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

The monstrosity floating above us was probably the scariest thing I'd ever seen. Even the Bone Wyvern, the previous holder of the title of 'creature most likely to make me piss my pants' didn't stack up to the sheer overwhelming horror of the monster. It wasn't just the shape or the size, or even the pressure from the flowers, there was something...awful about the thing. Each of those many shaped mouths had darkness behind those teeth. Not just normal darkness either, an empty gaping abyss that reminded me of staring into the void of space.

I found myself hypnotized almost, drawn into the depths of the yawning chasms littering the underside of the ray's stone underbelly. Then the thing SCREAMED, and I saw literal cones of sonic force explode from the mouths, overlapping and combining into one massive sonic blast that flew right at us.

Before it could hit though, a massive avatar of Abel constructed of blue gel appeared above us, intercepting the attack and shielding us from harm even as it disintegrated. As that happened I came back to myself enough to spur my goat back from the rocks and yell for the others to do the same.

The mounts bounded off the outcropping, down into the snow, giving us a bit of cover as the ray let out an unearthly howl of rage at being thwarted. "Shit." I panted as we moved out of the strike zone. "How the hell do we get the flowers off...that."

Benny looked at me in astonishment. "Seriously? That just happened and you're worried about FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS?" He glanced at Jessie apologetically. "No offense, Jess."

She just snickered. "Some taken. But I get your point. We can find the Dew in other places? Is challenging...that, really worth the short advantage?" Her voice was gentle, but I could hear an undercurrent of stress and worry causing it to tremble.

"Yes." I said firmly. "For a few reasons. First, we aren't getting out of here while that thing is after us. We'll need to put it down anyway before we can run. Second of all I have a plan, and third of all if the other teams get their hands on the damned Dew it'll make it that much harder for us to deal with them later. And if WE get it, it'll make us that much safer going forward."

I saw them pause and think it over. Benny didn't look convinced. "I mean...I can't really poke any holes in your logic. But it FEELS like a really bad idea." His smart ass tone was not appreciated, despite him having a small point, and I responded in kind.

"Let's not confine ourselves to things you think feel like a good idea." I said acidly. "I doubt the ray is going to collapse in defeat from starting a band or convincing all its friends to wear those stupid orange shoes with the springs in them you talked me into buying when we were fourteen."

Benny's indignation was somewhat muted by the giggling of all the other nearby party members, but he still found it in himself to to glare around at them until realizing no help was forthcoming. Then he crossed his arms and sulked, playing it up a little bit for attention.

Celine, who clearly knew my friend pretty well at this point, just rolled her eyes and ignored him, turning to Anna-Marie. "You're our local guide, princess, do you have any ideas? Any rumors of a creature like this? And information we might use. A plan is wonderful, but it behooves us to gather as much information on our enemy as possible."

When she shook her head, I nodded to myself, cracking my neck as a hopped down from my goat. "Ok. So my plan is pretty simple, you'll all need to be on alert for when it starts. I'm not sure how well this thing can hear, so I'm going to to put the first steps into action and let you guys pick it up afterwards."

I turned to Abel with a grin. "So let's get started. Do me a favor and throw me at the stingray." I tried to project confidence in my plan with my tone, but everyone else whirled on me, Callie and Nat both yelping exclamations of surprise as Abel grabbed me in a giant hand and HURLED me at the thing in less time than it took to blink. I'd already triggered State of Grace, luckily, and did the same with Ripple Running, planting my feet in the air to guide my now much more slowly soaring body.

Of course, the ray turned slowly to face me, and I worried that this MIGHT have been poorly planned, until a giant fist slammed into the thing, knocking it aside as Abel smashed it with Expert ranked Ragam. It squealed in pain and rage as it was knocked askew, and I stepped lightly three times, changing my direction to land on its back. State of Grace allowed me to stay on as I bolted around to the field of grass outside the flowers.

Dropping to a knee, I glared at the grass in front of me and triggered Pit of Despair. It was HARD. I had to push against the resistance of the ray, but my soul was strong enough that the earth skill was able to create the silt pit. A ten foot hole was punched right through the stone creature, and I had to roll sideways to avoid its tail as it whipped up to smash me.

Leaving the rest to the others now that I'd distracted it, I bolted for the flowers, crashing into the field to collect them before any of the other teams got up here. Hitting the crazy warping mass of Impact infused moonlight was...weird. Like running through a hundred worlds in sequence, each step taking me somewhere else without moving me at all. But it didn't matter. I started snatching up flowers and stuffing them in my ring, not bothering to be careful.

Some of them seemed to have more pistils, and I made extra sure to get those, but I couldn't see the special ones that collected the Dew, so I had to hope I'd get lucky. Which I did. I was picking a specific flower without looking too hard, and there was a pulse of power. The moonlight cascade condensed into a cloud, the flower rapidly becoming more moisturized as it did so, until three drops of mercurial liquid moonshine gleamed on the petals.

I grinned as I put it away, diving for more, yanking them up to try to create the same effect. The ray shook, and I almost fell off, grabbing a few more flowers and managing to accumulate ten drops. There was still moonshine floating above a small portion of the field, but I sadly couldn't go for the whole enchilada because my Danger Sense twigged hard.

I threw myself sideways, Ripple Running helping me change direction twice to make sure I was clear, as a massive waterfall of cerulean gas slammed into the back of the ray, gouging a HUGE hole in it. I stared at the tall woman with canary yellow hair in shock as she snarled something at me too far for me to hear in the ruckus.

She tried to tag me as I retreated, and for a second I worried she would, but Valk's blue gel appeared in front of me as a hand construct swatted aside the resulting frozen attack. I redirected my fall, landing on the rock outcropping with a grin and hopping on the back of my goat. "Let's ride!" I bellowed gleefully. "I got ten drops and they were NOT happy."

"You LUNATIC!" Screamed Callie as we booked it in the other direction. "You could have been killed. What kind of plan was that? Tactics require forethought and consideration. Planning isn't just thinking 'I bet if I do something stupid, this will happen'. That's just madness!"

I was cackling with joy, adrenaline flooding through me as my heart pounded. That had been intense. Callie's words drew me up short, and I was derailed completely as Benny rode up to smack the back of my head as we escaped. "Hey! Stop gloating and listen, asshat. That was stupidly dangerous."

Sighing, I let my rush recede as I looked at things objectively. I MIGHT had rushed a bit. "Yeah." I said with a wince. "It might have been. I should probably have given you all the details before going. I ju-" Danger Sense BLARED again. "MOVE!" I bellowed, urging my goat to hurl us sideways. The others listened to me, avoiding the attack as a massive war axe made of crystallized sunshine smashed into the ground where we'd just been.

The snow hissed, steaming away as we turned to face the new enemy. A short black haired man with wide shoulders and olive skin grinned at us, an axe just like the sunlight construct hefted up on his shoulder. His eyes burned with golden light, and I saw his feet scorching the grass under the recently melted snow as he walked.

"Hello there!" He called cheerfully. "I'm afraid I can't just let you walk away with those drops." He looked over his shoulder. "Hows about you let me take them off your hands nice and easy, and I'll owe you a favor. Christina distracted that thing with her Azureblaze Fog, but it won't hold her team for long. I'd rather be gone before she gets here."

I pointed back the way we'd come. "Well that thing still had flowers on it. Why not go grab some of those. What makes you think we're the easier option?"

He shrugged. "Christina and I had a run in at the bazaar. She's a nasty piece of work. I'm Raul by the way, if it matters. I hope me taking those drops won't make things too tense. I don't enjoy sewing enmity." His smile was apologetic as his grip on the axe tightened, but he took a menacing step forward anyway.

"Wow." I said with an impressed tone. "That was the politest way anyone has ever tried to rob me." I glanced at Abel. "You think you can take him?" I could sense that Raul wasn't at the peak or even midway through F-rank, so there was a decent chance.

My mentor grinned, strolling forward to stand between us and the threatening axeman. "Never know until you try. I've been dying to test out my Expert level Ragam Mastery."

Raul glanced at him, eyes flicking away then jerking back as that tangible feeling of terror and violence that Abel projected when he was serious. "Shit. You're not the Adamant I heard about are you?" His eyes narrowed consideringly. "No, I don't feel perfection. More...pure violence. You don't walk the Path of the Adamant. You're on the Path of Blood. You must have spilled a LOT of it to get that kind of aura."

He sounded worried. Which was a good sign for us, but despite that, he set his feet, clearly preparing to engage. I had to give him credit, I knew how terrifying Abel could be, and facing him as an enemy had to be even worse. My mentor didn't bother to wait, he blurred forward, body splitting as Cicada Stacking Step condensed multiple images of him.

Unlike the last time though, he was an Expert now. The images weren't brief flashes of combat capable construct. They were real clones spreading out to surround the axeman before surging inward all at once to attack. I glanced up at the battle in the distance, seeing the ray snapping weakly at a massive snake made of Azure gas and cursing.

We didn't have time for this, if they ganged up on is this would be bad...and that's when I remembered something important. We'd all come into this dungeon in teams of ten. I activated Eye of Revelation and groaned. They ween't moving yet, which was why my Danger Sense was silent, but we were definitely surrounded. Joy.

 

It was a testament to how distracted I was by the attackers that I didn't notice Jessie vanishing. Luckily, no amount of distraction was enough to make me miss the giant fuck off BEAR exploding from the snow at one of the hidden attackers. Apparently Jessie had noticed them and used her Shape of the Wild Skill to attack the closest one head on with all the animal fury of her big fuzzy companion. Or would that be animal furry?

Either way, the ambusher wasn't expecting that shit at all, nor was the one to his left expecting my girlfriend to step from the darkness cast by his shadow and jam a black bladed dagger into the base of his spine (enough to paralyze him but not beyond Jessie's ability to fix). Sadly, expecting it wasn't necessary when you were wearing armor, and the dagger skidded off the thin breastplate with a shower of sparks.

Callie's outline blurred as she activated her armor and then vanished in a blur of motion as six clones of hers took off int six separate directions, her victim freezing as he became spoiled for choice. My cousin had faded out of existence, I'd seen her flip her hood up and somehow render herself invisible rather than just concealing her face. I had no clue where she got that, but it was pretty cool.

My own staff came free with a swish, toxic flame crawling down it as I imbued it with my standard skill combo. I could feel the death energy humming inside it, but I could also feel it was nowhere near full. I had no interesting in burning my strongest shot early, so I'd charge it up more before I dropped the hammer, so to speak.

Valk had backed intercepted a trio of fighters alongside Perit, and seeing those two actually fight in conjunction was kind of terrifying. And finally Celine and Benny were backup up Mel, the three of them fighting a pair of big fighters who looked like brothers, leaving me with two fighters of my own to handle. We'd gotten the drop on them mostly, I was glad to see. Jessie had initiated and the other revealed themselves through sheer surprise.

The two I needed to fight were distracted, not having focused on me yet as they reacted to the mass attack. I triggered double trouble, bringing my Stygian branch up and around in a whirling smash aimed at the taller of the two's head.
Rather than block, which I could have phased through with my weapon, the tall man dropped boneless, the staff flying over his head as he hit his hands in pushup position, then kicked up his long legs in a whirling attack aimed at my neck.

With State of Grace still active, it was easy to slide aside, triggering Moonlit Night in the surrounding area. The fog filled the space around us, completely translucent to me, but more than enough to obstruct their view as I took them both in for weaknesses.

The tall one I'd attacked was a pale man with long crooked teeth and stringy hair. The other one, who was circling around us, was a pretty dark skinned girl with long wavy hair and big hazel eyes. She ALSO had a really disturbing smile on her face, and her fingers appeared to be literal knives, at least at the moment.

She dove in for an attack, and I whirled my staff into position, grinning internally as her claws sparked off one of the metal endcaps and I felt the thrum of life force entering the storm of converted power inside the staff. It was almost unnoticeable, but I'd realized over time that the staff had been slowly adapting to me as I used it.

The weight had been lessening, my grip seeming more sure, and the power seemed more in tune with me the more I worked with the item. It was a powerful and dangerous weapon, and I absolutely loved how it felt as I got more and more used to it. It still wasn't LIGHT, granted, but it almost felt like it was learning to suppress its Impact most of the time, only releasing it when in combat.

My pondering was interrupted sadly, by the big guy lashing out with a pair of whips made of ACTUAL blood, which seemed to be on fire as it flowed freely in crimson rivers from his open wrists. The scarlet flames were pinging my Danger Sense hard, so I knew touching them would be a bad call.

Rather than dodge normally, I planted my staff and shoved off, using the combination of force and State of Grace to soar up into the air. They continued attacking the same spot, though once they didn't land a hit they eased up, and I realized that they'd seen the beginning of my dodge as I activated my concealment and they'd inferred my destination from that. They couldn't ACTUALLY see me in Moonlit Night, which was a relief.

I bounced off nothing, Ripple Running still active, though that was my last step with it, and landed softly on the grass behind them. Tall guy didn't notice, but claws girl whirled and lashed out at me with her knife fingers. Knife fingers which created literal TEARS in the air that rushed toward me, even temporarily clearing small lines in the fog. They sealed themselves right after, but the girls grin told me she'd noticed it too.

So I had to spend the next five minutes dodging hails of air slashes as she did her best to tear enough holes in my fog to be able to spot me, which she didn't because any time she tried I just jumped over them and her both. I considered closing in, but I'd triggered my overlay here, and I could see the ways my attacks would probably fail if I went in too soon.
So I just waited, letting her tire herself out and accidentally cut up her buddy at least once, much to my amusement.

He seemed much less amused, and after the third time he lashed out with one of his whips, and she yelped as it cut into her. Eyes wide with rage, she whirled on him and lunged, and I took the chance to put her down. I used Double Trouble, arriving in the air behind her back as she dove forward, parallel to the ground. I triggered Mercy Kill, Marked for Death, and Flurry of Blows, then slammed my Stygian Branch straight down into her spine, doing my best to avoid any vital organs.

I managed to do that, but I did NOT avoid pinning her to the ground like a butterfly on a card. She screamed, and the other guy lashed out with the whips, only for me to use double trouble again and appear behind him. The whips didn't hit the girl, he had way too much control, and he yanked them back once they passed through the space I should have been in.

Backing off, I kept an eye on him as he crept closer to her to check on his fallen teammate. She was lying on the ground, eyes wide and pained, shuddering like she was cold as her lips basically turned blue.

It took me only a minute to realize exactly why. The staff drained life force on contact, and I'd driven it INTO her. It had been sucking up life energy until I vanished, and while she was clearly still alive, it had obviously not been a pleasant experience. I winced in sympathy, but the roaring of deathly power in my staff had grown louder by a substantial amount.

Apparently that was a faster way to absorb the stuff. I didn't bother to use the death burst on the tall guy. He was disturbed and alone, and it only took me a few minutes to smash his elbows and knees in one at a time with hit and run tactics.

Moonlit Night made stealth attacks more deadly, and the staff was heavy and brutally powerful. It was a deadly combination. Once my battle ended I looked around to find the others mostly done. Abel was still going, but the rest of them had already subdued their own, or driven them off. From counting some of them had clearly run off, which was amusing, but it also meant they could come back at any moment with backup.

I let Moonlit Night drop, striding out of the dispersing fog as I stowed my staff. Above us, Palms and fists crashed against a giant axe phantom, and seemed to be getting the upper hand. Expert vs Intermediate was a big gap, even if I suspected Raul had higher stats. I looked around, finding Callie leaned against a tree, wincing and holding her side. I was next to her in an instant.

"Are you ok?" I asked in a panic. Her face was pale and bloodless and her eyes were a bit hazy. I planted a hand on her shoulder and triggered a scan heal and heal burst combo. She shuddered as the energy flowed into her, and I felt the break in her ribs through the scan as I watched it mend. I sighed in relief then looked around. "Ok, where is Jessie? Why didn't she come fix you up? Is she still fighting?"

I couldn't see my friend for a second, but that was because I expected her to have turned back. It only took a quick look to notice she had NOT done that, and was currently mauling a tree viciously while ignoring everything else. I blinked at her savage attack on the local flora for a second before realizing what had happened.

Jessie had put down her two opponents and even managed to keep herself from killing them (though she hadn't been gentl judging by the bloodstains and the two trails leading off into the mountains), she had not however, had full control. She was attacking the tree to keep from attacking anything else.

After I made sure Callie was healing (it would take some time, my heal bursts were G-rank still, at least until I refilled) I strolled over to the massive ursine form of my friend. "Jessie." I said calmly as I arrived next to her. She glared at me, snarling madly before returning to her tree murder. I sighed, slipped out my staff, and infused it with a tranq blow before slamming it down on the base of her bear skull with everything I had.

She yelped, stumbling away. Instead of whirling and trying to kill me like I'd half expected though, she started shaking her head. One shake, then two, trying to clear out...something. Finally, she fell to her haunches and threw back her head for a roar that turned into a scream of pain as she changed back. "Fuck!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she slumped back into the snow clutching her head. "Ow, ow, ow."

I winced. Bear or not that wouldn't have been pleasant. "Sorry." I said sympathetically. "I thought it might help."
She shook her head roughly. "No. It did. That was...fine. Maybe next time just punch me. How did you know that would even work?"

I just shrugged. "You looked like you were going crazy, figured being calmed down might help. Sedative and all."
"Well it did, thanks." She grunted. "My head is killing me, but at least its not full of bear rage. Seriously. Bears are REALLY angry. Not like...some kind of blood rage. Just grumpy and pissed off almost all the time. And it's not very easy to ignore. Remind me to give Randall a hug for being such a good boy."

I laughed, helping her up and walking with her over to Callie. "Cal got messed up pretty bad. I did what I could but my heals are weak. Older stuff you know. Can you look her over?" She smiled gingerly and nodded before kneeling next to my girlfriend. Above us the sunlight axe shattered under a barrage of punches. I hoped she hurried up. We needed to go before the ray went down. I didn't want another fight so soon if I could help it.

Heads up. My novel is being published, goes to audible and Amazon on the 8th, and because of Amazon's rules on content exclusivity I'll be taking down the first volume (the first 36 chapters) from all sites. You'll be able to read them on Kindle Unlimited in a few days, but I can't keep them up here or on RR or SH, or even Patreon. Hope everyone is enjoying the story!

 

We managed to get away before the others showed up, happily. I was fairly exhausted. While my staff wasn't heavy all the time anymore, it did unleash its potential when I was in combat, which was a strain.

I didn't mind though. It was a good ache, like the kind you get post workout. I mostly hovered over Callie, or at least as close as I could on the goats. I'd gotten a sliver of the crystal we'd bargained off Wulfric for her, and despite her annoyance at being treated like glass, she really enjoyed the warmth when she triggered the effects.

Even a sliver of the stuff was enough to create a bubble of pleasantly warm air for ten feet or so around her (which definitely wasn't at all part of why I stuck so close). She seemed to notice that though, and smirked at me in amusement as we went along.

As for me...I'd been scared out of my mind. It wasn't like none of us had been hurt before, it happened sometimes, but seeing her like that, slumped back against a tree, had terrified me. I'd realized that I was in charge now, and the only thing keeping my loved ones alive was ME.

Being the leader added a whole new dimension to battle. Responsibility. It was easy to put aside my worried and trust whoever was in charge, to just focus on the battle. But when anything that happens is your fault...it was brutal. I felt terrible for putting pressure like this on Callie for months without knowing.

Sensing through the bond what I was thinking, she sidled closer, reaching out to grab my hand. She winced, ribs still tender despite Jessie's boost to the healing I'd given her. She gave me a warm smile, and I felt the love and concern from the bond as she said gently. "If you don't stop blaming yourself for my actions I'm going to push you down the mountain."

I burst out in a surprised laugh, and she grinned at me mischievously. "There he is. I was going to ask if you'd seen my boyfriend. He's a pretty upbeat guy, and the brooding self flagellating thing isn't nearly as hot as some people claim. I prefer his particular brand of optimism."

"I don't think you can call it optimism when someone just bulls into everything without thinking it through." I said wryly. "I'm just trying to be a more responsible leader now that I'm in charge."

She snorted at that. "Shane, baby, you just had Abel THROW you at a giant monster without warning anyone. You're not trying to be a more responsible anything. You're being an overprotective worrywart. I got hurt and it scared you. And that's ok. Do you remember how terrified I was when you got injured in the necropolis? Because I sure as hell do. And when the bond fried in the tournament. I love you, and you love me, and being scared for each other makes sense."

I groaned in frustration. "It's more than that though. I'm in charge now. You getting hurt is my fault."

"Yup." She said mercilessly. I blinked and gave her a hurt look she didn't need to see because of the bond. "What? I'm supposed to argue? Not like you would listen if I told you it wasn't. So, assuming your completely absurd claim that my own actions are your responsibility is even technically true, you could theoretically claim that you screwed up by not making a plan for engaging the enemy."

That annoyed me. "I didn't even ATTACK them. Jessie did. I had only just reali-" I trailed off at her smug look. "You know you get like...ten percent less cute when you're a know-it-all."

Her smirk turned sarcastically sweet. "Honey, I can feel your emotions. We both know that isn't true." I flipped her off and she cracked up, cutting off the laugh almost immediately with a groan as she strained her broken ribs. The amusement snapped off on my end too, replaced with concern. "Callie! Are you ok? Just breathe." I reached out for a scan heal to check on her, but she batted away the hand.

"Fine, love." She wheezed. "Just hurts a ton to laugh. The feeling of my bones grinding together is...unpleasant. Worth it though, since I got my guy out of his head." She reached out to squeeze the hand she'd just batted away and I felt a rush of warmth flood through me. I adored this girl, annoying sarcasm and all.

Once she straightened up again and the pain had faded, I glanced over to where Jessie was running with the wolves. "How long do you think the healing will take? Should we look into buying something to help? Jessie's heals are damned effective, but some medicine might compound things. There are probably high F-ranked Vitality medicines with thousands of points of effectiveness. Even with her absurdly overpowered Vitality Jessie is still new to the rank."

She shook her head, and I noticed how ginger the motion was, like she was trying not to move her torso at all. "No, it's fine. I'll be good after a night's sleep. She wrapped them for me too, that first aid Skill came in handy. I'll be fine tomorrow, between your heal to stabilize things and her treatment there should be no problems."

I exhaled in relief. "Ok. Sorry, I'm just..." I shook it off. "So, what did you think of...that?" I gestured back at the mess we'd left behind.

"I think it worked out extremely well for us." She grimaced. "Your plan wasn't...terrible. Just not very well thought out. My main issue was you not bothering to tell us before you did it. If you're in charge you need a better communication strategy than 'hold my beer'. If we need a shorthand or something we can develop one, but impatience isn't a reason to leave the team in the lurch like that."

Rather than reassure or placate her...I thought about it. She was right. I needed to do better. I'd gotten lucky this time, but the gods forbid something happen to one of my friends, I'd feel terrible either way, but knowing I'd made a mistake and caused it would be even worse.

I was pretty surprised when Nat rode up next to me, my cousin giving me a sympathetic smile. "It's a bit overwhelming huh?" I blinked at her, cocking my head so she'd know I was confused even through the mask. "Being out on your own. I've been out and about for ages, but when I first left my home planet I was definitely pretty confused. I had a hell of a let less people counting on me too. It's ok to be a little overwhelmed."

Blowing out a breath, I shrugged. "I get that, but it's not ok to let that feeling force me into making stupid choices, which...I kind of just did. When Callie was running things she always found time to include us and ask what we thought. I didn't even really consider that. I just got excited because being in charge meant I could do things my way without letting anyone stop me."

