation. "And I don't need it to be ten percent stronger, I need it to be EXPONENTIALLY stronger, and I can accomplish that by ranking it up."

She pouted at me. "You have no heart for science."

"You don't DO science," I protested. "You just do random stuff over and over and see what works. And even if you DID do science, I wouldn't let you run experiments on the tree growing into my fucking SOUL!"

"She gets it," Callie snickered. "Calm down. Just Bethy being Bethy. It's vampire stuff."

"It is most certainly NOT 'vampire stuff'," Alara said primly from nearby. "Vampires do not drink wine."

Bethy glared at the older woman. "Don't YOU start. You're just a big fake. You're not a REAL vampire, and you don't get to tell me what to do. I'll totally kick your ass if you don't start being nicer to me!"

Callie sighed. "Bethy, my sister is S-rank, and at least a demigod. You can't beat her in a fight. I don't think your DAD could beat her in a fight." She must have seen Bethy's eyes narrow because she hastily added. "NOT that we want to see him try, so please don't mention that to him!"

"Alright," I said with a laugh, cutting them off. "We're all friends here. Bethy, you should get to know Alara better. She's Callie's sister and she knows a lot of stuff. She could probably teach you tons about being a vampire."

"Daddy taught me everything I need to know, thank you," she said primly. "I don't need advice from a fake old lady who stole my friend's face."

"It was MY face first," snapped Alara waspishly. "And I am NOT old. I was dead for most of the time after I reached S-rank. Chronologically I'm only a century or two old, if that. But fine," she stepped down from the stands gracefully, and as I watched, her Impact diminished in real time. I'd seen that before, Zeke had done it when I was starting out. This seemed more…real, though. Like she was actually becoming weaker. It must be some kind of advanced self suppression technique. "Let us see exactly how much your 'daddy' taught you about your powers, little girl."

My face drained of color. "Um, Alara, Bethy is our friend, we don't want her-"

"Peace, little brother," she said soothingly. "I shan't hurt the brat. Fledglings are unruly things, regardless of species. Sometimes they require correction. I'll maintain my power at the C-rank ceiling for the duration of this battle, and any unsealing of my abilities will be considered my loss."

Bethy's eyes began to glow. "You know what, fine. I don't believe some fake old lady can take me down at the same level. Even daddy wasn't as strong as me at C-rank. You've had your pointy nose in the air since you got here and I'm sick of it. Let's see what you can do. No Domains, obviously."

Smiling serenely, Alara nodded. "Of course. Should I win, I shall have you as my handmaid. I lack a proper attendant since arrival, and you would be…acceptable."

"And WHEN I kick your ass," Bethy hissed in annoyance. "You have to apologize and declare to the ENTIRE warfront that you're inferior to my dad and are an incompetent vampire. And then you have to do a dance. About rabbits. I'll write out the steps for you."

"I really don't think this is wise," I tried to interject feebly, but they both turned gleaming red eyes on me and I sighed, raising my hands in surrender. "Nevermind. Do you need a judge?"

The two of them flickered, appearing on the floor about twenty feet apart in the middle of the training room we'd been using. I sighed, sitting down next to Callie on the stands where they'd been watching. I turned to Chelsea with a raised eyebrow. "You couldn't have stopped this?" I asked dryly.

"She's just feeling insecure," my sister sighed. "Alara is old and strong. That's a hot button thing for vampires. Bethy has always been kind of…arrogant. Not in a mean way, but just in the way that she knows she's the best. Alara being here makes her doubt herself. She's experienced self doubt before, but never about THIS. Her power is the one thing she's always been sure of. And it doesn't help that Alara and Callie are sisters. She considers you two family, and she's feeling like she's been replaced."

"No one is REPLACING her," I protested. "She's our friend. Hell, she's a member of my cabinet. She's part of my damned ADMINISTRATION, what part of that makes her seem disposable?"

Chelsea shrugged. "I didn't say it was rational, I just said that's what she feels. Also, I think there's something else there. She seems more hostile to Alara than I expected, like there's some kind of natural instinct to defend her territory. It's possible Lark didn't JUST kill all the other vampires to make a name for himself. I think different lines of descent aggravate each other."

"Alara might not even be aware of it," I winced. "She hasn't had much practice at being a vampire. At least not around OTHER vampires. The individual mechanics she has a handle on, but interpersonal stuff…shit. Do you think she'll go overboard?"

Callie shook her head. "She's not the type. I don't think she's actually mad about Bethy's sniping. I think she just knows Bethy needs an outlet to get past all this drama. But if she offered her an olive branch, it would hurt her pride, and she still wouldn't be convinced. Alara wants to ease the tension by just ripping off the bandage. Besides, there's no world where Bethy is able to put enough pressure on my sister to force her to get serious, even at the same rank. She's not…even without the Impact, you know the differences in control and precision that come from understanding your abilities that deeply."

I conceded the point. Bethy was strong, but she was strong for a C-ranker. I wasn't sure I could take her in a straight fight with only a small gap between our stats, even at the next rank. But Alara? Alara was strong for an S-ranker. I didn't know if she could actually take Lark in a fight, but I did know that she had KILLED a god. Lark was universally recognized as the next best thing to invincible for having fought one to a draw, and Alara was a legitimate godslayer.

Of course, I knew better than anyone how easy it was for those stories to get out of hand. Technically CALLIE was a godslayer, so I wouldn't assume that Alara was untouchable, but I had to at least figure that she was competent. Her ability to shred through an army of Asura solo even when out of her mind with bloodlust made that point clear.

"It's fine," a casual voice said as my grandfather sat down beside me. "Moon and I are here if it gets out of hand. She might be dangerous, but we're strong enough to break things up if necessary."

I wasn't entirely sure that was true, but I knew bringing it up would just be pointlessly antagonistic. If Alara was stronger than Lark and went crazy here, no one besides one of the six was going to be able to stop her. At that point, I might as well just discount it as a possibility. It was like worrying about being in a crash when you were riding in a car. Thinking about it wasn't going to change anything.


"Alright," I called down to the two combatants. "I want a clean fight. No Domains, at least not projected. And no one is allowed to breach the threshold of C-rank. That means neither total stats nor Impact can exceed the limit. Similarly, if anyone surrenders, the fight will immediately cease, and anyone who continues will be considered to have automatically forfeited the match, even if they would otherwise have won. Is that understood?"

Both of them nodded, red eyes locked on each other with obvious intent to battle. I took one last look at my friend and sister in law and let out a long sigh. "Fine. Let the fight…begin." Both of them vanished, and the battle was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It had been quite a while since I had seen Bethy fight. The last time had been a duel against Abel, if I remembered correctly, and it had been months ago. I knew she had reached the peak of C-rank, though she obviously hadn't ranked up. Still, given the relatively small gap between peak C and B-rank (aside from Impact), I had assumed she wouldn't be TOO much more powerful than I was in a straight fight.

I was wrong.

Bethy had clearly been refining her techniques during my trip to the Void. As my Master of Challenge, I knew that she'd had plenty of fights, but I hadn't realized how SERIOUSLY she was taking them. The way she moved, stepped, breathed, it was all different now. Smoother. More refined.

In my memory, Bethy was graceful and dangerous, but it was a natural grace. Like a deadly panther, she moved like liquid smoke and struck like a viper, but it was all predatory instinct and deadly talent.

As someone who had trained extensively in combat, both as myself and as multiple demons at this point, I could see through the flaws in that approach. For normal people, reflex fighting made you predictable and easy to counter. That was why martial arts and fighting styles existed. To overcome the limitations of human instinct.

Bethy, however, was NOT human, and neither were her instincts. Her natural gift for violence was beyond what I'd seen in almost anyone except maybe Dayna, and her absurd physical parameters made up for even that slight lack. Beyond that, Bethy was exceptionally gifted at mental manipulation and hypnotism, to the extent that even in her family, where such powers were an inborn part of their trait, she was considered to be a prodigy.

All this was to say that Bethy had been dangerous and terrifying in a fight before, but that danger and terror stemmed from prodigious natural gifts.

Now though, her style had changed. She still fought in a graceful, sort of formless dance of instinctive violence, but there was…polish on it. Her combat abilities hadn't been improved so much as they'd been honed, and I knew exactly how. Combat. This was what happened when you took someone with absurd natural talent and seasoned that talent with EXPERIENCE.

Bethy the last time I'd seen her fight was a panther, a deadly, graceful beast, but now she fought more like a ballerina. Her movements were light and graceful and deceptively flowing. I had thought before that even at B-rank I wasn't sure I could take her, and now I knew without a doubt that I absolutely couldn't. The way she moved, the intensity of her attacks, they were beyond what I thought possible for a C-ranker.

And they were doing absolutely NOTHING.

Claws struck, kicks scythed, fangs snapped, she was a tornado of terror, a symphony of slaughter, and she unleashed every ounce of latent ferocity and rage on her opponent. Bethy freed the beast inside her, but for the first time, she reigned it in enough that she could think. Reason. She was at her peak, fighting with both the power and technique that she could usually only use interchangeably, and she was getting fucking DEMOLISHED.

It wasn't like Alara was beating her. There were no punishing blows or brutal slashes. Instead, the other vampire seemed to engage her in her deadly dance as a partner. Spinning and flowing and swirling around the younger vampire in a macabre foxtrot, Alara was so overwhelmingly skilled that she wasn't just beating Bethy. She was LEADING her.

I couldn't imagine it. Being so far ahead of someone like Bethy that you could turn their most explosive attacks into a choreographed dance.

But that was what she was doing. Every slash, every step, every kick, it all looked harmless. Wherever Bethy was, Alara wasn't, and vice versa. It wasn't mocking, or derisive, it wasn't even malicious. Alara wasn't even paying ATTENTION to her. Bethy was set dressing. Background. She was the lighting on the stage, and it was so much worse than any insult or curse I could have imagined.

My friend began to lose her composure. Her eyes started to glint, her lips peeled back, and her movements became faster and sharper. I could see it in real time, the bloodlust overtaking her, and I started to stand up, calling for Zagan as I prepared to intervene.

