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

[Malcolm Tent]

"So I can bring five D-rankers, two C-rankers, and four B-rankers," I informed my friends tiredly as I slumped on the couch. Negotiating with Delia had been…stressfull. I had assumed it would be a formality, given we were family and I was doing this for her trial, but she'd put me through the ringer.


About a dozen different stipulations about power distribution, point caps, loot distribution, and any number of other niche and frankly outlandish bullet points had been added to the contract where my forces had been laid out.


I was honestly almost as impressed as I was horrified. Callie, meanwhile, was less than thrilled. "So they want you to run off to the middle of nowhere to fight the Void at a fraction of your strength? Why would they use THAT as a test? That's so dangerous. This isn't a game, the consequences of this could be catastrophic!" She growled in frustration. "What is WRONG with your family?"


Sighing, I explained my hypothesis that Delia and Roland were part of a proactive faction being hamstrung by traditionalists. Callie just grimaced.


"I'm not…unfamiliar with that dynamic," she admitted. "We had some hardliners like that in the Guild when I was growing up. Everyone had to work around them, because of course they never compromise. This is how we've always done things so it's the right way." The voice she used to spit out that line made me pretty sure it was either a quote or based on the tone of a specific person, but I didn't have a chance to ask, because Bethy interrupted excitedly.


"So who gets to go? Is it me? Is it? Can I go Shane, pretty please? I've been working on a new ability! It'll either allow me to teleport or turn someone into a cabbage." I was…unsure if she was kidding about that. "If it's the first one, there's a REALLY good chance I can control what happens when I use it!" That one seemed like less of a joke.


I grimaced. "Bethy, I think maybe for your next few tricks, you should look into something more…understated."


"Pshaw, understatement is for nerds," she snorted. "I prefer THUNDERSTATEMENT!" She leapt to her feet and bellowed that last word so loud the glasses on the table shook. Someone banged on the floor upstairs and she winced. "SORRY!" She shouted up at the ceiling.


I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Thunderstatement isn't a real term, Bethy." I cut her off with a glare, pointing my finger at her. "And don't use your hypnosis to start convincing people it is. I've been getting complaints that some of the last batch you tried that on have been having memory problems."


"Nothing serious," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I had to delete some stuff to make room for the improvements. It'll come back eventually. I think. Or it'll get worse. But that almost never happens."


I glared at her. "Do not EXPERIMENT on members of my army, Bethany," she pouted at the use of her full name.


"It's nothing too serious," Callie soothed me. "Bethy would never hurt an ally. I'm guessing we can wipe it out with some basic purification flame treatment. We can have Chelsea look them over, maybe give them some time off or something. But he's right, Bethy. No more hypnosis on allies. Even as a joke. I know you didn't do anything drastic but some things aren't ok to do as pranks."


She wilted a bit. "I…ok. I swear it was just dumb little stuff. Like the word thing, and that one guy who called Chelsea a bitch, so I added a compulsion for him to drink shampoo to his shower routine."


"Wait, what guy-" I started to ask in outrage, but Callie steamrolled over me.


"As long as you know now," she said serenely. "But I think bringing Bethy on the raid is a good plan. We need to keep an eye on her anyway. Do you really want to leave her alone in the camp with our entire force for who knows how long? She'll probably start another fake religion."


I rolled my eyes. "Fine. We could use the help anyway. Abel, you're with us, obviously. Callie, you would kill me if I tried to leave you home. Dayna, would be useful to have you along, and for our last party member…" I scanned the room, before finally settling on someone I think surprised a lot of people. "Mel. We haven't done a mission together in a bit, and you'll be a huge help with Callie's fire stuff. Assuming you two have gotten around to perfecting that without Chelsea bridging you?"


Mel nodded excitedly. "It's just an invocation when there's only two of us. Totally doable. It only gets complicated when you have a ton of inputs. If one party member is steering things you don't even need the diagram, but for real combinations anything past two is a nightmare. Hell yes! This is going to be great, thanks Shane!"


"Hey thank me by setting a bunch of Void shit on fire," I shrugged. "My darling wife is all brawn no brains when it comes to her heretic fire. I figure someone should be there whose battle strategy goes beyond "MORE FIRE!". Sorry honey, but you know it's true," I told her apologetically.


Callie had been gearing up to snap at me…but just slumped over. "Yeah," she admitted. "It should be taken care of soon though."


I knew what she meant. Callie's control and manipulation abilities were all part of her Abyssal Priestess Path. Until we merged her two power sources together, there was always going to be some lacking overlap. "Anyway," I continued. "Obviously Ellie and Felicity are our C-rankers, and Carmichael and Crell will be joining Fade and Alanna on guard duty for the lot of us, so I hope everyone is excited for some quality camping time. Because we're going to be sleeping out in the wilderness for a few days. Lucky us."