"Yeah." She said comfortingly. "You're a weird guy." At my noise of offense she just grinned. "What, it's true. Wishing is a support power. Nine out of ten candidates are hands off back ranks types. Even the ones who go the leadership route usually play armchair general at best. Running headlong into danger isn't exactly our style. The only person in the family I can think of who fights like that is the current Wishmaster, and he cheats."

He did. I tried to imagine what that would be like, supplementing a completely separate ability with my Wish power. Maybe specialize in a specific kind of wishes to boost one stat above the others. It would limit my ability to grant wishes at the same level, but I could make up for that with combat efficiency, not to mention I could still grant wishes to lower level clientele with Impact offsetting the cost.

It made me even more interested in our trip to the Ruined Soul Temple. Getting another ability would be...amazing. Who knew what I could become with something like that. But that was a tangent, and an obvious attempt to sabotage my own self reflection, so I forced myself to refocus. "So what do you suggest I do?"

"Think." She said simply. "We came out here to gather information. To see what it was like in the mountains. So use it. Figure out a strategy for moving and working out here safely. Then apply that strategy. You have information, resources, and time, those are all the things you need to lead properly. That and the ability to care about your team, and you definitely have that too. You'll do fine if you just sit down and put some thought into things."

She was right. I was making this much more complicated than it needed to be. I didn't need to come up with some brilliant scheme to justify being put in charge. I just needed to go slow and steady and keep my friends as safe as possible.

"You know." I said with a smirk. "For an ally of convenience you're pretty supportive. If I didn't know any better I'd say you're worried about your little cousin and trying to go out of your way to make me feel better."

Shrugging, she just gave an embarrassed laugh. "You're not wrong. You're a good kid, and you seem to care a lot. I'd started to internalize the family's cutthroat mentality a bit too much I think. It's nice to have a relative who actually gives a shit and doesn't want to use me as a human shield or a patsy."

I winced at the statement. Honestly that sounded like a nightmare to me. Even dad's cold rational approach to parenting was at least slightly based on my personal wellbeing. "How long ago did you awaken your ability?" I wasn't sure if the contract dad had sent was something usual for the WCP, but I got the impression it wasn't. Some sort of method of waking my ability early, which outside wishes I'd never heard of anyone doing.

"A few years now. Maybe half a decade. I lose track. I was like you to start, until I got in touch with some of the other family memebers and learned how it all works." She shrugged. "The candidates tend to accumulate over time once the competition starts. It runs ten years, giving everyone time to gather forces, and then when the time is up they call us together for the inheritance conflict. We have some time before that, thankfully, but you'll want to make damned sure to be ready. If someone can BE ready for something like that."

She sounded tired and afraid, and I winced sympathetically. This whole thing was so...brutal. I didn't mind some hard fights, but doing this kind of thing to your own family, just because it had worked before. Sending kids away from their parents, away from their homes, to be raised by strangers and tested through combat. It was all awful, and if I became the Wishmaster, I was going to put a stop to that.

In fact, while finding my mom was my primary goal, that was good motivation to aim for the top. To save my family, even from itself. To make sure no one lived the life I did, or Nat did. I felt something inside me shift slightly as my purpose became even clearer. I found my way forward, and another thing to push toward. Granted, it was a longer term goal, but I was going to work toward it either way. I'd find my mom, ask her why she left, and then I'd save my family from its own bad choices, whether it liked it or not.

 

"I can't believe we survived that!" I whooped as we came over the last ridge back toward the bridge. "That was fantastic!" I glanced over at Anna-Marie. "So what's the allocation deal for these drops? I got ten, so five you five us, do we get paid or anything for the ones we turn in? Because we paid for the materials and everything, so it would only be fair for us to be compensated for the drops."

The princess giggled. "Eager, aren't you? Yes, you'll be paid for the drops, we'll need to head into the central cylinder to get your coins." She seemed to be in the same kind of giddy mood as the rest of us. The extreme danger followed by the escape had been energizing, and I wasn't the only one grinning like a loon. It was odd, we'd been in trouble like this before off on our own, but being here inside the dungeon with no supervision to bail us out made it more...visceral.

I felt like I was getting emotional whiplash, going from the joy of battle, to guilt, to the glee of escape. Everything just seemed...more. More vibrant, more exciting, more important. Taking a moment, I felt myself almost buzzing with energy, and glanced at the others. "Hey, do any of you feel...weird? Like in a good way?"

It hadn't hit me right away, but this seemed different than my usual emotions. Callie nodded. "Yeah, I can feel it through the bond. It isn't affecting any of the rest of us I don't think though." She smirked at me. "It stopped your pouting so I consider it a net gain."

I muttered a nonsensical comment about catching HER in a net, but she graciously ignored it as I turned a questioning gaze on Anna-Marie. The Naiad princess looked lost for a second, then her eyes widened. "Oh! It was the lunar event. You passed through the cloud. Must have been dense enough to absorb into your skin. It can take time to hit you. I've heard rumors there are some vintages of wine infused with that effect, they're supposed to be lovely."

That sounded pretty delicious, but I didn't think it would be affordable at all. Probably more expensive than the insane drink Abel had tried to con me into buying for us back in Doomtown. Still, I didn't mind the effect. Nat rode up next to me, leaning in to mutter. "You might want to be careful wandering around semi intoxicated like that. Easy to make mistakes or deals you shouldn't."

When we reached the bridge, a pair of men in thick black suits of armor stopped us, crossing their spears in front of us to block the way. "Halt." They said, somehow not snickering at the cliche. "State your business."

Anna-Marie glared. "My business is none of yours. Unless bridge guards are suddenly of a standing with members of the royal family? Or do you suspect that the fact one of my brothers paid you to harass me will protect you from my father's vengeance should he hear of your disrespect to crown and country?"

They visibly flinched, stepping back quickly and lowering both their spears and heads. Hopping down, Anna-Marie handed the reins of her goat to the closest guard and gestured us to do the same. "I'll consider you stabling these for us you recompense for being so presumptuous. Should they not make it to their destination, I may forget to be magnanimous. I suspect this bridge would be as well served with your heads on those spears as warnings as by incompetents such as yourselves."

Apologizing profusely, they grabbed the reins and took the goats, running off toward a well hidden shack in the distance. She shook her head. "Idiots. Involving themselves in politics out of greed. My brothers don't care if a few guards get beheaded. Sadly for them I won't be passively bullied anymore."

I raised a brow. "You'd really have them beheaded for getting in your way?"

She shook her head. "No. Not unless it was a repeated offense. But they don't need to know that. My father WOULD kill them for it though, if he found out. Respect for the royal family is a paramount value in Ladrigan. To disrespect a royal is to disrespect the blood, which is disrespecting the king himself. Not that it stops us from harassing each OTHER, but it means games like this need to be subtle."

Celine nodded in comprehension, making an understanding sound from her place on the other side of Benny. "Ah. Being at the bottom of the barrel made you easy picking for things like that before. Now that you have, or are at least going to have, access to the drops, you're in a position to actually enact punishment going forward, and need to start acting the part."

Our guide nodded as she led us further down the bridge. "Indeed. It is important to know one's place. Premature retaliation would have signaled my readiness to enter the political arena, which I was very much not. With this kind of head start though, I'll be more than capable of holding my own, as well as passing some of the drops to important loved ones who support me like my mother."

I was about to ask if a point of Impact made that much of a difference, but considering a single point made you an Ascendant I was willing to believe it. Plus if things went well this would just be the start. Before we went out looking for trouble though, I was going to get us paid, and look into possible protection we could buy, beg, or hire.

When we reached the doors back into the bulwark, we received no further trouble, and the trip back down took MUCH longer, as we had to carefully navigate the traps from the enemy side, making stops to give passwords, take back passages, or request admittance.

Finally, we got through the bulwark and back into the ringed part of the castle, which made things much easier. To my surprise, once we hit the rings, Anna-Marie brought us a different route, using a series of secret passages to bring us through without having to scale up and down. I couldn't help but ask. "Why didn't we take this route last time? Wouldn't that have been faster?"

She just chuckled. "Yes, but these passages only take you to the cylinder. They can be sealed in an emergency, and automatically shut down completely when the bulwark collapses, but since you can't use them to LEAVE the cylinder, they can't be used to reach the bulwark."

I wondered why they would set it up like that, but figured it was probably some inane political reason I wouldn't care about, so I refocused on our entry into 'the cylinder'. Stepping through the final passage, we entered a short hallway with guarded doors. I could see a ton of defenses here, just in case, but it was still nicer than most of what I'd seen. Anna-Marie waved off the guards, and they opened the doors for us, allowing us to enter...a whole new world.

The cylinder ran through the entire mountain, and as such was absolutely huge. Based on the dimensions I was betting it was spatially enlarged, because I could see miles and miles of space inside the thing that didn't match up with it being the smallest area in the mountain.

I had to try hard not to stare. I'd seen plenty of things as an Ascendant, and they all had their own special kind of impressiveness, but the huge underground city was a new kind of amazing. Above us floated a glowing blue orb, close enough to white not to tint the light, and large enough to cast the whole cavern in what seemed like natural moonlight.

Silver trees festooned the entire area, and I could see skyways crisscrossing the distance in seemingly impossibly ways, somehow holding up islands of stone in the air without supports, though all small enough not to really impede the view given they were spread out and at different heights. There was dark grass beneath our feet as we walked in, and I saw foliage and shrubbery along the neat path leading toward the ground level city.

"This." She said proudly. "Is the cylinder. Most of the important people in the kingdom live here. We even have weather systems set up to water the plants and filter the dirt. The cylinder's interior is fifty miles across, though I know it can be hard to judge scale from so far away. It's a bit of a hike to reach the city, which is much bigger than it looks. Shouldn't be too much trouble for an F-ranker though."

That was fair. At top speed I could run seventy five hundred miles per hour at this point. Well, on a normal planet. This one was huge and had much heavier gravity so it was probably less. Still, even at a brisk walk it wouldn't be hard to get there relatively quickly.

I held up a hand, stopping everyone. "Wait." I said firmly. "I'm interested in heading in there, but I don't want to go at a disadvantage. We have an arrangement for half the drops, and I'd like to distribute them now. Will we get much effect from the first one?"

She nodded. "You will. First drop will give you a point. You'll need five drops for a second, and it pretty much doubles from there." I was appalled at exactly how many drops of Moonglow Dew the king must have used. He'd gotten himself about eight points. Knowing how rare the stuff was outside awakenings...it was terrifying. I guessed he WAS thousands of years old, and had been involved in the last awakening too.

"Alright." I said firmly. "Then we distribute it now. I want us at our strongest when we go in. Which means our strongest get first dibs. Callie, me, Abel, Nat, and Valk." I gave Mel a shrug. "If I had a sixth it would go to you, but I think this maximizes our capabilities. With Nat and I both getting one it'll make our abilities more useful, and Callie's recon abilities will be key out here where we don't know anyone."

Mel chuckled softly. "I get it. Just like I'm sure Agria and Clockwork do. It's not a bad lineup. But I want first dibs on the next round."

"Deal." I said with a grin. Pulling the others off the path we headed into the silver trees, finding a clearing before I reached into the ring and removed the drops. I left the flowers in, bringing the Dew out on its own, but to my relief, that was fine. It just floated above my palm like some kind of mercurial star.

The dew itself was...confusing. Silver mercurial liquid, shifting constantly and reflecting scenes of infinite possibilities from within. I passed the first over to Nat, then Callie, then Abel, then Valk. I'd gone out of my way to make sure to give them some of the first drops, because I wanted the team more cohesive, and because coming here had been mainly their idea. I could tell they were happy to receive them, especially Nat who looked like she was having her first christmas.

When we all had ours, I took a deep breath, and the mask slid away from the bottom of my face like it would when I ate. I popped the thing into my mouth like some kind of liquid pill and swallowed hard as the explosion of indescribable sensation washed over my tongue and plummeted into my throat like a waterfall of living lightning. As the power exploded behind my eyes it occurred to me it might have been a better plan to go back to our rooms for this. Oh well, live and learn.

 

The feeling of having your impact rise naturally through rank up was odd and hard to describe. It was interesting, and even notable, but it wasn't exceptionally dramatic in the grand scheme of things. It was something people were designed to do, a natural part of our evolution, and you had the stat points to act as a foundation for the Impact. It was like building a tower. You had a level of stats, then Impact to act as support for the next section.

Having Impact added independent of that was MUCH more intense. The lightning storm coursing down my throat spread like wildfire, singing through my veins and out into my muscles. My body felt like arid ground, hungrily consuming the energy as it spilled out, rolling through me and somehow filling every individual cell. I could feel the change to every single atom of my body, but not consecutively. All at once, like I was a million people at the same time, each completely perceiving a change to a single cell.

My cells were singing to each other, belting out operatic harmonies as they ascended to a greater state, to a higher plane of existence, and carried my million brains along with them. I couldn't tell if I was screaming, or crying, or if I'd never make a sound again. I was in unbearable agony, and suffused with the most exquisite bliss I'd ever felt, and hollow and empty and so full I was about to explode.

And then it was over, and I was just me. Just standing around as a single person, heart pounding, body coated with sweat, muscles twitching as I fell against a tree, wheezing and panting. "That." I gasped breathlessly. "Was so fucking weird. Gods, is it like that every time? I...don't even know how to describe that. Did I hate it? Did I love it? My brain hurts."

Callie groaned from next to me. "Yeah, I was getting some of that through the bond. I think it was worse because we were sharing it. I was getting the highs as well as the lows simultaneously because we were alternating."

I paused, thinking it over. "That...shit, that might have been happening to me too. It was so hard to tell, everything was confusing the shit out of me." I cocked my head at her. "You doing ok? I'm starting to settle down I think. Or maybe I'll never settle down again? I can't tell if I'm wired or exhausted."

She let out a bark of laughter. "I feel that." She looked at my cousin, Abel, and Valk. "How about you guys? You feeling ok?"

Abel shrugged. "That was weird, but I've had worse. I'll be fine in a minute, just need to get my head on straight."
Nat shuddered. "I'm less sanguine about the whole thing. I can't really say it was awful. But also I can. It was definitely the best worst experience of my life. As little sense as that probably makes."

"As much as anything else that just happened to me." Valk croaked hoarsely, standing to his full height from where he'd been hunched against the dark bark of a silver tree. "I feel like a wrung out toothpaste tube made of chewing gum stretched between the two ends of sporting field."

"That!" Said Nat excitedly. "That's exactly how it feels. Like...to a T." Weighing the words I nodded, as did Callie. He was right. Like I was empty and stretched in a weird way that I couldn't exactly put my finger on.

Anna-Marie looked interested. "That's fascinating. I suspect I'll want to space out my consumption in that case. Who knows what multiple drops at once would do to a person. Do you feel well enough to continue?" The princess had been watching us like a hawk since I'd mentioned what I was going to do. Her eyes were wide and focused, desperately trying not to miss anything.

If I had to guess, the king wasn't the kind of guy to do something as risky as dropping Moonglow Dew in front of his kids, or pretty much anyone barring his most trusted guards. This was probably her first time seeing the process up close, and given how big a part of her life it was going to be, I was guessing she wanted to know as much about it as possible. She wanted every detail before her first drop, though I was skeptical we'd been helpful with our descriptions.

"Jessie." I said calmly. "How about you hit us with a little pick me up?" My teammate had been a bit quiet since her time as a teddy bear, but not upset exactly. She seemed more pensive than anything, and at the sound of her name her eyes jerked up to me. She shook off her thoughts and nodded.

"Sure. I can do that." She sounded as chipper as ever, so I wasn't too worried. I was sure she'd talk to use when she was feeling upto it. She stepped forward, her hand on me as she flooded me with green lifegiving energy. I felt my body fill with power and vitality, and it synergized well with the wired feeling the drop had left, leaving me bursting with energy.

She did Callie next, then Nat, then Abel, and Valk last. The big bearded man looked a bit more jittery than the rest of us, so I think she wanted to give him extra time to settle before she shoved a live wire into his brain, so to speak. Once that was done she smiled widely at all of us, stepping back to lean against Lily, her wolf, as the other puppies surrounded her. Energizing all of us had taken it out of her, and I could see the sweat on her brow, but she'd be at the back with us all surrounding her so I wasn't worried.

I bounced in place a bit, letting the energy flow through me. I felt amazing. Not just vital, but...more. The recovery and the extra Impact really were a hell of a combination.

"I think we're good to go." I glanced down at Jin. "Take care of her will you? You and the others." My wolf gave me a deadpan look and a sniff of disdain, as if telling me not to make stupid unnecessary comments. I got no respect.
The puppies circled up around Lily, making a triangle formation as Jessie rode on her wolf's back. Oddly, they seemed more...maybe not intelligent, but more aware. I suspected Jessie's rank up had allowed her power to boost them in a less restrictive way.

We headed back out to the path, following it along to where the city waited. There was a huge black stone wall around the perimeter of the place that I hadn't been able to see from further away. There was an iron gate cutting the path off from entry, and two guards stood waiting there for us to approach.

To my surprise, Anna-Marie didn't just wave them aside, stepping up and pulling out a cerulean token carved from some kind of gemstone. "We seek entry into the Spiral Grove." I could literally hear the capital letters on those last two words. The guards took the token and there was a surge of energy the caused it to light up. A pattern shone on the dark wall, and the guards stared interestedly at the patterns for a minute before nodding and stepping back to allow us entry.

As we walked in, I couldn't help but comment on the token. "That was pretty cool. What was it? Some kind of light key or something?"

Anna-Marie smiled. "Royal seal. Every member of the bloodline gets them. They're made of a special type of living crystal that shifts randomly over time. The guards here and on the royal chambers have samples of the crystal that shifts in the same randomized pattern. Anyone outside the bloodline has to go through a careful vetting process when entering or leaving the Spiral Grove."

"That's awesome." I said appreciatively. "Probably the best security system I can imagine. I guess they check the patterns daily to make sure they know what each seal is supposed to look like?" She nodded in amusement and I put a pin in the idea for later. Might be a neat idea for my own faction later down the line. "So, I take it this is the Spiral Grove?" I said, waving around at the massive city we'd only just entered. Buildings festooned the area, some on the ground, some in trees with walkways between them. I could see some of the walkways leading up to the islands in the air I'd seen before, too thin to have been visible at a distance.

She grinned. "The heart of the capital. All our highest ranking officers, nobles, and even foreign dignitaries hang their hats here." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the clean, fresh air. "One of my favorite places in the world."

I could see genuine fondness on her face as she opened her eyes again. It was always so strange to see the dichotomy of how much she cared about her country and how little she seemed to care about the people. The idea of Ladrigan, the places, the construction, the culture, it seemed almost sacred to her. But the citizens were almost an afterthought, like they just got in the way of all the things she loved. Like they were just unpleasant additions to the kingdom itself.

As we strolled down the main street from the gates though, I couldn't say I didn't understand at least the first part. While the rest of the castle was utilitarian and brutal, the buildings down here were beautiful. Carved stone etched with bas relief scenes of ancient battles and heroic deeds, all set in the forest and inset with silver to give it depth and impact.

It was beautiful, and I couldn't help but notice that the Spiral Grove, hell the cylinder in general, was almost a mirror image of the rest of the castle. It was like they took all the beauty they were forced to forgo elsewhere and shoved it all in here so they could enjoy it in private. She walked us along the path, showing us buildings and sculptures and parks that were a feast for the eyes.

Finally we came to one large but fairly squat building with massive silver doors. Anna-Marie strode up to it and shoved the doors open, leading us into a huge marble foyer with a large desk on the opposite end. The desk had windows along it, and the whole thing was heavily reinforced. A bank.

Strolling up to the bank window she withdrew her seal and slipped it into a gap in the window. "I'd like to withdraw ten hundred-coin markers. Infused, not blank." She turned to me. "I'm offering two hundred heartstone coins per drop, along with future considerations. The infused coins are worth more, obviously, and a thousand is plenty for the deal we've made so far."

I glanced to Celine, who nodded. She'd been looking into the economy here during her downtime, while we'd been working on trade deals and such. The banker nodded, passing over a dark wooden case. The princess opened the case to find a series of long thin tokens made of dark stone with red glowing cracks running through it. "Each of those can be traded for one hundred infused coins. Just bring them to the bank to trade them in, or spend them as is."

That worked for me. Carrying a thousand coins would be substantially more trouble, and since we'd probably be spending in bulk the markers would do for now, plus we could always swap if we needed to. Once I received the markers, she gave me a wide grin. "Now. You can hand over the drops and then I'll take you somewhere to eat before you start shopping for the longer trip." I chuckled at the forwardness, but didn't disagree. That sounded like a plan.

 

I groaned in enjoyment as the stroganoff hit my tongue. "This is amazing." We were at dinner with Anna-Marie, and Callie and I were sharing a local dish called Plazkish. Which was stroganoff. Like...almost exactly. It was also amazing, with fresh juicy mushrooms, smooth handmade pasta, and a delicious creamy sauce so well made it felt like the noodles were almost slithering down my throat without me needing to do anything.

They WEREN'T doing that, obviously, because that would be horrifying, but they were so easy to eat they almost gave that impression. Callie was just as enamored with the dish, and moaned her agreement as she slurped her own noodles, neither of us caring that the others were staring at us. Well, some of the others. Abel, Mel, Jessie, and Benny had all eaten with us before so they didn't much care.

Looking up at the horrified and fascinated face of the princess I swallowed and cleared my throat. "Sorry. I'm weirdly hungry after gaining that extra point of Impact. Did you say something?"

She giggled a bit at that, and Callie finished her own bite and washed it down with a sip of wine, looking embarrassed. "I said." Repeated the princess. "That I was wondering exactly what you're looking for in terms of preparations for the next trip. We're going to be staying out much longer next time, right? Did you get a good grasp on what we're going to need for the journey? We'll most likely need to get deeper into the core this time."

I nodded thoughtfully. "We still have the herbs to sell, so that should get us a bit more money. Just the sheer volume should get us a decent chunk of coin. What we can get should vary based on how much we have, but I have a few specifics in mind. First is shelter. I'm hoping to pick up some portable housing. Maybe tents at worst, though I' hoping for something a bit sturdier."

That got a beaming smile. "That sounds like a wonderful idea." Said the princess cheerfully. "I'll most likely acquire some lodgings of my own. You can accompany me to the shop I'll use. I'll make sure the owner knows you're good friends of mine and to treat you with respect."

Giving her a grateful nod, I smiled internally. I figured she'd do that. Part of the future considerations she mentioned. If possible I wanted to find some kind of portable cabin or bunker, specifically one that had defensive enchantments on it. A portable and stable home base was invaluable, the latter having been made clear during the scavenger hunt. Sadly an invented building wasn't likely to be viable in this instance. Too likely to end up in enemy hands.

Nat too a bite of her chowder, nodding along. "My suggestion would also be to buy some sort of mapping item. Something to show us where we've been and where we're going." She raised an eyebrow at Anna-Marie. "Do you know if they have anything like that in town?"

"Of course!" Said the princess brightly. "And that's a wonderful idea. Returning home would be so much simpler with a nice map to rely on."

"It is." I agreed. "As well as having some sort of emergency defensive measure. Some kind of portable shield spell we can trigger. I'm curious, are there any E-rank items in here? I mean, I know people can bring them in. I...saw some people wielding them." I decided not to mention my own E-rank weapon. It seemed like information they didn't need, especially since it was suppressed most of the time. Maybe they'd noticed it in battle, but no reason to help them along.