An arm blocked my way, and I looked down to see my Grandfather barring me from approaching. "Not unless she surrenders," he said quietly.

"She's losing it," I snapped. "I need to go help her. She'll never forgive herself if something happens!"

He shook his head sadly. "It's not your place. Not yet. But don't worry. Even with the bloodlust fueling her, she has no chance at seriously harming Alara. In fact, I suspect she was looking for this exact outcome. She wouldn't have baited Bethany into that state if she didn't have some kind of countermeasure prepared."

Gritting my teeth, I sat back down, my eyes fixed on my friend as she continued her descent into madness. It was infuriating. Bethy HATED being like this. She wouldn't want us to leave her in this state, no matter how much she disliked Alara, not to mention it wasn't working.

Alara danced around her almost lazily, but as Bethy became more aggressive, her focus sharpened. Not in the sense that she seemed to need more effort, but in the sense that she was clearly invested in the fight now. "Shameful," she said casually as they blurred back and forth. "Is this the vampirism your father taught you? Rabid blood madness? You had so much promise a moment ago. Now you're just an animal. A warrior vampire may have given me pause, but I need no special effort to outthink a beast."

Bethy's eyes brightened, the glow becoming a more intense red as she snarled and redoubled her attack. Alara just sighed, and for the first time in the entire fight, went on the offensive. Her hands blurred, claws flickering, and a few thin lines of blood appeared on Bethy's pale skin. The scent of her own blood seemed to drive her even deeper into frenzy, and she got even faster, screaming in wordless hate and rage as her body became a blur.

I expected more taunting, but to my surprise, Alara didn't look smug. She looked sad. "Look what you've done to yourself, girl," she said in a voice that all but dripped compassion. "So afraid of your own nature you'd rather drive yourself to death like a monster than face that it's a part of you."

As she spoke, she continued to attack, claws laying open Bethy's flesh in a hundred places. As Bethy lost herself more, her wounds began to close at a faster rate, the bloodlust somehow increasing her regeneration, but no matter how she attacked or how angry she got, she couldn't touch the older woman at all.

"Stop it!" I heard from beside me. I turned to see Chelsea on her feet, tears in her eyes and fists clenched so hard blood dripped down her fingers. As the drops splattered to the ground beneath her though, Bethy just…stopped. Her eyes, still red and unblinking, never left Alara, but she didn't move another inch. "Please stop," Chelsea said softly. "You're killing yourself."

Bethy blinked. Then again. And each blink was like hitting the dimmer switch on a light. The red faded from her eyes. Slowly. Gradually. She was left swaying on her feet. "You wanted me to come out the other side?" she asked Alara in confusion, her voice hoarse.

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself," the older vampire said kindly. "It's not a monster, Bethany. It's part of you. It's only a beast because you treat it like one."

"Maybe yours is," Bethy said sadly. "But I'm different. I'm not just a vampire."

"I know," Alara nodded. "But you were still almost through it, weren't you? You were almost at the bottom. Do you think it was enough?"

My friend shook her head. "I don't. I don't think it would have been either way. But…thank you. For trying. That isn't a solution for me. But it might be part of one. Maybe given how much progress I've made, I can learn to embrace it."

"If you don't, you can always count on others to pull you back," Alara smiled. "Love is a powerful force. In all its many forms. Friends. Soulmates. Family. You're a powerful woman, Bethany."

I knew from the way she said that she wasn't talking about physical strength or technique. Bethy just beamed at her, face lighting up with a billion megawatt smile so blinding it almost left spots on the back of my eyelids. "I know," she said warmly. "I'm pretty lucky, too." She winked at the ancient vampire with luck powers, and Alara tipped back her head and laughed boisterously at the younger girl.

"Agreed," she said as she approached. Reaching down, she cut her finger as her Impact came flooding back. The energy that flowed into her returned to all of her at once, but it seemed to drain partly into the blood drop on her thumb. She flicked the ruby droplet off her thumb and it shot into Bethy's mouth. The energy infused Bethy, seeming to almost reinflate her body from where it had started to flag under the blood loss.

Bethy was so thrown she barely had time to catch my sister and Gabe as the two of them tackled her from either side, clinging to her in fear. Gabe hadn't yelled for the fight to stop, but I knew he never would. My sister was more concerned about Bethy's safety than anything, but Gabe was an adamant. He knew what a loss could cost.

"I don't know what you just did," my sister hissed. "But if you hurt her in any way that doesn't heal, I'm going to carve out your tongue and nail it to your forehead. I don't care how long it takes me to reach your rank."

Bethy giggled. "It's FINE babe," she assured my sister. "She was helping me. It was…I needed that. I didn't even know how much." She nodded to Alara. "I'll be your handmaid or whatever, it's cool. I owe you one."

Alara grinned wickedly. "Apologies, but I'm afraid this was a draw. I used my full power to infuse that drop of blood before the battle had been officially declared. Given your state, I can't in good conscience consider that a victory, but I definitely didn't win. We'll have to call it a tie I'm afraid, and schedule another fight some other time to decide the victor."

Everyone just blinked, staring at her in complete disbelief as we considered everything that had just happened. Bethy stared at her in shock for a few seconds, then all but doubled over laughing, relying on Gabe and Chelsea to hold her up. "Th-thats…" she gasped as she tried to regain her breath. "Oh my gods, that's brilliant." She beamed up at Alara. "I changed my mind. You're pretty damned awesome. I'm super jealous of Callie now. I wish I had a sister like you."

Alara smiled warmly, then brought a claw to her mouth and licked it daintily. "You've tasted my blood and I yours. In a way, that makes us blood sisters, no?"

Bethy squealed excitedly, bouncing up and down a bit. "Oh my gods we totally ARE!" She darted forward, grabbing the older girl by an arm and dragging her towards the stands. "Callie, we're totally sisters now! Come on! We can go out to celebrate, we just have to stop at my place to pick you guys outfits!"

My wife's face, which had been fixed in a soft smile, froze, blood draining from her cheeks, but Bethy was already there and grabbing her. She shot me a pleading look as our friend dragged her off to play dress up doll, but I looked away, deliberately not seeing anything. It helped hide the huge grin on my face too.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day started just like any other. Another run through the obstacle course, this time with the difficulty turned up even higher. Every time I'd get used to it my parents would increase the difficulty. Speed up the swinging blades, destabilize the balance points, remove handholds from the climbing walls. It seemed like they could tell exactly how far to push me to take the difficulty JUST beyond what I could comfortably achieve.

After my fifteenth run of the day, I collapsed onto my side, gasping for breath. No matter how often I went through it, the course never ceased to make me feel like I was dying. "You look rough," Zeke said as he lounged nearby, sipping a colorful drink from a wide bottomed glass. He was sitting on a long chair like you see on beaches, and had, for some reason, chosen to wear a woven straw hat, sunglasses, and a smidge of sunscreen on his nose.

"I hate you," I wheezed. "So much."

"It's not my fault you're out of shape," he said far too gleefully. He took a long, loud slurp of his drink as he grinned down at me.

I glared up at him pointlessly. "I am wearing FULL plate armor," I hissed. "Speaking of which, have the materials for my upgrade come in yet?" Despite access to more than a few powerful Wish users, I unfortunately lacked the means to PAY for the materials to craft my upgraded armor. I'd decided to buy them with the points left over from the succession war, but I couldn't use them as direct payment for the wish because no one who was powerful enough to get me those materials NEEDED the damned things.

Still, they were currency, and I was able to redeem them for the metals that I required, I just had to wait until the damned things showed up.

Zeke smirked. "Nope. You just have to be patient. You're still waiting on Bethany to finish that new wine recipe anyway, right? Personally, I think her first offer was pretty neat, vampire trees sound awesome."

"You do NOT think that," I snapped. "Nobody thinks that except Bethy, because it's ridiculous. And don't say it in front of her, because she'll probably try to get Alyssa to help her make a bunch to keep in her Domain, and those poor animals have suffered enough." I slumped onto my back with a groan. "Gods I'm sore." I whimpered. "I'm just glad nobody has used this method on me in combat." I paused for a moment. "Actually why DON'T people use Impact suppression in combat?"

He shrugged. "It doesn't work. Impact is the manifestation of reality. Reality itself is the only reasonable way of suppressing it for long. Basically, the reason some planets suppress Impact is a natural phenomena. It's been studied, and replicated, but never actually reproduced. Suppression like that isn't REAL suppression, it's just simulated pressure. In the same way you can suppress your own Impact voluntarily to look weaker, you can project it outward too, and even a brief flare of that breaks the suppression."

I hadn't noticed that, actually, but it made sense. Sadly, it wouldn't be of much use to me since I was willingly participating in this madness, but it was nice to know how it worked at least.

After a minute or two, I was recovered enough to stand. Once I was out of the course, my life nova regeneration and triple Vitality kicked in nicely, and my flagging energy and sore muscles melted away like ice cream in the hot sun. It was like getting a good night's sleep in the span of two minutes, and honestly felt so nice it ALMOST made the training worth it on its own. Almost.

Popping to my feet, I felt almost ready to take on the world, but my nascent plans of global domination were interrupted by a pulse through the bond. I blinked and looked up and across the room, eyes fixed on a point on the wall through which my wife was waiting. "Something's happening," I said to Zeke immediately. "Let's go." I bolted for the door, aiming for where Callie was waiting for me at what felt like the front entrance of the palace.

Zeke kept pace effortlessly, easily matching my steps without any sign of hurry or rush. We arrived at the palace entrance in about ten minutes, and I found Callie there waiting. I stopped next to her, threading my fingers through hers as I took up position on her left side. Callie was right handed, so I made sure to leave that one open for her to summon her blade if needed.

"What's going on?" I asked as I stared out into the blackness of space. The building was sat atop a huge chunk of black stone, and past the edge was just the endless expanse of the gaps between the stars. I tried not to look down.