No one seemed worried, which, considering they knew I could make buildings from dirt was reasonable. Still, I had other things on my mind. Namely, I needed to know more about our target. Luckily, I had a local titan right here to question. "So, Fade, what do you know about," I checked the information I'd copied down. "Castle Raymore? Is that a real castle? It doesn't really fit the aesthetic here."


"It is a real castle," he nodded. "It's also…kind of haunted. Well no, it's actually extremely haunted. The Raymores were a necromancer family. They got violently murdered by a rival faction a few hundred years ago. Used some kind of creepy ritual to bind their souls to the castle itself. A few people have tried to move in, but ghosts are a pain in the ass to deal with. Not a lot of purification specialists at high B-rank."


That was interesting, but also unsettling. Could the Void corrupt ghosts? Actually what were B-rank ghosts even LIKE? I didn't think I could purify something that strong, even with Zagan and the boost from my staff. But with the wishes they'd used for this trial, we shouldn't run into anything we couldn't match. "Have you ever been there?" I asked him slowly. "Like do you know what to expect?"


He waggled a hand. "Not personally, but some of my boys have checked it out. It's sort of a local hangout for idiots who want to get into trouble, and several of the Hall's members qualify. The place has a sort of aura around it, the ghosts have leached into the stone. Super cold, drains the life from you, that kind of thing."


Which was unfortunate, to say the least. Because that sounded a LOT like Void taint, and I was pretty sure mixing the two wasn't going to produce puppies and rainbows.


I glanced at Callie, who looked equally worried. All I could do was hope that whatever Vessel was here (and I was positive if there was a Void infiltration happening in the B-rank zone there was a Vessel in charge of it) they weren't actually B-rank themselves. Callie and I could take on a C-rank Vessel. With my staff and our natural advantages we were basically made to crush the Void.


But a B-rank Vessel would be up to our guards to handle. My only consolation was that it wouldn't be a particularly good test of our abilities if they sent us after someone too strong for us to handle, so it was unlikely to make it past the wish they'd used to prepare for us.


"So, when do we need to do this?" Callie asked as she looked over the paperwork I'd drawn up. "I don't see any indication of timing."


"There isn't one," I admitted. "They don't want us to blow the op by leaking anything. I signed a heavy contract for secrecy, but they're doing this blind. We're to get within range and wait for the signal. The whole raid is going to be done within an hour, so we'll all be contacted at the same time and then we move out."


It was needlessly complicated and borderline ridiculous, but that was my family in a nutshell. Besides, Delia was clearly competent, and I was willing to accept that she probably had reasons beyond the one I could fathom for doing it this way. "Anyway, we hear anything about the smith I was looking for?" I asked Fade. "Because I want to get my armor made before this trip if possible. I feel naked without my plate."


"I found one that should be able to swing it," he nodded. "Donovan Redfellow. VERY famous smith around these parts. He's only B-rank, but only by choice. He's got a Mythical smithing Skill at least. Makes some of the best blades on the planet." He tapped the short sword on his hip. "My Devlos is a Redfellow." He drew about an inch of the sword, which I had never actually looked at closely before.


It was B-ranked, much like my staff, but…more. It was SCARY. The steel was pattern forged, but the patterns seemed to shift and twist as the light caught them. The thin red lines in the steel flexed and wove through each other like the sword had pulsating veins.


"And he'll take on the job?" I asked pensively. "Like…soon? Because we need to leave for our posting in the next few days. Some of the targets are further away than others, and they don't want to tip our hand by rushing. How fast does this…Redfellow work?" I was getting excited. That sword was magnificent, and the smith who made it had to be just as amazing. I wanted to see what my new, B-rank armor was going to be like.


"Donovan contacted ME, actually," he admitted. "I hadn't heard from him in a while, but when I put the word out about a smith, he jumped at the chance. Donovan was the person smith of the Hall of Steel before I took office. He and my master, Kairos, built the whole faction from the ground up. I think he heard about us working with you and wants to support our dreams of getting off planet. Of course, he would be coming along. But I somehow doubt that's a problem."


I snorted. "Oh of course, how dare you force me to recruit a world class blacksmith who could effectively outfit my entire force. I mean, I'm sure the materials would be exorbitant, but having someone like that on staff would be a game changer. I assume I have to do…something to get him on my side?"


"He's watching the results of this trial," he admitted. "He'll do the work on your armor for payment. But if you want him working for you, you need to win this. Handily. If you can do it though…Donovan is someone who operates at a respected level in the A-rank zone. Having him with us will not only be good for your people, it'll open a lot of doors." He grinned at me ruefully. "But hey, no pressure."