Anna-Marie nodded gravely. "There are, but they're in the treasuries. E-ranked items are considered national treasures, and they can only be redeemed for extreme merit. Even that only happens at wartime usually. We have powerful spells made by those with higher than standard Impact though, and we usually call them half step E-rank. No one like my father, of course, but some powerful crafters can trade for or gather god Dew between awakenings like the royals do."

"They don't just take it?" Callie asked in surprise. Which made sense given how closely they controlled the stuff.

"Well, sometimes." Admitted the princess. "Not all of it though. It's a similar setup to yourselves. If they seized it all the finders might hoard it and never let anyone know what they'd found. By rewarding them a share it makes them more likely to come forward. Usually not half, usually more along the lines of a third. But still, it's a tempting reward. Mixed with the fact that it's detectable when you use the Dew, and it's common practice to come volunteer your supply."

Celine looked dubious. "Isn't that just forcing them though? Since you can tell when it's used, what possible way would there be of keeping it secret."

"Defection." Said Anna-Marie flatly. "Before it became common practice to share it, people who found a stock of god Dew would defect to other kingdoms. They would use it all up before arriving. Since the Dew can't be retrieved once used, the other kingdoms had the option of turning away a perfectly good Ascendant with higher than normal Impact, killing them out of spite, or letting them stay."

I nodded in understanding. "And since any powerful fighter for their side would be a benefit, they had no problems taking them in. I can see why you would do things the way you do. Anyway, I'd love to see some crafting from some of those half step E-rankers. A stronger defense can only be a benefit, and maybe we can find some other spells to suit us."

She gave a cheery nod. "Of course. Giancarlo Spirella was going to be my first stop in any case. He's the most well respected crafter in Ladrigan. Some people claim he's already a Master." Which was interesting, because it meant Master Candidates existed here. Though I didn't know what you'd call one that had already reached mastery. Still, it was useful information, especially about a crafter.

Wolfing down my food, I got prepared to leave as the other finished, and once everyone was done I gestured for Anna-Marie to go ahead. "Lead the way to this Giancarlo guy." I paused. "Wait, can he buy the herbs?"

She nodded. "He buys basically everything. He's an enchanter but he does some work Inventing as well." I shot Benny a look. My best friend looked intrigued. I knew he was always looking to make new gear, though he'd already made some that I hadn't even seen yet. I resolved to set some time aside to talk to my best friend. It had been a while since we'd really hung out.

"Of course!" Anna-Marie seemed thrilled to share more about her city with us, her cheerful demeanor already pretty infectious, helped along by the fantastic meal. Leading us out of the bistro, she walked us back onto the main thoroughfare. "Giancarlo's studio is in the oldest district in the city. He's got one of the treehouses, and there's no ground access." She led us to a seemingly innocuous if huge silver tree, knocking on the black bark in a specific spot and smiling widely as the trunk slid open to reveal a too large shaft with a spiral staircase.

As we climbed, I was forced to marvel at how...integrated, the city was. So many different moving parts, so to speak, all working in harmony. This setup must have been incredibly difficult to put in place. Between the external defenses, the cylinder, the islands, the trees, and all the walkways, this place was basically a complicated ecosystem.

When we reached the top we stepped out onto one of the walkways, which seemed to have much more room than one would expect based on the ground view. I wasn't sure if that space was more spatial manipulation or if it was just the angle and distance, but seeing the city from up here made it even more striking. Sparkling gems of light polka dotting a sea of silver leaves, buildings peeking from behind the cover intriguingly.

She led us in a seemingly random direction as she smiled happily around us. "Most of the popular shops are up here. Ground level tends to be reserved for residential places. There are so many trees around that there's always room for another building in one if needed. Houses on the ground level get exceedingly difficult to acquire as you move inward. The central district of the Grove is the oldest, and where we're headed."

It was hard to keep track of things like directionality when surrounded by nearly identical foliage, but when she mentioned that I did kind of notice we were heading inward. It didn't take us long to reach the interior, and once we did the foliage started to thin, revealing more treehouses grouped close together and creating almost a second city above the treeline.

We stopped at an extremely intricate house made of white wood, seasoned with age but still extremely sturdy looking. The wood presented a strong contrast to the bark of the tree, though it blended well with the silver leaves. Anna-Marie strolled up to the front door and knocked politely, waiting for a minute before a polished older man in a crisp suit opened the door looking politely disinterested.

When he saw the princess his expression got a lot more polite and a lot LESS disinterested. "Your grace." He said with a bow of his head. "An honor to see you. Please, come inside." He stepped back, gesturing us in, and Anna-Marie gave him a winning smile.

"Thank you Humphrey." She said sunnily. "It's wonderful to be back, and I brought some new friends. I assume Gio is around?"

He nodded solemnly. "You've come at the perfect time. Miss Zelda was sick today, so Master Giancarlo arrived late. Lady Sandra was otherwise engaged, but she was able to relieve him just an hour ago."

Her sunny demeanor dimmed. "Oh. I do hope Zelda feels better." Glancing at us, she clarified. "Zelda is Giancarlo's daughter, she's twelve. His wife, Sandra, is a healer at the local hospital, so Zelda is in good hands. Zelda is a lovely young lady, and it's a shame to hear she's unwell. Her curiosity and intelligence always brightens my visits."

Humphrey smiled softly. "Which is why you are his favorite customer. So often they simply ignore or dismiss her. You always make time to talk to Miss Zelda."

"Yes." Rasped a high pitched voice, clearly rough with disuse. "She does at that." We turned to see a tall, tan man with wild brown hair sticking out in all directions. He gave us a wild smile, eyes wider than a normal person's. "Anna dear. Lovely to get a visit from my most loyal customer. And you've brought friends. What can I help you with today?"

The sunshine was back on Anna-Marie's face. "Gio. It's good to see you. I was just telling Humphrey to give Zelda my well wishes. My friends and I are actually here for a few things. We have herbs to sell, and then we were hoping to look into some defensive spells. Something powerful and portable."

It was impossible to miss that the man was radiating the same kind of Impact I'd sensed from the king. Perhaps not quite as much, but he was head and shoulders above all of us.

"Well then." He cackled excitedly. "I suppose I'll need to break out my best." He turned, gesturing us back through the door he'd come through. "Please, follow me. I'll take a look at what you have, and we can find the best fit for all of you for your magical needs." Looking at Nat and Callie uncertainly, I shrugged. At least she hadn't brought us somewhere boring. I had a good feeling about finding what we needed.

 

The room Giancarlo came out of was...weird. Which was to be expected, he was a powerful Enchanter and Inventor. But still, even expecting it, the massive variety of random objects in jars and bottles lining the walls was surprising. Boxes full of materials were stacked at the base of the shelves, with metals and wood stuffing them and carelessly written names scrawled on stickers slapped across their sides.

"Oh! You've cleaned recently!" Said Anna-Marie in delight. We all turned to gape at her as we looked back around. The place was nominally organized I guessed, but it was packed so full of random nonsense that it wasn't possible to apply any adjective to the place except 'cluttered'. "We brought you quite a few interesting herbs and flowers, we'd love to hear what you have to offer. Solomon, if you could set them on the counter?"

She gestured to a flat countertop, probably the only non floor space clear enough to see more than a foot of. Shrugging, I waved a hand over the counter, swiping my spatial ring with a thumb to access it and dump all the herbs out onto the surface. I blinked as I did, not having quite realized how absurd the number of herbs we collected was. There was a huge variety of color, shape, texture, attribute, and any other measurable quality you could name.

Giancarlo had somehow appeared behind the counter, which was a neat trick since I hadn't seen him move. He nodded sagely, reaching behind the counter and pulling out a huge complicated set of goggles. They were made of pure gold and had about a dozen lenses made of what looked like ruby, sapphire, emerald, and other precious gems set along its side, each on levers that allowed him to swap them in and out, whether individually or stacking them in groups.

He flipped through the settings, looking at the herbs through various lenses and combinations thereof, making humming noises and interested sounds as he picked up, fondled, licked, sniffed, and in one notable case, bit the herbs. Eventually he slipped the goggles off and looked up at us impassively. "A hundred coins for the lot. I have a marker on hand. Can't do any higher."

I saw Celine open her mouth, but Anna-Marie cut her off. "Of course Gio. I know you don't haggle, and that's a more than perfectly fair price. Thank you for your generosity." She didn't emphasize the words of say it with deep meaningful tones. She didn't have to. It was clear she'd just saved us from possibly alienating the old man.

Nodding my head, I gestured that I accepted, and he swept them off the counter into a box, passing over one of the black stone markers with the red energy cracks. I smiled at him, not that he could see. "I'm looking for defensive enchantments. Something portable probably, and maybe some sort of portable shelter if you have anything like that. Lets start with defenses though, we can pick the shelter based on what those will cover."

He grinned at me. "Smart boy. Too many try to do it the other way. Picking your defenses to suit your home means you only get what works best with that home. If you do it the other way you can pay for the best. You might end up a bit less comfortable, but you'll also end up much less dead."

"Well that's the idea anyway." I laughed. "So what do you have in the way of mobile defensive spells. Do you even make anything like that? I'm not exactly an expert."

He just scoffed. "Of course I do." He reached under the counter again, withdrawing a crystal orb made of what looked like a thousand chips of slightly different diamond, each with a unique rune on it. "This one is popular. Sovereign's Sanction. Creates a powerful defensive bubble. Useful but not mobile, and once deployed nothing enters or leaves until it runs out. Good for bunkering down to wait for backup."

I took it from him, weighing it in my hands. I was fascinated, but it wasn't what we were looking for exactly. "The mobility is a big thing for us. Unbreakable defense is great, but we don't really HAVE backup, at least not reliably. You got anything that moves with you?"

Nodding, he pulled out a bracelet. "Abjuring Ring. When activated it creates a circle of protection around you that keeps out enemies. Moves with the wearer, and works well for setting up temporary camps. Sadly it only works on actual beings, not attacks, and it's not foolproof. Ranged assaults aren't covered and the strong willed can force their way past it, though it takes active effort to maintain position, so they're weakened inside."

That one was more interesting. "I like it. Put that one aside for possible purchase? What's your most powerful defense. Not popular, you showed me that, what's the most unbreakable spell you have on hand."

He sucked his teeth. "You don't mess around, do you boy?" Reaching down, he pulled out a box made of old worn wood. Reaching into his shirt he pulled out a key and put it into one of the locks on the box, pulling another from under the counter where it appeared to be literally chained down. He turned both and opened the box, revealing a large, glimmering ruby pendant the size of a baby's fist. It practically radiated malice and death.

"Blood War Pendant." He said solemnly. "Half step E-rank. It creates a field of blood shades, manifestations of those killed by the attackers, the defenders, anyone inside the circle. The shades reform endlessly, and are always at the rank they occupied when killed. Only way to stop it is to wait it out or break the pendant, and anyone who dies inside the circle becomes part of the spell. It's a bit situational, but it's damned powerful in the right hands. It costs four marks. Because I'd be a fool to sell it for less than four hundred infused heart coins."

I weighed the possibilities with the item. It wasn't perfect, if only because most of us were going to be spawning G-ranked blood shades. Still, there would be a decent amount of F-rankers from Abel I was pretty sure, not to mention any incoming attackers most likely. Even if not, an army of G-rankers that couldn't die would be useful.

Four marks was a decent chunk of our money, but I could see how that would help immensely. "How mobile is the pendant? I assume the circle of effect moves with us? Otherwise why make it a pendant."

He nodded solemnly. "It works for an hour a day, and it can move. It's shockingly effective, even for those who aren't too steeped in blood." He nodded to Abel. "I don't think that will be a problem for your group."

Setting a mark down on the counter, I flipped open the box and laid three next to it. "Apollyon, you'll wear this one." I gestured for him to take the pendant.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Ok, I can guarantee I have nothing that goes with that."

Mel rolled her eyes. "I'll wear it." She pushed her hair back. "Between the link and our proximity, not to mention our long partnership meaning I'm almost as blood drenched as him, it should be fine, right?"

I shrugged. She wasn't wrong, plus now that I looked the Ruby pendant actually DID go with her mask. "Fine whatever." I turned back to Giancarlo. "Any other impressive bits of enchanting?"

Staring at me for a minute, he sighed and pulled out another box, this one made of bone. Flipping it open, he handed me a finger bone suspended in amber. "Bone wall. Single use and not mobile, but a huge interlinked wall of F-rank bones is a hell of a defense to pop instantly."

Another ruby, this one brighter and mounted in a ring, came out of the space beneath the counter. "This one is a flame ward. Basically a mobile wall of fire. Not perfect since you can go over or under it, or even push through if you resist fire."
I mulled over the options. "Ok. If we did the Bone Wall, Flame Ward and an Abjuring Ring, what would our best bet be for lodging, and can we get a deal for the lot?"

His eyes narrowed, but he didn't reject the request exactly, weighing his options. "Landrock Bunker would be the easiest to defend. Bit of setup time when you move it, since it reinforces itself with natural stone. Still, I could do....ten marks for the lot. Including the Blood War Pendant. Take it or leave it."

Three defensive items, the bunker and the Blood War Pendant, which was four on its own, seemed like a solid buy. Based on what Anna-Marie had said before I resolutely nodded, and he grinned. "Smart boy. And since I like you and you're bringing my Anna along, I'll even throw in one of these."

He tossed us the Sovereign's Sanction, his most popular defense. "Wow." I said in surprise. "Thank you. We appreciate that. What exactly are the specs on that, if it's alright to ask?"

He just chuckled. "Don't be daft boy. Never be afraid to ask what you're getting. Every one of those chips came from a different type of F-ranked diamond. The Sanction erects a spherical barrier with the durability of all one thousand combined."

I whistled at that. No wonder it was popular even though it didn't move. That was some serious defense, and if we had actual backup it would be amazing. Even without it though, I wasn't going to complain about free defense. If nothing else we could use it to recover energy during a huge fight.

Stowing it all in the spatial ring (except the Blood War Pendant and Flame Ward which we gave to Mel) I looked to the last item on the pile. The Landrock Bunker. "Any chance you could give us more info on how it works? Just so we can make sure to pick the best possible location when we use it."

Giancarlo chuckled. "Of course. It's not complex. Stab the rock focus of the bunker." He pointed at the sharp spike of stone on the counter. "Into the earth, and it begins to grow. It leaches the durability from the surrounding rock and when you pull out the spike it slowly drains out over time. My only advice is to find a place with lots of exposed stone. It will spread furthest that way."

That did seem easy. "How big is it. On the outside I mean. Most buildings this level are expanded inside."

"True." He said with a smile. "The bunker is a twenty five foot square. The defensive enchantments built in are uniform, but if you want to take best advantage of all of those defensive spells, I'd personally suggest somewhere with a backdrop. Against a cliff wall or some such location. It will enable you to make the most of the bone wall."

Slipping the last mark into my ring, I thanked him packing up everything we bought. "One more thing." I said intently. "We were hoping to buy a map, something auto updating, and if you can give me some advice, what's the one thing you suggest any adventurer take on a long journey." He reached under the counter and pulled out two things. Once of them was a rolled piece of paper, and the other was a cantine.

"Water." He said firmly. "Clean drinking water. You would think with the snow around it would be plentiful, but it isn't always. The cantine refills passively and will last centuries. I'll take ten coins for both. Consider it a discount for asking a wise question." I passed him the last mark, and he returned me a bag with ninety infused heart coins. With that done, we turned to head out to look around more, and then we'd be staying at Anna-Marie's manor for the night. Tomorrow we set off again.

 

We slept at Anna-Marie's manor in Spiral Grove. We actually met her mother, a full naiad who resembled her daughter strongly with the sole exception of being a deeper blue.

Where Anna-Marie had a sort of blue tinge that reminded me a bit of blue lips from cold or lack of air, her mother was more of a cerulean blue, and all the more beautiful for it. Her features were aristocratic and incredibly delicate, like she'd been hand sculpted by a master glass blower, but a single touch would shatter her.

Of course, that was ridiculous. She was a peak F-ranker, and a dangerous and powerful Ascendant. Anna-Marie had waxed on for ages over dinner about her mother's accomplishments in battle, and it was easy to see how proud the princess was of her mother.

"So." Said Salara, Anna-Marie's mother. "Tell me about yourselves. My daughter so rarely brings home friends for dinner." Her wide smile managed to occlude the razor sharp teeth her daughter inherited, seeming warm and supportive rather than intimidating or challenging.

She had the same shining blue eyes as Anna-Marie, those metallic blue orbs with no iris or pupil. Oddly, her orbs seemed somehow more ethereal, less solidly colored. It was fascinating, and I had to tear my eyes away from them so I didn't get lost in their depths.

I left Celine to answer, and our diplomat fielded the question with aplomb. "We've been so grateful for her assistance since we arrived. Your lovely kingdom is so novel for us, it was lucky we met such a generous and knowledgeable guide." I blinked at that. I couldn't imagine a less revealing answer. She'd essentially just said literally nothing at all except things Salara already knew.

The naiad's blue lips quirked up in something more akin to a smirk than a smile. "You are just the cutest thing. But unlike my tree dwelling cousins I'm not one for politicking. I tend to say what I mean, and if people have a problem with it we...address the situation in an up front and direct manner." She winked at Celine. "See, I can be diplomatic too."

Anna-Marie groaned, burying her face in her hands. "Mother. Can't you ever play nice?" Even when she was embarrassed though, I could hear the note of pride in her voice. No wonder she detached herself from the locals so much. She was trying to emulate her mother, but the duties of her royal blood pushed her to at least consider the country itself important. "Please forgive her." She said apologetically. "My mother is known to be...forward. It's one of the reasons my father was drawn to her."

She snorted. "I assure you Crighton was drawn to much less nebulous aspects of my person." Another wink. "But my forthright nature has kept him at least occasionally entertained as well. My personal power doesn't hurt. I'm an accomplished warrior in my own right, and the two of us are a dangerous pair when operating in tandem."

I was surprised she didn't have any extra Impact herself, but it seemed rude to bring it up. Plus it wasn't my business who Anna-Marie gave her drops too, since I'd already been paid. Her statement made me curious though. "Are you? Anna-Marie mentioned her inborn gifts don't lie in that direction."

Salara nodded solemnly. "Quite right. My girl has an aptitude for the subtler arts of the waves. Healing is her strong suit, along with some fairly impressive alteration abilities. Naiad's are expert shapeshifters, not just of ourselves, but of others as well. Anna-Marie inherited that talent, and can make anyone look like almost anything."

That was...interesting. The princess shrugged. "It's not a useless talent, per se, but it's hardly necessary in my daily life. I can't even shift myself, only other people. My abilities with healing are more of a side effect. If I weren't royal I could make quite a bit of money offering fleshshaping services, but such mundane activities are below my station, so I can't even put my abilities to THAT much use."

Her mother nodded. "She isn't wrong. It's frowned upon. I think it's a wonderful talent, and I'm proud to see her inherit it. Born a hybrid, she has access to a diminished version of all the naiad standard abilities, but her first Skill was what determined her specific talents. It's sort of like our version of an ability."

That was fascinating. All the racial traits I'd seen involved the transformation process via alchemy. I'd never dealt with anyone born with one aside from I guess Celine. "So...are you worried about her going out with us?" I asked impulsively. I was curious to see what a real mother would think about something like this.

"Oh a bit." She said lazily, waving the question away. "Not too much though. Children need adventure to grow. Anna-Marie has been held back far too long by Crighton's silly rules. Take her out and get her into some trouble for me. She's plenty strong, she just needs a chance to figure that out for herself."

The princess blushed, and I smiled approvingly. That sounded like something I wish my mother thought about me. Salara was a lovely person so far. Callie clearly thought so too, because my girlfriend was quickly pulled into conversation about customized combat styles and how they fit into advancing Skills like her Balam Mastery.

Turning to Nat, I saw my cousin looking curiously at the blue skinned older woman. Her expression was almost sad, and I recognized it easily. It was the same on I wore sometimes when I saw families together. I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly to reassure her. She chuckled a bit and nodded at me.

We finished up dinner and retired to our rooms to sleep, and the next morning I went to find Jessie before I did anything. Yesterday had been a long day and I'd used up my wishes trading, but today I had more, and I planned to stock back up on healing charges with the new power upgrade while I had the chance.

To make sure I didn't have some dud charges lying around, I used my last heal burst on Abel, who wasn't as worried about getting to sleep as the rest of us and decided to take a pass on rest tonight. Which officially meant no more heal bursts in reserve, and I could replace my whole stock from Jessie in one shot.

Naturally I could only hold ten of them, but I was able to backlog plenty as advance payment. Those kinds of things work better when I need them most, so setting up a bunch of advance charges would let me drop a lot of points on her. In fact, I decided to try pushing my four point cap to five, given all the upgrades to my stats since I last tried.

My blonde friend, Callie, Celine, Benny and I were all in mine and Callie's room before bed. Jessie was fretting at not being able to go up and check in on Randall, but we'd decided bringing him down here wasn't worth the time, and had sent word to have him taken over the mountain through their animal paths so we could take him with us on our long trip, which mollified her a bit.

"I just worry about him." She was saying with a pout. "I don't like leaving him alone for so long. What if he gets sad or lonely? I should be there with him."

"Can't you feel that stuff? With your bond?" Asked Callie. "Like I don't know how your bond works versus ours, but I can always feel when Shane is upset. At least when we're close enough. Is your bond not active at this distance? Because I could understand why it might suck."

Jessie waved he hand in a fluttering gesture that could mean literally anything. "Sort of. It's complicated. I can feel him but not well. Our bond is pretty strong, and different than yours at least partly because of the stat impact. Like I've gotten twenty five points of Might from Randall since my rank up." She glanced at me. "I'd like all Vitality from you by the way. Though I guess that needs formalizing. I wish for thirty points of Vitality in exchange for thirty heal bursts."

Wish detected. Grant wish? I confirmed, and was greeted with the requirements as usual, which she did meet. Five points per wish was valid after all. It also confirmed that her heal bursts were far more valuable with all that Vitality behind them. I accepted and held out a hand as the electricity built. Jessie snagged it and the power leapt from me to her, funneling the points into my friend.

Because of the incredibly small percentage of both total stats and Vitality those thirty points represented, adjustment was instantaneous and pretty much unnoticeable. Jessie sat through all six wishes before walking over and slumping onto the bed. Apparently the wishes still took it out of you even if the stats weren't enough to shake a person. "You good?" I asked cautiously. I'd made assumptions. I probably should have spaced them out.

She groaned. "Yeah, just a little fried. Still, worked like a charm. Just eight points of Vitality shy of eight hundred. It's a far cry from my one hundred seventy five Might. I'm definitely a specialist. Still, it works for me." She whistled. "Lily, sweetheart, carry mommy to her room, I'm too lazy to walk." The large wolf chuffed, once again seeming smarter than she had before or than a wolf should. She walked over to the bed and Jessie slumped over the huge beast's back.

"I'm going to go get changed before breakfast, see you guys down there." She burrowed into the wolf's fur like she was a big snuggly stuffed dog, and I had to chuckle.

Callie looked amused and long suffering. "That girl." She groaned. " We'd be lost without her for sure." I laughed at how accurate that was. Not just because of her amazing power, but also because Jessie kept us all sane. She was the heart of our group, the one who kept us happy and focused on the positive.

Looking at Celine and Benny, I decided to double check. "You both ready for this trip? We'll be gone for a long while. That summerspark crystal will help keep us warm, and we have defenses, but still, this is a bit more than a camping trip. We'll be out in the wilderness alone for weeks, possibly months."