The most terrifying thing about outer space, and the one that no one ever mentions to you when describing it, is that space is not a SHEET. It's a sphere, and that means the endless expanse of darkness doesn't just expand outwards, it also expands DOWN, and even with no gravity to enforce the drop, there's something viscerally terrifying about looking over a cliff to see a drop that goes on for eternity.

Luckily, I wasn't doing that now, because my attention was being drawn in the exact opposite direction. I'd asked what was happening, but that question turned out to be unnecessary to answer, because one look up at the sky made it obvious.

Above our heads, cracks were forming. Like the starry sky was a sheet of glass struck with a mallet, lines of blazing light were expanding from a single point, radiating out from a spot that looked like the center of a shattered vase. Through the cracks, I could see a strange multicolored riot of cascading strangeness. A familiar multicolored riot. It reminded me vaguely of the Chaos Chasm.

Then, with a piercing howl, the air shook, and the cracks widened as a massive shape punched right through, burst out into the lower world in a shower of radiant spatial shards, all of which dissolved into soap bubbles of strange energy as soon as they got far enough from the opening they spawned from.

"What the hell is THAT?" I asked in awe. The object was…immense. Not the physical size, more like the power, I could feel a tremendous Impact from it, far beyond what I'd sensed from my grandmother's ship, the Acheron. Which could only mean-

"It's a Divine warship," came the disgusted voice of Alara from behind us. "And one I recognize. That's the Bloodraven."

I blinked, then spun to stare at her. "What? But you said they wouldn't send gods!"

"I doubt they did," she said with a sigh. "No reason to bother dispatching a ship that powerful if you have a god onboard. I'd imagine he gave it to his heirs as protection. He always was annoyingly cautious."

"He who?" I asked slowly. "It's been a long time since you were alive, I assume whoever this person is was a god when you knew them?"

She nodded. "A contemporary of my father's, a thief god named Selwyn. They were on passingly good terms. Selwyn was slippery and hard to pin down, and he did his best to stay out of everyone's way. Not surprising he survived this long. I suppose he Ascended personally. Seems he's done well for himself up there."

"So I take it Divine materials don't count towards the limits of the Universe in terms of Ascension?" I asked worriedly. I was still stuck on the fact that someone had built a fucking SHIP out of god ranked mats. The Acheron was one of the few S-ranked vessels I was aware of, and it was unspeakably valuable. I didn't even know divine materials existed. Was it forged from melted down artifacts or something?

Alara shook her head. "It doesn't. Materials are…complicated. Divine ranked artifacts aren't really godly. They're just naturally occurring items that have passed the thousand point threshold. They don't possess inherent world connection like a god does. Without an imbued Domain seed, their power is pretty much hollow. They have god bark but not god bite, so to speak."

"So it can't hurt us?" I asked hopefully, knowing the answer before I said it.

"Oh it can DEFINITELY hurt us," she warned. "I told you, it's got a thousand Impact. A heavy ball rolling off a table and landing on an insect might not have the same force or intention as a human foot stomping on one, but it'll be just as dead either way."

I winced, staring up at the massive ship in trepidation. But it wasn't over. The destroyed space behind the ship had started to mend, but it was once again forced open as something else shoved its way through. This one was only S-ranked, and it wasn't a ship, but a flying city made of red glass. From behind that emerged a colossal wooden horse, and then a floating spinning wheel the size of a small moon.

It took me a moment to really process the scope of what I was seeing, given the distance, but the size of every single entrant was bigger than most cities I'd visited. "Don't suppose those are ALSO old friends of yours?" I asked hopefully.

She shook her head. "No idea. Selwyn's presence is already quite a coincidence, though hopefully a lucky one. I was never a fan, but he and my father had a rapport. Bloodraven being the only Divine ranked vehicle is also a potential benefit for us. Assuming it wasn't taken from him by force and is now filled with his enemies, of course."

"Of course," I said dryly. "But maybe let's not borrow trouble when we already have so much. If they're enemies we'll find out soon enough. Doesn't hurt to have a little hope."

"It can actually hurt quite a bit to have hope, little or otherwise," my sister in law said dryly. "But I find it refreshing that you have such a positive outlook. It speaks well of your character. You are an adequate husband for my little sister."

Callie sighed. "Ali, sweetheart, do you remember that talk we had about the way you phrase things? You said you wanted to be more accessible, right?"

"Yes," she agreed. "And you said that my demeanor is often condescending or patronizing. You said it is poor form to act like I know better than everyone. But I DO know better than everyone, and they often ask me to share my wisdom, so I'm not sure what I should do about it."

"Yeah," my wife sighed. "We'll work on it. As of right now though, we have bigger problems than you being a little aloof. We have no clue what the protocols are for interacting with forces like this. If you know the people on the Bloodraven can you act as a point of contact?" her eyes flicked to me. "Unless you were planning to send a diplomat?"

I shook my head. "I mean, Harrison might be an effective negotiator, but he has no leverage here. Even a tangential connection to one of the factions is better than nothing. Are you willing to make contact for us, Alara?"

"I would be happy to do so," she nodded gracefully. "I am fascinated to learn more of these higher beings. The forces they come from may represent Overgods or even Worldgods. It might even make up for my disappointment at missing the legacy trial. Now, how are we to get their attention?"

She stared out across the vast distance consideringly, but finally decided to just go for it. Closing her eyes, she focused on…something, and there was a ripple in the space. Above us, a massive manifestation of Alara appeared in space, staring across the void. "I seek a meeting with the captain of the Bloodraven," she intoned in a voice composed of intent rather than sound. There was a brief pause, and then the ship began to move. Apparently they'd heard her, and now they were coming. Here's hoping they were friendly.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It didn't take long for the ambassador from the ship to show up. I assumed, based on Alara's request, the S-ranker who showed up was the captain, though I had no way to be sure. He came like the wind, stepping on starlight, and arrived in the time it took me to blink twice. Alara dissolved her manifestation, stepping forward to meet him calmly, clearly not even remotely worried about any violence, despite the super weapon behind him.

"Greetings," said the man warily. "I am Seth, captain of the Bloodraven. I confess, we were led to believe that none in the lower world remembered our father or his legend. How is it that you recognize his personal vessel on sight?"

"Who wouldn't know the story of the Bloodraven," Alara said politely. "A great warship built from the stolen wealth of a thousand divine kingdoms. A magnificent vessel that vanished among the stars one day, never to be seen again. Of course, I've seen it before in person, those many eons ago when it was still new."

Seth's eyes narrowed warily. "You claim to be as ancient as a Divine vessel? Are you a devolved god of some kind? Perhaps you've undergone a sundering?"

"Nothing so pedestrian," grinned Alara wolfishly. "I simply died."

That seemed to intrigue the man. "An S-rank resurrection. Fascinating. They're so rare. While many S-rankers have Mirror Souls, I'm sure you're aware that before passing the Divine watershed, the soul is fragile. It can be done, of course, especially with expedience, but shattering a soul at S-rank is dangerous indeed. May I ask your esteemed name, lady? I can feel your power even from here, I doubt one such as yourself was unknown even in those ancient days where gods outnumbered stars. My father has told me quite a few stories of his youth, perhaps I know of you."

Alara gave an elegant curtsy. "I am Alara Atlas, daughter of the Heretic God. In my day, they called me many things. The Star of Misfortune, the Skyripper, and the Heretic Princess."

His face went pale. "The Skyripper? The S-ranker who murdered the sky god Deltora?"

"Even so," my sister in law said with her most charming smile. "It's lovely to hear that my reputation precedes me. I always did like Selwyn. He used to tell me such wonderful stories as a child. He and my father were fast friends, you see. I consider myself quite lucky you decided to grace us with your presence."

The way she said that implied heavily that it was HER fault it had happened. Which, come to think of it, it might have been. I wasn't sure about the limits of Alara's luck power, but it was significant enough that Atlas thought it was noteworthy, and it had already created several nearly impossible situations to allow her to navigate danger. Exactly how much any of us were affected by it was anyone's guess, but taking credit for it was a good way to inflate her reputation either way.

"I heard many stories of my father's friendship with Adam Atlas," Seth said respectfully. "He was a mighty god, and my father was greatly saddened to hear of his passing."

"Then he'll be overjoyed to hear of his return," Alara said brightly.

The man froze. "A-Adam Atlas is alive?" he all but squeaked. "That's…wonderful news. I'm so happy."

Based on the terrified crack in his voice, he definitely wasn't, but it was kind of funny watching an S-ranker try not to piss himself in fear. "Of course," purred Alara, her red eyes gleaming in a predatory way that had nothing to do with drinking blood and everything to do with smelling it in the metaphorical water. "I'm sure he would be thrilled to make your acquaintance as well, Seth. I just know our families strong alliance will weather the sands of time and extend into the present generation. I believe we will be great friends."

That, to my surprise, didn't seem to terrify him as much as the Atlas talk. In fact, he looked a little intrigued. I very decidedly did not choose to think about my sister in law's romantic life, focusing instead on the moment. I cleared my throat, and Alara glanced at me for a moment before putting a hand on my shoulder and pushing me forward. "Ah, how rude of me. Seth, this is my new little brother, Solomon. He married my sister not long ago, and they're very happy together, so treat him well for me, won't you?"

Seth straightened, looking me over. "A strapping young man," he said approvingly. "And already B-rank at such a young age. Such talent is rare." He held out his hand. "Greetings, Solomon, I am Seth, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. As a visitor to your lands, I'll be relying on you to help me get the lay of the land."

"Of course," I said enthusiastically. "You'll be our guests during your stay!"

He froze. "O-our?" he said quickly, having just realized something was off. His eyes flicked to Alara, who was smiling beatifically.

"Oh yes," my sister in law said in a saccharine voice. "My little brother is quite the up and comer in these parts. He's the current head of one of the six major divine factions that are currently extant in realspace."

He flinched. "Ah," he said as he released my hand. "How wonderful." His voice sounded more annoyed than anything else, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. I was a B-ranker, and therefore, a nobody. As a random footsoldier, a request to be a tour guide was a favor to Alara, taking care of her kid brother when it was convenient.

