Chapter 1126
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Malcolm Tent
Monkey with a typewriter.
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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.
"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.