Benny shrugged. "I'm already on a strange new world. Why not take the whole novelty angle to extremes. Who needs a city. We'll have a house to sleep in anyway, so it's all the same in the end." He looked at his girlfriend. "How about you, Cel, you feeling good about this?"

She gave him a soft smile, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. "I'm here when so many weren't able to come. I feel blessed to be brought along and every day here is a gift."

Callie rolled her eyes. "Booo!" Jeered my girlfriend. "Political answer. We're friends, you don't need to be so formal. Complain a bit, say you're pissed the sheets won't be soft enough. You're making the rest of us look bad." She had a big smile on her face, and Celine looked amused and touched in equal measure. I thought it was really sweet how she was trying to make Celine feel like part of the gang.

"Alright." I said with a laugh. "Let's go down and get some breakfast before we leave." I gestured to my girlfriend. "You don't want to see this one when she's hungry." I climbed out of the chair I was reclining in and headed for the door, eager to get some food and be on our way. The truth was, I was nervous about the trip, and the sooner it started the less time I'd have to worry. I found that was always the best attitude to take on adventures.

 

Hey folks, I'm not sure if anyone saw, but I figured just in case I'd do an announcement. The first book of Wish Upon the Stars has officially launched on Audible and Amazon anyone who wants to check it out its been thoroughly polished and edited, and I could really use some reviews for the ebook (available for free on KU). In any case, hope anyone who does check it out enjoys the story!

 

Setting off on our second expedition was a bigger deal. Not just for us, Salara decided to send actual guards this time, a pair of peak F-rankers to watch over Anna-Marie.



The princess herself had taken her drop, possibly a few of them. She'd given one to Salara and taken one, but it seemed like she'd taken the other three herself and had managed to make it to thirty four Impact total, making us the most durable of all of us.



As we met Randall off the back of the mountain after his trip over, I turned to Anna-Marie to ask her about what the deeper parts of the core were like. "So, what can we expect out there, going deeper?"



She bit her lip in thought. "Well there are a few old fortresses and encampments out there that have been abandoned or reclaimed over the years. Every kingdom on the ring has some kind of operating base that's been lost. Some still have active defensive locations, though Ladrigan doesn't."



I made a contemplative noise. I could see how that would play out. People would try to take the fortresses to use as staging grounds for their operations. It would turn into a war for positioning. Since the flowers appeared randomly it could take time, which meant they needed a good place to deploy from.



It was a solid way to force competition, but there was definitely room for cooperation. I wished we knew where any of the people we'd met before were landing. Bethy would be a hell of a teammate to have right now, hell, I was betting we could talk Brightlaw around if we needed to. But I hadn't seen a single familiar face since we'd arrived.



We'd reached the other side of the bridge and mounted up on our goats, and were now heading out along the same path we'd taken before. Not because it would lead us anywhere important, but so we could fill in the map we'd picked up. It would only fill in as we traveled the route with it in our possession, though interestingly, it DID interface with my Song of the Wild skill to mark down herbs and plants, and I suspected the skill that found metals would work as well.



We didn't have the time to make a survey sweep right now, but we'd definitely be coming back after we'd gotten entrenched and set up a command post in the central core. "So we need to be careful." Said Anna-Marie. "The mountains make up the ring and the outer areas of the core, but most of it is a bit more...complex. If we keep traveling we're going to hit the central area after we leave the mountains and that'll be much more complicated to navigate."



"Sounds like it." I said flatly. "What should we be expecting down there? Aside from the fortresses. Are there any locals living in the core area?"



She nodded. "Yes. No kingdoms, but there are wandering bands of nomads who have broken off from ring kingdoms to hole up there. It's extremely dangerous and there are thousands of terrifying monsters down there to contend with. There are also ruins of...older things. Wizard's towers, temples, the core is the oldest area on the planet and has resisted all attempts to properly settle it. We usually don't even enter outside awakenings."



"Well, guess we know where to head." I said with a grim smile. "That'll be where everything happens."" It honestly sounded kind of amazing. In particular I had to ask about one thing. "You said there are...Wizards towers? What are those?"



She shrugged. "Places you learn magic. Books and crystals for Skills that can manipulate elements, transform things, and other similarly powerful tricks. Those who possess Wizard, Necromancer, and Cleric jobs can develop unique and interesting Skills, both from their inborn abilities and from training."



I blinked at her in shock. That was...I hadn't really considered there might be MAGIC jobs. I knew jobs would relegate an inborn ability to a Skill, and that those could be taught and learned, but it never occurred to me that might mean there was an entire subset of people with Skills aimed in that direction. It sounded amazing, and I desperately wanted to learn some of those and then mix them into my DS Mastery.



Callie was as excited as I was, and I had to smile at the thrum of excitement from her as she heard about the possibilities. The goats carried us forward at speed, and it didn't take us nearly as long to reach the area where the last patch of flowers had been without needing to stop constantly for plants and flower picking. When we arrived at the spot we'd last seen the Ray, I had to stop and stare.



A sword. A massive blade of pure crystal was pinning the flying Ray to the ground where the dead animal had been clearly harvested for parts. A crumbling mountain of formerly living stone lay in the place of the beast that had tried to kill us. I whistled loudly at the sheer power behind the kill. "Guess they had backup. Or one of them got sick of holding back. I'd say we should avoid that group in the future."



"No shit." Said Benny in a hushed tone. "I don't want that to happen to any of us."



Nat shook her head. "It won't. We'll be fine. Killing animals like that is one thing, but remember this isn't a slaughter. We're in competition for resources, and it's more trouble than it's worth to kill off a bunch of juniors from a powerful faction. Don't fall into the trap of thinking all we have to do is kill everyone. It leaves you vulnerable."



Celine nodded. "She's right. This is not going to be a straightforward war or scavenger hunt. People will make alliances and connections. Not just with other factions but with local kingdoms. It's going to get complicated. And we'll still be in danger. The kingdoms won't be quite as circumspect, and more than a few of the factions involved might use them as an excuse or as cats paws to take out competition without doing the deed themselves."



I turned to Callie. "Keep an ear out as we move? Try to use your shadows to get as good of an idea of incoming threats as possible. We want as much warning as we can get, and when we find anyone in range who doesn't know we're there I want you to spy on them for a while before we make contact. That work?"



She gave me an approving smile. "Sounds like a plan." I had to admit, it warmed my heart hearing the pride in her voice and feeling it through the link. I grinned back even if she couldn't see it and led everyone to continue. We rode for another few hours, and I made sure to detect all the plants and metals even if we didn't stop. It was fun watching the map fill with treasure we could pick clean on the way back.



Slowly though, the snow began to thin, the crags became rockier, and the paths became steeper and oddly easier to traverse on the goats. They were all terrain animals apparently, at least as far as mountains went. Eventually, we came over a rise and came to a stop, staring down off a massive cliff at what I could only describe as...a lost jungle.



The core, because that was definitely what this was, extended out before us for further than the eye could see in every direction. It was absolutely massive, and filled with thick green foliage and massive trees. Intermittently I could see gaps where there had been buildings constructs, buildings I was sure were the fortresses we'd heard about earlier. I could also see slight disturbances in the trees that I was almost positive were ruins.



"Ok." I said with a wide eyed stare. "I don't know if we're going to be able to actually find any flowers. Is it really completely random?"



Anna-Marie chuckled. "Mostly. They tend to be at least NEAR massive animals or important places. We check near the ruins and we're likely to run into other teams and eventually some flowers. Of course, we need to be able to keep what we find, so our first job will be taking one of these fortresses and possibly finding allies to help hold it."



Benny looked at her in confusion. "Wait. Didn't we buy our own mini fortress for that?"



I shook my head, knowing the answer before she said it. "No way. That's for overnight trips, but if we try to hole up in there with a bunch of Dew we're going to fall under siege, and no way it holds up. All the defenses are designed to be temporary." I paused. "Maybe not the bone wall. We can probably use that on the main fortress."



Callie stepped forward. "We're pretty damned high, but I might be able to extend my range in a straight line if I push it. Going to put some strain on my soul, but that closest fortress is within reach if I do that, and I can get us some info on who and what is in there so we can take it."



"You sure?" I asked worriedly. "That kind of strain is dangerous." I paused to think over her suggestion. "Though I admit taking the closest fortress to the paths toward Ladrigan will give us an extra advantage. If we end up managing to call reinforcements it'll make things easier, not to mention we can hold the cliff so no one tried to sneak back along our path. The neighboring kingdoms can still cross over, but it could definitely be worse."



She waved me off. "I'll be fine. Just keep an eye on me while I'm distracted." She hopped off the goat, kneeling to stick her hand in the shadow of a rock. Her hand passed through the solid ground and into the darkness, just a bit, like she was testing a bath with her fingers, and she closed her eyes to focus.



I hopped down after her, looming next to her with my staff in my hands. The necrotic energy thrumming in the wood was comforting as I waited for any sign of attack, though none came. Eventually, she opened her eyes. "Alright. The fortress closest to us is lightly defended by the kingdom of Kargath. Fifteen F-rankers, five locals on the higher end and ten outsiders. No one I'd heard of."



Looking around, I counted our own force. Pretty similar in size, honestly. Our ten man group and then another five locals. Four guards and Anna-Marie herself.



I remembered what Zeke had said. This wasn't a fight, it was about resources. That didn't just mean we avoided lethal fights though, it meant we had other methods of entering and taking them out. "Callie." I said after a minute. "How long can you hold someone unaware with your shadows?"



She bit her lip. "Maybe a minute if I get them good. Depends. My Might isn't low but it's not high, especially compared to some others. If I wrap them up without any leverage it'll make it much harder to break free. Why?"



I grinned at her and leaned in, pulling on her Stealth Skill as I told her the whole plan. My girlfriend gave me an evil grin. "That." She said with relish. "I think might work. You have eight of them right? Will that be enough?"



As I went over my resources I nodded purposefully. "I can make it work. Once we take out the strongest we can switch tactics. Seven on fifteen should work out fine." We began to discuss details, the others looking on in confusion as I mentally rubbed my hands together. This was going to be a lot of fun.

Sorry folks, wrong chapter, fixed it.

 

After we got everyone up to speed we identified a way for everyone to get down to the ground with the goats (which could apparently walk nearly vertically when needed), but as per my brilliant plan Callie and I decided to take the quick way down. In order for us to hit them at the right time (in the middle of the night) we waited up on the cliff while the others took the slower path, made even slower than it would have been by Randall.


"So." Said my girlfriend after the team left. "You're taking to this planning thing well. This is a step up from having Abel throw you at a flying monster."


I gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Not my finest hour, but this should work out. With State of Grace I can float us down over to the fortress and you can bring us in through the shadows. You can transport me like that right?"


She nodded. "I can. Our bond means you can use my Skills and can count as an extension of me if I push. Luckily my ability is still MUCH less complicated than yours."


I sighed, wincing as I remembered trying to let Callie tap into my Wish power. It had been a painful and completely fruitless experience. "In any case, it'll take them a few hours to hit the ground and by the time they do it'll be go time." I gestured to the cliff edge. "Care to sit and watch the sunset with me?"


Beaming, she dropped down to snuggle up against me as I sat. "I'd love to. This is a beautiful view. Don't you thing?"


I smiled softly at her. "I'm becoming accustomed to being overwhelmed by the beauty I see every day." I made sure my tone and the bond left no doubt I was talking about her. I also took me mask off, because it seemed like it might kill the moment.


Her kiss was giddy with affection and contentment, and I reveled in how intense it could be feeling her emotions like that while she was feeling mine. The feedback loop of adoration and happiness was kind of intoxicating.


Leaning her head against my chest, she looked out over the core. "I love you." She said softly. "Not just for all this, but...this is amazing. I would have never imagined any of this before I met you."


I smiled, putting an arm around her. "It wouldn't mean half as much if you weren't here. Getting to travel the universe is pretty cool. Getting to do it with the woman I love is a dream."


"Speaking of dreams." She said wryly. "I felt a bit of a shift in the way you were feeling not long ago. You seem more purposeful, more driven. Kind of like you did when you decided to look for your mom. Make any big life decisions?"


It occurred to me that I hadn't mentioned that to her. I'd made the call in head but I'd never shared the realization that I wanted to save my family from themselves.


"I realized why I need to win this." I said quietly. "Up to now this has been a game, or a means to an end. I decided to push on to help with my goals, but this is going to be more than that. I'm going to be the Wishmaster. I need to be. Because I realized the other day that the way I was raised, that Nat was raised. I hate it. I don't want any of my relatives to have to grow up like I did."



It felt stupid saying it out loud. I was so far from the Wishmaster title that it wasn't even funny, and who was I to gainsay the way my family had been doing things for centuries. But...I didn't care. It was my path, and I was going to walk it the way I wanted.


Callie must have been feeling what I was through the bond. She laced her fingers through mine and squeezed. "Hey." She said firmly. "That's a really great goal. And I'm in."


I paused. "If I do become the Wishmaster, I wonder if there's an office you inherit. Like is there a Wish Mastress?"


She pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand. "The female form of Master is Mistress. Mastress isn't a word. And if that was you proposing to me I'm going to kick your ass. And also say no. Not because I don't love you but just-"


"Too soon." I said firmly. "Waay too soon. Trust me, I'm not crazy. It was a joke. Not that I might not someday. I probably will. But I'll put a lot more thought into it."


Her smile was brilliant. "You'd better." It was funny, the bond saved so many misunderstandings. She knew what I meant, what I felt, and I knew her. There was no offense taken or meant. We loved each other, and we both knew it, and that was enough.


We stayed like that for about two hours. Holding each other and watching the sun set. Once it went down we stated up at the absolutely colossal moon above us, until finally there was a red flash of fire off to the side of the cliff where the others had started heading down.


The signal that they were in position. I double checked the map, which had filled in for everything we could see from up here, and once I confirmed they were in the right spot I stood up, reaffixing my mask. "Alright love. You ready for this? The plan hinges on you being able to get us in and keep us stealthed."


She snorted, blowing a strand of hair from her eyes as she stood and fixed her costume, smoothing out wrinkles that admittedly wouldn't have stuck around anyway and brushing dirt off her coat where she'd been sitting on it. "Please. I was born ready."


I snickered and offered her my arm. "Shall we? Careful of that first step. It's a doozy."


Smirking, she took my arm as I actived State of Grace and we stepped off the cliff, drifting much slower than we should have and forward as we fell leisurely toward the fortress in the distance.


Shifting in the air, I aimed us nearby but not on the actual fortress. As we touched down, rather than hit the ground, we slipped through the shadows and into...nothing.


I'd never traveled through the shadows with Callie before, and the sensation was like nothing I'd ever felt. Cold and dark and empty in a way I'd never experienced, then within one heart beat and the next, I felt warmth wash over me as I was shoved back into the real world again.


I shuddered a bit as we emerged. That had been unpleasant. I glanced at Callie, who shrugged apologetically. "It gets easier. The space between shadows is weird. Kind of a void. I've been in a few times, and my shadow manipulation skills makes it easier. We're under Stealth by the way."


I hadn't noticed, too distracted by the jarring sensation. After adjusting, I nodded. "Alright. Can you identify which of them are the locals? They'll be the strongest. We want to take the peak F-rankers out first."


She grinned. "I know which are which. I did a search through the shadows when we entered. I found them, and I should be able to hold them for a minute or so especially with the extra Impact. Are you sure you can take them out? Your tranq attacks are all G-rank aren't they?"


I heated my staff. "Yup. But the Stygian Branch is E-ranked. That won't increase the effectiveness of the tranquilizer attacks enough to put them down easy, but if I use the poison as a carrier the combination should be close to enough. I'll be using Afterburner at the same time, which works for ten attacks. If they're immobilized and I target their heads that should keep them under."



I'd have to be careful not to hit them too hars or I might kill them, but all the modifiers combined with my staff directly impacting the brain should do the job assuming they didn't struggle.


Triggering Afterburner and Touch of Tears I decided to forgo Consecration of Flames, since that would be more geared toward damage. Overhwelming their regen would be great, but not if I was targeting the brain, I might accidentally kill them.


This was already risky, but as peak F-rankers their Vitality should fix any incidental damage. I nodded to Callie, who had waited for me to process and get ready, then she gestured for me to follow and lead me toward the first target.


She'd found one of them asleep, letting us slip through the door easily under stealth and as we approached she closed her eyes and gestured. The shadows around the bed snapped up into chains encircling the local warrior up the length of his body.


Pinned to the bed with an arm under his head and one between his legs he was in a supremely awkward position, and my measured smack to the back of his head landed squarely. His eyes rolled up in his head as the compounding effects delivered the tranquilizer to his brain.


I nodded and we moved on. We took out the other four locals the same way, some of them standing guard and not expecting an attack from behind, some sleeping like the first. After we subdued each we tied them up with a more durable rope that wouldn't dissolve, making sure they were bound too tightly and in too awkward a position to exert enough force to escape.


Once that was done though, we ran into a small issue. I had three more tranquilizer blows in stock, and four more hits with Afterburner (the poison had taken one). We debated whether to try to take out the leader of the enemy team, but decided it was too risky.


Sneaking into the nearest rooms to the gates, we took out the three most likely to notice the gates opening. Stealth served us well, and we managed to remain completely undetected. Their sentries had been the locals we'd taken out, attention all focused outward.


I could see why Callie liked this kind of thing so much. This whole attack had gone off without a hitch. Granted, it had been pretty much an ideal situation, but it felt good to operate how my build was meant to, and better to do it alongside my girl.


Once we took down the last one we made our way to the front gates and opened them. Sadly, our luck could only hold for so long. The gates made a huge racket as they opened, and I heard the shouts of alarm as they realized their companions were gone. We'd hidden the subdued team members so they couldn't find and free them before this was over, so all they could do was attack.


A column of red ice smashed down from above, and I prepared to block, but it wasn't necessary. Our part was over, and a massive fist slammed against the descending column, stopping it cold before a huge cloud of flame consumed it entirely.


Abel and Mel stepped past us calmly as the enemy filed out, Randall looming behind them with Jessie on his back as the other fanned out in front of us. Stepping in front of Callie, I used my last charge of afterburner to trigger my Mountain Stance, and prepared to tank anything that made it past my team.


I wasn't too worried though. This had been a perfectly executed raid, and now I'd leave the rest to the people best suited for the job. It was my first real time experiencing it, but damn, I loved it when a plan came together. I could get used to this whole leader thing.

 

The weakness hit me after I finished with Afterburner, and I felt Jessie's hand on my shoulder almost instantly. Randall had continued into the fray, but our team's healer had stopped to check on us first. Callie was fine, if winded now that she'd had a chance to slow down. I was exhausted, though Mountain Stance was keeping me up. Jessie's life energy boost certainly helped, and I was able to keep my feet while I watched the others go at it.

The red ice had mostly shattered rather than melting properly, a shower of red smoking shards plummeting toward us, but Mel had erected a shield to stop them, and despite being sturdy enough that the inner portions of the ice pillar hadn't melted, the ice wasn't fire proof. Abel was raining down phantom punches at them from above, and the remaining seven had grouped up for defense, surprisingly in tune with each other.

The leader, a small, pale looking guy with dark circles around his eyes, seemed to be on defense. He had a hungry expression on his face as he inhaled, creating a dark vortex that literally ripped a chunk off one of Abel's fist manifestations. My teacher cursed as he pulled back, shaking his hand and flexing his fingers, clearly trying to get it to move properly. "Shit." He cursed quietly. "That hurt."

I kept my defensive stance up as I walked forward. Mountain Stance required ground contact to function, and it usually worked better from a standstill, but I was familiar enough with altering skills that as long as I walked slow and took it one at a time I COULD move. It had the added benefit of being really intimidating, and as I thumped forward I called for everyone to stop.

"Let's talk." I said loudly enough for the enemy to hear. "We're from the Starchaser Pavilion. We got you, this fight is pointless. Your local escorts were the only peak F-rankers you had, and we took them out, while ours are still very much active. Beginning F-rank to peak F-rank isn't a fight anyone could manage with these numbers. MAYBE if there was one of them you could take them down in a group, but with these odds? It's not happening."

The leader raised an eyebrow. "I assume you have some idea how this should go? Or are you just laying out our loss because you're a braggy asshole?"

I grinned at him. I liked this guy. "We want you to switch sides. You're one of the dungeon groups like we are, which means the kingdom you're working for is a temporary employer at best. We took out their representatives and now you're free agents. You work with us and we're willing to cut you in for part of our Dew haul. We have ways of making sure you don't switch sides again, of course, but nothing painful or problematic long term."

I'd had the idea to offer them wishes and use their service as a cost. With them under a geass to temporarily work for us we wouldn't need to worry about backstabbing, and we would have someone to man the fortress when we had to head out to search the core. I didn't want to be cooped up here all the time when there were wizard's towers to explore and other teams to meet. Plus when we WERE back in the fortress they could do patrols to look for flowers so we had no down time.

The guy looked pensive. "Maybe. I'd need to hear about these 'ways'. You're right that we don't have any real loyalty to our current hosts. The prince of the kingdom who picked us up is an asshole, and spends most of his time flirting with Tiffany." He pointed at a tall, slim girl with olive skin and purple hair, her eyes slitted like a cat. She gave an embarrassed cough and waved at us and I chuckled a bit. She clearly preferred to let her team leader handle the talking.

Turning back to the more vocal member of the team, I nodded. "We'll need to restrain you. Nothing personal, but we don't know any of you. Before we do though, I can bring out the restrained locals and the three members of your crew to show you that we haven't hurt them and can be trusted with members of your team at our mercy."

He didn't look happy, but I think he knew that even if he said no we'd just kick their asses and restrain them anyway. I gestured for Valk to get and get the others, and smiled when he glanced at Nat for approval. My cousin smirked at me but gave him the go ahead and he went to retrieve the unconscious bodies. He brought back seven of them, dumping them in front of me, and I froze. "Where's the last one?"

Valk raised a brow at me. "These were the only ones." I looked over the faces, realizing one of the locals had somehow slipped his restraints and escaped. I cursed, looking to the leader of the other team. "Ok, two questions, who is missing and what's your name? I can't keep referring to you as 'team leader' in my head."

He chuckled at that. "I'm Samuel. Samuel Stark." He looked over the bodies and winced. "Shit. Mazrik is gone. He was our scout, nominally, but more realistically he's a spy for prince Bertrand. I imagine he went to go tell the prince about us losing the fortress. Guess side switching is our only option. I'd wake up my boys there if I were you, because you'll need us to defend this place. We're going to be ass deep in Kargath soldiers in less than an hour."

Cursing, I focused my Eye of Revelation on him, looking for any signs of deception. I found none. Luckily, we had options. I called Nat over, explaining the plan to her. She grinned. "Geasa are a traditional way of making deals with shaky allies. Your old man is famous for that. I approve. I haven't used up my wishes for today, I usually keep them in reserve, so I can bind six of them, and either you or I can do the other four tomorrow."

"Alright." I said firmly. "Get the leader and five of the others that are still functional. The one with the red ice powers and Tiffany, since we know they're relevant, then pick three more."

She chuckled, nodding and heading off. I also glanced over to Callie, gesturing after her. Ostensibly it was to give her support, but letting my cousin make the contracts wasn't exactly risk free. Callie knew some tricks from working with me on the subject, and she'd make sure Nat didn't slip any extra instructions in while she was at it. Trust bit verify and all that.

With that done, I looked for Abel, finding my mentor nearby talking to Anna-Marie. I strode over in time to hear him asking her about defenses, and I decided to jump in. "Hey." I said as I reached them. "We think Kargath might hit us soon. This is a fortress, and it's literally designed to stop an army. Can you tell us anything about the defensive capabilities of this place? Any standard they might use?"