However, I was the Wishmaster, and I represented a Divine faction. As the current leader of HIS faction on this plane, Seth presumably had decision making power in regards to the formation of alliances and treaties. Guest rights were an old concept, but still very much honored among those of political power. By offering to let me host and being claimed by me as a guest, Seth had essentially agreed to an alliance with the WCP.

It was clear he hadn't intended to do that, though he didn't seem upset enough to imply he had bad intentions. He was just obviously unhappy that he'd been tricked so cleanly and quickly. I could see his mind trying to pick apart the interaction and figure out how much of it was Alara's ability influencing things in her favor and how much was her just outsmarting him. Hell, I was trying to pick that apart.

I could see now why Atlas was so impressed with Alara's abilities. They were so…insidious. Luck was such a nebulous concept, and it was possible to make your own, in a way. Alara was clearly a master as manipulating situations to her advantage, and capitalizing on not only her ability but her own innate skills and intelligence to expand her reputation. I could see why they'd called her The Star of Misfortune.

Seth was a professional, of course. He looked annoyed for a moment but quickly moved past it. "Well, I suppose I should take advantage of your hospitality if it's offered," he said smoothly. "Is this your base of operations?" His eyes flicked up to the palace, though he seemed mostly underwhelmed by the display.

"It is," I said cheerfully. "I welcome yourself and your traveling companions to my home. Please, enjoy your stay. I'm afraid we don't have anywhere you can park your ship. I suspect our hangars have neither the size nor the Impact to withstand an entry from such a powerful machine."

"Of course," he said proudly. "The Bloodraven nests wherever she might lie. None can threaten her."

I made the correct noises of awe and appreciation, but gestured to the other arrivals. "And the others? If we're to be allies, I would love to hear more about our new arrivals. I'm sure you're well informed about any number of powerful forces. You're all here for the legacy trial, yes?"

He immediately latched onto the last question, obviously pleased to be on expected ground. "Very much so. This particular inheritance belongs to an exceptionally well traveled Overgod who called himself The Hourglass Bodach." At our obvious disappointment, he laughed. "You suspected a Worldgod inheritance? I can understand the error, but don't be disappointed too fast. While the Bodach wasn't a Worldgod, he traveled for many years through many planes. Overgods, Worldgods, he visited legacies and ruins from any number of great powers, collecting techniques and materials unseen in the modern world."

His eyes locked on the clocktower in the distance, shining with fanatical avarice. "The secrets to Overgod and even Worldgod reside in that tower." His gaze flicked to Alara and I. "As fellow natives of this plane, I'm not against working together, if you have that ability. I would need proof of your capability before I could commit to anything indepth, you understand."

I nodded. An alliance like the one we made before was mostly a non-agression pact. He'd essentially been tricked into agreeing to play nice, but that didn't mean he was actually willing to work with us in the legacy. Now though, he was open to hearing us out. I wasn't sure why, honestly. Maybe he saw something in me like he said, or more likely, maybe Alara was so scary the rest of us became monsters by association. Whatever the case, I wouldn't waste the opportunity.

Diplomacy wasn't a natural game for me, but I had people for that. And more importantly, I didn't believe anyone would be unmoved by the wish power. My family had depended on the power of the wish to maintain a monopoly in this universe for millennia. These people might not know what wishes were capable of, but when they saw the manifestation of the ultimate support power there was no way they'd be unmoved.

Seth made a hand gesture, and the ship behind him flickered. There was a sudden curtain of darkness falling over us, and when I looked up, I was unsurprised to see the Bloodraven hovering above the palace. Behind it, the other arrival vessels appeared to retreat slightly, taking up a holding pattern as they no doubt attempted to figure out what was happening on this plane. I imagined the other factions would be attempting to make contact, but without a ringer like Alara to smooth things over, I suspected it would be a drawn out and complicated process of bribery and courtship.

"If you wouldn't mind," Seth said politely. "I'd like to bring some of my juniors down off the ship. Just the ones who will be entering the legacy with you. You ARE going to be attending in person, aren't you?"

"We wouldn't mind at all," I said. "And yes, we will be attempting the trial. Wouldn't miss it for a world. Or two. Maybe for three, but we'd need to haggle on rank."

He laughed, making another gesture. There was a shift and suddenly, a small crowd of people appeared behind Seth. They all wore dark cloaks with hoods (Ascendants LOVED hoods, they were very dramatic and made people curious about your face) and there was about twelve of them. I nodded to them politely, then gestured for everyone to follow me inside.

Callie squeezed my hand as we headed into the base. I squeezed back. She hadn't wanted to intrude on the negotiations aloud, though I'd received a few bursts of emotion through the body giving her opinion on the proceedings. My wife wasn't the type to just keep quiet and let other people do her talking, but she didn't feel the need to make her contribution known either. She was happy to advise in the background, even if I didn't always take that advice.

I glanced back over my shoulder surreptitiously. Seth and the others being here was a good sign, and we owed Alara and Atlas for it, but we still had to stick the landing. We had information to get out of them, and if we wanted an active alliance with their trial takers, we needed to fight for one. I hoped Crell had his negotiating pants on, because this was going to be a doozy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I sat in silence. Or almost. Drips of water, the tick of the clock, slight brushes on the ground. There was sound, but it wasn't exclusive of quietude. It was more…encompassed. The sound was part of the silence. Like seasoning in food. It added depth. Flavor. It made the silence more complete.

Outside, people bustled, politics raged, treaties were negotiated, but I was just here, alone with the quiet. I had excused myself while my cabinet dealt with Seth and company. I had things to consider.

Power. I had ruminated on its nature so many times, and so many times I came to new conclusions, new realizations. Power was like the proverbial elephant, and I was the blind men feeling along its surface. A snake, a rope, a tree. Power was all of these things and none of them. Power encompassed the entirety of creation, but was simultaneously missing from all things.

I felt it now. That lack. I had climbed so high, reached a goal that should have been unattainable, and yet, here I was back at the bottom. Once again I numbered among the weak.

And it was…exhilirating. It felt so freeing, being unburdened of the great destiny. My responsibility was still there, but at the same time I felt so weightless. Knowing there were so many above me, that even the old man was just an ant in the grand scheme of things was a breath of fresh air.

I had become so complacent with my goals. After reaching Wishmaster status, I needed to reach godhood. And then…I'd be done. I'd have completed everything I set out to do and…what? I'd just live out forever bored. That was what happened to the old man. To Black Sorrow. I could see it clearer and clearer as I climbed. Nothing mattered to them anymore because there was nowhere else to go. They stopped dreaming. Stopped caring. Stopped living.

All this time I assumed it was the power that made them so inhuman. It wasn't. It was its ABSENCE. They dedicated their whole lives to progress, to growth, and then, suddenly, it was gone. Like being on an endless staircase and getting to the top only to realize there's no next floor, just a bottomless chasm and no further to climb.

It had been happening to me too. Not quickly, or even severely. But it had been happening. With my whole path mapped out and my big milestone achieved, everything seemed so monotonous. I had achieved my dream, and now all that was left was living it, and how much did THAT suck?

But now I could see further. Beyond the old man, beyond godhood. Overgod, Worldgod, maybe further, who knew?

The fire in my gut was back, ignited again by the spark of humility, and it was roaring up for nourishment. It cried out for me to swallow down adventure and danger so it could refine a destiny fit for a god. I found myself standing, moving, and I realized before long that I was practicing the Cosmic Phoenix chapter of the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art. The movements were almost instinctive, building off the epiphany I'd just had. Nothing spurs growth like seeing the immensity of the universe. Nothing makes you want to push yourself like seeing the gap between you and the strong,.

I withdrew the ember from my ring, not wielding it, just inserting it into the ground as I moved, letting the fire spit forth and envelop me as the pattern of the skill wound its way through my body.

Pain washed through me, but it wasn't limiting. It was invigorating. The burn of a good workout, only very literal. As I moved, I considered my path forward. My destiny had been written before this. It wasn't complete, but I had seen the horizon, glimpsed the shore, whatever metaphor you liked for viewing my final destination, and it had robbed me. I'd lost my drive, my need to grow. Somewhere along the way, my advancement had become an inevitability instead of a vague possibility, and I had lost my motivation to fight.

My movements became sharper. Fiercer. This template was different than the last one. The Life Nova was easy because of Archie. I could tap into his nature, and life wasn't a tough thing to envision anyway. I had been Zagan a thousand times, I'd even incarnated him. And more than that, all things lived. The template was just kind of…neutral.

This one though, this one was different. The Cosmic Phoenix Template had a mind of its own. It had a nature, and I had stumbled ass backwards into the right mindset to pour on the gas. Fire blazed through me, consuming and expanding as it poured out of the ember. It had formed a sort of connection with my template, and the rotation was acting like a vortex, siphoning fire from the glowing blade and pulling it into my body faster and faster.

The deeper I got, the more I saw. I was glimpsing the universe through the eyes of the phoenix. I saw a million worlds like grains of sand in a vast desert, like drops of water in an endless ocean of shining stars. Cosmic waves too vast to even be perceived by the mortal mind whipped and raged across the face of reality, unseen tides that steered us all without us even knowing.

And above it all, a phoenix. A noble, majestic bird born from the first spark of creation when the universe was formed. A guardian beast that stood atop the plane and looked down on the forming universe like a proud mother.

Behind the bird, I saw another form, too vast and grand too even contemplate. All I could make out was a human shape, but I knew, knew in my BONES who it was. The Worldgod who had created this universe. The Cosmic Phoenix had been his. Not THIS Cosmic Phoenix, obviously. The one from my vision had a wingspan that stretched over galaxies. Its smallest feather would be bigger than this star system. But A Cosmic Phoenix. The first. The founder of the bloodline.

And then the vision ended, and I collapsed. I was on the ground, wheezing, blood leaking from my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. I coughed wetly, and I was pretty sure my lungs had collapsed. My bones felt broken, my brain scoured nearly clean. My soul was strained, though not too severely. My Domain was covered in cracks that I hadn't even felt happening.