She shook her head. "I'm not even remotely up to date on this kind of thing." She looked at the five peak F-rank guards. "Do any of you know how these places are laid out? This is close enough that it might have been a Ladrigan fortress when it was built."

The closest, a small, severe woman with dark skin and tightly braided hair, shook her head. "No, your majesty. This would have been before our times. Perhaps if we had a map."

I saw the princess realize it the same time I did, and reached into my ring to pull out the map, passing it over. The guard looked over it. "I can work with this. I'll start setting up our defenses."

"Oh." I said in realization. "Here." I passed it her the bone wall. "This is the only defensive artifact that will be overtly useful here I think. If you find any uses for the others let me know, Anna-Marie has a list of what we bought. Thank you for your help..." I trailed off, unaware of her name.

She smiled. "Amaya, sir. Captain of lady Salara's house guard. She sent me to keep an eye on her little girl, so thank you for making that easier." She looked around at the fortress. "Oh, and sir?" I cocked my head so she'd know I was listening. "This wasn't a bad plan, but in the future, remember to leave room for improvisation. Abilities and Skills make any plan a tentative failure. It's a common first time mistake." I guessed she'd seen the guilt already starting to gnaw at my gut for screwing this up.

I nodded as she hurried off. I felt a slap on my back and jumped. Abel was smiling at me. "She's right kid. I can see the hamster wheel in your brain turning, but don't second guess yourself. This was solid, you can't account for bullshit powers. Like yours, actually. That damned escape skill of yours would have made this whole thing pointless. Nobody is perfect."

It only took a minute for the purple electricity of my cousins wishes to settle and for everyone to gather up. "Alright." I said as they all assembled, including the now healed and only slightly grumpy three captives we'd set loose. "Callie, I need you on overwatch. Hit the shadows and figure out where they're coming at us from and how many. Jessie, I want Randall at the gate. They'll try to breach through there most likely. It's easier to pop open than the walls."

She nodded. "I can have him pin it shut, but I don't think it'll be an issue. There's a giant ass bone wall in front of it now." I looked over and sure enough Amaya had used the bone wall to cover the front gate, covering out major weak point. "Mel." I said, moving on. "Can you do a flame shield that covers this whole place?" I had an idea to help with that if she could, and I exhaled in relief as she nodded.

"I can." She said slowly. "It won't be particularly sturdy or dangerous, but I can whip up something thin."

"Perfect." I grinned. "I'll work with you on that. Abel, you're on Callie. Make sure nobody takes her out while she's giving us intel. Once they arrive escort her to where Mel and I are working. Valk, you're on Jessie with Perit, Benny, Celine, and Nat. Help her defend the front, but more importantly make sure our healer isn't taken out. Benny, Celine, make sure you don't get bogged down, we might need you to move."

With a plan in place we all scattered. I was...I was terrified. My last plan had just gone terribly wrong, and now I was throwing them to the wolves, so to speak. Jessie had the wolves with Randall, actually, but still. I followed Mel to the center of the fortress, climbing up on the roof as she looked around. "Well." She said impatiently. "I assume you have a plan?"

I grinned, putting a hand on her shoulder, triggering, Consecration of Flames, Touch of Tears, Mercy Kill,a triple stacked density shift, and with a massive wrench at the skills via my soul, Stone Limb and Mountain stance. "Do it." I grunted. And she erected the shield. Which was touching the ground.

I nearly blacked out from the pain as I forced the two skills to work in a way they were never intended to, but managed to hold on. As my head cleared I saw a massive dome of green acidic magma form over us, reinforced with as much defensive power as I could reasonably handle. Mel looked around with a long whistle. "Ok. That's actually kind of impressive. That's probably going to help." My only response was a low keening whine. My head was killing me.

 

The shield was MASSIVE. It didn't seem that big honestly, before I'd started. The fortress wasn't huge, at least not on the outside. It was just a reasonably large building, and given the scale I could work on when needed I wasn't too worried about pulling off the invocation. In retrospect, that was pretty stupid.

I could FEEL every inch of it. The actual working was so absurdly difficult it almost broke me. One massive crushing blow to my soul that would have shattered it if it lasted any longer, followed by continued pressure that I could feel Callie helping me offload. I had to stay standing, keep my feet planted, to maintain Mountain Stance, and I'm pretty sure that was all that prevented me from passing out from the pain.

On the upside, the damned thing was STRONG. Mel's Might was ridiculously high considering her flame abilities, not to Jessie's level of specialization, but closer than most. Her flames were extremely hot even spread out. Infused with Consecration of flame to enhance them, Touch of Tears to make them stronger, Mercy Kill to boost their power, and then with all that offense turned to defense by Stone Limb, they were formidable already.

Making that dangerously hot and sturdy magma three times denser with a density shift triple stack, followed by Mountain Stance to triple the defense of the whole thing...it wouldn't stop them completely, couldn't given the stat disparity in some cases, but even peak F-rankers would probably need some time to get through it.

Honestly a working this size would have been impossible before my rank up. Having an orange soul was a qualitative difference from having a red one, and being fifteen percent of the way to the next level gave me that extra bit I needed. Mel cocked her head at me. "I'm impressed. Somewhat horrified, but impressed. Having just cast that, I realize the strain you're currently under. I have no clue how you're conscious."

"Practice." I grunted. "I'm not Abel, but I put in the work when it comes to soul strength. I'm used to working through the pain." Every word felt like someone was driving glass into the back of my eyes, so clearly not THAT used to it, but I didn't say that. As the leader, I needed to do SOMETHING to help with this battle. I saw a slight flicker and Amaya landed on the roof next to us.

"Sir. I take it this defensive dome is you?" Her voice was impressed, and I was glad I had a mask on since my face was bright red and probably currently dripped blood from my eyes and nose.

Unable to nod, I gave a grunt of affirmation. "It is. Hope I didn't disrupt your plans for our defense." I hadn't know what they were doing, but the bone wall showed me they were ok with defensive enclosures, so I'd taken a gamble on this whole thing.

"No sir." She said, shaking her head. "To be honest this is ideal. We've identified and begun repairing the defensive enchantments on the fortress. They're of Ladrigani origin, if somewhat out of date, and one of my teammates is classically trained. I don't know the details, but apparently our kingdom has developed a standardized set of enchantment runes for ease of repair. It'll take some time, but if we can fix them we should be able to hold this position until we can send for reinforcements from lady Salara."

I hadn't realized we had that option, but I supposed taking this place was a coup for Ladrigan, if it could be held, that would be a major strategic advantage. Salara would be stupid to pass up the opportunity, and even if she didn't have the guards on hand, she could always hire more, or borrow some from the king.

"How long is it going to take?" I asked through gritted teeth. I might be able to hold the shield as I was, but I was functionally useless in any other fashion right now. Callie would be distracted too, though not as much considering she was only offloading about a quarter of the strain. She kept trying to take more, but only one of us needed to be paralyzed with pain, so I only gave her what I couldn't handle. Still, I'd probably be dead without her. I loved that girl.

She looked uncertain. "Anywhere from an hour to four." She said apologetically. "The enchantments are carved into the bedrock of this place, but they're old and very damaged. Some of the runes need to be recast to get them running again. Luckily we're on top of a natural wellspring of energy, so we don't need to worry about a battery. In fact, the one part of the enchantments that HAVE been working were the power siphon runes. It's been soaking up energy for decades."

Which explained why the enemy hadn't been using the wellspring. I made a note, because if this could benefit us it could screw us. The original builders of the fortress had an advantage when it came to occupation, though not an absolute one, or they wouldn't have lost the damned base in the first place.

Swallowing hard, I forced my tunnel visioned gaze back to Amaya. "I'll hold as long as I can. Work with Callie. Try to get your people into the best possible defensive position. Hell, try to get MY people in the best possible defensive position. I gave them all orders, but I'm not a tactician. You have way more experience with this kind of thing, so command is yours."

Her posture straightened and her fist went up to her heart. "Thank you sir. I won't let you down." Then she turned and stepped off the roof in a few quick paces. Mel chuckled. "Good call there. Always defer to the expert. Want me to follow her? I'm on the fence about whether or not you need protection."

"Go." I said firmly. "I'll be fine. Let the others know Amaya is in charge. Should have asked her what to do to start with. Didn't consider requesting the help since she's not one of my people. I won't make that mistake again."

She gave an approving nod and hopped off the roof, vanishing into the darkness. To my surprise, she was replaced shortly after with Benny and Celine. He grinned at me as he appeared. "New boss lady thought you might need a body guard, and apparently we're less useful out there than watching your sorry ass take a standing nap."

"I'd flip you off." I grunted. "If I could raise my arms." My head was swimming, but it was also helping to talk to Benny. Gave me something to focus on.

The help became much more pronounced when he put a hand on my shoulder and a wave of cooling, soothing, relief rolled over me. Not enough to completely counter the pain, but enough to offset it quite a bit. My head cleared enough that I'd consider the remaining agony something like an ice cream headache instead of paralyzing waves of searing torment.

True to my word, I raised my middle finger at my best friend, who laughed, before saying in a hoarse voice. "Thanks. That belt is awesome. You have anything in your new bag of tricks that might help? I never got the chance to ask about any of the upgrades. Assuming you got them done."

He chuckled. "I did. Two of them. I got rid of the rope and the long range attack attraction device in my left forearm. I managed to rig up a few things that would be useful, but the two I liked best were respectively a G-ranked artifact that allows momentary intangibility, and an F-ranked defensive artifact that creates a small energy barrier of variable shape. Both useful, especially combined with my other tricks."

I whistled. "Not bad. Especially the shield. I assume the density shifting works on that?" I admit I was a bit excited about trading for some charges with those too. Benny's new tricks suited me pretty well. The intangibility would compliment my combat style perfectly.

He grinned, raising his left forearm and manifesting a plane of energy in front of it that he shaped into a hand holding up a middle finger. Then he concentrated and the yellow energy became brighter and more opaque. I took that to be a yes.
Celine scoffed. "Honestly, can the two of you behave? If Callie finds out I let you get each other killed because you were too busy making crude gestures and flinging veiled insults she'll never forgive me."

"Veiled?" I said in a wounded voice. "Our insults aren't veiled. We're very up front about mocking each other. Aren't we fuckface?"

Benny burst out laughing, but quieted immediately when his girlfriend glared at him. What a pushover. I felt a small burst of irritation from the bond, and remembered MY girlfriend was currently inhabiting the shadows in the surrounding area to do recon, so I cleared my throat and stopped messing around. Which was totally different. For some reason.

"Anyway." I said with a nervous laugh. "I should feel if they breach the shield, but keep your eyes peeled for anyone who has an ability that can bypass it. That's the trick we used on them, so no chance we don't see it exploited. I'm sure the enchantments on this place have a failsafe for that, or if not that they'll add one. But until they're up we're vulnerable."

The two of them nodded, taking up position on either side of me, Benny keeping his hand on me. It helped for a bit, but within five minutes I felt something smash into the dome, and my knees buckled. The only active connection I had was Mountain Stance, but that was keeping me on my feet, so them slamming into it like that threw me. Benny and Celine caught me under the arms. "Whoa there." Said my best friend, voice light and unconcerned enough that I might have believed he wasn't worried if not for the death grip on my arm. "Don't trip."

My whole body shuddered as they assaulted the damned dome again. And again. My brain was whiting out from the pain, but with the spiritual calming effect I was able to hold on. I became lost, set adrift on a sea of blazing white agony, I felt like fireworks were going off behind my eyes now, melting and cauterizing the shards of glass and their wounds. But I stuck with it.

Days. Months. Years. It felt like eons. Like an eternity. I lost all sense of time and meaning, nothing but pain existed. Every second felt like it would be the end of me, like it would be too much, but I always managed to push just a bit longer. I started screaming at some point, I don't know when. But I realized I was doing it when my voice gave out and I couldn't anymore.

And finally...it stopped. The connection snapped, the dome came down, and I slumped bonelessly to the ground, heaving and choking out gasps of pain. I would have cried, I think, if I'd had any strength for tears. Instead I just lay there. After a few minutes my eyes started working again, and I groaned and say up. Benny and Celine were posted up around me protectively.

I heard explosions in the distance, saw flame and fist and red ice raining from the sky. They'd gotten in. I turned to Benny, who gave me a fake grin that didn't reach his horrified and concerned eyes. I coughed, clearing my throat and taking our a bottle of water before managing to croak out. "How long?"

"An hour." He said shakily. "Give or take. They almost have the defenses up, Amaya was here a few minutes ago. They weren't as damaged as they'd feared. Are you...are you ok, man? That was horrible."

I just chuckled, thumping back onto the roof and letting my eyes drift shut. I was too injured to help with the fight. My part in this was over. I just hoped I'd done enough. "I will be, Benny. I will be." The pain had been horrible, but it was nothing compared to the pride. Maybe I really could do this leader thing, even when my plans didn't go the way I'd hoped.

 

"Ow." I said weakly. "Remind me never to do that again." My head felt like jelly. I thought it had been a few more minutes since the shield fell, but I couldn't really keep track of time. Benny still had a hand on my shoulder, and now that I wasn't holding up the shield the Spiritual Calming was helping a lot more, actually repairing the strain instead of offsetting it.

"Oh trust me." Said a furious voice. "I will." I froze, eyes snapping open as I looked up at the viciously glaring form of my girlfriend.

"Hey, honey." I said nervously. "I just got done helping with the defenses safely from behind a pair of guards. You know, all safe-like."

"Really?" She hissed. "Because it FELT like you just got finished nearly collapsing your soul in an attempt to bear the brunt of a massive soul weight. One I had to help you with just to keep you alive, and one so crushing you very nearly destroyed your entire being."

I could have ignored the anger. But the quaver of fear in her voice broke my heart. "I..." I searched for words. "I screwed up, both here and on the plan. I figured helping defend the place could make it right. I didn't realize how much it would take to do it until I'd already started, and my options were take the pain or drop the shield and let you all get hurt. I'm sorry. I should have thought about how you would feel."

"You should-" She hissed angrily. "Have worried about your own damned LIFE, Shane. Being stupid and reckless with your body is one thing, Jessie can heal that most of the time. Being stupid and reckless with your SOUL is something else." Her eyes started to swim, tears rolling down her cheeks, and I flinched. Callie crying was the most heartbreaking thing I'd ever seen. She NEVER cried, especially not out in the open. I felt like someone was tearing my heart out.

She felt it too, because her face crumpled as she slumped down on where I was laying and started straight up bawling. "I could FEEL it." She sobbed. "FEEL your pain and fear. The whole time. Most of the other times you were in trouble the bond fried. This was...it was awful Shane. It felt like you were dying. Like I was dying. Please don't ever do that to me again. Don't EVER scare me like that."

I put my arms around her and just held her, feeling like I couldn't have fucked this up any worse if I'd been trying. Tonight had been a rollercoaster. Infiltration had gone well, then I fucked up and didn't account for one of the locals slipping away, then the shield had been helpful, but I terrorized my girlfriend by accident. I wasn't even sure what to feel anymore. Was I supposed to be happy about my victories? Guilty? I was mostly the latter honestly.

Looking around, I heard nothing, seeing the explosions and manifestations had stopped. "Did they get the defenses running again?" I asked the night at large, not willing to pull away from my crying girlfriend to check personally when she was this upset.

Callie, as a rule, was not a weepy or easily shaken person. I HAD seen her cry, usually about personal emotional topics we discussed in private. This was a whole different thing. I was worried I'd subjected her to something horrible. The pain had been brain melting for me, but arguably worse for her, because she was feeling how I reacted to it, on top of being in agony herself from her portion of the weight.

"Yeah, they got it done." Said the surprisingly gentle voice of Abel. "The princess is consulting with her guards about possible reinforcements, and your cousin is keeping the new hires at bay while you two get your heads in order. Figured you might need a minute. That sounded like a bad one, kid. I've been through some shit, but hearing you scream like that was...unsettling."

I winced. If ABEL had been worried, I must have sounded horrible. "Yeah...it's been universally agreed I kind of fucked up there. I think I miscalculated the strain because of the weakening from Afterburner." Because I HAD. I hadn't expected it to be quite that awful. I'd reverted to reacting instead of acting. Which was fine, you couldn't always have the initiative, but I hadn't thought it through. I'd reacted on instinct, and mine weren't great yet.

"How are the defenses holding up?" I ask after a few minutes, when Callie and I both calmed down enough to sit up. Benny had stepped back, and my head was...not great, but working at least.

"Not bad." Said Abel casually. "There's an exclusion field apparently, first thing that happened was every member of the enemy force was covered with hives. Helped most of them were poisoned already. That damned shield did a number on everyone who tried to get through. Even after it came down they were all in serious pain. Not bad kid."

Callie's leg lashed out, slamming into his shin hard enough to make him wince. "DO NOT." She snarled. "Encourage him. There were other options. We could have all curled up in the bubble shield or something. We bought defenses for a reason."

I held up my hands in surrender. "Whoa. You're right, just breathe, love. I was hoping to save those for when we were out in the wilderness finding ruins. I realize that lagging on my decisions for some undetermined future moment isn't exactly a brilliant call. I'll do better next time."

She grabbed my coat, wiping her eyes with it and glaring as if daring me to complain, then stood up and hauled me to my feet. The she took a long, soothing breath, and nodded. "Alright. I'm good. We can go meet up with the others. And..." She looked at our teacher. "Thanks Abel. I appreciate you covering for us."

He just shrugged, obviously not interested in talking about it. As we climbed to our feet (me unshakily) I looked at Callie. "How did recon go. How many were there? Were you able to pick them up in time?"

She nodded, surreptitiously slipping close enough to tuck herself under my arm. She made it look affectionate, but I could tell she was trying to help keep me from wobbling. I hoped she could feel the gratitude and affection through the bond. "It was easy enough." She said simply. "There were about thirty of them. Thankfully most of them were either peak G-rank or early F-rank, so holding them back wasn't too much trouble."

That sounded like a sanitized version of events, but since they hadn't mentioned any casualties I wasn't complaining. Abel cut in. "Once the exclusion field got them out a shield went up. Some huge barrier that can somehow tell who is and isn't a Ladrigan loyalist. The enchantments here are peak F-rank, maybe even half step E-rank, as they call it. We were damned lucky to get them back up."

"This is true." Said the pleased voice of Anna-Marie as she approached with Amaya. "That shield was brilliantly done, Solomon. We couldn't have held this place without you. It's so old I'd never heard that it used to be one of ours. Lucky we discovered it."

"How did they lose it if the enchantments are so strong?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want to find out the hard way there was some kind of secret back door that was going to screw us.

Amaya grimaced. "Probably the same way any of us lose them. They drowned it in bodies. The core isn't a great place for long term occupation. The awakening is ironically the best time, because the saturation of forces means all the old garrisons are being retaken. Committing too many men to a single assault is pointless when you're just taking one of a thousand fortresses. We got in early and your plan let us take advantage of a gap in their awareness, I doubt it will be so easy going forward."

Anna-Marie nodded. "And despite the personalized enchantment style of the various kingdoms, my enchanters say if they get enough time to dig in the enemy CAN activate the defenses on outside fortresses. Takes serious reworking, and it's usually fixable easily enough if you can get back in. That was what the damage to this one was. Alterations by the enemy who took it in last, whenever that was."

I guessed that completely reenchanting a whole fortress would be pointless if you could just make a new one, so I could see why they just kept jailbreaking the things. Looking at Amaya, I cocked my head. "Does that mean we have actual reinforcements coming to help us hold this? Being so close to the Ladrigan access passes makes this a strategic win, right?"

She grinned, the first real smile I'd seen from the taciturn warrior. "That it is. We've already contacted Lady Salara to send more forces our way. She's speaking with the king now, we'll most likely see the army arriving soon. I take it you'll be heading out once they arrive?"

"Yes." I said firmly. "We definitely will. The longer we wait the more behind we fall. We got a bit of a head start finding the flowers so early, but we don't want to rest on our laurels."

Callie cleared her throat menacingly and I chuckled a bit. "Though of course we'll be staying here tonight no matter what. It's dark and going out on our own at night without scouting would be a stupid choice. Plus we have to talk to our new employees." And wait until tomorrow so I could finish binding the rest of them. I wasn't trusting the last four to abide by the contract just because of their buddies.

Anna-Marie beamed at me. "Well you're certainly safe here. You can have your pick of the rooms. We'll keep them clear for you when you're gone as well, so you can come back for a rest at any point. I take it you'll be searching for ruins?"

"Yeah. Wizards towers, temples, that kind of thing." I said excitedly. "We can search them for interesting artifacts or books when we find them, between finding new patches of flowers." Even Callie, bad a mood as she was in, looked thrilled at the idea of exploring ancient ruins for treasure. I should start carrying treasure chests in my spatial ring to pass her when she got mad at me.

Still supporting me, she grabbed hold of my arm and smiled at the princess. "Those rooms sound lovely if you could lead us to them. We're all tired and we could do with a nap."

Anna-Marie nodded to Amaya. "Captain. If you could take them to their rooms? I know it's a bit below your pay grade but the others are clearing out the rest of the fortress to make sure there are no traps or anything. The cleared hallways have been marked so finding a room should be simple enough."

Amaya nodded solemnly. "It would be my honor, your majesty." She turned to us. "Please. Follow me." She turned and strode off, and I shrugged my free arm and followed her, the rest of our party trailing after. The wolves encircled us as Randall tromped behind us, and I saw Abel slip up next to the bear, ready to help him through any doorways that would have been too small.

It didn't end up being necessary, the halls and doorways were HUGE, made for armies and not people, so he got through fine. When we reached a cleared hallway Amaya gestured us in, and all of us picked out rooms to rest in. I limped over to the bed and lay down, Callie climbing after me to curl up against me. I expected more yelling, but she just held me as I let myself finally drift off to sleep. It had been a long day.

 

I woke up with a headache. Go figure. It wasn't a bad one, just a light throb of pain. A bit of spiritual calming should get me up to speed. One of the first things I did was snag a mirror from my spatial ring. I'd picked the piece of equipment up in the bazaar to monitor and check the progress of my soul. Pressing my thumb to the base of the mirror's setting, there was a hum as the reflective surface turned orange. Specifically orange bleeding slowly to yellow.

I had to do some calculations, but I was able to clarify that I'd officially reached nineteen percent of the way to yellow. I whistled. That was the result of tons of training and long weeks of practice, but last night still must have been quite a bump. I was almost a fifth of the way to the next level of soul strength. I knew it would get exponentially more difficult as I went, but it was still nice to know that my pain had been worth something.

"Oooh, testing the soul mirror?" Callie said sleepily from her place next to me. Sitting up, she smiled softly at me, and I was just blown away by everything about her all over again. Her black hair cascaded around her delicate face like a waterfall of the shadows she communed with, and her blue eyes were always just a bit brighter first thing in the morning. Like they were saving up the radiance for when she opened them in the morning and had to vent all that sparkle immediately.

Grinning, I held it up. "Sure am. Want to give it a try?" She didn't train the soul as much as I did, but she DID train it, or she'd started to anyway.

She groaned. "Can't we just relax for now? I just want to cuddle and sleep in." She buried her face in my shoulder sulkily, and I chuckled, running my hand through her hair. Somehow it never got tangled in the morning, always managing to be more 'windswept' than messy. Styled by pillow, I called it, though she insisted on brushing it out every morning anyway. I told her I liked it the way it was, but I was informed I knew nothing of hair care and that I should keep my bad opinions to myself.