But my lips were peeled back in a triumphant smile. I needed to keep that. Needed to nurture it. That experience was foundational to my path forward. And I knew an easy way to do that. I closed my eyes and focused into my Domain, into the castle and into my throne room where my Chronicle sat on a pedestal.

Focusing on the experience I just had, I started to inscribe it. Binding the visions to a page would keep them accessible and fresh, and HAVING them was a huge and earthshaking achievement in itself. It was the perfect solution. I described it all, pouring not just words but images and sounds and emotion into the binding. One page. Two. They kept filling, and I was starting to get worried about whether I could actually DO this. If I tried to bind too many at once it could backlash and hurt me.

Finally, it stopped at eight. Eight pages bound into my Chronicle, all of them anchored to the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art.

Beyond that, I saw that the art itself was up to EIGHT drops. I was only one away from completing the template. I grinned weakly. That was a staggering amount of progress for one training session. And I knew it wasn't over. I could refer back to my Chronicle and read those pages for inspiration. The last drop wouldn't be EASY, but it wouldn't take months like they had been.

Next came the rough part. I pushed my consciousness into my Domain, manifesting inside to check on my demons and assess the damage. The palace was fine. Still in one piece if a little banged up. Cracks covered the ground across the plains and the walls of the building. Deep inside them though, I could see something new when I knelt down to check. Fire. A very special and familiar type of fire.

The vision had deeply injured my body and soul, but it also carried little bits of Cosmic Phoenix fire deeper within me. I realized that this was a test. Destruction preceded creation. The advancement of my skill and the power seeping into my Domain wouldn't be possible without the damage that had happened. The phoenix was a creature of rebirth, and that carried certain meaning, especially for someone like me who had already condensed one of the nine templates.

I checked on my demons, and they all seemed perfectly fine, if somewhat disgruntled. Apparently there had been an earthquake in the Domain, and since there was no EARTH in here to quake, they hadn't been prepared for that. Which was fair.

As I emerged from the Domain, I reached out to pull myself up, forcing my body upright to a sitting position. I had just made it when the door to my room burst open and a terrified Callie blurred inside, eyes raking over the room to find me. "SHANE!" she screamed when she saw me.

I realized a bit late that I was leaning tiredly against a wall in a sitting position in my room, covered in blood that had been pouring out of my head. "Hey Cal," I croaked sheepishly. "I did a thing."

She hit me like a bulldozer, shoulder crashing into me as she wrapped her arms tight around my body. "You absolute moron!" she sobbed. "I felt like you were dying. It was like something…ate you. The other end of the bond went completely dead. What the hell were you thinking? I'm so glad you're ok."

"Alright, this one wasn't my fault," I argued. "It was an epiphany. Like the one you had about the abyss back in the day. I was training and I just…saw. I can't explain it. Even if I could I probably wouldn't because I'm afraid your brain might leak out your ears. Still, I'm fine, and the results were great." I tried to give her a reassuring smile, and realized that my mask was in the way. I took it off so she could see, but I'd forgotten all the blood on my face, and that kind of just made it worse.

I didn't try to explain further, or talk her out of her panic. I understood how upset she was, and I knew it wouldn't go away just because I said so. I just held her and let her cling to me like I might vanish if she let go. I just lay there and let her feel my presence. I knew that was what she needed most right then, and honestly, it wasn't exactly hurting my state of mind either.

Once she was feeling centered we got up and walked to the bed. My triple Vitality and regeneration fixed up the physical injuries easy enough, even if the soul damage would probably take all night. I pulled off my armor and slumped into my bed, and she covered me with a blanket. As I fell asleep, I saw her between my fluttering eyelids, sitting in a chair beside the bed, watching over me, and I couldn't help but smile.

I drifted off, and my dreams were full of huge majestic birds and a sea of endless planets. It was funny, seeing that unceasing horizon would have terrified me before, back when I had no dreams left to push me onwards. Now though, all I could see in the neverending universe was an endless expanse of possibility. It was one of the best dreams I'd ever had.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I awoke with a long, slow stretch. I felt…transcendent. The eight hours of sleep had been more than enough to heal the cracks in my soul and Domain apparently. That wasn't exactly normal, but neither had the damage been, and considering Genesis Burst lived in the Domain, I suspected I'd had some help from my court with the cleanup.

Either way, I felt like I could take on the whole universe with one hand behind my back. Ten more scrolls joined my count, and I felt almost smug about the round number thirty on my stat sheet. The constantly shifting uneven numbers there before had been far more annoying than I had let myself dwell on, and seeing multiples of ten constantly was weirdly soothing. Hopping out of bed, I stepped into my armor, slipped on my mask, and prepared to head out to talk to my uncle.

The materials for my armor and the wine to grow my staff should be here, or at least there should be some progress. I was excited to see exactly what my gear would look like once it took the next step.

I ran my fingers over the armor, examining the smooth lines. Solomon's Seal was a unique set of gear hand forged by Donovan Redfellow, founder of the Hall of Steel and Fade's martial uncle. He was technically at B-rank, but he was a Mythical blacksmith, and he was MUCH deeper into the rank than I was. In terms of crafting seniority, he was probably the most skilled craftsman I had ever met.

He hadn't come with us this time, but considering the legacy trial, I had sent for him not long ago. He was traveling with my materials, and I was sure he'd have plenty of fascinating options for what to do with my armor when he arrived.

"Must you make so much noise in the morning," groaned my rumpled wife from where she lay curled up in the chair next to the bed. She looked…well, flawless, as always, but tired. I frowned and leaned down, lifting her easily and carrying her to the bed, she pouted but didn't resist as I tucked her in.

"You look tired," I said gently. "Thank you for staying up to watch over me. Get some rest, ok? I'll make sure no one disturbs you."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't need you to baby m-" her sentence was cut off by an expansive yawn. "Also shut up. But fine. I'll sleep. But I expect breakfast when I wake up. No matter how late it is. I want fritatas. And hashbrowns. And fresh squeezed orange juice."

I leaned down, pulling off my mask to brush her forehead with a quick kiss. "As my lady desires. Now rest."

She snorted, but her lips quirked up in a smile as she snuggled under the covers. I turned and stepped out of the room, careful to close the door carefully so as not to disturb her. I was surprised to find Benny outside, leaning against the wall. "If these rooms weren't soundproofed that would be super creepy," I informed him bluntly.

He rolled his eyes. "Sure, because I'm positive you two were getting busy after she ran in there panicked like you were being murdered. I just wanted to check in, make sure you weren't dead. You're going to be my best man, and I expect a bachelor party as great as the one I threw you. Your death would deeply inconvenience me. And I guess it would be a little sad."

"Someday, someone will give you what you deserve," I told him acidly. "And on that day, I will laugh, and point, and call you mean names while it happens."

He sniffed loftily. "Sounds like you, always letting everyone else do all the work."

"Die in a hole," I said with an eye roll. "I have no idea why I put up with you, dick. And thanks for checking on me, I appreciate it."

I set off at a brisk walk down a random hallway. It took me about ten minutes to realize I had no destination, and another five for Benny to notice the same thing. He stopped where he'd been trailing behind me. "You have no idea where you're going, do you?"

"All within the palace belongs to the Wishmaster," I said pompously. "Any destination would be acceptable."

"That's not what I asked," he snickered. "You got a place in mind?"

I sighed. "Looking for Zeke, and then Bethy, in that order. Planning to get my gear upgraded while the politicos handle the politicking. I am SO glad I have a Master of Treaties, because negotiating with those overworlders sounds exhausting. Now, where the hell is my uncle, I need to check in about my armor?"

"He was in the loading bay last I saw." He sighed. "Some kind of shipment came in, and NO I don't know what kind or if it was your stuff. What did you get anyway?"

I shrugged. "I let Donovan pick. He knows what kind of upgrades would work best for my armor better than I do. I made sure to fill him in on the details of Gehenna, but other than that it's out of my hands. If there's one thing being Wishmaster has taught me it's not to micromanage talented subordinates. I only have to ride herd on incompetent idiots…and friends, like you."

My comment was as blithe and neutral as possible, but Benny knew me well enough to catch the dig and rolled his eyes. He led me off to one side and down a hallway. We took a few turns before arriving at a pair of small doors set into a pair of much bigger doors. We pushed them open, heading inside to find Zeke poring over some kind of clipboard. "No, no, no," he snapped. "I asked for twenty pounds of Astrellan Star Wood and TEN pounds of Daryan Bog Pine. You CHARGED me for those values, despite bringing me the inverse. Bog Pine is worth a fifth what Star Wood is. I'm not paying for this. And why the hell are my Cave Demon Blood Paints all in abyssal black? I'm an artist not a calligrapher, you don't think I'd like some variance? I told them I'd accept black as a substitute but I didn't want ALL black paint."

The poor guy standing opposite him appeared to be getting smaller and smaller as my uncle talked, and I was starting to worry he might melt into a terrified puddle if it went on much longer. "I think he gets it," I said as I ambled up. "I'm sure this nice gentleman will be happy to make note of all your grievances and contact his employers for a refund. Won't you?"

"Of course," the terrified man squeaked. "Right away sir," and then he scurried off into the loading bay.

"Must you ruin my fun," Zeke sighed in annoyance. "That little twit isn't as innocent as he looks. I KNOW they sent at least a bottle of blue ink, and it's not listed. I'm positive the little troll stole it. I'd have beaten it out of him, but his uncle is relatively high up in the merchant's guild."

The Merchant's Guild was one of the major economic bodies in the universe. They possessed the ability to mint chits, coins of concentrated Creation that were useful for crafters and businessmen alike. They basically propped up the economy for the entire plane, which meant they had an inordinate amount of control over it.

Luckily, the WCP had access to methods of duplication that meant we were capable of eating into their market if they pushed it. As such, we were given priority treatment on shipping and first purchase rights on many unique goods in exchange for refusing any wishes that involved pure chit manifestation. We had a LOT of deals like that in place. The WCP was an economic powerhouse, and I was still scratching the surface of what that meant.

"Talk to Peter," I shrugged. "He can use it to leverage them into something juicy I'm sure. I have a Master of Banking for a reason."