"Relax?" I said in surprise. "What is this...relax? It sounds delicious." She giggled and elbowed me in the side, which I retaliated to by tousling her hair. She tried for mine, but being so much bigger I was able to keep away, and she was forced to pounce on me. I squawked and pulled back and we both fell off the bed in a tangle of sheets as she ruthlessly messed up my sandy hair.

"Victory!" She crowed, throwing her hands in the air like she'd just won a tournament. I just slumped back on the floor, laughing softly and staring up at how the light framed her sheet wrapped form. "Now all your treasure belongs to me. I've defeated you and lay claim to all you have."

I snorted. "I wonder what THAT'S like." I grabbed her and tossed her onto the bed. Even with the higher Impact, we were near the same level and she was much smaller than I was, so it didn't take much effort. Standing up, I stretched, rolling my eyes as I caught her propped up on her elbow leering at me. I raised an eyebrow reproachfully. "I'm not a piece of meat you know."

She winked at me. "Dragon steak baby. Only the finest." Her lips quirked up as she stifled her grin.

I just rolled my eyes again and headed to shower. "How do you make that sound like a compliment?" I turned on the water and raised my voice a bit. "So, what do you think we should do once we head out on our own?"

Her voice carried over the water from the room easily, given our Perception stats. I probably hadn't even needed to raise
mine, but it let her know who I was talking to. "Don't be obtuse. You know you want to raid a wizard's tower. You were straight up drooling over the idea of spellbooks." She made an incredulous sound. "Still can't believe people used to WRITE skills DOWN. That's just crazy. Wonder how long it takes to learn them that way."

"Ask Abel." I called back. "He did that with Ragam remember? Probably a while though. Upside is there's no limit to how many people can read a book. Crystals are limited use."

I forced myself to shower relatively quickly, much to my horror. We had things to do today. I was almost surprised they even HAD showers here, the whole rustic kingdom thing seemed like more of a bath environment, but even if they used a more old timey aesthetic, the people who founded this place were still Ascendants, and showers had existed for a long time.

Stepping out to slip into my armor I groaned with relief. It felt good to be back in my second skin. You'd think the armor would get uncomfortable or claustrophobic, but it just made me feel safe. It was comfortable, durable, and had saved my life plenty of times.

When I stepped into the room I saw Callie waiting in bed still, watching me with a dopey smile that made my heart pound a bit. "I'm gonna go in search of breakfast. I know how you get when I don't feed you. I'll talk to the others about where we should head and catch you up when you're done."

She stuck out her tongue at me and I laughed, turning and heading out as she went to take her own shower. Stepping outside, I walked over to knock on Benny's door. "Ugh!" Came an annoyed grunt from inside. I laughed and knocked again. I heard feet slapping against the stone floor as he stomped over and threw the door open with a glare. "What? What do you want?"

"Come on nerd, we're getting breakfast." He glared at me for a second and then groaned. "Hey Celine you hungry?" I called to the rumpled pile of blankets. A slim hand emerged from the blankets, flipped me the finger, and the retreated, and I burst out laughing. "You are a TERRIBLE influence, Benny. What happened to our proper self contained noble? You're turning her into just as much of a hooligan as you."

Benny grinned. "She's been trying to teach me manners, so it's only fair I teach her to have more fun. Besides, you deserve rude gestures on principle. Who wakes someone up at..." I swiped his scan ring and winced. "Noon? Shit. We must have been wiped from last night."

I blew out a breath, nodding solemnly. "It was pretty rough. But we're past it, and once we're out and mobile we're less likely to undergo a siege. We should be on the offensive, looking around for ruins to explore. When we find somewhere good we can use my skill to detect the flowers."

He groaned. "Fine. I'll come eat." He looked over his shoulder, calling. "Cel, get up sweetheart we need to go get some food before we go, it's noon." She groaned loudly, and he laughed and turned to me. "Go look for some food, we'll meet you out there."

I said my goodbyes, turning to look for the others, and almost jumped out of my skin to find Abel, Mel, Jessie, and somehow Randall behind me. I looked around and spotted Callie grinning at me from one side, apparently she'd rushed her shower so she could sneak up on me. Damned stealth skill.

She must have hurried, high Might makes moving fast more than possible, but to get ready completely in a short conversation was impressive. I glared at her. "How did you even get them all out here that fast? No way you hit all their rooms."

Rolling her eyes, she held up her hand, the one opposite her spatial ring. "Group text genius." I cursed. She must have messaged them as soon as I was out the door. I laughed it off and we waited, discussing possible food we might try to throw together if they didn't have a premade breakfast.

Finally, Benny and Celine came out, Benny looking much less sleepy and Celine somehow managing to look both furious and blank faced. We all set off after stopping to get Nat, Perit, and Valk and headed into the fort proper, looking for some of the guards. Once we found one they directed us to where Anna-Marie was currently eating lunch (we'd missed breakfast).

"Princess." I said with a grin. "Mind if we join you?" The bottom of my mask was receded so I could eat, so my smile was fully visible.

Anna-Marie beamed at me from her place next to Amaya. "Solomon! I was beginning to think you'd sleep the day away. Come in, please, have a seat." She gestured and a bunch of formally dressed people appeared to slide chairs up to the table. "My mother sent reinforcements, and we've gotten the entire fortress detrapped and ready for habitation. My father was over the moon we've reclaimed this location. He sends his thanks."

I kind of doubted that. The king wasn't the type to say thank you from what I'd seen. "So, we were thinking about heading out today, have you seen the other team? Or are they still asleep?" My cousin had contracted the leader and a bunch of the others. The last four I needed to do, or have Nat use today's wishes, but as shitty as it felt, I wanted the insurance of having a bunch of them bound to me directly. I didn't think Nat would hurt us, but better safe than sorry.

It made me all the angrier at my family, to raise us in such a way that I had to fear betrayal from my only nearby family member just because we were related. Anna-Marie nodded. "We've got guards on their rooms. Your cousin told us that they were safe to leave alone, but we prefer to trust but verify."

I shrugged. Her suspecting them wasn't a bad decision. I probably wouldn't take them with us either. Sending them off on their own might be a bit risky, but not as much as sleeping next to them would be. We'd stop in and talk to them before leaving. "How about scouting? We were hoping for a basic layout of the area outside the map. Or folklore? Any stories about this place any of your guards know that might point us to some ruins or something?"

"Any notable location nearby is bound to be empty." She said dismissively. "At least ones we have an exact location for. The core itself has thousands of legends about random palaces, temples and ruins, you're free to go over any of our books. As for scouts, yes, we sent some out to look around for any ruins. As expected, they didn't find anything nearby or it would have been picked clean."

I nodded with a sigh. That made sense. We needed some way to find ruins or a wizards tower or something. Worst was that a lot of them might be underground. Anna-Marie had mentioned subterranean buildings were big here in the core, given how chaotic the surface was most of the time.

Getting into a reinforced structure like that would be a nightmare. Especially since a lot of them were LITERALLY reinforced, surround by metal structures to prevent...I paused. Metal. Large deposits of underground metal. I turned to Callie, my grin splitting my face. "I think I know how we can find a place to start looking." It was time to get some use from the OTHER new skill I'd made. Song of the Soil was about to get it's trial run.

 

I stopped in to talk to the other team. Their leader, Kagan, was polite enough, even if he clearly wasn't a fan. I spent four wishes on them, binding them to us. Sadly since the geas was the payment, I didn't GET anything for those wishes, and I only had two left for the day, but I felt better knowing they were locked in as being on our side. Once that was done Nat and I told them to go look around for any fields of flowers and report back with whatever they found.

We promised them half, which was enough that I suspected they wouldn't try too hard to shake the geas, and since they were the ones looking anyway it wasn't like we lost anything. Paying people with their own stuff was kind of a win win from my point of view.

Once that was done, the whole group headed out into the woods. We didn't use the goats, obviously, though the summerspark crystal and other snow counters weren't going to be completely useless. Anna-Marie informed us that several of the ruins we'd run across would have other biomes inside. Entire worlds could fit into some of them, so it was best to be prepared.

Standing outside the fortress I took a long, deep breath as I called out for Song of the Soil. My voice rose into a tempo of cascading vibration. The music was a medium, the resonance of my voice acting as a translator between my mind and the earth around me. Singing came from the mind, and vibrations bridged the gap between that and the ground

The skill formerly known as earthseeking would help me find minerals and metals, both of which would be large portions of any underground structures. I felt my consciousness spill out into the dirt, rolling through the earth like otters gamboling in a river. It was a weird sensation, my Perception sort of...dispersing.

I'd describe it as something like I imagine echolocation would be, except I wasn't using hearing to receive the feedback. I could feel every worm, every beetle, every rock for MILES. It was overwhelming and jarring, and I was pretty sure I could literally taste mud. I grimaced, forcing myself to concentrate. Song of the Soil was information overload, but after a few minutes of the song I was able to make some sense of things.

I started to walk. Not in a specific direction or toward anything, I just...walked. My eyes were closed, but I could feel the earth and had no problem avoiding obstacles. Trees and plants had their roots in the dirt, rocks were buried below the ground, I started to speed up, breaking into a jog and then a run.

Making sure not to flat out sprint and leave my friends behind, I raced through the jungle vaulting large boulders and bushes without ever opening my eyes. It was...glorious. I was lost in the song, one with nature, each step made me feel more free, and I poured that into my music and that made me more in tune with the world around me.

Finally after an uncertain amount of time, I felt...something. A spire of stone rising up into the air and plunging down into the ground. I turned and bolted for it. I heard yelps of surprise from behind me as I changed direction but I ignored them, I had other things to do, I needed to find this place.

I reached a clearing where the spire stood and stopped, letting my song come to an end as I breathed heavily, my lungs pumping like bellows and burning from exertion. That had been...hard. Harder than it should have been. I leaned against a tree, panting as I tried to regain my balance and rest up a bit.

Breaking branches heralded the approach of the others. "Damn." Said Abel as he jogged up. He wasn't winded, but he sounded annoyed. "A bit of warning next time? Running in the woods is irritating, all sorts of stuff in the way." He looked around, spotting the spire in the middle of the massive clearing. Above the earth it wasn't exactly towering. Maybe two or three hundred feet. The trees nearby were about that big, and easily obscured it.

Beneath the dirt it was MUCH larger. This spire was just the tip of the iceburg. "How far away are we from the fortress?" I said with a frown. I...had no clue where we were.

I heard a giggle behind me and turned to find Callie smirking at me. "I'm sure he has no idea honey, since you're the one carrying the self updating magic map."

Blinking, I froze for a second. "Oh. Shit I forgot about the map. Sorry my brain is kind of fritzing. Plus I still taste dirt. Which is objectively not pleasant." Reaching into my spatial ring I slipped out the map to glance over it. I wanted to know where we were in case we had to make a quick exit later.

We were....far. I must have been in that trance a while. We looked to be hundreds of miles into the core. Granted as even partial speeds that still meant we'd been going for an hour or two, but still, it was a hell of a trek.

It still blew my mind the scale of distance Adcendants dealt with. When you could run more than a thousand miles per hour your definition of 'far' had some marked differences. Of course the core specifically and this entire planet in general were HUGE, as evidenced by the gravity here, so it kind of evened out.

"So." Said Benny. " Anyone have any idea what that is?" He pointed at the spire. "Like, I know it's a building...kind of. But there were a bunch of options for what we'd find. Is this a temple, ruins, a wizard's tower? Also, what are we dealing with if it IS a temple? Like...there are only six gods right?"

"Now." Said Nat firmly. "There are only six gods NOW. There have been others. Not a lot, as these things would be measured. But they've existed. It's kind of a mystery what happens to them. General consensus is that gods usually GO somewhere after ascending, though that's not universally agreed upon. Different religions have different opinions on where that might be."

"So there might be temples to vanished gods here?" I asked with concern. I'd dealt with the worshippers of gods a few times. The Red Revenant Church, the Black Sorrow Cult. Devotees of gods could do strange things. They sometimes had access to imitations of their patrons powers. "Will they have any vestiges of those deities in them?"

She looked troubled. "Maybe? Not many gods in the grand scheme of things is still hundreds over the millennia. Some predate the current six, some were contemporaries. Some people think the vanished gods were killed by the six. Whatever the case there might be remnants of their strength. You've seen power from gods manifested by worshippers without their intervention. Black Sorrow does it all the time. I can't promise we won't see something like that."

Left unsaid was that if we WERE going to run into that, it would be somewhere like this. Somewhere mainly beyond the control of the six and their organizations. As much as this little dungeon run felt like a carefully curated field trip, this was a good reminded that this place was ultimately wild. Just because the other humans we were meeting up with probably wouldn't try to kill us didn't mean nothing would.

I was suddenly feeling a lot less sanguine about this raid. "We need someone familiar with local lore." I said firmly. "Because Benny is right. Running headfirst into a building without knowing what it is would be stupid any time. If it's a wizard's tower we need to know so we can keep an eye out for...magic...traps...or whatever. I don't know shit about wizard protections. If it's a temple we might want to just avoid going in."

Callie nodded. "You're not wrong. So I take it we do our flower search first? Then make our way into the spire if we decide to do that?"

That sounded good to me. Sighing I closed my eyes and triggered Rhythm of the Wild. It was much less...primal, than Song of the Soil. Something about the musical aspect made the earth skill hit harder. Rhythm of the Wild was much more functional for quick and easy use.

Pulling out the map again, we pored over it. I saw dozens of tiny spots of plantlife, lots of them seemingly useful or valuable. Even if the flowers didn't grow, it was clear proximity to places like this made for a nice bump in plant effectiveness. To my disappointment, we didn't find a field of the flowers. It made sense, we'd gotten lucky before, but hitting a field the first time we found a place would be a bit over the top.

I put the map up. "Alright, call Anna-Marie. Have her gather her people and ask around about some of this. Take pictures of the spire, get close if you have to. I want to know exactly what we're walking into." Scan rings, aside from being connected to an overarching network usually, had walkie talkie functionality through a special short range (relatively speaking) signal that allowed them to communicate even without a network to piggy back off of.

While Anna-Marie hadn't had one when we arrived, I'd had Callie pass her one before we left just in case. With a nod, my girlfriend peeled off with Jessie and Randall to approach the spire. I turned to my cousin. "Nat. Take Perit and Valk and scout a perimeter? I'd have asked Callie, but she can use her shadow perception to get an idea what's inside without actually going in. Might help with the identification."

She nodded. "Solid thought. Yeah we can set up a cordon. Don't want to get snuck up on." She gestured for her guards to follow, vanishing into the trees at the edge of the clearing. Celine had started pacing off the trees, doing some kind of wood elf mojo I didn't ask about because she already had a job, and Benny went with her, leaving just me, Abel, and Mel.

"So..."I said slowly. "What do you guys thing about all this?"

Mel shrugged. "We don't have much of a background with this nonsense. We're city dwellers. We can fight, but this adventure shit isn't our speed." She jerked a thumb at Abel. "This one will be happy if you find him something to punch. I'm...intrigued. This is fascinating stuff. Such a big world I hadn't been able to look into before." She chuckled. "But then, that's not what you're asking, is it?"

I shrugged. "Maybe not. I admit I'm curious how you think I'm doing. As a leader I mean." They'd both led their own factions, or at least Mel had. Abel...I wasn't sure he knew or cared much about leadership. He was kind of a loner, he was just often a loner with company. It was an odd thing to think about but it was the only way I could really describe him.

"Want to know a secret, kid?" She asked warmly. "No one is a good leader. You make decisions. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't, but it rarely has shit to do with you. A leader is just a fancy name for a person who has to deal with all the bullshit. Deal as best you can and move on. Unless people start dying you did your job. Sometimes even then."

That was a sobering thought, but...she wasn't wrong. That didn't mean I'd stop trying to be better, but maybe it meant I didn't have to take fuck ups quite so personally. Things could always be worse. I gave her a nod of thanks and turned back to the spire to watch my girlfriend and teammate send back their report. All I could do was my best.

 

Callie came back about twenty minutes later, having photographed all the symbols carved into the spire and several that had been sealed inside in the dark. "Well, we figured out what this place is." She said cheerfully. She held up a screen on her hand, showing an image of Anna-Marie, who waved happily.

"Hello, Solomon." She chirped. "You all made excellent time finding a place. I've had several of the older guards reassigned to a library Amaya had shipped down, they've been combing through all the legends and old forgotten stories we have, both native and from nearby countries. Based on the script that spire is from the Binvari Empire. It's an extinct civilization that eventually ended up becoming the Banwar kingdom. They kept the language alive orally."

I made an intrigued noise. "Fair enough, does the script tell you exactly what this is? Like is it a temple? Because we can just leave."

She shook her head. "The spire is the ruins of a mining outpost. Most of the mine was underground. As for what's in there...who knows. It's possible it was cleaned out and abandoned, it's possible they all died out without moving any of the ore. Or possibly they got half of it and then left the rest."

"Huh." I said with interest. "Good to know. I'll talk it over with the others and we can all decide if we think it's worth the risk. Do you know what they were mining?"

She smirked. "Of course. The only thing near Ladrigan WORTH mining. Heartstone. There was a massive vein of the stone branching off the mountains. Most of it might be gone, but if there's anything down there, it will be VERY valuable." That was definitely going to be a factor.

I said goodbye and nodded to Callie, who did the same and then cut the call. "Ok. So...what do you think?" I said slowly. "As the only person here whose gotten a look inside, and our resident trap master, you've got the best idea of whether this will be literal suicide or not."

Biting her lip, Callie glanced back at the spire. "I'm not sure." She said haltingly. "It's not suicide, I can say that for certain, but...I don't know if it's worth it. Can your ore detection power be used more...specifically?"

"Nope." I said with a sigh. "It picks up big ass rocks and metal, it doesn't pick up big ass rocks FULL of metal. It doesn't do anything that in depth. It's only part of an Intermediate Skill." She grunted, seeming annoyed but still obviously understanding. Skills could be pushed, but only so far. Sometimes you just needed a different Skill.

"I think we should go in." She said finally. "That much heartstone, even if they only left a fraction of it, could fund our operations out here indefinitely. With that much cash, we could afford to not only kit ourselves out even better, we could literally just hire an army most likely." Considering it sounded like Salara had done that with part of the reinforcements, we could go through her at the very least.

"Alright." I said, because really, I agreed with her. This was a possible treasure trove. But we needed to be careful. "We go slow though." I warned. "And you and I will be up front looking for traps. With the bond I can use your Trap Mastery a bit for a second opinion." It wasn't that I didn't trust Callie, I was more worried about her getting excited and impatient.

She felt the concern, and rather than getting offended she just sighed. Callie had her faults, but she cared about the team. She wouldn't put anyone in danger because of her loot madness. Not if she actually stopped to think about it. She just gave a short nod. "Yeah. I can do that. It'll be safest. Anna-Marie said that places like this, aside from more specific stories that make them more dangerous and powerful, also benefit from the overarching legends of the core. People know that ruins out here are all dangerous and filled with monsters so..."

"So they are." I sighed. "Sometimes it's really inconvenient living in a world where concentrated belief can alter reality. Those times are usually good days."

She chuckled as we rounded everyone up and told them what was happening. Benny look excited. "Fantastic. Even if the heartstone is gone, mining operations strip out tons of small pockets of different materials. There might be some even rarer metals or stones they didn't need or recognize stuffed into a corner."

I blinked, but then remembered that Benny's dad was a big shot in the mining community back on Callus, and my best friend had a decent amount of experience with this kind of thing. "Alright man, you're up here with us. Try to identify anything important, though stay back to avoid traps." He grinned and took up a position behind us, while Mel and Abel stepped to either side.

We approached the spire, finding a door at the base. As a precaution I triggered Eye of Revelation. It would be supplementary to the Trap Mastery and help me discover any issues. It also made things easier to spot. Less knowledge based when things lit up.

Stepping down into the long stone tunnel, I noticed all the carvings around us light up. It wasn't a lot of light, sort of a dim ominous glow, but there were so many of the things that it created a sort of everpresent luminescence throughout the tunnel. The place was, as usual, bigger on the inside, and we had no trouble getting in, even Randall.

Speaking of Jessie's big bear, as soon as he crossed the threshold a rumbling growl bounced off the walls, and Jessie tensed up. "Something is nearby." She said in a low voice. "We need to be super careful here guys."

I nodded. "Probably past the traps, but we'll keep an eye out." Callie and I stepped forward, scanning the ground and walls of the tunnel. I noticed as I searched that some of the symbols glowed just a bit extra under my Eye of Revelation. I tapped Callie on the shoulder. "You seeing this?"

"Yeah." She hissed. "There are...a lot of traps here. Not all of the symbols, obviously, but there's a bunch. I can see a path through but it's going to be REALLY tight. I'm not sure some of us can even make it. No way Randall can squeeze through there."

Grinning, I pulled her back. "I have an idea." I pulled her and the others fully out of the tunnel, then triggered one of my shadow clone charges. The clone saluted me and then bolted past me into the tunnel. I pulled back far enough to avoid any splashback and then waited as the clone ran headfirst through every single trap.

There was a dull thump of displaced air and then I felt a burst of pressure and heat as a massive jet of flames burst from the tunnel. We were off at an angle so we weren't in any danger, but it was still shocking. I walked back to the hallway, looking in and whistling. "Damn. It only tripped like six of them before it died."

I triggered another two charges, then retreated again, dispatching the clones one after another, making sure they sprinted full speed to set off as many traps as possible. Considering how much Might I had, that was FAST, even with the enhanced gravity. The second clone tripped a dozen of them. The third managed to get about forty, because he tried jumping off the walls to hit different spots.

Finally the explosions settled. Callie and I approached the tunnel, eyes peeled through the smoke and debris. The entire tunnel was chipped and cracked, several hundred symbols were dimmed or completely extinguished, and there were rocks and dust everywhere, but still, from what I could tell there was a path now.

The clones hadn't hit every single trap, but they'd gotten all the ones on the floors along a specific route. "Alright, looks like we should be good to go." I looked to Nat. "I figure Mal, Abel, Perit, and Valk should be the ones up front now that we've cleared things out. That work for you?"

My cousin grinned. "I have guards for a reason. If I wanted to directly endanger myself I'd be more like you." She gestured them ahead. "You heard the man, you two. He's in charge. If you get blown up or crushed by a giant rock it's all his fault and has nothing to do with little old me."

At me glare, she shot my a mischievous smirk. "What? Being in charge means you get all the blame. Everyone knows you're supposed to blame the boss." I just rolled my eyes as the four of them got in formation at the front like we had, Randall taking up a space behind them in the center of the tunnel to block off anyone getting past. Jessie waited behind him, and the rest of us brought up the rear.

"So am I the only one thinking about the fact that there are primed traps in here?" Said Benny. "Because that either means they cleaned it out already and set the traps behind them, or they tried to use this place as fallback post. Whatever happened to the Binvari Empire anyway? Did Anna-Marie happen to mention that?"

The sounds of our footsteps echoed down the hallways as we headed further in. I forced myself to speak as low as possible, because the echo made even whispers sound like an avalanche. "No. But she didn't really have to. This place is a hotbed of conflict. Chances are good the Binvari got wiped out by some other faction in the core. Maybe one of the nomadic groups that live here, or maybe an early equivalent of another kingdom. If they were still around someone would have noticed or mentioned them."

He nodded grudgingly, and we continued down the tunnel, my Eyes of Revelation sweeping the walls and floors for more traps. There weren't any. Like at all. Which seemed weird until the tunnel let out into a new chamber and symbols hidden in the engravings on the walls lit up brightly. I hadn't had time to notice them before they trigger, since they were on the wall above our entrance, but there was a grinding and four stone walls smashed down, sealing us inside the stone chamber.

I heard scraping and chittering, and I looked around through my Eye of Revelation to see from where, and froze in trepidation as I finally caught the glow. They'd been hiding outside the room and had entered in, but the weird...humanoid spider centaurs with green chitin and preying mantis heads and claws were quick to spread themselves out around us, surrounding our group.

Letting out a whistle, Abel looked around impressed. "Damn. I mean, they're entry level F-rank, but the sheer number of the things is impressive."

Deciding to at least TRY to negotiate. I stepped forward. "Excuse me." I called. "I don't suppose any of you are willing to negotiate? You all seem like reasonable...bug creatures." My Danger Sense triggered (apparently it didn't count them as threats until they decided to actually attack) and I sidestepped some kind of chitin spine fired from a hole at the end of the claws of one the smaller ones in my field of view.

The spike slammed into the stone, gouging in deep, and I sighed. "Yeah, I guess that would have been too much to ask. Mel, no big blasts of flame, this is a sealed room and you'll cook us. Abel, don't collapse the walls or ceiling by accident. Cal....go nuts and don't get hurt. Valk, use your gel to protect Celine and Nat. Everyone else do your normal thing, don't get in each other's ways." And I triggered State of Grace. Guess it was time to fight.

 

I'd seen a lot of weird creatures, but these...whatever the hell they were, they were probably top of the list for horrifying imagery. My staff was out and spinning before a barrage of those chitin spikes rained down on me as I sailed backwards, triggering my usual combination of Touch of Tears and Consecration of Flame. The others had scattered when we started, and I saw Mel whirling a tightly contained helix of golden flames. Her rank up had given her some serious boosts to control it seemed, because the fire was so dense it looked almost solid.

A flick of her wrists had the helix whipping up and around, disconnecting at certain points and reshaping as she spun it, incinerating the spikes before they even got close. Callie had vanished, and was emerging from the wall a hundred feet up even now, driving a pair of shadow spikes into the head of one of the monsters before vanishing back into the dark, while Abel was leaning on his ability to slam blows into the monsters in tight quarters without using his manifestations.

I was forced to abandon my surveillance as I finally came down from my backward leap, feet hitting the ground and back hitting the wall just like I'd aimed for. Triggering Mountain Stance, I used the complete lack of room behind me to funnel the monsters my way as my staff swept out, crushing heads and knocking aside slashes. Poison fire licked from the wounds as the creatures fell back, some roaring in pain and some just straight up dead.

The storm of energy inside my staff grew with each hit, and I felt several more spikes smash into my armored body, bouncing off as my triple strength defense prevented them from harming me and my armor held off the piercing damage. I kept wanting to use some of my skills, but it was hard to know when I should. My tricks were mostly made for damaging single large enemies.

Using Pit of Despair on either side, I at least tried to funnel them in a bit tighter. The pits of frictionless dust created a single alley of usable stone between them that led the enemy towards me. I heard a colossal roar the shook the ground and saw a wave of the things thrown free from around Randall, who was tearing through them like paper.

There were so many of these things. I had no clue how they procreated, but however it was, they did it A LOT. Hundreds of the monsters poured out of the tunnels above us. I snarled in annoyance. "Alright, everyone group up." I bellowed. "I have a plan!"

Bulling through the enemies, I headed for where I'd left Valk protecting my cousin and Celine. Benny had stuck with his girlfriend and was putting all his unique tricks to good use, but when we all got close together again I made a gesture to Abel bumped his fist with Valk, then cupped a hand and created a massive blue simulacrum as a shield.

"Alright. I assume we don't have long." I nodded to Abel, who winced and returned the gesture, one of his hands clenching. "Mel, can you create a massive firebomb on a time delay? Pack a ton of flame into a sphere or something and launch it up into the air?"

The red masked woman shrugged. "Don't see why not. Worst case I just set it up to blow when it hits the ceiling. Why? I thought you said no big fire blasts because it would cook us all?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out a sparkling sphere made of chips of diamond. "This. From what Giancarlo said it'll keep us totally protected while it's up. You can't attack through it, but if you send up the attack we can raise it pretty fast. Granted, we can't take it DOWN, and we'll need to wait an hour for it to come down. I figure that works anyway because it'll give the room time to cool down."

She chuckled. "Yeah, that'll work." Glancing over at Abel, she said. "Give me a few minutes, hon. I know that has to be painful." He grunted as she cupped her own hands, beginning to condense golden flames into a baseball sized orb of fire. I felt no heat coming off the thing, but it was getting brighter as time went on, the flames becoming denser and more powerful. It was shocking to me that she'd managed to control the heat so well we couldn't even feel it.

"You ready for this?" She asked me as she focused on the orb. I grunted in acknowledgement and she let out a long breath and closed her eyes as she concentrated. After a few minutes, she opened them again, shouted. "Now!" And as soon as the hand construct vanished hurled the sphere straight up. I spat the activation word Giancarlo had given me for the defensive bubble, and a massive white shield wrapped protectively around the group, reaching about ten feet in every direction.

There was a slight shift in the light, and then the bubble was completely drowned in golden radiance as Mel's flame attack burst, completely coating the room in a powerful flame. I heard hundreds of high pitched shrieks as the creatures were all incinerated by the wave of fire, and I whistled as I watched Mel's handiwork.

"Damn." I said with amazement. "You weren't messing around." Granted, I imagined having slightly more Impact than the bug things had helped. All her attacks would be just slightly higher level. Still, that kind of power and volume was nuts, and I made a mental note to trade Mel for some flame attacks at some point. Maybe I could help funnel some of her stats into Might. Even as a fire user she couldn't have gotten the kind of focused distribution Jessie had with my help.

She shrugged. As the flames faded, it was shocking to see what became of the room. Melted rock, heat warped air, blackened walls, the whole place was a burnt out graveyard. To my amazement though, the melted rock appeared to be pouring out of the way of the four exits to this place, opening it back up to the rest of the tunnels and letting the heat disperse, albeit slowly.

We sat down to wait, and I passed around some jerky I'd picked up at the bazaar. I wasn't sure what animal it was from, but they had free samples and it was really good. Sort of a naturally spicy red meat, kind of like dehydrated sausage.
Callie busted out some nice smoked cheese she had on her, and Nat ponied up some wine that I didn't have any of, and we all spent the next hour having a mini picnic and chatting over how we were enjoying the dungeon.

Finally, the sphere of energy flickered a bit (an automatic warning built into the thing) and then five minutes later went out, leaving us in a slightly warm but completely survivable room.

"Well, I have to imagine that killed most if not all of them." I said grimly. "But Callie, why don't you do a shadow check just in case." I honestly should have had her do that to start with,but hadn't thought of it. Live and learn, I suppose. Nat wasn't wrong. We'd all survived so it was a good day.

That had a lot to do with the people I surrounded myself with and their abilities, and I was silently grateful for having such good friends to depend on. She nodded, but grinned at me before dropping into the darkness. "Don't forget the loot."
I groaned as she vanished, but triggered my Eye of Revelation, looking around for anything legitimately useful. To my surprise, there was actually a lot. The mantis blades had been actual metal, and as such hadn't been vaporized in the fire.

Picking one up I tapped it a few times. "Hey Benny." I called. "Come give me a second opinion on this stuff?"

He walked over to take a look. "Looks like some kind of silver. Probably F-rank based on the fact that it SURVIVED that. My Inventing Skill is decent, but I don't have the same absurd foundation at this point that I started with. The further I go on my own the less that initial knowledge matters. I'd ask a local."

Which was fair. I spun up my scan ring, a screen appearing with Ann-Marie's face in it. "Solomon." She said with a smile. "I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Everything alright?"

I showed her the room, briefly describing the creatures. She passed it on to her research team, who were able to find the monsters fairly quickly given their unique appearance. After a few minutes, she came back, around the same time as Callie appeared from the shadows. "Apparently the creatures you encountered are called the Rakshari. Some kind of hybrid guard beast of the Binvari empire."

"Makes sense." I said with a grimace. "Nothing that ugly could be naturally occurring. How are they not dead though? Like...what do they eat? Aside from apparently handsome wishmaster candidates."

She snorted. "Personally, I find your resting expression a bit wooden." Callie snickered behind me as the princess continues. "But they seem to eat metal. That's where the blades come from. They consume raw ore and their bodies process it into the scythe blades." I held up the blade, and she asked me to do a few tests before her eyes widened. "Starbreak Silver. There must have been a small pocket of it near the main vein."

I raised an eyebrow. "What exactly is it? It sounds...dramatic. What does starbreak even mean?"

"It's poetic." She said excitedly. "Starbreak silver doesn't break stars. It fractures MOONLIGHT. It's a rare metal that can be made into special mirrors that refract and condense the light of our moon. They can be used to accelerate the condensation of the god Dew. Granted, you still need the flowers for it to work, but they can speed the process immensely."

I started immediately picking the things up and shoving them into my spatial ring. She just laughed. "Don't get too excited. I would imagine there are plenty of other metals mixed in among the Rakshari remains. Starbreak Silver is rare. Still, it will sell for quite the price back in the city."

Thanking her, I started picking up the metal blades after hanging up. Of course, Callie was grabbing them even faster, using shadow tendrils to snatch them up en masse. Once we finished collecting them all, we reoriented and headed further into the tunnels.

The Rakshari were apparently pretty vehement about territory, because it turned out we HAD killed them all. Callie had found no living being in the rest of the mines. When we reached the lower levels where the vaults were, we confirmed that they had in fact emptied out the heartstone. There were however, several caches of secondary metals left behind, including a small stack of partially eaten Starbreak Silver.

We packed it all up, and after we finished up we headed for the surface, happy with our haul and looking to head back to make camp for a while before heading out to look for more ruins. As we emerged from the tunnel though, we froze. Or at least, I froze. I could almost feel Abel and Mel shifting into position behind me, in case we needed to fight.

Staring down at me from the clearing ahead was a large blonde man with a square jaw, seated on a massive steed made of coagulated starlight, a V of similarly seated riders arrayed behind him. His piercing, slate gray eyes were focused on me intently. "Well." Said Gabriel Brightlaw. "I see another team has beaten us to this particular bounty." He gave me a cold smile. "Perhaps we can have a discussion about what you found down there."

 

I didn't flinch. Brightlaw was scary. I could feel a pressure off him that reminded me of the bloodlust that came off Abel when he was angry, but it was...cleaner. Like I was standing in front of a force of nature. Smelling the storm on the air before it hit. That didn't mean I was going to let him screw me over. "Why exactly would we do that? That's a pretty confrontational attitude. Can't we all just get along?"

My voice was slightly mocking, but not enough to start a fight. I knew we couldn't win a fight with this guy, and I didn't want one anyway.

The horseman to the left of him, a tall, athletic, pale guy with floppy dark hair, snorted. "You think anyone wants to get along with the WCP? You're parasites. Leeches sucking the blood from the entire universe. You don't care who you do business with as long as you get paid."

"Wow." I drawled sarcastically. "You sure know me pretty well. You're telling me shit about myself even I wasn't aware of. It's amazing. Got any more insight for me? Maybe you can tell me what I'll have for lunch? Or what kind of socks I should pick up next time I got shopping. Knowing a guy with all the answers seems convenient."

"Riley." Said Brightlaw flatly. The dark haired guy fell silent, but kept up his glare. "As distasteful as his attitude is, I can't say I disagree with my friend. The Wish Curse Palace might not be a plague on the order of the Black Sorrow Cult, but you're still intergalactic spies and assassins. I can't see much issue with relieving you of your ill gotten gains."

Nat snorted. "What a surprise, the Red Revenant Church has a high opinion of itself that justifies robbing us blind. Must be nice to always have the moral high ground."

Before he could respond, I held up a hand. "Stop." I said firmly. "This is...well, to say a misunderstanding might be inaccurate, but it's certainly not what you think. I'd been hoping to run into you actually. My mother is a member of your faction, and I was hoping you might be able to give me more information about her."

Brightlaw raised a single dark eyebrow. "Truly? I'm afraid you've got the wrong idea. I'm not involved in personnel. I'm unlikely to have any knowledge of your average church member."

It was Benny's turn to snort. "Well good thing his mom is a Saintess. I guess you guys call her the Star Queen?"

The ice blue eyes that had been pinned on me snapped to Benny. "That is a very stupid and dangerous claim to make. Her excellency is the daughter of his holiness, the Radiant Pope. Her name, even her title, is not something shady individuals like yourselves have the right to invoke."

"Don't know what to tell you." I said bluntly, doing my best to take his attention off my best friend. "My mom's name is Sasha and she's an A-ranker. We were told the Star Queen was the only Saintess the church had who fit the bill. Regardless of what you might think about it, barring some gross miscommunication, she IS my mother, and I'd very much like to know where she is."

"If." He said flatly. "And that's a big if, I had any idea where I might find someone of the Star Queen's level. I would never tell a person I've never met from a faction that brings the universe nothing but pain and destruction. You're lucky this isn't a more confrontational situation, or I'd end you just for making that claim."

I shrugged. "I'm not taking it back. It's true. What are you gonna do about it? Fight me?" I really hoped he wasn't going to fight me. There was absolutely no chance I could win, hell, Abel probably couldn't win.

He shook his head. "If I fight you, I'll have to win. You might die, and while I find your organization distasteful, I'm not so foolish as to end the life of a Wish Curse Palace representative. No. You have a choice. We can attack as a group, wage war upon your friends here, or I can select one of my number for you to battle. Think of it as a punishment. If you win, I'll allow you to move along unimpeded. If you lose...I'll take what you retrieved personally if necessary."

I felt that same pressure again, but stronger. I didn't mind though. He wasn't engaging me directly, and I had a vague idea why. I'd done a bit of looking into Adamant cultivators during our time at the Inn back at the bazaar. While being undefeated was an impressive feat, there were obviously limits. No D-ranker was going to beat a B-ranker, regardless of their path or momentum.

People like Brightlaw often traveled with powerful protectors, who could intercept threats that far outstripped their level before they had a chance to lose. Unfortunately for him, the dungeon capped out at F-rank. His protector almost definitely couldn't come in, same with my own guardian. Which meant he had to be selective about who he fought.

"Fine." I said calmly. "Pick your champion, and I'll fight them myself. But I don't go in for gambles where only one side wins. If I beat your champion I want whatever answers you can give about my mother. I know you don't have a location for her, but I want any information you deem...acceptable to part with."

He hesitated, which was good, because it meant he was considering consequences. People don't hesitate when making false promises, there's no stakes so nothing is holding them back. Finally, he nodded. "Only information I feel doesn't breach the security of the Church. But fine. I can give you a few odd facts. IF you manage to win."

Gesturing to one side, he called. "Archimedes. I'll leave this one to you, my friend." An olive skinned man rode forward out of the formation, hopping down. His hair was shaved on both sides of his head, and long on the top, pulled into a ponytail. His dark eyes bored into me as he walked forward, withdrawing a pair of hand axes covered with runes. They were clearly enchanted, and were both F-rank weapons.

I slipped my staff from where I had it secured under my coat and spun it casually a few times. "So, what are the rules here?" I said calmly. "I'm assuming this isn't a death match. We going off the first one down?"

Archimedes gave me a grim smile. "Down is fine. This shouldn't take long." He twirled the axes, eyes burning with malice. He felt...strong. Higher end of F-rank. His stats were WAY higher than mine, except for the lack of the extra point of Impact I had. I triggered my usual poison fire, sort of wishing I'd just kept the weapon burning after the fight earlier.

He raised a brow as he saw the weapon start to glow, but shrugged it off. "So...you ready?" I nodded. "Then watch ou-"
I vanished. Double Trouble. Afterburner. Mercy Kill. Moonlit Night, triple stacked density shifted attack, Flurry of Blows, Marked for Death. And I topped it all off with the release of all the death energy stored in my staff as I brought it crashing down on his collarbone from behind.

There was no big fight, no struggle. I couldn't beat him in a drawn out battle. So I cheated. Afterburner applied to every single one of those subsequent boosters, and the stacking combination was an overwhelming burst of power he had no chance of standing up to.

Double Trouble left behind a duplicate, Moonlit Night shrouded me the next second. He was bracing for an attack from the front and the Stealth kept him from perceiving it before I landed my hit, not to mention my E-ranked weapon and my own enhanced Impact.

The blow slammed into his shoulder and collarbone and I felt it crack, Marked for Death bypassing his armor. To my shock, it didn't crush him entirely, but it drove him to a knee with a roar of pain, and he dropped one of the axes. I let Moonlit Night vanish, keeping the extra Afterburner charges in reserve as I stared down Brightlaw, who I was pretty sure would have manage to either tank or deflect that.

"We good?" I asked dryly. I tried not to let on how tired that made me, or the slight headache developing from all those stacking attacks. The fact was, that was NOT repeatable. I'd saved a bunch of death energy since I'd gotten my staff, and that had been the basis of most of the damage.

I'd taken advantage of the extra point of Impact and my powerful weapon to sucker punch him, but even that wouldn't have worked outside this exact scenario. I MIGHT have been able to kill him in a one on one with that shot if I aimed for his head, but he had teammates and I wasn't trying to kill anybody, so my only chance for winning this little contest had been a one and done blow with everything I had.

Brightlaw looked impressed. "That was...an impressive blow. I felt a hint of a path in that attack. Though not one I recognized." Path of the Doom Sovereign. I wondered if it was just using the Skill that did it, or if it was because I'd been utilizing my Fatewalker build to its full potential. How did one walk a path? Something told me the answer was different for everyone.

"You aren't pissed about the sneak attack?" I'd honestly been unsure if he would even accept the sucker punch. It had been a bit shady for the way I'd seen the Church doing things. Well, I hadn't seen much from real Church cultivators. Mostly fakes and distant relations. Still, it didn't hurt to make sure there were no hard feelings over how things went down.

He just snorted. "Don't be absurd. The match had started. Once it begins attacking is simply the best course of action." He paused. "Well, for this opponent. I'd have been more difficult to ambush in such a way." Looking at his absurdly long lance and the shining charger he sat on, I could believe that. Marked for Death made a shot unblockable against anyone close to my level, but it still had to actually land on the target. It could be parried or deflected.

I offered a hand to Archimedes. "I can heal that up for you man. It's going to take a long while to heal on its own." The death energy mixed with the poison was a nasty combo. Even after the poison skill ended, it would take time to mend. Especially given my E-ranked weapon. He grunted, nodding tightly, and I put a hand on his other shoulder, using one of my new improved heal bursts.

It didn't close visibly quickly, of course, but that should speed up the repair. Brightlaw nodded approvingly. "Alright, well, I did give my word. A bit of information sharing won't hurt." Looking back at his riders, he called out. "Disembark. Set up a table for us to sit at while we talk to our new...friends." He sounded a bit unsure of that last word, but I figured this could have gone a lot worse.

They dismounted, setting up a table, and we all sat down. I admit, my heart was pounding in excitement. My mom. I was going to learn more about the woman I could so faintly remember. I was going to learn more about myself. Stowing my staff I glanced across the table at Brightlaw. "Alright." I said solemnly. "So, you have some information for me? About the Star Queen? I want to know anything you can think to share. Tell me all about her."

 

The table was surprisingly lively. Everyone seemed energized and excited, except Archimedes, who was groaning as his buddies smacked him on the back and laughed at his misfortune. He didn't seem upset about it though, either with me or them, just taking the ribbing good naturedly.

Brightlaw looked over his team and snorted, shaking his head in amusement. "Incorrigible, the lot of them. Sorry for the wait, I wanted to get everyone settled before I share what I know. Mind you, that isn't much, but a deal is a deal. Before I begin though, I have to ask...are you really the grandson of the Radiant Pope?"

"That's what they tell me." I said with a chuckle. "I'd love to hear about him too. I hear he's a terrifying guy, but then, any S-ranker has to be, right?"

He hesitated. "He is...driven." He sounded hesitant to speak. "His holiness is a powerful and complex man. His youngest daughter was the only one of his children to become a Saint, though he has one son who is at the peak of Arch-Paladin, the church's B-rank combat job. It's the combat equivalent to an Arch-Bishop. Regardless, the Radiant Pope was a household name long before the Saintess was born, and was, in fact, the youngest Pope in church history."

I nodded. "I heard someone mention he killed one of Black Sorrow's daughter personally. That's got to be a big deal."
"The Saintess of the Drowning Shade." He nodded. "She was, by all accounts, a complete monster. We've all seen the kind. Spoiler little brats with powerful parents who think they're the gods gift to the universe. The problem was that Drowning Shade was RIGHT. She was a natural genius with her mother's ability, Enshrining Darkness. You've seen tame versions of it, learned as a Skill, I'm sure."

"That...weird conceptual rotting dark?" I said cautiously. "Because yeah, I've seen a few people use that. A Skill huh? That makes sense. Sounds like she must have been a nightmare. How did he beat her? And what power does he even have? Or well, what's his Main Skill, since he's obviously using the job system."

Brightlaw shrugged. "No one knows. No one has ever seen it and lived. He arranged a meeting with her on one of the Church's A-ranked planets, the challenge was very public, and she accepted without hesitation. Rumor says she brought her three strongest guards along, against their bargain, but none of them were ever heard from again. There is no planet there anymore."

I blanched. An A-rank planet. Even if he was AT A-rank at the time, that was just...monstrous. How many people had died there? Cultists or not, the thought of inflicting that level of slaughter was just nauseating to me. Luckily my mask hid my expression. "Yeah...complex. I see what you mean." I wasn't sure I wanted to hear any more stories about my grandfather. "What about his son, the Arch-Paladin you mentioned?"

"Samuel." He said with reverence. "The Shining Hand. One of the strongest of the combat order. At A-rank, Sainthood is achieved, and the clergy and combat orders merge in preparation for the ascent to the Papacy. Some say Samuel reached the limit of B-rank some time ago, and holds himself back so he might continue to serve."

I nodded. "Sounds like a scary guy. Tell me about my mother. You have to know something about her, right?"

"Some." He admitted. "I know some of the stories. The Fist of the Radiant Pope isn't exactly a common sight in the Holy Dominion. She often travels, and even when she returns to the central system, a place I'm rarely able to go, she keeps to herself. I know she's powerful. I know she has two abilities, and..." He paused. "I can't say everything. Some of this is faction secrets."

I opened my mouth to protest but he held up a hand. "I know. I understand your frustration, and I do not seek to abandon my honor. I must simply decide what I may share." He paused, thinking it over. "Her location is not....closely guarded. Given her power. I don't know where she is, but I know where she will be. After this. The trial at the ruined soul temple. She'll be there accompanying some of our most talented."

Settling, I let out a breath. That was...a lot. It was more than I expected. I'd have loved to hear stories about her, but it was clear there was something he couldn't reveal. Knowing where she was going was a big deal. I gave a shallow nod.
"Thank you. I realize you could have just fed me some nonsense. That's more than I've ever had. I'd like to work together at some point, if you're open to it. Maybe if you see you can trust us sharing more would be more acceptable."

He gave a slow hum of consideration. "Perhaps. I will consider it. We did find a building some distance from here we were...hesitant to approach. It bears the stink of the fallen gods. Perhaps we might journey inside together." His blue eyes pinned me, looking for any sign of cowardice and weakness.

Grinning, I nodded. "I'm definitely interested. You'll need to tell us more about it, and I might run it by some of my local lore experts to see what they know. We found out the hard way that forewarned is forearmed. You guys have a hookup for local information?"