He blinked. "I…could do that. I keep forgetting you're in charge. Being able to just…go talk to someone who can fix my problems is so weird. And I don't even need to schedule a meeting. Your cabinet members are all eager to get in my good books. Huh."

"Yes, congratulations on your newly discovered ability to abuse your power," I said dryly. "Now, does the clipboard have a certain bitter old smith on it?" I felt a twinge of Danger Sense and snapped quickly. "Donovan if you hit me with that fucking vegetable I'm going to have you assigned to the most remote outpost I can find, where you'll spend the next two hundred years making pipe fittings you will PERSONALLY install in every broken toilet in my territories."

A dry voice chuckled as I turned around to see the old smith, wire framed glasses over golden eyes, grinning at me. "No more idle threats for you, eh boy?"

Zeke raised an eyebrow. "Been a while since I saw an employee call the Wishmaster BOY. Last time someone did it was the first week of Aiden's rule. I think they've almost found the last piece of him."

Donovan snorted. "Don't mind me, sir. Just an old fool too long from his forge. If you want to kill this old man over an ill chosen phrase you just go ahead, won't bother me none. I'm sure you have other Mythic Blacksmiths on hand who can perfectly redesign the Lord's armor for him. We grow on trees, after all."

My uncle stared at the old red haired smith for a moment before barking out a laugh. "Oh I LIKE him. Fair enough, old man. If my nephew doesn't mind the mouthing off I won't bother with it either."

"Lovely, now that no one is going to be murdered, can we focus on my gear," I said impatiently. "Donovan, you picked out the materials, right? Show me what we're working with."

He nodded amiably. "Of course, brought some lovely specimens. I'll need to borrow a forge, but I'm sure someone here has a functional one." He led me across the dock to a contained loaded with a series of small boxes on plinths with plenty of room between them. There were a LOT of boxes.

"Seventy two main materials," he grinned. "Most of them not too expensive or rare, mostly there for the synergy. But if we're going to make what I plan to make we'll need them."

Zeke's eyes widened. "You're going to make him a Domain Anchor?" he gaped. "At B-rank?"

"It's not like it's that difficult," Donovan shrugged. "If you recognize what I'm doing I'm guessing you can make them too."

Zeke shook his head. "Not for a manifested Domain. I made him a proto Domain Anchor a few ranks ago to stabilize his soul from consistent pseudo Domain abuse, but that's not the same as a long term anchoring construct. Especially not for a Domain like his. It's completely unique. Stabilizing something like that would be…ambitious."

I finally caught up. I remembered the mask Zeke gave me ages ago that could act as a sort of stabilizer for my soul when I used my pseudo Domains. This was before I had a Chronicle and it had been dangerous to use them at all. The mask had helped me offset the strain.

Donovan looked smug. "Well, then it's a good thing I won't be working alone on this, isn't it. I hear you're a crafter of some repute yourself. How about it. Want to make something… ambitious?" He held out his hand to shake, eyes blazing with confidence and excitement. He was clearly looking forward to the effort.

Zeke stared down at the hand with interest, before finally nodding with a low chuckle. "Alright, fine. Let's make something earthshaking." And I could already tell they would.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first thing they had me do when we reached the forge was strip. I was wearing boxers, obviously, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling being almost literally naked on an actual battlefront. At the very least, I wasn't cold or anything, because the heat from the forge was perfectly suitable for keeping me warm.

"Alright, so, you have seventy two materials here," I said slowly. "But how are these supposed to represent my demons exactly? I assume that's the goal. But you don't have a list of my demons and their abilities, so how were you able to choose materials to represent them?"

He walked over and opened a box. "I didn't," he clarified. "I got a few stable elements based on the obvious demons you've shown in public, but for the most part, these are unstable mutagenic reflectors." At my uncomprehending silence, he sighed. "It means they're reactive elements that reconfigure themselves to reflect the energetic properties of whatever they're exposed to."

I blinked. "Oh. That explains how you got so many of them with only a thousand points. I take it the actual materials would have been more expensive?"

"Depends on the material," he shrugged. "But for the most part. I trust you remember how this process goes?" His voice was sly and amused, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. He didn't have to enjoy the impending pain so much.

"I do, but I'm not sure that we should do this here," I looked around, measuring the space mentally as I tried to figure out the best way to do this. "If I can bring this forge into my Domain, would you be able to do the crafting in there? I'm just getting this feeling that it would work better that way."

He blinked. "I…well yes, that would probably work perfectly. Assuming your Domain can withstand such a crafting at B-rank."

"Don't worry about that," I told him with a chuckle. "My Domain is sturdy as hell."

Zeke nodded. "He's right. It'll hold. He's not supporting it alone. And forging a Domain Anchor inside the Domain itself will strengthen the connection. Projecting it isn't a problem, but he's been running into problems with secondary manifestation. Trying to incarnate more than a few of those demons causes undue strain. Not to mention the reactive materials require reactions. Channeling them one by one is inefficient, if we bring him inside to work he can have the demons react with their materials internally."

"I take it you're a prop based crafter?" Donovan asked with interest.

Zeke waggled a hand, "I can do a fair bit with hand tools. But at higher levels, ritual is just more convenient, especially for larger projects." At my curious head tilt he explained. "At a certain level of proficiency, different crafting disciplines tend to bleed together. I've mentioned this to you before. My Voltomancy includes several subdisciplines, and one of those is formations. Working with souls is tricky and dangerous, and formation crafting is all about precision and setup. It minimizes risk."

"I'm guessing this is recent?" I asked curiously. "I remember you working on masks by hand when I was a kid."

"A-rank was when I started making changes," he acknowledged. "Mythic crafting skills are…complicated. Regardless, I think I can help improve this suit of armor. And more than that, I'm planning to create a new mask for you to complement and stabilize it."

I blinked at that. "Really? I thought this one would continue to upgrade as I did? You built it sealed right?"

"You haven't noticed yet?" he chuckled. "I guess I should be glad you don't get hit in the face much. I made that mask at B-rank, the same rank you're at now. It's long since reached the limitations of its growth. I never expected you to improve at such a staggering pace. Even for an Ascendant it's unbelievable."

I felt a rush of pride at that. It felt good to be acknowledged by someone as impressive as Zeke. "Alright, well then I'll bring this all inside. Give me a minute to get this setup."

Closing my eyes, I reached out for the forge and all the tools in the room and pulled them with me and the two crafters into Gehenna. We appeared in the throne room, in an empty space in the center, and I glanced around at my court as they watched from their places surrounding us, all clearly excited by the visitors.

Donovan looked around with interest. "Fascinating," he said slowly. "This place feels far more solid than it should. I've been in plenty of Domains, though I haven't condensed my own yet. This doesn't feel like the Domain of a B-ranker."

"He cheats," Zeke shrugged. "First of all, he formed the damned thing at C-rank, which means his B-rank Impact reinforced it when he ranked up. He also did something else I can't put my finger on. It's new. Besides, he has a soul weapon that helps prop the place up, that's it over there." He gestured toward the tree manifestation of my staff.

Donovan stared at it for a moment. "Some kind of hybrid reincarnation tree? Those are rare as hens teeth. The more time I spend around you the less sense you make, boy. I'm even more convinced you need an anchor for this now."

"It'll stabilize it exponentially better than the current setup, even after the tree ranks up," Zeke agreed excitedly. "Three points of stability will be more solid. I can't wait to see what you're capable of after both upgrades. Now, this armor is your creation, so why don't you take the lead. My mask crafting needs to be interwoven through your process, which means I'll need to piggyback on your session."

"Understood," Donovan said pensively. "In that case, line up the most powerful of the demons and have the rest set out the boxes of material at these points," he scribbled down a quick diagram and passed it to me, and I immediately passed it on to Dom.

The lesser demons started to spread out, carrying the boxes to specific places. Meanwhile, Donovan took out his blue leek and began smacking demons one by one, feeling out their energy as he had done to me all those months ago when he made the seal.

He got through them relatively fast, and as he finished checking each one he sent them to a specific box. Apparently the adaptive materials worked best for specific constitutions, because he was very exacting in their placement. Once that was done, he approached me and smacked me several times with the leek. I was pretty sure he didn't need to do it so much but, I wasn't going to complain if it got me a new set of gear.

As he was working, I saw Zeke kneel down and take out a bag I'd seen before. It was the black canvas bag he kept his masks in. He started digging around inside, pulling out bottles and pieces of wood and metal and glass. Finally, he stood up and walked briskly to a few of the boxes, setting thirteen materials on top of the thirteen boxes near the most powerful demons. When he was done, he nodded at Donovan, who walked over to the forge in the middle of the room and began to stoke it. He added my armor into it as he worked, piece by piece, and I couldn't see what happened to it as he did.

It took about fifteen minutes to bring it to temperature, though I wasn't sure if that was because it was a great forge or because of Donovan himself. Once it began, he walked over to the nearest demon, placed his hand on top of the box…and then stabbed him through the hand.

The demon, namely Dantalion, hissed as the knife punched through his palm and into the box. Donovan withdrew the knife, carried the box over to the forge, and then threw the whole thing inside. He tossed the knife to Dan. "Take this around the room and stab each of them the same way I stabbed you. Then have them step back."

Dan looked at me, and I nodded, so he hastened to obey. As he did, the forge flared ominously, black smoke billowing from the mouth of it. Donovan turned and tapped his leek on the side of it and then began conducting with it like he was directing an orchestra. As he moved, the black smoke swirled and funneled down, condensing into an image of me. As I watched, black metal flowed out of the forge to begin to cover the smoky figure.

Donovan tapped again, and a line of smoke shot out of the figure, spearing into the bloody hole in the top of the nearest box. The smoke glowed orange as a blaze of heat poured down it, and another stream of smoke shot out. One by one, they connected, until seventy one streams of smoke connected every box in the room. Donovan swung the leek at the smoke, and with a blaze of blue electricity it was gone, replaced by that same long handled ballpeen hammer. He hauled back and struck the figure. Once. Twice. Three times. On the third strike the first box exploded, and a cloud of molten metal flowed down the smoke tendril to join the stuff beginning to coat the figure.