"No." He said with a shake of his head. "The kingdom we find ourselves allied with is...distasteful. They simply throw us at problems, hoping we'll either come back with the Dew they require or not at all, so they might steal it from our corpses. We've not found any of the Lunar Cascade Lightblooms. I suspect we're being steered toward the most dangerous areas possible to clear the way, while the local forces do all the real searching."

That sounded stupid as hell, given what I knew about how the flowers reacted to us. We were their best bet for finding them. Whoever was running his allied kingdom was too greedy to be sensible. I took a bite of the pastries that Brightlaw had laid out when his people set up the table. Cherry, and delicious. "Are you willing to switch to a different kingdom? Ladrigan is trying to scoop up as many of us as possible, and they're actually being smart about it."

He grimaced. " The Banwar Kingdom has several dangerous generals that have been augmented with Dew over a long period of time. I believe I could defeat one in a direct fight, but sadly, I don't think I'd get the option. If we try to renege on our arrangement, chances are good they'll send someone after us. Not that I'm not willing to do it anyway, but I plan to wait until more kingdoms get involved and things are more hectic."

"Fair enough. Do you have any pictures or anything from the ruins you mentioned?" Probably more accurately a temple, given what he said about that fallen gods.

He shook his head. "No. We didn't think to photograph the site. We can lead you to it if you wish to attempt your own research." He seemed pretty interested in how we would do that, and I didn't mind showing him. I'd be avoiding the Banwar Kingdom like the plague (interesting that the kingdom descended from the Binvari were already active).

"Sounds good, we can go whenever you're ready." I heard a loud groan from Benny's direction as he heard me. He and Celine were chatting amiably with some of Brightlaw's team. Callie heard me too, and turned to give me a nod as she started getting everyone ready to leave. I wasn't sure what I'd do without that girl.

Brightlaw (who insisted I call him Gabriel) had them pack up the table and led us off into the jungle. My Danger Sense remained pretty damned silent given where we were, so I had no issue following him. Plus I got a good feeling about the guy. He was scary as shit, but he was also a man of his word.

It didn't take long to reach the over grown building, a massive stone monolith of a place covered in moss and vines. It was so densely coated I thought the damned thing was a hill until we got closer. I turned to Mel. "Can you clear some of that greenery out without covering up the stone with soot?"

Abel waved the question away. "Soot can be blown away with force. Just burn it clean. Worst case somebody can water blast it. I'm sure SOMEONE here has an ability that can manage."

At my nod, Mel just shrugged. "One flashfire pressure wash coming up." She snapped her fingers, sparking a small, blazing light, then tossed it at the building. She didn't put too much power into it, since we were trying to clean off the stone without damaging it. The moss and vines were G-rank, so lowballing the power was more than feasible.

The spark touched the green and the whole thing went up in a sea of golden flames, but to my surprise, it burned absurdly hot for just a second and then went out like a candle. Mel had excellent control. Abel stepped up and swung his hands, manifesting a pair or giant images that clapped together in a short, sharp explosion of force and pressure. I felt wind buffet me as the soot was blasted off the building by the sheer force of the vibrations.

"Cal? That good for you guys?" I asked my girlfriend, who had already spun up her scan ring to contact Anna-Marie.

The blue skinned princess nodded with a wide smile, returning my nod of greeting. "I think that's plenty. Make sure to send over some more pictures for us up close, but that exposed enough of the building to work with. Not just symbols, architecture can be a big clue to what we're dealing with. The researchers tell me that building methods, materials, and things like that vary as time passes, when certain types of materials have more renown at certain times you can see wide shifts in style and construction." I hadn't considered that, but it was an interesting line of reasoning.

After hanging up to take the pictures and send them over, it didn't take long for them to go over the new information and get back to us. The group she had hired or cobbled together were excellent researchers, and she must have dropped a pretty penny on books too. It was shocking what you could do with enough resources. Salara was clearly bankrolling her daughter generously.

Gabriel looked impressed too as the return call came up and Anna-Marie gave us a worried look. "Ok. We found...something. You're at some kind of...sub temple? But also probably a tomb. There's no concrete information about when the place was built, based on the materials used all we can tell is OLD. A few of the symbols were translatable, though more because they seem to be proto-versions of symbols we've seen in ancient dialects than because we know what they are."

"Sub temple?" I asked cautiously. "So this isn't a temple to one of the fallen gods?"

She shook her head. "We don't think so. The symbols we managed to translate meant guardian, servant, disciple, and trove. That kind of thing. At least, that was the meaning the more recent variants had. We think this person was some kind of priest or something. A direct disciple of one of the fallen gods you mentioned. We also believe they were buried with...quite a bit of wealth. We don't know anything else."

I nodded. "Thanks. We appreciate that." I looked over at Callie. "I have a weird feeling that this place is...important. But I don't want to just jump in and get us all killed. Can you check it out? Be careful, but some recon would be the smart call here I think." I knew she'd want to go in when she heard trove, but I was determined to place this safe.

 

Callie looked...concerned, when she returned from her recon. "There's...something down there. I felt it in the shadows with me. I couldn't SEE anything though. Roaming the halls or protecting the tomb. Are you sure you want to do this? We can just go, there's no reason to go down there."

"Because I think we have to." I looked at Brightlaw. "You're feeling it too aren't you? That's why you brought us here. Your fate sense is picking up something weird."

He nodded. "It is. This place is somehow related to the nature of this dungeon. The way this entire construct works is too...deliberate. Too structured. It's been active for millennia, and should be safe enough, but something about it is just..."

"Off." I said firmly. "Agreed. I think this opening of the glade is different. I don't know how. Or maybe it's not, and there was something weird going on here the whole time. Regardless, something down there is involved. I can just...feel it. We could turn around and leave it alone, but I feel like I would regret it." I'd wondered before about the reasons for the Glade being like it was, but I'd just shrugged it off as Ascendant weirdness.

This place, though, this was related. My fate sense had never been this...overt, before, but I knew what I was feeling. I was being actively pushed toward something important. I wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a side effect of my Path either. The Fatewalker build was partly rooted in divination, maybe there was some synergy with my fate sense?

Callie smiled and took my hand. "Hey. You don't need to explain it to me. You were willing to charge in head first when you thought it was loot because you knew I'd want to do it. If you think this is necessary I trust you. Just...we should be careful. There IS something in that place, even if I couldn't see it."

"I'll send in a clone." I said cautiously. "Just because we're going in doesn't mean we can't be smart about it." Circling around to the front of the squat, imposing stone building, I approached the front, triggering a charge of my stored shadow clones. I only had three of them left.

A dark version of my warped into existence next to me, nodded, then headed inside. Closing my eyes, I focused on the connection and shifted it slightly with my soul. It took some effort, but with the progress I'd made after that shield incident it wasn't too tough. I was able to force my vision to connect to the clone, able to look through it's eyes with some effort.

It was...weird. Not just seeing through another set of eyes, but the WAY I saw. Shadows can't EXACTLY see in the dark, because they don't see how we do at all. Vision is just the eyes picking up light, and shadows don't do light. The washed out shades of gray the clone had instead was, at the very least, completely functional in pitch black.

Until the clone got ripped apart violently by what appeared to be some kind of huge angry cat beast. Made of pure darkness. My eyes snapped open as I felt the connection snap. I winced. That was much more intense when I was leaning on the connection so heavily. "Well." I said hoarsely. "I know what was in the shadows with you."

Spinning up my scan ring, I called Anna-Marie. I wanted every bit of information possible before we went in. Just like the Rakshari, these things might be a known phenomena.

She answered quickly enough, raising an eyebrow. "Solomon, calling again so soon? What can I help you with?"

"Cats made of sentient dark." I said bluntly. "There appear to be a bunch down there, ever heard of them before? They seemed like something that might have come up."

Frowning, she paused. "I...that sounds familiar actually." She turned to the side. "Amaya does that sound familiar to you? Not from the books, but something I heard as a little girl." Her brow furrowed. "I don't...where have I heard that before? It's on the tip of my tongue."

"Suvaya." Said Amaya's voice quietly. "You're thinking of the Night Pride."

Anna-Marie's eyes went wide. "Oh!" She sounded disturbed. "I suppose I am. I almost forgot about those stories. So few people worship the Moon Lady anymore. You think the tomb belongs to one of HER priests?" I could hear a tension in her voice I'd never heard before.

"The Moon Lady?" I prompted. "She sounds like she might be one of the vanished gods. She's important here?"

"She created this place." Said Anna-Marie. "At least, that's the story.The moonlight, the Lightblooms, these are all hers. But her priesthood has been extinct for longer than anyone can remember. You only hear about her from old family lines that passed down the teachings orally. Giancarlo's family were worshippers, that's how I remembered about the cats."

Well that was certainly a hell of a coincidence. And if my fate sense was pushing me toward this place I doubted it was anything pleasant, but that was a problem for later. This was a sub temple, which meant we had time to learn about Suvaya later. For now..."Tell me about the Night Pride."

"At first one darkness, then apart. The Night Pride comes to take your heart." She repeated mechanically, in the style of a children's rhyme or parable. "They're big cats that don't exist until they do. They're completely silent and VERY fast."

"Charming." I drawled. "Any special methods of defeating them? I assume something with light might help?" Or maybe not, since my poor clone got ambushed in pitch black. The entrance descended down sharply and the light vanished pretty fast. A sharp flight of steps and then BAM pitch black.

"The Night Pride doesn't fear the light." She said worriedly. "They are, however, somewhat special. Though they are ambush predators, they attack in such a way as to be seen at the last second. If you don't see them, they're just regular darkness. It's why their eyes glow."

I hadn't known they did, but that wasn't important. What WAS important was that I had an idea. "Awesome. Thanks Anna-Marie. Also when we get back I want to talk more with you about this Moon Lady."

I didn't think whatever was going on was a right now problem, but it might be soon. It occurred to me that this temple suddenly showing up now of all times probably wasn't a good thing. We said our goodbyes and then the entire group assembled in front of the entrance. "So." Said Benny hesitantly. "Evil shadow panthers that only exist at the last possible second when you see them...anyone else REALLY not like this?"

"We'll be fine. And put your hand down Abel." I glared at my mentor, who snickered slightly until his girlfriend elbowed him in the ribs. I thought I heard Mel snicker a bit as she did, but it was impossible to tell under the mask. "Anyway, I have a plan to get us through. The Night Pride can only attack after we see them, right? So what if we don't see them?"

"You want to walk in blind?" Said Benny incredulously. "Because I'll be honest, that doesn't seem like the...best idea."
I shook my head. "No. Not blind. I'll be able to see, but the rest of you will be following by touch, and they won't be able to see us either." Moonlit Night solved both problems, and assuming they couldn't attack us. When no one argued, I just shrugged and closed my eyes. "Alright all, everyone put a hand on someone's shoulder." I felt a hand on each of mine and triggered Moonlit Night.

A cloud of dense mist enveloped everyone, and I opened my eyes to a world bathed in light that only I could see. Striding forward, I focused on the skill, shifting it slightly to make sure the mist followed me, keeping us at the center instead of letting me remain mobile in the cloud.

"Remember before when you said we would NOT be blind?" Complained Nat as we walked forward. I heard a yelp and a curse as someone tripped and fell into someone else, and my cousin groaned. "Ow, damn it Valk. Watch where you're going." I heard a muttered apology, and I had to tamp down on my laugh.

"Just be careful." I said in amusement. "On the upside this will keep us under stealth, so we don't have to worry about talking. Not that you knew that a second ago. Also I can SEE you sticking your tongue out at me Natalie. YOU'RE blind, I can see perfectly." She froze, then shrugged, looking away innocently. I just rolled my eyes at her antics. It felt kind of nice to banter with family.

The hardest thing here was trying to keep Randall protected. The massive bear was a complete pain to deal with. I actually felt...something, shift the fog in a few places. It was hard to pick up, but Stealth is a form of Perception, and the movements of what could only be the Night Pride were detectable that way, if VERY subtle.

Callie gave directions as we walked. She hadn't really been able to search thoroughly exactly, but the layout wasn't complicated. A dozen hallways surrounding a central room with doors leading out to everywhere. We walked for about twenty minutes, my head starting to swim from stretching Moonlit Night so long and pushing it to keep up. When we finally reached the door I pushed it open and led them all inside, slamming it shut.

After checking with Callie, I let Moonlit Night drop, and I followed it down, collapsing to my knees and holding my head. My Stealth had covered twenty people, and I'd held it for almost half an hour. Still, it was already receding, and Benny put a hand on my shoulder to help. This was no giant lava shield. My head started clearing pretty fast.

"So, there are no Night Pride in here?" I asked as I finally stood up, breathing through the pain. Looking around, I noticed something...weird. "Wait. I think I see why. There's no DARK in here. Or light? The whole room is like...red?" It was weird to look at. A sort of bloody twilight that dyed the room visible shades with no visible light source. Like using red night vision.

Callie squirmed. "I don't like this. There's no shadows here. This is...gross." She glanced around before starling. "Oh!" She pointed off to one side. "A coffin. Is that ruby? F-ranked Ruby too." It was. Whoever was in that thing was F-rank like we were, though they had more Impact. I looked at the coffin, the stone exuding a bloody radiance that blurred the static red like a flare, almost painful to look at.

This had been one of the reasons I'd even agreed to this. No one over F-rank could come into the dungeon. We were safer with Gabriel and co than with basically anyone. I triggered my Eye of Revelation, looking for traps, and blinked as the red was forcefully suppressed. The coffin was the sole source of light now, also red, but less pervasive. More like a red light than red night vision.

I stared at the thing, until it began to twitch. My eyes got wide as the lid started to push open, slowly rising as a dessicated hand emerged, forcing the ruby covering aside as the corpse inside sat up. It's socketless mummified face turned to look at us, and it's dry, cracked lips peeled back from yellowed and rotten teeth. "Oh good." Rasped the obviously ancient undead. "Visitors."

My girlfriend stared at it for a minute, and I expected her to mention us being too hasty coming in here, but after a second I realized she was just drooling over that giant gemstone coffin and rolled my eyes as I began to get a sinking feeling. "Howdy." I said with a wave. "Nice to meet you. Think you could answer some questions?" Because sadly, from what my fate sense was telling me, this guy was the reason we were here. I hated being right.

 

The thing that climbed from the coffin was...wrong. Not a lich, I'd seen one of those before. This thing was corrupted on a fundamental level, to the point where even its Impact felt like a distortion. And it HAD Impact. A lot of it. Maybe not as much as Crighton, but I'd put it at thirty eight probably.

"Sacrifices." It cooed. "Always so curious." The raspy voice held a hint of mockery, and I could definitely tell why. I hadn't seen many situations where the word sacrifice was a good thing.

I shrugged. "If you're planning to kill us anyway might as well answer the questions. If we're dead we can hardly spread it around." I was kind of hoping this thing predated the concept of monologuing by too much to worry about what he said. I was ALSO a bit worried about getting murdered before we had a chance to act on his information.

But something about all this Moon Lady stuff was bothering me. The things I'd noticed about the dungeon and how deliberate it seemed. Something here was off, and I had the sneaking suspicion it would kill us if we didn't find out what it was. This dungeon wasn't what everyone thought it was, and with my luck I was pretty sure I'd gotten sucked into the endgame of whatever was happening.

"Foolishness does not become wisdom in death." It clucked. "But very well. Amusement, then. If only for a short while. Ask your questions, sacrifice. Though know too that your suffering will not be abated. Merely postponed."
I grimaced. Shit, this thing really loved to talk. "What are you exactly? And are you a servant of Suvaya? I-"

The undead stomped once, the floor cracking as we as stumbled to get our bearings. "Heretics!" It howled. "Speak not the Lady's name! Find Her magnificence squirming twixt your unworthy lips again and I'll rip them from your faces to sew myself a coat!" We all stared for a minute, and it stared back before hissing, seeming to calm down for a bit. "Very well. I am undead. As for my specific provenance, that is irrelevant. Simply know I was a great power who allowed myself to be diminished in service to my Lady."

I didn't even realize that was possible. I mean...I did, but you could only do that if you didn't have too many stats. Unless...I considered what Zeke had said, about being able to diminish Impact safely if you hadn't exceeded the stat threshold. You could have stats taken too. So maybe..."Did she strip all your stats away? Before...diminishing you?" What would that even be like? Valk said even losing a few was horrible.

The undead cackled. "A necessary toll. Millions of points of me, ripped away, dripping my soul out. Once they were gone I was primed to be the fuel for her ruse. Not alone, no, there are others. Other servants. We give the weight of our existence to fatten Her prey. She waits for the harvest, to recoup from them all we have given and more. Enough to make us all as She is. A new PANTHEON of gods!"

"The flowers?" I said, appalled. "She's squeezing out your Impact through the moon and allowing people to absorb it through the Dew. How is that going to give you MORE Impact. Hell, why would she even NEED to do that...she's hurt too, isn't she? Did she get injured by the other gods?"

"Jealousy!" It wailed, the sardonic sadism fading into literal lunacy. "Despicable pretenders, envious of her majesty. They'll pay! They've fallen into the trap already. So many of their children and descendants have supped of our strength. It seeps into them, becoming part of them, infecting. When She reclaims it, the interest will kill them all! They'll suffer the fate they visited on Her. Emptiness, nothingness, condemned to exist as a whisp of a thing, if they continue to exist at all!"

So...this whole fucking place was a trap. Some old god who had been killed by the six wanted to return to life and she was going to kill a shitload of Ascendents to do it. Which was a huge problem because WE had used that fucking Dew. I saw the others shifting uncomfortably. They understood what he was saying too, and they weren't any happier about that shit than I was.

"Alright." I said firmly. "I've heard enough. Abel, Gabe?" The undead cocked it's head in confusion...right before a massive fist train wrecked him into a stone wall hard enough to leave a psycho shaped whole in the wall. There was the sound of hooves and a lance slammed into the spot his head should have been.

Sadly, 'diminished' or not, he was a fucking monster. The lance bit into the stone deeply, but Gabriel had to release it and hurl himself sideways to avoid a vicious claw of sickly green flame aimed at his through. The big warrior rolled seamlessly to his feet as the charger he'd been astride dissolved into silvery starlight, and the lance returned to his hand with a snap of his fingers.

Peak F-rank stats then. His Impact wouldn't be enough to hold any more. Being able to strip him away layer by layer was crazy, but it didn't change the rules. What he'd said about the others though...that wasn't great. How many more of these crippled old monsters were in sub temples like this around the core? Tombs that were resurfacing now presumably because it was almost time for the 'harvest'.

It seemed less crazy we'd stumbled on this place. Or that Gabriel had at least. I was betting more than a few people might have walked into places like this. I hoped it wasn't anyone we knew. Because we'd gotten REALLY lucky to have come here together. Probably. We might still die. Speaking of which.

I withdrew my staff from under my coat and started stacking attacks. I needed to wait for a proper chance to strike, but as soon as I got one I'd do everything I could to help. I cursed the fact that I'd used Afterburner earlier. The skill didn't last forever, so even though I hadn't finished all ten attacks I'd dismissed it. The weakening effect had been diminished at least, so I had already recovered.

Touch of Tears, Consecration of Flame, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death, Triple Strength Density shifted attack, I stacked the blow high. My staff was our best bet. Being E-ranked it should easily bypass the Impact difference. I assumed that was what was making Gabriel and Abel's attacks so inefficient.

They were...scary. Abel was up close, spinning around the undead like a top. He kept getting hit with vicious attacks, only for the form to melt away into one of his doubles. He was even doing damage, not much, but some. Cicada Stacking Steps was making each blow multiple times stronger than expected.

Gabriel had dropped the lance and drawn a short sword, stalking forward to engage the monster alongside my teacher. He swung the blade in short, sharp chops, mixing in stomping kicks and backhand blows, and he was somehow everywhere Abel wasn't. The two of them seemed to meld together perfectly at first glance, but on closer inspection I realized what it really was.

Abel was attacking all out, and Gabriel had just slotted himself into the attack flawlessly. Every move was perfect, the exact angle, the exact speed, the exact power needed to keep the pressure off my mentor. It looked like they were playing music almost, except in reality, Abel was just the rumble of thunder, and Gabriel was composing an entire symphony set to the crashing booms.

The others were trying to limit the damage from ranged attacks. Randall had taken up a spot in front of them as a shield, Callie had a massive shadow barrier up, and Valk had crafted a layer of his blue gel like defense in front of it to protect them further and to stop Mel's flames from adversely affecting the shadows.

It was shocking to see how much damage the green flames were inflicting. At short range they were dodgeable, but the further they went the more the attacks expanded. By the time some of the blows the two front liners were dodging reached out people they were huge. Several of Gabriel's riders had taken up places in front of the shield and were softening up the attacks with counter abilities and their own blows.

I flicked on my overlay, focusing hard on the fight with the undead, as well as using Eye of Revelation to notice any traps as I waited for a weakness to exploit. I saw nothing. But I didn't give up. Even if my head was killing me. This was so many things to hold at once, especially for an extended period of time. Despite the pain I gritted my teeth and waited.

Finally, Gabriel managed to land an admittedly shallow cut on the thing's leg. It flinched as Abel slammed a blow into it's nose, and I triggered double trouble. My staff whistled through the air as it smashed into the back of the undead's skull, carrying literally every ounce of force I could muster as I smashed my strongest blow into it.

E-rank staff plus plenty of other bonuses made the swing an absolute nightmare. If it had connected properly it would have been a crippling blow, or at least a severely debilitating one. Sadly, it was neither. Despite the surprise, I hadn't used my Moonlit Night, which not only robbed me of a stealth attack bonus, it also meant the monster heard the blow coming. I managed to impost it's arm between the attack and it's head before it landed.

There was a thunderous crack as the arm shattered, and the monster howled and leapt back, clutching the green glowing, burning limb. My mentor didn't let the attack go to waste, blurring forward and coming driving a brutal fist into the injured limb before hauling back and beginning to attack the monster's face and head.

As it spun to try to keep up, he whirled alongside it, keeping in it's blind spot and leading it away from looking at Gabriel, who had once again mounted up on his silvery charger. The blue eyed man had his gaze focused hard on the undead, and began to murmur something that I couldn't make out (maybe it was under stealth?) The lance he'd been using started to glow a brilliant gold.

With an earthshattering below, the Adamant cultivator CHARGED. Every bit of his aura and intent behind the attack. I saw why he'd chosen the combat style he had. Because his whole attack strategy was MOMENTUM. Crashing toward the enemy with all the power of an unstoppable object.

Abel, who was on the other side, saw the attack coming and smoothly flowed out of the way. The monster, still disoriented from the all but destroyed arm, took a second to realize he was gone, and actually tried to catch its breath, so to speak. That was the last decision it ever made. I felt Gabriel's attack in my BONES as the floor rumbled with a shout of "Rubrum Gloria!"

The tip of the lance smashed into the side of the monster's head like a freight train, driving the head of the thing to the side with a blazing flash of golden light. The lance point went INTO the undead's EAR, lifting it off it's feet and driving it forward with the charge...until it hit the wall. Then the charge kept going. And the undead's head did NOT.

Gabriel's charge stopped pretty much at the wall. His lance had been driven halfway into the stone, and the expanding length had exploded the head of the monster as it pushed in further. The big man was panting, looking drained, but I could see why he was an Adamant cultivator. I wouldn't have wanted to take that blow. I nodded to the others, wincing at my own exhaustion. I gestured for Jessie to come top us up. "So...we have some serious shit to talk about."