Before it could go much further, I heard Zeke begin to mutter. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but the light in the room flickered. Shadows danced and spun along the walls as all thirteen mask ingredients caught fire at the same time, the light from them exploding towards the head of the smoke mannequin.

Donovan sped up, striking faster, and the room became a blur of shadows and flames and smoke as the two crafters intertwined their process, blending and melding the ritual crafting to create something more than the sum of its parts.

My demons had fallen to their knees, faces pale, not from the stabbing but from whatever the materials had absorbed from them through the blood connection. Whatever it was, it wasn't something easily shrugged off.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, Donovan whirled his hammer one last time and smashed it into the back of the smoke figure. It exploded forward into a cloud of rushing smoke. The smoke consumed me, covering my body and face, wrapping me in a suffocating cocoon of stifling heat, and then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. I was fine. I couldn't even feel the mask on my face, though I could see the new armor adorning my body.

I triggered Double Trouble, turning to face the illusory copy of me, and froze. I looked…terrifying. A midnight black suit of intricately articulated plate armor gleamed across my body, traceries of gold, silver, and bronze worked through the plates in complicated traceries that reminded me of a cross between enchanting symbols and circuitry. Flickers of the various powers of my demons danced through the shining filigree like sparks over exposed wire, there one moment and gone the next.

The mask was a shining porcelain facial construct with no eyes or mouth, inscribed with almost microscopic black symbols that had been filled in with some kind of black resin. The designs were more artistic than magical from what I could tell (which wasn't much), but they looked fierce.

"It's done," my uncle said tiredly as he walked up to clap a hand on my shoulder. "Now we just need to see how it works. But before we put it through its paces, I think we should shore up the third leg of this tripod. I think it's time that we contact your Master of Challenge and ask her about the progress of that wine." I stared at my image for a few more seconds and then nodded. I couldn't wait to see exactly what my staff was going to become after its rank up. Only one more piece of the puzzle and then I would be ready. I couldn't wait to take that entrance trial. I would be ready for anything.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bethy, as it turned out, had been busy. After I gave her the assignment, she had wandered off, and I hadn't really heard anything from her. I had expected her to sort out her plants, maybe have a pot or two stashed away that she could hybridize for some results.

It turned out, she thought a LOT bigger than that. My jaw dropped as I stepped into the large open room where her orchard was planted. A huge, full sized orchard. That appeared to have been grown here. "Um…wow," I said slowly as I looked around. "Was this here a week ago? Because I feel like someone would have mentioned it."

"Shane!" Bethy shouted excitedly as she appeared in front of me. "You came to see me! I mean…greetings boss." She gave a sloppy salute, her face taking on a stoic, imperious expression before melting back into her usual exuberant grin. "You're here for the wine, right?"

I nodded as I looked around. That chamber was huge, and more importantly, it LOOKED even bigger. The walls were painted with scenes of endless sprawling fields and rolling hills from the countryside. There was a sun peeking over one of the hilltops, and whatever paint had been used for it was emitting actual sunlight that fell on the carefully curated vines dotting the field beside what looked like some kind of villa. "This is…a lot. How did you get all this here?"

"Hm?" she asked with interest. "Oh, I carry most of my vines around with me in my Domain. But you wanted me to do some tinkering so I just ordered a bunch of A-rankers to bring me the stuff I needed. Since I'm on your cabinet everybody has to do whatever I say, even if it doesn't make sense." She paused, her brow furrowing before she yelled over her shoulder. "Chelsea! Can you send someone to hallway sixty four to tell that guy to stop doing jumping jacks? I forgot!"

There was a weary sigh from the villa before my sister called back. "I already did! Please stop ordering people to do punitive workouts and forgetting about them. People have started avoiding us!"

"Well, good to see you're not abusing your power," I said wryly. "But since I'm here, why don't you show me around?"

She perked up. "Oh, that sounds amazing, come on!" she grabbed my arm, dragging me out towards the fields where rows of trellises held up winding vines covered with multi colored grapes. "So, I've been working on so many different varieties of wine," she confided as she pulled me towards the closest trellis. "Ever since I started working on my grapes I've realized how soothing it is. I love it so much. And I have this natural gift for it from my mom that just makes it so easy to find good combinations."

I stepped forward to squint at a vine nearby, reaching up to touch the silvery blue grapes hanging from it. "Ok, so…what are these?"

"Sword grapes," she said immediately. I blinked at her, and she smiled. "The iron in the soil comes from ground up sword shards imbued with sword power. I used the broken swords your Uncle Moon made training with Callie. He couldn't exactly spar with her using S-rank blades, and the C-ranked weapons he was using tended to…well, disintegrate."

"Sword energy?" I asked with interest as I sniffed a grape. "I didn't know you could harvest energy like that." Then I paused, my eyes widening. "Vampirism. You can siphon off mythology, not just stats."

She beamed and nodded. "Yup! Pretty cool, huh? It was a pain to learn how to do it, and I needed Alyssa's help to figure out how to get it into the plants. Usually I use my blood, but I've been experimenting with alternative methods, like the sword dust. I'm trying to bottle sword mythology for Callie, but so far it just tastes kind of sharp."

"Mind if I try one?" I asked, and she gestured for me to go ahead. I popped one in my mouth and winced. "That's…interesting," I said with a grimace. "Sharp is a good term. It's like sourness without the sour. The muscles in my face are buzzing."

Bethy giggled. "Yup, it's not done yet. But I have a bunch of different varietals cooking. I've been getting mythology from all over the place. For your grapes, I repurposed some I got from Nat and crossbred it with one I made from Killian's shadows. The ones he uses for soul stitching. I think they turned out well, but I wasn't able to REALLY nail the mixture until I mixed some dust from a use wish scroll into the soil."

"How did you make them GROW so fast?" I asked, impressed at her work ethic. "When you said you were planning to make a new strain of grapes for me I didn't realize quite how involved it all was."

"My vines are a part of me," she shrugged. "The vampiric vines I told you about internalized it the most, but they can all grow from absorbing my blood. Most of them just don't actually incorporate it into the fruit. I promise, no blood taste in the wine I make for your tree. It'll be the most delicious fertilizer ever."

I snorted at that. "When you say it that way I feel kind of stupid for being so weird about that. But also I don't, so let's continue the tour."

"Sure thing boss man," she saluted, skipping to the next trellis. "These are pretty cool. They're life grapes. Jessie helped me make them. Her lifestorm ursa powers are SUPER compatible with plants, as you might imagine. These are actually AMAZING. Try one."

I plucked a grape, shocked at how light and airy it was to hold, I popped it in my mouth and hummed in pleasure as I bit down. Grapes had always been a favorite food of mine, especially green grapes. There were very few things as delicious as a crisp, fresh grape. When they were at their peak it felt almost like cracking glass when you bit into them, minus the pain or discomfort. Just a rush of cold sweet flesh and delicious juice.

This particular grape was infused with life force that poured into my body when I swallowed, resonating with my Life Nova blood drops and filling me with a pleasant, happy warmth.

"Can I get some of these to bring back to Callie?" I asked brightly. "She'll love this. And I guess I want to reserve a bottle when you finally…wine it? Vint it? I have no idea whatsoever what the verb form of making wine is."

She shrugged. "I don't know. I have people for all that boring sciencey stuff. I just do grapes until it gets boozy."

Benny groaned from behind us, and I turned to raise an eyebrow. "What, you want a grape?"

"I mean…yes, but I was groaning because you two are weirdly similar sometimes, even if you don't want to admit it. You both have the subtlety of a ten ton hammer."

"Hey, I'm as subtle as a much smaller hammer than that," I protested. "One ton. Tops."

I turned back to my Master of Challenge. "So, where are the grapes we're using for the ritual? And do you need time to make the wine? I know it usually has to ferment and stuff, but you didn't seem to need to last time."

"Oh, nothing like that," she shrugged. "I just need to stomp on the grapes and then the wine happens. It's actually super fun."

I only vaguely remembered her process from last time but that sounded about right. Not to mention that was several ranks ago. Bethy had probably refined the whole thing since then, in her own Bethy way.

"So, do you want to get this out of the way now?" she chirped. "I can mix up the wine and we can get started on feeding your tree buddy." She looked down at my stomach, poking my armor with a finger. "Whose a hungry little plant being, you are, yes you are!" I stared down at her in complete perplexity.

"Bethy, why are you talking to my stomach? You know that isn't how Domains work." My voice was exasperated, but I couldn't help but be a bit amused.

She shrugged. "Your tree wasn't in your Domain to start with right? Anyway, come on, let's get started! I love catering parties. Oooh, maybe I can make your tree a hat. Do you think you could put a hat on that spiritual tree avatar in your Domain?"

"I do not, no," I sighed with a rueful chuckle. "But yes, we can get it out of the way, do you have everything ready?"

I had to admit I was excited. Not as excited as when I reached B-rank, but I knew the utility my staff could bring to bear. Having it at A-rank was going to be damned useful. Not least because it would restore my ability to rank up my skills temporarily, which I hadn't been able to use since I hit B-rank and achieved parity with the ten demons tree.

More than that though, the tree was a pillar of my fighting style and Domain, its silent support gave me the confidence to fight above my level and to face anything that came my way. It ALSO kept me from feeling the pinch from my demons ranking up, which while not a problem yet, I was worried about.

In fact, I suspected several of my lesser demon court members had been sandbagging so as not to unduly strain my Domain. Well, that and I was pretty sure some of them were hoping to get reincarnated. After Brad had joined the court, a lot of the weaker members seemed to find lots of reasons to express their openness to change, it was amusing, but a tad obvious. Regardless, with the tree at A-rank I could support a bunch of tier 9 demons if it became necessary, and any number of tier 8s would be child's play.

I followed Bethy along the rows until we reached a trellis that stood out from the others, mainly because it looked so new and unsullied. The vine wrapped around it was fresh and bright green and looked much more vital than the other, steadier plants. Bethy picked up a wooden bucket, passed it to me, then passed another to Benny. After grabbing a third she quickly and expertly plucked MANY more grapes than I had expected to be on the vine, filling the buckets with a pile of juicy looking black fruits that I had to resist the urge to try for myself.

Once we had them all collected, she gestured for us to follow and carried the buckets to a back room of the villa where another, larger wooden tub waited. She had us pour them all out before gesturing for me to take out the Ten Demons Tree and drive it into the pile in the center of the tub.

She slipped on a pair of shoes that looked like they were specially made, cleaned them off, and then jumped in and started stomping, holding up the staff as she did. The movements were…alien, almost painful to watch. I knew that it wasn't just normal steps. It was a dance. The dance of the maenad. With each crash of her foot the tides of dark juice changed slightly. I could smell the scent of ozone filling the room, like a storm was brewing.

Finally, after about twenty minutes, she lifted the staff and slammed it down again, driving it through the bottom of the tub and into the floor. As she stepped out of the tub she stumbled, my sister appearing to catch her, and we all watched as the staff began to absorb the wine directly, like tree roots drinking up fresh rain. But that was just the beginning, because inside my Domain, changes had already begun.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I didn't bother with subtlety or asking permission. I projected my Domain immediately once I felt the alterations begin. In the blink of an eye we found ourselves standing in my throne room, at the base of the steps, staring up at my staff and the tree that represented it.

It looked…weird. The trunk was warping and bowing in odd ways, seemingly trying to tear itself open, and in the few places it succeeded I saw strange snapping mouths full of fangs. I was briefly concerned that vampirism had carried through the wine somehow, but between one moment and the next the mouths snapped shut, blinking back open as eyes that stared out around the room.

Seventy two eyes. I studied them intently, clearly picking out familiar irises, like the glowing green of Zagan and the black of Mephistopheles. I was briefly confused as to what was happening, but after thinking it through, I finally figured it out.

My soul. My Domain was part of me, as was the tree. As my soul weapon the tree grew as I grew, and that was how it had created Gehenna for me, but as I was changed by the tree so too must the tree have been changed by me. It had spent the last year or two internalizing my mythology, but moreso, internalizing the demons. Simulating their lives, living them. Becoming them.

All that growth was important. It was vital nutrients the plant had used to get stronger. Bethy's wine could help accelerate that growth, but it couldn't REPLACE it. The tree needed something to burn to fuel its growth, and what it had was the lives and experiences of seventy two powerful demons.

Azazel appeared at my side, looking tense. "My lord, I bid you welcome to your court. A small question, was this, perhaps, your doing?"

"Of course," I nodded confidently. "No need to worry, everything is fine."

"That's lovely," he said dryly. "But perhaps in the future it might behoove you to WARN us when you're planning multiple fundamental shifts in the foundation of the realm from which we draw our very existence?"

I paused. "Ok, so I would have done that…" I said slowly. "But I didn't think of it."

He chuckled. "I assumed as much. But it would be nice of you to remember that we are PEOPLE as well as demons. I realize this is your Domain, and I have no right to instruct you in its care, but it is also our home. We need no consideration beyond acknowledgement, my lord, and I hesitate-"

"No," I cut him off. "Don't hesitate. You're right. This involved you and I took that for granted. I needed to do this, but I could have spaced it out, let you in on things. Instead I just ran amok without letting you in the loop. I get so used to us acting as a single unit I forget that some measure of communication is necessary. It won't happen again."

He nodded, relieved. "Now, as you have no doubt surmised, the ten demons tree has begun a qualitative evolution. Beyond what would be represented by a rank up, I mean. It is becoming an entirely different tree. This is important because of exactly where the tree is ROOTED." He gestured at the writhing tree image, the roots of which squirmed deeper and deeper into…the ten demons TOME. My chronicle and the tree were deeply intertwined, hence their shared name.

My eyes widened. "Is that…will that be safe? I've never heard that Chronicles can do that."

"They can," Bethy chirped from nearby. I turned to find her sitting up on one of the stands, legs swinging in a carefree back and forth rhythm. "I mean, Chronicles are condensed from Solid Skills and Solid Skills can upgrade on a rank up, so why wouldn't a Chronicle. I mean I've never heard of it happening either, but it makes sense huh?"

Put that way it actually did. I mean, Path of the Demonbinder was intricately connected to my Chronicle and my ability, and it was going to rank up when I did. I was honestly kind of curious. I'd seen skills before and after rank up, and I'd FELT skills rank up, but I'd never SEEN it happen before. I wasn't sure anyone had, at least not in this specific way. I turned to stare at the changing tree. It would rank up, and change my Chronicle when it did. Obviously it wouldn't drag ME to A-rank, but I was fascinated to see what my ten demons tome would become, not to mention the staff itself.

A pulse rocked the room. I frowned up at the tree. That was…not ideal. Azazel noticed my face. "What's wrong?" he asked immediately.

"It's not enough," I grimaced. "It needs more. The tree is too far from A-rank, the wine didn't bridge the gap. It's been growing, but it's still a little short. The advancement is going to fail." And something was going to happen to my staff when it did. The tree COULD communicate with me. Had done so before. But not like this. This was sharp and urgent, very much not its style. It was afraid.

The only reason things weren't worse was because of the armor. I could feel it like a lodestone, anchoring the whole Domain with the sheer weight of its presence. This armor was a genuine A-ranked artifact and it was designed to hold this place together, which was taking a ton of pressure off the tree so it could work.

Closing my eyes, I ran through my options. I needed power. Immediately. Wine wouldn't work, it had started things off but it wouldn't carry us over. I needed something more substantial something weighty…something like stats.

I blinked up at the tree, sending it a question. The response was a jumble of enthusiasm and acceptance. I nodded. "Alright, I have a plan. It's been a few weeks since my last influx of stats, not to mention there was that whole big scene with me greeting the higher dimensional visitors in the middle of the war front. The tree needs to grow, which means it needs power, and the easiest way for me to get that is to process my stat points."

Benny nodded along. "Right, the mythology should act as nutrients right? I mean the thing is growing out of your Chronicle, which is a condensation of one of your abilities."

"That's the hope," I said wryly. "Not sure if it'll work but it's all we've got. Might as well give it a shot. Here's hoping it's enough to bridge the gap." I wasn't sure how many points I had coming. It hadn't been that long since my last update, and while I HAD done some impressive shit, I wasn't sure how well word had gotten out yet.

Either way, Benny was right. It was a viable plan. The tree had grown to this point on my mythology and used it to form Gehenna. So I closed my eyes and accepted the influx of stats.

I had never actually DONE this inside of my Domain before. Every time I processed stats I did it in a private out of the way place where I wouldn't be disturbed. As soon as I relaxed my soul, I felt the stats descend into me, washing over the domain. A foiling curtain of energy. Green, red, blue, gold, black, a myriad of shades each representing something different. I hadn't ever seen raw stats like this before. Not…physically? They didn't stick around, and honestly I couldn't tell if the colors were real or just my mind trying to process something unintelligible.

As each one hit, the tree shook, shedding the old leaves, and new ones grew in its place. Leaves of rainbow and shadow and fog. Seventy two branches of leaves, each one dedicated to a different demon. Some only had a single leaf, some had eight. But the leaves were all important, I could tell.

The ground shook as the power flooded in, and I felt it settle over me. It wasn't painful. It was a few million points, but it wasn't even thirty percent of the total. As it was absorbed by the tree, the flames and fog and all the forces represented roiled down through the roots and into my Chronicle, and the book…caught fire. I felt a flash of incredible force surge through me that drove me to my knees. Benny and Bethy caught me, helping me keep from falling over.

And then it was done, and I was looking at my stat screen. I ignored the majority of it, not needing to check on my demons, and focused specifically on my stats and the entries for my soul weapon.

Wishmaster status. B-rank. Ability: Legendary Wish- Ten times a day grant a Legendary wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Legendary Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Might-3,125,421

Impact-215

Fantasy-2,433,568

Vitality-2,221,871 ()

Focus-2,124,853

Perception-1,641,640

Creation-1,981,143

Progress to next rank:13,528,711/100,000,000

Soul strength- Obsidian Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 17/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 8/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:13- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 8 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 30 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia

The shuddering stopped, and I felt a flood of Impact pour through the tree and into the Domain, strengthening it further in a way I'd only experienced one other time. Apparently the shared connection meant that the tree's rank up enhanced my Domain the same way mine did. I thought back to the Dryad homeworld, where I'd first found it, and the prediction that it could carry me to godhood. It was looking more likely by the day.

I checked my stats, happy to see the enhancement was decent. I wasn't even close to the end of B-rank, obviously, but a few million regularly dropping in was going to make the process faster than I had hoped. Sure enough, becoming the Wishmaster had its perks.

"Thirteen million points," murmured Azazel when I told him about my status. "What an auspicious number. What are the effects on your Chronicle?"

"Unknown," I admitted. "It feels…different. Not sure how different. My pages are intact and it's a stable core for this place again. The armor and the tree are working in perfect sync now, with only my lower rank dragging them down. Combined with the enhancement from its rank up, this place can support far more power being utilized in realspace. Not to mention it'll be MUCH less vulnerable during projection. I don't think anything short of an S-ranker is going to damage it the way Roland did."

Combined with all my recent training, my combat style was going to be just as flexible and even more precise. I wouldn't need to hamstring myself in fights like so many others did for fear of soul injury.

Finally, it was time for the last step. I reached out a hand and called to my staff. I thumped solidly into my palm, almost vibrating with power. Life and strength flooded into my from where I gripped it, and I could see seventy two sigils twisting themselves along the wood as I watched the grain. Like an optical illusion, there one moment, gone the next.

With a grin, I allowed my Domain to recede, and I was standing in the winery with Benny, Bethy, and Azazel. "I can't wait to find out what I can do now," I said with an eager smile. "And I know just how to do it, too. What better way to assess progress than a test. Put the word out. Tomorrow night, we enter the Legacy Trial. I want to see what kind of assessment that old Overgod left in his house." Because I didn't believe anything my level could stop me now.